Disneyland may be “The Happiest Place on Earth,” but that also means it can be one of the busiest. If you are an introvert, big crowds and the dynamic energy of the resort can be a bit intimidating. We totally get it, so we have some tips (from fellow introverts) for visiting Disneyland Resort. Understanding what to expect and finding ways to take breaks from the crowds helps us enjoy our time, and we hope our knowledge will help you too. Here is our Disneyland guide for introverts.
Clickable Table of Contents: Disneyland for Introverts
- Understand Attraction Seating
- Consider Disneyland Character Interactions
- Choose Low-Crowd Times
- Find Quiet Spots in Disneyland Resort
- Reserve Your Space
Understand Attraction Seating, A Disneyland Preview for Introverts
Disneyland Resort gives you so many opportunities to choose your own adventure. You get to decide what experiences you would like to take part in, and you get to decide how much you would like to immerse yourself in those experiences. I am introverted person who would not hesitate to repeat any of the experiences I have had at Disneyland. Still, I like to be prepared with good information, and maybe you do too. Hopefully this peek into attraction seating will help you preview various scenarios and consider your approach to Disneyland attractions. And, if you do have specific requests or questions about attraction seating, be sure to speak to a cast member.
If you are looking for a detailed preview of the ride boarding process in general, you can find that in our article What It’s Like to Board a Ride at Disneyland.
How Attraction Seats Are Filled
As you board an attraction, a cast member will almost always ask for the number of people in your party. That cast member will then direct you to specific spots.
Seating for most attractions will allow you some good personal space. For Fantasyland dark rides and other rides with short benches (like Pirates of the Caribbean) cast members will usually give your party their own bench or benches. On attractions with longer benches, like Jungle Cruise, you will probably end up sharing a bench with another party, but you will get to stay close to your own group.
Disneyland has a fair number of attractions with small ride vehicles meant to intimately seat just a couple people on one bench seat. Cast members will not attempt to pair you with a stranger on these rides. While large parties may be split up, you will not be asked to share a doom buggy or teacup with a stranger. Cast members will seat you in your own elephant rather than pair you with a stranger on Dumbo the Flying Elephant. However, in ride vehicles where you do not share the same seat (like Matterhorn Bobsleds or Tiana’s Bayou Adventure), you could be in-front-of or behind someone you do not know. In those cases, you would share the same log or sled but still have your own seat.
To keep lines moving efficiently for popular attractions like Indiana Jones’s Adventure or Soarin’, cast members do try to fill available seats in ride vehicles. So, while you will still have personal space, you may find yourself seated next to someone you do not know, but each with your own space (like on an airplane). This is why there are Single Rider Lines for e-ticket attractions like Radiator Springs Racers, Incredicoaster, and Space Mountain.
Attractions Calling for Teamwork
Some attractions invite riders to work as a team to accomplish a goal. This is true of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure. While you do not necessarily need to strategize with fellow riders or make a complex plan, these are rides where you will be interacting with the attraction and getting feedback. Your ride score is affected by the skill of your fellow riders.
For Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, crews consist of six people. For WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, each side of the ride vehicles seats four guests. Unless your riding party consists of these exact numbers, you will probably find yourself making a space run or snagging Spider-Bots with new-to-you teammates. These attractions both employ Single Rider lines, so you can expect these spare spots to be consistently filled.
Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes also falls into this category of teamwork attractions, as you will paddle with the other explorers on your twenty seat canoe! And speaking of interaction, in Turtle Talk with Crush, you might be invited to converse with Crush. That usually happens only if you or your child volunteers, but we are giving you a heads up anyway. You so totally rock, dude!
Attractions Where You Face Fellow Riders
On some Disneyland Resort attractions, seating is arranged so that you will be facing fellow riders. You will probably be too busy laughing or screaming to feel pressured to engage in small talk. But again, we hope knowing which Disneyland rides call for face-to-face seating will help introverts feel well prepared and comfortable.
Grizzly River Run ride vehicles are round rafts with seats arranged around the perimeter and facing inwards. All guests have their own seats and safety restraints. If you want to grab the circular handle in front of you, you might be sharing it with other riders.
Pixar Pal-A-Round is a ferris wheel with enclosed cabins outfitted with two benches facing one another. If you have a smaller party, you may find yourself facing another group across the cabin. That group may feel even closer if you choose the “swinging” version of the attraction: that cabin really moves in startling ways!
Both Jungle Cruise and Storybook Land Canal Boats have guests pile into boats piloted by a cast member. The boats have bench seats running down the length of them. You could be almost knee-to-knee with other guests, and your party will likely be seated on the same bench with other guests you do not know.
That is a lot of information on attraction seating. We hope it is not overwhelming but instead helpful as you look forward to your visit. Next, we are moving onto character interactions. Talking to giant mice or a princess with magic hair is probably not something you do on a regular basis. If you are unsure what to make of those opportunities, we hope this next section will give you some good insight.
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Consider Disneyland Character Interactions, Key Information for Introverts
For some Disneyland guests, interactions with Disney characters are the high points of their visit. Many fans attend special events just to say hello to “rare” characters. If you are an introvert, you may find interactions with characters at Disneyland to be a joyful experience. On the other hand, you might just be uncomfortable. We have family members who feel both ways. Everyone is different, so we thought giving you a little insight into the interactions might help you figure out what will work for you.
We have divided this preview into categories covering character types and interaction types.
Two Types of Characters
Characters Who Talk
There are roughly two types of characters at Disneyland Resort. The first type consists of face characters: the cast members playing these characters do not have their own faces covered by a character head. Examples of face characters include Aurora, Peter Pan, Mirabelle, Mary Poppins and Loki. These characters may have elaborate hair and make-up, but you can see their faces. These face characters can and will interact with you by talking as well as waving, high-fiving and whatever other antics they may get-up to.
Characters Who Mime
The second type of character is sometimes called a fur character. These are characters whose faces are covered by character heads. For this category think Mickey Mouse and all of his pals like Goofy, Minnie and Daisy. These fur characters will mime, hug and sign autographs, but they will not speak. Even if these characters have costume heads with human features (like Woody and Bo Peep) they will not speak.
Some characters, like Kylo Ren, have their faces covered by masks, but they will still speak… basically if they are wearing an extra head on their head, they will not talk.
Why are we explaining this to you? You do not actually need to know these category names, but we think understanding the expectations for each type of character will help you decide whether you are interested in meeting them. Everyone is different, so you may find it fun and liberating to interact wordlessly with Donald Duck. On the other hand, you might be disconcerted by trying to communicate with someone completely enclosed in a duck costume. You know yourself.
We will say that these cast members playing characters are extremely good at what they do. We are in awe of the way they can carry-on a whole engaging conversation with a suddenly speechless child. If you do decide to chat with a character, it is also helpful to know that they will remain in character. This means they will not respond to questions addressed to them as an employee or actor, but they will talk to you in the person of the character.
Ways to Encounter Characters at Disneyland for Introverts
There are several way to encounter characters at Disneyland Resort. Again, we are sharing these with you in the hopes that previewing them will help you decide what will work for you. All of these encounters apply to both face and fur characters.
Scheduled Character Encounters at Disneyland
The first way to encounter characters is through scheduled character meet and greets around Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. You can generally find these opportunities listed in the Disneyland app with times and locations. You will join a queue and wait your turn to have a brief interaction and photo opportunity with the characters. Your encounter will generally be visible to character attendants and guests behind you in line.
Another scheduled way to encounter characters is by booking character dining. At character dining meals, you eat at a table service restaurant with your party. A handful of characters visit tables individually to interact and pose with your group. The characters are pre-selected, and you can get a general idea of who they will be when you look at the information for the meal. If you think this would be a comfortable way to interact with characters, plan to make a dining reservation. Unlike character meet and greets, character dining does require an extra fee: the cost of your meal.
Engaging with Disneyland Characters From Afar
Characters also appear in parades and shows around Disneyland Resort. If you choose to view entertainment like Avengers Assemble! or Fantasmic!, you will be able to see characters performing in scripted shows. If you watch parades or character cavalcades, you can see them walking or on floats, and you should be able to exchange waves with the characters. For shy kids, this is a low pressure way to interact with their favorite characters from a distance.
Character Surprises
Finally, spontaneous character appearances do happen around Disneyland Resort. We have seen Alice spinning in teacups with guests, Peter Pan skipping past his namesake ride, and we were overjoyed to stumble upon Moana (more than once) waiting outside “it’s a small world”. You cannot really plan for these moments, they are a kind of gift you can take or leave. Sometimes you can have an extended interaction in these moments, or sometimes it is just an exciting opportunity to see characters in their “natural habitat.” The cast member accompanying a character will be able to let you know what is happening.
These kind of surprise visits often happen in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge with characters from the Star Wars universe roaming the land. These characters tend to stay on the move and have interactions as they go, rather than stopping so guests can line-up for photos.
We hope this insight into character encounters will help you prepare for your own visit. Now let us move on from Disney characters to fellow Disney guests. If you prefer to avoid heavy crowds at Disneyland, or at least find ways to take breaks from the hustle and bustle, we have more tips for you coming up.
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Choose Low-Crowd Times
There is really no off-season at Disneyland Resort. The parks are very popular places. Still, there are days and times to visit that are less crowded than others. If you find being in crowds exhausting, you may find it useful to plan your visit around lower-crowd times. No one can give you a perfect crowd-level prediction, but you can make some general estimates. We address those in Your Best Time to Visit Disneyland.
No matter the time of year, the opening and closing hours tend to be the least busy at Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. Rope drop comes early, but we think arriving at the entrance turnstiles before opening is the best way to enjoy a few low-crowd hours at either park. For insights into this special time, read this article: What Time Does Disneyland Open?
Park opening is our favorite time of day at Disneyland, but park closing comes in a close second. We have an article about that too: When Does Disneyland Close? The middle of the day at either park is the busiest, and it also seem to be when guests are at their most tired, and, well… grumpiest. Even if you decide to take the middle of the day to rest and avoid the tired masses, you can still experience quite a lot of Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park by targeting opening and closing hours for your visit.
If you want to avoid the heaviest crowds at Disneyland Resort, start early, leave late and take a midday break. That break can be back at your hotel. Or, you may want to use some of the in-park suggestions in the next section.
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Find Quiet Spots in Disneyland Resort
As an introvert, I do need personal time to recharge. Disneyland Resort is a dynamic place, but I know there are places in both parks where I can find a little oasis of peace. We cover those spots in two articles. For introverts visiting Disneyland Park, try 5 Best Places to Relax in Disneyland Park, and the companion article for Disney California Adventure Park is 5 Best Places to Relax in Disney California Adventure Park.
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Reserve Your Space
Our last advice section has to do with using meal times to refuel AND recharge. We like having little quiet retreats throughout the park and throughout our day, and sometimes we like to schedule those retreats with reservations. Having a dining reservation guarantees us a little break from the crowds. When we pair that dining reservation with a show viewing reservation in a dining package, we get double the benefit.
Dinner and a Show for Introverts
The times when we feel the crowds at Disneyland most intensely are during parades or shows. Guests gather for some of these performances hours before they begin. There can be some jockeying for room, and we have found ourselves jostled into some thick crowds. We generally have not had problems in these situations, but they can occasionally become a bit overwhelming. This is all exacerbated by most everyone being tired after a long day in the parks.
One way to lessen the tumultuous feeling of these showtimes is to choose more out-of-the-way viewing areas. For example, the area in front of “it’s a small world” is a less crowded place to watch Disneyland Park’s fireworks displays than Main Street U.S.A. Another way to manage the situation is to reserve viewing space with a dining package.
Think of these packages like “dinner and a show.” You reserve this specific type of “dining package” meal at select Disneyland Resort restaurants. With your meal (not always dinner), you also receive access to a priority viewing area during showtime. Some of these priority viewing areas are cordoned spaces where many dining package guests may then choose a spot: they do not have individual reserved seats, but they are still usually less hectic than the general areas. Other—generally more expensive—dining packages include spots where you will both dine and watch the show.
Dining Package Examples
For examples of these different types look at the current offerings for Fantasmic! dining packages. If you reserve the River Belle Terrace Standard Package, you will eat at the restaurant and then go to another designated viewing area on the pavement by the Rivers of America. You will be allowed into the area because you have a voucher from your dining reservation. However, you will not have a specific reserved spot in that viewing area. If you reserve the River Belle Terrace Premium Package, you will eat your dinner at a table on the restaurant’s outdoor terrace and stay and enjoy the show from your table.
There are even more Fantasmic! dining packages options than these two. We suggest taking a look at the latest here and finding what works for you. In general, the more expensive packages include either reserved seating (as in the example of the River Belle Terrace Premium Package) OR the reserved area is located front and center for the show. Note that the current Cafe Orleans Premium Dining Package does not allow you to watch the show from your dining table, despite having a name similar to a package that does. Another example of a package with table side viewing is the World of Color Desert Party. Read the descriptions for each package to get an idea about what you are purchasing before making your reservation.
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A Place at the Table: Table Service Dining Reservations
Outside of dining packages, you can also give yourself some personal time and space by making a reservation for table service dining. With table service dining you will have a reserved table and time at any number of restaurants in Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, Downtown Disney District or even the Disneyland Resort Hotels. You can make those reservations up to sixty days in advance.
We do want to give you a heads up that a reservation at Oga’s Cantina does not guarantee your own table: there is a good chance you will end up sharing with other parties. Otherwise, most table service restaurants should provide you with your own personal space. You will not need to claim a table (or bench) as you would with quick service dining. For a particularly calm place to relax, we recommend the Blue Bayou Restaurant.
For both dining packages and regular dining reservations, visit the dining reservations page on the Disneyland website or use the Disneyland app. Reservations typically open as early as sixty days out.
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Thank you for reading this guide to Disneyland for introverts.
We hope you have found this article helpful. Thanks for sticking with us: this ended-up being one of our longer articles, and we still have more we could say. If you would like to see more on this topic, please let us know.
If you or someone in your group is neurodivergent, and you find your way here while searching for specific information about services for guests who are neurodivergent, please check out this resource on the Disneyland website.
We have lots of Disneyland planning resources at Mouse Brief, and we have organized them into a Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep guide. We invite you to take a look at that, and please consider subscribing to our free newsletter below. Thanks again for reading.