Disneyland in Southern California is called the Happiest Place on Earth, however the expertise is an entire lot happier for guests who come ready. Visiting a Disney theme park will be difficult, complicated and costly. With the fitting technique, nonetheless, you may dodge numerous traces and spend lower than the typical visitor.
After spending 1000’s of hours within the two theme parks in Anaheim over time, I’ve picked up fairly a number of Disneyland ideas and tips. Listed below are the important ideas you have to know to get probably the most to your cash, spend much less time in line and have a extra magical trip expertise in 2025 because the resort celebrates its seventieth anniversary.
Do not forget to make theme park reservations
Final yr, Walt Disney World in Florida eradicated its theme park reservation requirement for many visitors. Disneyland didn’t. If you wish to go to the parks in California, you will nonetheless want a reservation for the park you propose to enter first every day.
When shopping for a theme park ticket straight from Disney’s web site, you will be prompted to make park reservations mechanically. If you happen to purchase from a third-party reseller like Get Away At this time or Undercover Vacationer (which will be good to do, as chances are you’ll lower your expenses by buying multiday tickets this manner), you will want to finish the reservations step by yourself. It solely takes a minute or two to hyperlink a ticket and make the picks, however you will need to be sure to remember about this job till it is too late.
How far forward do you have to plan? Fortunately, most dates at Disneyland are now not utterly booked up prematurely for normal ticket holders. That mentioned, should you plan on visiting throughout a busy time, just like the week between Christmas and New 12 months’s Day, you will need to be sure to reserve not less than a number of weeks prematurely to be protected.
Worth out single-day tickets, even if you’re visiting for a number of days
Disneyland sells each single and multiday park tickets which might be good for as much as 5 days. If you’re going to go to for 2 and even three days, it could shock you to search out that buying a multiday ticket is not at all times the very best deal.
It is counterintuitive, nevertheless it’s a perform of Disneyland’s set value for multiday tickets and variable pricing for single-day tickets. There are seven completely different value tiers (Tier 0 to six) for single-day tickets. Two and even three of among the cheaper single-day tickets (Tier 0, Tier 1, and many others.) can value lower than their multiday ticket equal.
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There isn’t a have to do the maths if you’re going throughout peak intervals, resembling a faculty vacation when single-day tickets are costly. Nonetheless, if you’re purposely visiting throughout a much less common time when shorter traces are frequent, chances are you’ll be pleasantly shocked to search out it can save you cash, too.
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Simply bear in mind that one-day tickets are rather less versatile than multiday tickets, because the cheaper ticket tiers can solely be used on sure days. If you happen to determine to reschedule a visit or go to on a unique day of the week, the single-day tickets could not supply all the pliability you want.
Keep inside strolling distance — however not essentially on-property
In comparison with Disney World, Disneyland is exceptionally compact. The 2 theme parks, three Disney-owned lodges and Downtown Disney buying and leisure district are all inside strolling distance of one another. The proximity means you may get much more completed even on a brief journey since you will not be spending as a lot time in transit.
Take full benefit of Disneyland’s smaller dimension by staying at a resort inside strolling distance. Whereas all three Disney-owned lodges (Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa, Disneyland Resort and Pixar Place Resort) are inside strolling distance of each parks, a number of off-property lodges are simply as shut — and value rather a lot much less. You will not get all of the perks and Disney decor of an on-property keep, however you will not have to attend for shuttles or fear about parking.
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You’ll be able to even use factors and miles for a number of of those properties to decrease the price of your trip. At the least one resort in each main resort loyalty program — together with Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards and a number of other others — is inside a 15-minute stroll of the theme parks.
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Ebook character meals at strategic instances
Assembly characters is a well-liked Disneyland exercise, particularly for teenagers, however ready in lengthy traces to see them within the scorching solar will not be your thought of trip enjoyable. A greater approach to get photographs with Mickey and his friends is to schedule a personality meal. Disneyland has 4 eating places providing character eating experiences: three in two Disney lodges and one inside Disneyland Park.
Disneyland’s character eating is dear, so that you should not pay for it whereas spending massive bucks on theme park tickets. I discover it is far more economical to schedule a personality meal exterior the parks on the night of my arrival or the morning of my departure. That means, my household will get among the Disney magic with out paying for an additional day of theme park tickets or reducing into our time on Disneyland’s finest rides.
If you happen to should schedule a meal on a theme park day, do not schedule it for very first thing within the morning. The early hours are when you need to be within the parks making the most of shorter journey traces. A greater possibility is to e book a late morning brunch or lunch and use the meal as a break after a number of hours of driving points of interest. In any case that strolling, you will have earned your Mickey waffles.
Take into account Park Hopper tickets, even should you skip them at Disney World
Visitors can go to each theme parks in a single day for a further cost. Disneyland’s Park Hopper ticket possibility prices $65 to $105 extra for the size of the ticket, so many visitors will naturally forgo this selection to economize. Whereas it may be good to skip the Park Hopper ticket possibility in some circumstances, that is not universally true.
The parks at Disneyland are steps away from each other, so it’s totally simple to hop between them (even a number of instances each day) in case your journey get together is cell and motivated. You’ll be able to typically devise a way more environment friendly touring plan and re-ride your favourite points of interest should you park hop. I discover I can typically get as a lot completed in two days at Disneyland with a Park Hopper ticket (particularly when utilizing Disney’s cut-the-line service Lightning Lane Multi Move) as I can in three days when restricted to 1 park per day.
Even should you skip park hopping at Walt Disney World due to the gap between the parks, rethink that technique at Disneyland.
Cellular order to skip meals traces
The overwhelming majority of informal quick-service eating places at Disneyland now supply cell ordering. As a substitute of standing in one other lengthy line, you may place your order on the Disneyland app and choose it up throughout a 15-minute window at your chosen time.
Cellular order time slots e book up, particularly at peak meal instances for the most well-liked eating places. To pick a pickup window that works together with your schedule, place your order an hour or so earlier than the lunch or dinner rush. It is simple to do that whereas standing in line for a journey. If you happen to run late or early, you may modify your pickup window within the Disneyland app to a different obtainable time with just some clicks.
Use MouseDining to snag hard-to-get eating reservations
Securing reservations for desk service eating places at Disneyland has develop into more and more aggressive. In style eating spots like Blue Bayou and Lamplight Lounge typically e book up instantaneously when they’re launched (often 60 days prematurely at 6 a.m. native time). Even if you’re on Disney’s web site precisely on the proper time, chances are you’ll not get the restaurant or time you need.
Different visitors cancel reservations on a regular basis, and typically Disney opens up extra availability, so it’s attainable to get a desk even should you miss the unique reserving window. Higher but, a third-party service referred to as MouseDining will run searches to search out that new availability for you. MouseDining has a free model that sends e mail alerts and a paid model that sends textual content alerts. I’ve used MouseDining to snag not less than a dozen hard-to-get reservations within the final couple of years.
Sip and savor at California Journey’s meals festivals
Disney hosts a number of meals festivals yearly in Disney California Journey Park, together with Lunar New 12 months in January and February, the Disneyland Meals & Wine Pageant in spring and the Disney Pageant of Holidays each winter vacation season. Many visitors get pleasure from making a meal or two from the distinctive meals competition choices.
At many of those festivals, Disney affords a Sip & Savor go. For a set value, visitors buy a go that they will trade for six to eight menu gadgets on the competition cubicles. These passes generally is a good means for a household or group of buddies to economize on meals whereas nonetheless sampling numerous choices.
Simply be sure that to perform a little math so you might be redeeming the go for gadgets which might be worth relative to the go value. Usually talking, you will typically come out a number of {dollars} forward on most entrees, however drinks and desserts will not be at all times value it.
Prepurchase Lightning Lane Multi Move together with your park ticket
If you need shorter traces for a lot of of Disneyland’s hottest rides, you will seemingly need to use Lightning Lane Multi Move (previously generally known as Disney Genie+). With Lightning Lane Multi Move, visitors make reservations to return to pick out high-demand points of interest via specific queues referred to as Lightning Lanes. This further is definitely not important, particularly should you plan to go to throughout quieter instances or primarily to journey points of interest that do not have Lightning Lanes.
For visitors who do plan to make use of Lightning Lane Multi Move on daily basis of a visit, nonetheless, it’s higher to prepurchase park tickets that embrace it. In any other case, the one means to purchase it’s to attend till you enter a theme park every day of your journey. Disneyland expenses $32 per individual, per day should you purchase Lightning Lane Multi Move on the time of ticketing. If you happen to wait, the worth is variable and has been as excessive as $39 in late 2024 and early 2025.
Prepurchasing Lightning Lane Multi Move saves cash and avoids the effort of fumbling together with your cellphone every morning when you enter the park. That is when you need to be making the most of brief journey traces as a substitute.
Modify (do not cancel) Lightning Lane bookings
If you happen to plan to buy Lightning Lane Multi Move, positively take the time to discover ways to use it to get most worth.
Visitors could make a Lightning Lane Multi Move reservation not less than each two hours, typically sooner. One of many errors that many visitors make with the service is canceling a reservation when their plans change. Once you cancel, the two-hour clock is reset, and also you lose time. Which means you will e book and journey fewer points of interest over the course of the day.
As a substitute of canceling, it is best to modify your Lightning Lane reservations. Modifying does not reset the eligibility clock. You’ll be able to modify for a unique time on the identical journey or for one more journey fully, so long as the journey is throughout the similar park.
Make Lightning Lane reservations for common points of interest early — however not too early
All rides will not be created equal in terms of Lightning Lanes at Disneyland. Some points of interest are way more common than others. The return home windows for these points of interest will shortly get pushed out a lot later within the day, and people rides will run out of Lightning Lane reservation slots first. Visitors utilizing the service strategically ought to e book these in-demand points of interest earlier than that occurs.
What must you e book first? Disneyland Park’s hottest Lightning Lane Multi Move points of interest are Indiana Jones Journey, Area Mountain, Haunted Mansion Vacation (when supplied within the fall and winter) and the most recent attraction Tiana’s Bayou Journey. In Disney California Journey Park, Toy Story Halfway Mania and Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! are likely to go extra shortly. You will need to be sure that these points of interest are your first or second picks earlier than the early return instances are gone.
Though you need to e book these points of interest on the early aspect, you additionally should not redeem them too early. The parks have brief standby traces very first thing within the morning, so it is a waste of a Lightning Lane reservation to redeem it 5 minutes after the park opens. Use brief standby traces whilst you can (for points of interest that do not supply Lightning Lane and for points of interest that you could be need to journey greater than as soon as in a single day). Then, use Lightning Lanes an hour or two into the day as queues get longer.
Make park reservations with the early entry schedule in thoughts
At Disneyland, visitors of the three on-property Disney lodges are entitled to early entry half-hour earlier than different visitors every day. In contrast to Walt Disney World, early entry is simply supplied in a single park each day. Disneyland Park opens early on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; Disney California Journey Park affords early entry on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The staggered schedule has some vital technique concerns. If you’re an on-property resort visitor, you’ll positively need to use early entry each day, if attainable, to make the most of shorter journey traces within the morning. Which means it is best to plan to make park reservations for the park that has early entry every day.
If you do not have early entry privileges, it is best to typically do the other. Make your reservations for the park that is not providing early entry. All visitors in that park will probably be on an equal enjoying discipline at rope drop when the park opens; nobody could have had a head begin or be filling the queues. If you happen to can get up early sufficient to be in entrance of these crowds, you may make the most of brief journey traces with out paying the massive bucks for an on-property resort.
Do not rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Much more than 5 years after its opening, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance stays the most well-liked journey in Disneyland Park. Many visitors who have not skilled it but (and plenty of who’ve) need to get aboard the attraction and not using a lengthy line. Extra importantly, most need to achieve this with out paying the additional $20 to $28 to journey it through Lightning Lane (Rise of the Resistance is not included in Lightning Lane Multi Move and as a substitute requires the acquisition of a separate a la carte Lightning Lane Single Move to skip the road). The journey is not open throughout early entry, so a well-liked technique is to make a beeline for it at rope drop.
Whereas discovering a shorter wait very first thing within the morning is feasible, rope dropping Rise of the Resistance is not essentially the neatest total touring technique. The attraction is within the very again nook of Disneyland Park, so strolling there takes time. Slower-moving visitors do not stand an opportunity.
Even the speedy pay a value. The journey itself has a number of preshows and is sort of lengthy. Even should you enter the queue shortly, you will not be completed till not less than 30 to 60 minutes after the park has opened. By that point, a number of different points of interest could have lengthy standby queues.
What are higher Disneyland rope drop methods? For households with youthful youngsters or anybody into Disney nostalgia, head to Fantasyland. It is fully attainable to journey 5 or extra traditional darkish rides there within the first hour of the park opening with minimal traces. One other good technique is to start out with Area Mountain and run via a number of Tomorrowland points of interest earlier than the traces get lengthy.
Take residence a reasonable Disneyland memento
Souvenirs within the many Disney shops that line Major Avenue, U.S.A. or Downtown Disney can set you again tons of of {dollars}. Nonetheless, there are a number of useful souvenirs, a few of that are enjoyable throwbacks to Disneyland’s quirky and distinctive historical past.
Certainly one of my favorites is an old school silhouette. A couple of very proficient Disney artists minimize a side-view portrait of you or your youngster in minutes of their small studio on Major Avenue, U.S.A. The portrait prices simply $11.99, and fundamental frames will not be far more costly. My household has loved accumulating these silhouettes of our children at numerous ages and phases at Disneyland over time. We have even gotten a number of of them made in different Disney parks around the globe.
One other inexpensive memento is Disneyland’s pressed pennies. For $1, you may get a coin with a favourite character or scene pressed onto it. Lots of youngsters have enjoyable accumulating them in a reasonable portfolio you could find in one of many present retailers. Many different vacationer points of interest and journey locations even have machines, so pressed pennies will be a reasonable memento past the theme parks.
If you need a quirkier memento with an expertise connected to it, go to one among Disneyland’s fortune-telling machines. For only a quarter or two, an audio-animatronic character provides you with a fortune card. Look out for Esmeralda (within the Penny Arcade on Major Avenue, U.S.A.), Fortune Purple (close to the exit of Pirates of the Caribbean) or Shrunken Ned (within the Bengal Barbecue seating space throughout from the Jungle Cruise).
Preserve a watch out for roaming characters
One of many issues Disneyland does finest (and extra typically than Walt Disney World) is spontaneous character interactions. In fact, Disneyland has the same old designated meet-and-greet spots the place visitors queue for photographs and autographs, nevertheless it’s additionally common to search out characters roaming across the parks in sudden and unscripted locations. Sometimes, these interactions can result in some actually magical moments and interactions.
In Disneyland Park, you will discover probably the most spontaneous character exercise in Fantasyland, in addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Plus, Avengers Campus in Disney California Journey Park is especially stuffed with possibilities to have a extra improv-style interplay with a personality.
Pack for variable climate
Fortunately, the climate in Southern California is often fairly nice, particularly in comparison with the oppressive warmth frequent at Disney World in Orlando. Due to the great local weather, many extra of Disneyland’s points of interest are partially or absolutely open air. Which means you have to be ready for the weather when the forecast does not absolutely cooperate.
Rain is fairly unusual, not less than for hours at a time, however packing a poncho is rarely a nasty thought. If you wish to decrease your likelihood of a wet day at Disneyland, keep away from January and February. Equally, warmth waves will not be that frequent, however they do occur a number of instances a yr. The most popular months to go to are often August and September.
You should be ready for numerous climates and situations everytime you go. Disneyland typically has actually lengthy park hours, and should you plan to go from early entry on the morning time to park shut at midnight or later, you would possibly expertise 20- to 30-degree temperature swings over the course of the day. Layering is important. Even on extremely popular days after I’m in a T-shirt and shorts, I am typically beginning the morning and ending the night sporting a hoodie.
Make use of single-rider traces and the Buddy Move
If you happen to aren’t rope dropping or paying for Lightning Lanes, there are nonetheless a number of different tips of the commerce to search out shorter traces at Disneyland. Certainly one of my favorites is the single-rider line, the place Disneyland solid members use a particular queue (often shorter than the common standby queue) to fill empty single seats. You need to use the road so long as your get together is snug with separating and your youngsters are sufficiently old to journey alone (age 7 and up).
Single-rider traces are usually most helpful midmorning. In afternoons and evenings (particularly on weekends), locals with annual passes go to the parks in better numbers, and plenty of of them are sensible to this trick. The rides that provide single-rider traces can change, however the service is frequently obtainable at many in-demand thrill rides like Radiator Springs Racers, Area Mountain, Matterhorn and Incredicoaster.
One shut cousin of the single-rider system is the Buddy Move, the place small teams are used to fill an empty row on a bigger journey automobile. This has historically been obtainable at Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue. A model of it, generally known as the Roo Move, is usually used for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The Buddy Move is much less dependable than single-rider traces however can typically show you how to shortcut one other journey in your Disneyland day.
Backside line
The precise preparation can positively show you how to save each money and time on a Disneyland theme park trip. With these touring and reserving ideas, you are properly in your approach to being a Disneyland skilled.
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