When my household took a visit to Disneyland this previous August, I used to be initially somewhat apprehensive about going after the pandemic. Don’t get me unsuitable, I like theme parks and we’re all massive Disney followers, so that you’d assume I’d be very excited to return.

There have been some massive adjustments since our final go to, equivalent to eliminating the legacy FASTPASS and MaxPass programs. If I needed to make sure my household and I made essentially the most of our vacation, I needed to relearn one of the best methods to go about our go to.

Ultimately, we had two fun-filled days at Disneyland and California Journey Park. Listed here are some suggestions and methods that I found alongside the best way which will assist to make your subsequent journey to Disneyland somewhat simpler.

Purchase Tickets and Make a Reservation

As you’re planning your journey, the primary order of enterprise is to move to the Disneyland web site and join an account. When you’ve created one, you possibly can view your tickets and park images, in addition to simply handle all your resort, park, eating, and exercise reservations on the dashboard.

If you are going to buy tickets straight from Disney, they’ll mechanically present up below your profile. If you are going to buy them from a third-party vendor, you possibly can hyperlink your tickets in your on-line account or through the use of the Disneyland app. 

Word that purchasing a ticket alone is not going to get you into the Disneyland parks. After you buy a ticket, determine on which dates and parks you’d like to go to, after which make a reservation.

Park reservations are topic to availability, so should you’re visiting throughout a busy time of yr and go and not using a reservation, you could possibly be denied entry if all of the reservations are booked for the day.

If you are going to buy your tickets straight by means of Disney, you’ll have already got made a reservation while you accomplished the acquisition. If you are going to buy your tickets from a third-party vendor, you’ll must hyperlink the ticket to your profile first, after which make a reservation individually.

Get to Know the Disneyland App

The Disneyland app is your greatest pal while you’re on the park. You should definitely take a while to familiarize your self with the app, as it should turn out to be useful when you’ve lastly arrived and are able to benefit from your vacation.

Different options of the app assist you to make cell eating orders, handle Genie+ return instances, obtain notifications for rides which are down, view a map of the parks, and see present attraction wait instances and top restrictions.

As you’re planning out your day, use the app to see which points of interest can be found, the entry necessities, and the place they’re positioned within the park. By visualizing the place the whole lot is and checking the peak necessities, you possibly can keep away from disappointment upfront and save everybody from pointless operating round.

Pay Extra to Save Time

You’ll doubtless examine Genie+ throughout your preparations, which is a paid service that provides you entry to shorter traces in Disneyland and California Journey Park. Utilizing Genie+ will afford you and your loved ones extra time having fun with the points of interest and fewer time standing in lengthy traces, but it surely comes at a price.

Earlier than diving into the intricacies of Genie+, you’ll want to know the variations between Genie and Genie+.

What Are Genie and Genie+?

Disney Genie is a characteristic of the free Disneyland app that shows your each day itinerary, together with any reservations you’ve gotten, and provides up-to-date solutions on which attraction to go to subsequent, primarily based in your preferences and placement within the park. It additionally shows top restrictions and wait-time estimates for all points of interest, which helps you propose your day accordingly.

Alternatively, Genie+ is a paid experience reservation system that lets you use separate, shorter traces. Prior to now, this was a free service, however, sadly, that’s not the case.

In the event you want to skip the longer queues, Genie+ will value you $25 (USD) per particular person per day, if purchased upfront. Similar-day purchases are variable in value, and begin at $25 (USD), relying on the demand for the day.

Do you have to be travelling with a gaggle of individuals, you possibly can simply hyperlink tickets throughout profiles. To hyperlink tickets, go to the “Tickets and Passes” part of the app, and scan the tickets of the opposite members of your group.

This fashion, should you’re making an attempt to e book a Genie+ reservation, one particular person can e book it for the entire group, slightly than everybody scrambling to e book for a similar or comparable return time.

Use Genie+

The Genie+ service lets you select the subsequent out there arrival return time at 11 taking part points of interest at Disneyland and eight taking part points of interest at California Journey Park. You possibly can solely have a Genie+ reserving for one attraction at a time, and just one reserving per day may be made for every attraction.

A return time is a particular interval so that you can come again to an attraction and never have to attend within the standby queue. Relatively, while you arrive at your scheduled return time, you’ll get to make use of the categorical queue, generally known as the Lightning Lane entrance (beforehand generally known as the FASTPASS line), subsequently skipping the common queue.

In Disneyland, Genie+ reservations may be made on the next points of interest:

• Autopia
• Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
• Haunted Mansion
• Indiana Jones Journey
• “it’s a small world”
• Matterhorn Bobsleds
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Roger Rabbit’s Automobile Toon Spin
• Area Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Star Excursions – The Adventures Proceed

At California Journey Park, Genie+ can be utilized on the next points of interest:

• Goofy’s Sky College
• Grizzly River Run
• Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
• Incredicoaster
• Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
• Soarin’ Over California
• Toy Story Halfway Mania!
• WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Journey

To provide you an thought of simply how a lot time may be saved with Genie+, most wait instances had been lower than 10 minutes utilizing the Lightning Lane entrance throughout our go to, versus ready upwards of 60 minutes or extra within the standby queue. This allowed us to go to different areas of the parks, after we would have in any other case needed to stand in line.

Maximize Genie+

Genie+ is activated the minute you enter the park. So, as quickly as you stroll by means of the gates, be sure you e book the Lightning Lane on your first attraction.

When you’ve booked an energetic return time, you possibly can solely e book the subsequent one in one of many following conditions:

• Two hours have handed because you final booked.
• You’ve tapped into the Lightning Lane for an attraction.
• Your return time window has handed.

Typically talking, technique is to e book the closest out there return time, faucet into the attraction, after which e book the subsequent one instantly. Doing it will decrease your wait instances, and assist you to pack essentially the most right into a day.

Though Genie+ formally offers you a one-hour window to return, grace durations of 5 minutes beforehand and quarter-hour afterwards are given. So, you could possibly probably go a bit earlier to your experience and rating the subsequent Lightning Lane reservation somewhat faster.

Forged Members normally begin scanning friends into the parks half-hour previous to the park’s official opening time. In the event you go early, you could possibly squeeze in an additional two or three rides with quick standby queues, earlier than using your first Genie+ return time.

After we visited, we actually walked off of 1 experience and onto the subsequent. The later you arrive, the later the return instances will probably be, as extra folks will probably be competing for them.

Take into account staying at a close-by lodge, such because the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance, to make the morning commute simpler. Company staying at a Disneyland resort even have an early entry profit, the place they’ll enter Disneyland parks half-hour sooner than friends staying elsewhere.

Genie+ reservations are topic to availability, so it’s greatest to prioritize high-demand points of interest first, as they’re prone to promote out earlier than the top of the day.

In Disneyland, take into account prioritizing the next points of interest with Genie+:

• Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Indiana Jones Journey
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Area Mountain

Whereas in California Journey Park, take into account prioritizing the next points of interest with Genie+:

• Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
• Soarin’ Over California
• Toy Story Halfway Mania!
• WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Journey

Particular person Lightning Lane Purchases

Genie+ doesn’t embrace the high-demand points of interest Radiator Springs Racers at California Journey Park or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland. Relatively, these rides require separate, particular person Lightning Lane purchases, no matter whether or not you’ve bought Genie+ or not.

If these rides are in your hit checklist, then I might extremely suggest making the acquisition. Standby queues for these rides may be greater than 90 minutes, which actually eats into your day.

Pricing for every Lightning Lane varies, and may solely be bought when you’ve entered the park. Costs begin at $12 (USD), however we paid $15 (USD) for Radiator Springs Racers and $20 (USD) for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance throughout our keep.

There are a restricted variety of passes out there every day, so don’t wait too lengthy should you’re on the fence about it. On the times we had been there, Lightning Lanes had been offered out by 4pm, and these weren’t even on busy days.

Particular person Lightning Lanes will not be topic to Genie+ time restrictions, which implies they are often booked at any time throughout the day for the subsequent out there return time. Word that they are often bought as soon as per experience, per day.

In the event you select to not buy a person Lightning Lane for these points of interest or they’re offered out, the subsequent greatest solution to catch them is both at the start or finish of the day. So long as you may make it into the standby queue by closing time, you’ll get on the experience.

The standby queues have normally thinned out the the latter a part of the night, so wait instances are usually shorter.

Genie+ and PhotoPass

PhotoPass is Disney’s photo-taking service. In the event you’ve ever been to Disney World or Disneyland, you’ll discover that there are Forged Members positioned at sure areas and points of interest all through the parks snapping images for friends.

At Disney World, you both must pay to obtain these images individually, or buy a Reminiscence Maker package deal for limitless digital downloads. At Disneyland, buying Genie+ consists of limitless Disney PhotoPass downloads for the whole time within the theme parks.

It’s a terrific profit that comes together with Genie+, as this service usually prices $69 (USD) per day at Disney World.

You should definitely take benefit and permit Forged Members to seize these particular moments for you. All you must do is allow them to take your picture and scan your PhotoPass code on the app.

If the picture is taken as a part of a experience, be aware of the eight-character Attraction ID on the picture screens on the finish of the experience to hyperlink them to your PhotoPass.

Different Ideas & Methods

When you’ve deliberate out your go to to Disneyland and California Journey Park, there are a number of different issues that may assist you to and your loved ones maximize your time.

Use Single Rider Lanes

In case your youngsters are older, you don’t have a Lightning Lane, or don’t thoughts driving individually, it might be faster to hop right into a single rider lane, which is obtainable on choose rides. I’ve seen single rider lanes transfer fairly rapidly in comparison with the standby queue, so that you would possibly wind up saving a while this fashion.

Rider Change Service

Typically younger youngsters could also be too scared or too small for a experience, so somebody has to remain behind to look at them whereas the remainder of the group rides. Disneyland provides a Rider Change service, the place the supervising visitor can hop onto the experience as soon as the opposite riders return, with out having to attend in line once more.

Higher but, when the supervising visitor goes on the experience, they’ll deliver one other two friends with them, probably permitting some group members to experience twice!

This service is barely out there on choose rides, which may be discovered on Disneyland’s web site.

Alternatively, if this service isn’t out there for a selected experience, you could possibly e book a Genie+ Lightning Lane for the non-rider(s) and permit different members of the group to make use of it. All you must do is scan the non-rider’s ticket for that reserving.

Trip Breakdowns and A number of Experiences Passes

If a experience is down throughout your return window, you’ve hit the jackpot. Not solely are you able to instantly e book a brand new return time to every other out there experience, however the Genie+ system mechanically points you a A number of Experiences move that can be utilized on virtually any experience within the park, apart from rides with a paid Lightning Lane. 

If this occurs, you’ll get a notification by means of the app, which can show the next:

Faucet on it, and also you’ll be proven which experience it replaces and the tickets concerned.

The A number of Experiences move is legitimate to be used any time at both park for one experience, with none time restrictions, proper by means of to the top of the day. You possibly can wait on your initially booked experience to open up once more, or experience a second time on one for which you’ve already redeemed a Genie+ reservation.

Digital Queue for World of Coloration

You’ll discover in your Disneyland app that there’s a Digital Queue part. Initially, I had no clue what perform this served.

On the day we visited California Journey Park, I clicked it out of curiosity, and found it was a solution to reserve seating for the World of Coloration outside night spectacular.

You possibly can be a part of the digital queue starting at 12pm each day, topic to availability. Roughly 45 minutes previous to the present, friends with a Digital Queue will probably be despatched a notification from the app to proceed to the viewing space.

Though it’s not required to view the present, I might suggest becoming a member of the queue, as it should grant entry to reserved viewing areas which provide a more in-depth and a lot better view. Sadly, we didn’t fairly make it in time, so we watched the present from behind the reserved space.

Beating the Warmth

We visited Disneyland on the finish of August, and whereas temperatures weren’t scorching, it was nonetheless scorching. Break up your day with indoor points of interest, as they’ve air con and provide a pleasant retreat from the warmth.

For instance, in Disneyland, go to the Enchanted Tiki Room for a musical presentation, or take a sketching class on the Animation Academy in California Journey Park.

Once you’re exterior, be sure you pack a cooling towel that may be wrapped round heads and necks. In fact, deliver a water bottle, and look out for one with a misting perform, too.

Apart from maintaining them cool, my youngsters had enjoyable with them, which additionally helped to distract from the warmth.

Conclusion

Planning a go to to Disneyland might not be as difficult as planning a go to to Disney World, however there are nonetheless loads of issues you are able to do beforehand to arrange and guarantee a smoother expertise. Learn up on the parks, take a look at the app, and prioritize your points of interest.

In the event you want help planning the flights, lodging, or buying your tickets, take a look at my earlier publish. Whether or not it’s your first time visiting Disneyland ever or simply because the pandemic, hopefully these posts will assist your go to be a magical one.