Our Family Day Out At Disneyland Park

It’s written as ‘the happiest place on earth’ and yep for an amazing family day out Disneyland Park really is.

Below is our story about how we spent the day managing our time between the two parks to get as much value as we could for our money. 

Included are a few tips and ideas that we learnt along the way. 

There are many tips, tricks and Disney Park secrets to learn to get the most value and experience out of your day.

A little research before you visit is definitely worthwhile. Even if you just look at the map and plan out the first few rides it would make a great start to your day.

We made sure we arrived before opening time, along with everyone else. The queues were massive.

Tip 1: However, we purchased our tickets on our phone the day before using the Disneyland Park Mobile App. Within a couple of minutes, we were through security and heading to our first ride.

Remember Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are two different parks, you can either buy a ticket for one park or in our case we brought for both parks.

You can go between parks as many times as you like. There is only a minutes walk between both entrances.

Tip 2: We quickly stopped off too and hired a pram for $15, great if Lukas needed a rest (and he did have a couple of hours sleep) or a place to put our bags/gifts.

Where To Start 

We hit Disney California Adventure first to check out the Radiator Springs Racers ride, this is one not to be missed and if you can get there quickly and avoid the long queues, even better.

At one stage, in the afternoon, we saw the queue time was over 2 hours. Crazy!

Now, we have been to Disneyland Park previously but this was before kids. Tip 3: Even though it had been a while we had downloaded a map at home and planned the first few rides and the quickest routes to them.

It also helped that we were with friends who live in Southern California too.

Check out our top 12 tips post to get the most out of your time in Disneyland and California Adventure Park.

We spent the first part of the day moving through the rides in California Adventure Park, our favourite rides were Radiator Springs Racers, A Bugs land, Grizzly River Run (Lukas’ least favourite because he got a little wet) and Soarin’ Over the World.

In fact, we had a stroke of luck when we arrived at the Grizzly River Run as it had broken down. We had noticed this on our Disneyland Mobile App.

However, it had just started running again and we were 2nd in line. Bonus!.

In between rides we also enjoyed just wandering around, soaking up the enjoyment and buzz of this place and especially watching Lukas’s face light up.

While there are plenty of places to eat, we choose Flo’s V8 Cafe before switching over to Disneyland.

The food was reasonably priced and ok. Plus the outside area gave us a view of the Radiator Springs ride.

Tip 4: We also brought a few snacks from home to keep us going too.

Disneyland 

To be honest there is nothing better than walking down the Main street of Disneyland, even as an adult.

You instantly smile!

We decided to spend the afternoon and evening here.

Tip 5: It was very busy so we made sure to use Rider Switch to help speed things up a bit and ensure everyone got to ride.

Remember to check out 12 tips to learn more about Rider Switch.

While at Disneyland we loved the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones Adventure, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain.

These are of course based on adult choices but the kids loved them too.

While we did all these, we made sure to do plenty of rides for the little ones too.

Spending lots of time in Mickey’s Toontown and Fantasyland. This is where Lukas chose all the rides.

When dinner time called for a few hungry bellies, we checked into Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante.

Again the food was fine and reasonably priced. Here we loaded up for the push into the evening.

On this day Disney California Adventure Park closed one hour after Disneyland Park so once we finished the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and watched the street parade we raced back to Disney California Adventure to try and squeeze one more ride out of the day (Radiator Springs Racers).

If you are in a ride line when the park closes they will still let you go on that ride.

Awesome way the end the night.

The reality is, to see everything, you need a multi-day pass.

Depending on how many days you have the most important tip I would give, is to go on Disney’s website and research the rides you want to go on first.

Remember rides change, old rides can go and new rides can replace them.

So even if you have been there before its always important to do your research. Download Disneyland Mobile App (Apple or Android) this gives you show times, maps and most importantly wait times on rides.

Again check out our top 12 Disney tips

Tickets: Prices start around $97 for a one Park pass, depending on what day you go, and then build up from there.

However, if you purchase a multiple day pass the price per day drops. It’s best to check out Disney’s ticket site

Downtown Disney

If you want to soak up a little bit of that Disney feeling for FREE, this is where you come.

While there are no rides there are some great restaurants and shops.

Lukas spent 30 minutes at Ride Makerz and built his own remote controlled Ford Mustang. Sadly I don’t think this shop is there anymore.

There is also Disney home, Curl Surf and a Lego shop amongst others. You can even purchase all your disney gifts if you forgot to get them while in Disneyland.

Here you can buy all your souvenirs from; toys, t-shirts, towels, even disney fanny packs. There is something for everyone. The best news is that after

Disneyland closes this area is still open making sure tourists spend. When we were their there was an entertainment area where we watched musicals perform.