We’re traveling to California during Spring Break 2027 for the week right before Easter. We’re well aware that it’s gonna be rough, but our kids’ Spring Break overlaps with my sister’s children’s break (along with what looks like most of LA), so we’re just working with what we’ve got. We did a similar trip at WDW in 2025 over that same week and thanks to all the Liner tips (and five kids who don’t mind waking up early for rope dropping), we had a great time and did everything we wanted to do and more on that trip.
We are planning on starting at Universal Studios Hollywood and I was initially thinking we would do a day and a half out there, use the second afternoon to drive down to Anaheim, then do three straight days at DLR (two at DL, one at CA). I was wondering if anyone had any opinions whether we really needed that additional morning at USH or if we would be better served just doing a single day and then adding a half-day afternoon at DLR after driving down in the morning.
We’re planning on purchasing the Super Nintendo early access, so that should help us knock out that part of USH early and give us a pretty good head start on the rest of the park, but I’m assuming it’ll be pretty swamped out there and don’t want to miss out on too much. But the same can be said for DLR and an extra half day could be pretty useful out there as well. Decisions, decisions!
My personal opinion is that one full day with Early Access is plenty of time to enjoy USH, unless you are just super gung ho about Universal and don’t want to miss a thing. The wild card will be Fast & Furious — I’ve never been on it so I’m not sure how crowd patterns will be. But if you prioritize it, there are other things you could skip if necessary.
Disneyland on the other hand is massive and has so much you will want to see. Don’t skimp out on your time there. I missed if have been before, so not sure how familiar you are with the offerings. But regardless, an extra half day there will never go to waste. At a minimum it will allow you to relax your pace a bit.
My advice is always 3 days at DLR minimum for a first timer, or for someone who attends rarely. 4 days is better. 5 is probably unnecessary unless you are doing half days / beach etc. 1 or 2 is not enough.
Yeah, looked up some ride videos and there’s a zero percent chance anyone from our crew will be riding that one.
We’ve got several Harry Potter fans in our group and one Simpsons superfan, so those areas are must-do, and I figure if we knock out Nintendo early, followed by Jurassic World, we could run out to Hogsmeade and do Forbidden Journey then just pick and choose after that.
I think you will be golden. I have done all that in basically an afternoon / evening. I recommend the studio backlot tour and the Waterworld show as unique and enjoyable offerings, but they are a time suck.
