Any Last Minute Advice for DisneyLand/Universal Hollywood?

[kath16]

We are heading to California in a few weeks, with the major part of our trip being Universal Hollywood (Nintendo World) and DisneyLand/California Adventure. We have one day in Universal and three-day hoppers in Disney.

I know we are going at a crowded time. My FB groups are all now about crowds it seems, so I'm getting a bit nervous. We did not get Express passes for Universal, but we do have Early Entry to Nintendo World. Anything we do on top of that at US is going to be icing on the cake - we aren't big movie people, but will plan to do the studio tour and waterworld show. 

we do have Genie+ for Disney and, coming from the East Coast, will likely be up early to get to the parks at opening. Priorities are Cars Land and anything Pixar related. we also have reservations for a Droid build even though we aren't huge Star Wars people - my kids will love making a robot. 

with FB groups being... kind of crazy (to put it lightly), i guess i'm just looking for any last minute real-life advice. 

[Jalapeñomel]

Nintendo World is really small, so it gets crowded super fast. My son did like the one ride in the land though. We were rather underwhelmed with the whole experience and will not be going back.

Cars land is awesome, as well as Spiderman. We also built a droid, which my DH and son loved doing together. You can also do Bounty Hunting in Galaxy's Edge, but start early so you can do it all before you leave!

[dearprudence]

Are you staying on property at Disney? I only ask because early admission has been awesome for us at crowded times. Even though it's not supposed to be open, we've been able to get on Radiator Springs before the park opens. If you don't have early admission, I'd highly recommend buying the Lightning Lane for that. You can try ropedropping it, but in my experience that's where everyone's heading at ropedrop so even then it's easily a 45 minute wait.

Otherwise, even on super crowded days, Genie+ makes it pretty easy to get the rides you want. And given that you're in Facebook groups, I'm guessing you've already read all the tips on how to use that.

My only other "tip" is to bring rain gear! It's been really on and off lately.

[nsl]

We were at Disneyland/CA Adventure two years ago at Christmas and honestly the thing that helped most, aside from getting Genie+, was just moderating our expectations. We knew the lines would be long and made sure to have things with us (some small handheld games + phones with external batteries) to keep the kids entertained in line, used Mobile Order for pretty much all meals, and tried to enjoy the non-ride parts of the parks as much as possible.

[kath16]

Mar 5, 2024 15:28:44 GMT -5 dearprudence said:

Are you staying on property at Disney? I only ask because early admission has been awesome for us at crowded times. Even though it's not supposed to be open, we've been able to get on Radiator Springs before the park opens. If you don't have early admission, I'd highly recommend buying the Lightning Lane for that. You can try ropedropping it, but in my experience that's where everyone's heading at ropedrop so even then it's easily a 45 minute wait.

Otherwise, even on super crowded days, Genie+ makes it pretty easy to get the rides you want. And given that you're in Facebook groups, I'm guessing you've already read all the tips on how to use that.

My only other "tip" is to bring rain gear! It's been really on and off lately.

we do! but i haven't checked if our reservations align with the early entry park each day 

[kath16]

Mar 5, 2024 11:51:36 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Nintendo World is really small, so it gets crowded super fast. My son did like the one ride in the land though. We were rather underwhelmed with the whole experience and will not be going back.

Cars land is awesome, as well as Spiderman. We also built a droid, which my DH and son loved doing together. You can also do Bounty Hunting in Galaxy's Edge, but start early so you can do it all before you leave!

i'm honestly kind of anticipating SNW (and universal as a whole) to be kind of a dud for us. i'm going in with low expectations and maybe i'll be pleasantly surprised?

[Scout'sHonor]

We were at USH over President's day weekend. We did the VIP tour Friday, which is the only express pass for Mario Kart. Then Sat we had early entry to SNW and then express passes. When I booked, I had no idea Sat was the 1st anniversary of SNW. Since we had ridden Mario Kart the day before (and my daughter screamed during it, bc even though she's play the video game, Bowser scared her) so we just went back in to see the land more. But it was crowded and not a ton to do outside of the ride. Once we left SNW, everything else on the lower lot was super quiet once they opened. We wouldn't have needed the express passes for them.

[ny96]

Mar 5, 2024 21:56:28 GMT -5 kath16 said:

Mar 5, 2024 11:51:36 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Nintendo World is really small, so it gets crowded super fast. My son did like the one ride in the land though. We were rather underwhelmed with the whole experience and will not be going back.

Cars land is awesome, as well as Spiderman. We also built a droid, which my DH and son loved doing together. You can also do Bounty Hunting in Galaxy's Edge, but start early so you can do it all before you leave!

i'm honestly kind of anticipating SNW (and universal as a whole) to be kind of a dud for us. i'm going in with low expectations and maybe i'll be pleasantly surprised?

We have season passes to Universal and go semi regularly. I think going in with low expectations is good. We live 10 minutes away and that is the reason we have passes. Disneyland is much better in my opinion. That being said, the studio tour and the Waterworld show are really fun and Harry Potter World and Super Mario World are fun to be in, even if their rides are not amazing (the Super Mario ride is not worth waiting in long lines for IMO, and the Harry Potter coaster is about 30 seconds, if that)

For both Universal and Disneyland I use the wait times to dictate where we go, but also trust my insights when the wait says 25 minutes and it looks much longer. This just happened to us at Disneyland on It’s a Small World. 25 min was actually 1.5 hours in the pouring rain.

[mrsslocombe]

Was just at DL.

If you've only ever been to the FL parks-

1. More of the queue is outside, mostly uncovered, so keep that in mind in terms of weather. If it's raining, you will get soaked. If it's sunny, you will be in direct sunlight for long periods of time.
2. If it's raining many rides shut down. No characters. No fireworks. Pray for no rain.
3. Maybe it was a particularly bad day, but nearly 50% of the rides broke the day we were there. Many while we were on line. It was a very frustrating day.
4. The physical space of the parks is a lot smaller than FL, so it feels a lot more crowded. Even though ride lines weren't horrendous, sometimes we were wall to wall people, unable to move, just trying to get around.

[Jalapeñomel]

Oh yes, the Waterworld show is super fun!!

[ksun]

The L in Disneyland isn't capitalized. That's my advice.

[kath16]

Mar 13, 2024 20:17:56 GMT -5 ksun said:

The L in Disneyland isn't capitalized. That's my advice.

Helpful!

[agnes]

Are you staying at a Disney resort hotel? If you are, whatever park you reserved first that day will have early entry. You won't be able to hop over to the other park until after 11am.

Keep in mind some rides are an additional cost on top of Genie+ if you want the Lightening Lane. I don't recommend doing Radiator Springs first thing. You may get lucky like the poster above, but it's not likely it will be open before the park is open. Usually the best time to do Rise of the Resistance is in the morning at rope drop, because there's less chance of it breaking down and a shorter wait time. But most people will rush to it in a frenzy and that's not a great vibe. If you've never been on it, I think it's worth it for your first time. If you've been on it before, enjoy a 5 other rides while everyone else is waiting for ROTR.

Last Wednesday, my H went at rope drop and was able to walk on to Big Thunder 3 times before his friends got there that morning lol

There's also the Wine and Food Festival going on right now. If you want to eat/drink a bunch of that stuff, get the Sip n Savor. It'll save you money. Although, I personally don't think most of the festival food is worth the cost or wait. I'm always disappointed. My friends love it though.

[nellywilk]

How was your trip? Do you have any tips yourself? We are traveling there with the two kids, 4 and 7 years old and i have no idea how much stuff to take with. It will be our first trip to Disneyland and my first vacation for the last five years. I am even going to get more info about the writing services which gonna help me with the studies, so i can really enjoy this trip and have some proper rest.

[kath16]

May 14, 2024 5:46:19 GMT -5 nellywilk said:

How was your trip? Do you have any tips yourself?

we had a lovely trip! is there anything specific you're looking for that i can share? always happy to share our experience but don't want to overkill

[was5]

kath16 Did you think it was worth the cost to stay on property? We've stayed on property at WDW, but I was strongly considering off property for Disnyland.

Did you stay at the Disney property for your whole trip? If so, how was the drive to Universal?

[kath16]

Jul 22, 2024 10:29:07 GMT -5 was5 said:

kath16 Did you think it was worth the cost to stay on property? We've stayed on property at WDW, but I was strongly considering off property for Disnyland.

Did you stay at the Disney property for your whole trip? If so, how was the drive to Universal?

we did - we considered a split stay but didn't want to move since we were only doing one day there. i'd say the drive was under an hour, but we left early in the morning to get there since we are from the east coast.

we loved staying on property, but do agree that there are fewer benefits at DL than DW. the early entry was great even though it was only a half hour, we loved the Pixar hotel and it was super easy to walk to DCA, which is where we started two of our three park days. 

i don't have much to compare it to since we've never done a good neighbor hotel, but i'd definitely recommend staying within easy walking distance either way.