It can be overwhelming to visit this destination without having a few tricks up your sleeve for managing the crowds, the kids, the expectations.
Here are a few helpful tips.
You will find advice and opinions in a lot of corners of the web. Ours is offered in the spirit of helping you be able to get the most out of your visit by planning ahead in a few areas.
How much time do you have?
We budgeted TWO VERY FULL days in May. Our family of three spent nine hours each day, and did not ride all the rides but we covered the entire park. Our kiddo was wiped out by the end of both days and fell asleep in her dad’s arms and couldn’t be woken up! So she missed part of the park (but she didn’t have any expectations going into it).
We bought entry into California Adventure Park but barely had time to explore it (and it was partly under construction when we visited). It was wasted money for us; we preferred our first two days to be all about Disneyland. However, since that visit we have been back for a longer THREE days, and for that visit we knew a little more and explored a bit more and found that we LOVED the rides in California Adventure Park, especially all the rides in Cars Land and the Grizzly Peak area.
KNOWING the rides you want to hit can help you prioritize your approach. To that end, your research pre-trip can help you with that. Blogs like this one and YouTube videos featuring the rides and the parts of the parks can help you decide your top priorities. As for timing, ideally you would give it THREE FULL or TWO and a HALF days for your first visit, at least.
Knowing your priorities
To assess the parks and the layout on your first day consider taking the railroad first thing – it circles the perimeter of the park so it is a good way to see where everything is and quickly and easily get from section to section.
A separate but equally good approach when you first walk in is to stroll down Main Street U.S.A. and on to your adventures of the day.
Need a stroller? There are stroller rentals at the entrance and many use them. There are dedicated parking areas for the strollers throughout the park.
Character greetings – play it by “ear” or plan ahead
In the Disney iphone app you can “friend” your favorite characters and it claimed to tell you when they were doing appearances… but I was so caught up in the park itself I wasn’t using the app that much. We did use it a lot for the map part (when we needed to find a bathroom for example). The only characters we met were Mickey, Goofy, and Pinocchio/Gepetto. (We saw all the characters in the parade).
Speaking of the parade – set up early for your vantage point…we luckily stumbled upon a great spot – right where all of the floats come out in the beginning, we saw two views of the floats because they go around a rotary in the front of Main Street. Just get there early enough to stake out your spot so that you are comfortable and can see… we were there 20 min. before the beginning of the parade and people were already set up (sitting on the curbs). If it is a more crowded time when you go you might set up even earlier..
Fast passes – a good tool to use when you have a list of your top must-ride rides
Some people swear by fast-passes…you basically go to a ride that qualifies for fast passes, go to the Fast Pass kiosk, and it will give you an estimated time to come back by, then it stamps your tickets. When you come back they check your tickets and you are whisked through the fast pass line – many times a much quicker wait than the regular line.
We didn’t have big requirements about what rides we *had* to go on so we didn’t use this exclusively on our first visit. But in future visits it came in quite handy. You should have seen the line for the line for the line for the Radiator Springs ride in Cars Land. We waited to get assigned a time to stand in line (fast pass) for this ride and we are so glad we did. LOVED this fun ride.
Star Tours was the one ride the five year old loved and we did this one several times… I didn’t think it was that scary (it was a 3-D thing) and I’m not even sure that we needed seat-belts. She also loved the gift shop the ride spilled out into when we were done (shameless merchandising) and that was where she eventually chose her toy. A light saber.
