Disneyland - May 2024

Evening,

We're in California for a chunk of May and are thinking that we'll do two days at Disney, one at each park. The official Disneyland website is kicking out $620.00 for the two of us, for two days.

On top of that we can add Park Hopper for $65 per ticket and Genie+ for $60 per ticket. I am minded not to do either of these. Is that foolish ?

Attraction availability looks good, the only notable closure is Haunted Mansion, which is in the middle of a big programme of work.

Do those prices seem about right ? Any thoughts on whether not having Park Hopper or Genie in this instance will inhibit our ability to have a good time ?

It’s so easy to park hop there.

Park hopping is real easy, so I would say to do it if you don't mind paying. That said, I went on 2 weekdays in the middle of the summer on my one visit and managed to do everything with just a single day in each park. We also didn't have a lot of time to re-ride anything at either park. If it's your first time, I would definitely splurge on Genie. With Disney, I always say that spending a little extra when you're already spending that much makes sense and I know not everyone feels that way. The price you're getting doesn't sound out of whack at all.

You will have a good time with or without those add-ons, especially if this is your first time. However, if you are not staying at a resort that offers early entry you should really consider doing both. Lines for Guardians, Webslingers, and Radiator Springs Racers can get quite long comparatively. As already mentioned park hopping is so easy at the parks that you could realistically do most of both parks in one day with park hopping and Genie+. In my view Genie+ is a much better value at Disneyland than Disney World. Trying to get ride reservations is not as intense either.

I think Genie+ and Park Hoppers are both great add-ons. The parks are so close to each other and since Disneyland has more to do than DCA, you can better use your time with hoppers.

Worth noting that Radiator Springs Racers and Rise of the Resistance are Individual Lightning Lane and are not included with the rest of Genie+. They are a separate a la carte charge, though RSR can usually be ridden within a reasonable time frame by using the single rider line.

Park hopping used to be easier before California Adventure’s refreshing made it popular but the parks are closer than Universal Orlando and lunch in Downtown Disney is easy. Hit Ballast Point if you want a proper American craft beer.

Genie+ works well but I’m not entirely sure you need it. Rope drop Fantasyland, skip Peter Pan, and wait until the evening to hit the Star Wars stuff.

I have a different opinion than everyone else in the DL blogosphere, but I have never Park Hopped at DLR. It's certainly convenient, but I always just do 1 day at DCA and n-1 days at DL and it works fine. I never run out of things to G+ on each park's respective day (one of the primary reasons I hop at WDW) and I don't feel like the expense is worth it. If anything, I would save the money and use it on G+ or Individual Lightning Lanes.

G+ is a much better value at DLR and you can almost always get at least 2 or 3 of the E-ticket rides each day as well as 3-4 or more of the smaller rides. I think it's super worth it, and if you use it efficiently and use some of the hacks, you can easily get 10+ rides out of it at DL or 7+ rides at DCA. You could maybe do DCA without it if you're rope dropping on a non-early-entry day, but I would not try to do DL in one day without G+.

If fireworks are important for you know that for most of May that will be a Fri-Sun affair, World of Color at DCA is nightly.

ApolloAndy:

I have a different opinion than everyone else in the DL blogosphere, but I have never Park Hopped at DLR. It's certainly convenient, but I always just do 1 day at DCA and n-1 days at DL and it works fine. I never run out of things to G+ on each park's respective day (one of the primary reasons I hop at WDW) and I don't feel like the expense is worth it. If anything, I would save the money and use it on G+ or Individual Lightning Lanes.

That's a perfectly valid approach. There are enough marquee attractions at both parks that it really isn't necessary to park hop. Given a choice between the two I would do Genie+ as well. Our last trip we did both. I love that DLR can be done to exhaustion in 3 days using whatever strategy you want.

In late, but agree with Andy. I never thought the extra money for park hopping was worth it. And we don't go to Disneyland that often, so to get our "money's worth", G+ was indispensable. My only other advice would be to NOT wait for Rise of the Resistance. It was down a lot on the day we went. It was a little nerve wracking towards the end. It's an attraction that's not to be missed.

Guessing I should now look for your trip report. ;)

I'll certainly do a trip report.

Aside from the ability to hop parks, can you squeeze some more value out of your G+ if you do have park hopper, on the basis you can use it on the E ticket rides twice (once per day, over two days)? Whereas, if you have G+ and no park hopper, you can only use it on the E Tickets once on the day you are in said parks ?

Am I over thinking this ? Probably.

Between the two parks there are 22 attractions that use Genie+, 13 at Disneyland and 9 at California Adventure. We got about 15 reservations per day when we went last January. The value seemed better at California Adventure not having to wait in long lines for Webslingers, Guardians, Soarin', or Goofy's Sky School. Our waits at Disneyland were shortened but not as significantly.

I don't recommend it but we had to take my daughter to the emergency room during one of our days. Waiting for her to get stitches we were able to stack our reservations to ride five big attractions in the last hour and a half of CA being open. My daughter's big concern throughout the whole ordeal was making sure the doctor would let her ride rides that night.

Disney is massively overhauling their disability access program starting May 20th and finishing June 20th. They are restricting access to using their DAS line booking option to people with developmental disabilities who pre register with a zoom meeting with trained CMs who will be the only people to grant DAS benefits. People with physical debilities will now only be offered things like a wheelchair or return to line pass if they need to exit a standby queue.

I mention this here because, the rumor is that a vast majority of Lightning Lane users recently have been these DAS guests. If that is true then as these changes go into effect G+ guests should see some combination of reduced LL queue times and more access to ride bookings, depending on how much more G+ times Disney makes available.

The last time Disney cracked down on overuse of their disability pass, Fastpass lines significantly shortened.

Rick_UK:

more value out of your G+ if you do have park hopper, on the basis you can use it on the E ticket rides twice

While this is technically true, I have never really thought about it as an important value. I haven't found the "once per ride per day" to be that restrictive as there are always things that I want to book on G+ that I am still eligible for. It's also pretty rare that you won't end up with a "multiple experience pass" at some point (compensation for a ride going down during your return window) that you can use on the one headliner that you really want to re-ride. I just don't think I'd use G+ to book Space, Indy, Guardians, WEB Slingers, and Soarin' both days. The parks are close to each other, but not SO close that you can just zig zag back and forth.

Caveats: I go frequently enough that if I only ride Space Mountain once per trip, I won't die. I also rope drop super hard so I duplicate rides via standby. I also tend to squeeze every last second out of my trips, so I'm not itching for more rides at the end of the week.

Thanks Andy. We've gone for G+ without Park Hopper.

The more I think about it, the more relaxed I am. We have both done other Disney parks, so we'll likely do the rides that are unique to CA and see how we roll. It's at the start of a road trip holiday, so I don't want us to be exhausted before we leave LA.

Don’t miss the classics (Pirates, Haunted Mansion) ans they are better or at least more interesting than their Magic Kingdom sisters. It’s a Small World can be appreciated from outside.

Haunted Mansion is closed unfortunately, but we'll certainly do Pirates.