DisneyWorld Vet visiting DL for forst time

[Phinz13]

Hello all,

Live in Florida all my life and am finally taking the kids (6, 14, 18 & 20) to Disneyland & CA for the first time.
Plan to visit first week of November on a Tuesday and hoping to do both parks in one day.
Ganna hit Disneyland at rope drop and then head over to CA for the remainder of the day when we're done.
Any tips - is this even doable?

** sorry about typo on title - really excited!

 

[Geemo]

Hello all,

Live in Florida all my life and am finally taking the kids (6, 14, 18 & 20) to Disneyland & CA for the first time.
Plan to visit first week of November on a Tuesday and hoping to do both parks in one day.
Ganna hit Disneyland at rope drop and then head over to CA for the remainder of the day when we're done.
Any tips - is this even doable?

** sorry about typo on title - really excited!

Tuesday November 7th. Only the ONE DAY?
DL is 9am to 9pm and DCA is 10am to 8pm

For a first trip, have a plan of ride priority. For meals do counter service, a sit down meal will take too long.
If you plan to do both parks, you might want to consider MaxPass for everyone.
This will give you the ability to book ride Max Passes from anywhere in the parks. Given, you have data or can get the DLR Wi-Fi to function.
This info below will give you a idea of events for November. https://www.disboards.com/threads/2017-calendar-of-events-school-breaks-and-dlr.3528760/

Your date follows the ever so popular DapperDays and is right before a super busy weekend.
Be flexible when the crowd begins to build as the day goes on. Many locals will pop in after school and/or work.
Download the Disneyland App and start following ride wait times. It will help for when you are in the parks.

Enjoy your 12 hour venture on Nov 7th.

Geemo

 

[PairOfDice]

If you accept that you will miss a lot by trying to cram both parks into one day with shorter hours and you can have fun with what you can do then go ahead and go. Besides Geemo's tips I'd add that you might consider skipping dinner in the parks. You can use that time for rides. When we went last month the parks closed at 8. We decided to have dinner at Downtown Disney after closing time and that worked well for us.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

This thread will help you get your bearings so that you can plan efficiently to make the most of your day: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Whoa! The absolute minimum IMO is 3 day parkhoppers! I prefer 4. We never go less than 6 days.

As long as you’re aware of the above comments you can still have fun!

 

[losfp]

I dunno. if I only had ONE DAY, I would consider picking one park and sticking with it, probably DCA for someone who is familiar with WDW and therefore has some familiarity with many of the DLP attractions. We usually go for a week. We've done three visits to Disneyland, about 21 park days, and there's still some stuff I haven't seen/done yet.

But that kind of depends on the exact day. Tuesdays IMO is ideal for DCA because if they're following the regular schedule, EMH and MM will be over at DLP which means you wouldn't be having to deal with the early entry folks in DCA.

Bottom line is, if you're prepared to get there early and stay late, and understand that you just can't get it all done within a day (even just getting all the rides done would be a challenge, forget about throwing in shows, dining, parades etc) then you can still have a great day.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I think a park hopper is a good idea because if DL gets crazy crowded in the afternoon DCA might be less so. But you might not be able to ride some of the headliners at DCA if you don't go over until the late afternoon.

 

[Geemo]

I think a park hopper is a good idea because if DL gets crazy crowded in the afternoon DCA might be less so. But you might not be able to ride some of the headliners at DCA if you don't go over until the late afternoon.

If they go for MaxPass they might be able to get MP's for DCA rides later in the day/evening.
Providing the ride offers FP/MP's.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

If they go for MaxPass they might be able to get MP's for DCA rides later in the day/evening.
Providing the ride offers FP/MP's.

Yep, great point.

 

[Frozen2014]

I agree with others. We were just at DL for the first time and I highly recommend MaxPass. It saves you time walking to get your FastPass and you can grab for the headliners the most efficiently (max wait time is 90 minutes between being able to book a second FP compared with 2hrs for pulling manually). It will also let you grab a FP for say Radiator Springs while still at DL and vice versa.