ABD 6-day Disneyland So Cal

nandm92574

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
I am considering booking the Disneyland/SoCo 6 day trip. Wondering if anyone has any input and experience with this trip? So many questions.... first.. we have never been to Disneyland before so we will want to do all the rides and experience the park. Do they include downtime in the park? Do you get fastpasses while you are there? Unlimited or limited? Do they take you as a group on rides? The itinerary is unclear. Any help or input would be appreciated. Thank you!!!
 
I am considering booking the Disneyland/SoCo 6 day trip. Wondering if anyone has any input and experience with this trip? So many questions.... first.. we have never been to Disneyland before so we will want to do all the rides and experience the park. Do they include downtime in the park? Do you get fastpasses while you are there? Unlimited or limited? Do they take you as a group on rides? The itinerary is unclear. Any help or input would be appreciated. Thank you!!!
You will want to search this board for the ABD Backstage title. There currently is 2 of them, of being specific to SWGE.
 
I just did this trip in July and it was truly amazing. You do backstage experiences and will ride some attractions as a group. We had an evening and two afternoons of free time in the park. Guides preloaded fastpasses on our accounts, the most was 5 for each of the afternoons and an additional fastpass for the arrival and departure day at DLR. I remember thinking "only 5 fast passes?" but we didn't even use them all; there just aren't as many FP attractions in DL and DCA. You might find them useful if you want to re-ride some of your favourites. This is with spending most of our free time touring the parks and closing out the parks each night after fireworks and World of Color.

While I loved this trip and can see why many people do it over and over again, I would not want this experience to be my first introduction to Disneyland. The trip is incredibly fast-paced and I would've felt much too overwhelmed if I had the expectation to see everything in both parks in such a limited amount of time. I think that one of the great things about Disneyland is all the little details that you need much more time to explore.

Though this is all my two cents. If you decide to go ahead and book the trip, you'll have an amazing time.
 
I just did this trip in July and it was truly amazing. You do backstage experiences and will ride some attractions as a group. We had an evening and two afternoons of free time in the park. Guides preloaded fastpasses on our accounts, the most was 5 for each of the afternoons and an additional fastpass for the arrival and departure day at DLR. I remember thinking "only 5 fast passes?" but we didn't even use them all; there just aren't as many FP attractions in DL and DCA. You might find them useful if you want to re-ride some of your favourites. This is with spending most of our free time touring the parks and closing out the parks each night after fireworks and World of Color.

While I loved this trip and can see why many people do it over and over again, I would not want this experience to be my first introduction to Disneyland. The trip is incredibly fast-paced and I would've felt much too overwhelmed if I had the expectation to see everything in both parks in such a limited amount of time. I think that one of the great things about Disneyland is all the little details that you need much more time to explore.

Though this is all my two cents. If you decide to go ahead and book the trip, you'll have an amazing time.


thank you!! this is exactly what I was looking for in regards to my questions. I appreciate your time
 


Do they include downtime in the park?
As PP have mentioned, yes on each of the park days there is downtime, plus the final day only includes breakfast as a group and the ABD officially ends, but your park ticket can still be used that day..

Do you get fastpasses while you are there?
I remember thinking "only 5 fast passes?" but we didn't even use them all; there just aren't as many FP attractions in DL and DCA
We also went in July! We had the same thought and experience with the FP. They definitely make sure you can ride most of your fave rides.

Do they take you as a group on rides?
Yes, there are several times when they take you as a group onto rides, but those rides are predetermined by the guide. There wasn't ever a time on our trip where someone was like "Hey I want to ride Jungle Cruise" and the guides took us all to the front of the line on Jungle Cruise.

I would not want this experience to be my first introduction to Disneyland
I think I kind of agree here. It's a magical and amazing trip and all the LA stuff is absolutely incredible (especially Imagineering) so I highly recommend the trip, but as a first time trip there's potential to miss out on some stuff if it's not part of the itinerary. Another option would be to get an additional day or two of tickets at the end of the trip to go back and try to catch what you missed. Just know that you can't upgrade your existing ABD ticket, you would have to buy a completely separate 1 or 2 day ticket.

I'll definitely echo that it's a fast-paced trip. It's incredibly exhausting (but worth the lack of sleep!) and if you're not used to that on a vacation, it may sour your first time in the park. If you like to take things at your own pace, again it might be best to experience Disneyland on your own. If you do decide to go on your own and you're willing to splurge, a VIP guide might be a good middle ground. That way you have all that front of line access that you want, but it's completely tailored to what you and your family want to do.
 

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