Disneyland for Dummies: Part 2

If you are headed to Disneyland, I hope you have seen my posts “Disneyland is NOT the Happiest Place in the World” and “Disneyland for Dummies: Part 1.” These posts help build some groundwork, and now I get to jump into “Disneyland for Dummies: Part 2,” which I think will be paramount for a more successful Disneyland trip for beginners. I use our own successes and failures as the foundation for guiding you to a more magical experience.

Disneyland for Dummies: Part 2

If I had one take away to pass along to you it would be this: Familiarize yourself with the map and make a plan.

What I did poorly was I failed to prepare enough. I thought I was ready, but I wish I had taken more time making a plan and familiarizing myself with Disneyland. Hold your plan loosely because things change and you’ll need to adapt as you discover what really breathes life into your family, but that first day you are walking into Disney with family in tow it’s great to move with purpose.

When I travelled around Rome, I had one day where I just walked. I didn’t follow the map or have a big plan. It was one of my favorite days. I did have days that were more mapped out, but I think I love to discover a place more organically. I didn’t want to have a schedule or agenda in Disney. Discovery would be part of the adventure. I was wrong.

Hopefully, I can convince you to take the time and effort before leaving so that you feel equipped to do Disney well.

Familiarizing Yourself with the Disneyland Park Map

One of my biggest tips, something we did not do, is to familiarize yourself with the Disneyland and California Adventures Park Map. Make note of the different sections, also jotting down the family priorities in each section.

In this post, I am going to lay out the park by section in clockwise fashion starting when you reach the end of Main Street after entering the park. Basically, you’d head down the main street of either parks and take a left to circle through the sections listed below.

I will mention mostly rides, so remember there will be characters, theatre, food and shopping options within each section as well. You can head to the Disneyland app to look at the preferences for the riders in your group (dark, fast, slow, loud, spinning, etc.).

I want to break this down into sections with a list of rides in each section because I know how much easier our trip would have been had I made a plan based on understanding the parks in this way. I’m also going to mark the rides that are a priority based on my personal preference and the rides that take fast passes (more on that later in the article).

Before booking, you will also want to check what rides are closed. Many of the rides were closed while we were there.

Sections of Disneyland

Adventureland

Tarzan’s Treehouse
Jungle Cruise (closed while there)
Indiana Jones – Priority – Fast Pass Available
Enchanted Tiki Room

New Orleans Square

Disneyland Railroad
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean – Priority
Fantasmic! – Fast Pass Available

Critter Country

Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Splash Mountain – Priority – Fast Pass Available

Frontier Land

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – Priority – Fast Pass Available
Fronteirland Shootin’ Exposition
Mark Twain River Boat
Pirate’s Layer on Tom Sawyer Island
Sailing Ship Columbia

Fantasyland

Alice in Wonderland
Casey Jr. Circus Train
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
It’s A Small World
King Arthur Carrousel
Mad Tea Party
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Peter Pan’s Flight
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Storybook Land Canal Boats

Mickey’s Toon Town

Gadget’s Go Coaster – This seemed short but a good medium sized coaster.
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin – Fast Pass Available

Tomorrowland

Astro Orbitor
Autopia – Priority – Fast Pass Available
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters – Fast Pass Available
Disneyland Monorail
Disneyland Railroad
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Jedi Training Academy (more of an experience than a ride) – Priority for my Kids – Must sign up first thing in the morning or you will not get to participate.
Space Mountain – Priority – Fast Pass Available
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue – Priority – Fast Pass Available

Sections of California Adventures

Hollywood Land

Monster’s Inc.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – Priority – Fast Pass Available – The fast passes here did not make it that much faster then just waiting in line.
Red Car Trolley

Bugs Land

It’s Tough to be a Bug – More of a theatre experience. I liked it, but one part of the 4D experience freaked my kids out.
Flik’s Flyers
Francis’ Ladybug Boogie
Tuck & Rolls Drive ‘Em Buggies

Cars Land

Master Junkyard Jamboree
Luigi’s Rockin’ Roadsters
Radiator Spring Racers – Priority – Fast Pass Available – I would get this fast past first thing in the morning. They will run out quickly. Fast passes distributed near It’s Tough to Be A Bug!

Paradise Pier & Beyond

California Screamin’ – Priority – Fast Pass Available but in our experience it wasn’t needed. This was one of the faster lines. For me, this was one of the cooler ride experiences I’ve had.
King Triton’s Carousel
Toy Story Midway Mania – Priority
Mickey’s Fun Wheel
Silly Symphony Swings
Jumpin’ Jellyfish
Goofy’s Sky School – Fast Pass Available
Golden Zephyr
Ariel’s Undersea Adventure

Grizzly Peak

Grizzly River Run – Priority – Fast Pass Available
Soaring Over California- Priority – Fast Pass Available (This was one of my favorite experiences.)

Note: We did not do all of these rides, so you might be shocked that I didn’t mark some as a priority that should have been. Use the comment section below to note your favorites.

Planning the Day at Disneyland and California Adventures

Understanding the layout of the parks and breaking it down by ride priorities for your family is fundamental for planning your day in Disneyland and California Adventures. If had a do-over, I would choose, before even entering the park, which section we would start in for the day. I would head to that section and obtain our first fast pass right away. Then I would systematically work through the park section by section.

Talking to a more seasoned Disney visitor as we were at the airport leaving, he said their family basically worked clockwise, doing one section at a time. So, the first day might be Adventureland, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, and Frontier Land. The second day might be Fantasyland, Mickey’s Toon Town and Tomorrowland.

I would plan to do things systematically around California Adventures as well.

Other Disneyland “pros” might structure their time differently, but after talking to the man in the airport and considering our own experience, I definitely believe a systematic attack of one section at a time, setting personal priorities first, is what I would recommend to beginners. Make sure to comment on this post if you have a different method that seems to really work for your family.

Is the Disneyland Mobile App Helpful?

One thing I did wrong was walk into the park thinking I would be relying on the app for direction rather than knowing the map, sections and rides before I arrived. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of familiarizing yourself with the parks before you go.

I also thought I would heavily rely on the app for wait times and therefore “what to do next” decisions. What I discovered, is all of the most popular rides were a 40-50 minute wait. Most of the others were 20-30 minutes. Therefore, relying on the app completely to try and plan the time didn’t make sense. Everything seemed about the same.

I also thought we would look at the app, see a short line, and high tail it across the park to get in that line. That was naive. I wouldn’t recommend running across the park to try and go to rides that really only varied by 10-15 minutes. If you are traveling 15 minutes to save 15 minutes it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Therefore, I recommend using the wait time app within the section you are exploring at the time. I spent too much time staring at that app trying to figure out where to go next. It left us floundering rather than moving with purpose.

If you are returning to the parks mid-day and have a Park Hopper Pass, the app would be convenient to look at wait times for the individual parks.

Since we had kids that liked a variety of rides, it was helpful to use the app to look through the ride definitions to really understand what we might be getting ourselves into for kids that are more timid. This could and I would argue should be done before you enter the park.

Different Kids Like Different Experiences

If you are like us, you are going to have kids of different ages. Further, you might discover that there are different tolerances to noise, speed, dips and turns. As I said, the app was super helpful in determining what rides might be enjoyed by the different children.

It’s good to walk into the park aware that there may be a variety of opinions. We learned that at times it was best for our family to just split up. We definitely had time together, encouraging kids to be adaptable and sensitive to the desires of others. After all, it’s great to teach kids that the world doesn’t resolve around what they want. However, there were times to just maximize the experience for individuals and split up the family.

There is also the “rider switch” program that we never actually took advantage of, and I’m not sure why. “Rider Switch is for Guests with children that don’t meet the height requirement or do not wish to ride the attraction, one adult waits with the non-rider child while the first rides, then they ‘switch’ so the second adult can then enjoy the attraction. There is no cost for the Rider Switch program.” This seems like a great option for families with varying ages and needs.

Making Food Plans for Disneyland

As with rides, I would make a plan for meals. We packed snacks, ate breakfast outside of the parks and then did lunch and dinner at the parks. Some choose to run to a store and pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a fruit, a drink and snack stuff for lunch and then only pay for dinner. This is another great option.

As with the rides, I would go in prepared for where you want to eat. I would research and read reviews ahead of time. The corn dog at Corn Dog Castle (California Adventures) and the truck to the right after going down Main Street and right before you hit the round about in Disneyland is the best I’ve had, and I don’t even like corn dogs. I also liked the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. There were also amazing bagel cheddar twists by the Royal Theatre. My other food experiences were marginal.

Look at menus before you go. We spent too much time walking up to restaurants, looking at the menus, rejecting and moving on to look for something else. If we knew what looked good before going in, we could have been a lot more efficient.

One word of warning that we experienced and have heard from other moms. If you have a picky eater, you might be ordering mac & cheese for every meal. The other kid friendly options were corn dogs, hamburgers, turkey sandwiches or pizza. With all the restaurants I looked at, I thought the options were fairly limited, which seems really silly to me. I did like the healthier Force Power Pack at the Galactic Grill.

If you are reading this, Disney, some other great food options for kids include quesadillas, toasted cheese, chicken nuggets or simple pasta dishes. There may be these options at Disneyland, but I looked at a number of restaurants and couldn’t find them. Mac and cheese seemed like the go-to fixture.

Plan for Rest Time

Another thing I did wrong was not mentally prepare myself for rest time. We were spending a lot of money to be in Disneyland, so when my kids starting begging, at 11:30 AM, to head back to the hotel to go swimming, I didn’t accommodate. I wanted to power through. They would surely fall in love and have fun if we just got into a groove and found some rides that excited them. Two of the kids were all done by about 4:30 and headed back to the hotel for the evening. I powered through until later with another child. That was the first day.

The second day we made a better choice. The better choice was to stop midday and head back to the hotel to get the pool out of their system. Other families like to go back and nap, which is really smart. My kids don’t really nap…ever. The pool was a great option and gave them the energy to go back and do evening activities at the parks.

A break from the crowds for some down time is definitely healthy.

Should I Do a Park Hopper Pass?

We decided to spend the extra money (I think it was a total of $200 for 3 days) and use the Park Hopper Pass as an “insurance policy.” We weren’t sure what we were going to get and thought we might find ourselves wanting to jump back and forth between the two parks. We didn’t actually end up using it.

We went to Disneyland on day one and California Adventures on day two. We liked California Adventures more and thought we would return to CA Adventures after our Magic Morning on Day 3. We ended up realizing we had a lot more we wanted to do at Disney, especially since we were waiting around for Jedi training and had plans for the parade and fireworks that night.

Based on our experience, I would probably have not purchased the Park Hopper Pass, but hindsight is 20/20, and I believe more seasoned Disneyland visitors might feel very different.

More Tips

Check a Crowd Forecaster and Try and Visit During Non-Busy times, but don’t rely on it. Know that the unexpected crowded days will happen.
Buy tickets before you go to avoid waiting in more lines.
Pick up “First Time” or “Birthday” Buttons at the City Hall close to the entrance for a fun, free souvenir.
Watch shows later in the day. It’s a good chance to rest legs.
Get in line before the park closes. From my understanding, if you are in a life when the park closes, you get to get on that ride.

Enjoy Your Time

I know I was hard on our experience in my first post. Honestly, we do not have any plans to return anytime soon. However, I think we would have had a much more successful trip had we prepared better. I hope my Disneyland for Dummies: Part One and Disneyland for Dummies: Part Two are super helpful in making your trip more of the ultimate Disney experience. Disneyland truly does do an amazing job and puts thought into so many details to help make the parks fantastic, and if I didn’t make it clear enough:

Familiarize yourself with the map, section by section, and make a plan.