10 Things You Must Know First Before Visiting Disneyland – SAVE HUNDREDS

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Hi Everyone, Hope your day is going spectacular!

Are you looking to visit the Disneyland Resort soon? If you haven’t been there in awhile or this is your first time you really should watch this since this isn’t your parents Disneyland anymore.

There are a number of things you should know before visiting Disneyland so you will have a less stressful trip for the whole family, so stay tuned and keep watching as I point out the top things you should know!

For those that don’t know us my name is Jim and that’s my wife Gwyn, we are a couple of Disney, well all kinds of amusement parks fans just as we hope you are.

And if you are please be sure to click the subscribe button below and most of all if we have provided value it would be great if you clicked on the thumbs up to like our videos.

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Okay first due to the past year and closures things have changed a lot with Disneyland Resort and how everything functions now.

Number 1, Download the Disney App

You will be using this app a lot on your smartphone and for those that don’t have a smartphone and stuck in the flip phone era may have a tougher time in the parks with reservations, eating, etc.

Now this app has so much information for you and ways of navigating the parks to make it as smooth as possible if you get familiar with it first.

For example at the time of this video your tickets and entry are on the app, getting boarding passes for the top rides is on the app, getting into sit down restaurants and even ordering food for most places is on the app.

Making sure you are signed in not only to the app but the Disney website as the app and website go hand and hand. This way you will be able to link your park tickets with the app and have a credit card associated with the app for ordering food etc.

Be sure to screen capture your tickets so you have a photo of them also on your phone just in case your internet goes out or the app goes down. Well you know what I mean. This way you can bring up the image of the ticket and they can scan that for entry and if you are a magic key holder getting your discounts for merch and food is easier.

You can also take printed out tickets (hard tickets) as a back up just in case.

Tip is to be sure to set your power saver on your phone and turn off the bluetooth because of the amount of time using the app, taking pictures and video calling your friends to say Hey I’m at Disneyland! Will run the battery down on your phone.

I recommend taking a backup or auxiliary battery for your electronics which can also be used to charge not only your phone but digital camera too. I will have a link at the top of this article to a good but low cost one if your interested.

Next you heard me mention Reservations, there is a lot more to it now! When purchasing your tickets one park or park hopper you will need to make reservations to the park prior to visiting.
It is very important that you have these reservations because you could drive hundreds of miles to get there all excited and ready for a great vacation only to be turned away at the gate and have no reservation spots available for the time you are there.

After purchase go directly to the reservations page and choose the dates of your vacation and the parks you want to visit. If you purchased park hopper tickets you will be able to just walk over to the other park after 1 pm and go back and forth as you like but they request you choose which park to start the day with.

This goes to the next tip, there are a couple rides at this time you will need to get what they call a boarding pass. Now since you linked your tickets to the app it knows which park you will be starting out at because of the reservation you made.

For example you want to ride Rise of the Resistance which I have to say is amazing! You would need that days reservation at the Disneyland park. And DCA for Web-Slingers ride which is also very cool.

How do you get the boarding pass to ride these bad boys, you will need to get into what they call the virtual queue.

This can be tricky because each morning at 7 am exactly everyone is trying to get a boarding pass for that ride and they can be gone in seconds then you would need to try at 12 noon for the next batch.

Be sure that you are logged in and ready way before 7am. Getting to the page where it has a refresh boarding button is the goal so exactly at 7am you are clicking on refresh and getting a boarding pass.

As always if anything is confusing which I am sure will be, just ask below in the comments because Gwyn and I answer everyone’s questions and in this community everyone helps each other that’s just the way we roll around here.

Be sure to check the safety regulations prior to going to the park, as of right now they require mask wearing only inside and if you are not vaccinated well here’s what it says:

The State of California strongly recommends that all Guests be fully vaccinated or receive a negative COVID-19 test prior to entering the Disneyland Resort. Face coverings are required for all Guests (ages 2 and up) while indoors, including on many attractions and in enclosed transportation vehicles, regardless of vaccination status. Face coverings remain optional for all Guests in outdoor common areas.

Eating at the parks, things have really changed in this area. They are pushing for online ordering and reservations for many sit down restaurants. Unfortunately getting a reservation to say Cafe Orleans is near impossible and only a handful are available.

Let me show you, first in the app click on the Plus Button on the bottom, enter how many in your party, choose what day you want, you can search by time or genre such as Dinner, and as you can see not many popup but choose lunch and there maybe more. You can make these reservations up to 60 days out.

Virtual ordering is next, click on the hamburger or menu button which is the three lines at the bottom right and then choose mobile food order. Your going to create a new order

Find the restaurant with either the drop down list or choose the map function to find something close to you. Use the well laid out selections and order everything you want. You will get a screen saying they are preparing your food but in reality they are not until you click on you are there for pickup.

So my advice is if you are a few minutes away then click on the pickup button and it will be 10 to15 minutes after that.

I do like this feature over waiting in the standby line to order, it makes it so much easier and faster to pay through the app with the credit card on file so you just go to the pickup window shown on the app and get your food.

Hotels, you know it’s great if you have the means to stay at one of the parks hotels but they are expensive and you have options such as walking distance hotels to drive to park hotels.

The things you should consider are that each hotel within walking distance along with Disney hotels charge a premium fee for parking, and usually any extras along with a higher per night stay.

Examples are:
The Grand Californian Hotel $526 per night parking $25 per night
Disneyland Hotel $423 per night parking $25 per night
Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel $317 per night parking $25 per night

Surrounding Hotels average $195 per night and $27 parking fee per night

Disney Park Charges $25 a day parking at either their Mickey & Friends or Toy Story Parking lot’s and at this time the tram is not operating at Mickey and Friends so you will be looking at about a ¾ mile walk or take the buses from toy story parking right to the entrance.

My suggestion is to choose a hotel such as Holiday Inn Express (no sponsor) a few blocks away for a few good reasons such as they have a FREE scheduled shuttle rides to the park, free parking, free hot breakfast in the morning with an average $122 per night cost.

Do the math and see what you can save for spending an extra 15 minute shuttle ride.

$122 nightly – $25 parking – average family of four breakfast $60 equals a nightly fee of $37 Kind of makes a difference doesn’t it?

Next let’s talk about eating again, because you can tell I like to eat. Anyways you are able to take in food to the parks.

This is from Disney’s website:

Guests are allowed to bring outside food and nonalcoholic beverages into the parks for self-consumption, provided they are not in glass containers, do not require heating, reheating, processing or refrigeration and do not have pungent odors. Inform a Security Cast Member of any food items when you enter the park.

Next tip, be sure to pack pain medication (Tylenol etc.), comfortable shoes and a refillable water bottle. Gwyn and I average walking in each park is 10 miles and at our age with our added puffy coatings we appreciate having those items.

I hope this helps you out for a pleasurable stress free vacation at the Disney parks more enjoyable and less confusing and if it did please remember to subscribe and hit the like button on YouTube Click Here!. Hope to see ya there!

Oh and Remember if you have questions put em below so we can help!