One of my dearest friends I went to university with in Vancouver BC had a trip to Disneyland planned with her family this October and we had to cancel a big trip together in 2020 (it was supposed to be to Newfoundland) so we decided last-minute that it would be fun to tag along. She had already reserved her Disneyland days and was spending time at Universal Studios too. My family isn’t really a theme park family and the last time we went was in Hong Kong years ago so we thought we’d hang out at Disneyland Adventureland together for one day. We went the last weekend in October and we booked our plane tickets the first week of September, then booked our hotel (the Westin Anaheim right across from the park) and looked into getting our Disneyland tickets maybe a week later so about 3 weeks before we left.
So I found a couple places that have discount Disneyland tickets
I found out that AAA has discount tickets for two days that include Genie+ and T-mobile has discount Disneyland tickets too in the Tmobile Tuesday app if you are a customer too. And because there would be 8 of us traveling together, and this would be a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip, my friend and I thought we might try to do the spendy Concierge VIP tour package to reduce our times in line. (We didn’t and I’m so thankful. Disney has a way of making it easy to get caught up in splurgy things and it’s important to remember that ALL THE MONEY YOU HAVE does not need to be given to the Mouse.)
But did you know that Disney Parks can get booked up?
So just as I went to book my AAA tickets I checked the dates my friend was going and found out that Adventureland was all booked up for the day we wanted so there was no way to book the same day she was going. And my family would be flying in on the day they were headed to Disneyland so we didn’t want to chance doing the Concierge package and have our plane delayed or cancelled and have to lose a lot of money. So we decided not to look further into the Concierge package but we booked our day at Disneyland for the day we arrived at SNA airport at 8:30am
And I’m so thankful we didn’t do the Concierge package
Because we were up at 3:30am for our early morning flight, we were pretty tired when we arrived at Disneyland even though we managed to get to the park for around 10:30am. We left our luggage at the Westin Anaheim where we were staying and it was a 20 minute walk from our hotel to the Disneyland gate. We booked our first ride for Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run using Genie+ about an hour after we got into the park. We had time to do one ride on Splash Mountain (it had a 5 minute line-up and we should not have sat in the front log), wring out our drenched clothes and meet up with our friends before we could check in at the beginning of our Genie+ window for the Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run ride. Then went to our favorite ride of all the rides we did at both Disneyland and Universal Studios: the Rise of the Resistance ride. (Actually all of the Star Wars land was absolutely perfect at Disneyland. The guys and I got a little addicted to Star Wars during our quarantines-we watched the Clone Wars cartoons way too many times.)
Ultimately Genie+ was all we needed because it allowed us to book guaranteed times for at least 3 rides (Millennium Falcon, Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion) and when we were there on the weekend of October 1st the Genie+ was 20 dollars extra a ticket and you could even add it on once we arrived at the park. As of about two hours ago (on October 11th 2022) Disney just raised the starting price of Genie+ to $25 per ticket (and apparently there is a revolving price now depending on the date that you visit so this new price might be something to think about before you add on Genie+ too). You can only book one ride once per Genie+ ticket and I think you can only book every two hours for any ride or some weird rule like this that thankfully my husband and my friend’s husband read and figured out while we were in the line for the Rise of the Resistance Ride.
But do you need the Lightening Lane or Lightening Super Magic or whatever they call the extra extra pass that takes another 20 dollar per person out of your wallet if you are riding the Rise of the Resistance ride at Disneyland?
The lineup was supposed to be around 80 minutes when we got to the Rise of the Resistance Ride. It is not bookable with the Genie+ pass that you already pay an extra 20 bucks per person on top of your Disneyland ticket for. So we calculated our 8 people at 160 dollars and decided we would just chance the line and catch up. We barely noticed being in a lineup-we figured out the Disneyland App, decided what we would do for the rest of the day and chatted like we would if we were just hanging out. And this is why you also need snacks and drinks in your bag at Disneyland-we had gummy candies and water and that sustained us too. Our wait ended up only being an hour and one of my sons calculated that the wait was actually a lot shorter than a lot of the other waits we had for rides because this was an 18 minute ride compared to other rides that we had shorter waits for but were only 4 or 5 minute rides. We would have been kicking ourselves if we had paid the extra $160 to go on this ride.
And we were finished with Disneyland by about 6pm
We rode everything we wanted to ride at Disneyland and were pretty exhausted because we had gotten up so early for our flight so we thought we would go back and try to watch the fireworks from our hotel room at the Westin Anaheim. I think if I had young kids I would wake up early, do rides first thing, head back to our room for naps, have a quiet and an easy dinner then head back to Disneyland for the evening. We even just picked up takeout and ate it on our balcony. And sadly we didn’t see any fireworks and I thought it was because they were too low for us to see it from our room but my friend told me that she had stayed for the whole thing and found out during the show that the fireworks ended up being cancelled.
This really cemented my thankfulness that we didn’t do the Concierge VIP tour package for sure because getting access to the fireworks without having to sit and save a spot was one of the selling features why I would get that package.
We also learned a cool thing about having 14 year olds: 14 year olds can enter Disney by themselves!
But there’s a caveat: although 14 year olds can do Disneyland by themselves teens under 18 need to be accompanied by an adult in Downtown Disneyland from 10pm -5am. I read about this and a few more rules in the Disney rules section on their site. It was the craziest thing after watching all the struggles in the world to get people to follow health related rules/suggestions/pleas and see how willing people are to follow all the Disneyland rules-our priorities as humans are so strange. But if you are someone who cares about airflow, I noticed that most indoor spaces At Disneyland had doors open and some kind of ventilation measures (we could often feel air moving) probably on purpose to keep workers healthy.
And although I was mostly concerned about airborne viruses at this time, there were a ton of Purell hand sanitizer stations all around the park (we also noticed the slightest aroma of puke at times in various places in the park too so I think the Purell was a good idea.) Ultimately it felt good that the happiest place on earth also seems to care about our health even if it also seems like health is the last thing on everyone’s minds (it was more crowded than I ever remember it pre-2020.)
Also bring as many snacks and drinks as you think you’ll want for the day
When we went you could pretty much bring anything for snacks but we didn’t bring much because I thought I wanted to buy them all (but then so many of the lines for snacks ended up being at least 10 minutes long) So of of course always check to see what you can and cannot bring on the actual Disneyland website before you go. But we did not bring enough snacks and were willing to buy them but did not want to wait in line to get them. Also Starbucks has a trenta size that feels reasonably priced as a shared drink.
After spending a day at a park with two teenage boys and my husband who had a great day but is not a true Disneyland fan at heart, I can conclude that snacks and drinks are a key element to a successful and happy day at Disneyland.
PS. it’s for fun
Once we started talking about our trip, my friend and I couldn’t believe how stressful people make it feel like a Disneyland trip can be. It’s supposed to be fun. It will be fun. Just be aware of your spending and don’t get caught up in FOMO. If you set goals on a few things you want to see when you’re there, the chance of completing those things is probably attainable and everything else can be a bonus. We planned very little and still saw a lot and had a great time.
(PPS. The Genie plus pass comes with pictures so you can get photos taken by cast members with cameras at different part of the park. I thought it was a little cheesy when we were there, but our Disney photos are my favorite souvenirs.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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