Visiting “The Happiest Place on Earth” for the first time can be a little overwhelming. It’s hard to know how many days to go, where to eat, what to focus on, and how not to burn out. Here are some tips and tricks to help you plan your first trip to Disneyland.
Purchase a Multi-Day Park Hopper Ticket.
Going to Disneyland and California Adventure for multiple days helps you not feel rushed to do everything you want to. When you go only 1 or 2 days to the parks, you will feel torn between riding rides and watching shows. Going for 3 or more days helps the trip to feel more relaxed. Buying a Park Hopper allows you to go back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure starting at 1:00 pm. If you are in Fantasyland and are wanting to ride Guardians of the Galaxy in Avengers Campus, you are able to go straight over and fulfill your heart’s desire. You will feel more relaxed about taking the time to meet characters, watch shows, or even riding your favorites rides again.
Plan Rest Days
While going to the parks for multiple days is a lot of fun and relaxing, it can also make you feel exhausted and your feet to feel extremely tired. It is important to add a couple rest days into your trip. You and your whole family will be much happier and enjoy the days at the parks more. Taking one or two rest days during your trip helps you rejuvenate for the rest of the days at the parks. The rest days are a great time to spend at the pool and to explore your hotel. My family and I also use rest days to do a little shopping at Downtown Disney or do one of the Character Dinings at one of the Disney Resort Hotels. After your rest day, your family will be ready to go back to the parks energized for the next day.
Take a Break During the Day
If you are staying at a Disneyland Resort Hotel or one of the good neighbor hotels, going back to the hotel during the middle of the day can make a world of difference. It doesn’t matter if you are a kid or an adult, a mid-day break during the hottest part of the day will help you be able to stay at the park until closing. My suggestion to you is to be at the park at opening then after lunch head back to your hotel and rest for an hour or two and then go back to the parks to enjoy the evening and night. Your family will thank you for suggesting to take the break.
Mobile Order Food
Disneyland is a very busy park so there are a lot of lines, mobile ordering your food will save you from standing in another line. You are able to mobile order at the majority of the quick service restaurants throughout both parks. Keep in mind a lot of people mobile order around lunch time, so make sure you plan ahead. Otherwise you will be eating a late lunch. Don’t wait until you are hungry to order food because there is a chance the next time that would be available is a couple hours from now. If you know where you are wanting to eat, order your food an hour or two before you are actually wanting to eat. Then your food will be ready when you are. Another suggestion is after you place your order and you are ready to press the button to tell them you are there, make sure you are in the area of the restaurant before you press that button. You don’t want to be clear across the park and your food to be ready and getting cold because you weren’t near by. If you are not tech savvy or no restaurant has a time available when you want to eat, you are able to do a walk up order at each of the restaurants. Mobile order can save you some time if you plan ahead a little bit.
Research Restaurant Menus Before Your Trip
Before you head to Disneyland, check out the restaurants and their menus on the Disneyland website or app. Make a list of the restaurants you would like to eat at most. This will help save you time while you are in the park trying to decide if a restaurant has anything you would like to eat. Disney constantly is changing the menus at the restaurants, so make sure to check back to see if the menus have changed. On the Disneyland website and app, they also have the plant based and allergy options for the restaurants.
Take Your Time
While you are at the parks don’t rush from ride to ride. Take your time and enjoy every moment. You will stumble across characters, little shows, and other magical moments if you take your time going through the parks. Even grabbing a snack and sitting on a bench and people watching is a magical feeling. You never know what you will stumble across when you are sauntering through the parks. I can’t tell you how many little shows or characters I have come across just taking my time. It will be a less stressful experience and you will have wonderful memories from it.
Animation Academy
While walking around you stumble across some of the parks hidden gems like the Animation Academy in California Adventure. Inside this air-conditioned building they have drawings of animated movies on giant screens that you can sit down on the floor and watch. They also have animation classes throughout the day where they teach you how to draw a character. If you love “Finding Nemo”, they also have a show inside the building called “Turtle Talk with Crush”, where you get to interact with Crush on a screen. The Beast’s library from “Beauty and the Beast” has taken up residence in the building. Here you can take a quiz to see which character you are most like. If you go down the ramp, you will head into a magical room called "The Sorcerer's Workshop" where you can interact with cartoons and make them come to life.
Watch Parades and Shows
Throughout the year at the Disneyland Resort they have parades and shows. Make sure you see what ever parade or show is happening while you are there. Not only are they fun to watch, it is also a great time to give your feet and legs a rest from walking. Before the parades begin, I would suggest getting a seat on the route. You can ask a cast member where the parade is going to go and they will give you some suggestions on the best spot to see the parade. For the fireworks, I recommend standing in front of the castle at the end of Main Street. Here you will get a great view of the fireworks and the projections on the castle. If you take the time to watch the parades or shows you won’t regret it.
Meet Characters
Characters walk all around both Disneyland and California Adventure throughout the day. Sometimes they will have designated times and places where you can get photos and autographs with the characters. These designated times and places can be found on the Disneyland app. But be aware that the app does not show times and places for all of the characters. The ones that are not shown on the app, will just be walking around and you can go up and talk to them. A great memory saver is purchasing an autograph book from one of the stores throughout the park. You will then be able to get the autographs of all of the characters that you meet.
Purchase Photo Pass
The Photo Pass at Disneyland allows you to get professional photos taken by the Disney Photographers around the park. When you purchase the Photo Pass you also get all of the on ride photos. There are so many photo spots throughout both parks that are magical and make for some of the best pictures. The cast members also have you do fun poses and also sometimes add a special element called "Magic Shots" to the photo when they send it to you. You are able to access all of your photos from the Disneyland app. These photos are a perfect way to capture memories from your trip.
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