Is there a good time to go DisneyLand??

Thinking of october6 to the 14th.

Have so many questions, any answered will be MUCH appreciated.

1. What is a good, cheap, walking distance hotel to stay at? (we are not the walking type much)

2. Do I have to ';plan'; strategicly like I did with disney world (how many days do i need for disneyland, downtown disney and calfornia altogether )?

3.Should I buy the passes here in Canada or are there cheaper prices down there??

Thank you!

I know these questions are very vague but once again any help will be very appreciated.

Is there a good time to go DisneyLand??

Also, Is there any thing special with '; the year of a million dreams?? compared to any other year?

Is there a good time to go DisneyLand??

Thought I%26#39;d respond to some of your questions as I%26#39;m from BC and also going to DL in Oct. First I%26#39;d recommend you buy the book The Unofficial guide to Disneyland. I bought it through Chapters on line. It will pretty much answer your questions. Any of the hotels directly across the street from DL are pretty well priced, if you go to the Disney web site it has the ';good neighbour'; hotels listed and a map of were they are. I would buy the passes here, they are all the same price (I%26#39;ve done the research) they might seem cheaper on certain web sites but because we live in Canada you factor in the exchange and the shipping costs and it is actually MORE expensive. Check out flight centre, they are pretty good and can match any price you might find, I booked through them (flight, accomodations, park hopper passes, pass for Universal, basically everything) and found I got more and it ended up being about $1000 cheaper than anything I priced out on the web (this for a family of 6). Good Luck!

No, you won%26#39;t need as much planning as you did for WDW. Yes, you will need to plan, but not as much.

I think most of us here suggest visiting DTD on your first night/afternoon after you settle into your hotel. You probably won%26#39;t need more time than that. You might want to plan on having a meal there while you are looking around.

You might just want two days at DL and one at DCA. During that time the parks probably have shorter hours during the weekdays. You may want to plan on one weekend day in DL just so you get in more time. Usually at that time there is more entertainment on the weekends too. I think your tentative days may include a holiday weekend, Columbus Day, but it is not a big travel day for us so you probably don%26#39;t need to take that into consideration.

You can purchase 3 day park hopper tickets on the official Disney website. Click on the Travel tab on the menu bar at the top of that website. Then click on Disneyland Resort and you will see where to click for tickets. You can also purchase a ';City Pass'; that includes Universal and the San Diego Zoo.

Hotels:

Howard Johnson%26#39;s (aka Ho Jo%26#39;s)

Candy Cane Inn

Oh, sorry. I forgot the second question. Year of a Million Dreams features surprise gifts from castmembers to random park guests. They are like ';dream gifts';, for instance a pass that gets you to the top of the line for all rides all day or, at WDW a stay in Cinderella%26#39;s Castle.

Anytime is a good time to go to Disneyland ! !

Park Vue Inn....closest to the park. Inexpensive, nothing fancy, but a clean place to lay your head at night...absolutely closest entrance to the park. right across the street.

Plan.....www.ridemax.com Worth the money if you%26#39;re only there for a day or two...if you have longer than that, no plotting necessary...take your time, you%26#39;ll see it all. We typically spend an entire day at disneyland, then half a day at California adventure before we head back home. IF we had as much time as we wanted...we%26#39;d spend 2 full days at Disney, one full day in California Adventures, and half a day strolling thru the stores at downtown disney. Thats enough.

Wow thanks Everyone!!

Millian: What was your average per person? (if you dont mind me asking) what was your hotel rate? is the hotel near by??

Thanks!

(p.s the averging I%26#39;m getting for 3 people 1 hotel room is about 1000 dollars...Is that too much?)

My total cost for the six of us, staying at the Marriot Residence Inn on Clementine, about a 10 min walk to DL, flight with Alaska Air, leaving YVR at 8am (direct flight) and return leaving LAX 710pm (again direct flight), 6 5 day park hopper tickets, 6 entrances to Universal Studios, all taxes, cancellation insurance and 6 anaheim resort transit passes for the 5 days, plus transportation to and from LAX and to and from Universal came to approx $5600. So, less than $1000/pp.

Oh, the Marriot has complimentary hot breakfast buffet (bonus for me as I have 4 boys, 5 if you include the hubby, to feed)

We also stay at hotels within walking distance, but for us that always means right across the street. After walking all day at Disneyland, it%26#39;s a happy thought to know we aren%26#39;t going to have to walk another ';block'; to get to our hotel (their blocks are huge) or try to catch a shuttle. (Once at closing my husband and I actually had to take separate shuttles because ours was too full, one didn%26#39;t even go to our hotel, just nearby)! There%26#39;s a cluster of hotels that are literally right across the street, I%26#39;ve stayed at four of them now and found them all to be clean, comfortable and reasonably priced. I%26#39;ve personally stayed at all of these:

Best Western Park Place Inn

Best Western Anaheim Inn

Tropicana Inn

Carousel Inn

There are others (like someone mentioned, look at the map of Good Neighbor hotels on the Disneyland website), but I would seriously consider one of these closest to Disneyland.

Sorry I totally disagree about it always being a good time to visit Disneyland. I have been there too many times and I found that the best time that I went was Christmas Day. Anytime to go is good EXCEPT all weekends, all summer. The best of best is Tuesday thru Thursday October till May 15 or so. Winter can be great. Can possibly rain, be cold (california cold which is not bad) or be very warm.

wowzo thanks for all the kind advice!! oooh a few more questions came up ..

Between these hotels which ones are better...

FairField Inn

HowardJohnsons

Best Western Stovalls

or

DisneyLand Hotel (anything special here cept the call from Mickey?)

and also I%26#39;m thinking of going for 8 days, Looking at the schedule and alllllllll the theme parks...Which one should I choose ...

This is what I%26#39;m thinking of..

day1- Universal

Day2-California

day3- Disney (why this day? cause thanksgiving for canadian and thinking of having a character dinner )

day4- Universal water park (break from the theme parks)

day5- 6Flags (is this place any good?)

day6- Sight seeing and shopping..(should I fit in more sightseeing days?)

Day 7- Finish off with some more disneyland.

Day 8 -flying out at 4pm so maybe a bit of shopping

Ok ....so thats pretty much it...tell me what you think. THanks!

P.s if your asking ';why the need for so many parks??'; well we all average bettween the age of 19-23 (3 of us) and if the 4th one comes then then it will be from 15-23. Its a family travel and I%26#39;ve nevered travelled with my nephews before cept when we were kids and my sister (their mom) brought us to DisneyLand. So we are just ';refurbishing'; the memory ...Thanks everyone! ;-)

wavy hair