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Heading to Disney Resort in California?
These tips for Disneyland have got you covered!
I’m an expert on the Anaheim park, having been born and raised in Southern California!
I’ve been there literally over a hundred times (you can check the activity on my annual pass!).
These tips specifically apply to the Disneyland park in California, but that doesn’t mean the other parks won’t have something similar.
So if you’re headed to another Disney park, do a quick search (or ask!) to see if these will help all your Disney dreams come true wherever you are!
Go when the crowds don’t
Tips for Disneyland are great, but they’re even better when you’re not shoulder-to-shoulder with a ton of other people while visiting!
If you have flexibility, try to visit Disneyland in the middle of the week in the offseason.
Disney now has pricing based on the date you visit, with the peak times being more expensive (and also more crowded).
Visiting during slower times will save you money and you’ll be able to enjoy the park more without having to grapple with too many crowds.
Summer and weekends are mobbed, and you’ll be able to see and do a lot more in a shorter amount of time if it’s not crowded.
A fantastic resource when planning your visit is Is It Packed?, which is a website that predicts how crowded Southern California theme parks will be, and gives you real time-info about how crowded they are throughout the day.
There’s even a calendar that you can look at to see what the crowd prediction is for the day(s) that you’ll be there.
Rent a locker
You’ll want to keep your water and sunscreen with you, but jackets for the cooler nights and those Disney souvenirs you pick up along the way can live in the locker until you need them.
The lockers at Disneyland California are located on Main Street U.S.A. near the Starbucks (yes, there’s a Starbucks in Disneyland!), and they come in 3 different sizes.
When you use the kiosk to pick your locker and pay for the rental, it generates a unique code that you use all day to open your locker, so you don’t need to worry about carrying a key around (or losing it!).
I often text the code to everyone in my party, in case anyone needs to get into the locker and also so I don’t forget it!
Download the handy dandy Disneyland app
The Disneyland app is a super useful app that can help you organize your whole day, which is a feature I’m sure many parents would be thankful for.
It has a boatload of features, such as the ability to simply upload your Disney ticket (or annual pass, in my case) to make it electronic.
If one person buys all the tickets, you can have your party’s tickets all in the same account, so no one loses anything!
It’ll tell you park hours, parade and show times, and even wait times for the rides!
You can also make dining reservations, which is helpful for places such as The Blue Bayou, which tend to book up in advance.
The app just makes it much easier to plan your day out. Check out all the features here.
Use the Fastpass feature
A Fastpass is a feature that Disney has implemented on its most popular (read: long wait time) rides, where you can go and kind of “reserve” your space in line.
It can definitely help save a lot of time, but there’s a bit of strategy involved, due to how they structure Fastpass usage.
So here’s how it works: there are kiosks near each ride that offers the Fastpass feature, where you insert (or scan) your Disneyland ticket and it spits out a ticket with a one-hour time frame on it, for that day.
In the noted hour, you’re able to go back to the ride and go through the Fastpass line, which is much faster-moving than the standby line.
Some important things to note are the more popular the ride, the faster the time slots fill up, so you may get a Fastpass ticket that’s good for 8 hours from that time.
One type of Fastpass strategy is to go as early as possible to the ride and get your pass, so hopefully your time slot isn’t super late in the day.
Having to wait all day for your time is troublesome because you’re only allowed one Fastpass at a time, so you can’t get another one until you’ve used the previous one.
Button it up
Are you at Disneyland for a special occasion?
If you are, you’re in luck!
Celebration buttons (the big ones you can pin on your clothes) are available at several locations.
Oh wait I forgot to mention the best part…they’re FREE! (one of the only free things at Disneyland haha)
You can grab one at the desks of the Disneyland hotels, City Hall on Main Street, or Guest Relations.
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They have several different ones for different celebrations, including birthday, anniversary, graduation…etc.
If they don’t have what you’re celebrating, they literally have one that just says “I’m Celebrating!” Yay!!
They do change sometimes, and you may be able to find different buttons. Make sure to keep an eye out!
Cast members won’t be quiet about your celebration, either!
Whomever has a button on will feel special all trip long.
Look out for hidden Mickeys
Disney Imagineers have placed literally hundreds of hidden Mickey shapes throughout Disneyland Park.
It’s a fun game to see how many you can spot!
They are represented by the classic Mickey head shape, a circle with 2 smaller circles as the ears.
I’ll give you a hint, at Disneyland in California, there’s one at the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, on an armor chestplate when the pirates are drunkenly shooting at one another.
Check out this book to make it a game and find them all!
Two words: Happy Hour
The above tips are fun for the whole family, but sometimes Mama just needs a little break and grown-up time.
I know you know what I’m talking about.
If you need an adult beverage and a break from the Disney craziness, head to Downtown Disney for happy hour!
At Disneyland in California few of the restaurants offer discounted drinks and appetizers (such as Tortilla Jo’s, Catal, and House of Blues), which may sound better than another theme park burger and fries.
If you’re at a different Disney park, it’s definitely worth it to do a little digging to find that Happy Hour deal (or just ask!).
It can save you money and save your sanity!
Splurge on snacks
One of my best tips for Disneyland is to try all the snacks!!
You must at least sample the the Dole Whip and the churros. (Oh, the churros!!)
The Dole Whip has been a cult Disney favorite since before Instagramming your food was a thing.
The line to get one is longer than some of the rides in the park! It’s fruity, dairy-free, and delicious!
Coupled with the fact that you can only get it (the official version, anyway), at a couple locations in the world, it seems scarcity really does create demand.
And the churros are just warm and delicious, and I get one every time I visit Disneyland.
They often have themed churros as well for the different events and holidays happening in the park. If you only take away one of my tips for Disneyland, make sure it’s to try a churro!
The different types churros are definitely tasty but in my humble opinion, none compare to the original!
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Avoid the parade crowds
Main Street U.S.A. gets very difficult to walk down when there’s a parade.
Try this trick: stay inside the stores to move along the length of Main Street.
Most of them connect to one another, causing you to miss most of the masses of people who gather on the sidewalks to watch the parade.
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