Help for a beginner

[Beapay]

Hi, we normally visit Orlando for 7-9 days every October, however, we fancy trying Disneyland this year and at the moment prices are pretty good.
I am used to planning our Disneyworld/Orlando trips and always stay at either Disney or Universal but I don’t really know where to start with California?
We can only manage time off for 7-9 days, would this be long enough for a taster of Disneyland etc?
Also, any hotel suggestions? We normally use Uber in Orlando, so would want to do the same in California

Thanks in advance

[jdouds]

Hi first of Disney is much smaller than the Orlando parks and most people do 2/3 days , if at all. For many of us who have had several Orlando trips when we go west coast there is so much to see that we give Disney a miss but some love the parks there. If you want to gat a taste of Disney and a little more perhaps fly into San Fran have 2/3 days, 1/2 nights Monterey and definitely go whale watching, 1 night Santa Barbara and then the remainder for your Disney fix. Hope this helps

[sky13]

How long to spend in Disneyland... It really depends. There are two Disney parks in Anaheim (compared to four in Orlando), but these two parks are packed with rides and shows, and have almost as many rides and shows as the four parks in Orlando. So there is actually quite a bit to see and do there.

For my first DL trip as an adult I think I had 3.5 days, at the end of which I think I'd done most things I wanted to do, but wanted more time to do some rides and shows again. So when I went again a couple of years ago we spent 5 days in the parks, which let us do it at an extremely relaxed, leisurely pace, with plenty of time to do repeat rides if we wanted to.

But then again it does depend and some people might prefer getting the two Disneyland parks done in a shorter amount of time, leaving more time to explore the rest of the LA area/California.

In terms of hotels - there are only 3 on-site hotels at Disneyland (GCH, DLH, PPH). However, there are a large number of off-site hotels within walking distance of Disneyland. These off-site hotels range from older motels to hotels to super new hotels - basically it's a huge range of quality and prices. Generally if you stay near to Disneyland you should hopefully just be able to walk to the parks without needing to Uber!

[tonymc]

When we visited Disneyland back in 2013 (I think! ), we first of all drove to San Diego for a few days which had loads of things to do for our teenage DD.

We then drove back up to Anaheim for 5 nights. We had a three day/2 park ticket for Disneyland, which meant it was very easy to move between the two parks - they are literally a minutes walk apart.

On the other two days, we visited the beach on one day, and visited a county fair on the other free day.

As mentioned above, there are plenty of hotels and restaurants just outside Disneyland. We stayed at the Howard Johnson which was about 15 mins stroll to the main entrances to the parks.