Walt Disney World and Disneyland(s) Discussion

[Kubrick]

I've been to disneyworld before but never been to Disneyland. Hopefully someone can answer my questions,

I am going to Disneyland in October with my girlfriend, we are planning on having 3 days at Magic Kingdom and California Adventure, we were thinking of spending one day at Universal California.

1. How far is the trip from Anaheim to Los Angeles?

2. Are there inexpensive shuttles/bus options?

3. Any recommendations of stuff to make sure we dont miss? Tips and tricks for disneyland?

Thanks very much!

 

[cokebabies]

Tip one - Don't call Disneyland "Magic Kingdom"

The hardcore Disneylanders will take offense.

 

[smitty]

Tip one - Don't call Disneyland "Magic Kingdom"

The hardcore Disneylanders will take offense.

 

[smitty]

All joking aside Kubrick, there are tours and shuttles that go from Anaheim to Universal. Check with your hotel and/or go online you should be able to find some options. If you're going to have a rental car I would recommend driving, with no traffic-which is very unlikely-it should take you about 40 mins or so. 5 north to the 101 north.

Depending on what day(s) during the week you go the best trick for Disneyland/DCA is get there early and stay late. The first couple hours at either park is the best for getting on the most rides with the least wait times. Also, if you plan on watching Fantasmic, don't wait for the first show, the second show is less crowded and easier to get a good view.

 

[Coheteboy]

I've been to disneyworld before but never been to Disneyland. Hopefully someone can answer my questions,

I am going to Disneyland in October with my girlfriend, we are planning on having 3 days at Magic Kingdom and California Adventure, we were thinking of spending one day at Universal California.

1. How far is the trip from Anaheim to Los Angeles?

2. Are there inexpensive shuttles/bus options?

3. Any recommendations of stuff to make sure we dont miss? Tips and tricks for disneyland?

Thanks very much!

Agreed with CokeBabies. It's Disneyland, but "Magic Kingdom" is a nickname within the park itself. They'll say "Walt's original Magic Kingdom" or something to that.

But answering your questions:

1. Depends on what part of Los Angeles and what time of day. Without traffic, Downtown Los Angeles (Union Station) to Disneyland would take 30-40 minutes. With traffic, that could balloon to an hour and a half. Best to just understand that there's never ever NO traffic and you'll be saner that way.

2. Not sure, but it does cost $7 to ride a bus from LAX to Union Station.

3. I have a nonstop shopping list of things to not miss. But there's nothing that is required for reservations this soon. It's nothing like Walt disney World where you have to reserve months ahead. A week ahead is sufficient for Disneyland.

..unless you were doing Club 33. But that's another story.


I'll get into a lengthier list soon.




Oh and... Universal Studios is 15-20 minutes north of Downtown LA. Disneyland is 40-60 minutes south-east of Downtown LA. Just to give you some perspective on where things are. If know someone who can get tickets for $59 to universal. let me know if that's something you'd need help with.

 

[Cap'n Cook]

Anyone here been to Tokyo Disneyland?

Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Kubrick]

All joking aside Kubrick, there are tours and shuttles that go from Anaheim to Universal. Check with your hotel and/or go online you should be able to find some options. If you're going to have a rental car I would recommend driving, with no traffic-which is very unlikely-it should take you about 40 mins or so. 5 north to the 101 north.

Depending on what day(s) during the week you go the best trick for Disneyland/DCA is get there early and stay late. The first couple hours at either park is the best for getting on the most rides with the least wait times. Also, if you plan on watching Fantasmic, don't wait for the first show, the second show is less crowded and easier to get a good view.

Sorry everyone! Thanks for the heads-up on the proper lingo

We have a magic morning and were reading that best bet was to go right to Cars Land as its generally packed all day.

Agreed with CokeBabies. It's Disneyland, but "Magic Kingdom" is a nickname within the park itself. They'll say "Walt's original Magic Kingdom" or something to that.

But answering your questions:

1. Depends on what part of Los Angeles and what time of day. Without traffic, Downtown Los Angeles (Union Station) to Disneyland would take 30-40 minutes. With traffic, that could balloon to an hour and a half. Best to just understand that there's never ever NO traffic and you'll be saner that way.

2. Not sure, but it does cost $7 to ride a bus from LAX to Union Station.

3. I have a nonstop shopping list of things to not miss. But there's nothing that is required for reservations this soon. It's nothing like Walt disney World where you have to reserve months ahead. A week ahead is sufficient for Disneyland.

..unless you were doing Club 33. But that's another story.

I'll get into a lengthier list soon.

Oh and... Universal Studios is 15-20 minutes north of Downtown LA. Disneyland is 40-60 minutes south-east of Downtown LA. Just to give you some perspective on where things are. If know someone who can get tickets for $59 to universal. let me know if that's something you'd need help with.

Thank you both very much for the info. We're not sure which way were leaning. I work in the film industry and don't want to feel like I missed anything by not visiting Universal. However, we got 2 days free at Disneyland or CA by booking with our travel agency so we'd save a couple hundred dollars by passing on Universal.

Wait and see mode right now.

 

[Coheteboy]

Thank you both very much for the info. We're not sure which way were leaning. I work in the film industry and don't want to feel like I missed anything by not visiting Universal. However, we got 2 days free at Disneyland or CA by booking with our travel agency so we'd save a couple hundred dollars by passing on Universal.

Wait and see mode right now.

Universal Studios is definitely more of a half day park if you skipped some of the live shows but the Warner Bros lot is only 5 minutes away from Universal and also has a backlot tour.

If you work in the film industry, it's kinda all there for ya. But Disneyland and California Adventure is more fun.

 

[Apone]

Coheteyboy, did you check with security? They most definitely have it on camera and could probably get you his or her name...especially with all of the tech they have now.

 

[cokebabies]

Sorry everyone! Thanks for the heads-up on the proper lingo

I'm a WDW man at heart, so I get "Magic Kingdom = park with the castle" logic.

We have a magic morning and were reading that best bet was to go right to Cars Land as its generally packed all day.

My wife and I were stressing Cars Land on our last DLR trip (Sept 2012). I'd heard it's a madhouse, and thought we'd get on Racers once at best.

We did Magic Morning at DCA, and went for the Racers Fastpass line. It was INSANE. It wrapped all the way around from next to Carthay Circle past the Aladdin theater. It moved pretty fast, though, and after that we waited on standby for Racers, and got on in about 25 minutes.

First we did standby, then FastPass, then single rider a few times. All told, we got on Racers I think six or seven times in two days. Cars Land gets busy, but you can get a lot out of it if you just time it right.

On the magic hours morning, we even got on the surprisingly fun Mater square dance ride, and the atrocious Luigi's tire ride.

Racers can't be oversold, though. It is an incredible attraction.

Unrelated DCA info: if you have to wait more than five or ten minutes for Little Mermaid, come back later. The line is dead half the day.

 

[Darthrazz]

If someone turned it in, I definitely would have found it that night, as there was a cast member (face paint station) just 2-5 feet away from the bench I was on.

A good person would have:

a) said "hey, you forgot your camera!"

or

b) turned it in to the cast member nearby

or

c) returned it to city hall


But the more I think about it, the more I don't think I left my camera. There was a family two benches away.... when I returned to the scene, that same family was spread out over the three benches including the one I was on. They recognized that I was there earlier and even got up to look for the camera..... but the people next to me were long gone.

I know it was the person who sat on the bench next to me... but i was too glued to my darn phone to notice.

Did you keep checking with the park?...

What kind of ****** bags would take a camera with the memories of some other families vacation? There's truly no hope for people , let me tell you. I'm so sorry again for what happened. I'm actually pissed off.

I was on a cruise once with my friend and his camera was lifted as well with ALL his pictures up to that point. Security could care less, what stinks is that we had two days left as seas and the chance to track the camera down was there and they could give a *****.

 

[Coheteboy]

Yah, there's some lame people and I didn't check with security. I tried to get transferred to them through Lost and Found and they told me that they don't do that. So I just kind of gave up.

I might stop by the park tomorrow and I'll ask a security guard there if he has any info about stuff like that. That would be great if they got it on camera and he was an annual passholder... they'd have all his info and everything.

 

[jra81984]

Yah, there's some lame people and I didn't check with security. I tried to get transferred to them through Lost and Found and they told me that they don't do that. So I just kind of gave up.

I might stop by the park tomorrow and I'll ask a security guard there if he has any info about stuff like that. That would be great if they got it on camera and he was an annual passholder... they'd have all his info and everything.

Ridiculous that there are people out there who do this stuff. My boss was a photographer for a wedding. His really expensive $2000 lens had been stolen. By coincidence or chance that fool put this lens up on Craigslist and the police had handled it. Come to find out it was a member of the event staff! Thankfully the happy ended was that he got his lens back, and the idiot lost his job and got involved with the law. Hopefully a similar outcome can happen for you!

Disney is too happy of a place for this kind of crap lol

 

[SnakeDoctor]

Does anyone here collect park pins? I just bought a my first few this time around.

Been looking for something collectable to get at the parks. Preferably something that there are a lot of, that are fairly cheap, and that will be different every time I go. My brother buys commemorative baseballs at the parks ... but those seem awkward to display nicely.

I used to collect those little PVC character figures when I was a kid ... like these ...

They were like $3 a piece, and there were a ton of them. I still have a bunch. But, they stopped selling them individually.

Anyway ... so I decided to go with park pins this time around. The pins are actually rather nice. Any recommendations on cool pins, good buys, good places to buy outside the park or online, park exclusives, etc.? I'd prefer park-related pins rather than just random characters or stuff.

SnakeDoc

 

[frodotrout]

my wife and i just go back from disney world two weeks ago and we found these small plastic figures, they remind me of the old disneykins made by marx many years ago, i believe they were 3 or 4 dollars per blind bag of 4 figs, very cool to collect and easy to display because of their size

 

[cokebabies]

I can't mess with pins as a collectible, because I find them too expensive for what they are. I have a handful, but specific ones I really liked. I didn't get them just to collect another one.

As for those tiny figures, I've thought about getting a few. But with any blind selection, I always have the worst luck.

 

[Coheteboy]

I used to buy pins all the time.... and now all I have is is a box full of pins. I look at it and think "wow, that's money that could buy me a replacement camera with". Of course... looking at my toys, that could be said about those too haha.

So my brother was nice enough to loan me his camera. It's not as good (canon 50d) but serviceable. I had to go check out the new Indiana Jones Adventure changes to Mara.

Didn't hear? They added new lighting effects to the Mara statue so when you look at it, the eyes open and he/she goes berserk. The new voice is SOOOOOO not as good, but visually, it looks great.


Chamber of Earthly Riches is the center corridor...

Right after the eyes open. The original "gold" hue is not seen anymore due to the lighting changes.

A rusting effect happens

For the chamber of destiny, it shows you the future. This is a much darker room with a starfield effect and a blue mara.

And then it goes nuts

I wasn't able to go to the other chamber out of the three times i rode yesterday so I'll try and get that for you guys next time.

 

[cokebabies]

The new effects look awesome. On my next trip, I look forward to seeing them during one of the two hours a day the ride isn't broken.

 

[grphyx1]

Will be going to Disney World on Saturday. My first time

 

[crows]

Does anyone here collect park pins? I just bought a my first few this time around.

Been looking for something collectable to get at the parks. Preferably something that there are a lot of, that are fairly cheap, and that will be different every time I go. My brother buys commemorative baseballs at the parks ... but those seem awkward to display nicely.

I used to collect those little PVC character figures when I was a kid ... like these ...

They were like $3 a piece, and there were a ton of them. I still have a bunch. But, they stopped selling them individually.

Anyway ... so I decided to go with park pins this time around. The pins are actually rather nice. Any recommendations on cool pins, good buys, good places to buy outside the park or online, park exclusives, etc.? I'd prefer park-related pins rather than just random characters or stuff.

SnakeDoc

I have a pretty good collection of Pins.
It is a lot of fun to trade them. Sometimes I wouldn't ride any rides at all but just spend all day going around the park looking for good pins

It got kind of addicting for me. I also loved having the conversations with the cast members about the pins. It was pretty nice.