What I Wore at Disneyland (+ a Few Tips)

Happy summer! Our family just got back from a big vacation we’d been planning for several months: we finally punched our Disneyland card! 

Our kids have been asking to go to Disneyland for a long time, and we figured we had better go before they got too old! They just finished 2nd, 4th and 7th grades, and are growing up fast. Everyone says childhood is a blink and it is astonishingly true. We had a great time and made lots of memories, and I feel like I returned home a little bit closer to each of them (especially my precious middle).

I am not going to drag you through the details of our entire trip, but I do want to share a few takeaways in case it helps someone else planning a trip to Disneyland.

In this post I’ll share: my packing list heroes, trip planning tips, my top three rides at both Disneyland and California Adventure.

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Packing List Heroes

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We planned for a week long trip with three days/nights in Newport Beach with dear friends and then three days/four nights at Disney. I packed everything (except one pair of shoes) in a carry on suitcase. My goal was to travel light, which I have to work very hard at! 

At the beach I lived in my denim cut offs, flip flops and bathing suit. I used a white button up* as my beach cover up! *Use code ANDREA15 to save.

At Disney my packing list heroes were a little different. I wore my favorite walking sneakers every day (except for one morning), and my favorite high neck tanks, which I really like because they make shorts look a little more styled. I wore linen shorts (styles from last season so I can’t link, I’m sorry) because they were comfy for the hot days. The only thing I bought for my trip was a nylon Baggu bag, which worked really well for my park days to hold my snacks and water bottle.

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Trip Planning Tips

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Ahead of this trip I felt a little overwhelmed by the logistics. Okay, I felt a lot overwhelmed. And then, when I tried to find helpful information, I felt even more overwhelmed. But now, having actually gone there myself, I feel like I have a good idea of what to expect and how to plan. 

I could certainly write chapters on this topic, but in an effort to not overwhelm you, I’ve condensed my thoughts down to my top tips.

1 /  Budget to spend the extra money on Genie+. It’s $20 per day per person, which, honestly is a drop in the bucket when you’re spending $$$ on tickets, hotels and airline. Adding Genie+ to your Disney app – where all your ticketing is tracked – allows you to book spots in line for rides and use the Lightning Lane once you arrive. This meant we could usually get on our ride in about 5-10 minutes, instead of the forecasted 60+ minutes per ride.

After you scan your tickets and enter the park for the day, you can book about two rides at a time with Genie+. Usually an hour or two ahead. By ‘booking’ you have an assigned one hour time slot to arrive in line and scan your app to enter the Lightning Lane (LL) for your ride. I noticed that I could check my app to see when we were eligible to book our next ride, and I would set an alarm on my phone (usually for about two hours later) to remind me to book our next rides.

A few things to note: I am pretty sure you can only use the LL one time per ride. Certain rides (the highest demand ones like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance) cost an extra fee to use the LL.

2 / Plan a rest day. My friend Paige does this, and I wish I had thought to do it. By the end of our second park day we were POOPED. Utterly exhausted. The next day was forecasted to be in the 90’s so Mr. Seasons and I made a game time decision to sleep in, take the kids to the hotel pool, and then hit Disneyland after the heat had broken. After getting up at 6:00 AM the previous two days and walking 25K steps each day, we all slept hard and then felt nice and rested at our last day and night at Disney.

3 / Order Instacart groceries to your hotel. Disneyland food is pretty good! I was surprised how good it was, and much of it is very dietary-restriction friendly. However, I was not planning to eat out three meals per day, nor did I want to pay for that many meals out. So we ate breakfast in our room and packed snacks and simple sandwiches to take into the park. We planned ahead for this by bringing some snacks and food to our hotel but we blasted through it pretty fast.

We stayed across the street from Disney so we turned in our rental car when we checked in and were car-less. On the second-to-last day it occurred to me that I could order groceries to our hotel room! We ordered more breakfast bars, snacks, stuff for simple sandwiches and bottled water (I could get 8 bottles from the grocery store for the price of one from Disney!). It was a lifesaver, and we still ate most of it before we left.

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My Favorite 3 Rides

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Mr. Seasons and I had not been to Disneyland in decades, so needless to say we felt pretty clueless when planning this trip. We opted for a three day pass for the two parks, Disneyland and California Adventure. However, we were stuck on trying to decide how many days at each park. Eventually we decided for one day at Disneyland and two at California Adventure. But after our first day at Disneyland we knew we wanted a second day there; it felt like there was so much to see! So we did a last minute switcharoo and had one day at California Adventure and two at Disneyland.

I am a little afraid of heights and I have not been on a rollercoaster since I was quite young, so I wasn’t sure how I’d handle the rides, but I mostly loved them!

My top three at California Adventure were: Grizzly River Run, Soaring, and Incredicoaster. The last one scared the daylights out of me, but I was proud of myself for conquering it!

At Disneyland my favorites were: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (this one is extra fun at night!), Indiana Jones (so much nostalgia) and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. I live in a house full of Star Wars nerds, and I do not usually partake, but this ride was epic. It made me feel like I was in the movie.

All in all, it was a great experience. I surprised myself by getting a little bit emotional during the nighttime shows with the music and the fireworks. The combination triggered nostalgia from the movies I watched as a child (The Little Mermaid, Lion King and Beauty and Beast!) AND, other music from more recent movies triggered nostalgia for when my daughters were little. And, when snow fell on the park during ‘Let it Go’, it definitely felt like Disney magic.