How to Do Disneyland in One Day with Four Kids

Tip #1: Take your mom with you. This trip would not have happened without my mom and would have been a complete disaster if she had not been with us. Thank you, Mommy!!

Tip #2: Relax. Keep reminding yourself – relax. You’re not going to go on everything (especially if you go the week before Easter). So just relax and try to enjoy what you get to do.

Tip #3: A harness is a beautiful thing.

See the harness? It was a lifesaver.

Tip #4: Drive to Anaheim the day before you go to Disneyland and stay at a hotel. Stay at a hotel the night of. Then drive home. Do not attempt to drive in and out in one day. Even if the hotel floor is so dirty that your kids’ feet are black within 30 seconds of walking on said floor and even if your children won’t go to sleep until midnight, the hotel stay is worth it.

I have to say that there were many moments when I questioned the decision to go to Disneyland. Charlie laying down in Tomorrowland screaming would be a good example of a moment when I was questioning the wisdom of my choice. Another good example would be when I stupidly sat in the front row of Splash Mountain, did not take my rain jacket, and ended up soaked from the top of my head down to my knees. A third would be when Katie spent a couple of hours crying about every ride we took her on. At some point during the day, I thought, “NEVER AGAIN! I will never, ever take my kids to Disneyland again!” This later turned into, “I won’t bring my kids back to Disneyland until they’re all out of diapers.” Since I’ve been home, it’s turned into, “I wonder if we could save enough money to take another trip in the fall?”

Behold, the triumph of Disneyland’s magic over what is normally a sane mind!

See how I look pretty crazy in this photo? That's what Disneyland does to me.

So, because I love to bore people with the details (and because this blog is my journal), here is a rundown of our day with Disney:

First, we left the hotel later than I wanted to. We followed that up by brilliantly getting lost twice on our way to the parking structure. Once we finally made it to the park and switched our vouchers for tickets, we walked over to Guest Services and waited in line for 20 minutes to see if we could get a pass so we wouldn’t have to wait in line only to be shut down instantly with a “that’s nice” (okay, so I’m paraphrasing) when sharing the fact of Charlie’s autism with the cast member. I was too anxious to get into the park and onto the ride to argue or to visit City Hall to hear all about their super fantastic ideas for navigating the park with a person who has special needs. So off we went towards Splash Mountain.

The line for Splash Mountain was not long. The two main factors in this seemed to be a) that it was early in the a.m. on a chilly March day and b) that the ride was closed. So my mom (see tip #1) saved a spot in line at Splash Mountain for us while the rest of us ran off to the Winnie-the-Pooh ride. Charlie rode with Josh, who reported that Charlie had a huge grin on his face the entire ride. The rest of us enjoyed it too. It’s just a cute ride.

After WTP, we discovered the line to Splash Mountain was moving and moving rapidly. We hurriedly changed places with my mom in line, who stayed behind to watch Charlie and Fitz (again, see tip #1). Josh, Alek, Katie and I were on Splash Mountain within minutes. Katie had watched the video of the ride online several times and was stoked to go on it. Alek was a little less enthused, memories of his last ride on Splash Mountain five and a half years earlier flooding his mind. (Flooding, get it? Ha, ha.) Outcome: I got soaked, Katie tried to dive out of the ride and said, “I want to go home,” Alek loved it and slowly began to realize that maybe I was not lying when I said the rides would not be as scary for him now that he’s 10, and Josh laughed his head off about how wet I was and how scared Katie was.

Then it was off to Pirates of the Carribean, which everyone under the age of 10 hated. I ended up holding Charlie and Fitz during the ride, both of whom were crying. It was the first time I’d been on it since they added all the Jack Sparrow stuff. Personally, I liked it better before. Especially the music. Man, the music from the movie stinks and almost ruins the beginning of that ride.

Charlie and Katie both were fairly crabby for a while after that. Fitz fell asleep. We went on Indiana Jones next. Josh and Alek went first. Josh practically had to drag him on the ride, but Alek ended up loving it. We did the whole parent switch thing and mom and I went on the ride next. This was the one ride my mom cared about going on and it was a total blast sharing the experience with her. We were both screaming and squealing and laughing the entire time. It rocked.

From there, we went to Fantasyland. We dragged Katie and Charlie onto Pinocchio and Snow White; they were both in tears in line. Katie warmed up on the Pinocchio ride, but hid her face in my chest every time something scary happened (i.e. Monstro the Whale popped up or we saw Stromboli).

Right before our first trip into Fantasyland. See how Fitz is asleep? That is why he and my mom did not go on Snow White and Pinocchio with us.

I can’t remember the order of things after that. I think next we went to Tomorrowland. We did a parent switch for Star Tours. Mom, Josh, Alek and Katie did the first round and Katie cheered up a lot after that. It was while I waited with the two little boys that I had the brilliant idea to let Charlie out of his stroller so he could walk around. I put his harness on, put him down on the ground and he immediately tried to run into the crowd of hundreds milling around outside of Star Tours. He then flung himself on the ground and started crying when he realized I wouldn’t let him get away. I then made the brilliant decision to have him sit on the edge of a huge planter. He promptly grabbed a handful of soil and popped it in his mouth. Those 20 or so minutes waiting for the rest of my family to get out of Star Tours were probably the worst part of my day. They finally came back, Katie was happy and babbling about the ride, and Alek and I took off for my turn.

We ended up missing most of the one show I really wanted to get to – the Jedi Training Academy. But we did end up getting to see part of it and you would think Katie and Alek had died and gone to heaven. Katie was thrilled and not at all scared to see Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. She even stared down Darth Maul. That’s my girl!

I think this is when we decided to eat lunch. Either that or we did the Buzz Lightyear ride. Let me just say this about that BL Astroblasters ride – it’s really cool and fun and a neat idea and everyone in my family seemed to like it.

Everyone was a lot happier after they’d eaten lunch. Tip #5: when you’re going to get a meal, get a few of the kids’ pack meal that comes with Goldfish and yogurt and apple slices and string cheese for everyone to share. That whole thing was a way bigger hit with my kids than the chicken strips and fries I got for Katie and Charlie to split.

After lunch, I can’t remember what happened. At some point we strolled over to Toontown, which was a zoo. The line to meet Mickey was practically out the door. I love Mickey and I know Katie was dying to meet him, but that would have taken us two hours. I don’t love Mickey that much. So the kids had to content themselves with meeting Pluto and Goofy. The lines for the rides were also ridiculously long so we skipped those too. I think that is when we headed back to Fantasyland and got on It’s A Small World. We got to see a portion of the parade while we were in line and that was fun.

After that, I really can’t remember the order of things. At some point we went back on Winnie-the-Pooh. We had fast passes to go on Big Thunder, but it was closed when we went back to ride on it. We went on the Jungle Cruise. We went to the Enchanted Tiki Room. We ended up back in Fantasyland and rode the carousel and Casey Jr. Circus Train and Dumbo.

My mom was freezing at this point. The sun was starting to go down and it was rather windy. So we decided to head out. We got dinner for my mom and the kids and then the most awesome thing of all happened – my mom babysat the kids for us and Josh and I went back to Disneyland by ourselves!! (Tip #1, people. It’s the most important tip of all. BTW, tip #6: you only have to pay once for parking at the Mickey & Friends parking structure; hold on to your ticket and you can exit and re-enter later. We learned this by reading the second ticket we were issued after paying another $14 to park. D’oh!)

Josh and I headed straight to Space Mountain when we went back to the park. The wait was 45 minutes (fast passes were not an option that late in the day), but I hadn’t been on it since they’d changed it and Josh had only been on it once before, when he was 14 years old. So we waited. It was worth it, even though I have no idea how they changed that ride. My memory is apparently not that good. We went back to Fantasyland and rode Mr. Toad’s, but the lines for Peter Pan and the Matterhorn were both ridiculously long. Josh and I also made it on to Big Thunder finally, decided to brave the Haunted Mansion (along with 5 or 6 other people – that ride seriously was a ghost town – ha, ha, ha!), did Indiana Jones again, and took another cruise on Pirates to cap off the night. We also bought souvenirs for the kids. Souvenirs which we still haven’t given them, 4 weeks later.

I love Space Mountain. Oh, and Josh, too.

Ultimately, it ended up being a great day and a fun trip. Katie has spent a lot of time reminiscing about it the past few weeks and loves to watch the Disneyland vacation planning DVD. We’d all like to go back again and I am sure we will someday.

I, for one, am definitely going back there. Two weeks from today. See you then, Amy and Rachel!

P.S. If you read this whole thing, you are amazing.