Cost: $$$$
Description: Disneyland is THE theme park of theme parks known for its enchanting attractions, iconic Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and beloved Disney characters. But OMG, it's expensive and growing more expensive every year.
With rides ranging from Haunted Mansion to Space Mountain to Peter Pan and Rise of the Resistance in immersive themed lands (check out Star Wars Land), Disneyland offers a unique blend of fantasy, nostalgia, and cutting-edge technology, creating an unforgettable experience where dreams come to life.
Deals: For Disneyland or California Adventure single-day passes, deals are rare. They do have one good deal right now: a child's price ticket for $50 for one park/one day for use January 8-March 10, 2024 listed directly on their website HERE
Your best bet for Disneyland deals is for 2 or more days. Many sites offer special deals that may be too good to be true. If you're skipping the Disney website, stick with established sites for resale tickets like Undercover Tourist HERE
Keep an eye out for member deals at AAA (we saw $5 off park hopper)
Kids under 2 are free and don't forget- Disneyland is still under a reservation system as of November 2023, so check first, and reserve the dates before you make plans.
Disneyland Tips and Hacks: As of 2023, you can bring outside food and nonalcoholic beverages into the parks as long as they are not in glass containers, do not require heating, reheating, processing, or refrigeration, and do not have "pungent odors." Huge hydrating tip: There are water refill stations throughout the park. DO NOT do what I did and forget your water bottle. The third time I put $5.27 on my credit card for a small bottle of soda and Dasani (which I hate), I felt internal rage in the "happiest place on Earth".
Get there EARLY. This is my favorite tip to avoid the lines and get a ton out of the way. But early doesn't mean "when Disneyland opens." It means at LEAST a half hour before opening. You want to be there for the rope drop. We were able to hit 7 rides on a pretty busy day all before 11 am. There are a variety of tricks to maximize your time- and you'll want to have a couple of strategies before you head to the park. We went to Star Tours, then a quick stop at Snow White, then Pirates of the Caribbean (which no longer has a lightning lane for some horrible reason), then Haunted Mansion and avoided the rest of Fantasyland until later in the day. We barely used our Genie + pass that got us lightning lanes (one ride per day for rides that participate). In fact, the lightning lane wasn't great the day we went on November 8, 2023. Rides kept breaking down RIGHT after we checked in with our lightning lane pass (three total and Indiana Jones permanently that day). It ended up that waiting in line was more effective than our actual lightning lane passes and after we were told by the Spiderman team to talk with guest services to fix the issue, they told us "lightning lane" doesn't actually mean you'll get on the ride faster than the standby line. It's definitely making me wonder if we should see what we can do early next time, and THEN decide if the extra $30 per ticket is worth it.
Check crowd calendars and keep an eye on the Disneyland app for a few weeks before you go to check traffic. OK, crowd calendars don't always work, but I was shocked that Halloween had such incredibly small crowds when I checked the app. Almost all crowd calendars I checked knew Halloween was a day with lighter traffic. If you hit Disneyland on a light day, you don't need to buy your way through lightning lanes. The fact that you HAVE to buy individual lightning lanes for Rise of the Resistance and Radiator Springs ($26 EACH on the day we went), means you either want to choose wisely (as my fellow Indiana Jones fans know), buy your way out of it and not be bitter, or race to those rides at rope drop and hope for the best.
Dining Reservations- Disneyland Tips, Deals, and Hacks: If you want to eat at Blue Bayou or Oga's Cantina, book exactly 60 days out or check the app starting a week before you go. Disney charges people per person for missed reservations, so they open up randomly as folks cancel their plans right before they go. You can also sign up for services like MouseDining that will email you as soon as a reservation becomes available, but they go FAST, so I found that checking somewhat obsessively was the best bet. We were able to get dinner reservations at Blue Bayou the day before we went when two reservations opened up, but as soon as I booked a time, the other reservation was gone.