Non-park activities for Toddlers?

[WaggenerM]

My husband and I are planning a quick trip to Disneyland in February as he has an opportunity to attend a one-day conference for work in Anaheim. We go to Disneyland frequently and I would have no trouble entertaining myself while he was at work! We are stumped, however, on what I should do the day he attends his conference because we are going to bring our two little ones - 2 and 3. I just don't think that the lines/rides will work right now with their current energy levels and 1 parent on duty.

I need a tamer activity to brave on my own - does anyone know of good parks in the area or other smaller attractions that might be fun for my two boys? I so wish the Disneyland Hotel or the Grand had playgrounds like they have at Walt Disney World....Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

if you are staying at the dlh;

my boys love the pool area. there's a bigger-kid water slide into the pool, but also a shallow short slide into the pool for toddlers.

there's also the waterfall and koi pond area on the property, and i understand if you go there at a designated time, you can watch a cm feed the koi.

i don't know if kids this young would get into it, but my boys (at the time were 7yo and 3yo) were really into the RC jungle cruise boats. the 3yo wasn't a very good driver, he kept getting his boat stuck, but was having a good time nonetheless.

you could always make a trip to build-a-bear in dtd. my boys still love doing that, though the now-8yo probably wouldn't advertise that to his buddies.

i understand there's a storytime at the gch lobby, but i don't know where or what time. i've always meant to try to hit that, but we haven't yet.

don't forget within the parks there are play areas; toontown has goofy's house and donald's boat; there's tom sawyer island; in DCA there's a fireboat play area (back by the orange stinger ride) and the whole bugs land is geared toward the little ones. oh, and the redwood creek trail! parts of that area are geared toward older kids, but the younger ones love it, too, it's great to just let them run!

 

[DahliaRW]

Like the pp said, I'd just do the non-ride stuff at DL (or things without much of a line like the steam boat). And then, if lines are short, you can do a few rides as well.

 

[LavenderPeach]

If you really want to do something off-site there is the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. It's near where the 5 and the 22 meet. I've never been to it but I've driven by it many times. I've read about other people going there and I think people like it. I'm sure they must have a website you could look at to see if it's something you would be interested in.

You could probably google "Anaheim parks" or "Orange County Parks" if you want to find a park close by.