When my household took a trip to Disneyland this previous August, I used to be initially a bit of apprehensive about going after the pandemic. Don’t get me unsuitable, I like theme parks and we’re all huge Disney followers, so that you’d assume I’d be very excited to return.
There have been some huge adjustments since our final go to, similar to eliminating the legacy FASTPASS and MaxPass programs. If I wished to make sure my household and I made probably the most of our vacation, I needed to relearn one of the best methods to go about our go to.
In the long run, we had two fun-filled days at Disneyland and California Journey Park. Listed below are some ideas and tips that I found alongside the way in which that will assist to make your subsequent journey to Disneyland a bit of simpler.
Purchase Tickets and Make a Reservation
As you’re planning your journey, the primary order of enterprise is to go to the Disneyland web site and join an account. When you’ve created one, you may view your tickets and park photographs, in addition to simply handle all your resort, park, eating, and exercise reservations on the dashboard.
If you buy tickets immediately from Disney, they’ll mechanically present up below your profile. If you buy them from a third-party vendor, you may hyperlink your tickets in your on-line account or through the use of the Disneyland app.Â
Observe that purchasing a ticket alone is not going to get you into the Disneyland parks. After you buy a ticket, resolve on which dates and parks you’d like to go to, after which make a reservation.
Park reservations are topic to availability, so should you’re visiting throughout a busy time of 12 months and go and not using a reservation, you possibly can be denied entry if all of the reservations are booked for the day.
If you buy your tickets immediately by way of Disney, you’ll have already got made a reservation whenever you accomplished the acquisition. If you buy your tickets from a third-party vendor, you’ll have to hyperlink the ticket to your profile first, after which make a reservation individually.
Get to Know the Disneyland App
The Disneyland app is your greatest good friend whenever you’re on the park. Be sure you take a while to familiarize your self with the app, as it is going to turn out to be useful when you’ve lastly arrived and are able to profit from your vacation.
Different options of the app mean you can make cellular eating orders, handle Genie+ return occasions, obtain notifications for rides which can be down, view a map of the parks, and see present attraction wait occasions and peak restrictions.
As you’re planning out your day, use the app to see which points of interest can be found, the entry necessities, and the place they’re positioned within the park. By visualizing the place all the pieces is and checking the peak necessities, you may keep away from disappointment upfront and save everybody from unnecessary operating round.
Pay Extra to Save Time
You’ll seemingly examine Genie+ throughout your preparations, which is a paid service that offers you entry to shorter traces in Disneyland and California Journey Park. Utilizing Genie+ will afford you and your loved ones extra time having fun with the points of interest and fewer time standing in lengthy traces, but it surely comes at a value.
Earlier than diving into the intricacies of Genie+, you’ll want to know the variations between Genie and Genie+.
What Are Genie and Genie+?
Disney Genie is a function of the free Disneyland app that shows your every day itinerary, together with any reservations you have got, and offers up-to-date strategies on which attraction to go to subsequent, based mostly in your preferences and placement within the park. It additionally shows peak restrictions and wait-time estimates for all points of interest, which helps you propose your day accordingly.
Then again, Genie+ is a paid trip reservation system that means that you can use separate, shorter traces. Prior to now, this was a free service, however, sadly, that’s now not the case.
Should you want to skip the longer queues, Genie+ will value you $25 (USD) per particular person per day, if purchased upfront. Identical-day purchases are variable in worth, and begin at $25 (USD), relying on the demand for the day.
Must you be travelling with a gaggle of individuals, you may simply hyperlink tickets throughout profiles. To hyperlink tickets, go to the “Tickets and Passes” part of the app, and scan the tickets of the opposite members of your group.
This fashion, should you’re attempting to e book a Genie+ reservation, one particular person can e book it for the entire group, relatively than everybody scrambling to e book for a similar or related return time.
Use Genie+
The Genie+ service means that you can select the subsequent obtainable arrival return time at 11 taking part points of interest at Disneyland and eight taking part points of interest at California Journey Park. You may solely have a Genie+ reserving for one attraction at a time, and just one reserving per day will be made for every attraction.
A return time is a selected interval so that you can come again to an attraction and never have to attend within the standby queue. Relatively, whenever you arrive at your scheduled return time, you’ll get to make use of the specific queue, referred to as the Lightning Lane entrance (beforehand referred to as the FASTPASS line), due to this fact skipping the common queue.
In Disneyland, Genie+ reservations will be made on the next points of interest:
- Autopia
- Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Haunted Mansion
- Indiana Jones Journey
- “it’s a small world”
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Roger Rabbit’s Automotive Toon Spin
- Area Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Star Excursions – The Adventures Proceed
At California Journey Park, Genie+ can be utilized on the next points of interest:
- Goofy’s Sky College
- Grizzly River Run
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Incredicoaster
- Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
- Soarin’ Over California
- Toy Story Halfway Mania!
- WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Journey
To offer you an thought of simply how a lot time will be saved with Genie+, most wait occasions had been lower than 10 minutes utilizing the Lightning Lane entrance throughout our go to, versus ready upwards of 60 minutes or extra within the standby queue. This allowed us to go to different areas of the parks, after we would have in any other case needed to stand in line.
Maximize Genie+
Genie+ is activated the minute you enter the park. So, as quickly as you stroll by way of the gates, remember to e book the Lightning Lane on your first attraction.
When you’ve booked an lively return time, you may solely e book the subsequent one in one of many following conditions:
- Two hours have handed because you final booked.
- You’ve tapped into the Lightning Lane for an attraction.
- Your return time window has handed.
Usually talking, technique is to e book the closest obtainable return time, faucet into the attraction, after which e book the subsequent one immediately. Doing it will reduce your wait occasions, and assist you pack probably the most right into a day.
Though Genie+ formally provides you a one-hour window to return, grace intervals of 5 minutes beforehand and quarter-hour afterwards are given. So, you possibly can probably go a bit earlier to your trip and rating the subsequent Lightning Lane reservation a bit of faster.
Solid Members normally begin scanning friends into the parks half-hour previous to the park’s official opening time. Should you go early, you possibly can squeeze in an additional two or three rides with brief standby queues, earlier than using your first Genie+ return time.
After we visited, we actually walked off of 1 trip and onto the subsequent. The later you arrive, the later the return occasions can be, as extra individuals can be competing for them.
Think about staying at a close-by lodge, such because the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance, to make the morning commute simpler. Company staying at a Disneyland resort even have an early entry profit, the place they will enter Disneyland parks half-hour sooner than friends staying elsewhere.
Genie+ reservations are topic to availability, so it’s greatest to prioritize high-demand points of interest first, as they’re prone to promote out earlier than the tip of the day.
In Disneyland, contemplate prioritizing the next points of interest with Genie+:
- Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Indiana Jones Journey
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Area Mountain
Whereas in California Journey Park, contemplate prioritizing the next points of interest with Genie+:
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Soarin’ Over California
- Toy Story Halfway Mania!
- WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Journey
Particular person Lightning Lane Purchases
Genie+ doesn’t embody the high-demand points of interest Radiator Springs Racers at California Journey Park or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland. Relatively, these rides require separate, particular person Lightning Lane purchases, no matter whether or not you’ve bought Genie+ or not.
If these rides are in your hit listing, then I might extremely suggest making the acquisition. Standby queues for these rides will be greater than 90 minutes, which actually eats into your day.
Pricing for every Lightning Lane varies, and may solely be bought when you’ve entered the park. Costs begin at $12 (USD), however we paid $15 (USD) for Radiator Springs Racers and $20 (USD) for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance throughout our keep.
There are a restricted variety of passes obtainable every day, so don’t wait too lengthy should you’re on the fence about it. On the times we had been there, Lightning Lanes had been bought out by 4pm, and these weren’t even on busy days.
Particular person Lightning Lanes will not be topic to Genie+ time restrictions, which suggests they are often booked at any time throughout the day for the subsequent obtainable return time. Observe that they are often bought as soon as per trip, per day.
Should you select to not buy a person Lightning Lane for these points of interest or they’re bought out, the subsequent greatest strategy to catch them is both initially or finish of the day. So long as you can also make it into the standby queue by closing time, you’ll get on the trip.
The standby queues have normally thinned out the the latter a part of the night, so wait occasions are usually shorter.
Genie+ and PhotoPass
PhotoPass is Disney’s photo-taking service. Should you’ve ever been to Disney World or Disneyland, you’ll discover that there are Solid Members positioned at sure areas and points of interest all through the parks snapping photographs for friends.
At Disney World, you both have to pay to obtain these photographs individually, or buy a Reminiscence Maker package deal for limitless digital downloads. At Disneyland, buying Genie+ consists of limitless Disney PhotoPass downloads for your complete time within the theme parks.
It’s a fantastic profit that comes together with Genie+, as this service usually prices $69 (USD) per day at Disney World.
Be sure you take benefit and permit Solid Members to seize these particular moments for you. All it is advisable do is allow them to take your picture and scan your PhotoPass code on the app.
If the picture is taken as a part of a trip, be aware of the eight-character Attraction ID on the picture displays on the finish of the trip to hyperlink them to your PhotoPass.
Different Ideas & Methods
When you’ve deliberate out your go to to Disneyland and California Journey Park, there are just a few different issues that can assist you and your loved ones maximize your time.
Use Single Rider Lanes
In case your children are older, you don’t have a Lightning Lane, or don’t thoughts driving individually, it could be faster to hop right into a single rider lane, which is accessible on choose rides. I’ve seen single rider lanes transfer fairly rapidly in comparison with the standby queue, so that you would possibly wind up saving a while this fashion.
Rider Change Service
Typically younger kids could also be too scared or too small for a trip, so somebody has to remain behind to look at them whereas the remainder of the group rides. Disneyland affords a Rider Change service, the place the supervising visitor can hop onto the trip as soon as the opposite riders return, with out having to attend in line once more.
Higher but, when the supervising visitor goes on the trip, they will deliver one other two friends with them, probably permitting some group members to trip twice!
This service is just obtainable on choose rides, which will be discovered on Disneyland’s website.
Alternatively, if this service isn’t obtainable for a specific trip, you possibly can e book a Genie+ Lightning Lane for the non-rider(s) and permit different members of the group to make use of it. All it is advisable do is scan the non-rider’s ticket for that reserving.
Trip Breakdowns and A number of Experiences Passes
If a trip is down throughout your return window, you’ve hit the jackpot. Not solely are you able to instantly e book a brand new return time to another obtainable trip, however the Genie+ system mechanically points you a A number of Experiences move that can be utilized on virtually any trip within the park, apart from rides with a paid Lightning Lane.Â
If this occurs, you’ll get a notification by way of the app, which is able to show the next:
Faucet on it, and also you’ll be proven which trip it replaces and the tickets concerned.
The A number of Experiences move is legitimate to be used any time at both park for one trip, with none time restrictions, proper by way of to the tip of the day. You might wait on your initially booked trip to open up once more, or trip a second time on one for which you’ve already redeemed a Genie+ reservation.
Digital Queue for World of Coloration
You’ll discover in your Disneyland app that there’s a Digital Queue part. Initially, I had no clue what perform this served.
On the day we visited California Journey Park, I clicked it out of curiosity, and found it was a strategy to reserve seating for the World of Coloration outside night spectacular.
You may be part of the digital queue starting at 12pm every day, topic to availability. Roughly 45 minutes previous to the present, friends with a Digital Queue can be despatched a notification from the app to proceed to the viewing space.
Though it’s not required to view the present, I might suggest becoming a member of the queue, as it is going to grant entry to reserved viewing areas which provide a more in-depth and significantly better view. Sadly, we didn’t fairly make it in time, so we watched the present from behind the reserved space.
Beating the Warmth
We visited Disneyland on the finish of August, and whereas temperatures weren’t scorching, it was nonetheless sizzling. Break up your day with indoor points of interest, as they’ve air-con and supply a pleasant retreat from the warmth.
For instance, in Disneyland, go to the Enchanted Tiki Room for a musical presentation, or take a sketching class on the Animation Academy in California Journey Park.
Whenever you’re outdoors, remember to pack a cooling towel that may be wrapped round heads and necks. After all, deliver a water bottle, and look out for one with a misting perform, too.
Apart from protecting them cool, my children had enjoyable with them, which additionally helped to distract from the warmth.
Conclusion
Planning a go to to Disneyland might not be as difficult as planning a go to to Disney World, however there are nonetheless loads of issues you are able to do beforehand to organize and guarantee a smoother expertise. Learn up on the parks, take a look at the app, and prioritize your points of interest.
Should you want help planning the flights, lodging, or buying your tickets, take a look at my previous post. Whether or not it’s your first time visiting Disneyland ever or simply for the reason that pandemic, hopefully these posts will assist your go to be a magical one.
