Disneyland Tips from jacob
Map of Disneyland
Map of California Adventure
5-day Schedule
Map Pass Advantages
Disneyland Photo Pass
Disneyland Dining
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Guests with Disabilities
Schedule, The number one thing is to check the schedule on the park hours. Here is that link: disneyland.disney.go.com/calendars/five-day. This view will let you see the park hours along with show and parade times. It will also tell which rides are down on the days you are planning to visit. The most important thing is to find out which day to go to park so you get the most out of it. The Frozen Musical in the Hyperion Theater is a good one to watch when it is hot so I would plan that mid-day. It is one of the few places which has air condition.
Magic Hours are for people who stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel (Grand Californian ($450+/night), Paradise Pier ($250+/night) or Disneyland Hotel ($200+/night)) or have a three day hopper pass. If you don’t stay at a Disney hotel, then you should go to the California Adventure Park on the day there is no early Magic hour to wait in line for the fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers. The line will be past the fountain straight ahead after the stores and Carthay Circle restaurant on the side by the Bug’s Life theater. You may also get your World of Color passes outside the Little Mermaid ride right when the park opens. It does not matter if you have an active fast pass on your ticket. The World of Color and Fantasmic Fast Passes do not count towards fast passes for rides.
Strategy, it depends on your reason for vacationing and your attitude there. If you want to be casual and take things easy, you can, if you are more interested in riding as many rides and seeing as many shows/parades as you can, you can plan out your days. I like to hit them all by location then priority. Usually we list which rides are a must from everyone in the group. If you have kids you might want to check the height requirement before mentioning that it exists. Figure out which ones are a fast pass and work from there as you can only get one fast pass for rides at a time. It is good to know where the fast pass stations are as it will give you a time-frame to return to the ride. You can send one person with all of the tickets to get the fast passes, while everyone is waiting in line for a lower priority ride that does not have a fast pass. I usually wait in line for another ride (from the list) that does not have a fast pass in the same area. Generally, if you missed the time you were supposed to come back and are nice, they will just let you in anyway. They don’t really check the times if it's late. Once the time passes you can get another fast pass. I would say the best thing is to hit all of the ones everyone wants so no one gets upset. Especially if you are in a big group it will be hard. It is best to break up into groups of 4 if there are 10+ of you. Assigning a buddy which can handle the harder rides like California Screamin’, Tower of Terror or Space Mountain. If it is just your family and standing in line is fine, then be prepared with fun things to do while you wait like the Heads Up game you can download on your phone. For kids you can play I Spy, which gets old fast. If you are there longer, you can go back to the rides that everyone missed or wants to ride again. If you cannot get a fast pass it might be good to do the single rider line if a someone wants to ride that ride and no one else does. You get in a car with people that you don’t know but if you are solely worried about riding the ride, you won't necessarily care. I wish we had done that for the Radiator Springs Racer as we waited 2.5 hours but it was worth it to be together.
Disneyland Max Pass, is something you can purchase through the Disneyland App. The cost was $10/day/person in addition to your park ticket. It was recently introduced and included the Photo Pass. The Max Pass allows you to book & cancel fast passes for ticket holders on your phone. This eliminates you having to run around and look for them. You can also stand in line and book your next fast pass instead of waiting to get out of the ride. You can scan the tickets of other guests and get fast passes together but they also need to purchase the Max Pass for the day. An added benefit is you get access to Photo Pass pictures for free. It usually costs $16.95 to download your pictures. Here is a trick, if you take a picture with any of the park photographers, they will either scan your park ticket or give you a card called a Photo Pass. If you have Max Pass you can sync multiple Photo Passes. This way, if you wanted to purchase the Max Pass just to download your Photo Pass pictures for cheaper, you could get multiple Photo Pass cards and give them to your children if they are not with you and their photos will link to your Max Pass so you can download them. If you use an Apple product to download the pictures, it will also allow you to add stickers or frames before you download them. For rides which take your picture, it will give you a numeric code which you can link to the Max Pass.
Pictures, you don’t need to get the photo pass. It is cute but for those pressed for time it may be too humbug as you have to wait in line. Just stand in front of them and block the other people have someone in your group take the pic. Selfie sticks are no longer allowed in the park. That is one of the items they search your bag for. You can ask the photographers to take a picture using your camera. You could even take pictures of snapshots taken while you were on a ride. Universal Studios does not allow you to take pictures of the monitors with your pictures as you are coming off the ride.
Snacks, when you walk in, before the entrance of the actual park, your bags will be checked to see if you have anything dangerous. You can bring your own food, water and snacks to save money. Plus you have something that you know you will enjoy. I usually hit up Trader Joe's (since we don't have it in Hawaii) before and eat the snacks I got from there. I also buy a case of bottled water and just take a few with me to the park. A 20oz. drink in the park is at least $3. You can even get snacks from the 7-11 on the corner of Katella and South Harbor. On the other side of that corner is a CVS as well. There are also Target (12100 Harbor Blvd, Garden Grove, CA 92840), Dollar Tree (10840 Katella Ave, Garden Grove, CA 92840), Wal-mart (440 N Euclid St, Anaheim, CA 92801) and Sam's Clubs (603 S Placentia Ave, Fullerton, CA 92831) not far.
Buttons, you can get free buttons on certain rides. If you meet the Carsland characters they may give you one. In the Little Mermaid ride and the Tow-Mater ride, they may give you buttons. Everyone does the pin exchange but that costs quite a bit. You can get the buttons for your birthday, anniversary, graduation, wedding, first time visit. All free. You can go to the Town Hall and get it from them or in a store, ask any clerk. If you eat where they have character meals, they should have a button there as well. But for all of these, you may need to ask.
Shopping, you can also ask for extra bags if you buy something to gift. You can also check out Downtown Disney as they have more of a variety of things in the main shop (World of Disney) whereas the shops in the parks have almost the same products in all stores. If you go to the corner at 7-11 and the shop next door on South Harbor or any nearby dollar store, CVS or Wal-Mart they usually have a ton of Disney goodies you can buy similar products for much cheaper than inside those stores. Of course, you can just get it online. I ordered some books from Amazon and they were 25% cheaper with free shipping and it came in the mail before I returned. I am pretty sure that if you stay in a Disney hotel they will deliver it to your room or at least the lobby it does take a day or two to get to you so do that on your first day. It makes it convenient so you don't have to carry it around. You could also have it held for you at the front near the exit. They will complete a form and give you a carbon copy. It will be on the Grand Californian shop before you walk out on the Disneyland side or near the Chamber of Commerce in the California Adventure side.
Hotel, I would stay at somewhere close by. The less walking the better. There are some that have continental breakfast or a free shuttle and free parking. Those are important. You do need to pay $20 if you park at their parking lots where you ride a shuttle in. Link It really is dependent on how you want to do it. The Californian hotel is really expensive but has an entrance into the California Adventure Park. If you get a hotel on that side, you can walk through the Grand California in the afternoon. Otherwise you have to walk around through Downtown Disney which is further. Staying on the South Harbor side of the parks, then the walk feels closer. I value walking distance from the park so if someone wants to go back to the room for any reason, they can go on their own or with an adult. The cheaper the better. There are several small diners surrounding the entrances. Denny's is right outside the South Harbor gates and you can get a cheap breakfast there. If your hotel offers continental breakfast, I would call and ask what it includes. It may not be worth staying there and you could find a cheaper hotel and eat at Denny's. If you can there is a Marriott straight across the street or Desert Palms is a good one too. They have a kitchenette and continental breakfast. Not sure on the parking but you can walk it, that one is close.
Restaurants, if you have young kids that want to see the characters who are walking around and take pictures with them, those are best restaurants to eat at. There is the Plaza Inn. You can make a reservation online or by calling the number 3 months in advance. If you don’t show up they charge your card I think $10 each person. But the reservations go quick otherwise you wait in line. It is sometimes challenging to meet your reservation if you are waiting in line but if you think about it, its better to ride the rides during regular meal times and take meals on the go or eat while in line or watching a show. I usually just get something from the cart and enjoy while I am waiting for something to happen like a show or parade. The Plaza Inn has a breakfast buffet is $30/person which goes pretty quick but sometimes they run out of seats. Lunch they sell by the meal. They have good fried chicken and mashed potatoes there. The Jolly Holiday Bakery has quick food like sandwiches. The Market House has a Starbucks. The Carnation Café has sit down meals with entrees that you have to order which may take more time. On the California side, there are lots of quick meals around the bakery. The Winery has a sit down meal but there is a Mexican place in the back by Goofy’s Flight School that has quick meals. Flo’s Station in Cars land has a sit down kind of meal. The Cozy Cone has quick treats, flavored popcorn and either soup or chili in a upside down cone. You can also eat at the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café which has sandwiches. The Award Wieners has hot dogs and chips. If you have girls they may want to go to Ariel’s Grotto to meet all the princesses, that one you would want a reservation as it fills up fast. As long as you cancel it like an hour before, they will cancel the fee. It tells you the details when you make the reservation. Just double check if that is something that you want. The receipt usually has a coupon to the stores so you can eat breakfast and buy something you want before a certain time but can schedule pick up at the park entrance or have it delivered to your room/lobby, just double check. My favorite place to get soft serve ice cream is the Paradise Pier Ice Cream stand.
Girls, if they are seriously into it, they could do the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Where they can get glammed up like a princess in the dress, crown and anything else you are willing to pay for. It's almost like a mini spa for girls. They do their nails, hair extensions, bows, etc. They have an option for boys to be knights as well. It would be best to make a reservation. It is also an opportunity for them to pick out a princess or prince outfit.
Be Prepared, Bring your battery backup chargers for your phone. Don't forget the cords. Buy $1 Ponchos from Walmart so you don’t have to buy it there for $15. A sweater for night time or blanket to sit on the sidewalk to watch the fireworks or parade. I usually take the airline blankets and use those to mark off our sitting space so no one comes in our area and if it gets dirty or left behind it is not a total loss to you.
Watch all of the Disney movies you can before you go. It really does add to your experience. It helps you remember the stories. If you are driving down then that might be something you can do in the car. It also adds to the excitement. I have made a bunch of quizzes to test your knowledge after you watch the movies.
Finally, plan as much as you can but just go and enjoy. The main thing is to have fun and capture memories with the kids and kids at heart. I love to just sit and watch people. I usually wait until the afternoon or after the parades when kids go home and ride all the rides we want. If you can shelter during the rain, most families leave then because their kids get cranky when they're wet. In Toontown you can meet and take pictures with Mickey and Minnie in their house. I like the Magical Map show in the back. For sure get a good spot for the fireworks show, if you stand on Main Street you will see a show projected on the side of the buildings or if you go to It’s a Small World, it is projected there too. You could pay extra for a package deal with select restaurants as they have preferred seating right in front of the castle. World of Color you want the Blue Section. It is worth sending someone in to sit and wait and get a good spot right in front of the Mickey Wheel. 30 mins before the World of Color they play Mickey's Fun Wheel which is an online game.
Map of California Adventure
5-day Schedule
Map Pass Advantages
Disneyland Photo Pass
Disneyland Dining
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Guests with Disabilities
Schedule, The number one thing is to check the schedule on the park hours. Here is that link: disneyland.disney.go.com/calendars/five-day. This view will let you see the park hours along with show and parade times. It will also tell which rides are down on the days you are planning to visit. The most important thing is to find out which day to go to park so you get the most out of it. The Frozen Musical in the Hyperion Theater is a good one to watch when it is hot so I would plan that mid-day. It is one of the few places which has air condition.
Magic Hours are for people who stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel (Grand Californian ($450+/night), Paradise Pier ($250+/night) or Disneyland Hotel ($200+/night)) or have a three day hopper pass. If you don’t stay at a Disney hotel, then you should go to the California Adventure Park on the day there is no early Magic hour to wait in line for the fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers. The line will be past the fountain straight ahead after the stores and Carthay Circle restaurant on the side by the Bug’s Life theater. You may also get your World of Color passes outside the Little Mermaid ride right when the park opens. It does not matter if you have an active fast pass on your ticket. The World of Color and Fantasmic Fast Passes do not count towards fast passes for rides.
Strategy, it depends on your reason for vacationing and your attitude there. If you want to be casual and take things easy, you can, if you are more interested in riding as many rides and seeing as many shows/parades as you can, you can plan out your days. I like to hit them all by location then priority. Usually we list which rides are a must from everyone in the group. If you have kids you might want to check the height requirement before mentioning that it exists. Figure out which ones are a fast pass and work from there as you can only get one fast pass for rides at a time. It is good to know where the fast pass stations are as it will give you a time-frame to return to the ride. You can send one person with all of the tickets to get the fast passes, while everyone is waiting in line for a lower priority ride that does not have a fast pass. I usually wait in line for another ride (from the list) that does not have a fast pass in the same area. Generally, if you missed the time you were supposed to come back and are nice, they will just let you in anyway. They don’t really check the times if it's late. Once the time passes you can get another fast pass. I would say the best thing is to hit all of the ones everyone wants so no one gets upset. Especially if you are in a big group it will be hard. It is best to break up into groups of 4 if there are 10+ of you. Assigning a buddy which can handle the harder rides like California Screamin’, Tower of Terror or Space Mountain. If it is just your family and standing in line is fine, then be prepared with fun things to do while you wait like the Heads Up game you can download on your phone. For kids you can play I Spy, which gets old fast. If you are there longer, you can go back to the rides that everyone missed or wants to ride again. If you cannot get a fast pass it might be good to do the single rider line if a someone wants to ride that ride and no one else does. You get in a car with people that you don’t know but if you are solely worried about riding the ride, you won't necessarily care. I wish we had done that for the Radiator Springs Racer as we waited 2.5 hours but it was worth it to be together.
Disneyland Max Pass, is something you can purchase through the Disneyland App. The cost was $10/day/person in addition to your park ticket. It was recently introduced and included the Photo Pass. The Max Pass allows you to book & cancel fast passes for ticket holders on your phone. This eliminates you having to run around and look for them. You can also stand in line and book your next fast pass instead of waiting to get out of the ride. You can scan the tickets of other guests and get fast passes together but they also need to purchase the Max Pass for the day. An added benefit is you get access to Photo Pass pictures for free. It usually costs $16.95 to download your pictures. Here is a trick, if you take a picture with any of the park photographers, they will either scan your park ticket or give you a card called a Photo Pass. If you have Max Pass you can sync multiple Photo Passes. This way, if you wanted to purchase the Max Pass just to download your Photo Pass pictures for cheaper, you could get multiple Photo Pass cards and give them to your children if they are not with you and their photos will link to your Max Pass so you can download them. If you use an Apple product to download the pictures, it will also allow you to add stickers or frames before you download them. For rides which take your picture, it will give you a numeric code which you can link to the Max Pass.
Pictures, you don’t need to get the photo pass. It is cute but for those pressed for time it may be too humbug as you have to wait in line. Just stand in front of them and block the other people have someone in your group take the pic. Selfie sticks are no longer allowed in the park. That is one of the items they search your bag for. You can ask the photographers to take a picture using your camera. You could even take pictures of snapshots taken while you were on a ride. Universal Studios does not allow you to take pictures of the monitors with your pictures as you are coming off the ride.
Snacks, when you walk in, before the entrance of the actual park, your bags will be checked to see if you have anything dangerous. You can bring your own food, water and snacks to save money. Plus you have something that you know you will enjoy. I usually hit up Trader Joe's (since we don't have it in Hawaii) before and eat the snacks I got from there. I also buy a case of bottled water and just take a few with me to the park. A 20oz. drink in the park is at least $3. You can even get snacks from the 7-11 on the corner of Katella and South Harbor. On the other side of that corner is a CVS as well. There are also Target (12100 Harbor Blvd, Garden Grove, CA 92840), Dollar Tree (10840 Katella Ave, Garden Grove, CA 92840), Wal-mart (440 N Euclid St, Anaheim, CA 92801) and Sam's Clubs (603 S Placentia Ave, Fullerton, CA 92831) not far.
Buttons, you can get free buttons on certain rides. If you meet the Carsland characters they may give you one. In the Little Mermaid ride and the Tow-Mater ride, they may give you buttons. Everyone does the pin exchange but that costs quite a bit. You can get the buttons for your birthday, anniversary, graduation, wedding, first time visit. All free. You can go to the Town Hall and get it from them or in a store, ask any clerk. If you eat where they have character meals, they should have a button there as well. But for all of these, you may need to ask.
Shopping, you can also ask for extra bags if you buy something to gift. You can also check out Downtown Disney as they have more of a variety of things in the main shop (World of Disney) whereas the shops in the parks have almost the same products in all stores. If you go to the corner at 7-11 and the shop next door on South Harbor or any nearby dollar store, CVS or Wal-Mart they usually have a ton of Disney goodies you can buy similar products for much cheaper than inside those stores. Of course, you can just get it online. I ordered some books from Amazon and they were 25% cheaper with free shipping and it came in the mail before I returned. I am pretty sure that if you stay in a Disney hotel they will deliver it to your room or at least the lobby it does take a day or two to get to you so do that on your first day. It makes it convenient so you don't have to carry it around. You could also have it held for you at the front near the exit. They will complete a form and give you a carbon copy. It will be on the Grand Californian shop before you walk out on the Disneyland side or near the Chamber of Commerce in the California Adventure side.
Hotel, I would stay at somewhere close by. The less walking the better. There are some that have continental breakfast or a free shuttle and free parking. Those are important. You do need to pay $20 if you park at their parking lots where you ride a shuttle in. Link It really is dependent on how you want to do it. The Californian hotel is really expensive but has an entrance into the California Adventure Park. If you get a hotel on that side, you can walk through the Grand California in the afternoon. Otherwise you have to walk around through Downtown Disney which is further. Staying on the South Harbor side of the parks, then the walk feels closer. I value walking distance from the park so if someone wants to go back to the room for any reason, they can go on their own or with an adult. The cheaper the better. There are several small diners surrounding the entrances. Denny's is right outside the South Harbor gates and you can get a cheap breakfast there. If your hotel offers continental breakfast, I would call and ask what it includes. It may not be worth staying there and you could find a cheaper hotel and eat at Denny's. If you can there is a Marriott straight across the street or Desert Palms is a good one too. They have a kitchenette and continental breakfast. Not sure on the parking but you can walk it, that one is close.
Restaurants, if you have young kids that want to see the characters who are walking around and take pictures with them, those are best restaurants to eat at. There is the Plaza Inn. You can make a reservation online or by calling the number 3 months in advance. If you don’t show up they charge your card I think $10 each person. But the reservations go quick otherwise you wait in line. It is sometimes challenging to meet your reservation if you are waiting in line but if you think about it, its better to ride the rides during regular meal times and take meals on the go or eat while in line or watching a show. I usually just get something from the cart and enjoy while I am waiting for something to happen like a show or parade. The Plaza Inn has a breakfast buffet is $30/person which goes pretty quick but sometimes they run out of seats. Lunch they sell by the meal. They have good fried chicken and mashed potatoes there. The Jolly Holiday Bakery has quick food like sandwiches. The Market House has a Starbucks. The Carnation Café has sit down meals with entrees that you have to order which may take more time. On the California side, there are lots of quick meals around the bakery. The Winery has a sit down meal but there is a Mexican place in the back by Goofy’s Flight School that has quick meals. Flo’s Station in Cars land has a sit down kind of meal. The Cozy Cone has quick treats, flavored popcorn and either soup or chili in a upside down cone. You can also eat at the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café which has sandwiches. The Award Wieners has hot dogs and chips. If you have girls they may want to go to Ariel’s Grotto to meet all the princesses, that one you would want a reservation as it fills up fast. As long as you cancel it like an hour before, they will cancel the fee. It tells you the details when you make the reservation. Just double check if that is something that you want. The receipt usually has a coupon to the stores so you can eat breakfast and buy something you want before a certain time but can schedule pick up at the park entrance or have it delivered to your room/lobby, just double check. My favorite place to get soft serve ice cream is the Paradise Pier Ice Cream stand.
Girls, if they are seriously into it, they could do the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Where they can get glammed up like a princess in the dress, crown and anything else you are willing to pay for. It's almost like a mini spa for girls. They do their nails, hair extensions, bows, etc. They have an option for boys to be knights as well. It would be best to make a reservation. It is also an opportunity for them to pick out a princess or prince outfit.
Be Prepared, Bring your battery backup chargers for your phone. Don't forget the cords. Buy $1 Ponchos from Walmart so you don’t have to buy it there for $15. A sweater for night time or blanket to sit on the sidewalk to watch the fireworks or parade. I usually take the airline blankets and use those to mark off our sitting space so no one comes in our area and if it gets dirty or left behind it is not a total loss to you.
Watch all of the Disney movies you can before you go. It really does add to your experience. It helps you remember the stories. If you are driving down then that might be something you can do in the car. It also adds to the excitement. I have made a bunch of quizzes to test your knowledge after you watch the movies.
Finally, plan as much as you can but just go and enjoy. The main thing is to have fun and capture memories with the kids and kids at heart. I love to just sit and watch people. I usually wait until the afternoon or after the parades when kids go home and ride all the rides we want. If you can shelter during the rain, most families leave then because their kids get cranky when they're wet. In Toontown you can meet and take pictures with Mickey and Minnie in their house. I like the Magical Map show in the back. For sure get a good spot for the fireworks show, if you stand on Main Street you will see a show projected on the side of the buildings or if you go to It’s a Small World, it is projected there too. You could pay extra for a package deal with select restaurants as they have preferred seating right in front of the castle. World of Color you want the Blue Section. It is worth sending someone in to sit and wait and get a good spot right in front of the Mickey Wheel. 30 mins before the World of Color they play Mickey's Fun Wheel which is an online game.