Possible FIRST Disneyland trip (Girl trip) next summer, some good advice, please :)

[eleda72]

Hello from Norway
So... my family and I are Disney World "veterans (almost),
We have traveled to WDW around 15 times since 2001, and DH and I are planning our next trip next fall to WDW and a Disney Cruise YAY...
Our daughter is now an adult, and today she asked me if we could please take a girl trip to DISNEY LAND next summer... YAY.....
I absolutely LOVES DISNEY and on my "Bucket list" is visiting DISNEY LAND... but I really don't know where to start....
I know WDW, but we have never traveled to California or Disney land so we would really appreciate some help.
(We have a TA, but it is fun to be involved in the planning)

*What Disney Resort (California) do you recommend?
*Any hotels near Disneyland you can recommend?
*Places to eat
* Day trips
all advice would be highly appreciated
Where to start?

Best from Adèle Marie

 

[Matrixleos]

Sounds like a fun trip. I was a WDW vet myself and did a ton of research on Disneyland for my family's July visit. So to help others I created this Planning and Information thread linked below. That should be a good start to begin with.

Feel free to ask any questions...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...d-information-thread-updated-8-14-21.3843617/

 

[lalasmama]

*What Disney Resort (California) do you recommend?
*Any hotels near Disneyland you can recommend?
*Places to eat
* Day trips
all advice would be highly appreciated
Where to start?

First things first, totally forget all you know about Disney World. Disneyland planning is a LOT more laid back. There are some similarities, but also a lot of differences, especially where planning comes into play.

At WDW, there's the 4 main parks, and the 2 water parks, and you have to take some type of transportation between them. At Disneyland, there's 2 parks and only 100 meters between their entrance gates. All 3 resort hotels are also in close walking distance.

Your lodging accommodations are a lot more plentiful at Disneyland. There's 3 on-site hotels, but there's also more than 30 motels (and a few hotels) that are across the street from Disneyland property. Looking at your preferred resort when staying at WDW can help people decide where to stay. Are you a value person? Then staying off-site will get you something similar to a value resort level; sometimes a little better. (For instance, we stayed at All Star Movies in June; our room was smaller but more expensive than what we pay when we stay at Tropicana across the street from Disneyland.) If you like a moderate, then you may want to look at Courtyard or Fairfield (each on Harbor Blvd across the street). I'm not sure any of the on-site (or off-site) hotels can really compete with WDW's deluxe resorts, however, I've only seen the deluxes on YouTube. On a side note, our Grand Californian Hotel is *not* comparable to the Grand Floridian, despite the similar names.

Deciding where to eat is dependent on what kind of experiences you like. There's not as many "experience dining" options in Disneyland, because a lot of Disneyland guests are local, who aren't really going to spend $300 on a dining experience on the regular. We have character meals that are just restarting. There's also just not as many sit-down restaurants compared to WDW. Our favorite dining locations are Blue Bayou (it's in the Pirates ride; food isn't anything super amazing, but the atmosphere is lovely), Cafe Orleans (casual sit-down, we like the outside seating with a view of Rivers of America), Little Red Wagon on Main Street (corndogs w/ chips; if you prefer fries, you can get them at Stage Door Cafe), Carthay Circle (our "fancy" favorite, which is still completely park friendly), and Flo's V8 Cafe (1950s American Diner, counter service, with American "comfort food"). We also like Smoke Jumpers (hamburger place w/ waffle cut fries).

Other day trip ideas: Huntington Beach, Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm (another amusement park; there's also a water park), heading south to San Diego Zoo.... There's so much more to do in the area depending on your family's interests.

 

[Malcon10t]

Disneyland is SO MUCH MORE laid back compared to WDW. Deciding everything for WDW gave me a headache. I had a friend we were traveling with, and I just had her and my daughter make the decisions, because it was giving me too much anxiety. Disneyland is much simpler. Where to stay? Like the previous poster said, depends on where you like to stay at WDW. I prefer the DLH. But I also love the Residence Inn. You have so many choices.

Food? Depends on how long you will be here and what you like. Disneyland has a LOT of good quick service. I tend to book too many table service meals because I like them, then think "I never got a corn dog this trip"...

You have a lot of time and a lot of options. Tell us more about you and we can give you more ideas.

 

[sjmac42]

Plenty of good advice above but one thing that may give you some perspective is think of on-site at DL been similar to onsite at Universal Orlando without the boats or shuttles. The 3 hotels at DL are similar walking distances to Cabana Bay (Paradise Pier), Royal Pacific (Disneyland Hotel) or Hard Rock (Grand Californian). In addition the dozens of hotels and motels mentioned are as close or in many cases closer than these onsite hotels. They are also, of course, much cheaper than the onsite hotels so can cater to any budget. You also have bailable the ART (Anaheim Resort Transportation) shuttles that can be used for a small fee or free trams (not currently running) or Disney buses from various parking lots but I’ve never found them necessary.

The closest accommodations to DL are the Best Western Park place Inn and Park Vue Inn located at 1544 South Harbour Bvde. they are directly across the street about a 5 min walk to the turnstiles, arguably closer to DL than the Grand Californian. Use thy address in google maps to get an idea of how far other hotels/motels are but generally Howard Johnson’s (HoJo’s) at one end of S Harbour is 10-12 mins walk while Hyatt House and Springhill Suites on the corner of W Katella and S Harbour are about 15 mins walk.

That should give you some perspective on how easy it is to get around the Disneyland Resort (DLR) area by foot.

 

[sjmac42]

Oh one other thing, don’t underestimate how much time you can spend at DLR. Even though there are only 2 parks, there are over 100 attractions. Been a big fan of Disney you probably want a 5 day parkhopper but a 3 day would be the absolute minimum I’d recommend. In the past I’ve had 10 day tickets (available to Aust/NZ in the past) and comfortably used 7 or 8 days of those. My first visit in 1991 when there was no DCA I still visited DL for 6 days using day tickets which were $27-50 iirc (those were the days)

 

[eleda72]

Wow.. thank you so much everyone
I am going to read all your tips and suggestions and get back to you.
We usually stays at POP (Value resorts) when traveling to WDW.
I feel that I have so many questions, I just need some time to write them down.