In this post we walk you through the process of planning a day at Disney California Adventure at Disneyland resort. We’re focusing just on that one park—not the other park at the resort, Disneyland park. We’ll introduce what the itinerary covers before walking through an example day, explaining how to make decisions about what to visit when. Read on to start planning your day at Disney California Adventure!
About This Post and Related Posts
If you’re interested in learning more about the offerings at the park, we have a Disney California Adventure Rides and Entertainment Guide. We also have a full Genie+ Lightning Lane Strategy covering Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
This post makes frequent references to the Disneyland app, which you will need in the parks. Download the Disneyland app now if you haven’t already.
Our itinerary posts are meant to provide you with the tools and understanding for building your own day at the park. Disney California Adventure is easier to fit into a day than Disneyland, but that means your schedule and approach can differ wildly from ours. On an average day, there’s a lot of flexibility here.
This post is based on a day with Disney California Adventure park hours from 8AM to 10PM. Park hours, attraction hours, and entertainment schedules vary. Be sure to check the exact schedule for you day on the Disneyland website ahead of time and in the app the day your visit.
Although our toddler makes appearances in this post, the itinerary is actually based on someone who meets all the height requirements and isn’t using rider switch. You can read more about the Disney California Adventure Height Requirements and Rider Switch here. There is a good amount of time in the day, though, if you need to use rider switch a few times.
Lightning Lanes at Disney California Adventure
We have a full post on Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, so this section is just meant to provide a brief overview, mainly just the context necessary for this post.
Should you buy Genie+ at Disney California Adventure?
We recommend buying Genie+ at Disney California Adventure. As covered in our Disneyland One Day Itinerary, we recommend a full day with Genie+ at each park. Unlike Disneyland, you probably could do most rides at Disney California Adventure without Genie+ most days of the year, but you’d usually wind up with a few waits of an hour or more. We think the time savings is worth the cost of one day of Genie+ here.
It’s worth mentioning here that we generally have the perspective of a once-per-year or less frequent visitor. If you’re visiting multiple times in a year, you’ll be able to get by with Genie+ less often even if there’s some risk that you miss a few rides.
The example itinerary in this post uses Genie+, but we hopefully provide enough context for people without Genie+ to plan a successful day, too. Particularly, you can see how much free time (free of rides, at least) our strategy leaves in the afternoon and evening. If you didn’t have Genie+, you’d theoretically be able to fit a few hours of waits in at that point.
Should you buy the Radiator Springs Racers Lightning Lane?
Over in the other park, we said Rise of the Resistance was “sometimes” worth buying, our example itinerary didn’t buy it. Radiator Springs Racers is a little trickier.
As part of a “do everything” plan, we’d recommend buying the Radiator Springs Racers Lightning Lane. It’s a fantastic ride and waits can spend entire days above 60 minutes. But if you’re open to missing out on some rides, you can forego the purchase and probably just start your morning at Radiator Springs Racers.
The ride also has a single rider line, but we’ve had mixed results with it. Sometimes it moves quickly, but sometimes the wait is nearly the same as the standby wait.
The example itinerary in this post uses the Radiator Springs Racers Lightning Lane, purchased for the 2PM to 3PM hour. As we’ll note again, if you didn’t want to use it you’d just arrive earlier and start your morning at Radiator Springs Racers. And as we mentioned in the Genie+ section right above, there is enough free time in this day that you’ll probably do fine without the Lightning Lanes.
Things to do at Disney California Adventure
Let’s start with what this post covers. Here are the things we’re trying to experience as part of a single day at Disney California Adventure.
Rides with Individual Lightning Lanes. There is one ride with an individual Lightning Lane at Disney California Adventure—Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land. It’s the most popular ride in the park, despite both Avengers Campus rides being newer.
Rides on Genie+. There are nine rides with Lightning Lanes that are a part of Genie+:
Hollywood Land (1) - Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
Grizzly Peak (2) - Grizzly River Run, Soarin’ Around the World
Avengers Campus (2) - Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!, WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
Paradise Gardens Park (2) - Goofy’s Sky School, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
Pixar Pier (2) - Incredicoaster, Toy Story Midway Mania!
Rides without Lightning Lanes. There are nine rides without Lightning Lanes at Disney California Adventure. Broken up by land, they are:
Buena Vista Street (1) - Red Car Trolley
Cars Land (2) - Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
Paradise Gardens Park (3) - Golden Zephyr, Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Silly Symphony Swings
Pixar Pier (3) - Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Jessie’s Critter Carousel, Pixar Pal-A-Round (two versions)
Core Entertainment. The only core piece of entertainment at Disney California Adventure is World of Color - ONE, the nighttime fountain spectacular. As of this update, World of Color uses a virtual queue for the bulk of the viewing space. We recommend reading more about the virtual queue and World of Color generally over at Disney Tourist Blog.
Other attractions, entertainment, and characters. Particularly since the addition of Avengers Campus, Disney California Adventure has enough ancillary activities to keep you occupied for the day. There are streetmosphere shows like The Amazing Spider-Man! and Five & Dime. The Animation Theatre alone houses three attractions and a character encounter.
Before your visit, we recommend opening the Disneyland app and visiting the Attractions, Entertainment, and Character menus to see the sorts of things that are available. On the day of your visit, confirm the exact offerings in the app.
Quick Tips on Disney California Adventure Touring
Our standard tips, more important and covered in more depth in our Disneyland One Day Itinerary, are set priorities, think geographically, know operating hours and showtimes, and keep lists. Those all still apply here, but rather than repeat the details discussed in that post, I want to add some thoughts specific to California Adventure.
Of the six Disney parks in the United States, I’d say Disney California Adventure is the one that calls for the most flexibility. This isn’t because it’s complicated or hard to see, but because I think its highlights are spectacular and its lowlights completely missable.
As always, this is a matter of personal preferences. Personally, I’d happily skip most of Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier in favor of multiple rides on Mission: BREAKOUT! and Radiator Springs Racers. My toddler would gladly skip the enter rest of Disneyland resort just to ride Jessie’s Critter Carousel.
Disney California Adventure has a reputation for a bit of clunky design (for years Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT! was a part of “Hollywood Land” for example), but the end result is actually a collection of beautiful lands.
Cars Land is one of Disney’s best. Avengers Campus feels incomplete to me, but is still a fun place to hang out. Pixar Pier is an imperfect overlay on old Paradise Pier but the design, stores, and atmosphere all shine. It’s a great park for a stroll (particularly with an adult beverage, if that’s you’re thing).
While I’ll let my personal preferences impact this itinerary slightly, for the most part it will still to our traditional approach of helping you plan to experience as much of the park as possible.
Brief Outline
If you aren’t planning to buy the Radiator Springs Racers Lightning Lane, we recommend starting your day there. Alternatively, you’ll start at Mission: BREAKOUT! From there, you ride the two rides in Cars Land without Lightning Lanes before heading to Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens Park.
There you navigate the three Genie+ rides and the seven rides without Lightning Lanes but that should have short waits early in the day. Once waits pick up, you stick to the age-old approach of “book a Lightning Lane, fill the time before the Lightning Lane, use the Lightning Lane, repeat.”
Arrival, Parking, and Security
We know nothing about parking at Disneyland resort. We typically stay at a Disney hotel or a nearby hotel that’s walkable to the parks. I’d recommend Disneyland Tour Guide if you need information related to parking and getting to the parks from parking.
However you arrive, you’ll have to account for time spent going through security and on the walk to the park gates (and tram time, if parking). As a rule of thumb, we recommend accounting for 15 minutes from the Harbor Boulevard entrance for bag check and walking to the gates. Many times, particularly earlier in the morning, this will be more like 5 minutes, but better safe than sorry on this point.
The entrances to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are opposite each other on the Disneyland Esplanade. Except for the fact that guests of Grand Californian have a dedicated entrance to California Adventure, and directions/timelines for getting to the entrance of one park will work for the other as well.
Early Entry Now One Park Each Day
As of January 20, 2024 Early Entry has been reduced to one park each day. This has two major impacts. First, guests of the Disneyland hotels will probably want to be deliberate and start their mornings at the park that has Early Entry. For these guests, not much changes.
Guests who aren’t staying at the Disneyland hotels will, conversely, want to start at the park that doesn’t have Early Entry. At Disney California Adventure this means on days without Early Entry, all guests will have the opportunity to start with Radiators Springs Racers or Mission: BREAKOUT! We’ll update our post in a few weeks (once we’ve had a chance to see how wait times shape up), but in any case you shouldn’t have much trouble planning for your visit based on the current version of this post.
Disney California Adventure Early Entry
Guests of Disney hotels can access select rides 30 minutes before other guests, and we think arriving at the park gates 15 minutes before then is advisable if you’d like to follow our plan. Alternatively, you could arrive closer to the start of Early Entry and possibly remove one of the two rides from our plan.
You can see the list of attractions included with Early Entry here. As of this update, the main thing to note about this list is that it doesn’t include Radiator Springs Racers. For us, this means our goal for Early Entry is (1) ride one ride, then (2) queue for Radiator Springs Racers. Guests with Early Entry can use the same Lightning Lane strategy we discuss in the next section.
Geographically, the option that makes the most sense is to ride Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT!, take the path from Avengers Campus to Cars Land, and queue for Radiator Springs Racers before picking up the itinerary with the next section. Here’s an example of a morning:
7:30AM - Enter Park
7:51AM - Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT!
7:58AM - Queue for Radiator Springs Racers
8:09AM - Radiator Springs Racers
8:28AM - Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters
Rope Drop After or Without Early Entry
We recommend arriving at the gates 15 to 30 minutes before the park opens. Once you’re inside the park, you can grab Toy Story Midway Mania! as your first pick on Genie+. You’ll want to keep an eye on the return window and be prepared to modify, because chances are you won’t want to head to use that Lightning Lane within the first hour of park opening. As a default, I’d try and grab a return window that starts 30 minutes after the park opens, but even a window that starts 60 minutes after the park opens is completely workable.
You can modify the return time, but it’s not a free for all, times generally roll forward. So let’s say at 7:30AM you grab an 8AM return time. Then at 8:30AM you realize you won’t be at the ride by 9AM, but by then the next return window is 11AM. That’s not ideal.
You can also buy the Lightning Lane for Radiator Springs Racers as soon as you enter the park, if you’re planning to use that Lightning Lane. You might also wait to see if you need it later in the day, but as always you want to make sure it doesn’t sell out if you’re going to want to buy it.
Our recommended rope drop begins with an eye toward riding Mission: BREAKOUT! twice today—once to start the day and once via Lightning Lane later in the day. You could alternatively (or even additionally) plan to ride WEB SLINGERS twice using the same strategy.
Since guests with Early Entry can visit Mission: BREAKOUT! early, the queue will have a wait by the time the park opens. Personally, I’d take anything up to a 20-minute wait. After Mission: BREAKOUT!, your goal is to get on Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters before its wait goes up.
Luigi’s is a very frustrating ride. It has low capacity and the queue always seems to move even slower than you’d expect. If you want to ride it, get there early. I know some kids love Luigi’s, but ours is just an enamored by Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Jessie’s Critter Carousel (both of which usually have shorter waits than Luigi’s), so Luigi’s is at the top of our “skip it if it’s going to cause trouble” list.
On your way to Luigi’s from Mission: BREAKOUT!, you’ll pass WEB SLINGERS. If it has a short wait, you might go on now in hopes of riding twice in a day. I don’t think WEB SLINGERS is worth two rides, and—not kidding at all—my arm would be so worn from the first ride (it’s a game-style ride) that I don’t think a second visit later in the day would be very enjoyable. To that end, my plan is to bypass WEB SLINGERS at this point, go and ride Luigi’s and Mater’s, and then move onto Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier, saving WEB SLINGERS for later.
8:17AM - Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT!
8:38AM - Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters (13 min wait)
8:45AM - Mater's Junkyard Jamboree
Mid-Morning at Disney California Adventure
If you’re hoping to ride as many rides as possible, your goal for the morning is to get through as much of Paradise Gardens Park / Pixar Pier as possible. There are six rides without Lightning Lanes and four rides on Genie+ in this part of the park, and many of the rides regularly carry 5-minute waits for the first few hours of the day.
You don’t so much have to worry about the correct order to visit the rides. Toy Story Midway Mania! is a more popular Lightning Lane than the other two (Incredicoaster, Goofy’s Sky School), which is why we picked it first.
Pixar Pal-A-Round will be the first of the rides without a Lightning Lane to build a significant wait, but it’s also the longest of the rides in this area (figure about 10 minutes), so we’re hesitant to rush right to it. There are two versions of the ride. Non-swinging is a traditional Ferris wheel experience. Swinging involves cars that slide along rails. It’s more intense than you’d expect, but quite fun. We prefer the swinging version.
Finally, The Little Mermaid is located closer to the rest of the park, which makes it fine to save for later.
8:52AM - Use Toy Story Mania LL, Grab Goofy's Sky School LL for 9:05AM
9:02AM - Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind
9:13AM - Silly Symphony Swings
9:21AM - Jumpin' Jellyfish
9:26AM - Golden Zephyr
9:32AM - Use Goofy's Sky School LL, Grab Incredicoaster for 9:40AM
At this point, both The Little Mermaid and Pixar Pal-A-Round had 5 minute waits. While the Pal-A-Round wait will go up, I felt fine with the prospect of even a 15-minute wait, so I visited The Little Mermaid first. The Pal-A-Round wait stayed low, so I was done with that soon, too.
9:42AM - The Little Mermaid
10:02AM - Pixar Pal-A-Round (15 minute wait)
Using my Incredicoaster Lightning Lane at 10:18AM, I had a choice between Grizzly River Run and Soarin’ for my next pick. In California’s temperate climate, it’s common to see Grizzly River Run keep short waits until the afternoon heat arrives, at which point the wait will jump. Seeing Grizzly River Run still at 5 minutes, I opted to book a Soarin’ Lightning Lane, planning to wait standby for Grizzly River Run.
10:18AM - Use Incredicoaster LL, Grab 11:20AM Soarin' LL
10:37AM - Grizzly River Run (10 minute wait)
This left some time before the Soarin’ Lightning Lane, but luckily we’ve made our way back toward the hub of the park, where options abound. This time is good for shopping, meeting characters, and getting coffee from the in-park Starbucks, “Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical Cafe.” In our experience, there are often several characters meeting in the area around the hub, and their waits are usually not too bad.
Once the time for my Soarin’ Lightning Lane came, I headed there, using that and booking Monsters Inc. next. Booking Monsters Inc. leaves Mission: BREAKOUT! and WEB SLINGERS for later. These are both in Avengers Campus, which has a good restaurant (Pym Test Kitchen) and good entertainment. If I can get those bookings close together, I’ll be able to spend a nice chunk of time enjoying everything the land has to offer.
Soarin’ has a long load time even if you have a Lightning Lane, which is why we don’t really bother with it too early in the morning at either Disney California Adventure or Epcot.
11:20AM - Use Soarin' LL (still 15 minutes to board), Grab 12:05PM Monsters Inc.
Lunch at Disney California Adventure
With a short gap before Monsters Inc., this is a good time for lunch. Since my next Lightning Lane booking is going to be Mission: BREAKOUT, I’d actually prefer to be at Monsters Inc. right when that window starts, but I’ll settle for a little less than ideal at this moment.
“Think geographically” is a point we really push in our Disneyland itinerary, and while you still should do that at California Adventure, it should be clear by this point in the day that you have a bit more flexibility. In particular, while there are two good restaurants between Soarin’ and Monsters Inc. (Award Wieners and Smokejumpers Grill), I want to eat at Pym Test Kitchen and Flo’s V8 Cafe today. Pym’s is slightly closer, so that’s lunch.
Any time you’re going to be in Avengers Campus it’s worth checking the entertainment schedule to see if you can catch anything. In this case, the 12PM Warriors of Wakanda performance was going on during lunch. Depending on where you sit you might be able to have a mostly obstructed view from a table, or some members of your party can step out to watch the show while someone else stays with the table.
As noted earlier, you will want to make sure you’re prepared to join the World of Color Virtual queue, which, as of this update, opens at 12PM daily.
After lunch I rode Monsters Inc. and secured my 3:50PM booking for Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT!, my second chance to ride it today. Since the time was more than two hours out, I’d make my next booking at 2:35PM, two hours after I made this booking.
Lunch at Pym Test Kitchen, watch Warriors of Wakanda
12:35PM - Use Monsters Inc. LL, Grab 3:50PM Mission: BREAKOUT! LL
This is a good time for a progress report.
Progress Check
At some point in the middle of the day you need to do a serious progress check. While you should be keeping tabs on progress throughout the day, I still recommend taking a few minutes to make sure you’re set for the afternoon. Use the app to confirm attraction closing times, final showtimes for entertainment, and character greeting times.
For rides, I’ve only got Red Car Trolley, Jessie’s Critter Carousel, Radiator Springs Racers, and WEB SLINGERS left. WEB SLINGERS will be my last Lightning Lane booking, and I’ve got Radiator Springs Racers booked already. Jessie’s Critter Carousel all the way on Pixar Pier and missable (don’t worry, Zoe rode separately!). Red Car Trolley is a “ride it if you see it at a stop” sort of ride, so maybe I make it, maybe I don’t.
The top of my list for the afternoon is Avengers Campus entertainment. In particular, I’d like to catch The Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Guardians Dance Off, and Mysteries of the Mystic Arts. If these can be batched around the Avengers Campus rides, that would be ideal.
Early Afternoon at Disney California Adventure
With a 2PM to 3PM Lightning Lane for Radiator Springs booked, I’ve got between one and two hours to fill. Nearby are some great options.
The Animation Building in Hollywood Land houses a few attractions and is where I’ll head next. An alternative would be Philharmagic, across the street. This is a 12-minute 3D show that is worth a watch but not something you usually need to prioritize.
The Animation Building houses three attractions—Animation Academy, Sorcerer’s Workshop, and Turtle Talk with Crush. There’s also an Anna & Elsa greeting. If you pop in early in the day you can grab a picture of the Animation Academy schedule to see what characters will be drawn. Crowds line up early, so we recommend arriving 15 minutes early for this one. If you happen to be in the building as a class starts, there’s still often space.
Beginning June 30, the Hyperion Theater will house Rogers: The Musical.
1:00PM Animation Academy
1:25PM Sorcerer’s Workshop
1:55PM Philharmagic
After these activities it was time to use my Lightning Lane for Radiator Springs Racers. The posted wait was 75 minutes, so you can quickly look at my schedule today and deduce that the Lightning Lane wasn’t at all necessary.
2:35PM - Use Radiator Springs Racers LL
2:38PM - Book WEB SLINGERS LL for 5:40PM
After Radiator Springs Racers it was coincidentally time to book another Genie+ Lightning Lane, so I grabbed my last one of the day—WEB SLINGERS for 5:40PM. I’m a bit bummed the time was so late, as it doesn’t pair perfectly with the 3:50PM Mission: BREAKOUT, but such is life (I could try to modify it, though).
Now with my two Avengers Campus Lightning Lanes locked in, it was time once again to consult the entertainment schedule. It was pretty straightforward to spot the following showtimes as one’s I’d want to see: 4:00PM - The Amazing Spider-Man! 4:10PM - Avengers Assemble!, and 4:45PM - Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Dance Off.
Late Afternoon at Disney California Adventure
This left just over an hour of time to fill. I opted for a lap around Pixar Pier / Paradise Gardens Park. Along the way I stopped at the Bakery Tour, a quick walkthrough attraction where you get a free piece of bread and can watch the resort’s sourdough loaves get made.
Jessie’s Critter Carousel was posting 5 minutes still, but I waited 7 and it moved up to 10 shortly thereafter. Being on this side of the park there’s no reason not to just check this box. There are some good stores on Pixar Pier, along with pay-to-play carnival games and the popular ice cream stop, Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats.
3:23PM - Jessie’s Critter Carousel
Back at Avengers Campus, I arrived a little early in order to grab a drink from Pym Tasting Lounge. This is the bar outside Pym Test Kitchen which is also available for mobile order. Keep an eye on mobile order times, particularly later in the day, as they can get quite late.
The Amazing Spider-Man! is held over by the WEB building. It’s altogether an embarrassing setup for a cool show. Crowds arrive pretty early and line up along the narrow pathway, and Cast Members have to keep them to the side while simultaneously directing traffic through while the show goes on. Luckily, it’s a short show with a quick, cool payoff, as you’re really there to see the acrobatic animatronic. If you stick around you can usually get a high five from Spider-Man.
4:00PM - The Amazing Spider-Man!
4:10PM - Avengers Assemble!
4:20PM - Use Mission: BREAKOUT LL
4:45PM - Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Dance Off
Avengers Assemble is held on the main building in the land and features the Avengers facing off against a few bad guys. The Guardians of the Galaxy Dance Off is a goofy (because Guardians) show in front of the Mission: BREAKOUT! tower. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it, but if its playing before or after my Lightning Lane I’ll watch it.
Evening at California Adventure
The timing now is less than ideal. At 5PM I’m at Avengers Campus with a 5:40PM Lightning Lane booked for WEB SLINGERS, in Avengers Campus. If I were a bit more aggressive in my planning, I would have spent a few minutes trying to modify that time to be closer to my Mission: BREAKOUT time.
As it is, the two approaches now are (1) spend time in the area until 5:40PM and then use the Lightning Lane or (2) embark on an adventure around the park, using the Lightning Lane at the end of its window, 6:40PM. We’ll do the latter, but the former would be fine, too.
Other than that, the two major things left in the evening are dinner and World of Color at 9PM. But just as much as we emphasized Disney California Adventure being a good park to walk around in the day, it’s even better at night. Cars Land at night is particularly stunning. The land illuminates—in the same way it does in the movie—usually right around sunset and takes on a new life at night.
Also remaining on the entertainment schedule is Dr. Strange: Mysteries of the Mystic Arts, also in Avengers Campus. The show can be quite crowded earlier in the day, so we prefer later shows (the aesthetic of the land and show are maybe better at night, too).
Finally, filed under “pay attention to closing times”—the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail closes at 7:45PM. This playground / ropes course area is particularly fun for small children and definitely worth a visit for families at some point in the day. Ideally I would have liked to have visited it with Zoe earlier, but luckily we’ve still got time for it.
Since we had lunch at Pym Test Kitchen, our plan for dinner will be Flo’s V8 Cafe, with specific plans to sit outside and watch the cars on Radiator Springs Racers go by.
There are usually a few character greetings still ongoing until mid-evening. On this night, Meet Pixar Pals and Meet Disney Pals were both ongoing until 8PM.
We don’t have a specific recommendation for when to arrive for World of Color. We’ve never heard of people with virtual queue spots being turned away, but that is explicitly allowable by the terms Disney spells out on the virtual queue. As a rule of thumb, we think 30 minutes early is fine unless you’re still squeezing things into your evening, in which case we think arriving 15 minute early is fine, too.
Walk Around / Redwood Creek Challenge Trail / Meet Characters
6:40PM Use WEB SLINGERS LL
7PM Dinner
7:55PM - Mysteries of the Mystic Arts
9PM World of Color
As always, if the park is open until 10PM you should be allowed to queue for any open ride right up until 10PM. I always like to plan a buffer to try and make sure I’m in my last line a few minutes before the park closing. Some rides may close earlier, as noted in the app. Since we accomplished everything we set out to do, we don’t feel the need to pack in anything into the very end of the day.
Conclusions
As noted at the opening of this post, we find California Adventure to be an unbalanced park. The highlights are awesome, and the lowlights are missable. On top of that, you can see that on a pretty typical day (Thrill Data pegged crowds at 6/10), a successful morning makes for a very easy day.
While the park probably could fit into a day of, say, 9AM to 5PM, it’s the morning hours that really make the rest of the day easy, and it’s the evening hours where the design of the park really shines.
All Your Other Disneyland Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Planning Guide. If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disneyland crowd calendars.
When it comes to hotels, we’ve got reviews of all three Disney hotels: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. As for tickets, check out where to find discount Disneyland tickets.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Rides Guide and Disney California Adventure Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Disneyland and Disney California Adventure FASTPASS and MaxPass Strategy! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Itinerary and a One Day Disney California Adventure Itinerary.
We always recommend arriving at the parks early. If you can get access to Extra Magic Hour at Disney California Adventure or Extra Magic Hour and Magic Morning at Disneyland, you’ll have the most time in the parks. Even without those bonus hours, you’ll need to know Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland and Rope Drop Strategy at Disney California Adventure.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.