Planning a First-Time Disneyland Trip: Sheer Terror for a WDW Veteran.
Like many WDW Veterans: one thing I love to do almost as much as taking a WDW trip – is planing a WDW Trip. The comfort and familiarity makes the process easy. I know when to make dining reservations and Fast Pass Plus Reservations. I know which parks are closest to each resort. I can easily visualize the entrance to any park and can quickly point to the location of the nearest bathroom at any point in time.
Because of this familiarity, planning a first-time Disneyland Resort Trip is terrifying. Where the bathrooms are located is the least of my worries. I have no idea where to stay or where when to make reservations. Can I make any reservations? Good Lord! I don’t even know where to buy a Churro.
Despite my trepidation, when I decided to visit an old friend in Northern California in October I knew I needed to make a Solo Pilgrimage to the place that started it all. Heck, Disneyland is only 600 miles from him. That’s only 12 inches when you are looking at a map of the western United States. Using Disney Logic I can easily justify this side-trip.
To start my planning a look at Google Maps shows just how disorienting this will be. I started with the hotel. With some careful mapping I determined that there are many quality hotels within walking distance and wold make good alternatives to the $600 per night Disney Hotel options. Like every Disney Enthusiast knows: I will be giving my money to Disney eventually, but I needed to save as much as possible to spend inside the parks. Which park should I be closer to? It turns out the entrancess to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure are facing each other 200 feet apart. That makes park hopping really easy for a Disney World Transplant like me.
So based on this information together with pricing and Reviews I decided which hotel to book. The winner is: Grand Legacy at the Park. It’s 592 feet from the entrance to the parks. I’m sure I’ve walked further to get to a bus stop in WDW. Plus, at $150 per night it’s just the ticket for a solo trip.
Hotel secured. In my next Blog entry I will tackle Air travel and transportation.
- Posted by joefrat
- Posted in Disney News, Random Thoughts
- Jun, 17, 2018
- No Comments.