Disneyland: 10 Tips for a Perfect Trip
Our first trip to Disneyland was perfection! We went for 5 full days… and I could have stayed for 5 more. I can just see some of your shocked faces as you’re reading these words. I realize this is an unusual attitude to have after a trip to Disneyland with 3 boys under the age of 6. I have a friend who went last year and really didn’t have a good time – I think this can be a common experience. I thought it might be useful to share some of our takeaways in the hopes that it would make your visit equally amazing. Here are my top 10 tips for a great trip to the parks. But pop over to my main Disneyland Planning Steps Homepage for all the steps for a well-planned trip to Disneyland.
1. Limit yourself to just a few sources of information when researching and planning your trip
There is SO MUCH INFORMATION out there on Disneyland. Blogs, websites, Instagram accounts, on and on and on. It’s good to pick one or two sources of information and just stick with that. Otherwise, it can get both overwhelming and repetitive.
I like these great sources:
Ropedrop & Parkhop podcast. These ladies are super fun and a wealth of information on Disneyland. My kids even love listening to their episodes each week – it got them very excited for our upcoming trip.
The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland book and accompanying Touring Plans website – this book and website are robust, and really dive deep into the nitty-gritty details of Disneyland. I particularly like the part where the advise you to physically train for your trip by taking long walks with your family – ha ha! But if you want to really get into the weeds, this book is great. And having access to their Touring Plan tool on the website is helpful if you want to plan your days in the park in more detail.
Or better yet, hire a Travel Planner to do all the work for you! I work with ConciEARS, a travel agency specializing in Disney vacations and I’d be happy to help you plan your vacation. The team at ConciEARS has years of travel and planning experience and their services are FREE to you! We can book your hotel, park tickets, dining, special experiences, and provide you with tailored advice for your trip. Contact me to begin planning your Disney vacation.
And finally, the Disneyland Website and Mobile App are obviously very important resources for your trip!
2. Don’t be afraid to skip Disneyland this year
This trip is going to cost you big bucks, no matter how you slice it. You may be chomping at the bit to take this vacation, but make sure it’s the most optimal time for your family to go. There are important things to consider here: age of your kids, height of your kids, time of year you can take the trip. Your vacation is going to be so much better if your kids are old enough and tall enough to enjoy the attractions they want to ride. Also, if you can go during a time of year when the parks are less busy, your trip will be better.
If your family is really itching for some Disney, maybe consider a trip to Aulani or a Disney Cruise instead. Then tackle the parks when everyone is big enough to enjoy the experience.
My post on When to Go and Where to Stay has some other food-for-thought on this topic.
3. If your kids are still napping, plan a longer vacation
When we were planning our trip people told us that we should return to the hotel each afternoon for rest, naps, and pool time. I thought they were crazy! But this was absolutely right.
Even for older kids, who no longer nap, a break from the park action in the busy afternoons is really nice. Disneyland is an incredibly overwhelming place for kids. If this sounds right for your family (and you can swing it financially) try to go for more days, and just plan on being in the parks in the mornings and evenings. 3-4 days for your vacation will allow you to have this balance (we actually like 3.5 park days). 2-2.5 days is all you need if you think you can power through the entire day.
This is of course an option too:
4. Stay onsite at a Disneyland Resort Hotel so you can enjoy Early Entry each day
Early Entry is that magical half-hour each day where only certain guests can enter the parks 30 minutes before the general public. This is available every day to anyone staying in one of the Disneyland Resort Hotels: Paradise Pier, Disneyland Hotel, Grand Californian.
That early extra time is truly Magical. 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 in that half hour, than we did from 2pm on.
5. Create a “General” Daily Itinerary for each of your days in the park
Early on in your planning process use this guide to create rough plans for how you’re going to spend your days in the park: General Itinerary Chart – Blank
Read my post on Research & Planning to see how we utilized these plans.
But this is a great way to make sure you are planning enough time for all the things you want to hit during your visit. It will also help you make smart dining reservations, when that time comes. You’ll know that you’re going to be in Frontierland around lunch on your second day, so that’s the best day for lunch reservations at Café Orleans!
Later, when you get closer to your trip, use the Touring Plans website to create more detailed ride itineraries. Then follow those plans on the accompanying App when you’re in the parks each day. Here are my tips on creating Personal Touring Plans for your family’s vacation. Having these will save you HOURS in line wait times.
6. Make Dining Reservations
Having dinner reservations (and even lunch reservations in some cases) is a MUST at Disneyland. Wait times for restaurants can be an hour or more and sometimes even so long that they’ll just turn you away. If you want to eat at a restaurant that takes reservations, you have to make them. This is true for lunch and dinner. There are plenty of other options at non-reservation (quick service) restaurants and you can fill-in with those – plus many have mobile ordering. We make dinner reservations for most nights and do 1 or 2 lunch ones as well. Otherwise, we use mobile ordering, pop in for a corn dog, or do something else quick and easy.
Reservations can be made 60 days out on the Disneyland App. We like to do 11:30 for lunch and 5:30 for dinner, just to avoid the crowds. Plus, you’ll be waking up so early, you’ll be hungry earlier than usual. Be sure to eat in California Adventure or Downtown Disney if a glass of wine is required at your meals – for the most part there’s no booze in Disneyland!
7. Bring your breakfast in your suitcase!
Pack an already baked frozen zucchini or banana bread, blueberries, bananas, dry cereal, and granola bars in a grocery cooler bag in one of your suitcases. Also throw in a small cutting board, knife (check this bag!), zip locs, and these disposable bento boxes. Each day we got our kids dressed, threw them in the stroller, plopped their breakfast on their laps, and off we went! They ate as we rolled through security and into the parks. As our kids have gotten older, a little baggie of breakfast cereal is just the thing to keep them busy as we wait at rope drop. It was so nice to avoid stopping somewhere (and wait in another line) for some sub-par breakfast. It was also nice to avoid wasting any of that Magic Morning time at a restaurant. I just threw the containers away and started with fresh ones each day. If your hotel has a continental breakfast, still bring the containers and just use their food for your on-the-go breakfast.
Read my post on Dining in Disneyland for some other great tips about the food we loved, making reservations, and snacks!
8. Spring for Genie+
Ok… here comes the lingo:
Genie+ costs a minimum of an extra $25 per day, per ticket – but it’s totally worth it! This great feature allows you to book your Lightning Lane ride reservations right on your mobile device, using the Disneyland App. It also gives you free access to all photos taken of you in the parks by Disneyland photographers via PhotoPass, as well as attraction shots (you don’t want to go home without a copy of your face before the big drop on Guardians of the Galaxy!).
One person can load all the tickets on their device and manage all the Lightning Lanes from one place. You can begin booking your Lightning Lane reservations as soon as you enter the parks, but they aren’t available during Early Entry. You can hold one Lightning Lane at a time and book your next one either the moment you “cash in” the one you have or 2 hours after your last Lightning Lane was booked. When you book your Lightning Lane it’ll give you a time to return – but insider tip: you can show up 5 minutes before through 1 hour & 15 minutes after! Finally, you can only ride an attraction once per day using a Lightning Lane.
Individual Lightning Lanes are available for the big-ticket attractions and cost an additional fee to skip the line – somewhere between $15 and $25 per person. And don’t forget to use Rider Switch with these Lightning Lanes!
OK, don’t panic! If you feel like the above was written in Latin, read my Learn the Lingo post to educate yourself on all of these important Disneyland terms.
9. Don’t be afraid to bring the baby – she’ll give you access to Rider Switch!
We brought our 8-month-old with us on our first visit and he was a dream (especially compared to the potty-trained-regressing 2-year-old…). He spent the entire time in the Ergo 360, sleeping or facing out, he loved the It’s a Small World ride, and he scored his big brother’s access to the Rider Switch feature.
I like to think of Rider Switch as the Disneyland version of taking turns, but in this case it’s mom and dad who do the sharing. I would stay with the baby while my husband and 2 older sons did a ride, then we would switch, husband would stay with the baby and it would be my turn for the ride. But the 2 older boys got to ride with me again, completely skipping all lines!
Rider Switch is such a great thing that Disneyland does for families with small kids. It also gave us grown-ups a chance to ride the big scary rides, each parent taking a turn with the kids.
10. Don’t forget to pack…
…Biggest stroller you own (but less than 31″ wide and 52″ long, and no wagons), plus a unique ribbon tied to it for easy locating
…Retractable Permanent Markers
…Dum-dum lollipops
…Fanny Pack or Cross-body bag instead of a back pack
…Heads Up Kids! App for your phone
…Wet wipes, wet wipes, wet wipes
…Tons of zip loc bags
For more ideas and the reason for some of these odd things check out my What to Pack post
