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So every President's Day weekend for the last 7 years I fly out to Los Angeles for a convention at one of the LAX hotels. I fly in late-night Wednesday, It runs from Thursday evening till Sunday night, I fly back to Florida Monday morning. To prevent having to tell everyone that I flew across country to hang out in a hotel basement, I try to grab an Uber and do something in LA before or after the con, usually it's a movie Thursday morning or a comedy show Sunday night, something that gets me out and that I can tell the people back home about.
Recently I've been giving advice to a buddy who's going to Disney World soon and it's put a crazy idea in my head, should I go to Disneyland on the Thursday?
Being born and raised in Florida I've obviously spent a lot of time at Disney World but I've never made it to Disneyland. The one time I went to LA before this tradition I went to Universal (and having been to our Universal a few months ago I don't think it would be worth my time to go back on this trip am I wrong?) and now that I go every year for this, when I do take vacation I don't want to go to Southern California.
So while I know spending less then one full day is not the optimal way to see Disneyland for the first time, it feels like the only way I'd see it anytime soon, and I figure the crowds will be even worse next year with Star Wars Land open.
So I come seeking advice, what's the best way for a solo traveler without a car to get from a hotel near LAX to Disneyland and back before say 5pm on (oh boy) Valentine's Day. If I focus on rides that we don't have in Orlando what's the best plan of attack, or is all of this not worth the effort and I'm crazy for even thinking of it.
Any Disneyland experts or people that have tried something like this, I'd love any help.
We’ll be prepared for a very long trek from the airport. You’ll want to get to the park as early as possible with a touring plan. Also look into buying MaxPass for the day to book Fastpass digitally. Finally you’ll have to make tough choices on what to ride: you will not be able to ride everting unique in Disneyland let alone DCA, too.
I did this once at an IT conference in 2003. It was great for what i was able to do, but I missed a lot. But we have no plans to go to SoCal anytime soon.
That said, I'd totally do it again if I was transferred back in time. A little bittersweet, knowing what I know now, but I'm glad I got to do the things I did.
I landed in John Wayne so no idea how crazy LAX is.
Well it's happening, I've download the app, bought my ticket with Maxpass, and am now trying to figure out the best plan of attack. Since on that day on-site guests will get into Disneyland one hour early, I'm thinking of rope dropping California Adventure, rush through the 4 or 5 rides there that I want, and then spend the rest of the day dealing with the lines at the main park. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Alright I'm back in the groove of normal life so lets review what went down.
My connection into LAX on Wednesday was severely delayed, we were told that weather was so bad that air traffic control was limiting how many planes could come into LAX, which meant that I didn't get into my hotel room until well past midnight which is well past 3am to my east coast brain. So needless to say I wasn't thrilled when the 6:30 alarm I had set for this trip went off. Turning on the TV, every channel is showing horrible flooding all through out the southern California area. Thankfully I was prepared for this as last year I went on an Alaska cruise and thus brought my new boots and rain jacket. After grabbing a quick breakfast I call my Uber and pull up to the park shortly before 8:30.
Despite everything being rainy and overcast I couldn't stop smiling from the moment I walked past the ticket booths, after a lifetime of Disney World trips I was in a Disney park that I had never been in, it was very surreal. Following the advice some experienced Disneyland visitors gave me, I made my way into California Adventure and prepared to rope drop Radiator Springs Racer, well a few minutes before opening the cast member standing behind the rope told the small group of us there that not only was that ride not working, almost nothing in the park was. So I booked it over to Guardians, missing the actual rope drop, but made it onto the second elevator of the day. I know the ride is a bit controversial around these parts but as a life long fan of Marvel Comics (Yes I have been a fan of Groot and Rocket Racoon longer than RDJ has been Iron Man) and as a massive fan of James Gunn's films, this was an incredible experience that has me smiling and laughing on a ride type that would usually have me too scared to ride. It makes me want to finally confront my fears and do Tower of Terror.
While exiting the ride I opened up the Disneyland app (which was very slow and crashy the whole day, not helped I'm sure by trying to use it in the pouring rain, a scenario where neither touch-id not paper tickets are very useful) and secured a Fastpass for Indiana Jones, the ride I have been jealous of for nearly 20 years. So I crossed over into Disneyland proper and while yes the awful weather and castle maintenance meant it was not the scenario I had dreamed of for so long, it was still pretty special. I made my way straight over to Indy and after a 5 minute wait in the beautiful temple queue, I boarded. I'm sure I'm not saying anything new when I say it is a very fun ride, even if it doesn't quite live up all these years thinking about it. I could only make out maybe half of what Indiana says (and what I could hear didn't sound like Harrison Ford) but for a ride that's nearly a quarter of a century old it's a blast and definitely one of my favorites.
These were the two must rides for me as they were new experiences based on properties I have loved for a long time and I had knocked them out back-to-back in under an hour. After this I let my self relax and do whatever, took a few steps and saw Pirates, walked right on and got the back row all to myself, so much better than ours even if the Johnny Depp stuff is out of place, a few steps from there and had my own Doom Buggy on the Haunted Mansion, basically how I remember it but still great. Wandered past Splash Mountain, closed on the one day I'd probably say "what the hell I'm already wet lets do it", and over to Winnie the Pooh, which starts and ends outside which I'm sure is lovely most of the year but meant it was soaked today, still I had the front row to myself and enjoyed it. This put me in a dark ride mindset so I moseyed on over to Fantasyland and hit up Snow White, Pinocchio and Mr. Toad, all fun, all private rides, my childhood favorite Peter Pan had a half-hour wait so I skipped it. Unfortunately Alice in Wonderland, a ride I was really looking forward to as I didn't know it even existed before researching this trip, never opened.
I overheard some people talking about Star Wars land, which put me into a Star Was mood so I made my over to Star Tours, grabbed a fast pass that let me on right then. I hadn't actually done Tours since the redo and I have to say while enjoyable, I got all original trilogy stuff, I miss the original and I think it's a ride system that is showing it's age, that screen seems quite small in 2019. By now the rain was really coming down and so I had my hood up and my head down so I didn't get a good feel for Tomorrowland but I went up to Toontown for one of my other must-do rides, Roger Rabbit, despite no one being in line I walked the whole queue just taking it in, the whole time not really believing that this is a thing that exists. There even being a Roger Rabbit ride so many years after it feels like the general public forgot about him would make me happy, the fact that it's one of the better dark rides in the park is even better.
After exiting Roger the rain started to die down, although the walkways were still flooded and the sky very dark, I got on Small World. a ride I've always had a soft spot for, it feels longer than ours and a little different but still makes me smile. After that I couldn't ignore the towering beauty of Matterhorn. I was pretty nervous about fitting on it as a bigger guy, but thankfully I did, even if I thought I was being prepared to give birth. As a ride it's self it's not much, I had heard screams coming from it earlier and I really can't think of why, fun but not something I would wait in a long line for. Noticing the break in the weather I opened up the app and saw that California Adventure was actually working and made my way back over. The first thing I hit was Soarin, not as good as the original but still a great experience, and then walked through the otherwise closed Grizzly Peak area which is beautiful and surreal seeing a hotel right there. Walked right onto my own private Little Mermaid, whose animatronics make all of the other dark rides in the resort look ancient, and then I realized that I hadn't ate or drank anything since my hotel and grabbed a Water and Corn-dog. After scarfing that down I entered Pixar Pier, which I have mixed feelings about, a proper Pixar World makes so much since for Disney Parks but much like Dino-Rama at Animal Kingdom if you do a good job on theming a land to a cheap old amusement park you now have a cheap old amusement park which feels inappropriate for Disney. I grabbed a get on now fast pass for Midway Mania, which I hadn't done in ages. This has never been a favorite of mine but I had fun and it was nice to have another private ride vehicle. Incredicoaster was still closed so I grabbed one of those big chocolate cookies and kept walking.
From there I finally entered Cars Land which is pretty and nicely themed. Walking up to RSR I see that stand-by is 75 minutes and fastpass isn't available for over an hour and the line that is already there is long and barely moving. So I decide to try single-rider, and I am literally the only one in line, I walk straight to the front and am immediately put in the front of the next car, it honestly felt like cheating. This is a very impressive ride that makes great use of the Test Track tech with some great animatronics in the show scenes and amazing rock work on the outside stuff. It obviously loses something for me having never seen the movies its based on, but yeah this is great. After that I make my way back near the entrance and board Monster's Inc which... yeah is not done any favors by being a ride-through-the-movie dark ride in the same park as Little Mermaid but I love this movie more than that one so I enjoyed it. By now I had completed the loop at both parks, was soaked to the bone, tired, and was receiving texts from some friends at the conference, so I decided to call it a day and by 2:30 I was in a Uber.
While it wasn't exactly the day at Disneyland I had always dreamed of, it was pretty magical all the same not least in the fact that I don't think I waited more than 5 minutes in line for anything. There were certainly things I wanted to do but either didn't have the time or opportunity, I rode 17 rides in five and a half hours which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Thank you everyone for all your encouragement
Guardians of The Galaxy: Mission Breakout
Indiana Jone Adventure
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Snow White's Scary Adventures
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Star Tours: The Adventure Continue
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
It's A Small World
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Soarin' Around The World
The Little Mermaid
Toy Story Midway Mania!
Radiator Springs Racers
Monster's Inc. Mike and Sully To The Rescue
The rain, though miserable, was your friend. A sunny day probably would have been more crowded. You certainly got to ride just about anything you wanted. Glad it turned out good for you. :toast:
Wow nice trip! The rain really made your day, although you missed your chances on any of the coasters, or are you not a coaster fan?
I was fortunate enough to visit last year and as a lifelong East Coaster and WDW frequented, I really loved it out there.
Yeah the rain was definitely useful, waking up so exhausted to it briefly made me think of not going but I figured others would have the same thought and clearly I was right. As for the coasters I am a fan, although not as much as I was as a teenager, after Indy I grabbed a fastpass for Big Thunder but when the time came the rain was near whiteout level so I figured that would be pretty unpleasant, if it was even open, and it was still pretty bad when I was in Tomorrowland and so when I saw it had a long line I kept walking, completely forgetting it had a single rider line, and Incredicoaster wasn't ever open but thankfully I did get to do Matterhorn.
But yeah it's hard to complain when I got so much done in such little time and I had such a good time.
