6 EASY Tips You Shouldn’t do Disneyland Without

I see so many HUGE numbers of tips for Disneyland, you’d never be able to keep them straight. So, today I’m boiling it down to 5 tips you NEED to do Disneyland, and enjoy your day.

Of course, the foundation of your vacation is picking a good hotel and not over-paying for #allthethings at the parks — I always use Get Away Today to book my trips and I think you’ll love their pricing, convenience and customer service too!

Also, grab my budget calculator so you’re prepared for all the costs up front:

ABHLL (ab-hill)

Stands for Always Be Holding a Lightening Lane. And yes, I mean that you grab another one the INSTANT you all scan into your ride.

Pro Tip: Currently, you can always get a new pass every 120 minutes (even if you haven’t scanned into that ride). I promise you’ll forget, so set a timer to remind you to grab another one. This works to STACK Lightening Lanes later in the day. Speaking of which….

Stack Lightening Lanes

Ok, this is the only other tip about Genie+, but most people don’t know how to use it right. You’re looking to STACK the lanes later in the day. This means you get to ride a lot in the morning (using Genie+ minimally) and then a leisurely afternoon (possibly a nap back at your hotel) and then back to the parks with lots of lightening lanes to use at night.

Mid-day I start to look at rides that have later return times that we want to ride. Most often these are:

• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Indiana Jones
• Space Mountain

We most often try to return to Disneyland at night (I juts find it more magical at night). So, I’ll grab a later Space Mountain around 2 pm.

Then, at 4 pm I’ll grab Matterhorn, and at 6 pm grab Big Thunder.

Most often this puts those 3 mountains all between 6-8 pm in our queue and we can just go on them as we want. In between we can have dinner, snacks and enjoy the atmosphere.

If you wanted to do it in California Adventure, I’d pick

Toy Story Midway Mania, Guardians and Incredicoaster.

Of course, you’ll want to pick the rides that your family loves to ride, so don’t pick what I’m choosing — pick what works for you, and scan when return times are before you blythely pick a ride.

We LOVE to ride Big Thunder and Matterhorn at night — they’re just a different experience. So, often we’ll ride those early in the day without Lightening Lanes and then grab out Lightening Lanes with them for night.

Grab my Disney day planner right here to give you an idea of how busy stuff gets:

Want more info on your Disney day check out these posts:

• Top 12 Easy Disneyland Genie+ Tips: Use the Lightening Lane to your advantage!
• Can I Buy Disneyland Tickets at the Gate? Updated with 2024 Info!
• 6 Ways to Skip the Lines at Disneyland
• Knotts Berry Farms vs Disneyland? Which one is right for you?
• Doing Disneyland on the cheap!

Mobile Order, Mobile Order, Mobile Order

I can’t say it enough. This has been an game-changer for the parks for me, and I LOVE picking our food out while we stand in line for something else…

Disneyland allows you to pick a timeframe and then order for most restaurants around the parks to pick up at that time.

You Order (usually picking a 20-30 minute timeslot), you will then tell then to make your food (it’s not sitting there cold — they prepare it when you’re nearby), grab it and find a table!

If you can go into the app and look at restaurants nearby and see if they allow mobile ordering.

Food carts don’t allow this (hopefully someday they will), and there are still a few that require in-person ordering (looking at you the Tropical Hideaway). They’re slowly converting most of them over though, I’m sure it saves them money too!

Want more info on Disneyland food check out these posts:

• Food I hate at Disneyland that Everyone Else Loves
• Best Food at Disneyland: Eating at Disneyland easily!
• Disneyland Untangled – Making the Most of Your Trip
• Best Disneyland Restaurants for Families
• Best Hotels Near Disneyland with Free Breakfast

All this time on your phone you’ll want an external battery. I have my favorites in my Disney gift guide!

Fill Your Tank

Disneyland is a LONG day, and I think most people make it that way to get their money’s worth. Personally, I LOVE a mid-day nap but I always worry I just won’t make it back to the parks because I’m tired. SO, I’ve come up with some pit stops to fill my tank mid-day. They include:

• Having a reservation for around 2-4 pm for a sit-down meal. Often it’s not as busy, I can get hydrated during some of the hotter hours and just enjoy sitting down.
• Riding the train for a couple of loops — they don’t make you get off, and I’ve 100% had a nap on the train. Maybe only a couple of minutes but it felt great.
• Other options (all in A/C) include Mickey’s Philharmagic and Mr Lincoln. I’ve seen people asleep in Mr Lincoln, and they made sure they were OK between performances but they didn’t make them leave….. just sayin’.
• Hanging out in the Aniamation academy. That room is magical, you could even send some of your family into the Anamation studios if they want to, and you just sit there and feel the love.

The moral of this is that you do NOT have to stand in line all day, there’s lots of great ways to rest a little mid-day so you can go later into the night.

And by later I mean 10 pm. I’m not insane here people. 🙂

I ALWAYS take some pain medicine mid-day with my lunch/dinner. It really just helps me feel 100% better, because my body is TIRED.

Want more tips for managing days at Disneyland, check out these posts:

• 6 Mistakes You’ll Make Planning Your Disneyland Trip
• When Is Disneyland the Least Busy?
• 4 Things to Avoid When You Plan Your Disneyland Trip
• How Much Does Disneyland Vacation Cost for a Family of 4?
• Disneyland Tips: Insider Tips from a Disney Pro!

Is Rope Drop for You?

FYI “rope drop” is getting there about an hour before the park opens so that you’re right at the rope when the park opens — they actually open the GATES about 30 minutes before the park opens and then you can walk down to the end of main street (or shop, obviously) until the park officially opens.

I agree that rope drop is the best time to be there so you can get the most done. However, rope drop isn’t for everyone, and that’s OK.

Honestly, we mainly use rope drop for rides that we want to ride more than once. If you don’t have rides you want to ride more than once — skip it.

I know, I can’t believe I’m a Disney pro telling you to skip rope drop, but I am. It’s not for every family and if you’re having a tough time getting your family there for rope drop it may not be worth it.

I actually LOVE to get into the parks RIGHT as they’re dropping the rope, so I can still ride a lot, but not actually stand there waiting for them to drop the rope…. I may not be FIRST on Indiana Jones, but I’m still only waiting 15 minutes or so. Ultimately leading to less waiting overall. 😀 But, personal choice. When we only have one day at the parks we usually get there for rope drop because we want to DO IT (fist pumps when you say do it).

If we want to rope drop Big Thunder I sometimes call it “goat drop” 🤣 — iykyk.

Grab my parent’s guide to Disneyland right here (because scaring kids on rides was one of my worst mistakes as a mom, and I want to help you avoid that):

Pretend it’s Free

Now, I’ve been lucky enough to go to Disneyland a few times when it was “free” (beyond the opportunity cost my economist father would always remind me of).

I have also been to Disneyland a few times where we barely had the pennies to cover it and I wanted to be sure we got our “money’s worth” and I can tell you that going with a “free and easy attitude” made the trip a lot easier!

The thing is, the amount you’ve paid for your trip is now a sunk cost. You no longer have that money, there is no way to get it back, so essentially what happens today IS free.

• No freaking out over lost minutes
• No freaking out about rides that are down
• Do what gives you the most pleasure (or your family, if you’re with them)
• Don’t do what others tell you to do.

I feel like that last tip is what I want to boil this all down to.

Disneyland has become a place where you’re trying to get in the MOST number of rides, and eat the MOST delicious foods so you can share it online and brag to your friends.

What if you just went hoping to have a good time, and came back saying “we had such a good time.” Yes, there were meltdowns and no, we don’t get to do everything we wanted to do, but we had an amazing day and I’m so glad we went.

Disneyland is being ruined by people who need to get the MOST done humanly possible.

Yes, waiting in line less makes me happy. Yes, stacking those lightening lanes makes my planning heart happy — but it ONLY makes me happy if we’re still enjoying ourselves and having a good time.

I recently went to Dollywood and I just appreciated that most people there were just having a good time. They were, in general, pleasant to others, their kids and employees because they were just having a good time. I wish Disneyland could be more like that. It reminded me it’s about a good day, not about riding a certain number of rides, so I hope you remember that too. 🙂

And of course, get your trip planned with Get Away Today. They have guaranteed low pricing, amazing customer service and make it SO EASY! I’ve used them since 1998! Please do tell them you found them on Pulling Curls as I love helping people plan trips with them! Use code CURLS10 to save an extra $10 on your trip!