We have made the decision to spend next April school vacation visiting Disneyland. I have never been there, nor have we been to California, and since I’m an avid planner and stresser outer, I have begun my research into Disneyland now. I have lots of questions
Hotels: We prefer to stay “on property” and I will be attempting to waitlist a Sunday-Friday stay through DVC at the 7months mark, well knowing that the liklihood of this coming through is very little, so I’m looking at booking a room at one of the onsite properties as a backup.
First, when do they start releasing 2026 dates, because I can’t look past December right now?
In addition, I’m just looking vaguely and right now every date in 2025 I put in for searching a room to check prices, there is nothing available?! Even if I put one night mid week, there are no rooms available ? I’m hoping this is a glitch and it’s not that difficult to book an on property room?? Does anyone have any links to see the range for the cost of a studio at the Disneyland resorts, so I can at least start planning the budget?
Are the good neighbor hotels in walking distance? any recommendations for one just in case?
Tickets: Any secrets to getting good ticket prices? Convention discounts? Do they release ticket deals periodically like WDW does?
Parking: Is parking onsite with the booking of a room free? I don’t think we will be renting a car but I haven’t got that far yet on whether we want to explore outside of the bubble.
Magic Bands: We have the magic band + that we use at WDW,will these link to our DL tickets and be able to be used at the parks?
Flights: from what I can see, it doesn’t look like you can fly to Anaheim (SNA) airport direct from Boston? Anyone from the area that can verify? I don’t mind flying to LAX - it will likely be cheaper, but we prefer direct flights.
Airport transfers: usually uber to WDW from Orlando. How’s uber out in CA?
Rides: I am looking to maximize my times in the parks. We will probably do 3 days, 4 max. I plan on getting park hopper, and multipass. What rides at DL are exact replica’s of WDW. I know Batuu is identical, so we will skip that area, but what else?
What are your favorite things to do at DL? What sit down restaurants are worth going to? What do you find a waste of valuable time?
Popcorn: I usually bring my popcorn bucket to wdw- am i able to get the refills at DL using it? Or is popcorn not as big a thing?
I guess these are all my questions for now. I’m sure I’ll have more, but thanks for all who can comment and answer!!
I can only answer some of these questions but hopefully it will be helpful in some way.
We have never stayed on property. There are so many hotels that are within walking distance that the extra dollars didn’t make sense for us. We stayed at Desert Inn and Suites once. It was very inexpensive and offered a continental breakfast but it was right across the street. My last trip we stayed at the Desert Palms Hotel and Suites. It was a further walk which we were ok with and it had a hot breakfast included. Rooms were nice.
I got our passes on Ares Travel. It was it the unofficial guide and it was the cheapest.
We used Shuttle One on our last trip and they were awesome. Cheaper than Uber and we had a lovely driver.
We did four days last time and three would have worked but it was nice to have the fourth and not have to rush.
As far as the rides we did them all and enjoyed them. It doesn’t matter to me if they are the same.
I have been to Blue Bayou twice and I will not do it again. Not worth in in my opinion.
Disneyland is a bit different than Disney World. It’s a bit more geared for locals. Dates for 2026 should be coming out “in the summer” But when during the summer, we don’t know. I think the dates for 2025 came out in August. There are a bunch of hotels just outside the property. There are quite a few on Harbor Boulevard, and some down Katella Avenue. There are some that are even closer to the gates than the “on property” hotels! There are also quite a few down Harbor that are accessible via a bus from property.
Convention tickets are a bit harder to come by, as they are stricter on west coast about being near your convention date. So if you can find a convention right over when you are going, that would be best.
A car can be tricky, as traffic in the LA/Orange County area can be very brutal! Gas is also crazy expensive. A quick search on Google Maps is showing me prices between $4.70 to $5.20 a gallon.
Disneyland can utilize MB+s. They’re much less common than on the east coast. Most people there rather refused to use them as they are $40+ a piece, so they just keep using hard tickets. You can link them to tickets, but the process is a little different.
WDW’s MDE is centered around your profile. So think like scanning your MB will check who owns it, and then check if you have a ticket. DL’s MDE is more centered around the ticket. So LL purchases are made on the ticket, the MB belongs to the ticket. You get in with your ticket. When you come back, you put your new ticket in your account, and then match your MB with the new ticket. The MB won’t automatically presume that a new ticket is the one you’re using. So you can add everyone’s tickets into your account, and then book LLs. There’s no Friends and Family in DL’s MDE, just a bunch of tickets.
As for flights, it looks like LAX is the only direct airport from BOS
3-4 days at DL is really sufficient to ride pretty much everything. Their tickets are only 5 days max.
There are rides that have different queues, but the ride part is almost the same:
Peter Pan
Small World
Pooh
Star Tours
Soarin’ (if you’ve seen the California version)
MMRR
Some rides where the ride is quite a bit different:
Pirates
HM
And then there are rides which they say are different but aren’t:
Tow Maters (it’s Alien Swirling… Actually The Toy Story ride came later :D)
Indiana Jones (it’s Dinosaur! but way better delivered)
And there are some rides that are the same in name only:
Space Mountain (DL’s is so much different)
Tow Mater may be the same ride mechanism but do Tow Mater. It’s a major hoot - to me.
Alien Swirling Saucers is a snooze fest. The Kid and I finally did this in 2020 maybe, cuz it just looked quiet. It was a one and done.
Tow Mater is somehow fun.
Definitely do Pirates.
Look over some of the DL trip reports. It’s Disney, yes, but CA is not like FL. The physical is different (closer together) and the atmosphere is different. If you can get a sense of DL from the trip reports, your experience should be more successful.
Relax, you will be there long enough. Yes, by August/September you should be able to book. We stayed at Hyatt Regency Orange County last year. Not walking distance but they have shuttles for $6/day per person. The shuttles were always on time and very convenient. Very nice hotel across from a Target and close to restaurants. Enjoy it!
A great place to start is Jeff’s thread linked below that gives WDW regulars a framework of what DLR is like within their WDW knowledge. There’s a lot of opinions detailed there about ride similarities too.
As for your specific questions:
I plugged in Sat Aug 14-Mon Aug 16 for 2 adults at the DLH and could see both the Duo Studios and Deluxe Studios available, as well as Standard View and Deluxe Downtown Disney View rooms on the older towers that aren’t a part of the DVC.
I generally find that as a starting place for standard rooms, Pixar Place is $500-ish/night, DLH $600/night and GCH $800/night so you can use those numbers as a base budget. I’m not very familiar with booking studios so I’m not sure how much more (or maybe less?) they are than a standard room. The one search I did of the studio for DLH the Duo Studio is $661/night, Deluxe Studio $887/night and a standard room with a premium view $769/night.
There may be cheaper weeks though (we don’t usually have the ability to travel when it’s off/cheaper weeks so I don’t check it often) but I don’t imagine April during a potential spring break season would be one. If you have a Disney Visa you can watch for any other 20-30% offers they might drop for your dates and then you can always call and ask if the offer can be applied to your existing booking (or cancel and re-book at the offer price). If you don’t have a Disney Visa then you can check to see if they roll out the same Visa offer to the general public (they usually do).
Very much so. I usually go from north to south down along Harbor starting from the Howard Johnson & Marriott Courtyard and check prices all the way down to the Convention Center from hotels I know I like. This post is a recent run-down I have done on nearby hotels we have stayed at. Not all of them are Good Neighbor Hotels but the majority are.
They do have some ticket deals but usually less than WDW’s. Right now they have a great one for this summer. Like Felis already mentioned, the convention tickets at DLR are under a lot more scrutiny and I wouldn’t test it (but I do and always use the WDW convention tickets, if I were going solo or just with DH I might try out a DLR convention if it fell over my dates, if it were significant savings but I would probably still chicken out because out West they are a lot more skeptical and will follow through on checks of those kinds if they really feel you are cheating the system. I know they have a lot more fraud/abuse of ticket sharing and shady ticket use in SoCal than what happens in Florida so I don’t like to test them in that department).
The best and most sure way to get a discount though is to go through one of the main discount ticket providers that sell DLR tickets. Ares Tickets, Undercover Tourist and Getaway Today are the 3 that most widely known and used and all are reputable.
No, parking onsite is an extra charge and quite a premium. I believe it was up to $30-$35/night the last time I checked (and that was in 2022-23). There is a rental agency within very close walking distance on Katella and then also one inside the Pixar Place hotel so I would look into a rental for the day you want to explore.
We have Magic Band+ that we started using first at WDW and they do work in DLR. There can be issues with the bands and with them not wanting to register in DLR if we last used in WDW and vice versa. We’ve found that doing a hart restart of the Magic Band + and then re-syncing it works, but it took us several trips of one Magic Band + not being able to work for us to troubleshoot it ourselves. Felis’s explanation of the difference between how MDE operates and the DL app is a very good explanation, and I agree with all of it. Also, at DLR Magic Band +'s will only be good for scanning into the park and LL’s. They aren’t able to open the hotel room onsite nor can they be used to charge back to the room (at least not the last time I checked in late 2024). So my kids do like to wear them in and when we hop, but most of the rest of the time, they throw them back into their (or my) park bag since we do not ever purchase LLMP.
You could check at Long Beach and Ontario airports. Long Beach is a smaller airport that many people like to use. Ontario has some of the same traffic issues (but not as bad since it’s not qutie as far) as you will get driving to LAX, but it could be an option.
It’s good but can have surge pricing if you’re trying to get from LA to Anaheim during rush hour traffic so it can be unpredictable. A lot of people will use a private transfer and there’s a a couple of threads in the Disneyland section about them. I can’t remember which one has the most current information though.
My list of identical rides and queues is limited to the two GE rides.
But unless they are family favorites, I would also skip TSMM, Little Mermaid, and Winnie the Pooh. Their rides are similar if not identical and the WDW queue is far superior. You could put Peter Pan in this category, but the rides are different enough that I consider them unique on each coast but the queue in WDW is vastly superior both for the fact that there is an option to skip it and a whole lot to entertain you and see when you choose to wait in it. DLR’s Peter Pan queue is cramped and there is no LL for it. If we do it, we do it last before the park closes when the ride seems to load slightly faster and can see a drop in the wait time down to 20-25 min instead of the always 40-50 min most of the rest of the day.
Some others that you could skip for being similar (but their queues are different, just not superior on either coast) are: Soarin and Star Tours. Some that could also be in this category are: Dumbo, Jungle Cruise, the Carousel and Astro Orbiter but also all of those rides are different enough that I consider them different experiences so if they are a favorite and/or if there is time they would be worth doing to compare.
I personally love Dumbo & the Carousel, like Jungle Cruise on both coasts and will put up with Astro Orbiter in WDW for the superior view. The view in DL is good too and worth doing once, I just dislike the ride vehicle (getting in & out of it especially) and have done it enough times that I don’t ever seek it out in DLR.
I would also put Gadget’s GoCoaster in Toon Town in this category. It’s cute and the ride queue is adorable but it’s very much a kiddie coaster that is very similar (maybe identical) to Barnstormer in WDW (if you have ever been to UOR it’s exactly Flight of the Hippogriff in IoA). So would be good if you have kids (or kids at heart who loved and watched Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers) but otherwise a skip.
And then a quick note on things unique to DLR that could be skipped in the interest of time mostly. Most of these because they are pretty much fair rides you can find in most amusement parks and while they do have some fun theming in DLR it isn’t so mind-blowing as to absolutely do:
Jumpin Jellyfish
Golden Zephyr
Inside out Emotional Whirlwind
Goofy’s Sky School (unless you love Wild mouse coasters, then do it)
Pixar Pal-Around (the ferris wheel, although it is one we usually try to do because it’s relaxing and fun, but it’s a big time suck and basically a ferris wheel so not necessarily a must-do).
Turtle Talk with Crush
Moving on to some then some that are close (but maybe not quite identical) in both parks but have good reasons to still do in DLR are:
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The queue in DLR vastly superior, has so many fun Easter eggs, and if you love Mickey & friends and have watched/enjoyed any of the cartoons they have been in over their 96+ years, it’s a must see.
Haunted Mansion. Now that both HM’s have Hatbox ghost and good themed queues it’s harder to say which is better.
TBA, different log setup but I do prefer WDW’s setup but DLR’s can be easier to get a low wait on.
Treehouse, you get a different view of DLR’s Rivers of America than WDW’s and both are amazing & unique.
Animation Academy, the papers in DL don’t have the guidelines that the WDW experience does but they do post a full schedule at the experience of all the characters being drawn so you can drop in early in the day, see if there’s a favorite you want to come back for and end up with a fun souvenir, and it’s a little easier to navigate to not having to plan it around the training running in AK.
Tiki Room, it’s the original and gives me a lot of nostalgia even though I didn’t ever see it until I was an adult in 2014.
Finding Nemo Submarine, is the same exact story of Nemo & friends in Epcot but in a submarine instead of a clamshell. It doesn’t have a live tank at the end like Nemo in Epcot does so if you like that aspect of it and won’t be wowed by being on a submarine it can be skipped in DLR. Also good to note here that if you have claustrophobia or a strong dislike of being sat squished between people, do not do the submarine. It’s so squishy. There is an alternative accessible option that is a screen inside a room themed to be a submarine with a lot more space (but you stand or sit in your scooter instead of on a submarine). But as it’s the same story as Nemo in Epcot, unless it’s a favorite you can skip even trying the accessible experience in DLR.
Monorail, it does require a park ticket to ride since it stops in both Downtown Disney and then inside Tomorrowland in DL, but gives a really fun view of around the Matterhorn and Tomorrowland, and also speeds through a part of the GCH which is pretty.
Tom Sawyer Island, in theory they are very similar and I’m sure that WDW’s have bigger space in the caves, but the DLR experience was one Walt personally drew up the designs for and that is a very sentimental touch.
And then the ones that you absolutely must do that have an equivalent in WDW but they are not at all the same and most of them I personally believe are superior in DLR (but there may be others who have different opinions):
Royal Princesses at the Royal Hall (if a princess fan that enjoys meeting them, if not can totally skip)
Buzz Lightyear
Autopia
Main Street Vehicles
Main Street Firestation (the pole at the back was once used by Walt to get down from his apartment above to the parks, until one day an enterprising kid got up to his apartment, so they had to seal it off).
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln AND the Disneyland exhibit in the lobby explaining some of the history of DL
Mark Twain River Boat
Grizzly River Rapids
Big Thunder Mountain
Mad Tea Party
Mater’s
Pirates of the Caribbean
Indy (same ride system as Dinosaur)
Space Mountain
Disneyland Railroad
it’s a small world
Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout
Radiator Springs Racers (same ride system as Test Track but without the full speed, but absolutely full theming)
And then lastly, my list of unique to DLR, everything up to Storytelling at the Royal Theater I consider a must-do, but the rest of the list is also unique and good enough to try to fit in:
Incredicoaster
Alice in Wonderland
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Snow White’s Enchanted Wish
Matterhorn
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
Mikey, Minnie, Goofy’s Houses & Donald’s Boat in Toontown- all walkthroughs/play areas but so well themed
Webslingers
Roger Rabit’s cartoon spin (it’s like Mr. Toad’s mixed with a teacup and it’s super fun, if a little odd with the Roger Rabbit story that doesn’t jive with all Disney fans and that’s ok if it doesn’t for you)
Animation Building especially the Sorcerer’s Workshop and the lobby
Story-telling at the Royal Theater, this is a show but an absolute gem and my favorite and I always recommend it if you like live theater, especially punny theater and/or live piano playing, and if you like princesses you’ll probably also enjoy it too, but don’t need to to enjoy it because it’s so much more than a princess story re-telling.
Casey Jr Train (you could do this instead of the Storybook Land Canal boats as they both through the same terrain one by boat and one by train, but I prefer the boats for the narration and more relaxing experience, the train is cute & fun though too).
Luigi’s
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
Monsters Inc: Mike & Sulley to the Rescue (though this one might not be there by the time you go, since I personally expect a lot of the new things they announced to be added to DCA to go in this same space and see them taking out the Monsters Inc ride to redo the area).
Ok, are you sick of my opinions yet??? Cuz I see we have a few more questions to get to…
If you couldn’t tell from the above, I really love Storytelling at the Royal Theater and the Royal Hall. ToonTown is also a fun place to spend some time exploring. The Railroad and Mark Twain are both iconic and historic to DLR so if you are at all appreciative/sentimental about Walt are great to see. In DCA I love wandering through the live entertainment and characters in Avengers Campus, soaking in Carsland at night all lit up with the neons (if you go right at sunset you can catch them doing the lighting of the neons where they play the Sha-Boom song and the lights turn on just like in the movie). That’s on top of doing all my favorite rides which include Indy, all the Fantasyland dark rides + Storybook Land Canal boats, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Incredicoaster, TSMM, Soarin’, and all of Avengers Campus and Carsland rides.
Our favorite two sitdowns in DLR are Carnation Cafe and Lamplight Lounge. We have also always enjoyed any meals we’ve had at Carthay Cirlce, Cafe Orleans and the character breakfast at Plaza Inn. In DCA we do enjoy a lot of the snacks so we like to leave a lot of eating time in DCA. Some of our favorite QS’s are everything in the SanFranSokyo area, Cozy Cones from Cozy Cone #3 in Carsland, Award Weiners, spicy corn dogs at the Corn Dog Castle, and giant pretzel at Pym’s. On the DL side we do enjoy Bengal BBQ and the cheesy garlic twist from Marice’s Treat cart. The only time waste I can think of are waiting in line to order QS instead of Mobile Ordering.
It’s a thing in that they have it and it’s delicous! But they do not do refill buckets. They will very seldomly have a Magic Key only refillable bucket but I haven’t seen one the last couple of years. We do love the popcorn though still and still usually get it at least a couple of times a trip. We also love the churros that are worlds different and better than WDW. And beignets from Mint Julep bar. And lots of confectionary/bakery treats from the various confectionaries and Jolly Holiday Bakery.
Ok, I think I am at the end of your questions, but anymore, please ask away!
I realized you might mean parking at the resort vs. parking overnight at the hotel so wanted to clarify.
Parking overnight at the hotel is what I mentioned in my original response.
It will also cost if you move your car to any parking lot or structures meant mainly for the parks and Downtown Disney. However, it’s hard to wrap your head around it when you come from the scale of WDW and then down to DLR, but all the hotel parking lots are closer than any of the parking lots for the parks. The space of all of DLR fits in about the size of Epcot and is smaller than the footprint of MK’s parking alone.
So if you’re staying onsite at DLR, there will never be a need to move your car from the hotel parking lot to any of the lots or parking structure where those coming to visit the parks via car will park. You may be a teensy bit closer parking in Downtown Disney parking compared to Pixar Place parking but it wouldn’t be worth it to pay the cost of Downtown Disney parking (an hourly cost). We mainly stay offsite across the street on Harbor and the only time we move our car and park at Disney is if on our check-out day we are NOT going to the parks but want to hit Downtown Disney before driving home, then we will pack the up car, check-out of the hotel and move to the Downtown Disney parking. The first hour will always cost $10 and then after that you can get a validation for 2 or 4 hrs with a minimum purchase at a retail store that validates (2 hrs) or a sit down meal (4 hrs). Since we usually got to Downtown Disney to shop and/or eat, we usually only have to pay the $10 and then a validation covers the rest of our time.
Without a validation or if you stay beyond the 3-5 hours total, it’s $14/hour charged in half-hour increments of $7/half-hour. It maxes out at like $65.
So bottom line, it’s pricy to park at DLR but if you stay onsite and will not be venturing outside the Disney bubble the days you are staying in a Disney hotel, there’s no need to spend anything on it. For this reason, I do recommend doing a rental for just the days you will be venturing away from the bubble and I also recommend looking for accommodations that are closer to where you’re venturing and might have more reasonable parking rates rather than using an onsite DLR hotel as a homebase.
And it looks like World Showcase is bigger than DCA, barely?
Regardless, Disneyland is much much smaller compared to WDW. Park hopping takes all of 100 yards of walking. DTD is 150 yards to the west of the parks. There’s very little motorized transportation needed once you’re on property. If you really really want McDonald’s, Denny’s, IHOP or Panera, it’s literally across the street.
Thanks for checking the specifics! Yes, it’s hard to wrap around your head the difference in scale (both ways) until you see them both.
And Pizza Press is only one block to the south right there on the corner in The Anaheim hotel! One of my faves. And seriously, when we stay along Harbor it is far easier to walk to any of those for the food than it is to get in the car and drive to them, because of all the U-turns you have to do to get from point A to point B.
Rides that seem the same in DL are actually slightly different than WDW. For example Pirates Of Caribbean has 2 drops instead 1 in DL. Also please don’t stress it only ruins the experience. Everything is within walking distance ( if you or a family member can’t walk scooters are available ), stroller available for children ( plus some of your stuff ). Also Disneyland is kind of like Magic Kingdom in WDW. I recommend the Indiana Jones ride unless you don’t like thrill rides. I’ve been to Disneyland only once, but I pretty rode every ride and I have experience. Ask about anything and I will give/get the answer. Thank you! I hope you have a fun and successful trip!
Cuz I see we have a few more questions to get to…
