I’m semi-hijacking this thread because I have one really silly question, and I don’t want to make an entire thread for it.
My flight into LAX was supposed to land around 6:25 pm. It’s been changed twice, and it’s now 7:45 pm. DL seems like it will be closing somewhere around 9 or 10 pm. My plan was to try a MK-DL hop, but it seems like with this flight’s landing time, it might be impossible. Should I give up trying for it, and just start the next day fresh?
Oh no! Landing at 7:45pm, the earliest you could hope to arrive at your hotel would be 9pm. Then checking in / stowing luggage and walking over to the parks, you would maybe have time for 1 ride for a 10pm closing. I would plan to visit Downtown Disney instead and save a day of admission for later if you can.
All I really wanted was a picture in front of Cinderella Castle in the morning, and then Sleeping Beauty Castle that same night.
Oh I see. If closing is 9pm, you’re likely screwed. With a 10pm closing, I think you could manage it. Subject to figuring out what to do with your luggage.
Throw it in the hotel room, and RUN LIKE HECK! across the street? 
I can’t see any mention of where you are staying. I assume you will have an immediate room assignment at that hour. If you’re on Harbor or at a Disney hotel you should probably make it.
Best Western Anaheim Inn, so literally across the street from The Esplanade.
I’m not familiar with their check-in process, but distance-wise you should be at the front gate within 10 minutes of leaving the hotel. And all you need to do is be inside the turnstiles 1 minute before closing time to get your money shot. They let you shop and wander for about an hour after closing.
Cool cool! Things to think about. I’m thinking about just not bothering, and waiting for the next morning to get in and enjoy ourselves.
If you can leave the hotel by 9:45pm, you can make it from the Best Western to DL’s front gate. Barring any crazy/unusual event creating a crowd in the Esplanade or at security.
If it were me, that would be such a cool day, but because it’s so incredibly the opposite of cost-efficient, I wouldn’t do it unless I had an AP(Magic Key, whatever) for both coasts. If you have a 4 or 5 day ticket that you can still use that partial day for even 3 hours, I’d save it. If the day will not be usable anywhere else, then I may just go for it, if the stars line up to get you from LAX to Anaheim in time.
I do agree you’re going to need the whole deplaning, luggage & drive to Anaheim to go absolutely perfect without hiccup to get you to the hotel by 9pm and then you’ll need to check-in, throw luggage in room (probably at least a 20 min. but maybe even 30 min. exercise).
I’m excited to hear what you decide & if you do it!
With the time change, I really think I want to forget the long hop, and just go 5 days in a row. One minor to moderate hiccup will mess everything up.
On a 5 day ticket, if I had a full day to use it, I would 
do the full day vs. the long hop. Just upgrade it to a pass so next time you can do both 
The more I think about it, the more I think the long hop is a bad idea. So I switched it to a date in the middle that was originally an “off day” So I think I’m set! Thanks! 
Some of f my favorite trips have been when we do 5 full days with a 1 rest day in the middle (either for a blackout or the rare times bought tickets instead of passes), so it wasn’t the worst idea to carve out a rest day & had your flight cooperated to be earlier, that long hop would’ve been really cool to accomplish.
I tried a rest day. DW was bored. So we just go go go. And this is while she wants to run all the races! Dopey at WDW + DL5k + Dumbo = One crazy week and a half!
I always think I’m going to be like your DW on my Disney trips with all the FOMO finding reasons to just schedule it up to the max. Then we get there, and if it’s longer than our quick 3-4 day weekends (and even those are rough with how we chose to do the drive) to DL, I always regret not having a rest day.
She doesn’t regret not having a rest day. She’s go go go go go go. I don’t know where she finds all this energy. Like that day she was bored, we went to the bus stop and said “first bus that comes, that’s where we’re going.” The first bus was AK, so TO THE ANIMALS! And I’m on my phone looking for a FoP FP (before the pandemic) or anything for that park.
What an awesome memory. The animals (and tree) are always a great destination.