Okay, so you can't do ALL of Disneyland in a day, but you can make sure that what you do see is the best. In the process of annually updating my travel guide, WALT DISNEY WORLD WITH KIDS, I've visited the Disney parks over 30 times with my kids and surveyed more than 300 families. I've become an expert on the "frantic factor" (the strange assumption that a family seeing 20 attractions a day must be having twice as much fun as a family seeing 10 attractions a day) and parents trying so hard to "get their money's worth" that they hustle the kids from ride to ride with no notion of what's age appropriate. Trust me, if you put a 14-year-old on "It's a Small World" or a 5-year-old on "Space Mountain," Disneyland will no longer be the happiest place on Earth.
• If at all possible, visit on an uncrowded day. Avoid the middle of summer, major holidays and weekends, when locals swell the park to capacity.
• Ride the most popular attractions in the morning. Save shows for the afternoon, when you'll welcome the chance to rest. Lines lessen a bit in the evening, when everyone heads for the parades or Fantasmic, so you can then ride whatever you missed in the morning.
• Enter early. Be at the main gate at least 30 minutes before opening, 45 in the busy season; Disney often allows guests into the Main Street section of the park ahead of the stated opening time.
• Take a major, repeat major, afternoon break. In the on-season (summer, holidays, weekends) when the park runs extended hours, Disneyland could conceivably be open for 16 hours a day. No one, no matter what his age or stamina level, is up to this. There are four basic ways to break up your day:
1. Leave the park for a few hours and return to your hotel for an afternoon nap or swim. (Some Los Angeles-area locals rent a nearby hotel room for the day just so they can build in this break.)
2. Take the monorail over to the Disneyland Hotel for lunch. A midday character meal or lunch at the blissfully calm Disneyland Hotel can be a relief from the bustle of the park.
3. Find afternoon resting places, such as shows, within the parks.
4. Walk over to Downtown Disney and enjoy a leisurely lunch at one of the many restaurants there. Take some time to enjoy the entertainment, which varies from sporting events at ESPN Zone® to bands at House of Blues®.
One note: If you're touring during the off-season, when the park closes as early as 6 or 7 P.M., you'll obviously not be able to leave in the afternoon and return in the evening. Just enjoy one of the afternoon resting places within the park or at nearby Downtown Disney, then soldier on until closing, and eat dinner somewhere outside the park.
• If you want to go on all the big-deal rides, be aware of the effect the evening parades and shows have on crowd flow. After the parade passes, thousands of people flood the nearby Matterhorn; likewise when Fantasmic draws the bulk of the crowd toward the Rivers of America lagoon, Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones become mobbed. You can cut your wait time in line by using reverse psychology--when everyone is watching the parade, check out Frontierland, Critter Country and Adventureland attractions. If the crowd is waiting for Fantasmic, slip onto Space Mountain, Matterhorn, or Star Tours.
• Due to the popularity of the evening parades and Fantasmic, closing can be a madhouse, with throngs of people all hitting the gates and shuttle trams at once. Remember the stampede in THE LION KING? If you can't be one of the first to exit the park, it might be a good idea to hang out in the shops or eateries of Main Street until the bulk of the crowd has passed, and be one of the last to exit.
• If your kids are different ages, split up during the first hour after opening, when you can see a lot in a short amount of time; one adult can take the younger kids to Fantasyland, the other can head toward the coasters with the older kids. (Single parents might want to join forces with a sibling or friend.) Preteens and teens can ride on their own.
Then meet up at an agreed-upon spot and spend the rest of the morning touring attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion that appeal to any age group. If you missed any major attractions in the morning, you can always split up again for an hour in the evening, when lines get a bit shorter.
