Somewhat last minute, Mike and I decided to plan a one day family trip to Disneyland. We purposely bought tickets for a Tuesday, before summer officially started for many kids, hoping it might be just a fraction less busy.
We flew down to Anaheim after picking Cam up from school on Monday and took a Lyft to the Disneyland Hotel, opting to stay there for early entry the next morning. What we DIDN’T know – but luckily everything ended up being fine – was early entry swaps parks on different days. Since we didn’t get park hopper tickets or have any plans of going to California Adventure, we could have paid a bunch of money to stay in a hotel for a perk we couldn’t utilize. Luckily Tuesday (the day we visited) is, in fact, an early Disneyland entry day (not California Adventure). Pro tip: check the early entry schedule before booking!
We set multiple alarms for early in the morning (not wanting to repeat our honeymoon when we slept through the first morning). Both Mike and I didn’t sleep well this night in anticipation of Disney the next day! Finally though, it was morning. We woke up at 6am with plans to be out of the hotel by 7am for early entry at 7:30, noting the ~5 minute walk to downtown Disney / security.
We definitely had to work to wake Cam up – he wasn’t as eager as his parents – haha. I had gone all into the Disney theme and he was sleeping in Spiderman jammies (with a spare Toy Story set in our suitcase) so we just decided to put his Yoda sweater on over his jams, pack his clothes in the stroller, and leave for the park. I didn’t plan it but I think it’s actually an expert parent hack; let your kids sleep in something they can just wear the next day!
We brought breakfast with us to avoid having to sort that out during our precious 30 minutes of early entry. As we waited in line (which was huge but moved quickly), we sipped hotel-coffee (not great but did the job), and ate store bought croissants and strawberries. Finally we were in the park via downtown Disney and on the monorail on our way into Tomorrowland. As we walked to Fantasyland we saw a sea of people waiting for “rope drop” near Main Street. It was honestly kind of off putting – like, surely someone is going to get trampled, right? How are we not hearing about this more on the news?
When we finally made it into the park and got in line for Peter Pan it was already 7:50am, which means we only had 10 minutes before the throngs of people just waiting to get in the park joined us… My takeaways here? 7am is not early enough to leave your hotel room. Also, we didn’t hear of anyone getting trampled so all must be fine with this set up. As crazy as it looks to see such a massive group of people just waiting behind one little rope.
Ok ok back to the rides! The theme of this trip turned out to be Things We Haven’t Done Before – i.e. mostly rides for Cam that we probably just skipped over in the past. I grew up going to Disneyland almost every summer and can’t remember ever riding Peter Pan but heard the line got crazy. Strategically this was our first move with our 10 minute early-advantage. And oh, how it almost went so terribly… when we were only one row behind boarding the flying ships, the ride broke down. Nooooo. This actually has never happened to be either (sticking with the theme). Thankfully it was running again in ~5 minutes and we were zipping through Neverland shortly after.
Next we went for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and… I wish we hadn’t. The ride was jerky and dark and not that much fun (at least the line was short to get on, although now I think I know why…). Cam got off and declared, “I’m ready to go home.” Uh-oh.
I tapped my inner Dr. Becky and promptly told him, “Ugh, I know. That ride was so dark and loud. Mommy didn’t really like it either. Should we make a deal to only go on light and bright rides for the rest of the day?”
Instant smile from him and relief for me. “Yes! Let’s go on the elephants next!” To Dumbo it was! (Which, the next morning when we were recapping the rides we went on, Cam referred to as “the pigs” until he saw the confused look on mine and Mike’s face and remembered then they were actually elephants, saying “wait, wait, I mean the elephants!” Cute.)
Mike took Cam on Autopia next, which was his absolute favorite ride when we went last year, while I walked around looking for an alternative to the life-sized lightsaber (“laser”) Cam saw the night before and had become obsessed with. The pricey, very big lightsaber was top of his list but I wasn’t sure how we would actually get it home. I found a small lightsaber keychain that I thought might do the trick…… *Flash forward to the next day, packing up our things, stuffing a full sized lightsaber into our stroller bag. Cam won!
We went on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage next, the first time for all of us. This ride was pretty long, which was nice – who doesn’t love sitting and resting for a while at Disney? – but there were a few parts that were scary for kids. This poor little one behind us cried the entire ride and I thought Cam might join her when there was an “explosion,” “fire,” (I think they were trying to emulate the volcano scene in the movie when Nemo is in the fish tank?), and then complete darkness. Yikes.
We made it out of the submarine and mobile ordered lunch at Bengal BBQ, my favorite Disney eatery. While we were eating, we found an outlet near our table so charged our phone a bit. This to say, I had no idea if there would be accessible outlets anywhere in the park when I packed the charger that morning, but, hot tip, there are!
The Jungle Cruise was next, followed by pineapple DOLE whip and the Tiki Room.
Mike bought a GeniePass to try Rise of the Resistance (rave reviews from him after!) while Cam and I walked around Galaxy’s Edge with his LASER (and lots of little eyes longingly staring at the giant lightsaber – how many other parents got suckered into buying one of those things!?).
Last year when we visited Disney, we had success with stroller naps in the middle of the day. We were a bit unsure if we would again this year since Cam is older but, nonetheless, decided to bring our better stroller that reclines to try for it. Amazingly he slept for almost 2 hours while Mike and I snacked on beignets and sipped iced coffees. What a win! This meant we could stay at the park much later and Cam wouldn’t get cranky and melt into messy tantrums.
As we were walking back into the park (Starbucks is only in downtown Disney!), we caught the end of a parade going through Main Street. Notably catching glimpses of Moana and Maui! We decided to ride the Disneyland Railroad next, something else we didn’t do last time, to let Cam wake up a bit. Then in was back to Fantasyland to ride the Casey Jr. Circus Train. This was the longest line we waited in all day (~40 minutes) and felt like the peak heat of the afternoon. Sadly I remembered this ride being more fun last year – which Mike and I theorized was because we rode it at night. I think Cam enjoyed it though.
We had dinner at the Red Rose Taverne after. For Cam, I had brought some staples I knew he would eat (corn, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, carrots) and paired that with sides. He had an extremely balanced meal of corn and tater tots, while we spilt a burger and flatbread (also very balanced and healthy).
After dinner, it was off to the Storybook Canal Boats for a slow and mundane ride that I’ve never done before and would only do again if the line was short. We did however get to see the parade again while standing in line, so that was fun.
We went with a classic after: the teacups. And then ended the day with Astro Orbiter (our first ride last time we were there) at Cam’s request. Cam loved this one so it was nice to go out with a bang. All in all, we rode 11 rides and walked 22,000 steps.
We grabbed a box of popcorn and walked our way out on the famous Main Street. What a magical day!
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