Visiting the original Disneyland has always been on the bucket list for us and when we booked our trip to California last year (Our Trip to California – 2024), we couldn’t confine our excitement!
We researched by watching vlogs, reading blogs and continuously looking at the Disneyland App on our phones.
There is so much to take in and having believed we had an amazing plan, we still didn’t get to do every single thing we wanted to.
Rides
One of the huge draws for Disneyland California were the rides, with the uniqueness of some and the sheer quality of them too. Before leaving we made a list of all the rides in both parks and which we needed to do!
The must do rides in Disneyland were Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Big Thunder Mountain, It’s a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
In Disney California Adventure were Radiator Springs Racers, Little Mermaid, Incredicoaster, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.
We managed to get on all of these rides, we did have Genie+ which made this easier (will explain more below).
Our favourite rides were Stars Wars: Rise of the Resistance (my favourite), Pirates of the Caribbean (we think it is better than Disneyland Paris), Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (my husband favourite), Incredicoaster (our daughters favourite) and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Genie+: We managed to get Genie+ included with our tickets when we booked through Attraction Tickets (and also Photo Pass too), and to be honest I am so glad we had it. The crowds in the park were pretty big and the wait times were huge on some rides and if we did not have Genie+ a lot of our time in the parks would have been wasted in queues.
The service is good as a whole, my husband was constantly looking out for booking openings and seeing what was available. I believe the service lets the customer book one ride every 2 hours, which can be slightly annoying if you use it for a ride with a smaller wait time, but with the parks being so beautiful and so much to see and do, waiting around for the next opening isn’t so bad.
But all in all, the service is really helpful if the park is busy, it definitely gets you onto the rides quicker and if you set out the most important rides for your party, then it is a good thing to have!
Another thing to bare in mind is, at rope drop – everyone runs to either Rise of the Resistance in the Disneyland park and Radiator Springs Racer at Disney California Adventure. We bought the Lighting Lane for Rise of the Resistance ($23pp) as the queue when we got there was insane and our morning at DCA we decided against purchasing a Lighting Lane for Radiator Springs Racer and we were queuing for around 60 minutes! The wait time can be slashed if you book the park you are attending on the day which doesn’t allow early access for Disney hotel guests.
Characters
As with the rides, we went into Disneyland with a list of characters we wanted to see and we pretty much seen all the characters high on our list. The great thing about Disneyland California is that there are so many roaming characters.
Just for the roaming ones, we managed to see Chewbacca, the Storm Troopers, R2-D2 (he stopped and had a “conversation with my husband”), Spider-Man, Black Panther, Redd from Pirates, Princess Ariel, Aladdin & Genie, the Mad Hatter & Alice, Pinocchio & Geppetto.
The other character we managed to meet were Winnie the Pooh, Moana, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Mei-Lee & her mum (from Turning Red), Hiro (Big Hero Six), Sully (Monsters Inc), Frozone, Mr & Mrs Incredible, Raya, Joy (Inside Out), and Mushu (Mulan).
Food / Snacks
When we researched our trip to Disneyland, we found so many food / snack items we wanted to try. The options are pretty much endless, there are so many snack carts, quick service restaurants, sit down dining options available to you. We made reservations 3 months prior to our arrival and booked up Cafe Orleans to try their legendary Mint Julep and the Monte Cristo sandwich and we booked up the Lamplight Lounge at DCA to try their lobster nachos. Both of which are a must in my opinion! The Mint Julep was so refreshing, very similar to a non-alcoholic mojito (you can’t go wrong with that) and the sandwich which is sliced Turkey, Ham, Cheese with jam – it was so tasty – the sweet and salty taste was lovely! The lobster nachos were awesome too – super loaded and super tasty, my husband and I polished this dish off very quickly.
We did so many snacks too, I will list them here:
Mickey Beignets at the Mint Julep Bar – 10/10 so so good – got the buttercream frosting to dip them and it was so so tasty!
Ronto Morning Wrap at Ronto Roasters– Scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese and a peppercorn sauce in a pitta wrap – it tasted as good as it sounded. 8/10
Green & Blue Milk at Milk Stand – As pretty big Star Wars fans we wanted to try out the Green and Blue Milk that is offered in Galaxy’s Edge! the 3 of us were torn on which tasted better, but to be fair they were much nicer than we thought they would be. Ita and my husband preferred the Blue and I liked the Green. Definitely worth a try! 8/10
Cold Brew Black Caf at Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo – Cold Brew topped with Sweet Cream Cheese and Chocolate Puff Cereal – Wow, I literally think about this drink at least once a day! It was so tasty, so unique and actually perfect 10/10
Chicken Tenders, Red Pepper Cheese Onion Rings at Hungry Bear Restaurant – We stopped for a lunch at the Hungry Bear and got quite a bit of food in the end and the Red Pepper Cheese Onion Rings were the real winner here, they were so good and the sauce incredible. 8/10
Churros at Various Locations – for some reason Churros were something we have wanted to try for a long time and wow, they were worth the wait. They were every much as good as my husband remembers from Spain when he was young! 9/10
Minnie Mouse Marshmallow Crispy Treat (pictured at the top of blog) – A very filling crispy treat and Minnie Mouse shaped, always goes down a treat. So so good. 9/10
Tigger Tail at Pooh’s Corner – Marshmallow dipped in caramel and covered in milk chocolate. This treat was amazing and highly recommend going to Pooh’s Corner and checking out all the treats they have to offer! AMAZING! 10/10
Jack Jack’s Num Num Cookie at Cart near Incredicoaster – one of the most iconic snacks (in our opinion) is the warm Num Num Cookie, which was super yummy! It was essentially a really good cookie, but a cookie nonetheless. 7/10
Pixar Pier Frosty Parfait at Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats – A soft-serve lemon and blue raspberry swirl, was so refreshing and perfect for our daughter that loves these kind of ice-creams. 8/10
Quantum Pretzel at Pym’s Kitchen – This is another snack that I constantly think about and would love to have again! Its a 433g Bavarian style pretzel with a cheese sauce which was amazing! 10/10
Conclusion
Disneyland California is definitely a full on experience because there is so much to do and see! We loved doing all the special things like character meets, trying snacks and food and also getting on some iconic rides – but we also loved going to the front of the Disney park and taking in the atmosphere, searching for hidden details, and generally walking around Main Street USA as that area is beautiful and so quiet and quaint, the shops are lovely and we obviously got our fair share of merch.
When we booked California as a holiday, we thought it would be a one and done affair, but having experienced this park we can’t wait to come back and do it all over again!
Garcia Family UK 
I’ve been to Disneyland Paris a couple of times and loved it, this trip looks like a lot of fun! The mickey mouse marshmallow crispy treat looks so good – all the food sounds delicious.
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Disney’s not really my thing but I still love seeing other people’s trips, and the snacks always sound so nice. Love your girl’s black and white dress. So cute
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