Disneyland in Southern California is called the Happiest Place on Earth, however the expertise is a complete lot happier for guests who come ready. Visiting a Disney theme park could be sophisticated, complicated and costly. With the appropriate technique, nevertheless, you’ll be able to dodge a number of strains and spend lower than the common visitor.
After spending hundreds of hours within the two theme parks in Anaheim through the years, I’ve picked up fairly a number of Disneyland suggestions and methods. Listed below are the important suggestions you could know to get essentially 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 12 months, Walt Disney World in Florida eradicated its theme park reservation requirement for many company. Disneyland didn’t. If you wish to go to the parks in California, you may nonetheless want a reservation for the park you intend to enter first every day.
When shopping for a theme park ticket immediately from Disney’s web site, you may be prompted to make park reservations mechanically. Should you purchase from a third-party reseller like Get Away Right now or Undercover Vacationer (which could be sensible to do, as you could lower your expenses by buying multiday tickets this fashion), you may want to finish the reservations step by yourself. It solely takes a minute or two to hyperlink a ticket and make the alternatives, however you may wish to be sure you do not forget about this activity till it is too late.
How far forward do you could plan? Fortunately, most dates at Disneyland are 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 Yr’s Day, you may wish to be sure you reserve at the very least a number of weeks prematurely to be secure.
Value out single-day tickets, even if you’re visiting for a number of days
Disneyland sells each single and multiday park tickets which can be good for as much as 5 days. If you will go to for 2 and even three days, it might shock you to search out that buying a multiday ticket is not all the time the perfect 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 a few of the cheaper single-day tickets (Tier 0, Tier 1, and many others.) can price lower than their multiday ticket equal.
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There is no such thing as a have to do the maths if you’re going throughout peak durations, similar to a faculty vacation when single-day tickets are costly. Nonetheless, if you’re purposely visiting throughout a much less in style time when shorter strains are widespread, you could be pleasantly stunned to search out it can save you cash, too.
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Simply remember that one-day tickets are rather less versatile than multiday tickets, because the cheaper ticket tiers can solely be used on sure days. Should you determine to reschedule a visit or go to on a special day of the week, the single-day tickets might not provide all the flexibleness 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 motels and Downtown Disney procuring and leisure district are all inside strolling distance of one another. The proximity means you may get much more finished even on a brief journey since you will not be spending as a lot time in transit.
Take full benefit of Disneyland’s smaller measurement by staying at a resort inside strolling distance. Whereas all three Disney-owned motels (Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa, Disneyland Resort and Pixar Place Resort) are inside strolling distance of each parks, a number of off-property motels are simply as shut — and price so much 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. A minimum of 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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Guide character meals at strategic instances
Assembly characters is a well-liked Disneyland exercise, particularly for youths, however ready in lengthy strains to see them within the sizzling solar will not be your thought of trip enjoyable. A greater approach to get pictures with Mickey and his buddies is to schedule a personality meal. Disneyland has 4 eating places providing character eating experiences: three in two Disney motels 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 rather more economical to schedule a personality meal outdoors the parks on the night of my arrival or the morning of my departure. That method, my household will get a few of the Disney magic with out paying for an additional day of theme park tickets or slicing into our time on Disneyland’s greatest rides.
Should you 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 try to be within the parks benefiting from shorter trip strains. A greater choice 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 spite of everything that strolling, you may have earned your Mickey waffles.
Think about 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 choice prices $65 to $105 extra for the size of the ticket, so many company will naturally forgo this feature to economize. Whereas it may be sensible to skip the Park Hopper ticket choice in some circumstances, that is not universally true.
The parks at Disneyland are steps away from each other, so it is very straightforward to hop between them (even a number of instances day by day) in case your journey social gathering 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 finished in two days at Disneyland with a Park Hopper ticket (particularly when utilizing Disney’s cut-the-line service Lightning Lane Multi Cross) as I can in three days when restricted to at least one 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 strains
The overwhelming majority of informal quick-service eating places at Disneyland now provide cell ordering. As a substitute of standing in one other lengthy line, you’ll be able to 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 out a pickup window that works along 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 trip. Should you run late or early, you’ll be able to modify your pickup window within the Disneyland app to a different out there time with only a few 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. Standard 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, you could not get the restaurant or time you need.
Different company 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 known as MouseDining will run searches to search out that new availability for you. MouseDining has a free model that sends electronic mail alerts and a paid model that sends textual content alerts. I’ve used MouseDining to snag at the very least 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 Yr in January and February, the Disneyland Meals & Wine Pageant in spring and the Disney Pageant of Holidays each winter vacation season. Many company take pleasure in making a meal or two from the distinctive meals competition choices.
At many of those festivals, Disney provides a Sip & Savor cross. For a set value, company buy a cross that they’ll trade for six to eight menu objects on the competition cubicles. These passes is usually a sensible method for a household or group of pals to economize on meals whereas nonetheless sampling varied choices.
Simply be certain that to do some math so you might be redeeming the cross for objects which can be a great worth relative to the cross value. Typically talking, you may typically come out a number of {dollars} forward on most entrees, however drinks and desserts are usually not all the time price it.
Prepurchase Lightning Lane Multi Cross along with your park ticket
If you’d like shorter strains for a lot of of Disneyland’s hottest rides, you may seemingly wish to use Lightning Lane Multi Cross (previously often called Disney Genie+). With Lightning Lane Multi Cross, company make reservations to return to pick high-demand points of interest by way of specific queues known as Lightning Lanes. This additional is actually not important, particularly should you plan to go to throughout quieter instances or primarily to trip points of interest that do not have Lightning Lanes.
For company who do plan to make use of Lightning Lane Multi Cross every single day of a visit, nevertheless, it’s higher to prepurchase park tickets that embody it. In any other case, the one method to purchase it’s to attend till you enter a theme park every day of your journey. Disneyland expenses $32 per particular person, per day should you purchase Lightning Lane Multi Cross on the time of ticketing. Should you wait, the value is variable and has been as excessive as $39 in late 2024 and early 2025.
Prepurchasing Lightning Lane Multi Cross saves cash and avoids the trouble of fumbling along with your cellphone every morning when you enter the park. That is when try to be benefiting from brief trip strains as a substitute.
Modify (do not cancel) Lightning Lane bookings
Should you plan to buy Lightning Lane Multi Cross, undoubtedly take the time to learn to use it to get most worth.
Visitors could make a Lightning Lane Multi Cross reservation at the very least each two hours, typically sooner. One of many errors that many company 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. Meaning you may e-book and trip 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 would not reset the eligibility clock. You’ll be able to modify for a special time on the identical trip or for one more trip fully, so long as the trip is throughout the identical park.
Make Lightning Lane reservations for in style points of interest early — however not too early
All rides are usually not created equal in relation to Lightning Lanes at Disneyland. Some points of interest are way more in style than others. The return home windows for these points of interest will rapidly 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 Cross points of interest are Indiana Jones Journey, House Mountain, Haunted Mansion Vacation (when supplied within the fall and winter) and the latest attraction Tiana’s Bayou Journey. In Disney California Journey Park, Toy Story Halfway Mania and Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! are inclined to go extra rapidly. You will wish to be certain that these points of interest are your first or second picks earlier than the early return instances are gone.
Though you wish to e-book these points of interest on the early aspect, you additionally should not redeem them too early. The parks have brief standby strains 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 strains when you can (for points of interest that do not provide Lightning Lane and for points of interest that you could be wish to trip 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, company of the three on-property Disney motels are entitled to early entry half-hour earlier than different company every day. In contrast to Walt Disney World, early entry is barely supplied in a single park day by day. Disneyland Park opens early on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; Disney California Journey Park provides early entry on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The staggered schedule has some necessary technique concerns. In case you are an on-property resort visitor, you’ll undoubtedly wish to use early entry day by day, if attainable, to reap the benefits of shorter trip strains within the morning. Meaning 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 company in that park will likely be on an equal enjoying area at rope drop when the park opens; nobody may have had a head begin or be filling the queues. Should you can get up early sufficient to be in entrance of these crowds, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of brief trip strains with out paying the large 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 trip in Disneyland Park. Many company who have not skilled it but (and plenty of who’ve) wish to get aboard the attraction with out a lengthy line. Extra importantly, most wish to accomplish that with out paying the additional $20 to $28 to trip it by way of Lightning Lane (Rise of the Resistance is not included in Lightning Lane Multi Cross and as a substitute requires the acquisition of a separate a la carte Lightning Lane Single Cross to skip the road). The trip 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 general touring technique. The attraction is within the very again nook of Disneyland Park, so strolling there takes time. Slower-moving company do not stand an opportunity.
Even the speedy pay a value. The trip itself has a number of preshows and is kind of lengthy. Even should you enter the queue rapidly, you will not be finished till at the very least 30 to 60 minutes after the park has opened. By that point, a number of different points of interest may have lengthy standby queues.
What are higher Disneyland rope drop methods? For households with youthful children or anybody into Disney nostalgia, head to Fantasyland. It is fully attainable to trip 5 or extra basic darkish rides there within the first hour of the park opening with minimal strains. One other sensible technique is to begin with House Mountain and run by way of a number of Tomorrowland points of interest earlier than the strains get lengthy.
Take residence a cheap Disneyland memento
Souvenirs within the many Disney shops that line Important Road, U.S.A. or Downtown Disney can set you again lots 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.
One in every of my favorites is an old school silhouette. A number of very proficient Disney artists reduce a side-view portrait of you or your little one in minutes of their small studio on Important Road, U.S.A. The portrait prices simply $11.99, and fundamental frames are usually not rather more costly. My household has loved gathering these silhouettes of our youngsters at varied ages and levels at Disneyland through the years. We have even gotten a number of of them made in different Disney parks all over the world.
One other reasonably priced memento is Disneyland’s pressed pennies. For $1, you may get a coin with a favourite character or scene pressed onto it. Loads of children have enjoyable gathering them in a cheap portfolio you could find in one of many present outlets. Many different vacationer points of interest and journey locations even have machines, so pressed pennies could be a cheap memento past the theme parks.
If you’d like a quirkier memento with an expertise hooked up to it, go to certainly one of Disneyland’s fortune-telling machines. For only a quarter or two, an audio-animatronic character offers you a fortune card. Look out for Esmeralda (within the Penny Arcade on Important Road, 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).
Maintain an eye fixed out for roaming characters
One of many issues Disneyland does greatest (and extra typically than Walt Disney World) is spontaneous character interactions. In fact, Disneyland has the standard designated meet-and-greet spots the place company queue for pictures and autographs, nevertheless it’s additionally common to search out characters roaming across the parks in surprising and unscripted locations. Often, these interactions can result in some actually magical moments and interactions.
In Disneyland Park, you may discover essentially 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 filled with probabilities 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 widespread at Disney World in Orlando. Due to the great local weather, many extra of Disneyland’s points of interest are partially or totally open air. Meaning you have to be ready for the weather when the forecast would not totally cooperate.
Rain is fairly unusual, at the very least for hours at a time, however packing a poncho isn’t a nasty thought. If you wish to reduce your probability of a wet day at Disneyland, keep away from January and February. Equally, warmth waves are usually not that widespread, however they do occur a number of instances a 12 months. The most well liked months to go to are often August and September.
You want to be ready for varied climates and circumstances 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 very popular days once 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 strains and the Buddy Cross
Should you aren’t rope dropping or paying for Lightning Lanes, there are nonetheless a number of different methods of the commerce to search out shorter strains at Disneyland. One in every of my favorites is the single-rider line, the place Disneyland forged 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 social gathering is comfy with separating and your children are sufficiently old to trip alone (age 7 and up).
Single-rider strains are typically most helpful midmorning. In afternoons and evenings (particularly on weekends), locals with annual passes go to the parks in higher numbers, and plenty of of them are sensible to this trick. The rides that supply single-rider strains can change, however the service is often out there at many in-demand thrill rides like Radiator Springs Racers, House Mountain, Matterhorn and Incredicoaster.
One shut cousin of the single-rider system is the Buddy Cross, the place small teams are used to fill an empty row on a bigger trip automobile. This has historically been out there at Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue. A model of it, often called the Roo Cross, is typically used for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The Buddy Cross is much less dependable than single-rider strains however can typically make it easier to shortcut one other trip in your Disneyland day.
Backside line
The best preparation can undoubtedly make it easier to save each money and time on a Disneyland theme park trip. With these touring and reserving suggestions, you are nicely in your approach to being a Disneyland knowledgeable.
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