First trip to Disneyland with a 5yo and 2yo.
Just thought i would write up our experience of Disneyland. We went for four days and stayed in Newport bay. On Sunday we arrived before check in so dropped the car off and got parked up at Newport.
Some things we did wrong
- we avoided the shuttle buses, for some reason we thought it would take forever and we wouldn't get on with the pram so we just walked. Well with the times we were leaving and coming back it would have been fine. So use the shuttles especially if you're not leaving with the crowds at the end of the night.
- We waited in the queue for the single lift not realising there was another door. We discovered the other door that takes you to the main lifts on our second last night. Made things much quicker and easier when coming back and walking to the park.
- We met family in the park but they were only there one day so were staying the full day. We were silly and did that with them. The kids were exhausted and it also absolutely bucketed down for the fireworks.
- I would have done cascade of lights with the kids over the fireworks show at the main park. Better views and the drones were great.
Things I think were the right decision for us
- Breakfast only. We had originally booked half board but I'm glad I changed it to breakfast only. There was no way the kids would have sat for sit down meals.
- premium passes. We paid for premium for frozen. The days we went the queue times were insane despite the fact we were there before the park opened. There was a queue to get in the queue. When I seen that the second day I just booked premium passes asap as they were getting booked up really quick and the times were getting later and later.
I had a lot of reservations about the hotel but it was great. The rooms are a bit worn but the overall feel of the hotel was lovely. I'll be honest the room wasnt the cleanest but it was clean enough.
- Buy the bubble wands! The kids loved them.
- Royal dream. Such a lovely experience and it was great to see Disneyland hotel. My daughter loved it and I was a bit teary watching her get all her makeup done.
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I tried to pick a time that wasn't busy but even still queue times were ridiculous. Crush's coaster was at 70 minutes pretty much the whole time we were there. Peter pan also had high queue times. Frozen was up at 2 hours at one point.
Husband and I took turns and we both went back into the parks at night once our kids were sleeping that way we managed to do the big rides using the single rider queues. It was great. The park is beautiful at night and all the rides are quiet when people are wanting to watch the shows.
My biggest bug bear was I found some of the service at food stalls incredibly inefficient and slow. Some stalls with only one person working so the queues were building up fast.
Queuing with going kids was really tough so we tended to do a ride then find either a very short queue or something to go look at.