Top Tips for Disneyland California & California Adventure

Welcome to our top tips for visits to Disneyland California (and California Adventure)

Fresh from a week in Santa Monica on our  California Road Trip, I felt ready and strong enough for a day at the Happiest Place on Earth, with the Most Excited Girl on Earth.

It’s a great time to visit Disneyland California – the park is celebrating its 60th anniversary and there is a brand new parade and fireworks show to mark the occasion.

For my money, Disneyland California is probably my favourite theme park to visit. The theme parks in Florida are great of course, but they’re more hectic, more humid and generally just a LOT to cope with. In California, the Disney parks are geared towards locals as well as tourists and have a more relaxed ‘day out’ feel rather than a ‘trip of a lifetime!’ energy.

We bought one day tickets and parking online before our visit, which turned out to be a smart move – you won’t need to queue on arrival, and you simply have your phone scanned at the turnstile. Do not just turn up at Disneyland California thinking you can buy tickets at the gate, because since Covid, that’s not possible.

You can buy tickets for Disneyland or what’s called “Park Hopper” tickets which give you admission to the main park and the adjoining “Disney California Adventure” – a second park with more shows, rides and a California style pier with rides and coasters.

In our experience, it’s worth buying the hopper tickets if you have older kids and don’t mind a bit of frantic to-ing and fro-ing. For families with smaller kids, if you’re visiting for one day, you’ll have more than enough to fill your time just at Disneyland.

Disneyland California is a fraction of the size of the Florida park – it’s very similar in size and layout to Paris, if you’ve been there – which makes it very do-able as a day trip.

One of our top tips for visits to Disneyland California is to plan ahead a little, so make the most of Disney’s Fastpass system. Our top tip is the head into the park early and pick up a Fastpass for one of the more popular rides (Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and Star Tours all get very busy) and then hop over to California Adventure to get a second Fastpass there. You can hold one Fastpass for each park at the same time.

You’ll then have enough time to stand in line for one of the rides with a shorter line, before using your first Fastpass. Even so, expect to spend time in line, in HOT sun – bring hats and water, although most rides have some shady areas in line, and regular water fountains so you can keep hydrated.

What are the best rides at Disneyland California?

Flea is a fan of thrill rides so her favourite rides in Disneyland were Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain in Disneyland, and the genuinely thrilling Screamin’ California Coaster in the Adventure Park.

Splash Mountain is a hilarious and inventive twist on a water splash ride, but you will get thoroughly drenched through the whole ride, so save it until the end of the day, if you can. We didn’t make it onto Tower of Terror but having ridden the ride in both Paris and Florida, neither of us fancied the 90 minute queue!

At Disneyland California, there are plenty of rides for non-thrill-seekers. The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters are great fun for kids and grown-ups, immersing you in a larger than life video game involving blasting targets in a Toy Story world. A similar idea works just as well at the Midway Mania ride in California Adventure, where you play carnival games against your companion, in a virtual 3D environment.

When you’re not on a ride (or standing in line for a ride) there’s a lot to keep you entertained at Disneyland – there are countless live performances, from barber shop quartets in Disneyland’s New Orleans area, to a group of Alice in Wonderland characters performing Abba covers in Hollywood Land.

If you’re in California Adventure Park, do head over to the Animation Academy – you can take part in a hands-on session where you’ll learn to draw popular Disney characters – completely brilliant, and Flea loved it.

Best Things to Buy at Disneyland California

Disney California feels considerably less commercial than the Florida park – there’s less space, for starters. But there are still plenty of options for shoppers – my favourite purchase won’t keep long, sadly, but is a loaf of bread baked in the shape of Mickey’s head. Best. Toast. Ever.

Another difference I really noticed was in the food on park – yes, there are hot dogs and popcorn, but all of the food stalls we saw also had a wide range of fresh fruit and healthy snacks – you can pick up apples, bananas, peaches – or why not try houmous and veggies or a delicious frozen pineapple sorbet (called the Dole Whip) that’s a healthier alternative to ice cream?

Fireworks and Parade

The 60th anniversary parade is genuinely spectacular, and we loved seeing all the characters lit up, with the music and the lights and the 50,000 small girls dressed as princesses…but if you’ve seen it before, then this is the perfect time to get in line for the really popular rides.

The end of the night fireworks are a lovely way to round off a visit – although getting a good spot to watch is something of an art, and the Disney staff are ruthless in keeping people moving if they’re not in a designated viewing area. Our advice? Head for Main Street and bag a spot next to a bin – once the fireworks start, you can pop your small person on top of it for a great view 🙂

The fun doesn’t stop when the fireworks end (they’re at 9pm) – the park is open until midnight during summer and we noticed as a lot of tourists leave, the locals arrive for the evening, changing the vibe considerably – Disneyland is still a lot of fun after dark, and some rides (Splash Mountain) are even more fun in the dark – not to mention the standing in line is easier without the heat of the sun!

Top Tips for trips to Disneyland California

• Do the busy rides earlier in the day if you can. We arrived at 9am and the car park we were in was less than a quarter full. Because lots of people come to DC for the day and it’s open until midnight, one of my top tips for Disneyland California is to make the most of the mornings, when it’s quieter and calmer.
• You can only have one Fastpass at a time – per park. So you can hold a Fastpass for both Disneyland and California Adventure, meaning you get to go on more rides, more quickly.
• Get a coffee fix at Starbucks, on the right hand side of Main St as you enter the park. Need a beer? There’s no alcohol at Disneyland, but you can find it all over in California Adventure.
• Plan to stand in line during hot days – ensure you have plenty of water, in refillable bottles, and don’t forget hats and sunscreen.
• A fully charged phone with a back-up power block loaded with a game you can play as a group (we recommend Heads Up) will make that time in line go a LOT faster.
• The parks are open until midnight in summer but don’t expect kids to keep up the pace all day – once it hit 3pm, we saw kids wiped out asleep EVERYWHERE – it’s hot, it’s tiring and it’s a lot to ask of kids to keep up. You can leave the park (and the parking lot) for a break during the day and come back without needing to pay for admission or parking again.
• Hungry? The hand-dipped corn dogs on Main St are rightly famous, and can be found in Frontierland at the Stage Door Café. Head to the  Tiki cafe in Frontierland for Dole Whip, and the best churros are to be found in California Adventure (along with the beer).
• If you’ve got Cars fans in the family, make sure to go to California Adventure around lunchtime, and pick up Fastpass tickets with an evening return time for Radiator Springs Racers – this is a fabulous ride at any time of day, but at night it’s properly got the WOW factor. You won’t regret waiting!

If you have tips for Disneyland California that we’ve missed please let me know in the comments!