Visiting California...Disneyland and universal Hollywood help please

qwerty2k · Apr 21, 2017

So, as part of a larger trip me and my fiancée are going to be in California in June and are planning to spend 2 days at Disneyland and 1 day at universal.

Quite a few questions so hope someone can help.

1. Where is the best place to get tickets from (my fiancée is currently living in America whilst I'm in the U.K., so can purchase either from America or U.K. Depending on which is cheaper).

2. My fiancée loves loves loves back to the future, I heard on the disunplugged a while ago that in the universal VIP tour whilst not guaranteed there is potential to go into the bell tower bttf set, as a result she has her heart set on doing this tour, is it worth it?

3. Can anyone recommend a cheap hotel near Disneyland (Preferably walking distance, within reason don't care if it's very basic as won't be spending that much time there).

4. I'm all about the food / snacks. Do we need to make adr's for Disneyland restaurants? Also I'm dying to try stuff from the cozy cone, anything else you would recommend?

Thanks in advanced guys and gals.

peajay18 · Apr 21, 2017

1 - We got all of our LA tickets from Attraction Tickets Direct, but I'm sure Dreams Unlimited Travel can help you out.

2 - The VIP tour looks to be worth it, but is very dependent on what sets and sound-stages are in use for actual productions at the time of you visit.
The regular tram tour usually drives through the Courthouse Square set though, so that might be enough for you.

3 - We had no problems staying at the Howard Johnson near Disneyland - a 5 min walk past many chain restaurants to get to parks.

4- Unless your going at Easter or Thanksgiving, most of your ADRs can wait until you arrive. Book them all for your stay at City Hall on arrival. We had no problem getting the ones we needed this way.

Jon84 · Apr 21, 2017

^ Good Answers

When in June are you going, we're there 27th/28th June

qwerty2k · Apr 21, 2017

Jon84 said:
^ Good Answers

When in June are you going, we're there 27th/28th June

16th - 20th of June.

The Howard Johnson looks nice, just a bit more than I wanted to pay to be honest, it's around £180 a night and I was looking for closer to £100ish a night (not sure if this is possible though?)

dolewhipdreams · Apr 21, 2017

If you don't mind a basic (and I mean basic) hotel within walking distance, I stayed at the Super 8 last September and it was fine. The breakfast was awful but it was $100 USD/night and about a 10-15 minute walk to the park entrance. For me I just needed a bed and a shower and it had both of those!

Have you looked into Airbnb? There are some around that are ~$50-80/night and if they aren't in walking distance they are a short Uber/Lyft ride away.

Pooh's-Honey-Pot · Apr 21, 2017

I went last year and stated at the Del Sol Inn - really reasonable and about a 2 minute walk from the entrance. Not fancy but included a free breakfast and I would definitely stay there again.

There definitely isn't the desperate rush to book ADRs like in Florida. They only open up 60 days early and even then from what I could work out, weren't really needed.

wayneg · Apr 21, 2017

Last twice we stayed at the HoJo but as you have found prices have increased, we paid about £50/nt before, no way am I paying £180/nt. We have booked the Castle Inn and Suites for this August for 3 nts, after Quidco it works out about £100/nt. If I see anything better I can cancel without fees.
I will just buy Disney tickets at the gate, not found any savings online.

buzz242 · Apr 21, 2017

We've been a couple of times and stayed at Embassy Suites, free breakfast and shuttle bus to the parks. Also stayed at the Portifino which was a short walk to the parks.
We bought tickets from ATD and also at the gate.
I agree that you probably don't need to make dinner reservations before you go, we didn't find anywhere that had a long wait.

finchy3 · Apr 22, 2017

We did the VIP tour @ Universal back in August and you do get to go to the town square of Back to the future, standing on the steps to have your photo taken. It's a great tour

BadPinkTink · Apr 22, 2017

waves hi, @qwerty2k I sent you a private message

qwerty2k · Apr 22, 2017

Wow, thanks everyone for the kind responses! think i will get my tickets from ATD (going to surprise my fiancee with the vip tour, going to tell her it wasn't available and then spring it on her when we get there, from what understand park admission is included in the vip tour? after the tour is over do we get front of the line still or is that just for the duration of the tour / whilst your with the tour guide?).

Good news about dining, means we can wing it a bit more, less planning than disneyworld it seems

.

Im going to look up all your suggestions on where to stay, but its great to be steered in a direction and at least have a few good ones i can fall back on.

Thanks again everyone, much appreciated.

finchy3 · Apr 23, 2017

Yes park admission is included in the VIP package and you have front of the line all day

qwerty2k · Apr 23, 2017

Bought my tickets from ATD and just booked my hotel via hotels.com, staying at the castle inn suites, 4/5 on trip advisor, plenty of free parking and a reasonable rate. Thanks for all the help everyone, sooooo excited now

finchy3 · Apr 24, 2017

Castle Inn and Suites is very highly thought of for off property hotels, great location!

zavandor · Apr 26, 2017

Book a reservation you can cancel at any time and keep an eye on the HotelTonight app, you can score great discounts if you're not visiting during a busy period.

Disney Toruist Block has a review of many hotels around Disneyland which I found useful:
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disneyland-anaheim-hotels-reviews-rankings/

Quick service restaurants are very good on average, expecially with two days, you may decide to not do table service restaurants and still enjoy some good food. I really liked the Carthay circle and I'd reccommend it, but not the Fantasmic package, when I did it I found quality wasn't as good.

anthony2k7 · May 31, 2017

not sure what price range you call cheap (compared to Disneyland on site hotels anything else is cheap in my book!!!) but we stayed at the Hotel Indigo and would definitely go back there again. Although its around the £200 per night, it does have free parking + free wifi.

Lee Matthews · Jul 3, 2017

I'm going to go to Disneyland as a surprise for my husband next year. Probably September time when the kids are back.

Never been before. If we were to go from a Monday to Friday, do you think there's though to fill the time between Disney, Universal etc?

Hotels are looking about £550 and about £750 for flights for the both of us

peachiepie · Jul 3, 2017

Lee Matthews said:
I'm going to go to Disneyland as a surprise for my husband next year. Probably September time when the kids are back.

Never been before. If we were to go from a Monday to Friday, do you think there's though to fill the time between Disney, Universal etc?

Hotels are looking about £550 and about £750 for flights for the both of us

We went last September and did 2 and a half days in Disneyland and one day in Universal. We're going back to Disneyland at the end of the month. There was plenty to do at Disneyland and we could have spent a day or two more there, but we did Universal in a day and would struggle to fill a 2nd day there.
Overall I'm sure you'll be able to fill your time there!

bex7583 · Jul 5, 2017

ooh some great info on here , i am looking at booking for next april but a bit worried as we can only fit 12 days in and my to do list is long. !

i did want to stay onsite for one night but there seems to be limited options and noting comes up for our dates ?

petals · Jul 5, 2017

Castle Inn and Suites is great. Room we got was huge and it's only 10-20 minute walk from the parks depending how fast you walk.

We got our tickets from attraction tickets direct before we went as far as I can remember.

If you're into characters the Critter Breakfast at the Grand Californian is good as some different characters there like Kenai and Koda that you wouldn't see anywhere else normally. The only meals we booked were character breakfasts everything else we just picked as we went along and we thought Trader Sam's in the Disneyland Hotel and Plaza Inn in the main park were both good.

Visiting California...Disneyland and universal Hollywood help please

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