What park would you do when?

[qa4ever]

We are arriving mid-morning on Sunday, Nov 11th. Plan was to do DTD that day, but looks like the 3 day non-hopper CAD tickets are cheaper than 2 day regular non-hopper tickets so may just get those.

Will probably got to Disneyland the first day, since there is a lot more to do there, but will only spend a few hours and early bed time since we're coming from the East Coast.

My dilema is for Monday and Tuesday. Normally, we would do the opposite park of when the extra magic hours are. But with the 3 day ticket we will get a magic morning.

Looks like Tuesday has Extra Magic hours at California Adventure, so normally we would go to Disneyland First to avoid the crowds already in the park. But then Wednesday has the extra magic hours in Disneyland, and I'm wondering if we should bother making use of it and going there, or just going to CA that day since there is no extra magic hours.

DO you generally go to the Magic Morning if you have it, or would you rather go to CA that day? Have you ever been to CA on a day that had EMH, did it make a difference at rope drop?

I'm leaning towards not using Magic Morning and doing DL on the Monday (when CA has EMH) and CA on Tuesday (when DL has MM/EMH).

 

[Gaugersaurus]

If you get the hoppers it doesn't really matter which park you start at as you can easily make the 2-3 minute walk to the other park if it gets too crowded for your liking.

If you plan to get maxpass I would go to DL on the MM day as you should be able to get fastpass for either park as soon as your ticket gets scanned into DL. This will give you a head start on CA fastpass over waiting until the park opens.

 

[aymiewilson]

If you plan to get maxpass I would go to DL on the MM day as you should be able to get fastpass for either park as soon as your ticket gets scanned into DL. This will give you a head start on CA fastpass over waiting until the park opens.

Ok wait that's a really good hack that I didn't think of! We have 4 day park hoppers for our trip the week of Nov 11, and I wasn't planning to do MM because I follow the rule of arriving an hour before park opening and... who wants to show up at the turnstiles before 7 am? But if we are gonna be there at 7 am anyway to go into DCA on that Tuesday or Thursday, then maybe it does make sense to scan in at Disneyland first and enjoy a ride or two while we start racking up FP over in DCA!

 

[qa4ever]

We won't have hoppers though, so wondering if I should go to the opposite park....

 

[smartlabelprint]

We won't have hoppers though, so wondering if I should go to the opposite park....

It’s not a big deal at Disneyland. I’d go wherever you prefer.

Are you sure you don’t want hoppers?

 

[hyperminimalism]

With park hoppers, it's like just visiting one park at the same time, only there's just 2 gates you have to get through (and if you hop during the right time of the day you won't have to wait more than a few minutes). We always go back and forth between both parks at the very least a few times a day, so I wouldn't restrict yourself to just one park per day. Go back and forth as you please!

 

[goooof1]

YES, go for the park hoppers. You get flexibility and it is very, very easy to hop (no security lines..... just around the length of a football field between the turnstiles.) I cannot imagine being restricted to one park at DLR. If it gets too crowded in one park, hop to the other. See something in one park that you want/need, etc....hop over! flexibility, flexibility, flexibility!

 

[qa4ever]

Not really interested in park hoppers as we already are planning to add maxpass and the trip costs are just adding up!

 

[aymiewilson]

Not really interested in park hoppers as we already are planning to add maxpass and the trip costs are just adding up!

I would strongly encourage you to add the park hopper option - especially since you have such a short amount of time to be there. The flexibility it gives you will be more than worth it. I no longer advocate for park hopper at WDW, because of the hassle of transit times and the sheer size of each park, but at Disneyland, it really just makes sense. Plus, given how crowd levels can fluctuate at the parks thanks to locals coming in in the late afternoon/evening, it would help you a ton.

Question - have you bought your tickets already? If not, why not buy from an authorized reseller like Getaway Today? You'll save some money on each ticket over buying direct from Disney, and those savings can help with adding on Park Hopper.

If you're dead set against Park Hoppers, then with your time frame of 2 full days and one half day (on your arrival day), I would just avoid going to the park that has the Magic Morning or Extra Magic Hour on the day you allocate for it. and you should plan for a full day at DCA and that 1.5 days at DL.

 

[AmyJamer]

We did non park hoppers the first time there 1 1/2 years ago and didn’t regret it. Had young kids and felt less pressure to just stick to one park. We had a great time still!