I'll be taking the family (wife, and two kids, 8 and 9) to Disneyland next week. It's been 20 years since I've been there (or CA for that matter) and feel completely overwhelmed at the prospect of visiting such a place.

Anyone have any advice to maximize the enjoyment of the trip? We'll be staying in Newport Beach in a really nice town home that my wife's boss is letting us stay in free of charge. We'll be in CA for 6 days and plan on visiting Disneyland for 3 of them.

Thanks for any knowledge that the forum has to offer.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Direkt,

I was there in 1968 and I figure things might be a bit different.

Hope your children experience the "Magic", and you all have good memories.


and...

Don't go on a weekend. MUCH more crowded than weekdays.

There are visit guides to maximize the 'Disney Experience.'

Food is obscenely expensive. Just don't sweat the money and enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'm in my 40's and had a ball this last December at Disney (Florida). Let the kid in you have fun with it.

Get to the park(s) as early as you can.

Familiarize yourself with the Fastpass Service. Utilize it as much as possible.

Book your dining reservations for meals in the park(s) ASAP. You can do it online HERE.

Have a great time!

I take my (now 7 year old) son every year for his birthday and we always have a blast.

Utilize the FastPass program to the greatest degree possible...it will save you a great deal of time spent doing nothing but sweating shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers in long, hot summer lines.

Edit: EZ_B beat me to it.

Ditto FastPass.

Some family had it in Orlando. We were with them but without FastPass. The Mouswitz operators let us through one or twice before I realized that I was missing a credential and would soon be asked by "Carol" to look at the flowers.

As you walk into the park and stroll down to the end of Main Street, there's a red wagon on the right that sells corn dogs. It's just outside of Carnation Plaza. Best corn dogs I've experienced. I used to have an annual pass, and would occasionally visit the park based on the strength of my corn dog craving.

Bring a water bottle. I like the one with a built in charcoal filter. Take advantage of water fountains.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
Food is obscenely expensive.

Yes, except for the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor on main street. I Don't know why, but the ice cream is a bargain. You need a friend to put away a $5.99 double scoop.

-They're relaxed about you packing in your own picnic supplies, provided you don't bring in any glass bottles.
-Be sure to drop your clip knife into your pocket at the inspection so they won't see the clip.
-Sometimes it helps to enter the park at the monorail during the morning rush. It will get you to the back of the park faster so you can quickly get a fastpass for space mountain or Star Tours.
-During the parade/fireworks, it’s a great time to visit attractions like the Haunted House. Everybody's at the parade and the wait is shorter.
-There are locker rentals outside of the park near the restrooms just down from the main gate. They are inexpensive and very convenient for stashing your picnic supplies, and there are a bunch of tables right there by the lockers.

we were there decades ago;

'Small World' broke down while we were trapped inside for about a jillion repetitions of 'smallsmallworldIt'saSmallSmallworld' etc.

ear plugs would have been nice. Or an ice pick.

Get there early and get the Fastpasses you want early. If you want to do any sit-down table service restaurants, make your reservations early.

Figure out what you want to experience most: Rides, shows, experiences, etc. Plan accordingly.

I see you're going from Utah. Will you be driving? If flying, disregard the following.

If driving, I found it best to leave really early the day before, wheels turning by 5am. Don't put the kids to bed early, and they will be tired that early. You can nearly get to St George by the time they really come to.

Coming home, don't try to make it a single day drive. It's nice to get a room in Barstow or even Las Vegas and take it easy on the return. Hotel rooms are surprisingly cheap in CA. I've found that the hospitality tax to be quite low compared to states like Oregon, where they are outrageous.

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
we were there decades ago;

'Small World' broke down while we were trapped inside for about a jillion repetitions of 'smallsmallworldIt'saSmallSmallworld' etc.

ear plugs would have been nice. Or an ice pick.

Were you led out in a strait-jacket?

No advice on visiting... went as a kid, it is a indelible memory almost 30 years later. May be hell for an adult, remember it's not about you. Hope you guys make similar memories.

Get there EARLY. Before the park opens.
Sorry to say, treat the day as a project, manage time and fast passes, and you can yield the maximum amount of attractions. I have family that will get there later, slumber thru the day and only get in 6 rides. The park will reward the dilligent.

Here are some tips:

1. In order to maximize the number of rides we go on, we always get a fast pass, and while waiting for our time, stand in line for another ride. By the time that ride is done, we ride out fast pass ride, get another fast pass, and repeat the process. I'm usually dead by 5pm, but hey, it's all about the memories, right?

2. The first few times we visited with our kids, I would get upset about the prices for food. Now, I just accept the fact that I'll be spending $100/day for food etc. We plan for it, so it's no longer a pain point for me.

3. Bring and drink as much liquid as you can. We always take a few backpacks into the park, loaded with Gatorade and water. We refill the bottles when empty.

4. Don't have a knife in your pocket with the clip showing. The workers are trained to spot them, and you'll either have to give up your knife, or leave the park and not return until the knife is gone.

5. If you're not watching the evening parade, be in another part of the park and plan on staying there until the parade is over. Foot traffic comes to an absolute standstill, and many of the sidewalks and roadways are blocked off 30 minutes before and after the parade.

Have fun, but remember - money and water!

Best food in the park is that French Bistro in New Orleans square, but for dinner take the monorail to downtown Disney outside the park- lots of great choices. I like ESPN zone but for kids maybe Rainforest cafe.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I see you're going from Utah. Will you be driving? If flying, disregard the following.

Yes, we're flying. The trip will be bad enough without being trapped in the car with the kids for hours on end.

park hopper so you can go to both sides, get there early hit as many rides as you can. be very very patient and fast pass it all. also the laser show in California adventures is really cool, soaring over California is a must. go watch Aladdin show worth it very entertaining.

since your going three days, the first day will be exploration for second and thrid day plan of attack. We stayed in the park so we would hit it early in the morning take the afternoon and swim then go back for the evening to ride what we could. watch the parade and the fire works display. Everything is expensive.

if you catch the right Disney person at the right time early in the morning they will be handing out dream day passes, we were lucky enough to find one of those people and our friends and us got the run of the park front of every line all day it was epic.

1. Become adept at the Fastpass system.

2. California Adventure on one day and Disneyland one day.

3. Stay for the fireworks on the Disney side and watch the Main Street Electrical Parade.

4. The corndogs are on the junk food you must eat list. They have stands or carts in both parks.

5. Best food is in New Orleans Square.

For the balance of your trip, consider taking a one day trip on Amtrak to Downtown San Diego. It's on the coast, your wife will love the 2 hour ride. Once there walk 10 minutes to the USS Midway for one of their tours. Well worth it. Take the business class seats on Amtrak. You catch the outbound train in either Anaheim or Santa Ana. Very safe to park your car and a very safe train ride.

If you're not broke after Disney and want to take the wife for a super nice dinner just ask for recommendations and tell us what your budget is.

See what you can learn about their use of metal detectors. Last time we went (a few years ago) they were putting some percentage of folks through metal detectors. They may have gone to 100% by now. If so, forget any knives.

Went to Universal Studios yesterday with wife, kids, SIL & her kids, and FIL. Their metal detector tripped on the Mylar wrapper(s) on one or more items in my AFAK (ankle first aid kit). There might be a little tiny metal clip on the mini compression bandage, but the metal detectors do pick up Mylar packaging. Ran into the same thing at the Fair in Paso Robles last month and ended up pulling the whole kit apart. There you walked through the detector, then they wanded whatever areas the detector indicated. Found out that their wands pick up the wrapper on quikclot gauze, HALO chest seals, etc. This time I just popped the kit off, showed it to the guy, explained what was in it and lat him feel that there was no metal. They didn't give me any grief in either place, but they wanted to make sure they knew what was going on.

The biggest advice I'd have is plan ahead as much as you can. The more you know what rides you want to do, the more you can plan. They may have a smart phone app that will tell what the status and wait time is for the various rides. Universal had that and it helped a lot.

The wife and I always laugh about Disneyland (and it's sister park California Adventure) being meltdown central. Seems like folks are going like heck to get their money's worth having spent two arms and three legs to get in, the food is expensive and there are lots of opportunities to load up on sugar. Let me see, overtired, overstimulated, oversugared, (or hungry) kids... I just can't imagine why they melt down.

If you can swing another day and stay close by you might be able to mitigate some of the "trying to cram too much in too little time" effect. Staying in one of Disney's hotels can get you early entry on some days (I think it is an hour early, but I'm not sure and it isn't every day, so check if you are going to go this route), but they are as proud of their hotels as they are of the park.

There is no alcohol in Disneyland, but California Adventure has wine and beer. CA Adv. also has some cool rides. I know they have "Park Hopper" passes available for SoCal residents, but I don't know whether they are available for guests from out of state or what they cost.

The thing that helps me is that while I really enjoyed the park as a kid, I could take it or leave it now (and would prefer to leave it), so if and when we go it is all about the kids and what they want to do for me. The only challenging thing is that Mrs. slosig loves it and has stuff she wants to do so sometimes there is tension between what she wants and what they want. Oh well, either way it isn't about me and I just try to make everyone else as happy as possible.

ETA: Sorry for the poor reading comp skills. I totally missed that you are going for three days. That should be plenty of time. XLT is right about exploring and planning on day one. Some of the Disney hotel rooms allow for watching the fireworks from the room. We've done that when the kids were younger.