“Put on your shoes! Why do you only have one shoe? Don’t forget your lunch!” Getting out the door any morning can be… a little rough. It feels like there is never as much time as you thought and something is always missing. When we go to Disneyland Resort, we make a point of getting to the parks in time for opening (aka rope drop) to make the most of our day. Of course, those mornings will not be fun for anyone if the rush to get there causes tears. So, we are sharing our approach to getting to Disneyland in time for park opening—without making anyone cry—and we are sharing tips for how you can be at rope drop too.
We Get Lots of Pre- Opening Rest
Getting to park opening at Disneyland starts the day or days before. We try to get some good rest in anticipation of an early morning at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park. So, we try to go to bed at a reasonable time and get good quality sleep. We also build rest into our visit overall. Here is what we do and do not do:
We do not visit the Disney parks two days in a row.
We take rest days while we are visiting Disneyland to enjoy the hotel pools, nearby beaches and other non-theme park attractions in the area. As a family with young kids, we find that spacing out our park days helps us get the most out of the time we are in the parks. We wrote a whole post about it here: Maximize Value: Take a Rest Day at Disneyland.
When our park days are not back-to-back, we do not have to choose between staying late and arriving early: we can do both and get extra rest the next day.
We pack items that promote good sleep.
We have a packing list for travel with kids here: Kids’ Travel Essentials: What to Pack For Your Family Trip. In that list, we suggest packing items that help kids fall asleep and stay asleep including comfort items and a white noise machine. We encourage you to check-out that post for specifics, because helping everyone sleep well makes for better mornings (and days). Those suggestions do not just apply to kids: the white noise machine works well for grown-ups too!
We choose comfortable accommodations.
To help everyone rest well, we try to pick hotels where each person has a comfortable sleep surface and adequate personal space. This is going to be different for each group. If you think part of your traveling party will be staying awake later than others, you may want to consider a hotel with suites or rooms with balconies. These divided spaces give those with later bedtimes a separate area to lounge.
For us, comfortable does not mean luxurious, but is more about considering how the room layout meets our family’s needs. We also try to choose hotels that are close to Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park to minimize transit time in the mornings!
We Pack-up the Night Before Disneyland
In order to make it to Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park at opening, we try to reduce our morning tasks as much as possible. Any task that it is possible to do in advance, we do! This means we:
We select our park outfits before we even leave home.
While we are packing for a Disney visit, we decide what each person is going to wear to the parks. We then take each complete outfit, including things like socks and underwear, and we roll that outfit into a little bundle. The bundles get tucked securely into packing cubes and left rolled-up until it is time to wear them.
As we are preparing for bed on the evening before a park day, we place a bundle for each person in an easy-to-reach location (like a desk in our hotel room). This takes away the need to make decisions or search for items when we are tired or rushed. We also set sunscreen next to these bundles to remind ourselves to apply it after we have dressed.
Need ideas on what to wear and what to pack? Start here: What to Wear to Disneyland: Part I, Base Layers and Disneyland Travel Essentials: What You Need to Pack
We pack our stroller and bags in advance.
On the evening before rope-dropping, we pack our backpacks and stroller for the next day. We fill-up our water bottles, gather up our hats and jackets and replenish our non-perishable food items. Anything that we can pack in advance, we do.
For our park essentials, see: 5 Essentials We Always Bring to the Parks at Disneyland.
We charge our devices during the night.
To make full use of the Disneyland app, we always bring mobile devices and back-up batteries to the parks. We usually need to charge these while we are sleeping.
To make sure we will not forget them the next morning, we might use long charging cables and actually set the charging devices on top of our bags. Alternatively, we might tuck devices inside shoes we plan on wearing the next day; hard to forget those!
We link our Disneyland tickets and check our reservations
Speaking of those devices: before our visit, we make sure that each of our mobile devices has the Disneyland app downloaded and that all of our tickets and park reservations are showing-up on each device. We link each family member’s ticket to all mobile accounts so that the adults can carry ticket information for each child. This is important in case we divide-up during something like a Rider Switch hand-off. Plus, by linking our group together, we can make Lightning Lane or virtual queue reservations as a group rather than one at a time.
The good news is that you can download the Disneyland app far in advance of your visit (go ahead, do it now), and start this process. Once you have your tickets, load them into the app by following the prompts in the “My Tickets and Passes” section of the app’s main menu. Once you do that, you will also want to make park reservations for the days you plan to visit. You will need a park reservation to enter either park!
We recommend doing all of this earlier than the night before your visit, and certainly earlier than the day-of! (In fact, we recommend downloading the Disneyland app if you are even considering a visit.) Play around with the app and get used to how it works. Once you have tickets and reservations, make sure those are showing-up in everyone’s accounts. If you do all of this in advance, you will have extra time to recognize any problems and call or visit guest services for support. You do not want to be troubleshooting technical issues when you could be enjoying attractions!
The day before your visit, double-check to make sure all of this is in place, and then charge those devices!
We Bring Breakfast To Disneyland
We like to be well nourished for a day at the parks of Disneyland, but sometimes figuring out breakfast can slow us down. That is why we make a plan for portable and nutritious breakfast. We like to choose something with protein and add a piece of fruit and plenty of water, so we stock our hotel room with things like nuts, yogurt, protein bars, apples and bananas.
On park mornings, those who are ready quickly can eat breakfast in our room while they wait for the others. The family members who do not eat breakfast in the room can take their breakfast to-go. We know that, after we arrive at the Esplanade, we are going to be standing and waiting for the gates to open. Once those gates do open, we will be standing in the parks’ entry land prior to rope drop. These are little pockets of time when we can pull out our portable breakfast and fuel up.
We would rather get to the parks before they officially open and enjoy an apple on Main Street, U.S.A. than spend time stopping for a fast food breakfast. You can see our extensive advice on bringing food to Disneyland here: Why You Should Bring Your Own Food to Disneyland.
There are several hotels around Disneyland that offer free breakfast with your reservation. Your group might find that a warm hearty breakfast is just what you need to get to Disneyland at opening. We prefer lower-cost accommodations and portable breakfast, but it might work differently for you! Just make sure you account for the time it takes to visit your hotel’s breakfast room.
We Arrive Before Disneyland Opening and Rope Drop
Finally, we make sure we are at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park before they open. The amount of time it takes to get through security and the entrances gates varies from day to day. Even if we get to the parks super early, well, we are stilling waiting in the Happiest Place on Earth! We would rather mill around Buena Vista Street for a bit than miss precious minutes of opening hours.
Typically, Disneyland Resort security opens about an hour before park opening, and the gates to the parks themselves open about thirty to forty minutes before actual opening. For more on this process and how Disneyland kind of opens before it actually opens, be sure to read What Time Does Disneyland Open? That is basically the companion post to this one and full of logistics.
Thank you for reading this guide to getting to Disneyland in time for park opening.
We hope you have found this reflection on our experience and our resulting tips helpful. We do think morning is the best time to be at the Disneyland parks, and we have suggestions for how to spend those mornings here What to Do First at Disneyland Park and here What to Do First at Disney California Adventure Park. For a general overview of Disneyland’s opening procedures, remember to read What Time Does Disneyland Open? And if you are in the midst of planning your Disneyland trip, we offer the free and complete Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep. Finally, please consider subscribing to our newsletter below. Thanks again for reading!
