Which Park In California?

[GARY & HELEN]

Hi all,

We are going on an escorted coach tour all around the west coast in october.

We start off in LA and arrive late afternoon, so we wont be doing much that day.
We only have 2 full days there, so we are planning on doing Universal one day, and disneyland the day after.

The problem is we cant decide which park to go to, Disneyland or The California Adventure, we would love to do both disney parks, but as we want to do universal we can only do one disney park.

Which disney park would you choose if you could only go to one.

THANKS

HELEN ;)

[Alyson]

Calirfornia Adventure gets my vote

[danny]

do both ,there not anywhere near as big as there florida counterparts,so get up early ,be there for opening time and have a look round both ,as long as the queues are not too big you should get too see both of them

[bob_day69]

Six Flags Magic Mountain is the place to go if you want a real coaster feast. As it's name suggests it's up in the mountains a short freeway drive from LA. I doubt you'll find a better park for coasters anywhere. Be aware though that it can get pretty hot in the mountains in summer and the park is quite hilly.

Other than that you have Knott's Berry Farm and of course Disney

[Jools]

You could do both the Disney ones in a day. MK is a lot smaller than the Florida version.

If you can really only do the one I'd go for the California Adventure as it is so different to any of the Florida parks.

[joanne]

I agree with Jools California Adventure has a very different feel to the other Disney Parks, I would hate to choose though and as they are so close together I would do a very long day with both, CA closes earlier generally I believe?

[sueandco]

I would agree with the above advice - get there before opening and start at California Adventure and then move across to Disneyland. I don;t know what days you have in LA but Disneyland tends to be open later Friday/Saturday as these are the days they have fireworks (unlike WDW they cannot have fireworks every night because of local bylaws so only have them midweek on special occasions). Both parks are much smaller than at WDW - although seem more crowded as a result of this - and assuming it is not too busy you should be able to do most of what you want at both in a day if you are prepared to rush around and have a long day.

[Cal and Dave]

Yep if you can't manage both, do California adventure :)

[GARY & HELEN]

Thanks Guys,

I didnt think we could do both parks in one day, as i was thinking they were about the same size as florida parks, but know we know they are smaller we will probably do the 2 parks, thanks for all your advice guys.

HELEN ;)

[LolUK]

another vote for Magic Mountain as the best 'thrill' park around LA (even though you didn't mention it), but as bob_day69 mentions, it gets ridiculously hot in the valley in the summer so beware!

[Jools]

Thanks Guys,

I didnt think we could do both parks in one day, as i was thinking they were about the same size as florida parks, but know we know they are smaller we will probably do the 2 parks, thanks for all your advice guys.

HELEN ;)

They are alos literally right opposite each other. It will take you 5 minutes to walk out of the exit of one and arrive at the park entrance to the other. There are some photos in our California and Vegas trp report linked to my signature.

[empress]

we were there last year at the beginning of october and I think you could do the top rides at both parks in a day as its not really busy during the week.

Magic Mountain was only open fridays and weekends when we were there and so we could only go on the Friday - but it was totally dead it was walk on for all rides and the majority of the shops there werent open. Its great for coasters though - I went on all of them but my husband had to stop after awhile cos he was feeling a bit delicate, but it didnt stop me.

If I had to choose though i would choose universal and disney - universal cos the backlot tour is good and its a proper backlot!