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Getting the most out of a trip to Disneyland
RiemannLives
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This Saturday (10/1) my wife, son (he turns 10 in a couple days) and I will be flying down to Disneyland (the one in California). I've been there once before but that was going on 20 years ago so I expect things are a bit different.
So, I am wondering if anyone has advice on must see things, tips on how to get the most out of the trip, places to avoid etc... Anything would be very useful.
So, I am wondering if anyone has advice on must see things, tips on how to get the most out of the trip, places to avoid etc... Anything would be very useful.
RiemannLives on
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Other than spending your money wisely when it comes to souvenirs and food, there's not really any way to go wrong taking a 10 year old to Disneyland. Barring a rogue comet disaster, it's basically impossible for him to not enjoy himself. You two will probably also have a good time. He's 10 so you can skip the worst of the boring rides, but you don't need us to tell you which those are, because he will.
Look at the schedule for the sit-down entertainment type things and try to aim to do those when you think his legs will be tired. Wear comfortable shoes, bring sunscreen etc. Do water rides if it's insufferably hot, but otherwise steer clear of them because wet-butt syndrome can make an otherwise pleasant day mildly uncomfortable.
Yes. We are flying out saturday morning and coming back on tuesday. Probably going to be at the park all day sunday and monday.
If you're staying in park, then take some periodic breaks. I find a lot of people really just try to cram a lot of stuff into a Disney stay and then they end up tired and cranky at the end of the day.
I'm guessing it's a disneyland/california adventure ticket? (seems to be all you can get nowadays.) Don't miss soarin' california in CA, and there's also a toy story shooter arcade ride that's really neat.
Edit: Oh and the submarine ride is neat if you're not claustrophobic. It's all nemo themed now. It doesn't have fastpass though, so you might want to hit it early in the day.
Also you haven't been in 20 years? Do you know about fastpass? Best thing they've done.
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My best advice for Disneyland is to not make the primary focus about going on rides. Instead, treat Disneyland as a place to explore and wander around. Go to Tom Sawyer Island, ride the Mark Twain around the Rivers of America, check out the Tiki Room. Believe it or not, there is still a petting zoo hiding in the back of Frontier Land. Disneyland isn't a theme park like 6 flags where the rides are the be all end all. The main attraction is the environment itself.
Tips:
- If you are going to see world of color, the best way to do it is to combine it with the dinner package at Ariel's Grotto. While is a relatively expensive prix fixe meal, you do get special access to the front of the show and you don't have to worry about the fast pass madness that begins HOURS before. You'll have to make reservations.
- The Buzz Lightyear ride is the best thing on earth for little kids. The line is consistently fast and you get to shoot things with a laser gun. What more can you want? Expect multiple trips.
- When little feet are starting to get tired, its time for the Finding Nemo ride. This ride is pretty clam and you get to sit down for a while. It might as well be called the nap time ride.
- When you go, get a "first time at disneyland" button from the guest services. Sometimes the staff do cool things like get you in the fast pass line or give out stuff like stickers.
- For rides that consistently have super long lines like Space Mountain and Toy Story Midway Mania, time your visit during a parade or something. (Midway Mania always says the wait is only 45 minutes, but for some reason or another that line is a god damned time vortex)
- You can bring food into the park. Stock yourself up with granola bars and fruit snacks. Also, bring an empty water bottle and refill it.
- Ride Peter Pan. Seriously. Doesn't matter if it is an hour wait. This is the most magical ride in the park.
EDIT: Also, have an unlimited churro and mickey mouse ice cream sandwich budget. It's Disneyland!
So just make sure and try to fit as much as you can into those two days, but realize that you will miss some things. If you need to take a break, go grab a bite to eat and just relax somewhere. Even the restaurants are super atmospheric. And don't miss the fireworks show at Epcot in the evening.
I'd just suggest the usual of bringing the sunscreen etc, and consider heading out of Disneyland to Downtown Disney via the tram thing for lunch or dinner, it's still not super cheap but it is a lot cheaper than Disneyland itself and has more variety of places to eat. I think a kid would have a lot of fun with Rainforest Cafe, and the food is decently priced and reasonably tasty.
Just have fun and keep the day stress free. Sadly the big rollercoaster is down for a couple more weeks so you can't ride that, it's really fun
Someone already mentioned going on the big ticket rides during the parades (just make sure you're on the correct side of the park before the parade starts, as it runs down the center of the park and it'll be more difficult to cross sides during the event); if you're still around for the evening and it's not too cold, head to Splash Mountain during the fireworks display. The line is usually much shorter, and as an added bonus you get to watch pretty explosions as you're plunging down the fall.
Another thing I wanted to mention is that the park staff are generally really, really nice! Let's suppose for a moment that you've accidentally lost something in the park... perhaps it was one glove out of a pair of those big novelty Mickey gloves (this is totally hypothetical and not the exact thing that happened to me when I last went there, no sir). They'll look carefully everywhere you might have lost them, and then if they can't find them, they'll probably just give you another one of 'em anyway (if it's something you bought there, at least). I'm sure they would be just as helpful if you lost something you brought from home, although they probably wouldn't be able to replace it for you. In my experience, basically everybody who works there is dedicated to making sure you go home feeling good about your trip to the park, so if you've got a problem with something there, let somebody know and they should fix it for you.
On fastpasses. They are awesome, but bear in mind you can only have one fastpass at a time. So if you get a Star Tours fastpass at 10:00AM, and the return time is 2:00PM, you can't get another fastpass until after 2:00. In this case it would probably be better to get a fastpass for a different ride, and then just suffer the full line wait for Star Tours.
What we do is once our current fast pass return time arrives, we get a fastpass for a different ride before using the current one.
Enjoy yourselves! And Akilae729 is right: Don't stress, and just let your kid "drive".
http://allears.net/dlr/dlresort.htm
That's the main Disneyland page. It should prove invaluable when tackling the monster that is a Disney vacation.
Don't wear denim if you plan on doing any rides that get you wet. Wear extremely comfortable shoes, not sandles or flip flops. And if you aren't from somewhere that is sunny all the time, bring sunscreen and reapply often, even if you think you don't need it, put it on anyway. I mean obviously if you're from like Phoenix, or Hawaii it won't be an issue, but when my family of Montanans went.. wow did we get cooked, and it was even mostly overcast.
Someone mentioned bringing your own snacks and stuff, as well as a water bottle. Just make sure you can actually drink the water. No idea how it is in California, but when I went to Disney World earlier this year, I was sick as a dog the second day thanks to the tap water.
Also speaking of snacks, the magic bars at Disney World are absolutely the best I've ever eaten. Probably the same at Disney Land, so eat at least one.
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The extra park hours at Disneyland are a lot more restrictive than at WDW. You can't even qualify unless you buy a 3-5 day park hopper.
http://allears.net/dlr/tp/early.htm
Man, the water at WDW. What's up with that? We had an Orlando friend visit us for a day at the park, and he said that's just what Florida's water is like. Next time I'm going to pack a portable water filter.
As a lifetime Disney fan (probably been 1000+ times to Disney World ... days, not separate visits, but still) and a number of times to Disneyland since I live here now, there was definitely some great advice.
Hopefully you also hit up Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, and Space Mountain if your son is into the "scarier" types of rides. They all have great environments and are a blast to ride.
Since the Halloween decorations are up, Haunted Mansion is also fun.