Father of six kids here. Been to Disneyland with them twice. Once with the older three when they were young, and once with the second batch of three. Had a great time, here’s stuff that worked for us: 1. Bring familiar snacks for the kids. If you don’t, you’re not going to be happy when they don’t like the expensive thing you bought at the restaurant and are yelling for the usual. Being somewhere new can actually stress the littles out. Familiar food helps. 2. Buy some cheap bubble blowing stuff at Wal Mart beforehand and keep it in your backpack. When the kids are whining in line - let them blow bubbles for each other. Keeps them endlessly entertained and you won’t have to pay for an overpriced bubble wand from a vendor cart. 3. Don’t forced death march the family in the name of “fun.” If the kids are tired and whiney, take a sit break near a churro cart (they’re everywhere in Disneyland) and shove a churro in their face. It’ll brighten the mood a ton. And those churros are pretty good. 4. Don’t lead on your first day with a thrill ride with really young kids unless you already know they’re up for it. I know the lines for the big coasters get long during the day, but if you are here with young kids, just accept the fact that you’re not going to be doing a lot of the Matterhorn - if at all. At least don’t do it first. If your kid isn’t emotionally ready for a big thrill, you can scare them and you’ll have a bad time trying to drag your kid onto the rest of the rides - even the tame ones like Peter Pan or whatever. Rather than a try-hard rope drop strategy like “Space Mountain - Matterhorn - Big Thunder Mountain” why not just head straight for Fantasy Land and hit Peter Pan first, then just walk onto Dumbo, Toad’s Wild Ride, and others. Everyone in the park will be swarming the marquis event rides in the first hour. You and your little kids can spend a full hour just walking onto the kiddie rides with no line. Which can be AMAZING with little kids. Then once the kids are into the fun of it all - try and snag Big Thunder Mountain or something fun before heading over to Frontier Land. Look, it sucks not prioritizing Rise of the Resistance or other big attractions. But if you’re here FOR YOUR KIDS and not just for yourself, really seriously consider the rope drop strategy of ignoring the big popular stuff and just enjoy the bliss of WALKING ON to dozens of smaller fun rides with no wait, no whining, no crying. 5. Do lunch an hour early. Don’t wait till noon. Everyone else will try to eat too at that time and the lines for food will BLOW UP. Take lunch at 11am and you’ll have very little wait for the food. And taking it earlier means you don’t give the kids a chance to get to the point where they are actually whining how hungry they are. Consider not shooting for the really fancy places for lunch. Young kids won’t really appreciate the difference between Cafe Orleans and the Hungry Bear anyway. Nice thing about the Hungry Bear is that it’s out of the way and has safe kid options and you can watch the riverboat while eating. I didn’t care a ton for the food as an adult, but it worked for the kids - which makes my trip better in my view. 6. Install the Disneyland app and use it weeks before you even go. Get used to looking up ride wait times, bathroom locator, food reservations, lightning lane info, what rides are closed for repairs - the app has it all in real time with an interactive map of the park. This will save your trip, your marriage… just get it. 7. After lunch from 11am to noon - get in another hour of rides while everyone is eating and beat the crowds a bit a second time. But I wouldn’t recommend pushing the young kids past 1pm. They will crash and need a nap. For us, this meant walking back to the hotel to take a nap, relax, enjoy the pool, watch cartoons, whatever. We prefer to rest up in the heat of the afternoon and head back to the park around 4 or 5 pm for a second go in the evening hours. If you don’t have a hotel option nearby, consider bringing a picnic blanket and finding an out of the way shaded spot to take a nap and rest. The kids are going to need a break of some sort. Don’t try to force them through in the name of “fun.” 8. If your three year old wants to ride the stupid merry go round three times, why not let her? If she gets enough of it, she’ll be a lot more cooperative about going with you on the other stuff. Something to keep in mind. Are you here for them or just for you? Personally - for me, seeing the delight on my three little girls faces was a lot more fun than extra turns on Space Mountain or Smugglers Run. 9. Speaking of Smugglers Run… my 8 year old daughter and I managed to do that ride twice in only a half hour around 5pm. How? Singles lane. We both went into the singles lane and practically walked to the front of the queue. But wouldn’t we get separated? Well, turns out Smugglers Run seats six people. But a lot of groups were only three or four people. So my daughter and I just rounded it out and made the fifth and sixth person. She even got to pilot the ship both times.
One thing I noticed when I was booking my dining reservations for our trip in April is that we can cancel 2hrs prior to our reservation time with no penalty fee.
Looks like this has been changed pretty recently to 2 hours. It has been 24 for quite a while and I actually was not aware of this change. Thanks for the heads up!
These were all great tips, thank you. I just got back from Disneyland and those first few hours when the park opens are worth getting up early for. We were in the park for 2 days and managed to get all of our wish list accomplished simply by entering early. I would also add that mobile food orders are the way to go. You're going to stand in line a lot, and the mobile ordering eliminates some of that. I also studied the food menus before I went, so I'd know where I wanted to eat.
I've been nervous about going to Disneyland, but you are helping me so much!!! I'm going to go back and watch all of your videos! After learning the good info *and* seeing your Oregon Duck sweatshirt, I clicked the "Subscribe" button! Thank you for your help!
Your tips are great! We ALL stayed up till three am (because of the time difference) so that we could book our reservations at one of the restaurants. We tried the night before with no luck. We landed reservations for our third night in the park. If it wasn't for your tips we probably would have missed out all together. And we've been walking every night after work three to five miles. Feels like we're getting ready for a Marathon! (Good news is that none of us have desk jobs) Super happy you got 1000 subscribers!! THANK YOU for all you do!
I'm so happy to hear that you got your reservations! And it sounds like you'll be prepared for your trip with all that walking you're doing. Have an amazing trip. And thank you!
You guys forgot about portable battery packs because some people like taking selfies with friends/family or selfies with the Disney characters so there phones die fast 😅
Genie+ can be a bit confusing. Check out this video to get a better understanding on how to use it! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPOoP5IUgH8.html
I tend to be the guy who people I know come to for Disney park tips and my biggest one for Disneyland is that the food is expensive and BAD. Obviously there are churro and dole whip and sweet exclusions, but when it comes to a real meal, I try to set an expectation of as bad as possible so then they can either avoid a plastic $30 burger or don't get too disappointed when they're forced to feed themselves at the park. This is NOT true of Disneyworld as they have a wider scope of food quality, but I still suggest land more because it's less expensive and just better quality parks.
I agree that Disney World has a much larger scope in the variety of foods available (namely EPCOT), but I actually like most of the foods at Disneyland and look forward to eating them when I go. Then again, different tastes make for different experiences, so having more than one opinion gives people a good idea about opposite ends of the spectrum. Thanks for sharing!
I have just found your amazing channel! We are going to Disneyland on May29th… its our first time! we are coming from New Zealand and have decided to get a 5 day pass as we wont be back for a VERY long time as its so far to come. Thanks so much for the great tips.
Disney in Hong Kong has a program "Package Express"where you can have your purchases sent to a special area near the exit you're not carrying parcels all day, does Disneyland in Anaheim and Walt Disney World have this?
Watch a bunch of our videos and get as much info as possible about Disneyland, that way you can form a plan of what you want to do in the parks. Learn about Genie Plus, learn about the foods and rides, and just remember to take your time and enjoy the experience!
We are not staying on site so won't get early entry. How many hours in advance of park opening should i be front gate? Is it pretty orderly or chaotic when everyone's waiting for the park to open
30-60 mins is what we always shoot for. It feels like chaos if you're not used to it, but the cast members actually do a pretty good job of organizing everything. Once the ropes come down though, it's chaos for a minute while everyone rushes to the rides. You'll be tempted to run, but you really don't need to. The crowds look crazy until they disperse, then it's really not bad.
Stroller for little kids, sure. But a stroller for a 7 year old (unless medically necessary) is ridiculous!! Kids have soooooo much energy (mine would run around a playground or jumpy place for 6 hours!). What about the 40 year old parent? They need the stroller!
I really appreciate all of your tips. If you would turn down your background music, it kind of gets in the way. Also, your voices don’t come across very clear. But thank you for the great information
Depends on what you're used to back home. For me personally, I don't like the taste of it, so I always bring some sort of water flavoring with me to the parks.
Beginning of vid: “Disneyland is touted as the most magical place on earth”. No it’s not. Disney WORLD is “The Most Magical Place On Earth”. DisneyLAND is “The Happiest Place On Earth”.
