Eight-to-ten days too long?

Royal Consort

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
We are having a debate in our household regarding our upcoming trip in August. We have two options.

1: spend 6 days in the LA area followed by 8-10 days at Disneyland staying offsite. We won't have a car. We are DL vets having spent 5 nights onsite each year for the last 5 years.

2: spend 9 nights at WDW followed by a 3 night Disney cruise and 2 days at Disneyland on the way back home to Australia. We have been to WDW three times previously.

I prefer Disneyland to WDW and in August Florida is like the surface of the sun. However, at WDW we get to stay onsite and have many more dining options and water parks we enjoy. Dining is a big deal to us. Then again the idea of only 2 days at Disneyland sounds devastatingly short.

My question is whether 8-10 days at Disneyland is going to be too long?
 
No, I don't think 8-10 days is too long in Disneyland. It gives you time to really enjoy all the little things you don't have time to do in five days. I have an 8day trip scheduled for October and I'm trying to figure out how to make it longer.
 
I am guessing most people will say that it is not too long, but I think 8-10 days is way too long at Disneyland. Our family would never go for more than 3-4 days. I would think 5 days would be the outside limit at DLR itself. A longer stay would be cool if you were seeing other LA sites in that time, but if you are already staying a week in LA then 5 days at DLR should be more than enough to see everything twice at a minimum.
 


For me 8-10 in dl is way too long. I like the WDW option best. If you want to stay in California I suggest shortening dl and go to San francisco or San Diego for a few days.

This is our first trip to DL so can't say but was going to suggest as well that maybe you should shorten DL days and extend the "LA" portion to also see San Diego or something else near by. We're doing LA (4.5 days) + 4 park days.

PS - We also picked Disneyland CA over WDW because of the weather. Both are hot, but at least DL shouldn't have humidity and rain in August.
 
I think 8 to 10 days at DLR would be fine. That way you could go early in the morning, then back to your hotel room during the busiest hours and back to the parks in the evening. I would jump at the chance to spend that many days in the parks. Have fun.
 
I think it would be too long at Disneyland. It's not anywhere as extensive as WDW. I would spend 4-5 days max.
 


It feels long to me for just DL/CA. Can you add in a day at Knott's Berry Farm? They redid a few of the older awesome rides a few years ago (2013? Maybe?). I like the feels of knott's. And/or also universal or magic mountain? Universal is fun, and their city walk was pretty cool. Magic mountain has great coasters.
 
It sounds way too long for Disneyland. If you can break it up and spend a day at Knott's Berry Farm and another day at their waterpark, that would make the long stay a little more interesting.

What will you be doing for the 6 days in Los Angeles? That sounds too long to me, too, but if you have a good plan for each day, I'm sure it will fly by.
 
The longest trip my family has had was six days. I was still happy the sixth day, but the rest of my family felt done by day five. After day six I was done, too. Maybe if we took it slower it would work, but we are rope drop people, and dealing with crowds for that many days is very tiring.
 
It wouldn't be too long for me! With that amount of time there would be plenty of time for long swim and snooze breaks, leisurely dining, and plenty of shopping! August is also busy, so there wouldn't be the go go go mentality to 'get everything done', you'd be able to be relaxed in the parks.

As far as not having a car, there's always Uber if you find yourselves wanting to go somewhere else.
 
There's also the option of trips run by StarLine Tours (and other places) from Anaheim that go to other locations as well, so that can be taken into account.
 
We went for 9 nights last August and loved it. It gave us lots of time to just stroll the parks or camp out for parades or fireworks or just soak in the atmosphere. Everyone is different of course but it was a fantastic trip for us.
 
I think there are shuttles and buses that go to Southcoast Plaza Mall, which is about 30 minutes away. Lots of dining options there.
 
I think there are shuttles and buses that go to Southcoast Plaza Mall, which is about 30 minutes away. Lots of dining options there.

As malls go, this is a very nice one to walk around. I had forgotten about it.
 
We were in the area for 9 nights/10 days and we went to the parks for some time every day. It was not too long for us. As some others have said we too the time to slow down and enjoy the park, have some leisurely meals, swim back at our hotel (which wasn't anything fancy it was the BW Stovall's). Our challenge was to do every attraction at least in Disneyland, and we accomplished that and came close in DCA, we didn't do Disney Jr or the swings.

One day we did go to San Juan Capistrano to see one of the missions and have some beach time, but at night went back to Disneyland. If it is someplace you want to be and want to spend time in, then who cares if others think it is too long. It's your $$, do what you want.:)
 
The Anaheim Resort Transit (ART) provides, amongst other routes, a route to and from the South Coast Plaza Mall. Visit their website at rideart.org for more details :)
 
If your trip crosses over into September, I believe that's when the Disney cruise ships come back from Alaska and start 2-3 day cruises to Mexico out of San Diego. Have you considered a west coast cruise on another cruise line? To me, 14-16 days in So Cal with over half of that at Disney and only Disney and LA is a lot unless you're there for something specific, like work or school. If you get the 10 day ticket you could always do a day at Disney, a few days elsewhere and then 5-6 days at Disney, or the other way around, start at Disney and add a day back at the end before leaving.
 
We are having a debate in our household regarding our upcoming trip in August. We have two options.

1: spend 6 days in the LA area followed by 8-10 days at Disneyland staying offsite. We won't have a car. We are DL vets having spent 5 nights onsite each year for the last 5 years.

2: spend 9 nights at WDW followed by a 3 night Disney cruise and 2 days at Disneyland on the way back home to Australia. We have been to WDW three times previously.

I prefer Disneyland to WDW and in August Florida is like the surface of the sun. However, at WDW we get to stay onsite and have many more dining options and water parks we enjoy. Dining is a big deal to us. Then again the idea of only 2 days at Disneyland sounds devastatingly short.

My question is whether 8-10 days at Disneyland is going to be too long?

I don't think 8-10 days is too long. It will allow you to tour the parks at a leisurely pace and not feel rushed because you have to pack a lot of stuff into a short amount of time. It will allow you to spend mornings at the parks and spend the hot afternoons by the pool. It will allow you to sleep in if you want to and not feel bad about sleeping in out of fear of having to stand in long lines because you only have a couple of days at the parks.

From what I've read, Florida weather in August is like the 7th circle of hell. I would never want to go to Florida in August if I didn't have to.
 
I think it is way too long, especially the extra days without a car. We do an annual California trip which includes 5 days max at DLR, and the rest of the time we spend on a combination of San Francisco, Westside LA, San Diego, and/or Las Vegas (we change it up a bit every year). Only the park days are without a car.
 

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