Have you been to the most magical place on earth? Just a few weeks ago, our family had the opportunity to travel to sunny California and to meet Mickey and his crew. Growing up as a kid, I’d always wanted to go but never had the chance. So, when this opportunity of a lifetime came up we just couldn’t pass it up! We took a 5 hour direct flight from Toronto, met a driver at LAX and took a quick drive to Anaheim. We arrived at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa and as soon as we arrived in the lobby, it already felt like home. Kids were sitting comfortably watching Mickey Mouse films, people were walking around with Mickey Mouse ears and all the gear, and everyone just looked happy. We couldn’t wait!
The hotel itself is located right by both parks – Disneyland Park along with Disney California Adventure Park. It was like we were at an all-inclusive resort, where we could walk back to our rooms during the day if we wanted a bit of rest and to be honest, we did this on all our days from about 12-2pm to give Miles a good nap and get ourselves rested too. You can dine at restaurants just outside steps away from the hotel lobby, send your Disneyland purchases back to your room, enter and re-enter the park at ease, enjoy Downtown Disney district and even take a swim with the fam! I highly recommend staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa and planning your days from here.
Total Duration of Stay: 3 days at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park and it was the perfect amount of time needed to explore both parks.
TIPS ||
Here’s a few TIPS for you if you’re planning on taking your family or even just deciding to go for your birthday with some friends:
- Stay at one of the Disneyland Resorts – already explained most of my experience but honestly, it’s worth it and saves a lot of time especially if you’re taking your kids with the ease of entry and re-entry
- Purchase the Park Hopper Tickets – This will allow you to access both parks
- Purchase Disney MaxPass with your tickets – Best $20 USD per day spent! Save time in line by having the ability to FastPass attractions and entertainment selections from your phone and access unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads! I mentioned this in my stories throughout our time at the parks because we were able to have lots of photos taken at the parks and then save them to our phones for personal use afterwards. FastPass also made our experience at Disney so easy especially with a toddler*
* For my Canadian friends – Don’t forget about the CANADIAN TICKET OFFER: Canadian residents can save 20% on the advance purchase of a 3-day or longer, 1 park per day ticket. Tickets may be purchased online or over the phone now until February 16, 2020 for usage until December 31, 2020!!! For more information about this special offer visit Disneyland.ca/tickets.* - Download the Disneyland App – You can download it before you get there and sign up. This is how you would use your MaxPass, download photos, make dining reservations and even see line wait times! Don’t forget you can also see where your favourite characters are throughout the day incase you wanted to get a picture or autograph or two! It’s a must-have to make the most of your time.
- Plan out your days – It may feel a bit overwhelming when you first get through the park gates, well it did for me at least. But, after walking around for a few days, you start to know your way around. The best way to experience Disneyland is to make sure you have a list of your “must-do’s” and “would like to do’s”. This would include anywhere you want to dine too!
- Make reservations ahead of time for restaurants – They fill up fast, so make sure you’re making your reservations ahead of time to avoid having to wait for those Mickey Mouse Waffles!
- Pack light – we had a stroller with us but it was our small travel stroller which we could fold up and “stroller-park” easily, other than that we had a small bag with an extra set of clothes, layers this time of year, and some snacks for Miles. If you don’t have kids, then even better, you don’t need to pack a lot because the park offers pretty much everything, only pack your essentials for the day! Plus, if you’re staying at one of the resorts, you can just walk back to your room if you forget anything.
- Purchase and wear Disney Gear – No one walks around Disneyland without something mildly Disney-related. Once you get there you’ll know what I mean but even Roy was down to wear his Mickey ears all day, e v e r y day! You’ll want to join in on the fun or better yet, if you’re into specific Disney or Pixar characters, dress up to the park. When else can you walk around as Chewbacca other than Halloween?!
- Wear Comfy shoes/clothes – You’ll be walking around all day so make sure you’re comfy! I made sure to pack two of my most comfortable shoes for the trip and I didn’t regret it one bit.
- Toddler Specific – This is for the parents who have asked me this while we were at Disneyland. Remember toddlers aren’t always easy, but you as a parent know best for your child and how to manage. For us, we weren’t in long lines, MaxPass really helped with that as well as being distracted: some lines have TV screens that play Disney movies while you wait, others allow for you to sing along with recognizable songs, and lastly, you can always distract your little ones with Disney’s Play Disney Parks app which includes games for select attractions, interactive land-wide experiences and trivia. Most importantly, be patient and bring fun snacks along like Mickey Mouse cookies found all over the park.
EXPLORE ||
There are two parks which are side by side: Disneyland Park along with Disney California Adventure Park. If you’re making a visit to Disneyland, I would take the time to make sure you are going to visit both, you might as well because you’re already there! This is where the multi-day tickets come in handy. Disneyland Park is home to the infamous Sleeping Beauty Castle and Disney California Adventure Park has the beautiful Pixar Pier and Pacific Wharf. I want to mention our experiences at both parks as well as specific areas we loved the most during our stay. One of the best places to take a toddler who loves Mickey, Donald and Goofy is none other than Mickey’s Toontown. We took Miles here twice during our stay because he loved it so much especially checking out everyone’s houses and exploring this quirky world! Then there’s Cars Land, our personal favourite. I have to tell you, being a boy mom, I have watched Cars 1,2, and 3 numerous times on Disney+. Being in Cars Land itself felt surreal and it was so precious seeing Miles meet some of his favourite characters like Lightning McQueen and Mater! I actually took Miles from his lunch whilst dining at Flo’s V8 Cafe to go see Lightening McQueen and it was worth the look on his face!
I can’t say Miles loved exploring the all-new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge but the Quinn Girls were able to make it fun for him. For Roy and I, Star Wars fans or not, it’s an incredible place to check out!
I want to mention that our experience here was in partnership with DisneyLand, however I do want to point out that these opinions are my own. They had set up cool events for us to check out and experience but we were able to spend the majority of time as a family and off on our own as well as meet other families and people from around the world. We did get to explore the parks before it opened to the public and thus were able to capture content for you guys! We checked out both parks and were able to capture moments in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle along with exploring Pixar Pier, Bueno Vista Street. We also watched three shows and if you can stay and watch the shows, during your visit, do it! Seriously they are nothing like what we’ve seen before – Mickey’s Mix Magic, Fantasmic! and our personal favourite: World of Color.
EAT ||
It’s safe to say we ate through Disneyland too. I had a churro a day (a must at Disneyland), Mickey Pretzels and even stole a bite of Mile’s Mickey waffles! We didn’t dine too much at the restaurants because we were so comfy at our hotel restaurant (GCH Bar & Grill) but from what we did try, here’s what I’d highly recommend:
- Mickey Waffles at Carnation Cafe
- Brunch at Lamplight Lounge – seriously we went here twice because it was that good!
- Churros – all over the place but loved the Buzzlight Year ones at Pixar Pier
- Mickey Pretzel at various locations
- Popcorn in a Mickey carry-all container (kept as a souvenir for Miles)
- Flo’s V8 Cafe – delish burgers and kids meals that come in a Lightening McQueen keepsake case
- Lunar New Year MarketPlaces (they’re most likely not offered anymore but this was a cool way to try different Lunar New Year inspired foods)
- I learnt that there are also lots of vegetarian and vegan options at the park so don’t feel discouraged if you fall in that category!
RIDES ||
This is going to be specific again for toddlers because a lot of you guys have been asking about Miles and pregnant me and rides. Since I’m pregnant, not all the rides were for me, thankfully because Miles is only two, the rides he was able to enjoy were the same ones I was able to go on with him too! Roy rode some of the big kid rides with our friends who joined us at the park and also in the mornings when it was a bit more quiet. Some of the ones we enjoyed and a must for toddlers are:
- Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree (we three fit in one ride)
- Jessie’s Critter Carousel
- Pixar Pal-A-Round
- Disneyland Railroad (we took Miles on this twice because he loved it so much)
- “it’s a small world”
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- When in doubt…head to Mickey’s ToonTown or CarsLand, you’ll have time well spent there!
Don’t forget to meet and greet some of your favourite Disney characters. They are always somewhere in the park, and so it’s fun to meet them and watch your kid interact with them too. He was a huge scaredy-cat in the beginning but boy oh boy this kid only talked about the characters he met when we would be eating or hanging out! The app is helpful because it shows you where characters are at any given time at the park – we have bolted across a restaurant to get to Lightening McQueen but it was definitely worth it!
*These photos were downloaded from the Disneyland App and taken by the photographers
Lastly, something really cool about Disneyland and the culture is something call ‘pin trading.’ I actually recall learning this while watching Jillian Harris’ stories during her recent trip to Disneyland. The App shows you times and where people are meeting to trade Disney pins and its pretty amazing to see some individuals with LOADS of one of kind pins on their vests, lanyard or anything you can put a pin on. We didn’t actually trade any pins this time but I definitely stocked up on a few!
So whether you’re young or old, or in-between, Disneyland really has something for everyone. The adventure was beyond our wildest dreams and honestly, I can tell you that we’re already planning our next Disneyland trip for when baby #2 arrives! If you have any other tips to share, I’d love to know, so don’t hesitate to comment below!
