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. That's why we've set up three separate touring plans with three different age groups in mind. 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.
Read on for the touring plan for families with kids eleven and up. (For the other age groups and related stories, click on the following links: Touring with Kids Seven to Ten, Touring with Kids Six and Under, and Structuring One Day at Disneyland.)
KIDS 11 AND UP
This age group likes headliner attractions, which draw long lines all day. Even if you beat the crowd by arriving early, you're still faced with a choice. Given the layout of Disneyland, you'll need to choose between riding the Adventureland-Critter Country-Frontierland attractions while lines are short or taking in the Tomorrowland-Fantasyland headliners first.How much you'll be able to see before the lines grow prohibitively long depends on which day you visit. My 14-year-old daughter Leigh is normally pokey but can move like a gazelle while in a Disney park; on a moderately crowded Wednesday in June she was able to take in five headliners during her first 90 minutes in the park. The next Saturday, she was only able to ride three in the same time frame.
MORNING: Either veer left at the end of Main Street and take in Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, or veer right and start with Space Mountain or Star Tours. Either way you will have done the headliners for one side of the park. Emerge onto Main Street and check the waiting times at the tip board. If any of the other headliners are showing waits of less than 30 minutes, head there now.
MIDMORNING: Okay, you've been a coaster warrior, now it's time to be a kid. Disneyland makes Leigh go positively retro; she loves revisiting childhood favorites like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. If teens dumped the family during their early morning dash to the coasters, link back up and ride stuff any age can enjoy, like the Pirates of the Caribbean.
AFTERNOON: Rest up with a big lunch, then visit Tomorrowland. Innoventions can absorb you for hours if you get into the virtual reality games and interactive exhibits. (Hint: You can't figure them out by looking, so pick up that buzzer, paintbrush or joystick.) The mammoth arcade called Starcade and "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" are also good choices for the hottest and most crowded times of the day.
EVENING: The first parade or showing of Fantasmic is the perfect time to do whichever side of the park you missed in the morning. Be on the lookout for rides that are especially atmospheric after sundown, such as the Astro Orbiter, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Even if you've ridden them earlier, they're a whole new experience in the dark.
Check out the last showing of Fantasmic and catch a final ride on your way out. Main Street stays open after the rest of the park closes, so there's no need to join the mad dash for the exits.
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Kim Wright Wiley is the author of WALT DISNEY WORLD WITH KIDS and is FamilyFun's new Theme Park Expert.
Please keep in mind that phone numbers, addresses, and prices are subject to change. Updated June 2005.
