first time at disneyland

The last time I visited Disneyland I was a teenager, it was a LONG time ago. This time around I was visiting with my husband and almost five year-old. It was the first time visiting Disneyland for both of them. I have organized every detail of every vacation I have taken for the past 20 years, and I’ve done a lot of traveling, but I must admit Disneyland tested my planning skills. So much information, so many varying opinions. It was difficult to navigate the basics when starting from scratch. So to simplify things, I will give you my few top tips that I learned during my visit.

get there early

On the days we visited the parks opened at 8am. My number one tip would be to be there for opening. The crowd for the first hour was noticeably smaller than any other time of day or night, which meant short wait times for even the most popular rides. It’s also much easier to move around meaning you can fit in more rides because it does not take as long to walk from one ride to the next.

Mickey’s Toontown (and that perfect California sky)

take the pictures

Disneyland has professional photographers throughout the park. Some are roaming around and others are at set locations like at the entrance and in front of the castle. They’ll take your family pictures, scan your Disneyland app and in a couple of minutes you’ll have professional family photos! There is no additional cost for this service and the pictures are excellent quality. The lines for photos do get long so try and do this first thing as soon as you enter the park. Everyone was so excited to get on their first ride but I’m so glad I insisted on pictures first, the photos we got from the professional photographers are my favorite souvenir.

First photo location when you enter Disneyland

take the stroller

Did I mention we visited in early September and it was 104F/40C for each of the three days we were there? Yes, California was experiencing a heatwave. Needless to say I was very glad I listened to one of the tips I read before we went to take a stroller even if your kid is ‘too big’ to need a stroller. If they can literally fit in one take it, regardless of their age. You’ll do so much walking, your kids will get tired and it will make it much easier for you if you can push them around when you need to. There are plenty of places to leave it at every ride and Disneyland has people constantly organizing the strollers to make sure there is enough room. To make life a little easier, put an AirTag on your stroller. If you accidentally park your stroller where you’re not supposed to, a helpful Disney cast member will move it. It will be close-by, but it will be a lot easier for you to find when you can quickly check the AirTag. We have a BabyZen Nano stroller and that was perfect. It’s super-easy to maneuver when it’s empty and easy for your big kid to jump in and out of. Plenty of people take much larger strollers too, there were lots the size of an Uppababy Vista. Disney does have size limits for strollers but they are very generous, make sure you check before you go.

Disney California Adventure 

get the lightning lane

Do I need Lightning Lane? What is it? How does it work? Is it worth it?

Lighting Lane is an option that you can include when purchasing your tickets that allows you to skip the line on some rides. There is a set list of rides that you can use Lightning Lane on and you’re allowed to make one reservation per ride per day. You can only have one reservation at a time. After you’ve taken your Lightning Lane ride you can make your next reservation. Depending on how popular the ride is your reservation time may be in the next hour or later in the day. This is a great option, especially if you’re visiting with little kids who struggle to wait in long lines. One tip that I learned after the first day was to spend the first hour of the day on rides that do not have a Lightning Lane option. The lines at the beginning of the day will be the shortest so use that time on the rides where you can’t use Lighting Lane. But do make a reservation for the popular rides that have Lightning Lane as soon as you enter the park, you’ll be able to see what time your reservation will be for, so you can check it’s later in the morning.

If you have the ticket details of all the guests in your party you can add them to your Disneyland app so you can make Lightning Lane reservations for everyone at the same time. Also, if you have a Lightning Lane reservation and there is no line when you get to the ride you can cancel the reservation in the app. That way you’ll be able to make another reservation to ride again later in the day.

Lightning McQueen

Other things

Download the Disneyland app. This is what you’ll use to plan your day. You can view the map, wait times for rides, make Lightning Lane reservations, order food and view your photos. You can also use the Disney Genie service within the app that will plan your day for you. You’ll enter your preferences and the app will plan out your day. It will also update throughout the day based on your location and wait times of the rides that are close by.

Don’t overplan, especially if you’re traveling with kids. You’ll want to see what their favorites are and how tired they get, and it will make your day a lot easier if you’re not feeling pressured to be running all over the park trying to make your next reservation. However, if you know that you’ll want to have a sit-down lunch or dinner, make your reservations well in advance. The parks were relatively quiet when we visited (Wed, Thu, Fri after Labor Day) but most of the restaurants were still booked out.

One last thing, if you’re going to be visiting both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, include the Pass Hopper option. When you buy your tickets, you’ll have to specify which park you’re planning to visit on each day, but the Pass Hopper option will allow you to switch between parks after 11am. This gives you great flexibility and takes some of the stress out of trying to plan the perfect day at each park. Have Fun!