By Toy Story Fanatic Devo
Planning a Disney trip is probably one of the most important parts of your Disneyland vacation before the vacation actually begins. Without proper planning, a novice could spend the entire day running in circles and never getting to the fun stuff. Planning a trip, whether it’s your first or your 100th time, can be a lot to handle especially given all the factors such as the importance of each attraction, what time of year you go, how many people are coming, where you want to eat, etc…
With so much stuff to do, a question you need to ask yourself is “How long should my vacation be?” Of course, it’s impossible to do everything that Disneyland offers, even if you lived there, but these tips should help you determine whether to spend as little as 1 day or as much as an entire century (I’m being vicious here, I don’t expect a Disney vacation to last more than 2 weeks maximum, but if you can swing it….)
Time of Year
The time of year that you go to Disneyland makes a big difference as to how long you should stay. During holidays like Christmas, New Years, Halloween and spring break you may want to try and add another day or so to your trip. The lines are a lot heavier during these times and certain ‘must-see’ attractions such as Indiana Jones and Space Mountain will have disastrous wait times (I was in line for Indy for 4 hours, and that is not exactly a record either).
The lines at Disneyland are already horrendous. During holidays they only get worse. Photo Provided by of Kim Harrington.
Disney has also recently changed some of their pricings to where it’s a tad more expensive during these parts of the year. Personally, if it’s your first time going to Disney I would recommend you don’t go during one of their celebrations since you wouldn’t get an “untainted” Disneyland experience. I would recommend Halloween, Christmas and New Year’s trips to be 2nd or even 3rd time visits at least.
Number of People
I come from a happy family of 7 with the children ranging in ages from 22 to 4 years old. That’s a pretty large and diverse group to go at once and if you stay together it’s important that you plan enough time to caravan a group that big around the park and into the rides/ restaurants and character meets. Make sure you get everyone’s input on what they want to do and plan to do a few of those items each day. Doing this can go a long way in determining how long your trip needs to be at a minimum. If you have a very big group going and each person has vastly different things they want to do then I would consider adding another day whereas if there’s a lot of overlapping in desired activities you could probably
An option available to get more stuff done faster is to split the group up. I don’t recommend this as part of the magic seems to be togetherness, but going in a group of 4 seems to be the most ideal seeing as how all most of the rides are either single seat, double seat, or four seats.
Budget
Of course, there is no way that anyone can get to everything they want to do while at Disney. Sacrifices have to be made but unless you are trying really hard it’s nearly impossible to have a bad Disney trip.
Determine how much money you are willing to budget for tickets. Factor in whether you will eat in park or out, where you would be lodging, how many people you have and plan according to that. Like I said though, prioritize the events and things you want to do first and then plan how many days you need. That way you can make sure to get all the important stuff done first.
Extra Magic Hours/ Fast Passes:
An added advantage: if you want more time in the park I would recommend the Extra Magic Hour passes (exclusive to the Disneyland Hotels). These passes get you into the park an hour early and provide you with early access to some of the more in-demand rides and attractions. This could be a real time saver to get the bigger stuff done earlier and then you can spend more time in the park and possibly take off a day pass saving you money.
Along similar thoughts, try to do the bigger attractions earlier in the day. What happens is people see a two-hour wait and decide to wait till later for the line to die down. The line will not die down. It will only get longer as the day goes by. Attractions like Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and Toy Story Mania should be done first, otherwise you spend precious hours in Disneyland waiting in line.
Fast Passes are a life saver if you can get them. plan your days so that you can change your plans if needed in relation to Fast Pass. Try to get Fast Pass for bigger attractions earlier in the day and then you can hit them up later without losing too much time in lines.
Regardless of your needs, our fairy friends from All for Dreams Travel have the experience to determine your needs, wants, and get you the best package for your Disneyland trip. Keep on Keeping on and remember to keep wishing on stars.
We hope that you found these tips helpful. Thanks for commenting and sharing this post with friends and remember to be your best self and keep wishing on stars.
