[Travel Advice] Disneyland and DCA

Disneyland itinerary and travel advice

Random Observation/Comment #867: Disneyland is truly a magical place. Dads - let’s just leave the kids and do our own run through awesome rides.

//Disneyland Resort at 9:30PM for the nightly show (Lunar New Year special)

Why Disneyland and not Disney World?

It’s closer, cheaper, smaller, less crowded, and requires less planning. We introduced Disney’s series of experiences by taking a Disney Cruise with our neighborhood friends in Feb 2023. It was surprisingly relaxing and filled with much more manageable lines for meeting princesses. Full review here:

Instead of diving head first into Orlando and spending like $10k with more expensive flight prices, we took a short flight to LA and splurged on a nice room inside the resort with the all-inclusive Costco package. It’s a great deal when you take full advantage of the features and cash back with the credit card and gift cards. If you’re paying the sticker price on the website, you’re definitely doing it wrong.

Pixar Place vs Disneyland Hotel vs Grand Californian Hotel

It’s expensive to stay within the resort, but the packages have decent discounted rates to make it more reasonable.

Grand Californian Hotel & Spa (~$600-1.5k per night) - This place is gorgeous and reminds me of a Colorado style huge ranch with big fireplaces and really well-lit and beautiful fancy cottage-core furniture. These rooms are the most expensive, but if money isn’t an issue then splurge and go for it.

Disneyland Hotel (~$450-1k per night) - Down the block and connected to a huge conference center and extremely cool combined pool. If your kiddo wants to swim then I think this is the place to go. The biggest downside is that it seems like it’s always crowded and there’s tons of foot traffic.

Pixar Place (~$360-600 per night) - We stayed here in a nicer room. In hindsight, I think staying in Disneyland Hotel in a less nice room with some more hotel swimming time would have been the way to go. Out of everything, we were frustrated with the elevators the most. It would have been nice to have more amenities and places to explore during the rainy day. We did wind up spending a lot more time across the street to Grand Californian Hotel to grab drinks in their lobby, so it wasn’t a big deal. You’ll get a 15-20% discount from Disneyland, which is substantial over a longer stay.

Advice We (wish we) Followed

• Book restaurant meals ahead of time - This is top of the list because basically all restaurants are full all the time. Walk-ins are pretty rare even at random times and if you don’t book, you’ll have to wait at least an hour to be seated.

• Mentally prepare to spend $$$ - You can obviously do a budget-friendly set of meals, but 3 people dining was at minimum $120 at any restaurant. The buffets (which were passable) were $60+ for adults and $35+ for kids before drinks. I eased up on drinking because $15 for a beer was just way too much. Souvenirs are also just crazy expensive. Why are ears $40 and magnets $16? Conservatively spent $500 per day for 4 days straight.

• Stay at a Disney resort hotel if you can pay the extra money - The Costco package included this and it really made a difference with the walking and early entrance (if you’re just there for rope drop hitting all the rides). There’s definitely less of a headache (although I hear the shuttle is pretty good).

• 8-10AM and 11PM-midnight are best for rides - Standby lines are shorter for just walk-on. You can probably get 5-7 rides in those early morning 2 hours (if they’re not the crazy popular ones). The Disney Dad did all the rides with his family in one day. This is also a good video to see some ride previews:

• Take a break and head back to the hotel - 2-4PM is the busiest time and when we got most grumpy. In my view, it’s not okay to wait an hour for a ride, so I just avoided those all together. In hindsight, we didn’t wait more than 20 minutes per ride (which was 100% intention by design). If I was waiting, you bet I was also noshing on something.

• Look at the events calendar - There are sometimes different attractions and events that are more fun than rides. I really loved the Storytime Royal Theater.

• Drink a lot of water - Bring a water bottle and drink a lot of water. 30k steps is no joke. There’s water fountains throughout the park to fill up. The best one I think is in Toontown.

• Really useful starting point high level guide - I watched a lot of Disney Food Blog and found this older PDF from 2023 with some useful outlines of rides and restaurants: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Disneyland-Plans-disneylandplans.pdf

• Pre-plan your food options - There’s a lot of wasted time saying “What do you want to eat?” and me just saying “I don’t care what you eat, I’m getting the turkey leg.” I watched the Eat the Venue Try Guys for Disneyland and DCA, but someone else in the group did not:

• Use the Mobile Order for food - This was a game changer. Instead of waiting on line with a child, put in a mobile order for some freshly dipped corndogs while they go check out some store (where they want to buy everything).

• Eat unique food - The food options are actually quite interesting. Don’t just get your chicken tenders and burgers. Go a little bit cray and do some new wraps or creative meals. I do think the desserts are just super pretty.

• Comfortable (waterproof) shoes - You will be walking a lot. Our first day at the park was pretty wet, so I wish I was dressed more in Colorado clothes. The crocs did pretty well on the dry days.

• Take advantage of the photopass - You’ll see the photographers standing around. If there’s a short line, then get a family photo. With the Costco package, they will scan your QR code and send it straight to your app for download. These Disneyland photographers are pretty cool and friendly.

• Bring a mobile phone charger - The app is a real battery drainer and I definitely got down to 40% by noon.

• The Disney app is your new best friend (and worst enemy) - There were times where I was super frustrated. There were other times that I thought the tech was really impressive and responsive. I wound up using the map to look at times for rides and also the day-planning part to see what I could find a lightning multi-pass.

• Lightning Multi-pass usage is all strategy - You can only book one ride, but once you ride it, you can book the next ride while you’re waiting. If the line is a 5-10 minute wait, then it might be better to not use the multi-pass (especially if it’s 8-9:30AM). We found that we only used multi-pass between 10AM-1PM and did get great value. There’s no better feeling than skipping a line. Once it was past 1PM, the wait time was too far out and I can’t plan a day that far in advance.

• Bring a coat with a large jacket and a day pack - You can bring food and drinks into the park. I suggest splurging for some park eats, but you can always bring your own sandwiches if you want to go full budget. There’s always a need for pockets.

• Stopped rides are not irregular - Some may even say they’re normal. I think 1-in-4 rides have stopped or paused in some way (which is a crazy high percent). At first we thought it was going to be a long wait stuck on the ride in the park, but more likely than not, someone just got off the ride too slowly and needed help.

Rides Research

I watched the DFBGuide video ranking all the rides as a starting point, but after riding like 80% of the rides, I have differing opinions.

My filtering mechanism was specifically to make sure my daughter was not terrified and scarred from these rides. Yes, Haunted Mansion was a bad idea as a second ride, but she braved through it.

(See links to Google Maps where I wrote reviews directly in the rides)

If Evie (7yo) were ranking rides and events, it would probably be:

• Disneyland Resort - Northern park with princesses and Star Wars

  • Mad Hatter Tea Party - Tea cups spinning made her super happy.

  • Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters - She loved the interactive part shooting aliens.

  • Storytelling at Royal Theatre - We watched Beauty and the Beast and Tangled. It was so entertaining! Evie said it’s like a “fast version” of the real story.

  • Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway - Great story, really fun setup, and super immersive. A bit too much moving for her.

  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Track rides with cute characters are a win.

  • Star Tours - The Adventure Continues - 3D rides are always a winner.

  • Astro Orbitor - She liked feeling in control of the ship going up and down.

  • Jungle Cruise - Lovely outside water ride with fun Dad jokes.

• Disneyland California Adventure (a.k.a. DCA) - Southern park with Avengers and Pixar highlights that feels more like a carnival

  • Little Mermaid - We did this twice in a row and I think she could have done it a few more times.

  • Web Slingers: A Spiderman Adventure - We love our interactive rides.

  • Soarin’ Around the World - Surprisingly not scared of heights. Unique and engaging travel. She said she wants to travel more after, so this was a win.

  • Monsters Inc Mike & Sulley to the Rescue - She asked for this ride again at some point on the last day, so it was memorable.

  • Mickey’s Philhar Magic - 3D movies for the win! 12 minutes of fun and singing.

By pure ride quality and level of detail, my must-go recommendation is:

• Star Wars Rise of the Resistance - I can’t emphasize enough how incredibly large and well-designed this whole experience is. I went at 11PM when it said a 50-minute wait, and it was actually just continuous walking through the massive space. There’s a fake out of 3 wait areas with scenes before you even get seated for the ride itself. The fun thing is that the walkthrough of the line is a part of the atmosphere building and fun. I was in awe the whole time and the massive size of all the rooms for the ride itself.

• Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run - I’m a bit bias because I’m a Star Wars fan, but this was a super fun run with a team of 5 or 6. Pilots are important here. It’s a bit shaky, but who doesn’t like a small Millennium Falcon cockpit?

• Haunted Mansion - It’s dark and scary for kids, but super immersive.

• Pirates of the Caribbean - I did get wet on the first drop, but other than that it was just a really pretty and detailed canal ride.

• Indiana Jones Adventure - Do not hold your phone out on any of this and keep your hat in your jacket because this ride will whip you around like crazy. This was more of a rollercoaster than I thought.

Some nerdy stats for the lightning lane multi-pass:

• Disneyland Resort Day 1: 5 rides, Approximately 20 min saved per ride, 100 min of saving (specifically 4 rides with 3 people and 1 ride for me)

• DCR Day 2: 3 rides, Approximately 30 min per ride because we started later, 90 min of saving (3 people for all rides)

• Disneyland Resort Day 3: 1 ride, 10 min saving (2 people)

• Total savings: 200 min saving for 3 days (specifically 480 min when adding each person’s time saving), $32 per ticket per day = $288, meaning $1.67/min saved or $100/hr with overhead of app planning.

• Hot take: Is this a useless statistic considering everything is so expensive in Disneyland anyway? Yes. The joy of skipping a long line is priceless. I chose rides where I didn’t have to wait longer than 20 minutes on a line and we still had an awesome experience. It’s not all about the rides. Take advantage of the best ride times and you probably don’t need the multi-pass. If you’re there for 1-2 days and you want to hit all the popular rides, then it’s probably a great deal. If you have a little kid that wants to avoid rollercoasters, then you’re probably better off with standby lines.

Things to Eat

There’s some really interesting eats and after some research, my main ones were:

• Turkey Leg - Smokey and delicious. I was the envy of the ride with all dads staring at me and wanting the turkey leg. Best deal at the park for $12.99 because it’s normally $15 at a fall harvest fair.

• Churro - Daughter asked for one each day and it did not disappoint. They were good everywhere.

• Dole Whip - It was a bit cold for this, but this is apparently the must-have dessert.

• Corndog - Little Wagon had some delicious freshly dipped corn dogs for $11 that my girls loved.

• Popcorn - I swear this has MSG in it. It’s just popcorn, but we definitely devoured this on line and it was a nice snack as we walked between rides.

• Cheesy garlic pretzel snack - This is delicious and right next to the Storytelling Royal Theatre.

• Beignets - Another great dessert in Frontier Land.

• Bread bowl soups - This just reminds me of skiing. Same high prices.

What Actually Happened (Itinerary)

Luckily we were flexible, but here’s an itinerary a beginner could reference:

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Thursday

Flew in with heavy rain. There’s a shuttle you can take to the LAX-it spot a few blocks away. Don’t do what we did and walk in the rain.

Took an Uber (45 min, ~$80) from LAX to Anaheim directly to Pixar Place.

Unpacked and explored some hotels. To-go cocktail and some French onion soup at Hearthstone Lounge in Grand Californian hotel. We didn’t have a reservation, so we just ate in the lobby. Lovely live piano. Evie loved the mini kids area around a TV in the corner.

Friday - Disneyland Resort day

7am breakfast at Sketch Pad Cafe - Coffees, Bagels, and wraps. Came here every morning and followed a great routine.

Note: If you’re staying at the Disney Hotels, you can get into the park early by 7:20AM but rides don’t open until 8AM. The official “rope drop” is to get on the lines early and be the first on the ride.

8am - Fantasy Land circuit - Smaller rides with 5 minute waits

Casey Jr. Circus Train Ride - It’s a quaint easy train ride around this miniature area of Disney worlds. Unlucky/lucky for us, we got stuck on the ride for 15 minutes.

Haunted Mansion (lightning multi-pass) - Probably could have skipped this one for Evie, but it was a great ride.

Winnie the Pooh - It was close and we love honey. Evie really needed to cleanse her pallet after the scary Haunted Mansion ride.

Jungle Cruise - Short wait and great Dad jokes

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (lightning multi-pass) - Top performing! Would go again.

Star Tours (lightning multi-pass) - 3D ride with surprise from Grogu

11AM turkey leg and walking around - There’s a lot to see and some lunch menu exploration. Lines started to get long at this point.

Sleeping Beauty Castle - This is just a walkthrough of the castle up and over. Self-paced and a nice digesting time.

King George Carousel - We were all ready to go, but the ride stopped.

Autopia (lightning multi-pass) - Evie surprisingly didn’t like this one, but I think kids who like to drive would be happy to crash every 2 seconds. Even for adults who know how to drive, there’s a lot of crashing.

Mad Hatter tea cups - Turn the wheel!

Mr Toad Wild ride - Short track-based ride. We read the stories so it was pretty entertaining for Evie.

2PM Storytelling Royal Theatre Beauty and the Beast - Kiddos love this because they get to sit in the front right next to the performance. Front row seats! Seating starts 15 minutes ahead of time. There was plenty of room for a kid to grab a seat in front.

Dinner at Splitsville - Casual and live music. The drinks were delicious and burgers were creative. Evie loved dancing to this country/folk band.

Downtown Disney shopping - Post dinner shopping is a must. We looked at different desserts and I got to buy my Disneyland crocs. My Dad mode conversion is complete.

Post bedtime Clemens night out - this is where the fun begins! I had a list of rides that were too hyped up for me to not at try out.

Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run (lightning multi-pass) - The Lightning Lane multi-pass did wonders here. The ride is definitely a bit bumpy and our pilots were little kids, but it was fun.

9PM Fantasmic show - I walked in half way and tip toed my way to a mini view. The show got cut short because of a malfunction, so I went to another ride.

Pirates of the Caribbean - This was a really cool water ride. After the first two drops, you could just relax and watch the story. I really enjoyed it - felt like riding through a night canal with no bugs.

Star Wars Rise of the Resistance - Well worth the wait. I couldn’t believe the size and awesome details.

Pinocchio’s Daring Journey - Out of all the dark track rides, this one was the most scary to me. The clowns and whale was just super creepy.

Oga’s Cantina drinks - Remember to book this ahead of time because the line at night is so long. Look for the second text message which will tell you to go on line and check-in. Get the fuzzy tauntaun because it’s the most interesting looking drink. Beware of inhaling the foam that makes your lips numb. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you have to go.

Indiana Jones Adventure - I was honestly about to go straight back to the hotel, but there was no line, so I jumped on at 11:45PM. As mentioned earlier, this is a very rocky ride (your hat and phone can fall out) and more of a rollercoaster than just a scenic adventure.

Saturday

Disney California Adventure day - Really no ambitious agenda

Wandering the empty DCA - Pixar Place has a special entrance to DCA with no line. We were able to go straight to Pixar Pier and walk around. I wanted to do the Radiator Springs ride, but unfortunately the line was already 120 minutes long by 8:05AM.

Little Mermaid - Favorite ride in DCA. It was really well built with obviously the best soundtrack. Under the sea.

Soarin’ Around the World (lightning multi-pass) - I thought I’d be scared of heights here, but it worked out. Very immersive with your feet literally dangling and watching this huge screen. The fade in and out between locations got a little bit old because it was always some animal or waterfall splashing through the screen.

WebSlingers Spiderman (lightning multi-pass) - The hand punching was super intense. It’s basically 4 different 3D levels of punching the air vigorously. Pretty good workout.

10AM Avengers Assemble - Random show. It was a little sunny so the glare was really tough to see anything, but the fight was cool.

Monster’s Inc (lightning multi-pass) - Very well designed ride. I loved the doors flying around.

Mickey’s PhilHar - Great 12 minute show with 3D glasses and great music. I imagine this is a popular place in the summer when it’s super hot outside.

Live music by Kid’s at Imagination Campus - We bought Evie a bubble machine so she was just dancing around this Hollywood area.

Carthay Circle Lounge Lunch - I could have stayed here all day. The drinks were doubles and food was so delicious. This was money well spent. Highly recommended. Hands down the best meal of the trip.

Mulan Chinese New Year Festival - Really cool parade going through the front of the restaurant. We had a great view.

Five Dimes Live Band - Love these live pop-up bands everywhere

Hot tub time back at the hotel - The hotel hot tub is a great place to relax and take an awesome nap.

Goofy’s Kitchen - Buffet with character meet and greet from Chip, Dale, Minnie, Pluto, and of course, Goofy. Peanut Butter pizza!?!?

Vinessa’s night out - Visit from friend for a drink (or two).

9PM World of Color - This was a cute watch from our Pixar Place room. You can put on channel 61 to hear the music.

Sunday

Disneyland Resort day - Bippidity Boppidity Boutique (which we reserved for 2:30pm and then canceled because we were too tired) and rides

8:30AM - Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway - Very cool ride with lots of turns and creative storyline on the train. Didn’t even need to use lightning pass for this.

Buzz Lightyear - Why did I get zero points?!?!

Astro Orbiter spinning - Evie had to control the stick because the adult in the back is way too far back to reach it.

Buzz Lightyear (again) (lightning multi-pass) - This time I crushed it. Needed to actually try a bit for this one.

10AM Finding Nemo Submarine - Evie surprisingly hated this because of the scary deeper under water parts. I thought it was pretty neat.

11:15AM Tangled at Royal Theatre - Huzzah! Feet fell asleep sitting on the floor, but other than that, this was super entertaining.

Alice in Wonderland - I think there was an error with the app because the wait time was only 15 minutes starting from the yellow mushroom. Maybe they didn’t put in the extra line space.

Pool time at the hotel - A much needed break and search for snacks.

Disney at night!

Dinner at Rancho del Zocalo - Deal with Fantasmic Seating - The food was actually alright, but the canteen-style with trays was less attractive. To be honest, it was a good deal in hindsight because we had great seats by the Harbour Galley for the show at 9PM. Definitely book this ahead of time.

Toon Town running around - Evie ran around and met some new friends for an hour. I don’t know why we try to schedule more things than just “explore the park.”

Mad hatter tea cups - Slightly different at night and a short line

King Arthur Carousel - Short wait and a must-see for little kids

9-9:20PM - Harbour galley front seats for Fantasmic - Luckily we had a backpack with some clothes so we could sit. Sitting on a ground is so much harder as an adult. This is also a very loud show. I would have liked to have some headphones or earplugs for this one.

9:30-9:45PM - Main Street USA craziness - Coming out of the Fantasmic show, I thought we’d see fireworks behind the castle (like in the movies). What wound up happening was I carried Evie on my shoulder and we walked towards the exit while taking quick pictures of our surrounding. The show is projected with lasers on all the shops and on the castle. People camp out a little early, but I think you can easily see both.

Monday

Chill, visit friends, and head home

I’m glad we took a later night flight so we didn’t need to rush to the airport. We wound up going to lunch in Manhattan beach to meet up with some friends. It was lovely and a perfect way to end the trip.

~See Lemons Love Disneyland