Prior to social media, I would have said I was the biggest Disney park fanatic around. Now I realize that I don’t even come close. But I do take my park days extremely seriously and try to maximize my park rides while minimizing how long I have to stand in line. Here’s how we spent 2 days at Disney California Adventures and Disneyland.
Visiting theme parks used to entail racing around the park collecting fast lane passes from ticket kiosks. With the advent of the many iterations of the lightning lane system, my out of pocket expenses have increased, but I’ve saved wear and tear to my shoes and it involves a lot more smart phone finagling and a lot less steps. I also had to calm down on my schedule once I had kids, which has involved not staying out until midnight and going back to the hotel for a nap. While those two things haven’t changed, the kids are getting older and we are able to push what time we leave the park by a couple of hours.
Some thoughts used when planning out our day
First ride selected and other ride comments
As you’ll see below, our first ride was Soarin’ Over California. While I personally love this ride, it isn’t a family favorite, especially with two members of the family with pretty severe heights phobia. However, Soarin’ always tends to have quite a long wait, even when using a lightning lane pass. Therefore, the idea of bumping up Soarin’ to the first ride of early access had everything to do with trying the find the ride that would minimize wait times, versus going with everyone’s favorite ride.
My husband and I LOVE the incredicoaster. However, my daughter didn’t want to ride any upside down rides (something we talked her into the next day) and my son is too short. Therefore, our plan was to just use the single rider line whenever we had free time, which turned out not to be the case on day one.
Speaking of single rider lines. I LOVE them. Pre-kids we utilized them like crazy. Post-kids, we are waiting out the day that the kids can ride by themselves so we can all go in the single rider line.
Food thoughts
During our last 2 visits to Disney parks I obtained reservations for various meals. I ended up regretting it every time. Either it interfered with lightning lane passes for rides everyone wanted to go on (read: Tron) or we ended up eating at food booths for festivals and weren’t even hungry by the reservations time.
Parade / Entertainment thoughts
We tend to skip the parades and nighttime entertainment options. We’ve tried them in the past and the kids don’t care enough about it to wait for it and would rather go on rides while the ride lines are longer.
Park Hours and Ride Closures
We stayed on premise so we had access to a 7:30 AM – 8:00 AM early entry at Disney California Adventures on Day 1 and the same early entry at Disneyland on Day 2. Note: I would have preferred to have stayed off-site for a MUCH shorter walk, but since we are DVC members (read: Disney timeshare) it was cheaper for us to stay at the Villas at Disneyland Hotel. Disney California Adventures was open from 8 AM – 10 PM on the days we were there and Disneyland was open from 8 AM – 12 AM. Park Hopper availability started at 11 AM.
While we were there Indiana Jones and It’s a Small World were closed for refurbishments. Click here to see hours and ride closures during your visit.
Our Detailed Timeline of Day 1
Early Access Timeline (6:30 AM – 7:30 AM)
- 6:30 AM: Arrive at the security checkpoint before Downtown Disney.
- 6:45 AM: Security opens. Walk from security checkpoint to gates of Disney California Adventures.
- 7:15 AM: Gates at Disney California Adventures open for early access. Make way to first ride of the day (Soarin’ Over California).
Grizzly Peak (7:30 AM – 7:45 AM)
- 7:30 AM: Ride Soarin’ Over California. Start to check app for any lightning lane options (including individual lightning lanes) but all options are too early in the day to use.
Cars Land (7:45 AM – 8:00 AM)
- 7:45 AM: Ride Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.
Paradise Gardens Park (8:00 AM – 8:30 AM)
- 8:00 AM: Ride the Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. Obtain a lightning lane pass to Goofy’s Sky School.
- 8:10 AM: Ride Goofy’s Sky School. Obtain a lightning lane pass to Toy Story Mania! after scanning in.
- 8:20 AM: Ride the Golden Zephyr.
- 8:25 AM: Walk to Silly Symphony Swings but see that it is closed and continue on to Pixar Pier.
Pixar Pier (8:30 AM – 9:00 AM)
- 8:30 AM: Ride Jessie’s Critter Carousel
- 8:40 AM: Ride Toy Story Mania! Obtain a lightning lane pass for Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure after scanning in.
- 8:55 AM: Mobile order 2 Spiced Ham Musubi Burritos from the Cappuccino Cart.
Paradise Gardens Park (9:00 AM – 9:25 AM)
- 9:00 AM: Pick up burritos and split amongst the four of us. The line was LONG to order food and coffee, so mobile ordering was a huge win.
Cars Land (9:25 AM – 10:00 AM)
- 9:25 AM: Obtain an individual lightning lane pass to Radiator Springs Racers.
- 9:30 AM: Ride Radiator Springs Racers
Avengers Campus (10:00 AM – 10:30 AM)
- 10:00 AM: Ride Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. Obtain a lightning lane pass to Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! after scanning in.
Hollywood Land (10:30 AM – 10:45 AM)
- 10:30 AM: Ride Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! Obtain a lightning lane pass to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run after scanning in.
Park Hop over to Disneyland (10:45 AM – 11:15 AM)
- While still at California Adventures, obtain a Sip and Savor Pass for the Food and Wine Festival. When we last visited the park in December 2021, getting a Sip and Savor Pass was such a great thing. This time around, we ended up regretting it (explanation coming soon!)
- Walk over to Disneyland in order to park hop right at 11 AM.
- Mobile order lunch (from Docking Bay 7 for the kids and Ronto Roasters for my husband and me).
- Purchase an individual lightning lane pass for Rise of the Resistance.
Galaxy’s Edge (11:15 AM – 12:45 PM)
- 11:15 AM: Eat lunch at Docking Bay 7 and Ronto Roasters
- 11:40 AM: Ride Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run. Obtain a lightning line pass for Mickey’s Runaway Railroad after scanning in.
- 12:15 PM: Ride Rise of the Resistance.
- 12:30 PM: Shopping in Galaxy’s Edge.
Toon Town (12:45 PM – 1:30 PM)
- 12:45 PM: Ride Mickey Minnie’s Runaway Railroad. Obtain a lightning lane pass to Hyperspace Mountain (with a return time of 7:30 PM). This starts the 2-hour wait / stacking process. Set an alarm for 2:45 PM to obtain the next lightning lane pass.
Fantasyland / Tomorrowland (1:30 PM – 1:30 PM)
- 1:30 PM: Mobile order a snack from Edelweiss Snacks. This looks like the only place to get Turkey Legs mobile orders.
- 1:45 PM: Catch the Disneyland Monorail back to Downtown Disney
Rest / Nap / Break from the Theme Parks (2:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
- 2:45 PM: Obtain a lightning lane pass for Big Thunder Mountain at 5:30 PM. Set an alarm for 4:45 PM to obtain the next lightning lane pass.
- 4:45 PM: Obtain a lightning lane pass for the Haunted Mansion. It was supposed to be for a 7:30 PM return time but right when I went to obtain the passes they offered a 5:15 PM return time pass.
- 5:00 PM: Return to Disneyland via the Monorail.
New Orleans Square (5:00 PM – 5:40 PM)
- 5:20 PM: Ride the Haunted Mansion. Obtain a lightning lane pass to the Matterhorn Bobsleds at 8:30 PM after scanning in. Set an alarm for 7:20 PM to obtain the next lightning lane pass.
Frontierland (5:40 PM – 6:00 PM)
- 5:45 PM: Ride Big Thunder Mountain.
Tomorrowland (6:00 PM – 8:40 PM)
- 6:00 PM: Mobile order dinner from Alien Pizza Planet.
- 7:00 PM: Ride Autopia using the standby line.
- 7:20 PM: Obtain a lightning lane pass for Star Tours.
- 7:30 PM: Ride Hyperspace Mountain.
- 7:50 PM: Ride Star Tours. Obtain a lightning lane pass for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters after scanning in.
- 8:10 PM: Mobile order drinks from Galactic Grill.
Fantasyland (8:40 PM – 8:50 PM)
- 8:40 PM: Ride Matterhorn Bobsleds.
Tomorrowland (8:50 PM – 9:40 PM)
- 8:50 PM: Ride Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Obtain a lightning lane pass to Autopia after scanning in.
- 9:15 PM: Ride Autopia (again).
- 9:30 PM: Take the monorail back to the hotel.
Final Thoughts
Our original plans included returning to Disney California Adventures for dinner (on both nights). However, after a morning in the park, everyone preferred to commute via the monorail, which resulting in coming and going out of Tomorrowland, Disneyland.
Make sure you know where food options prior to 11 AM are. On both days, the family started getting grumpy for food at 10 AM but we were not too close to a lot of food options and always wanted to park hop right at 11 AM to enjoy more rides. While on the topic of food, mobile ordering in advance is the way to go. For each meal we strolled by LONG lines to pick up our food quickly thanks to our mobile ordering.
If you liked this post, maybe you would like these posts from Hawaii Girl Travels:
Our 1-Day Planned Disney’s Animal Kingdom Itinerary for Families And How It Worked For Us
Our 1-Day Planned EPCOT Itinerary For Families And How It Worked For Us
Check out Destinations to see all the other places I’ve talked about.