tips for six and four year old at Disneyland?
June 25, 2018 4:14 PM Subscribe
We're taking our six and four year old kids to Disneyland in California early July. We'll be there Saturday July 7 and Sunday July 8; unfortunately those dates can't be moved, though we could conceivably go another night the next week too if for some reason the pricing structure made that make sense. I've been to both Disneyland and Disney World, but not for a decade or more. What do we need to know?
Additional complications: the six year old is a little bit of a scaredy cat and the four year old has separation anxiety and a speech delay that can cause him to get pretty worked up if he doesn't like what's going on, so we'll be taking it easy for sure. My wife has identified rides that she thinks will and won't work for their constitutions, but we'd take advice on that front, too! We won't be going on fast roller coasters and likely will be skipping particular rides like the Haunted Mansion even though it's not actually scary in the least.
Additional complications: the six year old is a little bit of a scaredy cat and the four year old has separation anxiety and a speech delay that can cause him to get pretty worked up if he doesn't like what's going on, so we'll be taking it easy for sure. My wife has identified rides that she thinks will and won't work for their constitutions, but we'd take advice on that front, too! We won't be going on fast roller coasters and likely will be skipping particular rides like the Haunted Mansion even though it's not actually scary in the least.
Be aware that Pixar Pier has just opened this past weekend in California Adventure, so that part of the park may be incredibly busy. Hopefully, that should mean that other parts of the park will be less busy/stimulating, though.
The Disneyland Railroad is a really nice "ride" to help you get your bearings around the park AND it's nice and shaded sit-down time. Same with the monorail. Small World is a drink of cool water of a ride on a hot day and it's also 15-20 minutes long (same with Pirates, but maybe that's too scary?).
If you think your kids will want to do Autopia, go early or late in the day. The cars get hellishly hot from the motors and then having to wait to disembark from the ride.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is surprisingly scary - the visit to hell at the end is really out of nowhere (for those who never saw the movie). Finding Nemo is scary (to me) in the claustrophobic sense.
I really recommend seeking out the active, explore at your own pace parts of the park, such as Tom Sawyer's Island (DL), Toontown (DL), the Castle (DL), and Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (DCA).
I've heard of some parents watching videos of the rides with kids before they go, to alleviate some of the mystique, but not sure if that would work for yall.
posted by topophilia at 5:12 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Disneyland Railroad is a really nice "ride" to help you get your bearings around the park AND it's nice and shaded sit-down time. Same with the monorail. Small World is a drink of cool water of a ride on a hot day and it's also 15-20 minutes long (same with Pirates, but maybe that's too scary?).
If you think your kids will want to do Autopia, go early or late in the day. The cars get hellishly hot from the motors and then having to wait to disembark from the ride.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is surprisingly scary - the visit to hell at the end is really out of nowhere (for those who never saw the movie). Finding Nemo is scary (to me) in the claustrophobic sense.
I really recommend seeking out the active, explore at your own pace parts of the park, such as Tom Sawyer's Island (DL), Toontown (DL), the Castle (DL), and Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (DCA).
I've heard of some parents watching videos of the rides with kids before they go, to alleviate some of the mystique, but not sure if that would work for yall.
posted by topophilia at 5:12 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Yes, watching the videos seems to be helping! Thanks.
posted by gerryblog at 5:17 PM on June 25, 2018
posted by gerryblog at 5:17 PM on June 25, 2018
I highly recommend the relatively new Maxpass that you can access through the app. If you won't be going on a ton of fastpass rides then maybe don't bother, but for $10 a person/day you can get digital versions of fastpasses, which saves walking back and forth to get the physical fastpasses and allows you to plan your day better. A lot of the fastpass attractions are the faster ones, but there are also rides like the dumbo one, small world, radiator springs racers, toy story mania, etc which might normally have an insane wait time. Plus the maxpass includes digital versions of all the photopass opportunities throughout the park, so you can get nice professional family photos sent to you.
Again, take a look at the ride options if you don't think you'll get much use out of it. But if you plan on using fastpass quite a bit, the $10 cost for maxpass is quite a steal.
posted by sprezzy at 5:21 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Again, take a look at the ride options if you don't think you'll get much use out of it. But if you plan on using fastpass quite a bit, the $10 cost for maxpass is quite a steal.
posted by sprezzy at 5:21 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
When I was a little girl, strangely, the ride that scared me the absolute most was Alice In Wonderland. It was just so crazy and unpredictable that I legit couldn't handle it. Well, that and Inner Space, but that ride has been gone for 300 years.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:50 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by pazazygeek at 5:50 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seconding the comments about the surprising scariness of the Fantasyland dark rides... for me, it was Snow White's Adventures that really freaked me out at your daughter's age. (This was evidently such a problem that they eventually renamed the ride "Snow White and her Scary Adventures.")
Of all of the Fantasyland dark rides, It's A Small World has the least potential for this kind of startle/alarm for a child; Peter Pan's Flight might also be fine (though someone who's been there more recently with kids should confirm if my memory is correct!). The rest of the Fantasyland rides should be fine (minus the Matterhorn, of course)... I recall really loving the Storybook Boats in particular at that age.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 6:11 PM on June 25, 2018
Of all of the Fantasyland dark rides, It's A Small World has the least potential for this kind of startle/alarm for a child; Peter Pan's Flight might also be fine (though someone who's been there more recently with kids should confirm if my memory is correct!). The rest of the Fantasyland rides should be fine (minus the Matterhorn, of course)... I recall really loving the Storybook Boats in particular at that age.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 6:11 PM on June 25, 2018
The rider switch service may be useful if there is a ride the adults really want to go on.
For kids, I would focus more on the experience of Disneyland versus going on a bunch of rides. Get them autograph books - the characters do an amazing job interacting with young kids. If you're staying near enough, go back to your room and take a break/nap if you can and go back later.
Also, if you're in the area for a few days, consider Adventure City; it's smaller, less expensive, and younger kids like it more. My kid visited it several times when she was younger for camp field trips and liked it a lot.
posted by mogget at 6:18 PM on June 25, 2018 [3 favorites]
For kids, I would focus more on the experience of Disneyland versus going on a bunch of rides. Get them autograph books - the characters do an amazing job interacting with young kids. If you're staying near enough, go back to your room and take a break/nap if you can and go back later.
Also, if you're in the area for a few days, consider Adventure City; it's smaller, less expensive, and younger kids like it more. My kid visited it several times when she was younger for camp field trips and liked it a lot.
posted by mogget at 6:18 PM on June 25, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh! Yes, seconding Adventure City for a smaller, more traditional amusement park visit. (Note that it's just down the road from Knott's Berry Farm.)
posted by Carouselle at 6:31 PM on June 25, 2018
posted by Carouselle at 6:31 PM on June 25, 2018
It is going to be very hot, very crowded, and you may find yourself unable to even get into the park since weekends are often so packed that even annual passholders aren't allowed in due to capacity constraints. My recommendation would be to have a backup plan, and assume you will be waiting in line a lot, potentially in the heat, and possibly with grumpy kiddos. I agree that Snow White, Mr. Toad, and Pinocchio may be very scary to your youngest, but as everyone else up thread has noted, there are many fantastic alternatives.
posted by Hermione Granger at 6:37 PM on June 25, 2018
posted by Hermione Granger at 6:37 PM on June 25, 2018
Strongly seconding the recs above for Maxpass and the Disneyland app if you plan on going on any of rides Maxpass is good for. Also getting there as early in the morning as possible.
posted by ogorki at 6:54 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ogorki at 6:54 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
I would honestly give Fantasmic a miss. The crowds are insane and people can get incredibly rude and pushy staking out their space. And wait times for rides go way down.
Carnation gardens is gone and there's a fairytale character meet/live show complex there now.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:55 PM on June 25, 2018
Carnation gardens is gone and there's a fairytale character meet/live show complex there now.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:55 PM on June 25, 2018
The single best purchase we made for our Disneyland trip was a physical copy of The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. The second best purchase was a subscription to the Unofficial Guide's "Touring Plans" app. The third best purchase was an electronic copy of the Unofficial Guide so we could keep it on our phone and reference it when we were in the park without having to carry a book around. I'm going to give you some specific suggestions, but they're pretty much all things we got from the Unofficial Guide.
• Even if your six-year-old doesn't use a stroller in regular life, you will probably be glad to have a stroller for each child while you're in the park. Having both kids in strollers makes it easier to keep track of them, faster to get through the crowds, and less tiring for them. (You could go for a double stroller, but we found two single strollers were easier for navigating crowds.)
• If it's at all possible, get a hotel close to (or inside) the park. The Unofficial Guide has a list of walking time from each Anaheim hotel, although be warned that's walking time from the front of the hotel. Some of these hotels have multiple buildings spread out over the equivalent of a city block, and if your room is on a high floor at the rear of the complex, it can take five to ten minutes just to get to the front door. After you book a room, I'd ask the hotel if you could have a room close to the front (although the tradeoff may be more street noise and/or less of a view.)
• If you aren't staying super far away, take your kids back to the hotel in mid day so they can play in the pool and/or nap. Then return to the park in late afternoon when it's less crowded and cooler. If you're in the MUST MAXIMIZE EVERY MINUTE mentality, this can feel like a waste of time -- but in practice, you're losing an hour or two of peak crowd time, and gaining an hour or two of less crowded time. You'll do more and enjoy it more.
• The Unofficial Guide's Touring Plan app is great. You tell it which rides you want to do. Then it looks at its database of expected wait times for different times of day and it calculates the best order to do your rides in. In practice, we found that we couldn't relentlessly stick to a plan with very young children, but it was still helpful to have a rough plan that we could modify as we went.
• When my kids were the same age as yours, they really loved Tom Sawyer island. Be warned that some of the dark caves on the island can seem scary to a nervous little child, but there's plenty of not-at-all scary space to run around and explore.
• It's a great idea to watch videos of rides in advance, but for what it's worth, the thing our six-year-old found scariest was the sudden drops in certain rides, and the videos don't really capture that.
• Our kids found Ariel's Undersea Adventure in DCA to be less scary than a lot of the other dark rides. YMMV, of course!
• I third (fourth?) the suggestion of getting a Maxpass. Just the free photos were worth it for us, and the virtual fastpasses were a huge bonus.
• If it's at all possible, plan some time for each grownup to go off on their own while the other watches the kids. As much as we loved seeing Disneyland through the eyes of our children, we found it helpful to have a little time to see or do whatever was our grownup priority.
posted by yankeefog at 2:52 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
• Even if your six-year-old doesn't use a stroller in regular life, you will probably be glad to have a stroller for each child while you're in the park. Having both kids in strollers makes it easier to keep track of them, faster to get through the crowds, and less tiring for them. (You could go for a double stroller, but we found two single strollers were easier for navigating crowds.)
• If it's at all possible, get a hotel close to (or inside) the park. The Unofficial Guide has a list of walking time from each Anaheim hotel, although be warned that's walking time from the front of the hotel. Some of these hotels have multiple buildings spread out over the equivalent of a city block, and if your room is on a high floor at the rear of the complex, it can take five to ten minutes just to get to the front door. After you book a room, I'd ask the hotel if you could have a room close to the front (although the tradeoff may be more street noise and/or less of a view.)
• If you aren't staying super far away, take your kids back to the hotel in mid day so they can play in the pool and/or nap. Then return to the park in late afternoon when it's less crowded and cooler. If you're in the MUST MAXIMIZE EVERY MINUTE mentality, this can feel like a waste of time -- but in practice, you're losing an hour or two of peak crowd time, and gaining an hour or two of less crowded time. You'll do more and enjoy it more.
• The Unofficial Guide's Touring Plan app is great. You tell it which rides you want to do. Then it looks at its database of expected wait times for different times of day and it calculates the best order to do your rides in. In practice, we found that we couldn't relentlessly stick to a plan with very young children, but it was still helpful to have a rough plan that we could modify as we went.
• When my kids were the same age as yours, they really loved Tom Sawyer island. Be warned that some of the dark caves on the island can seem scary to a nervous little child, but there's plenty of not-at-all scary space to run around and explore.
• It's a great idea to watch videos of rides in advance, but for what it's worth, the thing our six-year-old found scariest was the sudden drops in certain rides, and the videos don't really capture that.
• Our kids found Ariel's Undersea Adventure in DCA to be less scary than a lot of the other dark rides. YMMV, of course!
• I third (fourth?) the suggestion of getting a Maxpass. Just the free photos were worth it for us, and the virtual fastpasses were a huge bonus.
• If it's at all possible, plan some time for each grownup to go off on their own while the other watches the kids. As much as we loved seeing Disneyland through the eyes of our children, we found it helpful to have a little time to see or do whatever was our grownup priority.
posted by yankeefog at 2:52 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
Our kids found Ariel's Undersea Adventure in DCA to be less scary than a lot of the other dark rides. YMMV, of course!
I wonder if it's partly because it doesn't use black light like the older dark rides?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:13 AM on June 26, 2018
I wonder if it's partly because it doesn't use black light like the older dark rides?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:13 AM on June 26, 2018
Staying in the park is expensive, but it would allow you to take a break for a few hours in the middle of the day which could make a huge difference in how much kids that age actually enjoy the trip. When we took our kids at that age, knowing we could leave for a while without leaving for the day relieved a lot of the pressure to get our money's worth out of the tickets and made it easier to actually get our money out of the tickets.
posted by mumblelard at 5:08 AM on June 26, 2018
posted by mumblelard at 5:08 AM on June 26, 2018
We took my nieces to Disney World at about those ages. The 4 year old would get anxious waiting in line, so it was helpful to tag team and let her opt out. Her favorite aspect was the hotel pool and having us all together.
posted by MichelleinMD at 6:12 AM on June 26, 2018
posted by MichelleinMD at 6:12 AM on June 26, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
You can bring snacks and water bottles with you, and you can refill water bottles just about anywhere you can get food.
If you feel like lines will be an issue, get a Disability Access Pass - you still wait the time the line says, but you can wait it somewhere ELSE. Walking around, park bench, etc. Basically it's like a FastPass but designed for people with assorted accessibility needs.
Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. Hats. Lots of water. Take rest breaks. Use the companion restrooms if either kid has potty issues. Ask any CM where the nearest one is if you can't find one.
The Disneyland App is AMAZING. Get it. It has wait times, character meet and greets, show times, parade times, and I think you can do food orders on it now for fast-casual places. (That may be still limited to AP holders, I am not 100% sure, but the app is free and worth it without that)
Bring changes of socks and underwear, it'll help with sore feet and not having chafing/swampbutt/wedgies/etc. Change socks at least once a day, if not more.
There are some places in each park that are kind of quiet and out of the way -
(by Land)
Disneyland:
* Main Street: Benches near First Aid / Baby Changing Center / Corn Dogs
* Tomorrowland: Restrooms between Launch Bay and Autopia
* Fantasyland: Pier area near Edelwiess Snacks behind the Matterhorn
Also sometimes we'll just go on Small World and chill.
* Frontierland: Tom Sawyer's Island is generally pretty chill, and there's a few places to just stop and watch the boats. The raft ride is a little "AUGH PEOPLE NEAR ME" but the island itself is so uncrowded it's often worth it.
* Critter Country: the Hungry Bear Restaurant lower levels by the companion bathrooms always seem to have seats even on crowded days, and it's dark and quiet down there and you can watch the boats, and the trains.
* Adventureland: This one is tricky. If Aladdin's is still open/available, that's usually quiet. Sometimes the seating for Bengal is quiet, sometimes not. More often than not, we just bail on Adventureland entirely and book for Hungry Bear.
DCA: DCA has less quiet places for us due to the nature of the park, but there's a few.
* Grizzly Peak: Soarin. Yes, it's a ride, but it's also (for us) relaxing and quiet and a nice place to cool down and get away from crowds and noise.
Grizzly Peak in general is the land we most often seek out to have quiet time. Something about all those trees and the shade and the sound of water is a good break from everything.
* Paradise Pier: During the day, the seating area for World of Color in front of the Little Mermaid Ride is often uncrowded and if there are no performers it's also quiet.
* Cars Land: Flo's V-8. Comfy seating, food comfort food and fun but not LOUD music.
* Hollywood Land: The Animation Building isn't usually quiet but it is often dim and air conditioned.
posted by FritoKAL at 4:52 PM on June 25, 2018 [5 favorites]