Disneyland + California Adventure
As a single mom to two (5 and 6), we have been on many adventures, just the three of us. But, heading to Disneyland is the biggest trip yet. One whole week in Anaheim was spent creating some of the best memories.
This trip was planned a few months ago, and it was my first time visiting the parks. My kids' dad took them a couple of months ago, so they had some exposure to Disneyland, but not to California Adventure.
Although I had friends give me tips, none of them had ever gone to Disneyland with their kids as a solo parent. This is my guide to heading to Disneyland/California Adventure solo (meaning no other adult help) with younger kids. You CAN do it!
GETTING TO ANAHEIM
We flew into LAX and hopped in a Lyft. We landed at 2:30PM, so due to traffic, it took us about an hour, and cost about $90. For us, this was the simplest: LAX has more flight options, we didn't need a car once we got there, and car services were more expensive than getting an Uber or Lyft. I have two Mifold booster seats I carry with me whenever we travel. They are compact, easy to use, comfortable and safe.
STAY
We stayed at Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Theme Park entrance. It is literally less than a 10 minute walk to the entrance to the parks. The pool has water slides, there is a bistro (restaurant) that serves great food all day/night, the rooms have bunkbeds, and you get Marriott points! This hotel was recommended to me by my sister, and we loved it! The only downside is you have to make reservations to use the pool: 9:30-11:30, 12-2, 2:30-5, 5:30-8:00, 8:30-10. I don't know about you, but I go on vacation to NOT be on a schedule, so having to schedule when our pool time is, was a little annoying. But, we got into the groove and it all worked out. If you know what your schedule is going to be, I HIGHLY recommend making reservations prior to your arrival.
STROLLERS
My kids are 5 and 6, so past stroller age, but a friend, whose kids are even older than mine, HIGHLY recommended renting a stroller. I looked into this, and this is what I discovered: you can rent strollers through the parks. $18/day for a single stroller, $36/day for a double stroller. They make it super easy and convenient. At the entrance to Disneyland park is the stroller rental, and you just walk up, pay and pick up your stroller. You can rent for several days, and at the end of the day, you drop it back off, and can pick it up again in the morning. You can take the strollers into either park. The downsides to the Park's strollers are: they are hard frame, so not very comfortable, the sun shade doesn't go down very far to block sun, there is no storage compartment under the stroller, only a few pockets on the back, and you can't take the stroller back to your hotel, so if you still have a decent walk, your kiddos will need to walk. I found two other options, that in my research, seemed like better options. The first option is City Strollers. They rent not only strollers, but also a variety of other items a parent might need. I was lucky enough to be able to reserve a double stroller for two nights for only $40! They also make it super convenient by drooping it off at your hotel, and picking it up when you are finished! Unfortunately, the three. Unfortunately, however, I needed a stroller for one more day, and they had no availability. I did have to rent one of the Disneyland strollers the last day, and after having a comfy City Mini stroller the first two days for $40, and then the hard frame, no sunshade or bottom storage area stroller for one day for $36, I HIGHLY recommend making a reservation FAR in advance at City Strollers or One Stop Mobility. We didn't use them, but after begging City Strollers for one extra day (to no avail), they suggested I try OSM. They didn't have any double strollers, but did have single strollers available. And their prices are reasonable, too (but have a 3 day minimum).
FOOD
On the way to the park in the morning, we would grab breakfast-to-go in the lobby Bistro. My kids would munch on cereal and fruit while they strolled in the stroller on the way to the park. I also would buy a bagel and cream cheese for a pre-lunch snack. There are probably more cost-effective options than this, but as a solo parent, I didn't feel like finding a grocery store and making sandwiches every day. We would do late lunches at the hotel (usually PB&J sandwiches from the same lobby bistro), and dinner was different every night. The first night, we had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, which is inside the iconic Disneyland Hotel (it is overdue for some updating). We made a reservation through the app, and this was a fun time. It is buffet dining, so something for everyone, and it is character dining, meaning some Disney characters march through the restaurant every 20 minutes or so. It is entertaining. They also do photos while we wait for seating (unfortunately, I lost our QR code, so we never got to see these. Note, make SURE you download the Disneyland app and have ALL photographers scan photos taken into the app so you have them there). The second and third night we had dinner in the parks. The second night we were in California Adventure, and ate at Flo's V8 Cafe. This place was just the cutest. ***For in-park dining, open the app and go to dining, you can pre-order food from the menu to pick up at a certain time. Once I got this figured out, it was pretty easy. There are many dining options in each park. The third night (we were back at Disneyland Park), we ate at Hungry Bear restaurant. It was riverside, and has a TON of seating. The 4th night, we just ate at the dinner in the parking lot of our hotel, Mimi's Cafe. It was fast and cheap and perfect for our mellow day (we didn't go to either park this day). We also went to brunch on the 4th day at Storyteller's Cafe. It was another character dining spot with a buffet. Plus, it is in the beautiful Grand Californian Hotel. After brunch, the kids played on the lawn outside of the restaurant and pool area. It felt good to just chill with no place to be. The 5th night, we went to an Anaheim Angels game, so grabbed food at Roxy'z by Zov's and it was fantastic! Get the Panzanella salad, trust me!
PARK TIPS
Prior to going, you need to buy your tickets and also reserve what days you plan on going. We did two days at Disneyland and one day at California Adventure. This was perfect. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend adding Genie +. I was told this, too, and did it, but I had no idea what that even meant! Genie + gives you access to Lighting Lane on select rides. You can reserve a time slot for said select rides, and you can go anytime during the time slot (usually an hour) and can access the Lighting lane, which is as the name says, a faster lane. Not all rides are lighting lane, but the more popular ones are, and this really helps you plan your day. You can only reserve a few lighting lanes at a time, however, so be mindful with your selections (you can cancel any, though, and start over). It took me one full day at Disneyland to really gert the hang of Lighting Lane and reservations, but once I did, it was awesome. It is well worth the extra $15/ticket per day. You can also do Park Hopper, which lets you hop between both parks on the same day. We opted NOT to do this, but might do it next time. I don't feel like we missed out on anything not having this option.
DISNEYLAND PARK
There is so much to see and do inside the original park. It can be overwhelming. Be sure to grab a map, and once you look at that and see where the Lands are, you can start planning your day. Expect to walk, A LOT. I walked close to 7 miles/each day. Our favorite lands at Disneyland Park were Star Wars AKA Galaxy's Edge and Tomorrowland, and the favorite rides were Star Tours (Tomorrowland), Millennium Falcon, Smuggler's Run and Rise of the Resistance, both in Star Wars Land. Save Rise of the Resistance for last. It is INCREDIBLE!! We hit every land in the park, but those two were the favorites. Some other favorite rides were:
My daughter was brave and wanted to go on Matterhorn, but after waiting in line, we discovered we needed another adult. The seating is bobsled-like (one person in front of the other, so no more than one person in a row), so anyone under 7 needs to ride with an adult. Because I am the only adult, and both kids are under 7, we couldn't go on the ride. Something to note, if you go solo and your kids are young. My daughter was quite upset, but we just couldn't go this time. I think it all worked out as I don't think my son was quite ready to ride that one yet. Same rules go for Splash Mountain. When I take an adult Disneyland trip, my first rides would be Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Matterhorn. Then I will do Rise of the Resistance again (we did Star Tours and Millenium Falcon twice, so I am good on those for a while). :)
CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
Other than Star Wars Land, I preferred California Adventure over Disneyland. I thought it was cooler (I mean it was 105 degrees, so not cooler in temperature haha) and visually more appealing TO ME. My favorite land was Cars Land, by far. It was so stinking cute. I also thought Avengers Campus was awesome, and Pixar Pier was amazing, especially at night! Cars Land was cool at night, too. Heck, the entire park (both of them, for that matter) was incredible at night. I was most excited to show my son Avengers Land, and it didn't disappoint! We saw Spiderman, Captain America, Black Widow and Captain Marvel.
Our favorite rides were:
Radiator Springs Racers (this was a TAD too much for my son)
Web Slingers, A Spiderman Adventure. SO much fun.
Soarin' over California - AMAZING!
Guardians of the Galaxy (Mission Breakout) - okay, this was not a kid fave, it was a tad much for them, but they were so brave, and we were able to use this as a guide for other rides. "Is it as scary as Guardians of the Galaxy?" Most of the time, the answer was, "no." Whoops! Sorry, kids, I had no idea! If your kids are little, I do NOT recommend this ride. (But it is really fun for adults).
WHAT TO WEAR
The guidance here is for when it is HOT! We were right smack in a heat wave when we went (it was 70 and mild the afternoon we got there, then upper 80's the next day, then 105, then 102, then upper 70's, then low 70's the day we left). I bought us all Keen's, and this was literally THE best choice! They offered arch support, while allowing our feet to breathe and perfect for water rides! I was (am) battling plantar fasciitis so was super concerned with how my foot would hold up, and although I walked 7 miles/day, my injury is actually BETTER after our trip! I give credit to the Keens! Here are links for the ones I bought:
For clothes, we all wore shorts, tank tops, and baseball caps. We brought sweatshirts, because after walking around in the sun all day, when the sun went down, we felt a bit chilly. We slathered on the sunscreen, too!
WHAT TO BRING TO THE PARKS
As a solo parent, you have to ensure you don't bring too much, so even with the heat, I was able to keep things minimal. Each day I packed: water bottles for the three of us (our hotel lobby has a filtered water tap with the drinking fountain, so be sure to bring your own bottles from home), snacks, sunscreen, a charged phone (also bring a charger if you have one, if not, the parks sell them, which saved me one day!), sweatshirts, money...lots of money. :)
SCHEDULE
This is the schedule that worked best for us. We factored in the heat.
8AM-8:30AM Wake up, dressed and out the door
8:45-9AM-Get to the park (the first day since everyone was rested, we were able to get to the park entrance by 8:15. Parks open at 8AM)
9AM-11:45AM -Rides, rides, and more rides
11:45 - walk back to hotel while eating snack of bagel and cream cheese
12-2 POOL TIME
2:15-3:30 - chill out time in room (I let the kids have some screen time here so I could get some work done), eat lunch, mom works
3::45-4:00 Back to parks
4:15-10:00 - Rides, rides, more rides, dinner, fireworks
Every night at 9PM, Disneyland puts on a fireworks show! The first night we watched it from Main Street in the park (it was PACKED, but during the Frozen portion of the show, it started snowing, and my kids LOVED it). The third night (the second night we were in California Adventure) we were in Fantasy Land right in front of It's a Small World, and this was also a great spot! It, too, snowed, but not as much snow as Main Street. You really can't miss the fireworks show wherever you are. We managed to catch a bit of it while we were on Golden Zephyr ride in California Adventure.
The kids would stay up until 10-10:30 every night, so I would stay up until midnight working. They would then sleep in until 8-8:30, which means I was getting 8 hours sleep/night! Even though it was all exhausting, we were getting adequate rest, and it was such a great trip.
We stayed in our hotel through Sunday, even though we were done with the parks on Thursday. This allowed us some chill time to hang out at the pool, do some shopping in the Downtown Disney district (we hit up the Lego's store and World of Disney), go to an Angels game, and have some cousins time.
I not only survived Disneyland as a solo parent, I 100% ROCKED it! I give myself two HUGE pats on the back for this awesome week. MY kids loved it, I love it, and I still am grinning ear to ear remembering everything we did.
BEFORE YOU GO
Download the Disneyland app
Make any character dining reservations you want
Pack good walking shoes
Reserve a stroller
Read this blog, and reach out to me with questions!
YOU can rock it, TOO!
Please feel free to reach out with ANY questions or comments! <3
Σχόλια