California Backstage Magic

kemmerlinj2

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 8, 2013
Hello! So long story short, I'm thinking that instead of doing a deluxe hotel with a 2 bedroom suite for myself, mom and her fiance in 2019 at Disneyworld I could do 2 rooms at a Moderate resort and use the savings for a surprise (to the knowledge of my Mom and her fiance) for a California Backstage Magic trip in June of 2018. My question is whether it is worth the money to do this ABD trip or to just do Disneyland on our own and plan it that way? We've only been to Disney World and her fiance has actually never been to a Disney Park. Just thought I'd get some people's input. Thanks!
 
Hello! So long story short, I'm thinking that instead of doing a deluxe hotel with a 2 bedroom suite for myself, mom and her fiance in 2019 at Disneyworld I could do 2 rooms at a Moderate resort and use the savings for a surprise (to the knowledge of my Mom and her fiance) for a California Backstage Magic trip in June of 2018. My question is whether it is worth the money to do this ABD trip or to just do Disneyland on our own and plan it that way? We've only been to Disney World and her fiance has actually never been to a Disney Park. Just thought I'd get some people's input. Thanks!

ABD CA is much more then just DL. If you just want to go to DL, then you might want to plan your own trip. If you are looking for the whole experience of exploring LA and Imagineering, Henson' studio, Disney studios, then changing hotels to DL, going with the group etc then ABD Sothern CA is wonderful experience for a Disney fan.
 
The Disneyland Resort is very easy to navigate on your own (it's very compact, unlike WDW), and if you only care about going to the parks, then I'd probably do that on my own for a first time visit. I've been to Disneyland and Hollywood multiple times, but I'm doing the ABD Hollywood & Disneyland Resort tour next May because I want to see the things that you can't see any other way. There are a lot of other great things to do in the LA area, including Universal Studios, Warner Brothers Studios (my favorite studio tour so far), and lots of sightseeing. One thing to note if you're going to Southern California in June is something called "June Gloom." It's typically not as sunny as usual, so keep that in mind.
 
Hi there. We live in California and go to Disneyland one to two times a year so we know the parks very well. Last year we took the Backstage Magic Trip as our summer vacation. I was very worried about whether it would be "worth it" given that we are frequent DL visitors. For us it was well worth it. My entire family is big Disney freaks and we are very interested in the history, imagineering, and the backstage aspects. This is a very unique trip and if you are interested in all of those aspects of Disney, I would highly recommend. If you purely are interested in an efficient and deluxe way to see the Disneyland parks, I would stay at DL Hotel or Grand California and book a private guide for one or two days of the trip. They will navigate you through things and get you into the fast pass lines without fast passes, however you don't get any of the back stage stuff. I wrote up a brief trip report that talks about our "is it worth it" concerns. https://www.disboards.com/threads/b...rip-report-finally-back-to-finish-up.3518757/

Happy to answer any other questions that you may have.
 


We've only been to Disney World and her fiance has actually never been to a Disney Park.

How much are you and him into the history of Walt Disney? Because that's what this trip is truly about. It's not a trip to Disneyland like you may be thinking. Even when you're at the parks, you're not there to just ride the rides. You're there for a reason. This trip is the ultimate "Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour". This tour will take you on a tour from the time Walt and Roy land in Hollywood through to the creation of Disneyland. You will get to step behind the scenes and see how some of the Disney magic is created by going backstage at the parks. Personally, I'm not sure if this is something I would want to take someone who's never been to a Disney park before on. I think I would look at just taking them to Disneyland and California Adventure instead.
 
Well I decided to go ahead and book the Backstage Magic Tour. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to do it! And it'll be a perfect surprise for my mom and her fiance because I decided to do it for the 16-21 December, 2018 trip! So Disneyland at Christmas! Now I have to plan around this and the graduation trip of 11 days of WDW, 3 at Universal and a 7 night Disney Cruise in May of 2019 but it gives me something to do between school and work! Please, oh please, let Star Wars Land open in May of that year! Thanks everyone for your input and advice!
 

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