Years ago, my family and I looked into doing a family trip to Disneyland. The cost was too high, and I ended up spending a few years in University and never made it to Disneyland. Now, several years later, we finally worked Disneyland into one of our road trip adventures.
While down in Arizona visiting family, we chose to road trip home through California so we could make a fun stop at Disneyland before heading home. Disneyland can be a costly experience … if you let it. We were able to road trip to Disneyland on a very small budget, and had an amazing time doing it.
A great cost saving tip: bring in your own food and water. We were pleasantly surprised that we didn't have any issues bringing in snacks and water into the park. Most parks don't allow outside food, as it discourages people from purchasing food and drinks inside the park, but we had no problem bringing in outside food into the park.
An overview of our Disneyland road trip:
We arrived in Anaheim just after dinner time; we drove up to the entrance of Disneyland and happened to find a hotel right outside the park. The room was reasonably priced, so we crashed there for the night. The following morning, we arrived just as the park opened so we'd have lots of time to explore the park.
Disneyland travel tip: I'd recommend prioritizing which areas of the park you want to see most. You won't have enough time to make it through the park in just one day.
We spend the day exploring different parts of the park, even spent a bit of time in some of the lineups to meet Disney characters. Talking with some of the park employees, we learned some great tips and tidbits of information about being a tourist in the park. We were also given some great information about the Disneyland parade, where to sit, and what to expect from the parade. If you're heading to Disneyland, the parade is a must-see. We were so excited to go on the tea cup ride, Splash Mountain, the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride and even a pirate ship boat ride.
I actually didn't know this until we arrived at the park, but Disneyland is open until midnight. Since we only had one day in the park, we made the most of our time there, and tried to explore as much of the park as possible.
Disneyland travel tip: if you're in the park on or near your birthday, make sure to get a Happy Birthday button from a park employee. It's a fun experience to have cast members stop you and wish you a happy birthday. Disneyland truly is the most magical place on earth.
After Disneyland closed, we spent an exhausting 21 hours road tripping back to Canada. This was a crazy/short road trip for us, but I'm so happy to have finally made it to Disneyland.
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