I have only ever been to WDW in Orlando. I was reading @sanstitre_has_left_the_building’s thread this morning about DL Paris, and DH mentioned we should try another park sometime, like DL in California, for example. I started to browse info for California and immediately noticed how expensive it is. Maybe people don’t stay on-site… Maybe people just don’t spend that long there?
So how long is a typical vacation at the different Disney parks?
I’d say WDW in Orlando is easily a week long vacation.
For those who have visited other parks, how many days do you spend?
My experience w/ DL is three days is long enough, but I know there are those (here) that go there frequently and will chime in. We’ve only been to DL 3 times and stayed on property 2x. There are many less expensive choices w/in walking distance. My calculations are that I can spend a week at WDW for the same amount as 3 days of DL. DL is very expensive, but a lovely experience, easier to walk and go back and forth between parks.
That’s kinda what I imagined. I guess we’d probably want to plan other non-Disney related activities if went went to DL, since we’d want to spend closer to a week in CA to make the trip feel worth it.
We have only been to DL once. We came in on a Sunday afternoon and visited with a friend that day. Monday through Friday, we used a 5 day PH ticket. We probably could have managed with a 4 day ticket, but it was nice to be able to take our time. We stayed at Paradise Pier which was convenient especially with the EMH.
Up to and including our October 2019 trip to WDW, we like staying at least 8 nights. Our possible December trip is for 10 night, although it is probably not necessary now.
This.
We’ve gone to DL twice; stayed off Katella Ave once, and once across the street on Harbor Blvd. Those were considerably less expensive, and some of the places on Harbor are even slightly closer walking distance to the park gates than the Disneyland Hotel or Disney’s Paradise Pier. We didn’t find the EMH benefits compelling enough to pay so much more just to stay at the Disney properties, and, we spent almost all our spare time in the parks, so the hotel amenities were not important to us either.
Days? We did 3 days the 1st time, and wished we’d had more. We did 5 days the next time which was great for relaxed planning, but could have been just 4. We LOVED Maxpass, if that is available for your visit, and especially helpful if you want to reduce the # of days you are there.
Also consider: if you’ve never been to that area before, there is so many other things to do, including San Diego, LA, beaches, other theme parks, etc. etc. For a 1st visit, my suggestion is 4 days Disney, and go see some other sights.
Thanks for the info! I agree it seems like staying onsite isn’t really necessary for DL. I bet we’d stay at once of the affiliated hotels instead and be fine.
DH and I have both been to CA (separately) but there’s lots of things we would enjoy doing around that area that we haven’t before. It’s just weird though to imagine a Disney trip not taking up the whole vacation! Something to get used to…
Oh and yes, I hear nothing but good things about MaxPass, so we would definitely buy that if it is available. (No plans at this time)
I’ll chime in on Tokyo Disneyland. I’ve been planning my post-pandemic trip to Tokyo and the longest ticket is for 4 days (unless you pay the big bucks to stay at a Disney hotel and get a special ticket). With 2 parks it seems like there is more to do/takes longer to see than the other resorts with with 2 parks (Paris and Anaheim). Due to the lottery system for getting into shows at Tokyo it does appear to take the full 4 days to see everything. Although a lot of guides say you can do it in 2, if you only want to do the major things.
I imagine most Americans traveling that far would spend the week and locals would to the 2 day getaway.
Thanks for the info on Tokyo! Yes, that would be a very long flight for us, we’d stay at least a week to make it worth it. But we could also have fun exploring the city on non-park days.
1 Day: Veterans only
2 Days: All major rides
3 Days: All major and minor rides, some shows
4 Days: All major and minor rides and shows
5 Days: All major and minor rides, shows, attractions, and diversions with some repeats
6 Days+: Will probably get bored unless you are splitting your time with beach, etc.
Even with 5 days, you can’t see EVERYTHING, but you will probably see everything worth seeing.
I recommend 3-5 days depending on your commitment. Also, if you know what you want and don’t want to do, you can plot it out with a TP and see.
The multi-day tickets at DL max out at 5 days (or at least they did 2 years ago). I went to a CM while we were there to see if there was any way to get a 6th day added on, and they said no…the only option was to buy a seperate one day ticket, which is a terrible value when compared to the multi-day tickets.
To @Jeff_AZ’s point; there’s better uses for a 6th day.
Thanks for the detailed breakdown! I imagine we’d probably aim for 4, maybe 5 days. This trip won’t be any time soon. We’ll just see how finances are down the line.
The first time I took my girls to DLR (2010) we had two days in the parks and it was definitely not enough. I hadn’t been since well before DCA opened. But we had constraints because we were there for my niece’s wedding. Starting in 2014, we drove down for every spring break for five years. We always bought 3 day 1 park per day tickets. It was definitely not enough time to do everything, but sometimes it’s good to leave wishing you had one more day. Since my daughter started college in SoCal we’ve been back for just one day here and there, sometimes two. But if you’re coming in for the first time or won’t be able to come back for a while, I think four days is a decent amount.
This Sept was supposed to be my first trip to Disneyland. I was planning on arriving on Sunday and leaving on Saturday. Most people here have told me 3 - 4 days is plenty though, I wanted to stay the extra day because this may be my only trip to DLR / DCA -due to the costs. This would have given my an arrival night to dine at Disney Springs and lower crowds on the weekdays (as Sept is historically one of the lower CL months - after Labor Day)
BTW - There’s no way I would pay $375 - $600 / night for a on-site room. I was going to stay at one of the hotels across the street. A lot of them offer buy 3 nights get one free and on morning of Early Entry at DIsneyland. While not all of them are Deluxe, they mostly look like standard hotels. I actually bought Len’s “Unoffical” guide for Disneyland 2020 to plan out my trip and get a lot of hotel reviews.
For me the biggest cost was the plan ticket!! I can typically go on SouthWest from Memphis to Orlando for $165 - $175 per person.Going to California was about $500 / person on SouthWest! (yikes!)
I had budgeted about $3500 for my wife & I for this trip. (Not saying I always stick to my Disney Park budgets!)
I have been to EuroDisney (now Disneyland Paris) I only got to go for one day. as it was a spontaneous trip while I was in Paris. I liked it a lot and would go back - probably for 2 - 3 days total.
Oh yeah you reminded me - unless budget is not a concern, I would stay offsite. Harbor Blvd has some nice, reasonably priced options at various price points. However, I usually stay on site lately because we’re only there for 1-2 nights.
