One night and two days at Disneyland/California Adventure Enough?

I did Disneyland in one day. It was an exhausting day but proof that it can be done. And more impressively, I did it during Memorial Day weekend, which, other than Christmas, is Disneyland's busiest time.

If you're smart, you can plan out which rides you'll go on in a pattern. Disney makes this rather easy with the "Timepass" system. You enter your park pass-card and the machine produces an appointment card for the corresponding ride, giving you a 15 minute guaranteed priority. If you come back within 15 minutes of your scheduled ride-time, you can go through a special line and bypass all the regular people.

The catch is that you can't hold appointments for more than one ride at once. But the windows they give you are reasonable and allow for you to do something else while you wait for the time to arrive. An excellent plan is to find an area with two or three attractions you'd like to ride, get the Quickpass for one, then wait in line for the others. By the time you get through the normal line, it'll be time to go priority on the other. Then when both are finished, you're free to begin the process again.

This service is free to all park-goers but you'd be surprised how many people ignore it. My girlfriend and I managed to go on ALL the rides on one day, see all but two attractions (we weren't interested in those two) and do some shopping/eating in between. And this was on Memorial Day weekend, Saturday, recall. So it IS possible if you're good.

My advice would be to get appointments for Indiana Jones, definitely. There are three different "paths" the ride can take and just because you did it once doesn't mean it's the same thing next time around. But the lines for it are always huge. Get the pass for Indy, then go wait in line for the nearby Jungle Cruise thing. It's an amusing, picturesque ride and you get to sit down and relax the entire time.

When I went to Disneyland in 2002, California Adventure had just been finished but wasn't yet open, so I can't offer advice on that place. Area-wise, I know it's sorta small, so you can probably spend half a day there and finish your afternoon and evening at Downtown Disney, which is more enthralling than you may suspect. Also, the cineplex there is air-conditioned and perfect in the sweltering heat. My girlfriend and I saw Star Wars: Episode II for the first time there.

I'd say it CAN be done in 2 days, but you'll be rushing yourselves. 3 days would be ideal so that you don't leave wondering if you missed something really cool.

Jam it back in, in the dark.