10 DisneyLand Hacks
I think it is safe to say that I have been around the block at Disney Land. I have been going with my mom and my brother since I was born nearly every year, until my brother started working for Disney World, then we had to start splitting time with both places like divorced parents. So in total I’ve been to Disney Land about 18 times and Disney World about 12 times. So for living in Texas, I would call myself a Disney Parks connoisseur. So I’ve learned a thing or two about the secrets of the parks, secrets of rides, etc having a brother who was a Disney World cast member.
So the undying, feuding question is… which park is better? Disney Land or Disney World… my answer is…
DISNEY LAND… 100% no doubt.
So why? You may be asking:
Location of the Parks: DisneyWorld has 4 parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. To park hop (go to multiple parks in one day), you must take a shuttle, a car, or something to get between one and the other. It takes at least 30 minutes to a hour out of your park day to get between one and another. In DisneyLand there are 2 parks: DisneyLand and California Adventure, and unlike DisneyWorld, you can walk across a short walk-way from one park to another.
Weather: California, DisneyLand weather is about 70 degrees and sunny year round. It’s never miserable to be outside at the parks. Unlike DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida, where it is always muggy and humid, typically unbearably hot and when it’s not it’s pouring rain, causing an unbearable time walking outside all day.
The Disney Feel: So in DisneyWorld, each park has a different theme: Epcot: Around the World/Future Tech, Animal Kingdom: Animals and Nature, Hollywood Studios: Hollywood and Movies, each of those parks (the three other than Magic Kingdom) have their theme with Disney sprinkled in. While in DisneyLand, both parks are all Disney all the time, and California Adventure alone has Cars Land and Pixar Pier, so it’s an automatic win.
Now so here are 10 of my “Disney Hacks” or Disney Secrets that I’ve acquired over the years that will help make your experience so much smoother!
1. DISNEY GENIE+:
Should you or should you not get Disney Genie+? Honestly, it depends. If you want to do every ride in the park in one day… yes, you need to get Disney Genie+, but if you want to have a chill park day and only ride a few ride, I would say you can skip it. BUT it’s $30 per day per ticket if you decide to purchase and if your focus is rides on your park day, you will definitely get the most bang for your buck! If you have a park hopper ticket, you can also use Disney Genie+ in both parks under the same $30 cost within the same day.
2. RIDE HACK- The Haunted Mansion:
On the ride: The Haunted Mansion, you are taken into a holding room before you are taken into the actual ride room. There will be 4 portraits in the room, to avoid a longer line, you will want to stand as close to the wall under the woman holding the parasol. That will be the door that opens to let you into the ride line, so you will beat everyone in the holding room.
3. CHARACTERS:
Now this is based on how much your party cares about meeting characters. If your party takes time out of your park day to get in the long lines for every character you see, this will take a large chunk of ride time out of your day. Also often in Disney, if the character lines are long, there is a good chance the character will leave before it is your turn, so there is a chance you will not get to meet them. So a good way to make sure your full days at the parks are not taken up totally by characters, buy a character dining! Depending on how long your stay is can help determine where/when you would like to go. This is an extra expense, but definitely worth the time saved if you are wanting to meet characters. There are character dinings within the park, but there are also some outside of the park. My personal favorite is: Goofy’s Kitchen at the DisneyLand Hotel! You will get to meet: Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale and Minnie! We typically do this on the night we arrive before we go to the parks!
4. RIDE HACK- Buzz Lightyear:
I’m not here to spoil this competition game and tell you how to get a perfect 999,999, but I am here to tell you how you can beat someone who has never played. So the circles are worth the LEAST amount of points, so if there are other options, hit those. Circles are the least, then squares, then diamonds, then triangles are the most. If the targets are lit up, they are worth a lot more. Also NEVER STOP SHOOTING even in the room that looks like it is just stars, THERE ARE HIDDEN TARGETS, just keep shooting!
5. GET TO THE PARK EARLY
This should be tip #1 EVERYWHERE. If you have an agenda and want to maximize your experience at all Disney parks, you need to get there an hour before the park opens! If you are staying at a DisneyLand hotel, you have access to magic mornings, which is where on certain days either DisneyLand or California Adventure opens an hour early at 7am just for people with Magic Mornings. So if you utilize it, which you should, you will need to get to the park at 6am.
In DisneyLand only Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and Star Wars Land are open. During that time, it is suggested to do all of FantasyLand first! The order I go in is: Peter Pan, Dumbo, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Alice in Wonderland, Mr.Toads Wild Ride, Pinocchio then Snow White then Tomorrow Land Speedway! Also remember that once you scan your ticket to get into the park, you can get your first FastPass on the App for 8AM! Do it ASAP!
In California Adventure typically on Magic Mornings only Toy Story Mania, Cars Land, and Guardians of the the Galaxy are open. So our plan is usually to run to Toy Story Mania, ride it twice then go to Cars Land and ride Radiator Springs Racers Single Rider in that first hour!
Also Magic Mornings help you get pictures like this without an influx of people in front of the castle:
6. USE RIDEMAX:
I touched on a little bit of ride-planning throughout the day, but my family has been using RideMax for over a decade! Its an online service that plans your park day for you based on wait times. It is SO WORTH IT! You select every attraction, show, dining experience, etc. that you want to be included in your park day and RideMax will “Create Your Plan” and give you the perfect schedule to minimize wait times as much as possible! My family has learned many of tricks from this service and saved a WHOLE lot of wait times. You can also use it for DisneyWorld!
7: RIDE HACK- Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout:
So this one is basically like the Haunted Mansion, so there is a showroom or “holding room” before you get in the final line for the ride. You will want to stand as close to the door on the opposite side of the room from the entrance to beat the rest of the people in the room with you.
8. RIDE HACK- Winnie The Pooh:
The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction/show that is still in DisneyWorld, but was taken out of DisneyLand. The Winnie the Pooh ride in DisneyLand is where The Country Bear Jamboree used to be. If you completely look behind you on the Winnie the Pooh Ride in the Honey Dream room, you will see the 3 Heads (Max, Buff and Melvin) hanging on the wall.
9. USE SINGLE RIDER:
In DisneyLand, you have the option of Single Rider on: Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones. In California Adventure, you have the option of Single Rider on: Radiator Springs Racers, Grizzly River Run, Goofy’s Sky School, Incredicoaster, and Soarin’. If the lines are absurdly long, and a FastPass is unavailable or your group does not care about riding the certain ride all together, wait in the Single Rider Line. They use this line to fill in spaces with groups of odd numbers, and sometimes you get lucky and get to ride with one or more members of your party anyways!
10. HOW TO GET A LIGHTNING LANE FAST:
So you get all of your Lightning Lanes from the DisneyLand App after you purchase Disney Genie+. You will get a page full of all of the soonest available Lightning Lanes for each ride, the rides that their Lightning Lanes are taken up the fastest are typically: Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway with the occasional Rodger Rabbit Cartoon Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad & Matterhorn Bobsleds.I would recommend doing your top picks FIRST! As soon as you use your Lightning Lane, you can reserve a new one or you can reserve a new Lightning Lane 2 hours after you booked your last one (whichever is sooner). So I would only book rides like Small World, Autopia, etc as you’re headed to the ride so you can almost immediately book a new one for a more popular ride! I’ll make a blog post dedicated Lightning Lanes and strategies soon!
I hope you learned something new about DisneyLand and I hope this was useful to you! I love Disney and I hope this helps make your DisneyLand experiences even MORE magical!