Disneyland Resort - my 16th Birthday and Top Tips!

For my 16th Birthday I was so incredibly lucky to get to spend my day in the happiest place on Earth - DISNEYLAND!!!!! Spanning roughly 85 acres with 51 attractions (as of 2014), there's no wonder the Disneyland Resort here in California attracted over 700 million guests in 2014.

From our hotel in Hollywood we made the 1 hour car journey to Anaheim where Disneyland is.

Before entering any Disney park, you have to go through a basic bag check. This can take some time, so if you have restaurant bookings or fast passes (more on these later) make sure you allow up to an hour at busy periods (early in the morning). After getting through security, we stood in Main Street USA listening to the band playing Disney tunes! DisneyWorld doesn't have its own marching band so it's definitely worth taking a few minutes to soak up the atmosphere provided by the one in Anaheim. Those of you who know me will know how much I love the Disneyland atmosphere, especially the bands and parades! We then decided which rides we wanted to go on and got fast passes. My favourite rides are the Rocky Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain, but I also loved meeting the Princesses and going to the Frozen show.

Disneyland Resort has two parks, The traditional Magic Kingdom Park and the California Adventure Park. The California Adventure Park has loads of cool and interesting rides about California, including "Soarin'" which takes you on a virtual hang glider tour through California. It was really cool to see some of the places we've visited throughout our road trip. It also has the famous 'California Screamin' ride which was the longest in any Disney Park when it first opened. The view from the viewing point over California Screamin' with the Mickey Ferris wheel in the foreground is definitely a good photo opportunity!

Like with any theme park holiday, the key to a successful trip is careful planning. The fast passes are the best and definitely worth getting as they can sometimes shorten your wait time by over an hour! To get fast passes at Disneyland LA you'll need to go to the ride you wish to get the fast pass for. There they have machines where you can scan your ticket in exchange for a fast pass. Most rides will give you an hour long time slot. Once you've used a fast pass you can get another one. You can only have a maximum of three at one time and it won't let you get multiple passes for the same time period. We found the thing to do was to choose which rides we wanted to get fast passes for in advance and then 'run' to these attractions when we first arrived at the park. We'd then be able to plan the rest of our day around the fast passes we'd got.*

In the evening, we actually went out of the park to get some supper from "The Old Spaghetti Factory" which is one of our favourite American Restaurants. Food in the parks is ridiculously expensive, though of course a Disney Dining experience is like no other. If you're staying in a Disney Hotel you can opt to add on one of the Dining plans to your booking. This makes eating in the parks so much nicer and less stressful. This doesn't however work if you're only there for one night. You can read more about Disney dining plans in my DisneyWorld post!

After supper we returned to the park to watch the parade. It was an amazing day and I never wanted to leave! I can't wait to go back in a couple of days time!

EDIT:

We had two days in total at the Disneyland Resort and spent one day in the Magic Kingdom and the other in the California Adventure Park. There's no way you could ever have too much time at Disney as far as I'm concerned. We did have time to do most of the things we wanted to do, but if we were to visit again, we'd probably want to stay in a hotel closer to Disney to save the 1 hours travel each way as it limited the amount of time we could spend in the park, because we had to leave early so as not to get back too late.

So, what are my top tips for Disneyland LA?

1. As with all Theme Park holidays, planning is key! Make a plan of what rides you want to go on and get Fast Passes as soon as you get to the park. Fast Passes are dispensed from the rides and work by giving you a specific return time. You can get as many as you want but only within different time periods. So first thing, get as many fast passes as possible and then plan the rest of your day around them.

2. We stayed in Hollywood and travelled an hour to Anaheim and into the parks each day. This was valuable time that we could have been spending in the parks and it made our days longer and therefore more exhausting. If I were to do a similar trip again I'd definitely recommend staying closer to the parks for the days you plan to visit!

3. Food in the parks is really expensive so if you're only there for one day it's worth bringing a couple of snacks that you can eat whilst you're waiting in queues.

4. Disney, Disney, Disney! There's Disney stuff everywhere in the parks! Don't feel left out! Get yourself some ears and a t-shirt!

*This information is based on my trip in 2015. Disneyland are constantly renovating and updating their systems and parks so this may not be the most up to date information. I'll try and keep this page as updated as possible but I'm very busy so bear with me! :) They have since updated their security systems and changed the themes of rides! I can't wait to go back and experience the up to date park!

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You can read more about all my Disney adventures here.

Read more about my USA adventures here

More on this California road trip here.