First time Disneyland trip - How many days?

[Lucid-one]

My family has made at least one trip to Walt Disney World every year for the past five years. For spring break this year we’ve decided to visit Disneyland for the first time.

When visiting Walt Disney World, we always do a five day park hopper ticket.

We will be in the LA area for 5 days. I had originally planned to buy three day non-Park Hopper tickets doing two days at Disneyland and one day at DCA. Will likely add on Genie+ for one Disneyland day and the DCA day.

But when looking at ticket prices through a popular travel agent site I’ve noticed that you can go from three days to five days very little extra expense.

The question though is do I really need four or even five days? If I only do three days, then what? It will be my DW and 6 year old DS traveling. I lived in LA back in the 90s for a bit so I know my way around. Not really interested in the typical tourists things like Hollywood. A day at the beach? Universal for a day? Knots Berry Farm?

 

[Dr. G]

I've not done Knotts Berry Farm so can't speak to that.

If you've done Universal in Florida I'd probably skip Universal in CA. I've not done CA for a very long time but have done FL recently and it seems to be far superior with the 2 parks.

Since you do Parkhoppers at Disney World I recommend really considering them at Disneyland. Disneyland and California Adventure are right next to each other and I can't imagine a trip there without Parkhoppers, even with the required 1:00pm wait to park hop. I really consider the CA parks one large park, especially compared to Walt Disney World. It takes longer to walk from the Magic Kingdom to the bus stops than it does to walk between the 2 CA Parks.

Number of days is tricky. 3 is enough to do everything once, especially if you have Parkhoppers. If you focus on just what is different at Disneyland compared to WDW you definitely have enough time. If rides are your sole focus, 3 days is enough. If you want shows, or repeat rides, or soaking in the atmosphere, or trying several of the food places, or people watching, etc, 3 days would be tight. For us, we almost always get 5 day parkhoppers. Sometimes one of the days is just a few hours at night the day we arrive, or a little bit in the morning the day we leave. When we do a beach day, we'll often start and end at the parks with the beach in the middle of the day. As you said, the incremental cost to add a 4th day is pretty small, and the 5th day is way small. It's worth it to us to spend a little extra to have the option of a meal and a ride or two at night. Park hours when you are there and your stamina for full days will factor in as well. Shorter hours = more desired days. Lower stamina also = more days.

Number of days and parkhopping may also depend on what parks you like best at WDW. If Magic Kingdom is your favorite, you'd likely want at least 2 full days in Disneyland. California Adventure feels a bit more to me like the Studios and is really for us just a 2/3 day. Where your DS is only 6, a lot of the rides in California Adventure "may" not be as interesting. Does he like Rock'n'Rollercoaster (Incredicoaster at CA), Tower of Terror (Guardians), Soarin' (same), Kali River Rapids (Grizzly River Run) or Toy Story Midway Mania (same) at WDW? If so, California Adventure may be more interesting to him and make it a full day.

Hope that helps a bit--it's a tricky decision. If time and money are not too much of an issue, since you're in the area 5 days anyway I recommend the 5-day parkhopper so you have flexibility. You're not risking too much extra money compared to the overall cost of the trip. It is easier to not use a day than to want to add a day to your parkhopper during Spring Break only to find out there are no reservations available.

If you have other questions happy to try to give input. We are Disneyland visitors at least once per year, but have also been out to WDW twice in the last year so may have insight on comparing the two.

 

[chorbus]

We are looking at Disneyland for the first time as well! Following....

 

[Lucid-one]

We decided to go with the five day pass. May upgrade to park hopper.