Visiting Disneyland is one of those awesome experiences that most of us don’t get to indulge in very regularly. I was blessed to be able to visit over spring break with my family. Visiting Disneyland with multiple kids (or even just one) can be tricky, but it is also a blast. Here are my tips to help you make the most out of your trip with your little ones.

Weeks/Months in advance of your trip

Make a plan – Before you visit the park, be sure to visit the maps section of the Disneyland website and try to narrow down the rides you want to go on so that you can visit those areas first. Now would be a good time to check out any height restrictions for the rides, so that you can determine whether or not your child is tall enough. Also be sure to sign up for Mousesavers updates to keep tabs on the latest news about everything Disney. Here you will find hotel discounts, ride closure updates and more. I also recommend signing up for a free vacation planning DVD

Make dinner reservations – Do you plan to have dinner at the park while you are there? Check out the menus at Allears.net to get an idea of pricing and choose where you’d like to eat. Then call 714-781-DINE(3463) to make a reservation.

Buy a fannypack – You laugh, but you know you don’t want to carry a purse all over Disneyland. There are actually some nice, small sized packs nowadays that hide under your clothes. I really like the Spibelt. I got mine for less than $8 shipped from Budget Gadgets.  Just go here for yours.

Buy a few Disney items beforehand – The gift shops at Disney can be spendy, so to avoid going over your budget, I would try to buy a few Disney items from your local stores and save them for your trip. You can sneak these out in the hotel in the morning before your trip to Disney and your kids will be surprised to find them when they get back.

The night before/morning of your trip

Charge your electronics – The night before you go, make sure to charge up your cell phones, cameras, gps and any other electronics you are bringing. Hopefully your cell phone performs all of these functions so that you don’t have to bring several devices. The less you have to carry, the better. Just make sure they are charged.

Pack plenty of snacks & lunch – You are allowed to bring backpacks/bags inside of Disneyland with you. Use it to bring lots of snacks, drinks (no glass bottles), bottled water (There are water fountains all over the park, so you will be able to refill your water bottles), your lunch and extra clothes, like sweaters and jeans. The park cools off at night, so you will want to get warm, especially if you’re wearing a tank top and shorts.

Wear comfortable shoes – Now would be the time to bring out your comfiest, most broken in shoes. You will walk everywhere! You will walk for what feels like miles at the park.

Bring a stroller – I know I just said it, but it deserves extra emphasis… You will do SOOO much walking at Disneyland. Your little ones at some point will get tired of walking. Renting a stroller can be spendy, so be sure to bring your own from home, even if you think your child is a little too big for it. There are lots of stroller parking areas around the park, so that you can drop it off and pick it up when you are done with your ride.

Don’t forget the sunscreen – This is super important. As you may already know, California gets hot! Even if you go on a day that’s overcast be sure to slather on the sunscreen. You don’t want your little one or yourself to get sunburned. That would put a damper on things. I recommend putting it on before you get there if possible. Once you’re there you won’t want to waste a second of your time. Every second you wait, the lines for the rides will get longer. No pressure.

Plan to get there as early as possible – If you’re staying at a resort hotel, you may have access to the park before everyone else. Be sure to take advantage of this. To everyone else I say, get there as close to opening as you can. The longer you wait, the longer the lines get. You can find park hours listed here.

Mark your parking spot via GPS – Sounds silly I know, but Disneyland, California Adventure and their parking lots are huge. There is more than one way to go in and out, so losing your car can happen pretty easily, especially if you are not very familiar with the park. First thing you should do when you get there is mark the location of your car with your GPS. You don’t want to wander around looking for your car later. You will be exhausted at the end of the day. Trust me. If nothing else, mark the spot where the buses pick you up to take you to the parking lot. There are more than one set of these and you can easily end up on the wrong one if you’re not careful.

Safety first – See all the people? Not on the raft, but look behind the raft. Disneyland gets crowded. It is very possible that your child could wander off or you could get separated from your party. For safety purposes, write your phone number on your child’s arm with permanent marker or on a piece of paper and put it in their pocket. Be sure they know that they can find a cast member (a person wearing a white badge) to help them find you. It’s also a good idea to take a picture of each person before or as soon as you get into the park to help you remember what they are wearing that day. If you do lose your child, they will most likely end up at the Baby Center and Lost Children location.

While you’re at the park

Get a map – No matter how much you’ve studied the map online, you’ll want to get a copy of the actual map while you’re at the park to get your bearings. If you have older kids, you can use the map to set up a meeting location in case you get separated.

Enjoy the sights – There are so many things to see and do at Disneyland besides go on rides. Be sure to take a few minutes and take in the scenes and take a few pictures.

Take advantage of Fastpass – Fastpass kiosks are located all around the park for various rides, such as Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, etc. Simply insert your ticket in the kiosk to get a Fastpass for your chosen ride. You will need to do this for each person in your group. I recommend that one responsible person holds all the tickets and gets the Fastpasses for you. This will make things go faster than if everyone is holding their own ticket.  If you bring a grandparent that doesn’t want to go on rides, this might be a good mission for them. There are a limited number of Fastpasses availble and you can only have one Fastpass for a ride at a time. Meaning you can’t have a Fastpass for Splash Mountain and Star Tours at the same time. Be sure to get to a Fastpass kiosk as fast as you can. These get you into the ride with a minimal wait. Please note that Fast Passes have a time listed on them that you can come back and ride. The time posted is the the time you must ride the ride. If you are more than 15 minutes late, your pass is void.

Be prepared to stand in line – Even if you manage to get a few Fast Passes in, you are still going to end up at some point waiting in a line that’s longer than you want to stand in. This is especially true if you visit during a busy time, like weekends or Spring Break. My boys waited about 2 hours to ride Space Mountain while we were there. It was their favorite ride, but the wait was kind of hard for them. I started out waiting with them with my daughter, but it was just too much for her, plus I thought the ride would be too scary for her. I used this time to separate from our group with my daughter and take her on a couple other rides while we waited for them.

Don’t be afraid to splurge just a little – Disney vacations don’t happen often for most of us, so be sure to give a little wiggle room in your wallet for a splurge or two. Our big splurges were a couple of pins for the pin trading game (See below info) and a couple of toys. We found that the “Build your own Lightsaber” in one of the shops in Tomorrowland wasn’t too expensive. It was $23 after tax for the kids to make a light saber to bring home.

Our big splurge was on dinner. We brought our own lunch and snacks and went all out for dinner at the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. This was an excellent place to eat. Each dinner included BBQ Chicken and Ribs (vegetarian options available), Smoked Sausage, Cole Slaw, Corn Cob Wheels, Ranch Beans, Corn Bread and a drink with free refills for $26.99 for adults. The kids plates were $11.99. It did add up with 5 of us, but it was really delicious and a rare treat for us.

One of our small splurges was a huge Lollipop. While I don’t normally encourage giving in to your children, the rules change at Disneyland. When my child got whiny and insisted I carry her 40 lb body all over the park (yes, I forgot the stroller), we passed by a gift stand and she saw the big lollipops and asked for one.  We headed over and got one and she happily walked around for a good couple of hours with it, with NO whining. It cost me about $4.50. It was worth every penny.

Think before you ride – This is not as obvious as it should be. Not every ride at Disneyland will be enjoyable for all kids. For example, I unknowingly took my almost 4 year old daughter into the Haunted Mansion for our first ride. The ride itself was ok for her, but before you get on the ride, the part when the room stretches out and goes dark was super terrifying for her. She was crying to get out of there, but there was no going back at that point. She did ok on Splash Mountain too, but again, she did cry a little with the big drop. She laughed after it was over, so no permanent damage was done, but if your children are sensitive, you might want to skip the scary rides.

She did much better with the rides in Fantasyland. Dumbo and It’s a Small World were her favorites. She also LOVED the Star Tours ride and Captain EO, which surprised me a little. By the way, if your hot and tired and want to sit down a while, Captain EO is a fun 3D movie inside a theater (which means there’s not too much of a line). It’s like no other movie you’ve ever seen. The floors bump up and down at different times some other surprises happen. The kids loved it!

Play the pin trading game – Something that’s pretty fun for the kids to do at Disneyland is to trade pins with cast members. Pins can be bought online, at your Disney Store or at Disneyland. (Beware of fakes on Ebay though). Each cast member at the park has a lanyard with Disneyland pins on them. You can ask them to trade with you and they will. They can only have one of the same kind of pin on their lanyard at one time, so if you have several of the same pins you will have to trade with a different cast member. This is a great way to get souvenirs. I recommend this option mainly for the older kids, but even my younger kids got into it. We didn’t do too much trading because we were only there for one day, but I think it would be really fun if you were there for a few days or if you visit the park often.

Have fun – The most important thing to do while at Disneyland with your kids is to have fun! While there are some hardships to deal with such as heat, long lines and  even some whining and pouting is inevitable, just try to make the best of things and treasure the fun memories you are making. Before you know it you’ll be back to your regular routine and reality, and you’ll wish you were back at Disneyland. Savor it while you can.

Did I miss anything? Be sure to leave your comments below.

Disclosure: I received a free product as part of this review. All opinions stated are my own.

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