The Ultimate Holiday Disneyland Trip

Alena and I just got back from a weekend in SoCal celebrating our 3rd anniversary of dating at the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland! Neither of us had been in many years and we were both excited to visit while the park was all decked out in decorations during the Holidays. We opted for only one day and stuck to the classic Disneyland park, which ended up being perfect as we were able to see and do everything we wanted in one day.

We arrived at the park before they opened at 8 am! Excitement was very high.

I'm pretty sure Alena cried a little when we walked down Main Street, she was so excited.

We decided to only go to Disneyland and skip California Adventures. It would be brutal to try to park hop and really get to experience both parks in one day. We were so pooped the next day, that it ended up being a great decision to just do one day of Disney adventures. Trying to travel to and from the Disney parks and doing two days of exploring all in a normal weekend would be quite a lot and since we were to there to celebrate and have fun. Our one day, one park plan ended up being more than enough.

We had such a great time in Disneyland. The holiday decorations were beautiful and made the experience quite magical.

They were sweet during the day but even better at night!

The Small World set was super lit up and is definitely better to wait to go see and ride later at night; less crowds and the lights are on!!!

Note that some of the rides are changed for the holidays too, which can be really cool or disappointing if you are looking forward to the old classics - i.e. The Haunted Mansion.

Our very first ride of the day was Mr Toads's Wild Ride!

We had a blast riding every ride we wanted (16 different rides, 21 times in total!), including 2 rides each on Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain! We even rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride 3 times!!!

First ride in the morning. I have no words to describe what my face was doing haha.

Second ride in the afternoon, I got smart with the jacket! Alena seems equally as terrified in both pics. Each ride on Splash mountain was so fun we almost went a third time late at night, but we decided against the possibility of being soaked in the cold.

A few of the highlights of the day were non-ride related. Walking through Sleeping Beauty's castle early in the day was a nice little break. As was the Tiki Room in the late afternoon. It is an under-rated attraction and still holds up well after all these years. You gotta get a Dole Whip too while you are there!

We stumbled upon the Royal Hall on one of our many walks between Fantasy Land and Frontier Land. This is where you get to go meet some of the Disney princesses. We hit it at about 1:30 in the afternoon and there was no wait at all. Alena was stoked, so we popped in and had a private meet and greet with Ariel, Snow White, and Cinderella.

It was weird and funny and awesome all at the same time!

The first character we saw of the day was actually Captain Hook in Fantasy Land. Alena was so excigted to get a picture with him!

One major tip that made our whole experience 100% better was downloading the Disney App and purchasing the MaxPass! The Disney MaxPass is an optional in app purchase. It allows guests to book Disney FASTPASS reservations through the Disneyland Mobile App and allows unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads for the day. The price for Disney MaxPass is $10 per person, per ticket, per day. You do not need it to get FASTPASSes, but you 100% should get it!

Here are the top benefits of MaxPass:

1. You can cancel a MaxPass FASTPASS through the app.
2. You can see all available rides and return windows all on one screen, way better than walking to each ride to see what is up.
3. You can make FASTPASS reservations while in line, at a restaurant or while on the Monorail. This is a huge benefit!
4. The longest period of time between making reservations is an hour and a half instead of two hours with traditional paper FASTPASS. Also awesome!
5. The return time windows are offered through MaxPass are often sooner than the traditional FASTPASS windows that are being distributed at the same time. Other park guest cancellations may open up earlier slots for MaxPass users.
6. It saves paper. The traditional free FASTPASS issues a paper reminder ticket. People use their pass or park ticket to use FASTPASS, so the paper is not needed except to remind you of your return window.
7. All PhotoPass photos taken on a day you have MaxPass are available for free download and sharing. A lot of our pics are from this service.
8. Multiple Experience notification in case of ride closure. Luckily we did not need this.
9. It saves a lot of walking and time.
10. It makes reserving as a group much easier. Alena and I were able to easily get our FASTPASSes together on one phone at the same time.

The MaxPass saved us so much time and walking around! We were able to ride all the rides we wanted all day long and never waited in line at all. It really helped to make the ride part of our Disneyland experience super awesome! (except at the end of the night when we wanted to ride Peter Pan and then we only waited 30 min, which is sadly super short for Peter Pan...)

Like it said the MaxPass is $10 per person and is totally worth it. Get it, enjoy it, thank me later!

One of the major highlights of the day was watching the Fantasmic show. I can only describe it as magical. It really made our night. It was so great, Alena was crying again at the end.

You can get reserved tickets, for free, by showing up to Frontier Land (in front of Tom Sawyer's Island) in the morning. You definitely should do this as it guarantees you a front row spot to watch the amazing show!

We finished our night with fireworks, some old time favorites - small world and Peter Pan - before our park closing high adrenaline second ride on Space Mountain!

We were heading to the exit and noticed it wasn't quite midnight yet. Looking up at the beautiful castle, all lit up for the holidays, we decided to catch one more ride. We hopped on Astro Orbiter so that we could get a nice view of that famous castle!

It was a perfect Disneyland day full of fun and amazing memories.

Alan and Alena's December 1, 2018 Disneyland stats:

We were in the park for 16 hours. We were there when they opened the gates at 8 am and we shut the place down when they closed at midnight!

According to my iPhone, we walked 12 miles during our Disneyland adventure. We traversed the park countless times and had to fuel up on Dole Whip and Churros!

We rode 18 different rides and double dipped on Splash Mountain (My Favorite), Space Mountain (Most Thrilling) and Thunder Mountain (Awesome at night), with a triple ride on Pirates (Alena's Favorite).

A full day at Disneyland costs about $200 all in per person with the tickets, some food, MaxPass, locker, games and all. It was worth it!

The longest ride we waited for all day was no surprise: Peter Pan. Luckily it was only 30 min. All of our good planning and timing meant we never really had to wait in line for the rides we wanted.

Final tips:

Get there when it opens, that's when lines are super short.

Get a MaxPass and get the FASTPASSes as soon as your windows open.

Get a locker to store snacks, jackets, sunscreen, phone chargers, ect. It's only $7 all day and makes your day way more chill.

We stayed nearby, a 20 min walk, which saved us money on parking and time on getting to the park.

Check out this blog: https://www.undercovertourist.com/blog/maximize-your-time-disneyland/

It was really helpful in planning our trip. And they have some great articles for both Disneyland and California Adventures!

Watch the parade and the night shows, they are really special.

Get the app! It tells you where bathrooms are, when shows happen, where characters are at and what the wait times for rides are. So helpful.

Take time out to chill and just enjoy being around all the fun Disney details.

It was a crazy long and crazy fun day at Disneyland that was even better being shared with Alena!