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All About Our Trip to Disneyland

When we moved to Utah, after years of living places with very mild winters, we decided we’d do a winter escape trip each year in January or February to break up the long months of cold, snowy winter.

This year, our winter escape trip was to Disneyland and it was a DELIGHTFUL trip.

disneyland genie plusWe hadn’t been to Disneyland as a family since early 2018, so our two younger girls had zero memory of it and our second daughter only had faint memories of it.

Provo Airport has a direct (and cheap! With taxes, fees and everything, each flight was $89 round trip) flight to the John Wayne airport, so we booked plane tickets, flew out on a Wednesday afternoon right after school and then did two days at Disney, before flying back on Saturday morning.

It was a perfect length of trip, the weather was ideal (high sixties both days), and we packed in a LOT of rides.

We stayed at the Residence Inn and both Bart and I commented on what an ideal spot it was. It wasn’t very expensive, it was just around the corner from the entrance to the parks so it was just a few minutes walk, we had a kitchen, and they served a free breakfast every morning (and this wasn’t a few muffins and bananas – there was toast, bagels, fresh waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, and more). Plus, there was a rooftop heated pool and hot tub which we took advantage of twice on our trip!

Here’s what our two days at Disney looked like:

We opted NOT to do park hopper passes where you can jump between Disneyland and California Adventure because it was so much more expensive. Instead we did one day at Disneyland and then one day at California Adventure and I was very happy about this choice because it cut down on the decision fatigue and time spent moving between the two parks.

We DID pay for Genie+ which allowed us to do lightning lanes rather than wait in the longer lines.

We also were there at rope drop each morning and I HIGHLY recommend this – that beginning of the day is the least busy time of the whole day and for me, it’s worth an earlier wake up to catch that empty time in the park. On our Disneyland day, we got in about 7 rides in the first 90 minutes!

disneyland genie plus

Thursday at Disneyland

  • Peter Pan’s Flight. This was a bonus ride for us. We were there at rope drop and several of Bart’s aunts and uncles happened to be at Disneyland this same weekend and staying on property, so they got to enter the park half an hour early. They waited in line and then there is some sort of system I don’t know anything about where you can step out of line and wait for the rest of your party and then the attendant will let you all back in. They did this for us, so we were able to ride this one with only a 4 or 5 minute wait (otherwise we would have skipped this one because the line is always SO LONG and there are no fast passes). It’s a classic ride and a fun one to kick off our day.
  • Alice in Wonderland. This one had about a five minute wait, so we hopped aboard this one while we were in the area.
  • Mad Tea Party (Tea Cups). As we got off Alice in Wonderland, we could see that there was literally NO line at all for this ride. The girls and I walked right on (Bart sat this one out because it makes him sick).
  • Space Mountain. The line was about thirty minutes long so we used our Lighting Lane fast passes for this one so we didn’t burn through all the quiet morning time waiting in this line. I’m still torn about whether that was the right choice or not – my girls would have loved to ride this one a second time but the line was so long the rest of the day that we never did.
  • Astro Blasters. This one was a walk-on too. We popped right on.
  • Star Tours. Another walk-on (and another one that Bart sat out). This was the last ride we did with Bart’s aunts and uncle for the day because they went to get breakfast and we’d already eaten.
  • Autopia. This one had a pretty short line, so we jumped in line and did four cars (Bart and Tally did one, Star and I did one and each of the big girls had their own car).
  • Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. None of us had ever ridden this new ride before and it’d been closed during the morning so far. We got in line for Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (it was a 10 minute wait) but when I pulled up the app in line, I saw that Runaway Railway was back up and running and had a 10 minute line. We got out of line and dashed over to Toontown to catch it. We loved it!
  • Chip ‘n’ Dale’s GADGETcoaster. The younger girls wanted to check out Goofy’s How-To-Play Yard so Bart stayed with them while Ella and I got in a 10 minute line for the GADGETcoaster. This is a SHORT rollercoaster and even with the short line, we wondered if it was worth it. Bart and the other girls got in line just as we got off and then decided it wasn’t worth it and we left Toontown.
  • Snack Break. We stopped at a cart in Fantasyland and picked up some pretzels and hummus, fruit, and cheese. We sat down at a table to eat them and I checked the app to see that Big Thunder Mountain (which had been down all morning) was suddenly open and had a 5 minute standby wait. We grabbed our food and dashed over to Big Thunder Mountain.
  • Big Thunder Mountain. The line was indeed only about 5 minutes long and we got right on!
  • Adventureland Treehouse. I got in a 25ish minute line for Pirates of the Caribbean and while it wound around the outdoor bridge, Bart took the girls through the treehouse. I got to the part where you can’t easily join the line and let people pass me for a few minutes until they rejoined me and we waited the rest of the line together (another 10-15 minutes).
  • Pirates of the Caribbean. I was worried this would scare my younger girls but they got a kick out of it.
  • Indiana Jones Adventure. We had our Lightning Lane tickets for Indiana Jones (I’d booked them while we were in line at Space Mountain). This was the only ride at Disneyland that Tally was too short for, so we got a parent swap (they scan them into the app now) and I took her over to Jungle Cruise while Bart took the other girls on this one.
  • Jungle Cruise. This had been closed all morning too, but now was open. I expected the line to be short but it was actually a solid 30 minutes of waiting in line. When we got off, Bart and the girls were waiting for us.
  • Indiana Jones Adventure. Bart was ready for a break, so he took Ani and Tally out of the park to get lunch at Blaze Pizza while I took the two other girls to use the parent swap two tickets at Indiana Jones. The attendant kindly let me join them so we could all go together instead of me sitting out and waiting for them.
  • Lunch at Blaze Pizza. Once the ride was over, we left the park too and joined them at Blaze Pizza where Bart had already ordered all our food and it was waiting for us when we arrived. As we walked, I booked Lightning Lane tickets for Haunted Mansion for a time when I assumed we’d be back in the park.
  • Hotel Swim. We went back to our hotel, changed into swimsuits and went up to the pool deck to swim. Bart and I stayed in the hot tub but the girls switched back and forth between the pool and hot tub. We went back to the hotel room and got dressed again. Bart was ready first and lay down on the bed and I could tell he was drifting off, so I suggested he stay and take a nap and then join us in the park later. I booked Matterhorn Lightning Lane tickets and we headed back to the park.
  • Matterhorn Bobsleds. The girls and I hopped on Matterhorn (the Yetis were a bit scary for Tally, but all the girls loved the ride!). Then we headed over to Star Wars land to use our Lightning Lane passes for Smugglers Run. I saw that Star Tours had Lightning Lanes available for just after our Smugglers Run time, so I booked those.
  • Smugglers Run. This one makes Bart ultra sick so I was glad to do it while he was still gone. The girls LOVED this one and they all wanted to do it again later in the day.
  • Star Tours. We crossed back to Tomorrowland and did Star Tours – on our way, Bart texted to say he was back in the park, so I told him to meet us at Haunted Mansion. We got a different video for Star Tours than we had in the morning, so that was fun.
  • Haunted Mansion. We headed to Haunted Mansion, grabbed a churro for the girls to share, and then got in the Lightning Lane for Haunted Mansion. This was the last weekend it was open for many months so we were glad to fit it in, plus it had all the Nightmare Before Christmas overlays still up. While we were in line, I grabbed Lightning Lane Fast Passes for Big Thunder Mountain, which was convenient since we were right in the area.
  • Big Thunder Mountain. We walked over to this one and it standby line was WILD. I was glad to zip past that whole line and we were on in about 5 minutes. While we were in line, I grabbed Lightning Lane fast passes for Astro Blasters, which is one of Bart’s favorites, so I was glad to do it when he was back with us.
  • Astro Blasters. Bart CRUSHED the scores on this one. . . .I did not.
  • Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. The line didn’t look too long here (about 20 minutes) and it felt like a nice one to fit in before our dinner reservation (we’d made our dinner reservation earlier in the day for 7:15). I hadn’t been on it in more than a decade and it was a nice, pleasant ride. But by the time we got off, one of our girls was really starting to melt down.
  • Dinner at River Belle Terrace. We showed up at dinner, checked in and were seated within a few minutes. The sun was fully down and it was getting a bit chilly. The food was excellent (the Chicken Pot Pie soup and Fried Chicken Sandwich were stand-outs) and we finished with some 15 layer red velvet cake. Over dessert, we discussed who wanted to go back to the hotel and watch a movie with Bart and who wanted to stay with me. Ella and Tally decided they wanted to shut down the park and Bart took the two middle girls back to the hotel.
  • Smugglers Run. Smugglers Run was HIGH on the list of things to ride and we were hopeful we might be able to at least use Bart’s unused Lightning Lane Fast Pass. When we got there, the attendant suggested we use the single/double rider line and we were on the ride within 4 minutes. The two girls went together and I was separate, but I swapped with two young guys so I could be in the same ship as my girls.
  • Smugglers Run. When we got out, the girls said, “Let’s do that again!” so we went back through the single/double rider line and again it took less than 5 minutes. This time, they were on one ship and I was on another, so they waited for me after they finished. We wondered if we could pull the same single/double rider line trick at Rise of the Resistance (the one major ride we hadn’t hit), so we ran over there but they informed us that there was no single or double rider line for this ride and since it was a 105 minute wait, we didn’t want to burn the rest of our night there.
  • Carousel. Tally had mentioned several times how much she wanted to ride Dumbo and we’d also looked at the carousel line multiple times. At this late hour, it was finally getting short, so Tally and Ella rode the carousel while I got in the Dumbo line.
  • Dumbo. The girls joined me in the line (it was about 25 minutes total) and we rode this one, checking it off Tally’s Disneyland list! We considered doing Space Mountain one more time since the girls had loved it so much, especially Tally, but the single rider lane closed at 9 and the line was about 45 minutes long, so we ended up heading to Toontown instead to finish the evening.
  • Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I’d grabbed Lightning Lane Fast Passes for Runaway Railway before dinner, so we got through very quickly – it was a delight to do this one a second time!
  • Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. We’d never used our Lightning Lane fast passes for this ride and now they were gone for the day, but the line said 10 minutes so we decided to squeeze it in as a final ride. The line ended up taking more like 15 minutes and all of us thought the ride was super weird and could have easily been skipped. When we were done, we headed out of the park and back to the hotel where the girls were asleep and Bart was waiting up for us.

All in all, it felt like a wildly successful day. We’d ridden 27 rides, used all our Fast Passes except for Roger Rabbit and Autopia and hit every big ride (most of them twice!) except for Rise of the Resistance.

disneyland genie plus

Friday at California Adventure

We got up around 6:40 on this morning (Star was very teary and tired but rallied at breakfast), ate at the hotel and then headed out to California Adventure.

  • Radiator Springs Racers. Originally we’d planned to rope drop for Guardians of the Galaxy, but Bart’s aunt texted us to say we might consider Radiator Springs Racers instead because that line is always so long. Even going there IMMEDIATELY upon opening, it was still a 45 minute line. Lightning Lane Fast Passes for this one are not included with Genie+ and would have been an extra $16 each, which felt steep for six of us. It was a bit painful to use our rope drop time to stand in a long line, but none of us had ever ridden this ride (the lines had been so long every time we’d been to Disney for the last many years), so we figured this was our chance. And when we finished the ride, we all agreed it had been worth it. We LOVED it.
  • Incredicoaster. Happily, lines were still short even nearly an hour into the opening, so we dashed over to the Incredicoaster and Bart and the three big girls walked right on. This was the one ride in California Adventure that Tally was too short for, so I took her on Jesse’s Carousel and the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind while we waited.
  • Jesse’s Carousel. Tally loved this one and we would have done it a second time but it shut down immediately after we got off.
  • Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind. This ride was pretty meh, but there was no line, so it wasn’t any big waste.
  • Incredicoaster. Bart and the girls got off the Incredicoaster and I got back in line with them while Bart took Tally to Midway Mania.
  • Midway Mania. Bart and Tally did this one together while we rode the Incredicoaster and they were still on it when we got off, so we went and got in line.
  • Midway Mania. Bart and Tally got off just as we were getting on, so they joined us and we all rode together. The ride shut down JUST as we got off (I think we were the last cars to successfully finish).
  • Silly Symphony Swings. Bart was done with rides for a bit, so the girls and I rode the swings.
  • Goofy’s Sky School. The line here was only about 10 minutes long so we hopped aboard while Bart went to scope out snacks at the Grand. Ella was STARVING, so we grabbed a (delicious) corn dog at the Corn Dog Castle for her then headed into the Grand.
  • Snacks at the Grand. The Craftsman’s Grill in the Grand has a Chia Seed Parfait that Bart and I love, so we met Bart here and bought a couple of those and a muffin and enjoyed a little snack together.
  • Soaring over the World. The line was only about 20 minutes long for this, so we hopped in line and rode it. Tally was convinced she wouldn’t like it, but, of course, everyone ended up loving this ride.
  • Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! We had Lightning Lane Fast Passes for Guardians but about ten minutes to burn, so we swung by Monsters Inc and saw that the attendant had a handful of Buddy Passes. He gave us a couple and we went in the exit and were on the ride in about 5 minutes (the regular line was about 25 minutes long). Ella and Ani filled in the empty row in one car and Tally and Star and I took the back row in the following car. We ended two minutes after our time for Guardians opened, so it felt like perfect timing.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy. This is one of my favorite rides in California Adventure and it was a thrill to do it with my girls who all LOVED it. I texted Bart as we were getting off and we joined up at Animations.
  • Animations. It was nice to wander around here for a bit and we had a great time making our own stop motion illustrations and spinning them around to watch the move. As we finished up, I checked the app and saw that Web Slingers, which had been down much of the morning was back up. We headed over to get in line.
  • Web Slingers. The line wasn’t too long (about 25 minutes), but we opted to do single riders instead because that would take about 7 minutes instead. Because Tally wasn’t quite 7, she couldn’t ride alone so she sat on my lap for this ride since we were single riders and could only take 1 seat. As we left, Tally spotted Spiderman and we stood in line to meet him, much to her delight.
  • Soaring Over the World. We had Lightning Lane Fast Passes for this ride, so Bart went to pick up lunch at Smokejumpers Grill while we rode, then we all met back up to eat.
  • Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters. After lunch, we planned to go to the Disney Jr show but it had been canceled for the afternoon, so instead we decided to hit Radiator Springs Racers again and single rider it so we could do it again without a 45 minute line. On the way over, we noticed that the line for Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters was only about 10 minutes, so we popped in there and rode this one.
  • Radiator Springs Racers. Because Tally wasn’t quite 7, they wouldn’t let her go on the Single Rider line and we didn’t want to wait in line for 45 minutes, so Bart took her to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree while the rest of us rode this one.
  • Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. Bart and Tally finished up before we did and were back at the Radiator Springs Racers exit by the time we came out.
  • Challenge Park. We headed over to the Challenge Park which we’d seen when we went in the Grand earlier in the day. The girls had a GREAT time playing around and we stayed for about an hour. On our way in, I’d grabbed Lightning Lane Fast Passes for both the Ariel ride and Midway Mania.
  • Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. The line was LONG on this one (it’d been down much of the day) so I was glad we had our Fast Passes, since this wasn’t a ride I wanted to stand in line forever for. Afterward, we headed down to Midway Mania.
  • Midway Mania. This is truly one of my favorite rides and I was glad to fit it in again (plus it felt good to use up our Lighting Lane passes for it!).
  • Incredicoaster. We had six Lightning Lane Fast Passes for this, but Bart didn’t want to go, Tally couldn’t go, and I decided to sit it out, so the three big girls rode it while Bart and I took Tally on Jesse’s Carousel.
  • Jesse’s Carousel. This was a fun time with just the three of us.
  • Incredicoaster. I met the girls as they came off and scanned them in again with the other three Lightning Lane Fast Passes so they could go again. Bart and Tally and I took photos with Mr. Incredible while we waited.

When the girls got off the the ride, we debated whether or not to hit Guardians one more time, but the line was over an hour long and we decided we wanted to be done for the day. It was a little after 7 at this point, and we left the park (stopping to grab some caramel apples and churro toffee on the way) and then stopped at CVS for some protein drinks and Naked Juice smoothies.

We took those back to our hotel, warmed up the leftover pizza from the day before for dinner, and then went for an evening swim.

We came back to the hotel room, got in our pjs, and then watched about 40 minutes of a movie before we were all falling asleep at 9:30 p.m.

The next morning, we slept in a bit, packed up, had a leisurely breakfast and then took an Uber back to the airport. We were home by 1:30 in the afternoon, unpacked, and had the rest of the afternoon and evening to relax!

When I mentioned our Disneyland trip on Instagram, I got a bunch of questions – here are my (non-expert!) answers!

Family of 6, I imagine this is a $10K trip and seems like so much planning.
It was actually right about $4k for the whole Disneyland trip. Our flights were $659.76 ($120 of that was to check two bags – we could have gotten away with just each taking a backpack, but I didn’t want to feel stressed about luggage). Our hotel was $772.54 for three nights (and this was a suite with a kitchen). Our Disneyland tickets – four adults and two kids (yes, my 13 and 11 year old kids were adults) – for two days with Genie+ and one park per day were $1,800.00. We spent $90 on Uber ($50 to the hotel and $30 back to the airport) and $36 on airport parking. We spent $692 on food. We could absolutely have kept those costs lower if we’d skipped checking bags and skipped the two nice dinners that we did (one in Disneyland on Thursday and a nice dinner at Puesto on Wednesday night when we arrived).

As far as planning, it took me about 90 minutes in December to book our flights, buy our Disneyland tickets, and choose a hotel. Other than that, I did virtually no planning at all.

What’s the youngest age you’d go with?
I’ve been to Disneyland with all kinds of ages – we went with Ella when she was about 10 months old when Bart’s whole family went! Last time we went as a family, the girls were 7, 5, almost 3 and almost 1. I really think any age can be fun; it’s just a different experience.

Can you compare it to Orlando?
I’ve only done Epcot at Disney World (and that was when I was 13!) so I can’t really compare. Frankly, my interest in Disney World is pretty low. I know Disneyland really well, it feels very manageable to do two parks in two days and I don’t want to amusement park more than that, plus California is so much easier and cheaper for us to get to than Florida.

Is the Disneyland App necessary? 
I can’t imagine why you would do Disneyland without it – the app is free, you can check wait times and what rides are down without walking over to them, plus the app holds your tickets and Lightning Lane passes and parent swaps. I would 100000% recommend it.

Did you use a planner?
Nope. I’m pretty familiar with Disneyland and California Adventure so it didn’t feel necessary. The Genie+ part and app had felt a little overwhelming to me but once we went with Bart’s aunts last January, I realized it was very straightforward and nothing to worry about.

Did you drive or fly?
We flew. We drove to Southern California in 2021 for spring break in San Diego and I have no desire to repeat that any time soon. I do NOT really like to road trip, plus it would have added two looooong travel days which would have meant missing more school and work, so with cheap flights available, it felt way more manageable and economical to fly (I think we would have spent more on gas than we did on six plane tickets!).

Did you use the same website you always use for airplane tickets?
No – we wanted to go at specific times and Breeze is pretty much always affordable, so there was no need to wait for a deal to come up. (If you’re curious, Going is the website we usually use to find cheap plane tickets).

Where did you stay?
We stayed at the Residence Inn and I HIGHLY recommend it. We got a suite that slept 6 for $220 a night, it included an excellent hot breakfast, and was just around the corner from Disneyland’s entrance. It was close enough for us to walk back for a midday swim, but didn’t feel super crowded. We also loved the pool and hot tub.

How many days do you need?
I think two days is perfect. We did three days last year with Bart’s aunts and by day 3, everyone was dragging and we’d done literally everything multiple times. I know some people want to do 4-5 days and if that’s you, go for it. For me, it’s WAY diminishing returns after two days.

Was this a good time of year to go?
Yes! All the Disney blogs I looked at (after we went) said there is no true “off season” at Disney anymore because of reservations and surge pricing, but I think overall January is a great time to go because the holidays are over and spring breaks haven’t started. We went to Disney in July years ago and I would never do that again. It was an absolute madhouse.

What time did you get to the parks and how long did you stay?
We got to the parks around 7:45 each morning so we could be near the front for rope drop. Tally, Ella and I shut down the park on Thursday at 10 p.m., so (not counting our 2ish hour lunch/swim break) that day was about 15 hours long, and the next day we did about 12 hours.

How do you train your kids to walk so far? Have a 6yo and a 4yo and want to build this skill.
I don’t feel like we’ve done anything special. We take walks in the neighborhood fairly regularly, but mostly they’ve just learned that this is how the Bradshaw family travels. When we went to London in 2021, our girls complained quite a bit the first day or two but then quickly settled into the rhythm of walking 10+ miles per day and haven’t had any issues since then on any of our trips that include lots of walking.

What is Genie+ and is it worth it?
Genie+ an add-on (usually around $30 per ticket, per day) that lets you do fast passes for certain rides (mostly the big rides). If you went to Disney in the past, you may remember the Fast Pass system where you would insert your park ticket into the machines in front of a ride and it’d spit out a fast pass for you to come back at a later time. It’s the same idea but now they charge for it and you can do it all from your phone so you don’t have to be running all over the park to collect Fast Passes.

In my opinion, yes, Genie+ is worth it. Disneyland is already so expensive that I want to make the most of our days there (plus we don’t go to Disneyland very often) – for an extra $360, we probably double or tripled the number of rides we were able to fit in.

You can certainly do Disneyland and California Adventure without it, but you’ll spend more time waiting in line and ride a lot less.

(And yes, people have STRONG opinions about Genie+ – one message I got said, “Did you participated in the highway robbery that is genie+? So disgusted by it.” I know it’s obnoxious to pay for ANOTHER thing at Disney when you’re already paying so much to be there.)

Genie+ seems like I’d have to be on my phone all day and makes me so anxious I’d mess it up because coming from outside of America it would likely be a one time only thing for my family.
It didn’t feel like I was on my phone all day and even if we hadn’t had Genie+, I still would have been checking the app for wait times on rides. It definitely seems complicated but once you do it, you’ll see that it’s very straightforward and user friendly. (Plus, you can cancel or modify your Genie+ reservations, so it’s hard to mess up!)

What to do in line? 
I use that time to check out other ride wait times and book Lightning Lane fast passes. Disney is also REALLY good at making the lines as interesting as possible – there is usually a lot to look at or find or read. Bart is great at coming up with on-the-fly questions or games. We also played a lot of Charades on this trip (it’s this app!) and I like to think it provided plenty of entertainment for the other people in line. We didn’t bring any toys or other entertainment for Disneyland lines.

I despise standing in lines. Is Disney just not for me?
I ALSO absolutely LOATHE standing in lines. It’s basically one of my least favorite things. That’s one reason Genie+ is so worth it to me. Plus, it’s a great focused time with my kids and the payoff is worth the line standing to me. Plus, it feels kind of like a game to me to try to beat the lines. You’ll have to make your own call about whether or not you’re willing to stand in some lines in order to do Disney!

What do you recommend doing BEFORE you go?
Watch some of the Disney movies! We watched Cars right before we went (the girls hadn’t seen it in YEARS) and that made all of Cars Land and the Cars rides way more fun. We also watched Spiderman the week before we went so they’d have some idea about Avengers, etc before we did California Adventure.

What did you wear?
The first day, I wore this henley top (one of my favorite clothing items I own) with my favorite jeans, my Cole Haan sneakers, and this pullover in cream.

The second day, I wore a thin sweater, these green pants, my Ecco sneakers and the same pullover (I never took it off either day!).

How much did you budget for food in the park each day?
We planned to eat lunch in the park one day and a nicer dinner in the park the other day, plus pick up a few snacks each day. You can bring your own food if you’d rather (we did this when we came with Bart’s whole family more than a decade ago) and spend zero dollars on food in the park. And the food is way expensive – you’ll have to decide whether the convenience or experience is worth the cost to you! We spent about $500 on food in the park (that number makes my eyes water!).

Were you able to just get in line for food or did you have to pre-order?
We didn’t pre-order any food. We just hopped in line if we wanted something and most of the lines were non-existent.

Favorite foods not to miss?
To be honest, I’m not a Disney Foodie – there are few things I’ve ever eaten in Disney where I thought “This is INCREDIBLE.” I’m underwhelmed by a Dole Whip. I bought churros for the girls twice and wasn’t even tempted to eat them because I’ve never once thought a Disney churro tasted remotely as good as it smells. The Monte Cristo sandwich is so heavy it makes me feel ill for hours. There are whole blogs and Instagram accounts dedicated to Disney food and if the food is an important part of your Disney trip, they’re the places to look.

The caramel apples were good, but not any better than any other caramel apples. The churro toffee is good but so sweet that even Ella couldn’t finish more than half of it (and she has a serious sweet tooth). The Corn Dogs in California Adventure were QUITE good. And I really like the Chia Seed Parfait in the Grand, but I don’t know that most people would be wowed by it.

Did you do any sit down dining? Was it worth it?
We had dinner at the River Belle Terrace (we made a reservation around 10 or 11 a.m. that same day) and it was very lovely. I really like having a break in the evening, sitting down, and being able to see the boats on the river, and all the people wandering around. And the food here was some of the better food I’ve had at Disneyland!

Favorite food spots in Downtown Disney?
We didn’t even go into Downtown Disney on this trip! Last time Bart and I came, we had ice cream at Salt & Straw (always delicious!), but I’m no expert on the food available there.

Best rides to make a priority?
I love a good roller coaster – for me, the top rides in Disneyland are Space Mountain, Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Mountain. In California Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredicoaster, Midway Mania, Radiator Springs Racers, and Soaring over the World.

Best non-ride things you did with your girls?
For sure the Challenge Park in California Adventure. I’d never even noticed it before but it was a huge hit and when I shared it on Instagram, so many people said it was one of their favorite family spots too!

Anything you wouldn’t do again?
Big skip on Roger Rabbit – I rode it probably 20 years ago and have skipped it every time since then. Riding it again this time reminded me why. I doubt I’ll ever ride it again.

Best way to meet characters?
I think we met more characters this time than I’ve ever done on a Disney trip (I’ve never cared much about characters, myself). My girls were VERY into the idea of meeting them, so we kept an eye out and stopped as often as we could to meet them, as long as it wasn’t more than a 10ish minute line. There is part of the app that shows where characters are and also you tend to just see them walking around too!

Does it feel worth the incredible cost?
I really enjoy Disneyland and I want to have that experience with my kids. I also don’t need to do Disneyland every year (frankly, about every 3-4 years is plenty for me). So to spend a few thousand dollars on this 3-4 times over the course of my children’s lives feels like a cost I’m willing to pay. But there are lots of other much more affordable family trips you can do instead – Disneyland is NOT CHEAP – and nobody’s life is ruined because they didn’t go to Disneyland.

Any other Disneyland questions? I’m happy to answer – leave them in the comments!

 

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5 Comments

  2. We are tentatively planning to do DisneyLand for my 40th this year. I’ve never been, but Eric has been a few times. I appreciate the breakdown of costs and what you see as worth it (or not). Also, I feel about Costco churros as you feel about Disney ones. I’d probably have the same opinion at Disney. Such a letdown.

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  3. Oh boy, Bart rode Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree even though riding Teacups was a definite pass for him?! That’s a bold choice, sir! To me, Mater’s is a rougher and more nauseating ride. Did he comment on his experience afterward to you? I wonder how it compares for him.

    Thanks for this recap, Janssen! I always appreciate your overview and Q&A on your trip posts as a way to help my husband and I consider things for future family travels.

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