Seeking Any Tips for First Trip to Disneyland with Our Toddler

My husband and I just took our 2 1/2 yr old son to Disney World this past spring. He loved it! We have also gone to Disneyland with him (around 1 1/2) and Disney really makes it easy for you to travel with toddlers.
My biggest tip would be to have a lot of small snacks with you for throughout the day. A small granola bar or bag of crackers sure makes the line go a lot smoother with a toddler! Also, be sure to bring your own stroller. Disney provides them for a fee but we were much more comfortable in our own stroller - and our son even napped in it every day.
Another HUGE tip is that you can get a free cup of water from anywhere you can order food. This is really important as a bottle of water can be $3-4 and you want your son to drink plenty of water while there. If he's like my son and isn't a fan of water, go to the store and buy the small mix in packages of flavoring (near the crystal light, etc) -they even have an apple juice flavored mix in that my son loved.
The gerber infant center is still there, and is awesome especially if you are potty training. The area is tiny and there is really no place to just "hang out" so you only want to go in there to cool off. They do have a nice drinking fountain in there also if you need to refill bottles.
One last tip, go to the dollar store and load up on disney items there and bring them on your trip.
Finally, don't forget to go to California Adventure and go to the playhouse disney show -it's amazing for toddler!

Have a great time.
A.

The only way we made it thru Disneyland with toddlers was to drop the extra cash and stay at a Disneyland hotel. We'd be up with the kids, in the park when it opened, take the Monorail back around lunch time, just as the park filled up. We'd all rest, take naps, maybe even swim, and head back in vai Mono rail around 3 when everyone else who had screaming toddlers was giving up! We did this twice, and it was WELL worth the extra money to stay close. We were all rested and happy, and were in the park during non-peak times!

If you are staying at a Disney hotel, then I would go early in the morning when the park opens, leave right after lunch, put your child down for a nap & return later in the day. Or just go for half days, because a full day is just too much for a child that age. Take lots of sunscreen,water,snacks & antibacterial wipes. Definitely do the fast passes.

make a map of the park!!! Especially if you have 1 child and don't have to make everyone happy. If you go to disneyland.com you can click on rides and attractions you want to see and skip all the big rides. Save your rides to the favorites within the webpage. then you can print your own customized map of the park. We went with 3 boys under 4 and made our map to exclude all the girly stuff( too much princessy things) and rides thet were too big for the boys. That way we knew what we wanted to see at which end of the park and I think we got to see more than if we got a regular map.

Hi S.,

I agree with all the posts you've gotten so far, especially the advice from A. L. and the recommendation of staying at the Disneyland hotel if you can. We went this summer and had a great time. Here is a wonderful website that has a lot of tips: http://www.babesindisneyland.com

My kids loved being able to meet the characters. There are ways you can do this throughout both parks by standing in line at certain locations, but you can also do character meals with them. It's really worth the price in my opinion!

Have a great time!

Actually they do have a very nice little "tot" area for babies and toddlers. It has bathroom facilities for little ones, changing tables and nursing rooms but not much else (they do have video's and books but they only use these for lost kids and don't let other kids into this area). You can also get supplies here like baby food, diapers, bottles, pacifiers, etc. but you will be paying a premium for them! It is located near the end of the main street inside Disneyland (by the birthday pavilion).

Some of the things I would recommend (having been to Disneyland every year since my first daughter was 2...I now have 3 other kids ages 2, 5, and 7) are bringing as much food as you can inside the park. Food/snacks and drinks are ridiculously expensive inside the park. What we usually do with our crew is have a really big breakfast, no lunch (we just snack on all the treats I bring in) and then a good sized dinner. Cuts the cost in half!

Tips for the rides, wait until the parades are about to start and then you can pretty much walk on to most of the rides! Everyone starts lining up for the parades early and as long as you don't mind missing out on some of these, than you can avoid a lot of lines, especially in the Fantasyland area where the lines can get pretty long for little ones.

Character lines are pretty much a waste of time and energy so we usually try to get autograph books for our kids and then have one morning where we do a "character breakfast" either at the Disneyland Hotel (Goofy's Kitchen is really good) or at the Birthday Pavilion inside Disneyland. These are the ones we've found the most characters at. Then you can get autographs and pictures without the lines and while you're eating breakfast...saves a lot of time and hassle! ;) It's worth the more expensive breakfast to avoid spending hours and hours waiting in lines for characters.

Fast passes are AMAZING! And if you want to ride any rides that your toddler won't be able to go on (like the roller coasters) than it's worth it to try out the "parent passes" too. One of you waits through the regular line (or uses one of the fast passes) and then as that parent exits the ride, make sure you ask the attendant for a "parent pass". They will give you a special ticket that gives the other parent access to the ride through the exit without any wait at all! Very cool!

Hope this helps and have a great trip! It's one of our favorite places to go!

We just took our 2 1/2 year old and had a blast! I think the biggest tip is to be flexible! We took one of those backpacks with a tail. In normal situations I'd think they were weird but in this situation he could wind in and out of line and we could just lead him back when it was our turn! Also, he really prefered the "outside" rides like Dumbo to the scarier indoor ones like Monster's Inc. and Pinnochio.