1) LAX (The Los Angeles International Airport) is not the only airport in the LA area. And not only is it by far the most crowded, it isn't the closest to either Disneyland or Universal Studios Hollywood, though certainly it will have the most flight options.
For Universal Studios, your options are LAX (27 miles away) or the Bob Hope Airport (BUR) in Burbank, California (6 miles away).
For Disneyland, you have a few options: LAX (35 miles away), the Long Beach Airport (LGB) (18 miles away), or the John Wayne Orange County Airport (SNA) (14 miles away). You could also even fly into/out of the Bob Hope Airport (BUR), even though it's 5 miles farther away than LAX, because the route is less congested with traffic.
Of course, although time spent in traffic (I would recommend taking a car rather than renting one, personally, as driving in LA traffic and parking at the parks themselves might lead to rising blood pressure) is a major factor, cost and convenience are others. As mentioned, LAX is the largest of all of these airports and features a ton of airlines coming in every hour. That means it is most likely the cheapest option, even considering the slightly more expensive carfare.
Note that, if you fly into either LAX or the John Wayne Orange County Airport (SNA), you can also take the Disneyland Resort Express for a fee. It's cheaper from SNA because it's closer to the parks, but because the fee is per person, it will often still be cheaper to take either a taxi or a car.
2) Never buy your tickets at the gate if you can help it. It takes extra time, plus you can find discounts online. I recommend Park Savers.
Note that if you purchase your tickets ahead of time through Park Savers, you'll need to print out your confirmation to pick up your Disneyland tickets at the park itself, and you'll need to actually print out your tickets at home before you head to Universal Studios Hollywood.
3) For Disneyland, buy Park Hopper tickets unless you're absolutely certain you won't hop between the parks. The parks are so close to each other (and they're not crazy big) that you'll likely want the option.
In my experience, if you want to see absolutely everything in both parks and don't have little ones to worry about, three (days) is the magic number. If, however, you are traveling only with other adults or teenagers and you don't need to see absolutely everything, two days are enough.
Each additional day becomes less expensive, though, and Park Savers often runs a "fifth day free" promotion. Plus, if you're not staying at one of the three Disneyland properties, Park Savers' 3-, 4-, and 5-day packages each include one "Magic Morning," or an hour's early admission to either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park, depending on the day. This is the same perk you'd get if you were staying on site. Here is the schedule:
- Disneyland Park: Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays
- Disney California Adventure Park (including access to Cars Land): Sundays
- You won't get the option, unlike on-site, to enter Disney California Adventure Park on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays, but it's still a nice perk.
4) For Universal Studios Hollywood, unless you're planning to spend more than one day at the park, the Front of Line Pass is very much worth it. These passes allow you to skip to the front of the line for each of the rides/attractions and access reserved seating for each of the shows and thus ensure that you can see the entire park (which isn't very large, especially as compared to either of the Disneyland parks) in one day.
You can only use the pass once for each ride/attraction. My tip would be to arrive at the park when it opens and go immediately to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to hop in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff, and/or Ollivanders without the crowd. You can then save your Front of Line Pass for later on in the day and skip right past the 180-minute line in about 15 minutes or less.
You'll probably have plenty of time after that to wait in the normal line for other rides as well, so use and save those Front of Line Pass uses wisely.
As a note, Universal Studios Hollywood does also have an "early opening," but you have to buy your tickets through their website in order to gain access. We used Park Savers, so I have no idea whether all of the rides (and Ollivander's, which had a 20-minute wait by the time we got there right at the regular park opening time) are operational the full hour beforehand, but that's another option for tickets.
5) If you're planning to return a few times, either to the Disneyland parks or the Disney World parks, you might want to consider an annual pass.
The math can be quite complicated. I'll include a few simple points below, but I'd recommend you peruse either Theme Park Insider or Touring Plans for much more comprehensive analyses of the pros and cons.
You can only use the pass once for each ride/attraction. My tip would be to arrive at the park when it opens and go immediately to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to hop in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff, and/or Ollivanders without the crowd. You can then save your Front of Line Pass for later on in the day and skip right past the 180-minute line in about 15 minutes or less.
You'll probably have plenty of time after that to wait in the normal line for other rides as well, so use and save those Front of Line Pass uses wisely.
As a note, Universal Studios Hollywood does also have an "early opening," but you have to buy your tickets through their website in order to gain access. We used Park Savers, so I have no idea whether all of the rides (and Ollivander's, which had a 20-minute wait by the time we got there right at the regular park opening time) are operational the full hour beforehand, but that's another option for tickets.
5) If you're planning to return a few times, either to the Disneyland parks or the Disney World parks, you might want to consider an annual pass.
The math can be quite complicated. I'll include a few simple points below, but I'd recommend you peruse either Theme Park Insider or Touring Plans for much more comprehensive analyses of the pros and cons.
- You'll have a chance to upgrade your normal park tickets to an annual pass if you go to the window and complete the conversion before the gates close on the last day of your trip. So if you're not sure and want to mull it over during your trip, you'll have the opportunity. Your park tickets won't be a sunk cost.
- From a purely park-ticket-to-park-ticket perspective, if you don't live in or near LA or Orlando and aren't dedicated to returning to the parks several times in one year, it is most likely not cheaper to get a pass. This is especially true if you don't plan to drive to the parks, either because you're staying within walking distance (true in Anaheim) or because you're staying on-site (likely true in Orlando), because one of the major savings people seem to tout for these passes is free parking.
- Beware of blackout dates. A couple of the tiers of Disneyland passes come with blackout dates attached. They make sense from the parks' perspective, but if you're not flexible on times you want to visit (or if you want to go over a major holiday), make sure you pay for a tier priced highly enough that you won't be impacted.
- There's an option, in my opinion probably the best deal, provided you are planning to visit both parks, to upgrade to a Premier Passport. This grants you access to both Anaheim parks and all of the parks in Orlando, including the waterparks—which isn't the case at all tiers of Disney World annual passes. And there are no blackout dates.
- An annual pass entitles you to varying levels of discounts on select dining and merchandise. All passes are not created equal, however—the lower tiers of annual passes will give you less of a discount.
- An annual pass will sometimes provide you access to special members-only events or merchandise. If you're a big Disney (or now, Star Wars) fan or collector, this perk might be worth it for you.
- Keep in mind that there are ways to take advantage of some of these perks while still being economical. For example, only one annual passholder would be required per car to take advantage of the free parking, and if the one annual passholder in your party (and especially your family because that would be only natural) pays for the merchandise (and you Venmo or Paypal or write a check to them), you'd all benefit from whatever discount they receive.
Other Disney and Universal Studios Posts:
Need a place to stay? Near Disneyland
What should you pack? For Disney
