A friend has been telling me how intimidated she feels about visiting a Disney park for the first time. She has the impression that it will involve a lot of preparation, a lot of Disney-specific knowledge, and a lot of money. While she was not entirely wrong about this, it did make me sad that stress or even a little fear would keep her from experiencing Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort.
That is why we try so hard to share practical Disneyland planning advice on this site and why we gently walk you through the process with Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep. Your first visit to a Disney park does not need to be scary. It should be wonderful, and it should bring your closer to your loved ones! Today’s post has tips for first time guests to Disneyland that are meant to help you avoid stress as well unnecessary loss of time and money. We hope these tips from our own experience will be helpful to you or your friends. Here are five “don’ts” for first time Disneyland visitors and what we recommend doing instead.
(Incidentally, we also think Disneyland Resort can be an easier first Disney visit than Walt Disney World. We write about that in Is Disneyland Resort the Easier Alternative to Walt Disney World?)
Tip 1: Do Not Do It All
I am starting with this tip, because we are absolutely guilty of ignoring it ourselves, and I regret when we do. Our number one tip for your first Disneyland visit is: do not try to do it all.
There is so much to do it at Disneyland Resort. If you visit the “Rides and Entertainment” page on Disneyland’s website today, there are 147 items listed. That does not even include Disneyland’s myriad themed restaurants or the recreational offerings at the Disneyland Resort Hotels. Furthermore, many offerings are seasonal. To reasonably do everything there is to do at Disneyland Resort, you would have to visit multiple times and in every season. So just give yourself a break and do not try to do it all in your first visit to Disneyland, and you will actually have a better trip.
Instead, Be Present
Instead of approaching your first Disneyland trip with a checklist mindset, focus on enjoying the experience of being in Disneyland and being present for the wonder and excitement. Did your toddler adore her first ride on “it’s a small world?” Does she not much care about the parade locals have staked-out spots to see? Let go of the FOMO, and ride “it’s a small world” again. I would venture to say that your toddler’s excited squeals will stick with you longer than that parade, despite the enticing photos you see online. On the flip side, trying to entertain your toddler on your patch of hot pavement while you wait for that parade to start may stick with you, but in a bad way.
Now, we encourage you to seek a certain balance in this approach. Being present in the moment can feel kind of blah if that “present moment” is a two-hour-long queue you spontaneously entered. Lines are a basic reality of any Disneyland visit, but you can minimize the time in line with some smart strategies. So, we encourage you to mix some intentional planning with reasonable expectations.
A Balanced Approach to Your First Disneyland Visit
We are going to cover some of those strategies in this post, but before we do, I am encouraging you to approach them with that balanced mindset. Riding the maximum number of attractions on your trip will not guarantee you an awesome first visit to Disneyland. But, do you know what might very well ruin your trip? That would be fighting with your family for disrupting your careful plans or lashing-out at fellow guests (or silently glowering at them) for scoring a better fireworks viewing location.
We would argue that the high price of a Disney vacation has put extreme pressure on guests toextract the most value from their visit. We have been there, and we know that feeling and that pressure, but we also know that when we resist that pressure to “do it all,” we have a better visit. It is hard advice to follow (even when it is your own), but we think it makes a difference.
In that spirit, we advise having some conversations with your family or group ahead of time about must-do experiences as well as individual limits. If you prioritize those must-dos and respect everyone’s limits, we think you can achieve a good balance. Here is a post we developed with questions to share with your group (or yourself) before your visit: Ask These Questions Before You Visit Disneyland.
Tip 2: Do Not Get to the Disneyland Parks When They Open
Perhaps the most impactful thing you can do to minimize time spent in lines at Disneyland Resort does not require much special knowledge or planning. Our second tip for first time Disneyland guests is to get to the parks before they open for the day. Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park routinely open their gates to guests before the parks’ official opening times. You can read all about this practice in: What Time Does Disneyland Open?
Now I know that our first tip was to avoid trying to “do it all.” We advised you to not push yourself to the point of having an unhappy and stressful day. Please apply your balanced approach and your own self-knowledge to this second tip. Maybe you know right now that arriving early to Disneyland Resort will be a torturous task. You know yourself and your travel party. If waking-up and suncreening-up early would ruin your trip, then consider staying late instead (you can read about that here: When Does Disneyland Close?) and then skip on down to the next tip. For the rest of you…
Instead, Enter the Disneyland Parks Before They Open
If arriving early is at least a possibility for you, we highly recommend doing so. We are not even the folks who try to be at the front of the “rope drop” pack and first on a favored ride. We just love those opening hours! For the first two hours after opening, everything and everyone feels fresh and most attraction wait times are incredibly low. If you want the feeling of spontaneously exploring sparsely crowded Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, arrive early!
We recommend arriving before the parks open so that you can get the logistics of entering out of the way before attractions even start operating. We have some tried and true strategies for getting to the parks early, and we share them here: How We Get to Disneyland In Time for Opening (aka Rope Drop). And we do routinely start our day in a particular way, you can read about that here: What to Do First at Disneyland Park and here: What to Do First at Disney California Adventure Park.
Tip 3: Do Not Wear Fancy Clothes
I see a lot of cute Disney parks ensembles, and the Disney Bounding community is truly creative and impressive. Still, we caution you against getting too sartorially ambitious for your first trip to Disneyland Resort. You will almost certainly be logging a lot of miles around both parks and the larger resort, and we think it is important to stay comfortable while doing so. We advise making fashion second to function when choosing your Disneyland outfits.
Depending on when you visit, the sun can be intense at Disneyland, and temperatures can also vary dramatically over the course of one day. Additionally, you will likely be climbing down or up into ride vehicles (some of which may be a bit wet). You may also end-up sitting on the ground to enjoy various entertainment. We like to be able to do all of this without having to give our clothing a second thought. We really appreciate the creative clothing we see around Disneyland Resort, but we think elaborate ensembles are better for local and frequent guests.
Instead, Wear Comfortable Clothing to Disneyland
For your first visit to Disneyland Resort, we suggest wearing comfortable clothing. For us, this means being appropriately dressed for the weather with breathable clothing and a hat to fit the season. We bring easy layers to accommodate temperature changes or precipitation, and we always wear comfortable and tough shoes.
We have a bunch of posts about this, including:
- What to Wear to Disneyland: Part I, Base Layers
- What to Wear to Disneyland: Part 2, Cold or Wet Weather
- What to Wear to Disneyland: Part 3, Shoes
- What to Wear for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disneyland
- 5 Basic Principles of What to Wear to the Disney Parks
If you have any princesses in your travel party, we know those big princess gowns can look awfully tempting. In our experience, they also tend to be hot and itchy. We have a posts about the princess clothing alternatives that we use here: How To (Comfortably) Dress Like a Princess in Disneyland.
Tip 4: Do Not Just Show-up to Disneyland
How we wish that we all could just amble up to the gates of the Happiest Place On Earth, purchase a ticket at the booth and wander into the parks for a glorious day. Unfortunately, that is just not the reality at Disneyland Resort in 2025. Sure, you could try this and see how it goes for you, but at best, it is going to be a complicated experience. At worst, you will not be able to enter the parks at all.
At the time of writing—and since the parks reopened after COVID closures—all guests need a park reservation in order to enter Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. These reservations can and do run out. You can read about park reservations here: Guide to Park Reservations for Disneyland & Why You Need Them.
Additionally, there is not just one ticket option for the Disneyland Resort Parks. There are different types of tickets with various add-ons, and you will need to make several choices in the process of purchasing a ticket to Disneyland. To find the best value for you, we suggest taking your time and considering your options before your purchase. We have a visual guide to ticket options here: Disneyland Ticket Guide Flowchart.
You can make park reservations and purchase tickets in advance by visiting the Disneyland website or making a phone call. The process is not difficult, but we think it is best to take care of it in advance. You can also manage your tickets and reservations, through the Disneyland app, and we think it is really helpful to become familiar with this powerful tool before your first visit to Disneyland.
Instead, Explore the Disneyland App Before You Go
I have mixed feelings about touting the Disneyland app. I think it can—like so many things on our mobile devices—voraciously devour your attention. The Disneyland app is fantastically useful, but I have also gotten so engrossed with checking on attraction breakdowns that I have missed out on precious time with my family. I guess I am telling you to make sure that you are using the app as a tool and that it is not using you… or something like that.
What the Disneyland App Can Do
In addition to holding your ticket and park reservations the app provides:
- A digital ticket you can use in the place of any physical ticket media.
- Interactive maps of the Disneyland Resort parks and the Downtown Disney District.
- Schedules for entertainment, attractions and character appearances.
- Estimated wait times for attractions as well as walk-up lists for restaurants.
- The ability to make, monitor and use Lightning Lane reservations.
- Dining menus and the ability to mobile order food for pick-up at quick service locations.
- The interface for signing-up for free virtual queues.
- A personal link to Disneyland’s PhotoPass service and PhotoPass lenses
Actually, the app can do even more than that. Lately, Disney provided the opportunity to vote for a World of Color host from the Disneyland app and embedded videos sharing Disney history. Suffice to say, the Disneyland app can do a whole lot. If you use it well, it can save you time on vacation. However, it does take some time to figure out how the app works. That is why we suggest downloading and exploring the app before you visit Disneyland.
How to Become an Expert on the Disneyland App
So, if you have not already, go download the Disneyland app to a mobile device. If you have an existing Disney account, you can sign into that account from the Disneyland app, or you can create a new account. Once you do this, the app should show any reservations or tickets saved to your account. You will also have the ability to link other tickets to your account (important if you are traveling with family or another group).
But you do not even need tickets or an account to start exploring the app, and we think just starting to play around with it is the best way to become proficient. Try out the different tabs and menu items, interact with the map, see how wait times look right now or find-out where and when Mickey is meeting guests today. You do not need to be at Disneyland to look at any of these things, and it will help you become familiar with the Disneyland app before your first visit.
Disneyland App Guides
For some of the more complicated (and often time sensitive) functions of the app, we have a series of guides. We encourage you to check them out and try these processes before your first time visiting Disneyland.
- Disneyland Mobile Ordering Guide: Read this guide if you plan on ordering food from quick service restaurants. The service is free, and we like being able to order our food when we are waiting in line for an attraction. Then we just swing by the pick-up location and grab our order. This can save you a lot of time.
- Disneyland Virtual Queue Guide: Disneyland uses virtual queues to manage crowds for new attractions and popular offerings. This service is also free, but queue reservations can disappear. This is why it really benefits you to know and practice the process of joining a virtual queue before your visit.
- Unlike the other two services, Lightning Lanes are not free. You will pay if you want to use them, and we think they can be a good value for the money IF you use them well. So, we have lots of posts about how to use them well. Start with these three: Disneyland Lightning Lanes: How to Super-Charge Your Visit, then Big Guide to Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Disneyland Resort and Ride More: 9 Strategies for Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Disneyland.
Tip 5: Do Not Default to a Disney Hotel or the Hotel “Steps” from Disneyland
There are so many lodging choices near Disneyland. The prospect of selecting one hotel can be overwhelming, particularly if this is your first visit to Disneyland. For this reason, we think some inexperienced Disneyland guests default to choosing “The Disneyland Hotel.” It is easy to assume that this is the closest and best choice: it’s in the name… right?
Well first, the Disneyland Hotel is not the closest hotel to either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park. That title belongs to another Disney-run hotel: Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. In fact, there are several third-party hotels that are closer to the parks’ entrances than either Disneyland Hotel or the third and final Disney owned hotel, Pixar Place Hotel.
So, what we are saying is that you have many and varied choices beyond Disneyland Hotel.
Instead, Map Out Your Hotel Options
You can read about our advice for choosing a hotel in more detail in Staying Near Disneyland: Book the Best Hotel for You. Here, we just wanted to make you aware that you have many choices when it comes to where to stay near Disneyland.
There are three hotels owned and operated by Disney and on Disneyland Resort property. These are called Disneyland Resort Hotels, and—in order from most to least expensive—they are Disney’s Grand California Hotel and Spa, Disneyland Hotel and Pixar Place Hotel. These three hotels are incredible, but they are also expensive. If you are concerned about your budget, we encourage you to consider other options around Anaheim.
If you belong to a hotel chain’s loyalty program, chances are good that they have a hotel within easy distance of Disneyland. There are also many smaller local hotel groups to choose from. Have an idea about what you are looking for in lodgings, and check-out your options around Disneyland using that article we mentioned as a primer.
Just keep this in mind: many hotels will claim to be “steps from Disneyland.” And on a map, it may look like they directly neighbor the parks. However, Disneyland Resort is large, and it can only be accessed at certain spots. So, a hotel can be steps from a blank Disneyland fence but you will still need to walk 20 more minutes to actually enter the parks. We wrote all about that and how to pick a true walking-distance hotel here: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Booking a Disneyland Hotel. We hope that heads-up will save you some annoyance and some mileage.
Thank you for reading about these five tips for first-time Disneyland visitors.
We hope you have found this article helpful. We think the guides we linked in this post are particularly helpful for first time Disneyland guests. Out of all of them, we suggest starting with our free and complete Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep. And, please consider subscribing to our free newsletter below. Thanks again for reading.
