Last Updated on March 27, 2026 by Adrienne
I have to admit that although I’ve been looking forward to family travel since before my daughter was born, Disney has never been very high on my list. Partly because of the cost and crowds, but also because everyone I’ve talked to about visiting makes the planning process sound so complicated and stressful. The more I researched Disney though, the more I learned that the original Disneyland in southern California is a lot more straightforward to visit than Disney World in Florida, and is also easier to combine with other non-Disney attractions, since it’s in Orange County, less than an hour from downtown LA and only a couple of hours by car from San Diego.
So even though it’s farther from our home in the Midwest, we flew to Southern California and after a few days exploring San Diego, my 6 year old and I rented a car and headed to Disneyland. We only visited the original Disneyland park, not the adjacent Disney California Adventure, and only stayed two nights and one day, but I thought that was the perfect length of time for a first visit to Disneyland. We did so much, including riding pretty much all the rides she wanted, meeting princesses, seeing a stage show and fireworks and eating lots of great food, and we didn’t burn ourselves out with too much walking or waiting in line. Even with minimal advance planning, it was a surprisingly fun – dare I say magical? – day. If you too are a Disney newbie, or even a Disney skeptic, read on for tips on making the most out of one day at Disneyland.
What You Need Plan in Advance
I know I said this trip requires minimal planning, but there are a few things you really need to do in advance of your trip.
Namely, in advance you’ll want to:
- Buy tickets (it’s rare, but the park does sell out) – if plans change, you can easily switch your tickets to a different date, although getting a cash refund is harder.
- Buy the Lighting Lane Multi Pass add-on if you’re interested in that, which I highly recommend; more details below.
- Book a hotel as close to the park as possible; this is really essential with only one day to see the park. More info on where to stay at Disneyland is below.
- Book dining reservations for sit-down restaurants, especially character experiences. Many of the character experiences are in off-site hotels that don’t require park admission, so it can be a fun way to extend the magic without purchasing an additional day of park tickets. Dining reservations go on sale 60 days out. If you plan your trip within that window, you can use websites like this one to keep tabs on cancellations. More info on dining in and around the park is below.
- Book special experiences like princess makeovers at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
- Think a little about how to structure your day. You can’t – and shouldn’t – try to plan everything down to the minute in advance, but it’s worth thinking about the general plan for the day. With little kids I suggest doing “rope drop” (being there to open the park up), taking a mid-day break at the hotel for naps and/or some pool time, and returning to the park in the late afternoon. This gives you a break from walking and avoids the peak crowds in the early afternoon. Older kids may be able to hang at the park from rope drop to fireworks – my 6 year old did.
- Download the Disneyland app and familiarize yourself with it- you’ll use it for absolutely everything in the park from ordering to-go food to booking rides using Lightning Lane to viewing and downloading photos.
Overview of Lightning Lane (formerly known as Genie+)
I was super intimidated when I first heard about Lightning Lane, Disney’s fast pass system that lets you skip the line for certain rides, but it’s actually pretty simple, at least at Disneyland (it works slightly differently at Disney World). You can buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass, the main form of Lightning Lane, at the same time as you purchase your tickets, or at any time thereafter, unless it sells out. Although it’s annoying to spend even more money on top of what is probably already one of the most expensive days of your life, the cost isn’t very significant relative to the price of theme park tickets (I believe it was about $30 per person) and it saved us quite a bit of time on rides, even with a younger kid who wasn’t interested in many of the “thrill rides”, so I do strongly recommend it, especially with only day in the park.
As soon as you scan your tickets at the main gate of the park, you can select your first Lightning Lane ride. You get a 1 hour return window in the app, during which you can redeem your Lightning Lane and enter the ride through a much shorter (basically non-existent, in my experience) line. Once you’ve redeemed your first reservation or two hours have passed, whichever comes first, you can make another Lightning Lane reservation. Do note that by mid-day even Lightning Lane is starting to get a little congested, so you may book a reservation at noon with a 2-3 pm return window. But that still has value because you can go and do other things, knowing you can come back to the LL ride at 2 without waiting on a long line. You can use Lightning Lane at most once on each ride, so if there’s something you want to ride twice or more, you’ll have to wait in the full line the other times. If it sounds complicated, don’t worry – it’s very easy to figure out once you’re there and actually using the app.
In addition to Lightning Lane Multi Pass, there are also single ride Lightning Lanes that you purchase separately if interested in a specific ride. At Disneyland there’s only one ride with a Single Pass and that’s Rise of the Resistance in the Star Wars land, Galaxy’s Edge. Very recently, Disney introduced a “Lightning Lane Premier Pass” that is much more expensive ($300+) and allows you to ride all Multi Pass and Single Pass rides one time each on demand, without having to book a return window. This doesn’t seem worth it to me unless you have money to burn. We visited on one of the busiest days of the year (Columbus Day) and were still able to get on pretty much every ride using the return window system on Lightning Lane Multi Pass.
Park Layout and Rides
The rides at Disneyland are divided into a number of different neighborhoods. I’ll briefly describe each of the areas and some of the highlights below. The app has the latest info on the rides, including estimated wait times and what’s temporarily closed for repair, and that will be your go-to when you’re actually in the park and figuring out where to go next. The park isn’t as big as I expected and my 6 year old had no trouble walking around it all day, but you’ll probably want a stroller for toddlers and preschoolers.
Fantasyland
Fantasyland is the original 1950s section of the park. It’s so cute and charming, with many rides that are little kid-friendly. This was my 6 year old’s favorite section of the park by far, even with the iconic It’s A Small World ride closed for repair. She (and I!) enjoyed pretty much all the rides here, but Peter Pan’s Flight was my favorite. Unfortunately it also has the longest line, and may be best saved to the end of the day so you can get through the Fantasyland rides quickly). Fantasyland is a great place to start if you’re doing rope drop, because only one ride here (Matternhorn Bobsleds) is on Lightning Lane, so you want to take advantage of a less crowded park and knock these rides out early.
Toontown
Toontown is another area of the park aimed at younger kids. You can meet Mickey and Minny here, although we opted to skip it because the line was long and my daughter was more interested in princesses. We randomly ran into Donald Duck here, our only non-scheduled character encounter, and my daughter loved Mickey and Minny’s Runaway Railway, which is a Lightning Lane ride.
Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland is, as the name suggests, a futuristic-themed area, and also has lots of fun rides for younger kids. This area was home to some of our favorite rides in the park outside of Fantasyland, including Autopia (where you drive cars around a race track), Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters (you shoot targets with laser guns) and Finding Nemo’s Submarine Voyage (you board a submarine and go underwater to see Finding Nemo’s world come to life). The first two are very fun but pretty standard theme park attractions, but the Finding Nemo ride is so unique. Autopia and Astro Blasters are both on Lightning Lane, but you’ll have to wait for Nemo, and it may be quite a long line due to the slow unloading and loading of submarines.
Frontierland
Frontierland was probably the neighborhood we spent the least amount of time in, since none of the rides or character experiences here grabbed us. This area has Tom Sawyer Island, a large playground for kids, and gentle water-based rides like Mark Twain’s Riverboat and Sailing Ship Columbia.
Adventureland
This area has classic rides like Indiana Jones Adventure and Jungle Cruise, the latter of which was a big favorite of my 6 year old. It’s also home to Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, an animatronic show that’s a great place to take a break if your kids (or you) need to rest your feet.
Star Wars: Galaxy Edge
Neither of us is much into Star Wars, and the rides here are aimed more at older kids and adults (and Rise of the Resistance in particular always has a crazy long line, so it’s not worth doing unless it’s a top priority), but it was still fun to walk around this area and admire the elaborate theming.
New Orleans Square
As the name suggests, this area is themed like New Orleans, and very accurately so. Not only did they get the architecture right, they also have the Spanish moss trees that I strongly associate with New Orleans. It was insanely crowded when we visited, but we were there around dinnertime and this area has a lot of sit down and quick service restaurants. New Orleans Square is also home to the iconic Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Character Meet-and-Greets, Shows and Special Experiences
Although you do occasionally find characters wondering around (as mentioned above, we stumbled upon Donald Duck), for the most part you’ll need to go to the organized meet-and-greets for character encounters. The princess meet-and-greet had an annoyingly long line that ended up taking more like 60 minutes even though the app estimated 30 minutes, but getting to meet Ariel, Tiana and Anna (visiting from Disney California Adventure, where the Frozen characters normally hang out) was a major highlight of the day for my 6 year old.
There are also stage shows at the Royal Theatre, right around the corner from the princess meet and greet at Royal Hall, every hour or two. We saw a Beauty and the Beast show that was excellent quality and enjoyable for both kids and adults. After the shows you can often take a picture with the featured princess.
Parades are another way to see characters, but when we visited, the traditional “Magic Happens” parade was temporarily replaced with the smaller Mickey’s Halloween Cavalcade. We did see the cavalcade go by while sitting in Gibson Girl Ice Cream parlor, which was fun, but it wasn’t as exciting as other character interactions since we just saw it go by and didn’t really participate. People start saving seats for the parade at least an hour before it starts, so if you want to be front and center and have the opportunity to hug characters, you’ll need to be there well in advance.
In addition to all the free character experiences described above, you can also pay an additional cost to have a princess or knight makeover at Bibbidi Bobbodi Boutique. With one day in the park it was hard to justify the time for an activity like this, although it’s something to consider if you have princess-obsessed kids. This is one area where I think Disney World has Disneyland beat, since in Florida you can do Bibbidi Bobbodi Boutique outside the park and not waste valuable park time.
Food at Disneyland
I have to say, I was really pleasantly surprised by the food at Disney. It’s not cheap, but not as expensive as I expected, given the general Disney mark-up on everything, and it was definitely the best food I’ve ever had in a theme park. With only one day at Disneyland we didn’t want to waste time on a long sitdown meal, so we ate grab-and-go food, and ordering through the app worked really well. The food was always ready precisely when the app said it would be and was hot. The biggest challenge was finding seating, particularly in the shade.
My daughter’s and my biggest food highlights (note that Disney is big on seasonal celebrations, and some of these are only available in the fall) include:
- Apple cider mini donuts from Daisy’s Cafe in Toontown (<– my favorite thing I ate at Disney)
- A rainbow slushie from the slushie shop in Toontown
- Cinnamon roll from Jolly Holiday Bakery on Main Street, USA
- Bulgogi toasted sandwich with corn cheese soup from Jolly’s
- A Mickey Bar (of course!), the iconic Mickey-shaped chocolate dipped ice cream, available in many places but we had it at Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street
- Mac and cheese from Tiana’s Palace in New Orleans Square, which is a lovely place to sit and take a break for a few minute
We started our day with bagels & coffee from the Panera in our hotel parking lot, and while it wasn’t the most exciting meal compared to all the great food at Disney, it was worth it so we could focus on rides in those quieter early morning hours.
If you’re looking for a sit down meal, there are lots of restaurants within the park with various fun themes and you should make reservations in advance. There are also dining experiences in the Disney hotels, some of which include character meet-and-greats (the Princess Breakfast at the Grand Californian comes highly recommend from friends with young girls), and lots of good restaurants in the Downtown Disney district, including Michelin star-winning dim sum spot Din Tai Fung. None of the hotel restaurants or Downtown Disney require you to hold park tickets for that day, so you can do them the night before or morning after visiting the park.
Where to Stay at Disneyland
Disneyland has three on-site hotels: Pixar Place Hotel, Disneyland Hotel, and Disney’s Grand Californian, all of which are outrageously expensive. Unlike at Disney World, where I understand that staying at an official hotel has huge advantages in terms of both early entry and proximity to the theme parks, both of those benefits are much more limited at Disneyland. Disneyland is much closer to the city around it than Disney World is, and there are non-Disney hotels across the street on South Harbor Boulevard that are as close or closer to the park than the official hotels. We opted to stay at the Fairfield by Marriott right across the street, which was about a 5-7 minute walk (at a first grader’s pace) from the park gates, and were happy with that decision, since it was so close and about a third the price of the Disney hotels.
An important note with respect to early entry for hotel guests: Unlike in Florida, where you get early entry access at every park every day of the week by staying in an official hotel, at Disneyland Resort they alternate early entry days between Disneyland and the adjacent Disney California Adventure theme park. Currently, hotel guests have 30 minute early entry to Disneyland on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and to DCA on the Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, but check the Disney website for the most up-to-date info. For that reason, if you’re visiting Disneyland for one day and not staying in a Disney hotel, it’s best to try to avoid visiting Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.
What to Pack for One Day at Disneyland
- Backup batteries for your phone – I can’t stress this enough! You use your phone for everything and even if you use the park wifi instead of cellular data, your battery will get drained so fast. Disney does sell FuelRod portable chargers, but they’re pricey and not very effective so I’d recommend bringing your own backup.
- A fanny pack (kindly rebranded by Gen Z as a belt bag 😉) is the best bag to take, in my opinion. I brought my trusty Lululemon 1L Everywhere bag and it held essentials like my phone, credit cards, sunglasses and sunscreen. If you want to bring a full backpack, make sure it fits the 24 x 15 x 18 inch dimensions – backpacks larger than that can’t be brought into the park.
- Mouse Ears are the perfect way to get in the Disney spirit if you’re not into the full-on matching outfit thing. They’re widely available on Disney property and at nearby hotels and make a fun souvenir from the trip, but you can definitely save some money buying online in advance.
- Younger children may want to wear princess or Marvel costumes. You have to be under 14 to wear costumes in the park; a policy designed to prevent young kids from mistaking costumed adult guests for Disney cast members. Teens and adults can wear Disney merch or dress in a way that evokes a character without being a literal costume (a practice known as Disneybounding).
- You’re allowed to bring food into the parks if you want. But I didn’t feel like we spent a lot of money or time eating, since we got exclusively quick service food. I didn’t even bring water and was worried I’d regret it, but it was fine and we were able to get cups of water every time we got food (that said, we didn’t visit during the heat of summer).
- A waterproof pouch for your phone is a great idea if you plan to go on water rides like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (f/k/a Splash Mountain).
Ready to plan your trip to Disneyland? In addition to being a travel blogger, I’m also a certified travel advisor and would love to help you plan the perfect Disney trip. I can book hotels, resorts and cruises (including Disney) at no extra charge to you with lots of great perks included at many properties, including room upgrades, early check-in/late check-out, resort credits and complimentary breakfast. Reach out to me today at adrienne.miller@fora.travel for more info or to start planning a trip!
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