How Much Should You Plan for a Visit to a Disney Theme Park?

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First and foremost, not all theme parks are created equal. How you plan to visit Disneyland WILL be different than how you plan to visit Disney World. They are just too different and one really does require more planning than the other. Secondly, how much you plan depends upon your personal preferences and your group’s ability to stick to a plan. If most of you are fly by the seat of your pants and let’s see what happens people, then planning can be one of the least productive things you can do because it will inevitably lead to a disappointing trip. Set and manage your expectations!

There are YouTube videos and blog posts galore with tips and tricks for planning your visit to a Disney Theme park. It can be overwhelming and confusing. I hope that this post will NOT be. That being said, there are things that need to be done before your visit simply because it’s necessary. Gone are the days when you can just drop everything and show up at a park expecting to be let in. Those were the days! But thanks to that lovely pandemic we had, limiting crowds AND social media influencers driving demand for the park experience, reserving your visit and contending with crowds that seem even larger than pre-pandemic is the new reality. I will break it down to a simple few tips depending upon if it’s a visit to Disneyland vs. Disney World (unfortunately, I haven’t had the pleasure to visit any of the Disney Parks outside of the USA. It’s on the bucket list though!). This will be a lot. So, I will start with Disneyland which I have been going to since 1973. I know the most about this park. And then I will offer up my best advice for traveling to Disney World, especially for those who have to travel from a distance like I do.

VISITING DISNEYLAND & MAKING A PLAN

1. Purchase Your Tickets in advance.

Tickets may be purchased directly from the Disneyland website. You have the option of buying single park tickets or if you think you’d like to hop between parks on the same day, you can purchase a Park Hopper Ticket. Tickets are are available in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 day increments. Note that hopping between parks is a lot easier at Disneyland vs Disney World. The two parks are literally across from each other. It takes about a minute to walk from one gate to the other. If you’re looking for any ticket deals, purchase tickets from either Get Away Today or Undercover Tourist. Purchasing tickets on eBay or any other site DOES NOT GUARANTEE THEIR AUTHENTICITY. Only reputable Disneyland ticket resellers will offer legit tickets and some even do it at a small discount. The previously mentioned websites are two of the best. If you are a T-Mobile customer, check out the T-Mobile app. They also offer theme park tickets with up to a 30% discount. Tickets are also available at any of the Good Neighbor Hotels that are listed on the Disneyland website but keep in mind that you still need to have a reservation to get into the park so don’t wait til you’re there to buy them (see #2).

2. Know when you want to go.

To enter Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) you need a park reservation. Reservations can be made 90 days in advance. I would recommend making those reservations as soon as they open – you can always change them later, if you want. To make a reservation, you MUST already have your tickets in hand and have them linked to your Disney Account. Pick the park you want to start your day in. If you purchased a “park hopper” ticket you may switch parks starting at 11:00 am. Disneyland’s “slow season” basically doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been reported that Mondays have been even more busy than weekends lately so gone are the days of guaranteed empty parks. Still, middle of the week tends to be less crowded and keeping your visits away from popular national holidays or school vacation times is recommended if you want to reduce your chances of going when it’s overcrowded. Once you have your tickets, visit the Disneyland website and link all the tickets to your account (This requires entering the ticket numbers if you have purchased them from an authorized reseller. If you purchased tickets directly from the Disneyland website the tickets should already be linked to your account). Once your tickets are listed in your account visit the Theme Park Reservation Page to choose the dates that you’d like to visit the park. Your park reservations will appear under MY DISNEYLAND > MY PLANS.

3. Book your hotel room in advance.

Last minute deals can still be a thing but aren’t guaranteed. Staying on property at one of the 3 Disneyland Resort hotels is expensive. Consider the perks and decide if they are worth the extra cost. I personally haven’t stayed at resort property hotel in over 10 years. We are all about the parks and we are literally only there to sleep and shower. Spending $500+ a night is just not worth it, in my opinion. HOWEVER, there are advantages to being a Disney Resort Hotel guest. A) You get early entry into the parks. Hotel guests can gain early entry 30 minutes before the park officially opens to the public. It used to be an hour back in the day. 30 minutes isn’t much so make hay while the sun shines. Be at the gate no later than an hour before the park officially opens so you can be right there when the clock starts ticking on your 30 minutes. You get access to Tomorrowland rides and you can easily get on all of them before the park opens for everyone else. B) Souvenirs can be delivered to your hotel. You don’t have to carry your park purchases around all day. You can tell the clerk at the store that you’re staying at either the Grand Californian, Disneyland Hotel or Disney’s Paradise (Pixar) Pier Hotel and they will deliver them directly there. For non-Resort hotel guests, see below. Those are the two biggest perks. I would say that being the closest to the park is another perk but honestly, the Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel are about as far away as any of the hotels on Harbor Blvd directly across the street and those places are easily half the price per night. Sure the Disney Resort amenities are nicer, but consider if you will really ever use them. We are all about the parks. We don’t use them.

4. If you want to eat at any of the higher end restaurants in the park, they require a reservation.

These restaurants include the Blue Bayou, Cathay Circle and Cafe Orleans just to name a few. Oga’s Cantina, while not a restaurant is a highly sought after  drink & snack experience at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and also requires a reservation. Reservations at these locations are very difficult to acquire. Reservations open 60 days in advance. The time of day they open is debatable. Some sites say they open at 12 am PT on the 60 day mark but this is not always the case. I know this because I am currently in the planning stages for a visit and this was not my experience. If going to these restaurants is important to you and will make your visit a dream come true, then you will need to put in the time and try at midnight. But sometimes it’s 6am PT. It’s a frustrating experience, not gonna lie. If you are unable to get reservations to the restaurants that you want to eat at, there are services out there that you can pay for that will monitor when times come available and will alert you so you can make the reservation. NOTE: Reservations open 60 days prior to each day of your visit. So when you reach the 60 day mark before the first day of your visit, you can only make reservations for THAT day. You will need to return every subsequent day to make reservations for the remainder of your visit. If you aren’t able to make a reservation, there is always a chance that last minute cancelations will occur so you need to check back frequently. On the day(s) of your visit you may also be able to be put on a waiting list or some reservations may open up if you watch the app.

5. Get the Disneyland App.

The app is your lifeline. You can keep your tickets on the app, store payment information on the app for purchases and mobile order, secure Genie + reservations (more on that below), play games while you’re in line, interact with things in Galaxy’s Edge and download your PhotoPass photos. You can do all these great things but then your nose is stuck in your phone a lot. First things first, put a person in charge. In their app, link all the tickets for your group so when you make Genie + reservations you can easily get them for everyone all at once. When you’re hungry, don’t wait in line. Figure out what you want to eat, find it on the app, make your selections, order, select a pick up time, tap “I’m here” when you are at the restaurant and go right up and get your food. Why more people don’t use this feature is beyond me. It’s awesome. Sometimes we know what we want before we even enter the park. Once we are in the park, I will find the quick service restaurant we want to eat at, choose a time (which are the most plentiful when you first enter the park) and then order our lunch or dinner. It’s done. I know when and where we are eating and I don’t have to worry about it until it’s time for grub. I just go to the restaurant at the time I chose earlier, click “I’m here” and the food is prepared asap. It’s glorious. Some people don’t want to commit to a time. That’s cool. But be aware that when the mood strikes and you want food NOW, you may not always get to get it NOW. But if you don’t want to be that tied down to a schedule, at least utilize the app to order the food. It really does save time. You don’t have to stand in the long standby lines and it’s just BETTER.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

6. When you get to the parks to start your visit…

If you haven’t prepaid for the Genie+ service when you purchased your tickets, and you want to use Genie+, you can purchase it once you’ve entered past the turn styles at the main gate (scanned your tickets). EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR PARTY has to have Genie+ purchased in order to use it. Genie+ starts at $25 per person per day. Price will fluctuate based on demand and when you’re visiting (i.e. a busy day). What is Genie+? Genie+ replaces the Fast Pass System – the very popular (and FREE) ride return ticket that would help you bypass the majority of the line for select rides. Genie+ now is a paid system that will allow guests to reserve return times for select rides via the app. For more about this service, visit the Disneyland website here. The purchase of Genie+ also provides unlimited downloads to ALL photo pass photos that you take while in the parks for days in which the Genie+ service was purchased. If you love the memories you make like I do, these photos are priceless. Photo pass photos include any photos taken by a Disneyland Castmember at various locations throughout the park and ride photos. For more about photo pass, visit here. Note: During the Disney 100 Celebration, all guests will be able to download their ride photos for FREE!! If you have Genie+ purchased, once you enter the park you can choose to make your first Lightning Lane selection which will give you a return time window to ride the attraction that you’ve reserved. You can only make one Lightening Lane selection at a time, however there are many YouTube videos out there that offer strategies on how to make the best use of Genie+ so you can maximize your Lightning Lanes. But one of the best videos is by Chris at Provost Park Pass – check it below! Once you’ve used your Lightning Lane selection OR after 2 hours has passed since making your previous selection (whichever comes first), you can make another selection.

7. What comes next?

Our favorite ride: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Tip.. Take selfies with strangers! Especially cute ones! 😀

What comes next is up to you! You can choose to plan further by doing things like pre-ordering your food for the day and setting reminders on the app for shows and parades you may want to see. For us, our strategy is to get to the park early and take advantage of the low early morning crowds. You can get on a lot of attractions in those first 2 hours! We don’t like to plan too heavily – like not every minute is planned. We don’t know what rides we’ll go on and in what order. But we like to stick to what works and what works for us usually is hitting Tomorrowland first. We experimented on our last trip and tried to rope drop Rise of the Resistance. BIG MISTAKE. Everyone is trying to rope drop Rise of the Resistance. There are three entrances into Galaxy’s Edge and that part of the park is the furthest away. By the time we got there the line reached all the way to the Frontierland entrance (Rise is located near the Critter Country entrance). Check it out on the Disneyland Map – that was a long line! Consider that rides like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean can move lots of people through in a very short amount of time. So I don’t recommend rope dropping those rides. Stick to rides that will be heavy on the wait times later in the day – Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Matterhorn are all great rides to hit first when you rope drop the park. Save your Lightning Lanes for these rides for later in the day when they are most crowded. And then use single rider (if you don’t mind riding separately from your group). This strategy will almost always guarantee that you will get to ride your favorite rides multiple times in a day. The exceptions are Rise of the Resistance and Radiator Springs Races (in California Adventure) which are always busy with long lines. Do we ever rope drop Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) park? Never. We always start our days in Disneyland. This is a personal preference but we prefer the OG, for one. And while we DO love DCA, there is just more to do at Disneyland. DCA is our hop to park… we move over in the middle of the day when we are ready to slow down a little. And we always close our days back at Disneyland. If you haven’t been to either park before, try them both out first. Some people really love and prefer DCA because of how laid back, open and sometimes less crowded it can feel. If you are there multiple days, rope drop each one and see what works best for you.

The most important thing to remember is to HAVE FUN. Don’t let the planning distract you from the memories you’re making with your loved ones. Disneyland has been around since 1955. If you don’t get it all done in one trip, make a promise to return. It will still be there and you can make even more fun memories! Yes you have to make a few plans but if all you want is to get yourself into the gates and then see what happens, then go for it. Let the day take you where it may and enjoy the ride. Disneyland has always been a beacon of happiness for my family. We go as often as we are able and we ALWAYS leave with new memories that we will always cherish.

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