Seattle to Disneyland and back: 10 tips to navigate by

Seattle to Disneyland and back: 10 tips to navigate by

It’s a digital world at the happiest place on earth

by CHERYL MURFIN

As parents, we shamelessly deprived our kids. We made them wait until they were teenagers before we bit the bullet, hopped a cheap (compared to current airfares) flight to California and made our way to the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland, USA.

Outside The Pandemic Years, we have gone to Disneyland a couple times a year since 2014, which is my only credential for offering advice on how to navigate this enormous and privileged parental rite of passage. No, we are not loaded. We just happen to reside both in Southern California and Washington and for years were eligible for Disneyland’s Southern California resident annual pass, which made going regularly to the theme park crazy-affordable.

Things have changed over those years that pass is history, attractions have come and gone, the system for beating the lines has changed, crowds have grown, the Disney phone app is kind of a must these days. Still, a visit to the original theme park in the Disney collection can be a magical adventure especially in 2023, which marks Disneyland’s 100th anniversary.

Here are tips for making that dream come true.

#1 Wait for it

In fact, I’ve already given you my first tip: Wait ’til your kids are old enough to appreciate or at least handle (physically and emotionally) the plane trek, the anticipation, the long wait times for rides, the crowds, the weather and the walking that are all part and parcel of a day at Disneyland. An informal survey of 20 Disneyland tourism and navigation websites suggests waiting until at least age 4.

But I have to admit watching my 13- and 16-yearolds trade in their teenage bravado for tiaras, mouse ears and younger-kid enthusiasm made a true pixie-dust believer out of me. I’m just saying, waiting was the best Disney decision my family made.

#2 Time it right

June, July, first half of August . . . stay in Seattle. These can be the hottest, most packed park days of the year.

Go for low-crowd days. Numerous blogs offer crowd counters and crowd calendars to help figure out best dates. My favorite: 3UndercoverTourist. com, which also offers great full-day game plans to hit all the biggies. Also, avoid major theme-y holidays, weekends, school breaks and popular vacation weeks. If possible, plan a mid-week visit to take advantage of lower census on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.

Purchase tickets online as far in advance as humanly possible. Or, in Disney terms, up to 120 days before you plan to go. Multi-day tickets are less expensive per day than single day tickets and they don’t need to be used consecutively. Close friends from Seattle came to visit us in our Venice home a couple years ago and took their 10-year-old son to Disneyland on a Tuesday, to Venice Beach on Wednesday and back to Disneyland on Thursday. They had a blast, had time to digest each day and didn’t get overwhelmed.

#3 Touch down at John Wayne

Yes, it is generally a few dollars cheaper to fly into the Los Angeles International Airport from Seattle. But fly into much smaller John Wayne Airport anyway. It’s closer, smaller and far less chaotic. If you plan far in advance, one-way tickets can be found for under $100 per passenger (Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines are your best bets).

#4 Stay at a Disneyland resort

I hate giving this advice because for the price of a night at one of the three Disney hotels located in and around Disneyland, I could feed my family for two months. A room sleeps up to five adults and runs between $500 and $700 (or way more) per night. The thing is, there are a few benefits: 1) resort guests get into parks 30 minutes before everyone else 2) discounts 3) restaurants on the premises where characters come to visit and 4) you can easily get a midday nap without having to find your car. If you ignore tip #1 and bring very young children, staying at an attached hotel can be a sanity saver.

Note, there are waaaaay cheaper options within walking distance of the park. Our favorite is Anaheim Camelot Inn where those same five adults can sleep and eat breakfast for around $240 a night.

#5 Download Disneyland Mobile App BEFORE you go

Not only download it, wander around in it. Get to know it. Make it your best friend. Of all the changes that my family has seen at Disneyland in the last eight years, use of an app to navigate everything from park entrance to ride waiting times to paid reservations on the busiest rides to food purchases and restaurant reservations is the biggest. Once you’ve purchased your Disneyland tickets, you can start using the app to plan your park itinerary, look at menus and plan meals and tick off a lot of other boxes before you even leave Seattle. Many food venues in the park rely on the app. You can shop with it. It practically does your laundry. So don’t fight it, the new Disneyland is a digital Disneyland.

HINT: Save yourself time, upload your credit card into the Disney app before you go to the park.

#6 Get in the park entry line early. We mean it. EARLY.

In general, security starts letting visitors into the park about 30 minutes before the official park opening. You are able to walk into the park and down to the end of Main Street until you hit a rope that is laid across the path. Getting to “rope drop” gives you a big leg up on other visitors in terms of the time it takes to get to your most coveted rides. Get there by 7 a.m. Even if you stay at a resort and have early access, get there 30 minutes to an hour before your entry time.

#7 Bring food

There are lots of snacks at Disneyland—very expensive, largely unhealthy snacks that will hop your kids up and then drop them down into a sugar coma. Unless you add the balance of healthy foods. So go ahead and book your meals— way in advance if you can—at the very expensive restaurants sprinkled around the park. But save a lot of money with a backpack full of healthy snacks that will stave off hunger, boost energy throughout the day and save you from hangry family breakdowns. HINT: You cannot take glass bottles and containers into the park.

#8 Bring the Kraken (or Seahawks or Storm or . . .)

Show your Seattle or other local team spirit in the form of brightly colored matching T-shirts or jackets so that you can easily see your kids and they can see you in a sea of other families (many of whom will be wearing matching shirts from their home teams). Use mobile phone locators on each family member’s phone. And for younger children, consider purchasing a child tracking bracelet (like the Washington-state developed Littlebird tracker) or other wearable device such as an Apple Airtag.

#9 Beat the looooong lines

There have been books written on how to avoid waiting for rides at Disney parks. Google it and you’ll find hundreds of ideas. But I’ll boil it down to just three:

1. Use the single rider line. Yes, that means members of your family will not sit in the same car or carriage. But really? Who cares?

2. For very popular rides, use the Lightning Lane option in your app to purchase a spot closer to the front of the line. You can only purchase Lightning Lane spots two times in a single day. Or, pay $25 per person to use the app’s Genie+ service, which allows visitors Lightning Lane entrance times on select attractions, one at a time, all day long.

3. Go early, stay late. The shortest lines are first thing in the morning (because you heeded tip #6) and the last few hours before the park closes, when the youngest wrung-out visitors and their parents have thrown in the towel. Some rides close early, so check end times. HINT: Kids not into parades? Lines shorten up when the evening parade is rolling down Main Street.

#10 How to meet your favorite characters

Let’s face it, we’re all here because we fell in love with a Disney movie character or two. . . or 10. If your kids really, really have their hearts set on seeing a specific character, consider a character breakfast or meal event.

Happy 100th

Disneyland Resort has built a few surprises into its 100th anniversary celebration, including the platinum color throughout the park, highlighting storytellers and creators, new rides and more. The popular Toontown section of the park reopens March 8.

Check out the park’s Guide to Disney100 on the resort blog at ▸disneyparks.disney.go.com.

Homeward bound

You might be tempted to race home the morning after your whirlwind day or days in the park. Consider a later flight – say in the evening or at night. Ask for a late check-out from your hotel. Spend the morning in the pool, going through photos, enjoying breakfast. A little downtime before the airport rush is a helpful way to transition from the Happiest Place on Earth back to real life in Seattle.

For the full 15-tip version of this article go to “Seattle to Disneyland: 15 tips to navigate by” at ▸Seattleschild.com