Hey all, I’ll try and post a better thread regarding my full experience at Disneyland, but while it was fresh in my head I wanted to make a quick post for other first timers (specifically families) about things that I wasn’t quite expecting. I saw some of these things while on these boards but just wanted to stress them. I just wanted to give a head up to other newbies 
.
- The rides are loud, like really loud. I had seen people mention that they get ear plugs for small toddlers, but it was even too loud for my 5 year old and sometimes 8 year old. My poor daughter had her fingers in her ears the whole time, lol. Especially for “scarier” rides like Indy where they may have been fine otherwise. It’s good because it increases the experience, but not for the kids, lol. The other thing is that they don’t sell ear plugs at the park! I found that strange. So pack some just in case.
- Some of the dark rides have “long” dark sections. Again, enjoyable for most but it really ramps up the scariness for the little ones. Especially combined with the loudness.
- It is extremely difficult to get a picture (sometimes let alone a wave) with the characters that roam and aren’t set up for meets. They walk very fast (for the kids little legs) and most often you have people stepping in front of you just as you/your kid is about to get close and say hi. There are rude people/budgers galore in the park. I would lower your expectations if you had expectations that you would be able to get a picture and autograph with those characters. With that said we were very fortunate one day to have Pinocchio all to ourselves for a skip down the path.
- Use DLRExpert’s fishing for LL technique!! This helped us ride the rides we wanted when we wanted! Adding to this, I figured out another “cheat”. There was 4 in our party and my wife and daughter went back to the hotel early. So when we would scan in our normal LL or the MEP, we would use their codes allowing us to ride again using our codes! I’m not 100% sure but I think the Cast Members just watch for the sounds that you scanned in and the actual names aren’t checked. This helped the kid and I ride Smugglers Run 4 times in a row, lol.
- Don’t use the bathroom by Plaza Inn, lol. It’s small and was always dirty/something not working.
- Another thing I just thought of is regarding WOC. Note that the main projections are slightly to the left (at least from where we were standing). We were standing in the middle section, second row, and on the left side of that section. We had assumed they would be more center and we would essentially be looking at Pal Around and catch it all. Whoever, we were behind a lamp post with a large round bowl and my view was severely skewed and the family missed some parts due to it. So my advice is that try your best to not be near those lamps, lol. Seems obvious but I thought the projections would be higher too and it wouldn’t be an issue.
- that’s all I can think of for now
.- The rides are loud, like really loud. I had seen people mention that they get ear plugs for small toddlers, but it was even too loud for my 5 year old and sometimes 8 year old. My poor daughter had her fingers in her ears the whole time, lol. Especially for “scarier” rides like Indy where they may have been fine otherwise. It’s good because it increases the experience, but not for the kids, lol. The other thing is that they don’t sell ear plugs at the park! I found that strange. So pack some just in case.
- Some of the dark rides have “long” dark sections. Again, enjoyable for most but it really ramps up the scariness for the little ones. Especially combined with the loudness.
- It is extremely difficult to get a picture (sometimes let alone a wave) with the characters that roam and aren’t set up for meets. They walk very fast (for the kids little legs) and most often you have people stepping in front of you just as you/your kid is about to get close and say hi. There are rude people/budgers galore in the park. I would lower your expectations if you had expectations that you would be able to get a picture and autograph with those characters. With that said we were very fortunate one day to have Pinocchio all to ourselves for a skip down the path.
- Use DLRExpert’s fishing for LL technique!! This helped us ride the rides we wanted when we wanted! Adding to this, I figured out another “cheat”. There was 4 in our party and my wife and daughter went back to the hotel early. So when we would scan in our normal LL or the MEP, we would use their codes allowing us to ride again using our codes! I’m not 100% sure but I think the Cast Members just watch for the sounds that you scanned in and the actual names aren’t checked. This helped the kid and I ride Smugglers Run 4 times in a row, lol.
- Don’t use the bathroom by Plaza Inn, lol. It’s small and was always dirty/something not working.
- Another thing I just thought of is regarding WOC. Note that the main projections are slightly to the left (at least from where we were standing). We were standing in the middle section, second row, and on the left side of that section. We had assumed they would be more center and we would essentially be looking at Pal Around and catch it all. Whoever, we were behind a lamp post with a large round bowl and my view was severely skewed and the family missed some parts due to it. So my advice is that try your best to not be near those lamps, lol. Seems obvious but I thought the projections would be higher too and it wouldn’t be an issue.
- that’s all I can think of for now
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