Disney - Orlando versus California

[Bolsa]

Hi all,

We’ve just returned from 4th
successive year doing Disney Orlando and absolutely love it. Am starting to think about next year now and wife suggested Disney California for a change but know nothing about it. I know it is much smaller - is it just one park? Is there enough there for a fortnight with two kids (ages 10 and 14)? Are there other parks/attractions?

Any assistance would be very much appreciated. Thanks

[Silvercat]

We returned from the West Coast in June, and had a wonderful time. The Disney parks there are more akin in size to the ones at Disneyland Paris, there are two of them - Disneyland, and Disney's California Adventure. We spent 5 days just doing the two parks, and that was probably enough time for us, so I would suggest you also look at the other attractions in the area. There is a Universal Studios park, although we've never been there so can't comment on it. Anaheim is about 30 mins drive away from Long Beach, where the Queen Mary is permanently berthed, and that is now a hotel and tourist attraction, plus Newport Beach is a very popular beach resort for tourists and is slightly closer to Disney.

If you are going for 2 weeks, my suggestion would be to do 5 days at Disney, (their version of Downtown Disney is very small, and can be done in half a day, it's nowhere near the size of Disney Springs - but it is very lovely though, and worth a visit). Both parks are next door to each other, separated by a strip of land on which is located Downtown Disney. Then have a look around the area to see what else there is to do, there is certainly plenty to keep your kiddoes entertained but probably not enough Disney for 2 weeks.

Look at "good neighbour" hotels if you would rather keep to a budget, there are masses of hotels directly across the road from Disney that are very good and cheaper than staying onsite.

Hopefully someone else on here can offer up ideas of what else is in the area. (We did 5 days there and then went off on a road trip through Arizona.)

[Bad Pink Tink]

Disneyland California Overview

• Maximum 5 park days needed, 4 days is ideal
• 2 parks connected by a football field sized esplanade
• Both parks and Downtown Disney all inside the one security ring, go through bag check in the morning and park hop and shop without any more security checks. Only exception is if you go into Grand California Hotel,which is located in Downtown Disney. You will get a security check when you leave the hotel and return to Downtown Disney or when you use the entrance into California Adventures park.
• No Magic Bands or Fastpass +. Fastpasses can only be obtained on the day once you have scanned into a park.
• The Fastpass system has 2 options, the free paper Fastpass obtained from the kiosks located beside the rides or the digital paid for version accessed through your phone and the Disneyland App. The digital paid for version is called Maxpass and costs $15 per person per day.
• Disneyland Dining Reservations open at 60 days in advance for all guests
• There are 3 onsite hotels, Disneyland Hotel, Grand Californian and Paradise Pier. They are priced in the deluxe range.
• Most people stay offsite, huge amount of options for all budgets. Many offsite hotels and motels are a shorter walking distance to the entrance turnstiles than the onsite hotels.
• No Dining Plan or refillable mugs / cups
• Multiple authorised discount ticket re-sellers which have cheaper tickets than from Disney website or on the day at the gate.
• No free shuttle from the airports, Disney Express is an outside contractor licenced to use the Disney name. Multiple other transport options including rental cars, town car services, shared shuttles, Uber and Lyft
• Closest airport is John Wayne Airport, Orange County, (SNA)
• Other airport is LAX, Los Angeles International Airport

Disneyland Location

• Disneyland is located in Anaheim, a city about 90 minutes drive from Hollywood Boulevard
• Most people do a 2 location visit, stay in Anaheim for Disneyland and then switch to a different location, depending on their interests and the places they want to visit.
• Popular 2nd locations are San Francisco, Yosemite and National Parks, Santa Barbara, Hollywood, Santa Monica, San Diego
• Universal Studios is about 90 minutes drive from Anaheim. People usually stay either beside Universal Studios or in Hollywood if they want to visit Universal Studios or 6 Flags Magic Mountain
• Closest beaches to Disneyland are Huntington Beach, Newport Beach or Long Beach
• Other things to do in Anaheim are Knotts Berry Farm, a Peanuts and Snoopy themepark which is mainly a rollercoaster themepark.

[trampslikeus]

The Anaheim Disney Parks offer several different attraction to WDW, e.g Matterhorn Bobsleighs, Cars Land, Guardians of The Galaxy (remodel of ToT), IncrediCoaster, Hyperion Theater, Nemo Submarines, Big Wheel as well as the old classics that are no longer at WDW, Toon Town, Snow White Scary Adventure, Pinnochio etc
If you enjoy Disney you will have a ball.
In addition, there is Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios within travelling distance as well as the many other delights of the LA area, Beaches, Griffith Park/observatory, shopping, film stars, Hollywood sign/walk of fame.
If you want to travel further afield there is San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park which can make up part of a road trip.
Whatever you decide you will have a great holiday

[Bolsa]

Wow. Thanks all for taking so much time to reply. You’ve given me a great deal to think about but it sounds like it is certainly worth looking in to. Just need to persuade the kids that the extra flying time is worth it. Thanks again

[Trueblue88]

Great information will think about trying California Disney

[Vinniecat]

In my opinion California is way, way better than Orlando (not necessarily for Disney though, I'm unsure on that one). If you are only interested in Disney then my reply probably isn't much use. I would encourage a road trip with a few stops of at least 3 nights each. I found Disneyland very hot and very crowded (we were there at the end of August last year) I think if it had been cooler I would have really enjoyed it. The characters were great lots of interaction with them and no queuing for them. I would say there was nothing at downtown Disney or whatever it's called apart from a few shops. Disneyland is walkable to several hotels and restaurants but not much else close by. We did 5 nights there against DIBB advice and the DIBB was right it was too long. We spent a week in San Diego where we did Seaworld which was empty not a single queue for us as in not one person in front of us, there were not a lot of rides from what I can remember but it was a good day. Aquatica was quiet and a good day. San Diego zoo was amazing I can't believe we nearly missed it. If you do decide to go to California definitely do a road trip we loved San Francisco and the Pacific coast highway. Really loved Monterey and Santa Barbara. We were gutted to miss Yosemite due to fires. I really want to return to California one day.

[cornishfrogboy]

Disney is clearly the major player in any Orlando or even Florida vacation, if you have never been.

Disney is imho, simply an attraction amongst many others on a SoCal vacation. We gave it 2 days and they were the low point of an absolutely amazing 2 weeks. That does not mean that it was bad. We are very glad that we visited and saw it. It is just that Southern California as a whole has so many iconic things to do. In addition, we found LA and particularly the I5 rather unpleasant when compared with the other areas that we visited.

I could never have done more than the 2 days at Disney and with hindsight would certainly have used those 2 days elsewhere.. 2 days instead of 1 in Monterey and 6 days instead of 5 in San Diego. We are all agreed that having visited Disneyland, we have no need to see it again.

My views of California as a whole are pretty much identical to those of the poster above, Vinniecat.

California was by a country mile the best of our 10 USA vacations and we are thrilled to be returning next year (whilst going no further South than San Luis Obispo). The State is magical. Having said that, the only City where we have agreed that we could spend a whole 2 weeks is... San Diego.

Everybody has a different perspective of holidays in the US in general..Florida and California in particular..

[steruth]

Wow this has certainly given me some thought . I have done Orlando now 15 times this year and have been considering California for a long time.

I love the reviews above .

Just wanted to ask Airport - John Wayne Airport , which airport in UK flies into there ?

Thanks
x

[Billy Beatnik]

We did a California trip a few years ago and we did 3 days in Anaheim, which was enough for my wife and myself. There is lots more to do in LA than Orlando and we can’t wait to go back. Universal is fantastic as well as all the studios. We also loved Griffith Observatory, a real unexpected high.