Tips for Disneyland and Legoland CA?

[Anonymous]

Planning a spring break trip to Legoland California and Disneyland with my 3 and 5 year olds. Any advice for getting the most out of those two parks?

[Anonymous]

For Legoland anyway, depending on how busy the park is, you should consider the Reserve N' Ride passes:

https://www.legoland.com/california/legoland-california/buy-tickets/reserve-n-ride/

[Anonymous]

I have lots to say!

Legoland -- this place is NOT a well-oiled machine like Disneyland is. Midday the ride lines are insanely long and the rides mostly are not very good anyway. End of the day/night, the lines are much better. So I'd say, plan out your day and try to do the rides/popular attractions first thing or last thing. The kiddie rides in particular will have much better lines in the evening than the day. Maybe your 3 year old will nap in the stroller in the middle of the day? Go see the Lego movies and walk around the Lego world in the middle of the day.

Are you doing 1 day or 2 days at Disneyland? I recommend 2 so you can do both California Adventure and Disneyland. The website touring plans.com is amazing -- you can customize your day and learn how to arrange the rides (in what order) to minimize lines. That site will also teach you how to use a Fastpass and customize a plan for you that takes fast pass rules into account. I would also consider staying on-property or buying the 3 day pass to get the 1 hour early admittance.

Cars Land and the Lighting McQueen ride are amazing -- and if you can go back there around dinner time, when it's dark, it's beautiful.

If your kids are star wars fans, the Jedi Training Academy is really cool - they get to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul. Have them wear a Star Wars shirt and sit in the front row to maximize their chances of being picked!

Seriously just pay the $20/year subscription to TouringPlans and they will give you tons of great tips and help you plan your day. We've been twice and have been super happy with the line situation at Disney, and this was in the summer time on busy days.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! Going to plans.com now!

[Anonymous]

Yes, 2 days at Disneyland. Also when you go to California Adventure get fast passes for cars land right away. Line gets long for that ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lots to say!

Legoland -- this place is NOT a well-oiled machine like Disneyland is. Midday the ride lines are insanely long and the rides mostly are not very good anyway. End of the day/night, the lines are much better. So I'd say, plan out your day and try to do the rides/popular attractions first thing or last thing. The kiddie rides in particular will have much better lines in the evening than the day. Maybe your 3 year old will nap in the stroller in the middle of the day? Go see the Lego movies and walk around the Lego world in the middle of the day.

Are you doing 1 day or 2 days at Disneyland? I recommend 2 so you can do both California Adventure and Disneyland. The website touring plans.com is amazing -- you can customize your day and learn how to arrange the rides (in what order) to minimize lines. That site will also teach you how to use a Fastpass and customize a plan for you that takes fast pass rules into account. I would also consider staying on-property or buying the 3 day pass to get the 1 hour early admittance.

Cars Land and the Lighting McQueen ride are amazing -- and if you can go back there around dinner time, when it's dark, it's beautiful.

If your kids are star wars fans, the Jedi Training Academy is really cool - they get to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul. Have them wear a Star Wars shirt and sit in the front row to maximize their chances of being picked!

Seriously just pay the $20/year subscription to TouringPlans and they will give you tons of great tips and help you plan your day. We've been twice and have been super happy with the line situation at Disney, and this was in the summer time on busy days.

Agree to all of this except -

1) Jedi Academy has changed now - you don't get picked based on your shirt, but you sign up. We got in by standing in line first thing in the am. Go as soon as you walk in the park, stand in line (near the Star Wars area - to the far right of Tomorrowland) and you should get a spot.

2) Make sure you keep your photo pass cards.

3) Do Legoland before Disney if at all possible. Legoland is way less polished and it is sort of depressing after the high of Disney. My kids, however, loved both.

4) Stay in the Legoland hotel if you can. It's super cool.

5) Touringplans.com was really amazing. I didn't use it but we tagged along with friends who had. Although I was dubious, I have to say that they had a truly magical time the whole way through and we bumbled around for a bit before joining them, not totally knowing what we were doing, and it was annoying.

I LOVE Disneyland. I love the size, the sweetness of it, how manageable it is...I've been twice (and my kid has done Jedi training both ways) and I cannot wait to go again sometime. Have an awesome trip!

[Anonymous]

Also, STAY FOR THE PARADES!!! at night. The CA light show is great. And the DL parade - the new one ("new" - as in last March) was amazing too.

If you stay close by (we stayed at the place across the street - Park Vue, I think) you can easily go back and forth if you need to.