Posted by Raphael on May 26, 2013 in Personal, Photography | 0 comments

I’m sure there are enough Disneyland advice tips out there, but before I made this last visit to the happiest place on Earth I had difficulty finding specific information about traveling there with my 4 year old. I had so many questions — made even harder by the fact I hadn’t been back to the park in 20 years. Last time I was there, there was NO California Adventure Park, no such thing as Fast Passes, half the rides didn’t exist.

So deciding to bring my child on his first visit there was met with some concern that he couldn’t get everything out of it. I did a lot of online searches and friend queries to check what was the best way to optimize this situation. I didn’t even know if he could be tall enough to ride any of the rides.

So for those of you specifically looking to taking your 4 year old to Disney, this is some of the tips and observations I discovered on this recent trip:

1. Don’t worry bringing a stroller. My child is the type that likes being carried more than he likes walking. The stroller may have been an extra thing to carry, but it turned out that the park was really stroller friendly. Every ride had a neighboring area for stroller parking, and from our observations nobody ever disturbed a thing. Everyone left bags on the strollers and it was generally safe. We did the same thing…of course we carried all our money and valuables with us at all times, but for everything else we just left them on the stroller and went on our rides.
2. At just a little over 4 years old, Kingston met all the height requirements to ride just about every ride he wanted. Both the Radiator Springs Racers and the Grizzly River Run required 42″ and he met that perfectly. 3 out of 4 times they just eyeballed his height and let him through. On the river ride, he actually had to stand against the measuring stick and passed…I think his shoes might have made the extra difference. I had one friend tell me they had padded their kids shoes with tissue paper.
3. Waiting in line with a toddler was much easier on the California Adventure side than on the old Disneyland side. The queue lines were wider and more interesting for the kids. We did 50 minutes for the Cars ride with little problem, but waiting 40 minutes for a simple boat ride on the Disney side was torture.
4. Heading to the Park the week before Memorial Day turned out perfect. The weather was perfectly nestled between warm days and cool nights, and we didn’t have a queue line that exceeded 50 minutes. There were many rides where we simply walked right on to the ride.
5. My 4 year old reacted well to most of the rides. It became a common pattern — he’d say “NO” to every ride he saw but with some careful pushing, he’d ride and then he’d want to go again. There were some rides he wanted to go multiple times: the Teacup, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Toy Story 4D were the winners. He enjoyed the Cars Racers, but it had one or two sections he was a little scared of.
6. Fast Passes worked great. Kudos to whatever genius came up with that idea and implementation. I think they should have fast passes for just about everything now. Hello Starbucks? Hello bank line?
7. Last but not least….a Turkey Leg was a clear winner for the family.

Thank you for a wonderful time Disneyland. Let’s hope our next visit is in just a couple years and not another 2 decades.