Disneyland Step 1: When to go and Where to stay
You’re going to Disneyland!!!! Hurray!!!!
And now you’re about to be broke…
Ha! Just kidding… well, not really… I think having a well thought out plan for your first trip to Disneyland is so important. We literally spent $8,000 on that first trip (!!!!!). If you’re going to spend that kind of money (or even half that, which you definitely can – we really did it up for this trip…), you want it to be the best time possible. First thing you need to do is book your trip: flights, hotel, park tickets. And you’ll need to do a bit of research to make those first decisions.
There is SO MUCH INFORMATION out there on Disneyland. Blogs, websites, Instagram accounts, podcasts, on and on and on. It’s good to pick a few sources of information and just stick with that. Otherwise, it can get both overwhelming and repetitive. If you’re a planner and obsessive (like me), I highly recommend listening to the Ropedrop & Parkhop podcast and reading the The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland book. Both will get you so excited for the trip and have tons of good tips and lots of details about the rides, restaurants, etc.
You can also use me as a resource and I can plan your vacation to Disneyland for you! I can book all your hotel, park ticket, and dining reservations - plus I will provide you with family specific guidance and advice for your first (or 10th!) trip. Click here to learn more about what it means to hire a (FREE) Travel Planner specializing in Disney vacations.
A really interesting thing about Disneyland is some statistics show that 80% of the visitors on any given day are locals, and just 20% out-of-town visitors. A lot of the blogs and advice given are geared towards that 80% local crowd, since it’s the majority. I think the difference in strategy and planning between the two groups is substantial. As an out-of-towner, you’re visiting for multiple days, staying in a hotel, eating all meals onsite, trying to see everything you can, etc. The local info can be really great and “insider”, but I felt like I was still missing information that was specific to that out-of-town side: what to do for breakfast, how many days should we go, things like that. The Ropedrop & Parkhop podcast, The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland book, and these 6 steps can really fill in that gap.
Here are some additional thoughts regarding when to go & where to stay:
When to Go – Age of your kids:
So now it’s time for you to decide when to go. And this isn’t just about time of year. It’s also about age and height of your kids. Main things to consider are:
Kids under the age of 3 are “guests of Mickey” and are free for both park tickets and character dining experiences
Many rides have a height requirement – if your child is only 38” tall and desperate to ride Radiator Springs Racers (for example), then maybe give it a year (here’s my ride guide for all those specifics)
For our first trip we went when our kids were 5, almost 3 years old (and just 40” tall), and 8 months. In some ways this was the perfect moment to go:
5-year-old was the perfect age, got to experience everything he wanted, and will remember the trip
Almost 3-year-old probably won’t remember a thing, but was free (saving us over $400), and because of his height he could still do most rides
Baby wasn’t crawling yet and was happy to be carried around all day. Plus, he allowed us to use Rider Switch, when available
Now in other ways it was a terrible time to go… my barely potty trained 3-year-old was free; however, I would have spent $400 more if someone had told me that he would have a complete potty-training regression while we were there. I would have waited and gone when he was a bit older. (Or another strategy: wait to potty train until after your trip!) There are plenty of toilets in Disneyland, but the bathrooms themselves are a bit spread out. It can easily be a 5-minute walk to find the potty…
The height factor is another important thing to consider. Here’s the Ride Guide again where you can find all the height requirements to help you determine if you’ll be able to hit everything on your list. For our 2018 trip our kids were too short to ride most of the thrill rides, so this was really a “little kid” trip to Disneyland. In 2022 our kids were tall enough to ride pretty much everything – this trip was really different and super fun. If you think you’ll go to Disney frequently then definitely go when your kids are little and have that fun “little kid” trip. If you think you’ll go less frequently or if you have a little one who is a huge thrill seeker, maybe wait until your kids are big enough to get the most out of your trip.
When to Go – Time of year:
Once you’ve decided it’s the year to go, then pick your week. Now, some families don’t have a lot of flexibility here – you just have to go for spring break (which we have done and it’s totally manageable!). But if you can be more selective, it might be worth your while. The Touring Plans website (which is the partner to The Unofficial Guide book) has a great Crowd Calendar that will estimate how crowded the parks will be on any given day for the next year and will alert you to any special events that you may want to try and avoid. But generally, September is a great month to go. And January, February, and November have some good lower crowd days. Spring Break months, Summer months, October, and December are the busier times. There are significant holiday “overlays” in the months of October through December which might not necessarily make for the best “first trip” experience.
If you must go during a busy time, going for a longer visit (4-5 days) is a good way to manage the crowds. If you can go during a less busy time of year, and your kids are well past the napping age, then you might be able to get away with a 2-3 day visit and stay in the parks for the full day.
Obviously Friday through Sunday are going to be your busiest days of the week, since so many visitors are locals. However, we were there on a Monday and I was surprised to find that it felt just as busy as the days prior. When looking at the Crowd Calendars on the Touring Plan website this suspicion was definitely proven – on average, your quietest days on any given week will be Tuesday-Thursday.
Another thing to check into before you pick your dates are scheduled ride and attraction closures. Disneyland frequently closes certain rides for refurbishment, updates, and other improvements. If there is a ride that is on your MUST DO list then I’d be sure to look into this before booking. However, they only have these dates available so far out – you might just have to take a gamble.
Final thing to consider may be weather. You’re definitely going to have your lowest crowd sizes during months when the weather isn’t going to be as nice. But of course, there’s a risk – I’ve had friends who went in January and February and got rained on the entire time (can you say: atmospheric river?). But they hardly had to wait in any lines! Summer months are going to give you some really hot days, which may add additional challenges to your trip with little ones. When you’re considering temperatures note that it’ll feel about 10 degrees hotter than the actual thermostat says. September might be the perfect time to go – you’ll probably have good weather, and the crowd sizes are lower.
Hopefully all this will help you narrow down the days which make the most sense for your family to visit Disneyland.
Where to Stay:
Next thing to do is pick where you’re going to stay. There are a lot of schools of thought here: VRBO, Off Site Hotel in Anaheim, Off Site Hotel at the beach, On Site Disneyland Resort Hotel… I think this totally depends on your budget, the age of your kids, and what else you may be doing while in LA.
If you have young kids, who will need to go back to the hotel for an afternoon nap, then one of the 3 Disneyland Resort Hotels are your best options. Paradise Pier is the least expensive, but the farthest from the park entrances. The Disneyland Hotel is walkable, but also can be accessed via the Monorail to and from the Tomorrowland station. The Grand Californian is 100% walkable and has its own private entrance into DCA. Keep in mind: if the Monorail is super crowded you may be asked to collapse your stroller… with your sleeping toddler in it…
All 3 hotels give you daily access to Magic Morning, which is such an important feature if you are going to be missing a huge chunk of the afternoon due to naps or exhausted kids. Every day, the parks open 30 minutes early just for people staying at a Disney Resort Hotel. You basically feel like you have the place all to yourselves. Not all rides are open, but for the ones that are, you walk right up and hop on. We rode more rides during that time, than we did from 2pm on.
If you have older kids, and don’t anticipate returning to the hotel during the day then a walkable offsite hotel or a hotel on the ART bus line would be a good way to save a few dollars. In the past, if you purchase at least a 3-Day Park Hopper pass you also got to utilize the Early Entry feature, but just for one day. This perk hasn’t returned since Covid, but there is an expectation that it will at some point. The Ropedrop & Parkhop podcast has a great episode on off property hotels. There are a few that are right along Harbor and the walk into the parks is comparable to the Disney Resort hotels. When we went June 2022 we went this route – I’ll always prefer to be in a resort hotel, but it was fine. We were in the parks from open to close so didn’t mind where we collapsed at the end of the night.
I personally, will always try to avoid the mess of the Disneyland Parking lots. When we were there we had friends from Seattle who happened to be visiting family in Orange County at the same time. They decided to come into Disneyland for 1 day. They left OC first thing, like 7am. But by the time they drove in, parked, took the bus from the parking lot, waited in line, etc. they weren’t into the park until after 10am. At which time the crowds were really starting to build-up. If you’re planning on also doing other things in Southern California during your visit, then I’d suggest staying on-site for just 1-2 nights and then moving hotels to be closer to your other destination: the beach, Universal Studios, the city, etc. That way, you can utilize the Magic Mornings and truly maximize your short time in the parks.
For our first trip, we were taking a trip to the Disneyland parks, and nothing else. We were ready to pay extra to keep the trip easy, so our young kids could enjoy themselves as much as possible. So our options were: Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian. Here’s a little breakdown of these 2 hotels that might be helpful:
Many people love the retro nostalgia of the Disneyland Hotel and don’t mind the extra walking. We don’t mind the extra dollars of the Grand Californian, so for our first trip we opted for that to make the trips in and out of the parks as easy as possible. I will say, it was nice to be so close. We definitely felt like we could pop into the hotel for a bit and get right back into the parks without much hassle. If you can afford it, I honestly don’t know why you’d stay anywhere other than the Grand Californian.
Pool at the Grand Californian
Our April 2022 visit was the first time our boys were able to stay in the parks all day – I think we’ll try the Disneyland Hotel for our next family visit since we won’t need to head back to the hotel mid-day.
We aren’t rolling in dough, however, so we were only booking one room with 2 queen beds. This is normally not my favorite way to travel, but we were so exhausted at the end of the day it didn’t matter that we were crammed into such a small room. I would still stay in a small room at the Grand Californian over a bigger room at another hotel, just for the location and Early Entry access.
How long to go for:
Final thing you must decide is: how long to go for? When we were planning our first trip to Disneyland I got a lot of advice telling me to plan an afternoon rest or nap back at the hotel each day. I thought this was totally crazy and we wouldn’t do this at all. But I blindly trusted and we decided to go for a longer visit, with little to no park time planned for the afternoons. I’m so glad we followed this advice because by 1 or 2pm we had been in the parks for 6-7 hours!!!! We were really ready for a break.
If you have kids who are even remotely napping still – like they don’t nap in their beds but if you took a car ride at 2pm they’d pass out, then you should bank on the fact that they’re going to be exhausted and need a break in the afternoons. Now if they’re your youngest, you may just plan on stroller naps. But even for the big kids it’s nice to break things up with an afternoon at the pool. I’ve heard it said that nothing good happens in Disneyland from 2-5pm – I totally agree!
If this is your strategy, then I think you need at least 3 full days in the park – 2 days for Disneyland and 1 day for California Adventure. We even add a 4th half day and leave late in the afternoon on our last day. This route gives you the opportunity to have a nice pace to your trip – not too relaxed, but not too rushed. If you want to go at a super leisurely pace, 4-5 full days would be luxurious!
If you’re certain you don’t need that afternoon rest, or if you just want to keep your costs down, you could hammer out most of the place in 2-2.5 days. Anything less than 2 days will put you in a position of having to eliminate some things from your trip.
You can book your hotel, tickets, park reservations (and dinner reservations) through me and my work with ConciEARS, an Authorized Disney Travel Planning company. Again, there’s absolutely no extra cost to do this and I will provide your family with a personal touch and all my expertise - this is so valuable when you’re booking such an expensive trip. Click here to contact me. You can also do all this yourself through the Disneyland website.
If you’re looking to find some discounted Park tickets, they are out there – best thing I have found was $100 off (in total). This didn’t seem worth it to me because I wasn’t 100% confident in the source of the tickets. It just felt more secure and tidy to have everything booked in one place.
When you book your hotel, you’ll also purchase your tickets for the parks (including Park Hoppers and Genie+; if that sounds like Latin to you skip to step 4). You can also add some limited ground transportation options. Later, you’ll need to make your specific park reservations. You can add on some of these things later, but if you have all that information at the time of booking it definitely makes things easier. Fly into John Wayne Airport (SNA) or Longbeach (LGB) if you can, they’re much closer than LAX. If you’re only doing Disney then I highly recommend avoiding a car rental and utilizing some sort of shuttle, car service or uber/taxi.
Great! You’ve booked your trip – Step 1 to planning your first trip to Disneyland is done!
