Help! California - Disneyland and Universal Studios in just two days

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Help! DH and I are planning a massive road trip with the DC in August. Flying in and out of San Francisco, visiting Vegas and lots of the national parks, lots of driving about.

As part of the itinerary, I’ve got two full days set aside to take the DC to Disney/Universal and I really need some advice please. We’ve booked the hotels/motels and it would be a right pain to move things so it’s not really an option.

I need your advice please on how to do this. DH doesn’t like theme parks but I love them, as do the DC. DS15 and loves thrill rides, Star Wars, Marvel. DD11 loves SW, Marvel, Harry Potter. She says she doesn’t like really big rides but I’m sure she will go on some/many of them if I’m with her. I know they will both love things like haunted mansion, PotC etc. I will love it all!

The day before the planned theme park days, we are driving down from Santa Maria along the coastal highway and I’ve booked a hotel in Anaheim but I can’t imagine we will be able to add that on for extra time at Universal or Disney. I booked the hotel to be near to Disney but didn’t realise that universal studios is the other side of LA which is a pain.

Given we only have two days, I’m happy to pay extra for queue jump tickets which I think is the Genie+ thing for Disney but not sure if universal has one? DH will drive us there and back. We stay at Anaheim for the evening of the second theme park day before heading back on the road the next morning.

Please please can you give me good practical advice! If you can tell me what you’d do in my situation, what I need to know, an itinerary I’d be so grateful. Obviously I haven’t booked any tickets yet.

Thank you in advance!!

Star Wars land is really well done! See if you can get reservations at the Cantina. They also have the blue and green colored milks that are really popular with the kids!

Thanks @countdown64 - that's helped to cement my decision to do Disney for the two days instead of trying to fit both in.

@AttilaTheMeerkat all of those things have been on my 'reasons not to have a convertible'. We are only taking a small take-on trolley bag each and I've done a lot of looking at trunk space. But yes to nickability.

Thanks for the tip @WelliesWithHeels!

My other thoughts; we really enjoyed the studio tour ride at universal but the other main thing that I'd have liked to have done was the Jurassic world ride. Did it many years ago and it was good fun, but the wait time was crazy to go on it even with really expensive queue jumping passes. When we were last there (Aug 2019), the newer California Adventure Park was much quieter than the original park and my kids went in the Incredicoaster ride over and over with virtually no queue. Unfortunately I get sick on rides 😭 There was a good water ride that was ok for me but I got so wet I had to buy a Disney T shirt!

Thanks again @countdown64 😀

And exposure to traffic fumes- it's LA.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/holidays/5141232-disneylanddca-parks-top-tips-please

All of you very helpful posters, if you want to give me more tips on this thread I'd appreciate it greatly... @WhereDoBrokenHeartsGo @BeauSignoles @OhcantthInkofaname @WelliesWithHeels @countdown64 @babbi @iamsoshocked

Okay we are on our road now and spent a day a Disneyland a couple of days ago.
We stayed in LA and drove down, traffic is bad and driving takes a while. Unless you really really want to see Universal I'm not sure I would bother driving up to see it unless your next hotel stop is nearby.
Disneyland land was pleasantly cool at the start of the day and uncomfortably hot and busy by the middle of the day and cool again by the end.

We had hopper tickets and started in DCA at opening time. It was pretty quiet and we used the fast pass and individual tickets to access the rides we wanted. We had seen everything we wanted by 11am so stopped for an early lunch and popped over the the other park. This was much hotter and busier by now but using the fast passes we went on lots of rides.

We have been to WDW a few times with DH's work and found DL much physically smaller. So you walk less but it is also more cramped.

We thought a day was actually more time than we expected to spend there and plenty for us.