My husband and I have taken 3 trips to Disneyland with our kids over the past 3 years! It’s one of our favorite places to go and we always have a magical time. Here are a few tips to help you plan an awesome trip with your family.
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- Choose a hotel to stay at.
We have stayed at a few hotels on S Harbor Blvd since it’s right across the street from Disneyland. We have had good experiences at Fairfield Marriott and Grand Legacy Hotel. If you want to know the BEST place to stay at Disneyland, I’d look into the Grand Californian. The location cannot be beat because you’re basically inside California Adventure. This hotel has its own private security line and entrance in to California Adventure, so it is an awesome option if your budget allows for it!
2. Make park reservations.
This is a newer requirement since the pandemic started. After you book your park tickets, choose which day you’ll be at which park. It’s easily done on the Disneyland website or through the Disneyland app. If you have park hopper tickets, just choose which park you want to start at and you’re all set! We usually don’t hop because we find there’s plenty to do at each park within a day. However, it is very easy to hop because the parks are right across from each other. We do two at Disneyland and one at California Adventure. I’d recommend this at the bare minimum. During our most recent trip, I wished we had another day at California Adventure!
3. Pack clothes & fun extra souvenirs.
I definitely overpack! It’s hard to narrow it down when there are so many cute clothing options out there. Plus, depending on the time of year you go, you may need to bring a jacket for cooler mornings & evenings. We’ve been in January and March and needed jackets both times. We have also been in September and the weather was very warm! Always check the weather in Anaheim because you never know what it might be. My favorite place to buy princess dresses for my daughter is Taylor Joelle. I brought Star Wars costumes that we found around Halloween at Costco for my son and he loved wearing them at Galaxy’s Edge. A similar costume can be found here. I usually find a lot of cute clothes for everyone at Amazon & Gap. I’m working on another post about Disney clothes coming up soon!
I also like to purchase a few small souvenirs before the trip. If I can find it on sale, I’ll buy it and hide it in my suitcase and surprise the kids with it later at the parks. They love it! I love saving time by not having to spend too much time shopping, plus I save money by watching for sales. My daughter’s favorite things to have at the park are the Disney nuiMos. They’re small and easy to throw in my bag, so we take them everywhere!
4. Tips for flying with kids.
My husband and I used to joke about traveling light before we had kids. We can’t do that anymore! We bring a Zoe double stroller, this car seat for my daughter, and this booster seat for my son. The car seat we use for my daughter is so much lighter and easier to carry than the one she normally sits in in our cars. When we get to our gate at the airport, we get tags for the stroller and car seat and gate check them. I’ve heard horror stories about how car seats are thrown around if you check them in, so we never take that chance. My husband carries the car seats in this huge backpack and wheels two carry on rollers with duffel bags on top of them while I push the kids in the stroller. We don’t like to check in any bags. I know everyone is different, but we love not having to wait for any luggage after we get off the plane so we can get to the parks as soon as possible! If you don’t want to fly with a stroller, there are some rental options available.
We also always choose to rent our own car which we also book through Costco Travel. There’s always Uber, Lyft, or private car services available too. Some of them even provide car seats. I just recommend doing some research and choosing what’s best for your family.
5. Our favorite rides.
My son is 6 years old and is into all things Star Wars right now. He loved Rise of Resistance and Smugglers Run! Since we are in Houston, flying to California puts us in a different time zone. It actually works out perfectly to rope drop. Our kids would wake up around 6 am (8 am in Houston), take their time eating breakfast and getting ready, and be ready to rope drop the parks. Rope drop is when you get to the parks before any of the rides are open and go straight to the first ride early in the morning. This helped us save a ton of time because the wait times get longer throughout the day. Here are Colton’s favorite rides at Disneyland: Rise of Resistance, Smugglers Run, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
Chloe currently loves everything in Fantasyland. Her favorite rides are: Teacups, Casey Jr Train, Dumbo, Carousel, and It’s a Small World. I also took her on the Snow White ride which she said she liked but also said it was a little scary. Another favorite thing was the castle walkthrough. On the backside of the castle, there’s a door that leads to stairs and a little pathway that tells the story of Sleeping Beauty. She loved being able to go inside!
Favorite rides at California Adventure: Webslingers & Radiator Springs Racers are the two most popular rides here. We rope dropped RSR and paid $12 through the individual lightning lane for Webslingers to avoid the 85 minute wait. It was well worth the price in my opinion! We also love The Little Mermaid (which never has a wait!), Toy Story Mania, Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.
6. Character meet & greets.
These are my favorite photos to look back on after our trip! My kids love seeing their favorite characters in person after reading all about them in books and watching movies and shows. Cars Land at California Adventure has always been one of my favorite spots! It’s so awesome to see how the cars can actually drive around Radiator Springs, plus you do not have to socially distance from them. This is such a cute area! Throughout our trips we have seen Lightning McQueen, Cruz Ramirez, Mater, and Red. We also loved seeing superheroes out at Avengers Campus. We saw Spiderman, Iron Man, Dora Milage, and Groot. During Lunar New Year, we got to see Mulan & Mushu and Tigger because it was year of the Tiger! I can’t wait to see if they bring out a rabbit for next year. Disneyland is great for seeing princesses. Chloe got to see Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora, Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder, Elsa, and Anna. Another surprising favorite was the evil queen from Snow White. She was so much fun – she told Chloe to cross her arms for her photo and Chloe obediently did what she asked and had the biggest smile on her face. We also saw Mickey and Minnie out at both parks! I would not worry at all about getting to see characters at Disneyland because they’re always out and walking around even if you’re not looking for them.
7. Let’s eat!
If at all possible, I would recommend choosing a place that takes mobile orders for food. Some booths do not have mobile order options and the lines were always so long. At Disneyland, we like to eat at Docking Bay 7 in the Star Wars area because you can eat inside and sit down at a nice table. We also ate at Galactic Grill, Red Rose Taverne (try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!), Tiki Juice Bar (for dole whip), Tropical Hideaway (for dole whip floats), Stage Door Cafe (our kids love the fish and chips), Bengal Barbecue (I recommend the beef skewers) and Mint Julep Bar (beignets).
At California Adventure we have eaten at Flo’s Cafe, Shawarma Palace, Corn Dog Castle, and gotten snacks at Cozy Cone. We loved getting to try the booths during the Lunar New Year festival. Next time we go I’d love to try Pym’s Kitchen!
We have not done any of the character meals that require reservations at Disneyland because we feel like we are able to see enough characters out in the parks, but if that’s something you want to reserve for your family then reservations are recommended at 60 days in advance of your park day.
8. Lightning Lane.
We were fortunate enough to have pretty low crowds in late January so we only purchased Lightning Lane for one day at Disneyland, and we actually only bought it for my husband and my son. The rides that my daughter wanted to keep doing didn’t even have Lightning Lane, so we knew it wouldn’t be worth it for her. However, we did find one nice trick that I think is really helpful for parents. For Space Mountain, my husband and I wanted to ride but my son did not. We grabbed a lightning lane for it under my son’s and my husband’s account. I went to ride first using my son’s account and just scanned in under his name. Then after I came out, my husband got to ride it under his own account. The wait for Space Mountain at that time was 85 minutes so it saved us a ton of time! Another nice perk is that Photo Pass is included with Genie Plus at Disneyland.
9. Photo pass.
Okay, coming from a photographer’s standpoint, I usually don’t love the pictures that come with photo pass. But when you’re only with your family it is really hard to get a photo with everyone without it. Since it’s included with Genie Plus, I would recommend taking some photos with a photo pass photographer if you see one and there is no line. We came across several that were standing alone with no one waiting to take photos so we took advantage of it. I would go in with low expectations and just appreciate the moments they get for you. I did love a couple of shots they captured for us! One of my favorite memories from our trip was when we unexpectedly saw Elsa, Anna, and Olaf coming on a float towards Main Street. My husband had our daughter on his shoulders. I quickly grabbed a video, then a cast member tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a photo pass card – she said she grabbed some photos of Elsa waving at my daughter for us! It’s one of my favorite photos from the trip and I loved that extra magical moment. I still brought my own camera and love the photos I got with my camera too. Either way, just be sure to make time to take photos! You’ll be glad you did after the trip is over. Oh, and don’t be afraid to ask for “magic” photos! The cast members are able to pose you and add a fun character in your photo. Those always turn out really cute!
10. Download the Disneyland app!
The app will be super useful to you during your trip because it shows wait times, mobile ordering, restroom locations, etc. It will also have your park tickets you’ll use to enter the park each day and your Genie plus passes if you choose to purchase that. Sometimes I find myself checking wait times from Houston because I’m curious how busy the park is on a certain day. I think that just means I need to plan another trip! I hope you found all of this helpful and let me know if you have any questions!