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View Full Version : First Trip Ever to Disneyland--please help and advise!



tmmommy
12-11-2006, 01:19 PM
Hi! I was just verified and have been learning sooooo much by looking at posts. I have some issues that I could use help with. My husband, 2 daughters and I are going to DL in March. We arrive around 1 on a Friday, and have a 3-day hopper for the parks. I had initially thought about going that afternoon/evening and then the weekend. Am I crazy--will the crowds be unreal? (Mar. 9-11). Also, I included a Princess lunch--would Saturday or Sunday be best? And what about a time? (I'll add that Sunday is my b-day, so I was leaning toward that!:) ) I am sure that we will be overwhelmed by it all, and am really hoping for your valued input! Thanks in advance!!

lbrackjo
12-11-2006, 01:46 PM
I'd plan to go all the days you are there. It'l be busy, but the lines move. do the faster loading rides when it is busy, and the slow rides first thing in the morning. I'd do the princess lunch on Saturday--which would be the busiest day. Be sure to make advance priority seatting arrangements for the lunch.

Bolivar
12-11-2006, 02:09 PM
Friday night will be busy, Saturday from sometime around late-morning or early afternoon until closing will be busy and Sunday will be busy, but not nearly as much as Friday or Saturday. I've decided not to go on Friday or Saturday anymore. We have kids that work hard at school and do well, so we have decided that it is ok for them to miss a few days. We typically drive down on Saturday, go to the park Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and then drive home on Wednesday. They miss three days of school, but we have a much better time and they don't seem to do any worse at school for having missed the three days.

Having said that, given the choice to go on the weekend or not go, I would go on the weekend. Yes, the crowds are heavier. But you can manage.

1. Get up early and get to the park before it opens. The earlybird definitely catches the worm. The park doesn't get busy until later and in the morning you will have the run of the place and get to do a lot of rides and enjoy the lack of crowds.

2. Use fastpass. When you are there in the early morning, collect fastpasses whenever they are available. Ignore the end time on the time window and use them later when the park is crowded.

3. Take the late afternoon off. This is when the crowds are biggest, so take this time to rest, swim or head over the California Adventure which is a lot less crowded. Go back for the evening. If it starts getting crowded we generally leave DL around 3:00 and then go back around 6:00.

4. Keep a positive attitude. If it is crowded, it is crowded and getting upset or complaining won't do any good except upset you. You are on vacation at the happiest place on earth. Enjoy.

mistofviolets
12-11-2006, 04:23 PM
When do you leave?

We wished we'd gotten an extra day on our parkhopper...so we could have spent the last morning there :)

The first day, you can really enjoy Downtown disney and may be simply exhausted from the trip. Get to know the hotel, unpack, get to bed EARLY so you can be at the gates when they open. Its really worth getting up early :)

DisneyLynn
12-11-2006, 08:30 PM
Just Go! That's the last weekend in March before the crowds hit for Spring Break, so you should be fine. Either day would be fine for Ariel's Grotto, one thing we've done is made it a late lunch/early dinner and gone around 4:30 and it seems to be less crowded and it's easier to get a reservation around that time. The price and menu are the same for lunch and dinner. Ariel's is my favorite character dining!

splash
12-12-2006, 05:38 AM
This is the first time we have gotten more than a 5 day park hopper. We went for a six day and it was only $10 more pp (total of $30). It worked out great as our last day we got a flight that leaves at 9:00 pm so we can still play in the park all day doing the last minute stuff. Also riding our favorite rides over and over.

raediance
12-12-2006, 07:47 AM
Surprising enough, the lines are never horrible for me. They probably won't be too bad for you too. I usually automatically subtract 5 minutes from the line waiting time, and sometimes it's right and sometimes it's not.
For example, Indiana Jones's line sign might say 15 minutes, but it probably won't take more than 10.
I hope you have a happy birthday! I've always wanted to spend my birthday there but I'm blacked out! =[ You should get a pin from City Hall (about six bucks I believe) and you'll be greeted many times by some Cast Members! I think usually it's for the kids but you have to be happy at Disneyland. =]
I hope all goes well! Sorry I can't help you much on the princess thing. Never done it. But it looks like everyone else has great info!

emmah
12-12-2006, 08:08 AM
[QUOTE=raediance]You should get a pin from City Hall (about six bucks I believe) and you'll be greeted many times by some Cast Members! I think usually it's for the kids but you have to be happy at Disneyland. =]

I am pretty sure the pins are free (I've picked up the stickers that have now been replaced by the pins from townhall and they were free) = and from info gleaned from these boards, I suspect that adults in the know are just as keen on being wished happy birthday by CMs as kids, so go for it! :) :) :) When you pick up your pin, they'll direct you to a phone at the desk where you'll get a surprise phone call from (xxxxxx - don't want to spoil the fun!) wishing you happy birthday. very cool!!

raediance
12-12-2006, 08:11 AM
I am pretty sure the pins are free (I've picked up the stickers that have now been replaced by the pins from townhall and they were free) = and from info gleaned from these boards, I suspect that adults in the know are just as keen on being wished happy birthday by CMs as kids, so go for it! :) :) :) When you pick up your pin, they'll direct you to a phone at the desk where you'll get a surprise phone call from (xxxxxx - don't want to spoil the fun!) wishing you happy birthday. very cool!!

When we went on November 17th my brother had to pay six dollars for his.

Wendi
12-12-2006, 09:51 AM
When we went on November 17th my brother had to pay six dollars for his.

:eek: What??? For the regular Birthday Button... are are you talking about maybe a pin collecing type of pin?

ScottDisneyFan
12-12-2006, 10:23 AM
One of my tips for maximum park experience is to not actually go back to the hotel. I went recently and the person I was with was so excited about being at DL that they just wanted to run around the park nonstop, only to burn out quickly for the rest of the trip. Previously, they had taken trips to the hotel to rest in the middle of the day. This is not needed if you actually take breaks inside the parks. Find a bench somewhere in the shade. I find a good spot is in Tomorrowland. Rest and get some refreshments.

You can save a lot of back and forth time to the hotel that way and it is great sometimes to just sit and soak in the DLR atmosphere. :)

You never know what you might see.

We were relaxing on our trip a few weeks ago and had a CM come up and tell us it was the year of a million dreams and gave us tickets to the Candlelight Processional (which I had tried to get tickets to, darn broken internet).

Whatever happens, it will be magical!

JohnGar
12-12-2006, 11:15 AM
This is from the Mouseplanet Disneyland Park Update for Oct. 9, 2006:

New Guest Buttons

One thing guests love to do is make a stop at City Hall on their birthdays to pick up a birthday sticker (they used to be buttons, but then those were restricted to the hotels). As part of the Year of a Million Dreams, the buttons are back, and in force.

You can now pick up buttons for six different occasions. Joining your birthday are first visit, honeymoon, just married, anniversary, and family reunion buttons. Happy birthday is also available in Spanish. City Hall cast members probably aren't incredibly happy with this as longs grow longer with couples celebrating their anniversary (coincidentally on their birthdays) but finally taking as their honeymoon a first ever trip to Disneyland. To make it more magical they are hosting a family reunion. Oh, did they mention he is from Madrid?:cool:

If lines are long, though, and you want one of these buttons there may be a way around it. Keep an eye out for "Dream Team" cast members, as they start out with a supply of buttons. So if you approach them, you may be able to get one.:fez:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Enjoy your trip and make the most of the resources from Mouseplanet.com and Disneyland.com before you go. My wife and I made our first trip to WDW in September and what we learned from the Mouseplanet site let us visit like we were longtime visitors. Kudos to those folks.

tmmommy
12-12-2006, 01:24 PM
Thanks to all of you for your info!! I am getting so excited, and still have a long wait!

1 question on a comment--fast passes will still work after their time window is up? Again, I am sorry for a dumb question, but I know nothing about DL!

Thanks again, everyone!

JohnGar
12-12-2006, 01:53 PM
Fast passes should still work after the window is up. Some CMs (Cast members) are sticklers, but most will let you on. :cool:

One thing I try to do is get a fast pass for one ride and wait in the line of a nearby ride. You might be able to get in two rides before your Fast Pass time. Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain are very close together, as are Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean (but Pirates does not have Fast Pass).

I've also gotten a Fast Pass and got in the regular line for Haunted Mansion. When we got off Haunted Mansion, it was time for our Fast Pass and we got to get right on (granted the Fast Pass was only 30 minutes later; now it's like two hours). :(

Enjoy your trip. :fez:

Bolivar
12-12-2006, 02:16 PM
There are wonderful explanations of fastpass around here written by Darkbeer, but the basics are:

When you collect the fastpass a time window is printed on the ticket. You can't get another FP until either, the beginning of that window or two hours whichever comes first. They don't really go by the end of the window just the beginning, so you can use a FP all day long. As more FPs are collected during the day, the window starts getting further and further out, so if you get a FP at 8:00, it might be for an 8:30-9:30 window, whereas one collected at 1:00 might be for 6:20-7:20 (these times are just made up to illustrate the point).

So here is an example: Let's say you go to Space at 8:00 and get a FP that has an 8:30-9:30 window. You can get your next FP at 8:30. So at 8:30 you get one from Indiana Jones and let's say it has a window of 9:20-10:20. You can get your next one at 9:20. At 9:20 you get one for Splash. Let's say that one has an 11:40-12:40 window. You can get your next one at 11:20 because that will be two hours after you got the last one.

Because the park isn't crowded in the morning, don't use any of these fastpasses. In the afternoon when it is crowded is when you should start using them. Some people think that this is cheating the system and somehow breaks the process. I say that if Disney allows fastpasses to be used after the time window then I'm going to take advantage of that. They should change the policy if they don't want me doing that.

Bytebear
12-12-2006, 02:51 PM
To add to what has been said: Know which rides have Fast Pass, and which ones don't. Find times to do the rides that don't have fast pass when they are least busy. Fantasyland has no rides with fastpass, so do those early in the day between Fastpass runnings. If you are there multiple days, don't rush things. Just get a feel for the park on your first day, and then use your knowledge to better plan things the next day. If the lines are really long everywhere, go to the shows, like Honey I Shrunk the Audience, or take a ride on the Riverboats. They don't generally have lines.