Home from a very fun 8 day California vacation. We had planned to do this vacation 15 months ago, but as you know a lot of plans have been ruined in the last 2 years. Once Disneyland reopened, I immediately started planning the trip. I was so eager to get Leo there before the "magic" wears off. Originally, when we planned the trip he was really into the movie Cars. I was a little sad that he wasn't as mesmerized by Cars land as I wanted him to be. But Avengers land put that magic and sparkle in his eye. I am so glad we were able to take him before he got too old. I am sharing a few tips and tricks for traveling to Disneyland and what I would recommend.
The most asked question I got was "how crowded is it?" I was happy to report it wasn't bad, but I made sure I picked days called "ghost town" days. There are quite a few crowd forecast calendars that outline when Disneyland is least packed. From what I read September is typically pretty quiet at Disneyland with school being back in session etc. We opted to go Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The crowds definitely increased on Thursday. This is the crowd calendar I used called isitpacked.com. They do a crowd calendar for all sorts of parks not just Disneyland so I recommend checking that out. *If you go in the fall make sure you find out when the Halloween bash is. California Adventure closes down early a few days a week for an extra Halloween-ticketed event. Because of this, we did the park hopper pass every day which I loved.
The next thing we did was to make sure we got to either Disneyland or California Adventure AT 7:50AM! BEFORE THE GATES OPENED. Based on the ride times I had seen on the app the day prior I picked what rides we wanted to do early. Both Disneyland and California Adventure were literally Ghost Towns during the first 2 hours at the park. We got there early and rode as many rides as we could, usually about 10 in the first 2 hours. I didn't stop for any castle pictures or anything, we booked it to the rides. The longest line we waited in the entire trip was Cars (40 mins) and Splash Mountain (35 Mins).
The next thing we did was to make sure we got to either Disneyland or California Adventure AT 7:50AM! BEFORE THE GATES OPENED. Based on the ride times I had seen on the app the day prior I picked what rides we wanted to do early. Both Disneyland and California Adventure were literally Ghost Towns during the first 2 hours at the park. We got there early and rode as many rides as we could, usually about 10 in the first 2 hours. I didn't stop for any castle pictures or anything, we booked it to the rides. The longest line we waited in the entire trip was Cars (40 mins) and Splash Mountain (35 Mins).
Other Tips-
STROLLER- We rented a double stroller because we knew Leo wouldn't walk all day. Our double stroller didn't fit Disneyland guidelines so we had to rent one. Warning DO NOT RENT DISNEYLAND STROLLERS unless you want your kid sitting on hard plastic all day. They looked so uncomfortable. You can do stroller rentals through websites like BabyQuip but we opted to go to a place where we could physically pick our stroller up. It was across the street from Disneyland in a hotel so it was easy. We rented our stroller from HERE!
HEIGHT- I learned they are very strict about height. Monroe was right on the edge of 4o inches but I figured there wouldn't be any issues. I was kidding myself. They measured her MULTIPLE times on every single ride. So make sure at home your child a certain height and measure them with shoes on etc. I found that I needed to put Monroe's hair in a little topknot and that helped us get that little extra .25 to take us on all the fun rides. I think if she wasn't 40 inches that experience would have been really different. One of us always would have been sitting rides out. So in hindsight, I'm so glad we pushed this trip back a year because we never could have taken her on the fun ones like Cars, Splash Mountain, Soarin'.
LINE ACTIVITIES - I made sure to pack some fun things in my bags for lines, everyone's favorite was silly putty. I also packed pop its, little finger lights for at night or rides that were indoors, dum dum suckers, and little matchbox cars. I am proud to say Monroe only got our phone ONE time and that was at 8:30pm at night when we had been in line for the Spiderman ride when it broke down and we almost waited an hour.
PHOTO PASS- We bought the photo pass for the first 2 days. This was great because they have photographers all over the park taking photos. I loved that not a single time did I have to ask a stranger for a family photo. All the photos were immediately uploaded onto the app. This was such a great add on!
STROLLER- We rented a double stroller because we knew Leo wouldn't walk all day. Our double stroller didn't fit Disneyland guidelines so we had to rent one. Warning DO NOT RENT DISNEYLAND STROLLERS unless you want your kid sitting on hard plastic all day. They looked so uncomfortable. You can do stroller rentals through websites like BabyQuip but we opted to go to a place where we could physically pick our stroller up. It was across the street from Disneyland in a hotel so it was easy. We rented our stroller from HERE!
HEIGHT- I learned they are very strict about height. Monroe was right on the edge of 4o inches but I figured there wouldn't be any issues. I was kidding myself. They measured her MULTIPLE times on every single ride. So make sure at home your child a certain height and measure them with shoes on etc. I found that I needed to put Monroe's hair in a little topknot and that helped us get that little extra .25 to take us on all the fun rides. I think if she wasn't 40 inches that experience would have been really different. One of us always would have been sitting rides out. So in hindsight, I'm so glad we pushed this trip back a year because we never could have taken her on the fun ones like Cars, Splash Mountain, Soarin'.
LINE ACTIVITIES - I made sure to pack some fun things in my bags for lines, everyone's favorite was silly putty. I also packed pop its, little finger lights for at night or rides that were indoors, dum dum suckers, and little matchbox cars. I am proud to say Monroe only got our phone ONE time and that was at 8:30pm at night when we had been in line for the Spiderman ride when it broke down and we almost waited an hour.
PHOTO PASS- We bought the photo pass for the first 2 days. This was great because they have photographers all over the park taking photos. I loved that not a single time did I have to ask a stranger for a family photo. All the photos were immediately uploaded onto the app. This was such a great add on!
Overall it was a great trip! A few other things we enjoyed was a pair of flip flops in our stroller for the water rides. I packed a big backpack with an extra set of clothes for each kid and snacks. I also then had a fanny pack for when I rode the rides to keep my phone and wallet. Also be sure you pack at least 2 pair of tennis shoes and break them in at home.
I think the biggest take away was I had to change my expectations. At first I wanted to hit all the rides I remembered, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mtn, Space Mtn, but then I realized this wasn't my trip it was a trip for the kids. So if they wanted to go on small world twice in a row then great. We rode smaller roller coaster in Toon Town like 5 times and Ariel at least 4 times. I know there will be a time in our lives when all we will do is the big rides. So while they are little I tried to enjoy Small World all 6 times we went on it:)
Happy Disney Travels,
Jess
I think the biggest take away was I had to change my expectations. At first I wanted to hit all the rides I remembered, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mtn, Space Mtn, but then I realized this wasn't my trip it was a trip for the kids. So if they wanted to go on small world twice in a row then great. We rode smaller roller coaster in Toon Town like 5 times and Ariel at least 4 times. I know there will be a time in our lives when all we will do is the big rides. So while they are little I tried to enjoy Small World all 6 times we went on it:)
Happy Disney Travels,
Jess
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