DISNEYLAND

[lizzyfizzy]

Hello Ladies...my family (me, dh, 2 ds's, dd and her friend...also my mom, dad and sister-so 9 of us) are headed out to sunny California to go to Disneyland and California Adventure for a couple of days. I wanted to ask all you experienced ladies if you have any pointers for theme park outtings with so many people. I'm just an a phobic-type person and want to make sure that I bring necessities and if you have any great "secrets" lay them on me. I hate it when I go somewhere and see people who totally remembered stuff and I look like a schmuck! LOL Also, these suggestions are not to include a fanny pack! =)

[my4boys]

Awwww, a fanny pack was the only thing I was going to suggest!!!!!!!! J/K I have never been to Disney Land but have been to Disney World and the only thing I can really suggest is that you pack a lunch if you can cause those prices for a burger/hot dog are ridiculous...BRING LOTS OF WATER TOO!!!!!

[ditzyscrap]

We just got back from there a couple weeks ago.

- Take a backpack - you'll need it (to carry your camera, your autograph books, bottles of water, extra clothes just in case)
- As soon as you get in, go to the FARTHEST side of the park...everyone seems to go to the areas to the immediate left and right of the entrance, and the lineups are crazy there...walk to the far end and there won't be as bad of lineups first thing
- Use FastPasses as much as possible...we didn't and we missed out on most of the parks because of it
- I think at City Hall you can get a list of where the characters will show up and at what times...get that if you're interested in meeting them...we missed out on several because we just didn't know where to look
- Take sunscreen (and include it in your backpack) and reapply it often
- If you can, take snacks in your backpack (told ya...you'll need a backpack, haha) because they are incredibly expensive there
- Don't do lunch/dinner at the usual lunch/dinner time...go for lunch at 2 and do rides while everyone else is having lunch...then you won't waste time waiting in line for your lunch either
- Try not to follow the crowd when you leave a ride...people tend to go from one ride to the one right next to it...so when you get off a ride, go to another ride, but not the one that the pack is leading you to...you'll have shorter lineups again
- For shows, parades and fireworks, get a spot at LEAST 1.5 hours early (though I'd go closer to 2 hours, I'm dead serious on this)...people start saving spots early and you'll have trouble finding a good spot to view them
- If you have to pick between parades, I TOTALLY recommend the Pixar Play Parade (at California Adventures)...we did it and Dreams Come True (at Disneyland) and Pixar Play Parade was a lot more energetic and fun (also, it was all the pixar/newer characters - Toy Story, Cars, Incredibles, Nemo...)
- Make sure to measure your kids before you go so you know which rides they can do beforehand...this will save you on tears from those that are too little but want to go on it anyway...(also, we measured DD and she was 42", but at the park, she was always 1" too short to do the 42" rides, so I think their measurement thingies are off just a little bit, just FYI)
- If you are going to do souveneir shopping, do it before the nightly parades/fireworks, because the shops get incredibly crowded from the time those events end until the parks close
- If you haven't already picked up a book about the parks and rides, I recommend that you do, and read up on each ride before hand...I had 3 of them and the best one I found was the Unofficial Guide To Disneyland (they do sell guides IN Disneyland in the shops, but they aren't as honest as this one was, which they obviously don't sell since it's "unofficial", lol)
- Take LOTS of photos, and have fun!!

If you want to know about specific rides and ages, I went with a large group of 10 with kids ages 4, 5, 7 and 10...so ask away and if we did it, I will let you know!

[ditzyscrap]

Originally Posted by my4boys

BRING LOTS OF WATER TOO!!!!!

YUP, this is definitely a must! The first day we went it was 102 in the park, we spent over $150 on water (just for our family of 4) because it's $2.75 a bottle and we were going through it so fast...and if we didn't drink it fast enough (ie, within 5 minutes) it was warm and gross. LOL!

[mrs_jb]

Hope you have fun!!! LMAO at the fanny pack!

[Rae's World]

Everything Bree said.!!!

I do have one other suggestion. Bring your own autograph books!!! All the kids have them, yours are gonna want one and they are SOOOOO expensive to buy at the park. I am sure you know a scrapbooker who could probably make super cool ones too!! I ended up getting mine from the $1 bin at Michaels and just putting stickers on them. BUt I as making 9 of them. Also bring your own pen too. Again...expensive!!!

Oh, wait I thought of another: choose you days wisely. If possible go Sun thru Wed because Friday's & Sat. are slammed with locals and way busier!

[MandaBean]

Ok here's my contribution! If you have to have a turkey leg..don't expect it to taste like turkey at all..but HAM..K? Delicious nonetheless..but it's not like Thanksgiving turkey. OH..and if you ride Splash Mountain..think of me when you are going down the biggest drop. I almost had a heart attack and broke my husband's ribs at the same time from squeezing him so hard! Have fun!!

[DawnMarch]

Bree's list is great and I agree with the recommendation about the Unofficial Guide -- it's a really great book. One thing it helped us with was figuring out where to go first. There are some rides that you want to get on as early as possible (Nemo, Peter Pan, Dumbo) because you can get through them in like, 5 minutes with no line, or it'll be 2 hours later with the line.

Which is my other point. It may be hard with a big group but to get the most out of it, you really need to get there early -- BEFORE the park opens. You'll be some of the first people in and that first hour is the BEST before it gets too crowded!

One thing I alwasy bring when we travel is a portable white noise machine. Those hotels with lots if kids tend to be noisy and I find my kids sleep better and longer with it on.

[mormishmom]

-The Pixar Parade is rockin! And since it's at California Adventure, you don't have to get there quite as early Sun-Wed (Thursday are even starting to get busier).
-Bring lots of water and fill up at the fountains
-If you're renting strollers, go there first because they can sell out if it's a busy day.
-Use the Fastpasses, they'll save you a lot of waiting in line time.
-Utilize the waiting rider option if you have a little one that can't go on the ride, but you still want to ride (like Splash Mountain). You go up to the gate attendant and tell them you need a waiting rider pass. The groups waits in line like normal and you go to the exit and wait for them. When they exit, you give them the little one, and then you and one other go in the back way and get on the ride - no extra line waiting. I love it!
-Since I'm local, I'm all about bringing my own food and snacks, but I know that isn't always an option for out of towners. So like Bree said, hit the food places at the off times.
-I love eating at the Blue Bayou. You can call Disney Dining and make an appointment 90 days in advance, so if you plan to eat there, call now. Go for lunch, it's cheaper and it's the only time they serve the delicious Monte Cristo Sandwich.
-The Finding Nemo ride doesn't have a fastpass (and the Disney person told me it probably never will). So, if you plan to ride that, get there early and have one person run over and get in line. Then let the rest of your party hop in line when you get closer. It's murder on the kids to wait. I say the wait is worth it, but my FIL would beg to differ
-SUNSCREEN! You are in Sunny Souther California and even if it's a nice 65 degrees, the sun will still fry you.
-The Tiki Room is my favorite place for a break. You can always get in and it has great A/C on the really warm days.

If I think of anymore I'll come back, but all these ladies had great ideas.

[Nettio]

Aww come, fanny packs would be awesome. Maybe you could all get matching ones.

I was just there in January with a party of eight adults. Probably the hardest part was agreeing on a place for lunch, we ended up splitting up into two groups, lol.

I highly recommend using FastPass. You are still technically waiting for the rides but you are able to move about while you do it. One thing we did is have one person collect all of the entrance tickets and then go and get FastPasses for everyone. This way the entire group didn't have to trek across the park just to pick up a ticket.

As for water, I'd definitely bring your own and just refill it. We actually have a CamelBack backpack that we use. It's nice because it holds much more than a bottle would and it's insulated so the water stays cool. Another thing that's nice on a really hot day are those mini battery powered fans/misting bottles. I think they probably sell them in the park but I'm sure they charge a fortune for them.

This isn't probably a big deal if you're staying nearby but we always would take pants and sweatshirts and put them in a locker for later. The summer evenings can get a little chilly so it's nice to have just in case. And the lockers are easier than having to go all the way back to the car.

[ditzyscrap]

We did the same thing as Lynnette with the FastPasses. If everyone wanted to go on a ride that I didn't, or wanted to do something I didn't, I'd grab everyone's tickets and run to the other side of the park to get passes and then back to meet them at the end of the ride.

As for the Nemo ride...OK, I'd heard the same thing about going first thing in the morning. We tried that, and the line up was like 2 hours long already, and it was our first stop (we were there early, too). Some days they have that Magic Morning (pretty much every day but Friday and Saturday, I think?) and so the park is actually open an hour earlier for people with these special tickets...I'm thinking that's why it didn't work for us. Anyhow, we decided to not get in line and go back later in the day. We went around 2 pm and the lineup was 20 minutes instead of 2 hours. Much better. I think it was a combination of the Magic Morning people AND that Tomorrowland is immediately inside the gates to the right, so it's one of the first places people stop.

And another thing that someone mentioned briefly but I just remembered reading about in the Unofficial guide is that some of the rides you can have one adult stand in line (or several adults, if you've got a big group) and then have one adult take all the kids to the bathroom, or go get a snack, whatever...then just jump into the line closer to the front. We did that on the Nemo ride, though it was just 2 adults going to get snacks (icecream, cause it was so hot out), and the kids stayed in line with other adults, lol. I'll see if I can find the list of rides that this is easiest/most possible on...since some of the lines are crazy and go in and out of buildings all over the place, lol!

And I'd decide ahead of times which rides you don't want to do. You won't be able to do both parks in 2 days...we tried. I think you'd need at least 3, probably 4 to get everything in. You'll probably end up missing 1/4 of the parks, if you're really organized, and 1/2 if your not (we were in the second group - unorganized...well, I was extremely organized and nobody else was, so most of the time was spent in chaos, lol).

[ditzyscrap]

Oh, and one more thing, lol...

As of right now, Fantasmic (a light show) and the fireworks are only on weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun)...though it's nightly in the summer (I think their "summer" begins May long weekend). Anyhow, when they start getting ready for the fireworks, they make traffic flow in only one direction, so it's not possible to do Fantasmic and then the fireworks in one night, since the way the traffic flows, you have to walk ALL the way around the park from Fantasmic in the other direction. DH took Mason to the bathroom about 30 minutes before the fireworks, and he almost had to miss them because they weren't going to let him go in the opposite direction of the traffic, even though we were sitting not very far in the wrong direction (he was like "whatever" and just walked the wrong direction anyway...but it was frustrating because he had to try to argue with the cast member for a few minutes...he could SEE us, but wasn't allowed to walk in our direction).

[lizzyfizzy]

we are going on thursday and friday may 8th and 9th! we have been a billion times, but like i said it always seems like we are so unorganized! you ladies have helped me tremendously!! please keep the comments coming...bree you are so helpful! =)

[lizzyfizzy]

Originally Posted by MandaBean

Ok here's my contribution! If you have to have a turkey leg..don't expect it to taste like turkey at all..but HAM..K? Delicious nonetheless..but it's not like Thanksgiving turkey. OH..and if you ride Splash Mountain..think of me when you are going down the biggest drop. I almost had a heart attack and broke my husband's ribs at the same time from squeezing him so hard! Have fun!!

tukey legs...frozen lemonade...caramel apples and splash mountain are must do's/have! =)

[ditzyscrap]

Splash mountain was so fun! We bought the picture afterwards - there's another tip...make sure to write down the number or memorize it...we thought we did and when we got to the front of the line, the number we'd memorized was wrong, lol...oiy! Thankfully DH's uncle was behind us in line so when he said his number (which was 1 before ours), we were able to find ours. LOL!

[ditzyscrap]

Man, there's a lot of stuff I keep remembering at random times...lol...

I'm not sure where you are staying, but if you aren't staying at DL Resort, it's easiest just to take the bus to Disneyland. It's called Anaheim Resort Transit, and it goes to several of the hotels (if it doesn't come directly to yours, it probably stops at one near you). You buy tickets for the day at the hotels where it stops...it's $3/adult, $1/child per day (if you go without tickets, it's $3/adult, $1/child per ride, and you have to pay with dollar bills only). The bus ride itself is pretty short, and it drops you off just outside Disneyland. You have to remember your bus number because it's like a regular transit system when you are leaving, you line up under your bus number.

Funny story, while we were there, on Saturday, right after the fireworks, the bus area was CRAZY busy. The bus we had to take was 7B, but there wasn't a sign for 7B, just 7 (there is a 7 and 7B, and you have to ask before getting on the bus which one it is). So anyway, lol...there were like a hundred people waiting to get on 7 and 7B, and people were tired and frustrated, so this random woman comes out and just starts yelling at us to line up into 7 and 7B lines and she'd make sure that the bus came to the right line up. But she kept mixing up which line was which, so there were people mixed up in each line. It was frustrating, but then we all just had to laugh because it was so insane. Why didn't they just name the bus 8 instead of 7B, nobody knows...

It wasn't like that for any of the other bus routes, just the one...I think because it was the shortest route (we were only 1 mile from Disneyland) they decided to split it in half, but didn't think it all the way through.