December 2015 Disneyland trip planning

Great choice!! Disneyland ROCKS!!

We went for the first time in March and we had three full park days. It was enough to see everything, but we were fortunate to hit very low crowds. We also took the afternoon of our third day to do the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour. I could have easily done a 4th or maybe even a 5th day. DH was satisfied with 3, but he would have stayed longer if given the opportunity. We we did one day at California Adventure plus two Magic Mornings (like EMH) and two days at Disneyland.

I'd get tickets as soon as you know how many days you need. There SHOULDN'T be another price increase between now and then, but you never know! Also, I often skip park hopper at WDW, but I would absolutely always get it at Disneyland because it's so easy to hop. There's only one bag check for the whole concourse area and the park entrances are maybe 30 yards apart.

Dining seems a hair more expensive than WDW, but it depends on where you eat. If you use Disney gift cards to save up, be aware that you can't use them at DTD restaurants (except for ESPN). We could use them in both parks at every location that we tried.

We're DVC, so we did stay at Grand Californian just because it didn't cost me any more out of pocket than I already pay for the membership. BUT, if we were not DVC owners, I would choose a good neighbor hotel. Anything across the street from Disneyland is a super easy walk no matter where on the block the hotel is located. The only bad thing about good neighbor is that you don't get as many magic hours/magic morning opportunities, but there's a HUGE cost savings. If I was going to stay onsite and pay cash, I would probably choose Disneyland Hotel. It's the mid-priced hotel and it has a lot more character than Paradise Pier along with an awesome pool area and a super neat monorail water slide. (Disclaimer: I loved Grand Californian, but there's pretty much nowhere that it worth $400+ per night to me.)

There's a link to our trip report in my signature. Any more questions, just ask. We absolutely loved DL and can't wait to do it again. I hope you have an awesome trip!

I was just there the beginning of last month. We stayed at the Ramada Maingate which is across Harbor Blvd. It was a nice motel and the walk wasn't too bad even at the end of a "Disney" day. We were there 6 days but only went to the parks 4 days. I could have spent another day or 2 in the parks. The crowds weren't too bad and we used the single rider line where we could so the waits weren't too bad. I bought our tickets through the company that MouseSavers recommends - I got concerned about the voucher but had absolutely no problem trading it in for the tickets.
I agree with alicemouse about buying tickets as soon as you figure out how many days.
There are a lot of hotels on Harbor Blvd that are as close to the parks as the Disneyland Hotel.