If you caught my Instagram stories from Thursday, then you probably saw that I took the kids to Disneyland! We went last year, but Kai was so much smaller, and unfortunately Veeral was not able to join so this time was definitely a very different experience! I’m going to recap all the rides that we did, what I packed and some extra helpful tips and tricks!!
The night prior, I laid out all of the kids’ clothes and made sure to have all the snacks ready. We left at 7:30 AM so anything that I could do ahead of time to save some minutes in the morning was going to be very helpful! For kid’s Disney clothes, I found great options on Amazon, Old Navy, and H&M. My cousin, and I have an affinity for GusGus from Cinderella, so we got sweatshirts from Amazon. For snacks, I packed:
- Pirates booty
- Skittles
- Graham, crackers
- Gummy bears
- Nuts
- Re-fillable water bottles
I woke the kids around 6:15AM, they normally shower in the evenings, but since I knew it was going to be such a long day, I had them shower in the morning. I also wanted to be sure that they had a good breakfast that would keep them full until lunchtime! While my two older kids no longer can use the stroller, I still opted to bring the City Mini Double Stroller. Kai was able to be comfortable and we were able to use the other empty seat to store jackets and bags as needed.
Below is the list of rides that we did, anything with an asterisk next to it means that Kai was also able to ride:
- Big Thunder Railroad
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh*
- Mad Tea Party (Teacups)*
- Dumbo The Flying Elephant*
- King Arthur Carrousel*
- It’s A Small World*
- Snow White’s Scary Adventures*
- Pinocchio’s Daring Journey*
- Pirates of the Caribbean* (Kai didn’t like it)
- The Haunted Mansion* (Kai also hated this, lol)
Here are some other helpful tips & tricks to set you up for a day of success:
- Purchase tickets on the Disneyland app and if you are able to, pay extra for the Genie Plus – this is basically the current version of fast pass, which unfortunately, they now charge for
- Pay for parking ahead of time when you purchase your ticket
- Be sure to take a photo of where you park (will save you time later in case you forget!)
- Pack layers – if you caught my stories, you saw that we did get hit with some rain, and I am so glad that I had packed ponchos for all of us
- Don’t forget to pack layers for yourself – I was so busy, making sure that the kids were going to stay warm that I completely forgot to bring a jacket for myself, and I ended up having to buy a sweatshirt at the store!
- Use the mobile food ordering on the Disneyland app – we actually did not do this because by the time we realized, we would have to wait an hour to get our food versus just walking up! So make sure you place your order ahead of time and plan accordingly!
- Bring hand sanitizer, wipes, sunglasses, and sunblock that you can reapply throughout the day
- Recruit family: since Veeral was unable to join, I knew I could use an extra hand with the kids, so I brought my cousin and niece, so they could both help me with the kids
- Rider Switch Service: we did not realize how this worked until we got to the park.. we thought that all of us could walk onto rides and then take turns holding Kai, but apparently you have to scan everyone’s genie plus pass and then whoever is staying back with the baby gets to go on the ride and take two people with them on their turn! So the big kids plus my niece actually got to ride some of the rides twice! My cousin would take all 3 big kids, and I would stay back with Kai, and then when they got out, I would go on with 2 of the big kids!
- Rise of the Resistance: Unfortunately this is not included in your Genie Plus, so we did end up paying $25 / person (so overpriced!) in order to jump the line… I will say the ride itself is definitely worth a one time experience, but couldn’t believe that Disneyland is now starting to charge for this
Food:
- We got a small bag of popcorn around 11 AM to hold us over until lunch.
- For lunch, we ate at Pizza Planet, which is located near Space Mountain.. they have pizzas, pastas, and salads so was is great because all the kids loved this
- While they were on Space Mountain, I grabbed churros
- For dinner, we ate at Golden Horseshoe.. the kids loved the root beer floats!
We finished up the day doing Fantasyland, and Kai absolutely loved it! We had such a great day, despite a little bit of rain, and I was pleasantly surprised with how many rides we were able to get through, despite it being spring break!
I hope this blog was useful, and that you can use some of these tips for when you planned your next trip to Disneyland! I have linked as much as I can here for easy reference!
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