Disney Land and California Adventure Feb 2022

[Ronnie]

In case anyone is considering going anytime soon. For context it was my wife’s idea, I thought I was done with this greedy rat and his cronies years ago when my son lost interest. I used to come here as kid, again when I was in college at nearby Long Beach, when my son was a toddler and now as a recently new empty nester. I told my son that I don’t expect to be back again until my future grand children, if any, are five plus years old.

anyway here is the deal:
1. They are limiting daily occupancy so you have to not only buy tickets to get in, you have to reserve the days you will be in each park.
2. Disney is very reliant on customers using their website and app, so I had to register their before I could buy tickets online and reserve my dates, it was a pain in the … that took at least an hour to do.

The app needs to be refined but you can reserve ride time, order food, see current wait times, what your current reservations are, where you are at in the park, etc with it.

3. Pricing, their site states prices start at $76. They lied. Pricing is on an increasing / declining scale depending on how many days are purchased. That is one day is $104, two is $124 per day, three is $128 (I think), four is $96 and if you buy five days it’s $76 per person per day per park.

I purchased entry for a single day at each park for my wife and I so it only costs $104 per day instead instead of $128 per day.

in addition to the general entry fee the cost of their premium genie plus service which replaced fast passes is $15 per person per day and everyone in the group must buy them or none can. This allows the users to reserve time once per day at almost all the popular rides.

finally, the most popular rides like Star Wars rise of the resistance are subject to specific front of the line reservation fees. In our case $20 per person. Only two such passes may be purchased per person per day.

we UberEd in from a nearby hotel so don’t know what parking cost but the hotel shuttle was $7 round trip, Uber 2 miles at night was $7, in the morning $22, bus $2 one way. Lockers in the park are $7 to $10 based on the locker size rented.

other than the above, everything is generally expensive, I think our two burger, fries and drinks lunch was about $50.

we spent over $200 on nic knacks, ever seen a $15 refrigerator magnet? I wish I hadn’t.

4. timing, I’m told and believe that jan though March during the week is the best time to visit. The weather was fine, sunny, sometimes windy, with a high of 70. Hardly any wait to get on rides in the morning, up to 90 minutes afternoon (or so I read), the longest we waited was 20 minutes.

summarily, know before you go. If you want to minimize wait times go in the middle of the week. Buy the genie plus passes and the individual ride passes. For comparison, nearby (1.5 hours north) six flags magic mountain is a gear amusement park for rollercoaster rides used to charge $50 for entry and $150 per person for their platinum fast pass service.

if you and more importantly your kids have never been, go at least Once and be prepared to do a lot of walking. We took about 30k steps each on our Disney land day which included the park, downtown Disney (for food and shopping) and all other misc travel (e.g. to and from the hotel and bus / Uber stops.

 

[jmargo]

We try and go once every other year. I went when I was a kid, my siblings both worked there for many years and my father was there opening week as a kid. I am able to get pretty good discounted hopper passes but still expect to pay 2500-3000 for a family of 4 once I factor in food, lodging etc. We try and stay at a hotel that has free breakfast and are serviced by ART for transportation to the park. I'm sure if we brought our own food and stayed at an economy hotel we could cut that down a bit. We found that the food pricing in the park was somewhat reasonable.

The bad part is that they nickel and dime you to avoid some ridiculous wait times with genie plus and ride reservations. They also know that they can basically charge whatever they want and people will pay and attendance will remain high. As long as our kids are home we will pay whatever the mouse want.

 

[Ronnie]

@jmargo , I remember being in your shoes when my kid was younger and paid the Disney resort premium of $3k to $4k for three 3 day park hopper passes, 2 to 4 nights at the attached hotel and the character breakfast before. Very expensive but very convenient as well. Though I don’t like the pricing structures Disney has it dialed in. I don’t think the genie plus cost and lightning passes are high compared to what six flags ($150 per person per day on top of general entry fee, got to buy for entire group) or universal studios ($300 for a private group tour, lunch and walk on set tour which replaces the general tour and entry fee of about $100, 5 years ago). Admittedly, I hate lines.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Was at Disney World this past week. What a horrible experience. 2 hours lines on a Thursday. Their fast-pass thing is basically useless. I am done with them for a long time.

Looks like ROTR and Galaxy's Edge is identical inside and out between the two parks.

 

[jmargo]

Was at Disney World this past week. What a horrible experience. 2 hours lines on a Thursday. Their fast-pass thing is basically useless. I am done with them for a long time.

Looks like ROTR and Galaxy's Edge is identical inside and out between the two parks.

We had friends fly from the east coast to CA. for their annual Disney trip because they didn't want to go during an anniversary year.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

We had friends fly from the east coast to CA. for their annual Disney trip because they didn't want to go during an anniversary year.

I'd still rather wait in lines than support CA economy but thats a different conversation lol.

They really need to just have an option for express passes, not the genie plus garbage. Just charge me an extra $150 so I know I can walk on every ride without much of a wait. The system works wonderfully at Universal.

 

[Ronnie]

Was at Disney World this past week. What a horrible experience. 2 hours lines on a Thursday. Their fast-pass thing is basically useless. I am done with them for a long time.

Looks like ROTR and Galaxy's Edge is identical inside and out between the two parks.

2 hours in line is total bs after spending over $100 just to get in the park, another $50 so your car could sit outside the park, add in the hotel, etc, etc, etc. the last time I stood in a line like that was 25 + years ago at Disney Land for the raiders of the lost ark ride during its opening year. It’s was a 3 hour wait and this year we learned it’s got the longest corral in the park at over a quarter mike long. Never again I promised myself and was true to my word this year. At CA adventure we stopped by a simulated flight ride (sit on a long bench which is moved up, down and side to side in front of a large movie screen) “Soaring“ after lunch. We stood inline for as long as it took for me to read the sign over my head, “90 minutes from this point”, so basically we did an about face move, realizing that when I’m on my death bed I’m going to want but can’t get even a second of that time back.

 

[Ronnie]

I'd still rather wait in lines than support CA economy but thats a different conversation lol.

They really need to just have an option for express passes, not the genie plus garbage. Just charge me an extra $150 so I know I can walk on every ride without much of a wait. The system works wonderfully at Universal.

I was there during the 50th anniversary year when an employee came out with a stack of cards on lanyards and started passing them out randomly to guests in his area. They turned out to be small front of the line tabs to each of the popular attractions that broke off of the card and were presented to the employees working the attraction. That was cool but not available to purchase. Disney must have a premium package like six flags but it’s not available for puchase By the general public. Angelina Jolie took her large family to Disney land a few years ago, they didn’t wait in any lines according to the news stories I saw And this was long before Genie + existed. A few more years ago a tv actor from the show “ER” rented out the entire park for the day to celebrate his young daughters birthday, Elvis did that once as well back in the 70s I think. So money can buy time but only if you have a lot of it.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

I was there during the 50th anniversary year when an employee came out with a stack of cards on lanyards and started passing them out randomly to guests in his area. They turned out to be small front of the line tabs to each of the popular attractions that broke off of the card and were presented to the employees working the attraction. That was cool but not available to purchase. Disney must have a premium package like six flags but it’s not available for puchase By the general public. Angelina Jolie took her large family to Disney land a few years ago, they didn’t wait in any lines according to the news stories I saw And this was long before Genie + existed.

If you have enough money, anything is possible lol. Genie+ is just a grimy move by Disney. Old express passes where great because you could do the park in a day if you played it right for free. Now it's $15 and whoever moves fastest on their phone at 7am.

 

[redthumper9]

My wife owns her own travel company. For years, she specialized in Disney and as an agency, still does. We are east coasters so we have been to Disney World more times than I can count. Only been to Disneyland a couple of times myself. I have absolutely no desire to go back. It has become such a money grab. Ever since they opened after Covid, it seems they nickel and dime you even more so than ever before. On top of that, so many things have been cut and you simply don't get as much for your money. Disney knows that so many folks are choosing not to travel out of the country, so they are taking full advantage. Deep down, we will always love Disney. Our family has shared years of memories there. But there are a lot of travel options out there for similar cost. From (her) a business standpoint, Disney is more way work, for less pay. Their call centers and IT completely stuck and they treat agents like crap compared to other travel suppliers. Personally, she has shifted her focus more toward global travel and let's her agents handle Disney.