Mornings are an exciting time: full of anticipation and possibility. Whether you like to rise with the sun or sleep-in, there are lots of choices for how to start the day at Disneyland Resort. Here are five of our favorite ways to spend our mornings at Disneyland Resort. We hope they will get you dreaming and planning your own:
Start the day at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park when they open!
We love to be in the parks early, and we generally start our Disneyland Resort days by being right at the parks for Early Entry or rope drop. We arrive at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park turnstiles before official opening and relish our time ambling down Buena Vista Street or Main Street U.S.A. in the morning light. Park turnstiles pretty reliably open about half-an-hour before the scheduled park opening. Attractions open at official opening time (or Early Entry time for Disneyland Resort Hotel guests).
We like hopping into the (short) queues for some must-do attractions while most guests are still filtering-in for the day. If you can handle the early wake-up time, we encourage you to do the same. It’s a magical time of day! Disney posts the opening hours for Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park on the Disneyland website and through the app.
Have breakfast with Mickey or his best pals.
Mickey waffles with the Mouse himself or breakfast pizza with Goofy is a classic way to start the day on a Disneyland Resort vacation. You get to enjoy your breakfast while Disney characters stop by your table for a visit and photos. Character meals are currently being offered at Plaza Inn (Disneyland Park), Storytellers Cafe (Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa) and Goofy’s Kitchen (Disneyland Hotel). These are meals that can be booked in advance and generally have a fixed menu and price per person. Meals in the parks (like the one at the Plaza Inn) require general admission, but you can book a meal at one of the hotels on a day that you will not be using park admission.
If you have someone in your party who simply MUST meet a special character friend, this is a great way to start your day. You can take care of your must-do meeting first thing and take some pressure off of the rest of the day.
Stretch and sweat with a Disneyland fitness class.
Disneyland Resort Hotels offers early morning fitness and wellness classes for guests. Some of these classes even take place in the parks before they open for the day! You can start your day with some sunrise yoga in Disneyland Park or boot camp in Disney California Adventure Park.
These classes should be listed on the weekly schedule at hotel check-in, but you can also find the offerings online. These classes do require registration and an additional fee.
Have a rest.
We find that our whole vacation is enhanced by taking some time to relax between visits to the parks. In fact, we schedule whole days off between our days in the parks. We think this is the best strategy for keeping energy up and melt-downs away. On these rest days we sleep-in bit, and our kids enjoy some unstructured playtime.
Multi-day tickets do not need to be used on consecutive days, so we like taking a day here and there to rest and enjoy some of the other offerings around Disneyland Resort like the hotel pools or charming restaurants. We enjoy these special non-park days and return to the parks reinvigorated.
Capture dazzling Disneyland photos.
Whether you are in the parks or elsewhere at Disneyland Resort, morning is a great time to snap some photos. We like taking some group photos first thing in the morning when background crowds are low, the lighting is favorable and (hopefully) no one has spilled on themselves yet. PhotoPass photographs can be especially helpful with this capturing some great group photos.
Even if you have not purchased PhotoPass (or received it as part of your Lightning Lane Multi Pass), you can still ask a PhotoPass photographer to take pictures with your device. If you do have PhotoPass, morning is a great time to try-out some MagicShots. MagicShots are PhotoPass photos enhanced to include Disney characters or other surprises.
There are so many brilliant ways to start your day at Disneyland Resort.
We hope you find the wake-up that works best for you and that you have a good morning and a great day! If you need some guidance in planning your visit, we recommend our Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep guide.