10 Tips for Disneyland

A lot of this might be common knowledge or tips I picked up from my co-worker, Mike, but it's still worth noting. In case anyone is curious.

1. Bring food. Although it is listed that no outside food is allowed in the park, the bag searchers have no problem with it. We mostly brought snacks and beverages, and even that saved us a lot of dough. Seriously, meals for a family of four of 2 adults, 2 kids without beverage is anywhere from 30-40 bucks. If you had to eat there like we did, skip on the sugary snack like Churros and Cotton Candy. They are expensive and do not fill you up.

2. Fast Pass Everything. It's not much of a secret, but a lot of people still don't know about it. Mike gave me a very helpful tip, which is Fast Passes do not expire if used on the same day. That saved a lot of trouble and you can even line them up after your time allows you to get an additional Fast Pass. I had 3 different rides lined up at one point. Do it whenever you get a chance, and you might have to walk back hours later to board the ride, but it's better than standing in line.

3. Set Time Limits. This only works if you have multiple days, but for the first four days we didn't line up for anything over half an hour. We would hit those either early or late in the day, when the lines were shorter. We hit the Nemo ride, which is usually a 50 minute wait, on our early admission day and it was far shorter. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

4. Pins at City Hall. Unfortunately we didn't get ours till the last day, but it was nice for Cast Members to wish me "Happy Anniversary" when I was just passing by. By the way, we did celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary at Disneyland.

5. Souvenirs. This is relevant only when you have kids, but I decided on the first day to get a couple little things for the kids to tide them by, and the only other day to buy stuff was on the last day. So for the other three days, when they wanted stuff, we just said, "On the last day." That saved us a lot of begging. Also, we spent $40 and more on lunches and dinner so on the receipt was a coupon for 20% off the main store merchandise from 9am to noon, which we used on Friday. Saved us over 50 bucks that way. The other tip is that only buy things that you will use outside Disneyland. I saw so many people wearing Goofy hats and Mat Hatter hats that they will probably never use outside the park. Of course, this is a personal preference, but that's how I felt about it. I also only bought things that said "Disneyland".

6. Highjack people's memories. Haven't done this myself yet, but should work in theory. I didn't want to spent too much time snapping photos and stopping the whole family and missing out on the experiences, so most of my photos are meh. Also, I only had 2 hours on my Flip video, so I had to ration my video to just the kids' reactions and their participation, which meant I had to delete the parades and shows. Good part is that there are so many youtube videos and Flickr photos of the rides and shows that I'm just going to highjack them for my collection. There are way better photos and pretty good videos of the same experiences I had.

7. Single rider/Parent Swap/Handicap Access. The kids and wife don't like Indiana Jones? Well, I googled and indeed, the ride had single rider access so I got a pass, went in through the exit, and got on the ride in about 20 minutes compared to the 50 minutes for the line. I got stuck at the end of one family but it was awesome just getting to the front of the line.

8. Time Management. Sleep later. Wake up early or be ready to stay up late. Rest when you're waiting for a parade or a show to start, which is usually from a half hour to an hour for the major shows. Don't spend your day waiting in line. Look for a seat before eating. Eat off-schedule to avoid lines.

9. Supermarkets and McDonalds. Going back to the food thing, going to Supermarkets and picking up some muffins for breakfast or going to a late dinner at McDonald's saved us a lot of money. For the most part, we only ate one proper meal at Disneyland, and then dinner outside. Aside from saving a few bucks, you will also tire from rich D-land food fairly quickly if that's all you eat. The thing I was impressed with was that kid's meals were almost always complete, with some fruit and juice or milk alternative. The adults meals were shortchanged, but the kids got by fine.

10. Do your research. My big resource was Mike at work, but a lot of that information is also on a lot of Disneyland fan sites. I was surprised to how much I missed 10 years ago because I didn't do the research. Knowing more about opening times, parade times, and other info can save you a lot of time and maximize your vacation.