Perfect Disneyland Vacation Planning with our Ultimate Guide

Disneyland vacation planning can be a daunting task. From deciding when to visit, to finding the best accommodations, and understanding what to do when you get there, you have a lot of choices. To help you make the most of your trip, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide. Here, you’ll find helpful tips for planning your itinerary and getting the most out of your time at the park. We’ll also provide an in-depth look at what makes Disneyland such a special place to visit, complete with our own personal trip report. So, whether you’re visiting for the first time or returning after many years away, this guide will help ensure that you have an unforgettable experience at The Happiest Place on Earth!

Should I Visit Disneyland or Disney California Adventure? What’s the Difference?

Disneyland has been around since 1955. Walt Disney, its founder and creator, wanted to build a place where families could come together and enjoy the magic of fantasy. His vision succeeded with 28,000 guests flooding park gates on opening day and overwhelming attractions and staff.

Since then, Disneyland has grown and expanded, adding new themed lands and experiences. One of the more controversial additions was the Disney California Adventure (DCA) park. Following a less than stellar reception of Euro Disney (now Disneyland Paris), CEO Michael Eisner didn’t have the stomach for a costly expansion of Disneyland. The result was the lackluster original Disney California Adventure park.

While designed to take guests around California in a day, visitors were disappointed by the lack of quality Disney theming, big ticket rides and quite frankly, originality. New CEO Bob Iger set out to change all of that in 2007, with a $1 million plus expansion. This included the addition of the fabulous Cars Land and a redesigning of the park entrance area to reflect the old Hollywood style theming reminiscent of Disney’s Hollywood Studios park in Orlando.

The reimagining was a success, allowing DCA to hold its own in the Disney park lineup and offer guests some truly unique experiences.

Based on our recent Disneyland trip review, answering the question as to which park to visit is simple. You really need to do both.

Disneyland Castle, one of the highlights of a Disneyland vacation

Disneyland features the original Fantasyland, complete with classic attractions such as It’s a Small World, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Unlike its sister attraction in Florida, Cinderella’s Castle, California’s original fantasy creation is more than a mere backdrop and stage show area. The original Disney castle includes a walk through exhibit that brings the story of Sleeping Beauty to life in vivid color.

However, Disneyland park in California also steps outside the bounds of fairytale fantasy, transporting guests to New Orleans, the old frontier, and even the boundaries of space through several uniquely themed lands. During a Disneyland vacation, guests can hurtle through the galaxy, cut loose through an abandoned mine (the wildest ride in the wilderness), join pirates on a cruise or team up with the First Order Resistance on a mind-blowing mission. And that’s all within the confines of a single park.

Guests wishing to race with Mater and friends through the California desert and visit the very convincing town of Radiator Springs will need to hop on over to Disney California Adventure Park. While there, visit the Avenger Campus and help Spiderman save the region from rapidly replicating spider bots, or join the heroes from the popular Guardians of the Galaxy movie franchise on a drop in adventure sure to get your heart pumping.

Radiator Springs in Cars Land is a highlight of any Disneyland vacation.

Other super heroes visit throughout the day in the Avenger Campus, while Mater and friends seem to consistently cruise through the streets of Radiator Springs. One of the most adrenaline pumping rides in our Disneyland trip review was Pixar Pal Around-swinging version. Don’t let its modest ferris wheel appearance fool you. This 160’ wheel in the sky combines incredible heights with wildly swinging cars for an unusual adventure. If your afraid of heights, take note. This might not be for you.

Both Disneyland Park and California Adventure could be seen in a single day if you arrive early and purchase a park hopper ticket. However, you’ll be missing a lot. One of the best parts of a Disney vacation is taking the time to slow down and enjoy the rich details. Rushing from ride to ride won’t give you much of an opportunity to appreciate aspects of theming or even take time to enjoy other diversions, such as character meetings, parades and shows.

How Many Days Do You Need at Disneyland?

Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park are located across a connecting avenue from one another, making it easy to hop from park to park. As a result, many guests try to visit both parks in a single day. You can do this, but you’ll miss many of the attractions by limiting your vacation to a single day.

We recommend a minimum 3-day trip for a Disneyland vacation and even four or five days if you want time to bask in the amenities of your resort or will be traveling long distances to visit the parks. We usually visit one park on arrival day, spending a half day there. Since lines are usually long when we arrive, we use the Disneyland app to find rides with the shortest wait times and spend our time on those attractions.

On day two, we get an early start using early theme park entry. This perk for guests of Disneyland resorts allows you to enter a half an hour before official park opening. We highly recommend using this time to hit rides that typically have long lines or those not covered by Lightning Lane Multi Pass. At Disneyland, that means hitting up most of the Fantasyland rides. We covered 3 to 4 of these popular attractions before most people entered the parks.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass: Allows you to skip the regular queue on most popular rides in favor of a shorter, Lightning Lane queue.

At California Adventure, we’d use Early Entry to visit Spiderman and Guardians of the Galaxy—Mission: Breakout on one day and Radiator Springs Racers on our second day to visit this park. Using Early Entry made it possible for us to take afternoon breaks at our hotel or to take extra time dining at table service restaurants.

If you aren’t using Early Entry and/or MultiPass, you’ll find that a 3- or 4-day visit is really necessary to see all attractions in both parks. With more than 70 rides, attractions and things to do, you’ll find it impossible to experience even most of what you want to do with only a 1- or 2-day trip.

Top Rides at Disneyland Park

Disneyland features rides and attractions for all ages, including original attractions placed in 1955, as well as experiences you will find at other Disney parks. Guest favorites include:

Matterhorn Bobsleds: Race your way through a snowcapped mountain with the resident Yeti in hot pursuit. Be assured, this coaster-type ride features more than a few surprises.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: Dubbed “the wildest ride in the wilderness” the Thunder Mountain Railroad enters an abandoned mind, only to lose control, taking guests around curves and over hills rich with old west and mining theming.
Space Mountain: Space Mountain lifts off into the blackness of space, shooting riders through stars and galaxies, before landing safely on earth again. If you’ve ridden this ride in Florida, you’re in for a treat. The track at Disneyland California is liquid smooth in comparison, offering all of the thrills without the neck cracking jerking motion.
Pirates of the Caribbean: While we were told repeatedly that Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland was “much better” than its Disney World Florida version, we weren’t in full agreement. The ride does feature 2 drops, compared to the one small drop in Florida, but it is also long, drifting aimlessly through dark scenes that offer little diversion before finally entering the pirate scenes. All the same, this remains a guest favorite, as was attested by the incredibly long line we witnessed as nighttime fell.
Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: This must be the most popular attraction at Disneyland park. We watch hordes of visitors rush the gates at early entrance and sprint across the park just to stand in a line and wait for the Star Wars Land to open. To be fair, this attraction does stack up some lone queues throughout the day, and it’s easy to see why. As one of Disney’s most immersive experiences, you’ll join the Star Wars resistance and fight the First Order. Not a Star Wars fan? No worries, you’ll catch onto the plot. Just be sure to follow the instructions of the First Order “Lieutenants” to avoid brig time.
Mickey’s Runaway Railway: Located in the newly reimagined Toon Town, this ride is identical to the Disney World attraction as far as we can tell. In this adventure, guests are invited to step into cartoon land, with Goofy at the helm of your ride train. That should tell you about all you need to know about the type of experience you’re in for, but it’s also worth metioning that this ride uses trackless vehicles, so your experience could vary slightly from ride to ride.

Top Rides at Disney California Adventure During Your Disneyland Vacation

Thanks to consistent overhauls, this park now offers more themed areas and consistency across its attraction line up. Here are some of the hottest rides at Disney California Adventure:

Guardians of the Galaxy—Mission: Breakout: If you’ve ever ridden Disney World’s Tower of Terror, you may be fooled into thinking this is the same experience, but it won’t last for long. Mission Breakout pumps up the Tower of Terror adventure with added unpredictability and the addition of Guardian of the Galaxy hero humor.
Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure: We’re the first to admit that Disney could use some lessons on naming conventions. Something short and to the point, such as Spiderman Webslingers would be far more memorable and easy to come up with when you’re searching a map, but we digress. Lengthy name aside, Web Slingers is a treat, empowering guests with spiderman abilities. You’ll sling webs at out-of-control bots and hopefully save the universe, all with the help of your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
Radiator Springs Racers: Built on a similar premise to Test Track at EPCOT park in Florida, Radiator Springs Racers brings the stars of the Cars movie franchise to life, taking guests on an impressively realistic tour of the dessert, ending with a high-speed automotive race against fellow park goers.
Incredicoaster: This ride will feature some of the longest lines of any in the park, probably because it is the only coaster type ride in DCA. A 2018 retheming brought characters from The Incredibles to the experience, but it’s the high speed launch and drops that rev up the excitement.
Soarin’ Around the World/Over California: Originally designed to take guests on a glider ride over California, this experience was later expanded to provide a world view of some of Earth’s greatest wonders. We still prefer Soarin’ Over California, so we were delighted to find the original ride had returned during our trip for a limited engagement. You’ll lift off in this ride to soar over different scenes, depending on the movie presented, but this is no sit back and relax film. Instead, you’ll be treated to the sights and sounds of each location—no 3-D glasses required.

Shows and Other Experiences at Disneyland Park

Mickey Mouse on a float during the Magic Happens Parade at Disneyland

A Disneyland vacation offers far more than richly themed rides and thrilling experiences. You’ll find the same level of detail carried over into some of the most popular shows and attractions:

Festival of the Lion King: This drama retells the story of Simba through song and dance, and offers a nice respite for your feet while enjoying the upbeat adventure.
Magic Happens Parade: If you only take one break from riding rides during your Disneyland vacation, make it for Magic Happens. Richly themed floats and original music arrangements bring the world of Disney animation to life and feature some of Disney’s biggest stars. Look for showtimes in the Disneyland app.
Wondrous Journeys: This nighttime spectacle features projections of over 100 years of Disney animation, followed by fireworks on select nights. This show may be pre-empted for special ticketed events, so be sure to check the Disneyland app to see if it is running during your visit.

Shows and Other Experiences at Disney California Adventure Park

While multiple small shows take place each day across the Avengers Campus, DCA isn’t recognized for lavish parades and shows. You will find Mater and other Cars characters cruising through Carsland, but the biggest showing of Disney might takes place after dark in this park.

World of Color is a vibrant spectacular filled with shooting fountains and wondrous light set against the backdrop of Pixar Pier. To really see this show, you’ll need access to the special seating area, available only through a virtual queue. You can join the virtual queue through the Disneyland app each day starting around noon. Again, check the app upon entering the park to verify timing for that day.

Many of your favorite Marvel Superheroes make appearances throughout the day at the Avengers Campus, including Spiderman. Is this flying, flipping web slinger real or not? It’s a consistent controversy with guests, but we won’t spoil the surprise.

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Where to Stay When Vacationing at Disneyland

When Walt Disney built the original Disneyland park, his pockets weren’t quite deep enough to buy all of the land he wanted. As a result, other tourism ventures sprung up all around the property boundaries to take advantage of the inflow of guests. This includes multiple hotels all in walking distance of park gates.

Disney has embraced this eventuality as best they can, even offering ticket and hotel packages that include non-Disney owned properties and chains. While these Good Neighbor Packages set strict quality standards and sometimes lower pricing, they fail to offer the suite of amenities afforded guests who book a Disneyland Resort Package.

Magical musical headboard at the Disneyland Hotel in california

Disney owns and operates 3 onsite hotels. Each includes its own elements of theming and amenities:

Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel: Featuring a rooftop pool and Pixar inspired décor, this resort is a family favorite, thanks to more budget-friendly rates. Another advantage is the close proximity to both Downtown Disney and Disney Grand California Resort. Having both venues nearby significantly increases the number of dining options at your disposal.
Disneyland Hotel: The original on property hotel now features multiple tower buildings featuring modernly appointed rooms and magical touches. We stayed here on our most recent trip and truly appreciated the Disney appointments, including magically lighted and singing headboard. You’ll find a large pool onsite, complete with monorail themed waterslide and Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki bar, a popular evening hangout. The Disneyland Hotel is located directly outside the west gate to Downtown Disney, providing quick access to the parks via this route and expanded dining options.
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa: Operating as Disneyland’s flagship resort, this hotel delivers on the theming, with Craftsman-style details that bring old world appeal and serenity to the bustle of Disney. We visited here on our last trip and enjoyed the large lobby area while waiting for a dining reservation at Storytellers Café, a highly recommended dining experience. If you have the extra funds to enjoy Disneyland’s premier resort, you won’t regret the extra spend.

Advantages of Staying at a Disneyland Resort

While the 3 hotels owned by Disney offer some nice touches and peaceful accommodations, they aren’t necessarily the closest to park gates. The real advantage comes through related benefits, such as Early Entry.

Early Theme Park Entry allows guests to enter one park up to half an hour early each day of your ticket. If you’re wondering just how much you can accomplish in such a short time, we’re happy to report our experience in this Disneyland trip review.

At Disney California Adventure, we were able to ride both Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout with no wait during Early Entry. We then headed over to Radiator Springs to hit the queue before outside guests were even allowed inside the park. Knocking out three of the attractions with the longest wait times put us well ahead of the masses, and significantly reduced the amount of time spent in line, even without Lightning Lane Multi Pass (more on this later).

We had a similar experience at Disneyland Park. Immediately upon entry, we rode the most popular Fantasyland rides before heading to Space Mountain or Matterhorn Bobsleds. Again, we were able to reach these rides slightly before the ropes dropped to the general public, putting us in the queue well ahead of everyone else.

Guests of Disney hotels are also offered some other small benefits, such as package delivery from the parks to your hotel room, earlier access to dining reservations, and the ability to check into the resort online. This particular perk makes it possible to skip lines at the front desk and go directly to your room. You’ll receive a text when your room is ready and be able to open your door with the Disneyland app.

All Disneyland hotels can be booked as a package, including park tickets and available ground transportation to and from the airport.

Disneyland Vacation Early Entry

Guests line up to wait for early entry hours on a Disneyland vacation.

No Disneyland trip report would be complete without a more in-depth look into Early Entry. Since we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, we were able to take advantage of this benefit and enter one park a half an hour early each day.

At either Disneyland or Disney World, we are big proponents of Early Entry, and though we miss the earlier iteration called Extra Magic Hours, and the extended park time offered, we accomplished a lot in the half an hour we had to use.

Disneyland Rides Available During Early Entry

There is one thing to keep in mind if you plan to take advantage of Early Entry: only a limited selection of rides are available during this half hour time frame. Fortunately, the list does include some of the bigger headliner attactions.

Early Entry Rides Available at Disneyland Park:

Early Entry Rides aAvailable at Disney California Adventure

Disneyland Vacation Planning Early Entry Strategy

Thanks to multiple visits to Disney World, we knew that arriving early was the key to making the most of Early Entry, so we carried this strategy over to our Disneyland vacation planning. We arrived at the entrance to Downtown Disney an hour ahead of Early Entry, and yes, that meant standing outside on the sidewalk for 30 minutes starting at 6:30 am.

The Downtown Disney gates are the easiest way to get to the parks for resort guests, and arriving an hour before Early Entry puts you at the beginning of the line. You can usually make it to the park gates within 10 minutes at a good walk. We saw many people sprinting to be the first in line at the parks but didn’t find this necessary. There are multiple gates at each park, and we were never more than fourth or fifth in line.

The park gates usually open ahead of the stated Early Entry opening time. For instance, Early Entry began at 7:30 during our Disneyland vacation. Cast Members began scanning guests through around 7:15 and allowing entry to the park. At this point, Disney resort guests headed to the Early Entry checkpoint to show their room key. After verifying your identity as a resort guests, there was another short wait before the park opened for Early Entry.

By following this strategy, you should be fairly close to the rope that keeps guests from entering the parks. When the rope drops, you’ll see people again sprinting toward Fantasyland, despite stern cast member warnings not to run.

If your intent is to experience the rides in Fantasyland, don’t be dismayed by these wildly running masses. Most of them have no interest in experiencing Fantasyland rides. Their destination is another roped off area that leads to Star Wars Land. They’ll wait here for another half an hour before that land opens with the park.

While we saw a number of people take this approach, it didn’t seem to yield much of an advantage. We had ridden 4 rides in Fantasyland and taken multiple pictures by the time the park openend. The line waiting to enter Star Wars Land was negligible. We recommend enjoying some of the Fantasyland rides during Early Entry, or even Space Mountain or Matterhorn, before joining the mad rush to Rise of the Resistance.

At California Adventure, you’ll find a similar situation. Many guests who are not eligible for Early Entry will arrive early and stack up at the rope. A separate checkpoint allows Disney Resort Guests to queue up for rope drop.

When cast members drop the Early Entry rope, most guests will dash toward Radiator Springs Racers or one of the Avengers attractions. We chose Avengers on our Disneyland vacation because of the close proximity of the rides, and were able to complete both headliners before the park officially opened—all with no wait.

Disneyland Lightning Lane Multi Pass Rides

Avengers Campus, featuring Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout in the background at Disney california Adventure.

One of the mouse’s newest inventions is the Lightning Lane Muti Pass service, though if you’re a long time Disney guest, it might not sound so new to you. Multi Pass at both Disney World and Disneyland parks is patterned after FastPass+, allowing guests to skip the regular queue on select attractions in favor of a shorter Lightning Lane.

Guests book a one-hour window to enter the Lightning Lane via the Disneyland app. Since the number guests allowed to reserve each time period is restricted, you’ll be able to access the ride with little to no wait.

While Multi Pass sounds great in theory, we found it far more useful at Disney World than Disneyland. The main reason was the lack of ride availability. At Disneyland, we found several attractions missing from the Multi Pass service, including Fantasyland rides that can sport some typically long lines.

Before deciding whether to utilize Multi Pass, take a look at the list of attractions and determine how many you plan to experience. If it’s only a handful, you may be able to skip the Lightning Lane and still experience low wait times by riding earlier in the day.

Disneyland Multi Pass Enabled Attractions

Disney California Adventure Multi Pass Enabled Attractions

There is a fee for Lightning Lane Multi Pass which can be purchased with your Disneyland tickets. A few additional rides are not included with Multi Pass, but do provide a Lightning Lane. You’ll be required to purchase a Lightning Lane Single Pass to visit the most popular attractions in the park. You’ll do this on the day of your visit, after entering the park.

Rides available with a Single Pass purchase include:

Disney California Adventure Park

Radiator Springs Racers

Disneyland Park

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Rise of the Resistance

Eating on a Disneyland Vacation

If you enjoy burgers and dogs, you’ll love eating at either Disneyland or California Adventure. We were amazed at the number of places you could get a hot dog across the parks.

If you want quick service dining, you might feel hard pressed to find something different. We were impressed with the options at Bengal Barbecue at Disneyland. Who could resist meat and veggie skewers cooked over an open fire and spruced up with teriyaki sauce? Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante also serves Mexican-inspired plates that were tasty and fairly reasonabley priced.

For table service dining, we enjoyed Café Orleans. The food was good and the mint julep drinks (non-alcoholic) were so tasty we each had 3.

Variety was a little more plentiful at Disney California Adventure. We enjoyed our burgers at Flo’s V8 café as well as the fun ambiance. This venue features both indoor and outdoor seating in a roadside drive in atmosphere overlooking the scenic Radiator Spring Racers.

For something more unique, you can try the Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill or the Lucky Fortune Cookery. Disney California Adventure also has 4 table service restaurants that accept advanced dining reservations.

Allergy Dining at Disneyland

Dining with allergies is a breeze at Disney World, so we expected a similar experience at Disneyland. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.

Many restaurants do not offer an allergy menu, even for common allergies, such as tree nuts or eggs. When it comes to gluten free dining, even restaurants where food options could have easily and tastily been changed to a gluten free recipe, they were not.

If you suffer from food allergies, be sure to visit Disneyland.com and check out the restaurants where allergy menus are available. Unless you’re really certain about the ingredients in an item, its advisable to stick to those restaurants with an allergy menu. By ordering this way, your food is more likely to be cooked in a separate kitchen away from other food items that may act as contaminates.

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Disneyland Vacation Planning Tips

During our recent Disneyland trip, we gathered a number of vacation planning tips and tricks to help future travelers better navigate the two parks. Following these suggestions may help you spend less time in line and experience more of what each park has to offer.

Can a Disneyland Vacation Be Done in One Day?

When planning a Disneyland vacation, people often allocate a day to visit each park or worse, try to visit both in a single day. Given the vast number of rides, shows and dining establishments, you may only scratch the surface on a 1- or 2-day trip. A three-day trip is doable with a park hopper ticket, as long as you’re in the area and don’t have to travel too far. However, a 4- or 5-day trip should give you plenty of time to absorb travel mishaps and still experience the 2 parks, Downtown Disney and the amenities of your resort.

Disneyland and California Adventure Table Service Restaurants Book up Quickly

With only a handful of sit-down eateries across the parks, advanced dining reservations are more important than ever. This is one advantage of booking your vacation at a Disney-owned hotel. You’ll be able to make ADRs 60 days before your trip, long before guests of other resorts.

If you don’t manage to score an ADR for the restaurant you want, keep trying. Availability often opens in the week leading up to your trip, as people finalize and change plans. You may also find availability the day of by going to the Disneyland app and selecting the wait list option. If there is availability, the app will provide an estimate of the wait time and add you to the queue. Just be sure to opt for the text alert.

Push notifications through the app are vague and don’t actually tell you that your table is ready. I believe the alert said our reservation had changed. We waited 30 minutes for an alert before approaching the podium. Apparently, we were supposed to understand that a message alerting us to a change in our wait list reservation meant that the table was ready. Cast members say it’s a frequent issue and always advise people to request a text message notification.

Disneyland Vacation Parades and Shows

For the best view of Disneyland parades or nightly fireworks and projection shows, plan to stake out your place early. For parades, this means grabbing a seat on the sidewalk about an hour before the start time. And be sure you’re situated on the curb itself or people will fill in before you.

To see the castle projection show and fireworks, find a spot anywhere you can easily see the castle. Just remember, if you’re too far back, people will fill the space between you and the castle. However, if you’re too far toward the castle, you will miss the projections along Main Street.

Last, World of Color at Disney California Adventure uses a virtual queue. Be prepared to enter this on the Disneyland app.

For more information on utilizing the virtual queue system, you can read our article about the Disney World virtual queue. It works in roughly the same manner.

More Disneyland Vacation Planning Tips

Say Goodbye to Long Lines – Our Disneyland Multi Pass Tips Will Keep You Ahead of the Crowd!