Welcome to Ask The Duchess – Vol. 68, a monthly Q&A post covering a variety of resort-related topics. Ask The Duchess answers questions submitted by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, send me a message here.
1. Can I split up my park ticket over two half days instead of one full day? (submitted by Rainn)
Unfortunately no – once you enter the park, that is your day to use that ticket. It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend in the park that day – you’ve used it.
2. If I stay at a Disney hotel, do they offer the minivan service with the polka dot vans like in Disney World? (submitted by Gail)
The Disneyland Resort doesn’t have any sort of minivan service. It’s a much more walkable resort than Disney World. But if you have mobility issues and need help getting around, contact guest services either at your hotel or at the park and they can definitely help you.
3. How far of a drive is Disneyland from Palm Springs? (submitted by Muriel)
Depending on traffic, the drive should typically be about 90 minutes to 2 hours.
4. Are you a Disneyland local? How do you get to the park so often? (submitted by Eileen)
I’m not a local, but I do live in California so it’s not super hard to get to Disneyland. When I lived closer, I would visit monthly. But now that I have to plan a flight to get there, I typically visit once every six months or so – and a bit less than that in the last year due to life just getting in the way!
5. How would you compare the international parks to the US ones? (submitted by Frank)
I’ve never been to any of the international parks, so I can’t weigh in unfortunately. From the pictures I’ve seen, Tokyo DisneySea looks INSANE though. Google it – it doesn’t even look like a theme park. It’s incredible.
So glad you enjoyed it. Excuse the typos/misspellings which I’ve just noticed on revisiting what I wrote!
Here is one of my MJ blog pieces about the experience of visiting the different parks to see Eo. The personal visits part commences about half way through the article.
https://kerryhennigan.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/he-came-to-change-our-world-chasing-michael-jackson-across-the-continents-and-disney-parks/
In terms of the international parks, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to visit all of them over the past decade or more (excluding Disneyland in Anaheim which I first visited in 1975 and each year thereafter for approximately 20 years on annual visits to the US). But beginning in 2010 I visited Disneyland Paris, catching the Eurostar from London, prompted by the return of Captain Eo attraction, which I would also see when I got around to California – the last stop on that same round-the-world trip. For the same reason (seeing Captain Eo while it was still screening) I went to Disneyland Tokyo and Disney Sea in 2014 (YES, they’re THE BEST!) and finally got to Disney World in Florida in 2015 before CE closed. In between I had been to Hong Kong DL on that 2010 trip, and again a couple more times when stopping in HK on stop-overs at the start or end of longer trips. In 2019 I went to Shanghai because my AFL football team was playing a match there, and finished the visit with a stay at the Disney resort. Shanghai is HUGE, and it was hot, and I quickly tired walking around in the sun. But it’s great, and their Pirates of The Caribbean is INCREDIBLE. I had another visit to Hong Kong on the way home from Helsinki in October 2019, having the Halloween experience there. HK is a small park, but at the end of an overseas trip, that suited me fine, and I took in some events and re-road some rides I might otherwise never have done, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I really like their Mystic Manor – which they have instead of the usual Haunted Mansion. It’s quite different from the latter.
This is an awesome recap Kerry, thank you! I’ve heard that the Shanghai Pirates is absolutely incredible. So glad you got to see it!