these guys are my type of people. My only memories of Disney land are the guy in the Pluto costume taking off his head and barfing in the trash can. I also remember my parents forgetting my birthday that year.

EDIT: the URL didnt work.

[ 02-22-2004, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Dalamar Stormcrow ]

LOL! Sage advice you've got there, Johnny :D

At 5 and 6 your kids will love it. Disneyworld is the better I am told, but have never been there. I spent a day at Disneyland back in 1994, so things will have changed a little since then. The best ride back then was this little star wars shuttle thing - the queue was pretty horrendous though. Be prepared for some smog (this is LA afer all), and take pictures. The Aussie dollar is doing pretty good against the greenback so loosen the strings on the wallet. Nothing worse than returning from holiday really regretting not doing something that at the time yo thought was too expensive.

If you are going all the way to Cal, I would try and take in Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon as well. I have never been, but that sure looks like a coupld of things I would like to do.

Just make sure you visit it's a small small world , once you've been on this ride, you'll never forget it.

I'm not sure if I went on that one or not Lanesra - I can't remember ;) .

For the melody, right [img]smile.gif[/img] I always liked the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (although I only went to Paris)

<font color=deepskyblue> That sounds good Jaradu, does that mean i book a ride at a office or the day before to go on a certain ride at 10.00 am and if i turn up at that time I just go to the front of the queue? How bad are the queue's? are you stood in the shade?

Are there any school or national holidays at that time of year I should avoid? I should try and track down a guidebook next week. Davros mentioned smog; this may be a problem as my boy Martin has Asthma badly. Is LA and its surrounds really that bad for pollution these days? </font>

I have been to both. Cali in Oct will be more pleasant than Fl. You must plan your dates as not to visit during the kids out of school week in Oct. You should be able to find that somewhere on the net.

Fast-Pass, see what your travel agent can get for the family fas-pass, and have it included in the deal. Disneyland is older and smaller but you should allow 3 days for a complete visit.

Enjoy

I've only been to Florida, but maybe the tips will still work. Comfortable well-broken-in shoes, thick socks (blister prevention). Book your restaurants well in advance, as you can catch some cool packages if you do. Stretch your legs like a marathon runner before you leave the hotel. Travel light, but prepared (a backpack per person ought to do it).

Still, in California you might not be able to do my one true Disney weakness: The Disney Cruiseline.

It might take 3 years of savings to do one Disney Cruiseline vacation they way you might want to...but once you've done one, nothing else will do. Your face will light up the first time you step aboard the Magic or the Wonder like the first time you tasted chocolate. And the hardest decision is to decide whether to do the theme parks before or after the cruise...!

<font color=pink>Actually guys, fast-pass is when you go to the ride and get a ticket for a time LATER on that ride.

It works like this Well-Say you want to ride on Space Mountain (BEST ride in the park, and they closed it till 2005 [img]tongue.gif[/img] ), so you go to Tomorrow Land and see that the line is 2 and a half hours long (and yes, the lines will be that long, especially Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribean because of the movies), so what you do is go up to a machine and insert your ticket, and it spits out a 'fast-pass' for you to come back to Space Mountain in say, 2 hours. The fast-pass line moves really fast, so do that for every ride.

I go to Disneyland once a year, and have been to the one in Orlando once. SoCal's is better, trust me.

As I mentioned, they're re-doing Space Mountain, so that will be closed, and someone died on Big Thunder Mountain, so that will be closed too, most likely.

The pollution around DL isn't that bad, so I wouldn't worry about it. If you're going in Oct, I wouldn't worry about huge lines and crowds or anything, for most kids that's only the 2nd month of school, and no holidays, except Halloween, but they don't get that off.

Um...what else...ah, it only takes a day to see all of Disneyland, not 3 ;) And stay away from Cali Adventure, it costs the same as it does to get into the park, and fully not worth it [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Ya, since you got the kids, go to Storybook Land and Toontown and they'll be happy. Also be sure to stay long enough to see the Fantasmic show [img]smile.gif[/img]

If I think of anything else, I'll tell you :D </font>