138 - Disneyland Tips

[captain_slinky]

This was promised to manofsnows long ago, a customized list of my bestest Disneyland tips! But first, the basics. Think of this as a montage clip featuring the "Greatest Hits" of all those other "Disneyland Tips" you could find via Google:

• Wear your most comfortable shoes, fashion be damned. Flip-flops, crocks, heels, platforms, dress shoes, NO. Sneakers all the way.
  
• Don't buy bottled water while there - stay hydrated with free ice water which you can get from any counter-service and/or sit-down restaurant in the park. It's not the *tastiest* water, but it gets the job done!
  
• FASTPASS EDIT: I call this The 40 Minute Fastpass Rule, and it's really more complicated to explain than it should be. Fastpass tickets are printed for you to come back to the ride at a time that is AT LEAST 40 minutes from now, so unless the "Wait From This Point" sign for a ride is saying a number over 30 minutes, you should probably use your Fastpass elsewhere.
  
• Buy your Disneyland tickets from a reputable source for a reputable price. There are legitimate discounts to be had such as buying online through Disney, Military Discounts, AAA and the likes. Craigslist, Ebay, and websites that have the word "Cheap" or "Discount" in the title are always a HUGE gamble that, quite frankly, I wouldn't trust. Spend the extra five bucks per ticket for the security.

FREE STUFF

• First thing in the morning, go up to the Main Street train station and ask the conductor if you can ride the Lilly Belle. If they have room, they'll give you a ticket to ride in the special VIP car of the train and tell you all about why it's so special!
  
• And while you're there on Main Street, stop by City Hall to exchange a bit of cash for Disney Dollars (an excellent way to turn some change into a souvenir) and ask for a Button. What kind of button? Depends on why your there! Is it your first time in Disneyland? Getting married? Birthday? Special occasion of some sort? They'll give you a button that will help identify you to the various cast members and you just might get a bit of special attention!
  
• Ask for a map while in line at The Jungle Cruise, if they still have any for the day it makes for a great momento!
  
• Ask for a Death Certificate at The Haunted Mansion. Assuming that their printer is working, they'll be happy to oblige! And also while you're there, ask to see The Secret Pet Cemetery while it's still there - rumor has it that they will be getting rid of it soon to make room for Scooter Parking.
  
• Ask if you can steer the Mark Twain Riverboat. If they let you do it, they also give you a nifty certificate!
  
• Ask to ride in the cockpit of The Monorail - no free momento, but WOW what an awesome experience! Most unique view of Disneyland you're likely to get!
  
• Ride as many of the Main Street Vehicles as possible - The view from the second story of the Double-Decker bus is incredible, and you can even ride in Walt's own Fire Truck (the one he used to use for getting around the park)!

ALMOST FREE STUFF!

• There are always some "Bargain" souvenirs available, you just need to look for them! They are usually items you'll actually *use*, too - that Mickey Mouse Statue is keen and will look great on a shelf, but how about a daily reminder of your magical trip?
  
• You can always get your coffee (or cocoa) in a Souvenir Travel Mug, and between Disneyland and DCA they usually have up to four different designs going at any given time.
  
• At any of the "Sit Down" restaurants Blue Bayou, Plaza Inn, etc), they will likely have on the menu a special "Child's Drink" which comes with a special light-up decoration which you MUST HAVE! My favorite one is the green light-up life-size Tinker Bell, but I have also seen/heard of ones themed to Cars, Pirates and plain old light-up color-changing ice cube.
  
• "Souvenir Sippers" are big, clumsy drink containers they serve frozen beverages in (slurpees), and I can't BELIEVE how handy these are in the outside world! They hold A LOT of liquid, have a great straw and are spill-proof (or spill resistant I guess) with a big dome lid. When I bought my first one, my wife said "Do you REALLY need to lug that home with you? What are you going to use it for?" If she only knew then what she knows now :)
  
• ...And to a lesser extent, Popcorn Buckets. These buckets are always a delight, usually coming in all sorts of fun Disney shapes and sizes or at the very least decorated with a great Disney theme, but other than just putting stuff in them I have not found a daily use for these great items.
  
• At the back of Toon Town you will find the Five & Dime Gift Shop, which is the "Last Stop" for park merchandise before it heads out to the various outlet malls. Sometimes you can even find stuff that has been marked down to the Outlet Mall prices already!

Personal Tips ("Cheat Codes")

• Keep up-to-date with what's going on in the parks before your trip by visiting fan sites such as MousePlanet.com, they have a nice, brief "Disneyland Update" every Monday morning that includes all the current refurbishments and scheduled closings for the next several months. It's a huge bummer when you show up to Disneyland and find The Matterhorn is closed, but much less of bummer when you already knew it wasn't going to be open during your trip!
  
• Treat every Castmember like a close, personal friend, because they are. If you approach a Castmember as just another employee, they will treat you more like a customer. Treat them like a friend, and they'll be your friend. It's really JUST THAT EASY! You'd be surprised how many tourists treat the cast members as cashiers, mobile complaint departments and Authoritative Guardians Against Fun, and that sucks. You're on vacation! Instead of surrounding yourself with oppressors, surround yourself with FRIENDS!
  
• Speaking of Castmembers, make friends with them online before your trip, with no ulterior motives. I know it's super-tempting (and super-annoying) to find out somebody is a Castmember and instantly ask "Can you get me free tickets to Disneyland?" - it doesn't work that way, and that's just *rude*. However, if you make real, honest-to-gosh FRIENDS who work at Disneyland, there's entirely different perks - not the least of which is thinking of everybody at the park as "My friend's co-workers"! If you're close enough, they may even take you to "Company D", the Disney Castmember Only store! Trust me, you want to go there some day :)
  
• If you're going to book a Character Meal (and really why wouldn't you?), make it be the Minnie & Friends Breakfast Buffet at The Plaza Inn. The three reasons that you should choose this meal over the other offerings (Storyteller Cafe, Goofy's Kitchen and Paradise Pier)are as follows:
  • RARE CHARACTERS - Pooh, Tigger, Eeyor, The Fairy Godmother, Hook and GOOFY'S SON MAX are among the characters that come right to your table for pictures and autographs - characters that if you DO see them out-and-about in the park will always have a HUGE line to wait in.
  • THE MIDDLE - Storyteller's Cafe has better food, Goofy's Kitchen has better hours and Paradise Pier has "Cooler" characters, but Minnie's Breakfast is smack-dab in the middle. Great food, awesome characters and... The Hours. This is important because...
  • EARLY ADMISSION - This is my favorite "Cheat Code" that my wife discovered. On some days you can get in to Minnie's Breakfast as early as 7:00, and once you're in the park you're *in the park*. Eat breakfast, take pics with characters, get autographs and join all the other folks for an extra helping of "Magic Mornings"!
    
  
  
• And while you're at Minnie's Breakfast, be sure to bring along an oversize deck of childrens Uno cards (preferably the Disney kind of course) and have it on your table. We have some great videos of our daughter playing Uno with Chip, Dale, Perdita and Tigger - the kind of memories you just can't buy :)
  
• NEVER go back to your hotel unless you absolutely have to. It's simple economics, really! Assuming you purchased a three-day pass and each day the park is open from 9am till midnight, you're paying around $5.25 per hour just to BE there. If you need a nap, go to Great Moments With Mister Lincoln or maybe take the Grand Circle Tour on the Disneyland Railroad a few times (my personal favorite nap-spot)! You get refreshed AND you get to unlock the "Fell Asleep At Disneyland" achievement :)
  
• Avoid exhaustion by enjoying EVERY SHOW. Mickey's Magic Map, Parades, Musical Performances, fireworks - they're EVERYWHERE! Perfect excuses to just stop moving for a few minutes and enjoy the show! I'm not a fan of Jazz music, but there's not much in this world that I love more than sitting at a French Market table listening to the Royal Street Bachelors and watch folks walk on by :)
• 
  When you're looking for a spot to enjoy The Fireworks from, you'll notice a large section of seats in front of the castle that are roped off. These are for any and all VIP Guests who may show up. Want to know how to get in there for free? JUST ASK. No, seriously! They rope that section of EVERY NIGHT, and if no VIP's show up and if the Castmember who is watching the area is in a good enough mood, they'll let you sit there! Not a guaranteed thing, but worth asking, right? Worst they can do is say "No"!

GENERAL STUFF & OPINIONS

• Best place to watch the fireworks from is right behind the Partners Statue looking towards the castle. When the lights are low and the fireworks are high, it looks/feels like Walt himself is pointing out his favorite bits to you!
  
• HOTEL BOOKING PART 1 - You need to decide if you want super-cheap or super-convenient for your hotel room. Staying at one f the official Disney Resort Hotels is fun, but expensive. Most hotel rooms in the surrounding area are at least HALF the cost of a Disneyland Resort Hotel, and many of them are closer to the main gate! If you're okay with walking a quarter-mile there and back again each day, you can get a room for as cheap as $40 a night, but we tend to go for the shorter walk - there is no longer walk than the walk to your hotel room after Disneyland closes. The absolute closest you can get to the Main Gate of Disneyland is the Best Western Park Place Inn and Mini-Suites, which is easy to NOT get a room at since there are aproximately 27 different Best Western Hotels that advertize they are "Right across the street from", "just a quick walk away from" and "conveniently near" Disneyland proper. HOWEVER, if you REALLY want to be as close to getting in to Disneyland as is humanly possible, you need to stay at THIS HOTEL, located at 1544 S. Harbor Blvd, in room 170 through room 185. That's first floor, practically at the crosswalk!
  
• HOTEL BOOKING PART 2: Once you have decided on a hotel, check all the online travel sites for the best price (I usually find the best price at booking.com, personally), then call the Hotel and ask them how much a room would be. After you get the price quote from them, tell them that you found it online for (X-Amount Of Dollars) and ask if they can beat that - 9 times out of 10, they can beat it by at least five bucks a night. There is a long, convoluted explanation of how this works, but trust me IT WORKS. Plus if you need to cancel or reschedule, you get to deal directly with the hotel rather than going through an online service!
  
• If you are going for multiple days, don't buy a Park Hopper Ticket. Dedicate yourself to staying in one park per day and you'll end up with a much fuller experience from each park! Otherwise you just might end up spending a lot of time running between parks because of "The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Fence" thinking!
  

...And that's abut it for now! I may update with more stuff if I get any comments/questions on this post that need to be addressed. Do you notice anything I missed? Please put it in the comments so I can address it, thanks :)

Comments

[aurora77]

The Fastpass info isn't quite correct. I think you meant they are for at least 40 minutes out rather than a flat 40 minutes from when you get them. When we got FastPasses for popular rides, it was as much as 4 hours out. Always look up the rides with the longest waits and get FPs for them, then go do some other shorter wait rides or shows, and come back for your FP time.

I found the Park Hopper passes to be easier to use at Disneyland than at Disney World. At DW, you have to hop on shuttles between parks. In comparison, moving between DL and DCA is a snap.

The Best Western hotel you mentioned is great. No-frill accommodations. Clean. Relatively quiet. We found that it was convenient enough to go back and take a nap one afternoon. The free breakfast is mediocre in everything except quantity. In quantity, it's more than adequate.

As for the Lilly Belle, when Brian says "first thing in the morning", he really means it. You need to get there before opening and make your way straight to the train station to line up. If it's a really hot day, the Lilly Belle probably won't be running. If it's not running, ask them when it will likely be running next.

Take a few minutes to go visit the lobby of the Grand Californian hotel. It's gorgeous. Also, if you're looking to mail a postcard, that seems to be the only place you can find stamps.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Wording the Fastpass advice is difficult, it's almost math. If the sign says anything less than a 30-minute wait you should go ahead and stay in line since the Fastpass is going to be issued for *at least* 40 minutes from the current time, ensuring that you won't be able to get another Fastpass for anything else till the timeframe for that Fastpass has expired. You want to save your fastpass for the rides that say you'll be coming back some time after 40 minutes (such as your four-hour-from-now Fastpass).

There's two different signs to consider when choosing to Fastpass - the "Wait From his Point" and the "Fast Pass Return Time". The closer the two numbers, the less you need a Fastpass. Does that make sense?

[aurora77]

Yeah. That's how it works. I think the wording was just awkward and could have been misunderstood.

[melanie von bose (from livejournal.com)]

These tips are great, and I learned some things - which is rare for me with typical tips lists. But a few of my experiences at Disneyland this year were a little different.

Fastpasses aren't always scheduled for 40 minutes from when you get them. Sometimes your return time is hours away depending on how busy the park is. We love to grab a fastpass AND get in line. Then we can hop right back on after we ride the first time. :)

You have to ask for a jungle cruise map at the end of the ride, not when you're in line. And often the cast member has you perform a little something to "earn" your map. My kids had to make animal sounds. haha

I hardly ever use my souvenir sippers, but I use my popcorn buckets all the time. We use them for popcorn at home - especially for Disney movie nights, but even more than that we use them at Disneyland! We bring them with us and refill them with microwave popcorn in our hotel so we can take them into the parks with us for a lot cheaper than buying more popcorn in the park.

Thanks again for the fabulous tips!

[aurora77]

Oooh, I like the popcorn bucket idea.

I bring in snacks so that I don't get tempted to buy things that just aren't worth it. I can get the few snacks I really enjoy (Dole Whip!) and save money for other things.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I am a HUGE SLACKER when it comes to Disneyland Snax Hax - I *refuse* to not buy whatever food I want while I'm there, four-dollar popcorn just tastes better to me ;P

I look at those people with their sack-lunches full of tunafish sandwiches and baggies of fresh carrots and I just... I feel for them the same way I feel towards homeless folks at a shelter on Thanksgiving :(

My darling wife, however... SHE would have us come to Disneyland wearing giant backpacks full of hand-made sandwiches and snacks!

[aurora77]

I'm not against eating meals there. It's just that I don't want to get hungry between meals and end up buying some overpriced mediocre pastry that will leave me disappointed and sugar-crashing in an hour.

I'd rather spend it on ice cream or Dole Whip in the middle of the warm afternoon or on hot cocoa in the cool evening. I don't feel well when I have too much sugar. Those are worth the sugar.

I ate breakfast at the hotel's buffet at that pirate restaurant. Not great, but it came with the room. We did get reservations at the Carnation Cafe for breakfast one day. It was lovely. We ate most of our meals in the park, but we shared a few things to save a little.

Oh! The Ghiradelli store usually gives out free samples. They had the BEST ice cream sundaes, too!

I don't know how often they offer it, but they were selling champurrado at DCA last time I was there. It was delightful! ^_^

[man-of-snows.livejournal.com]

I will google Fast Pass and get back to you if I have more questions. Thanks so much for this!