We recently took our 6 year old granddaughter on her first trip to Disneyland. Cast of characters was myself, DH, his DD and DGD. I was new to Maxpass and being at the park with a little, so here are a few things that I learned that might help others.
We stayed off site and took Lyft to the parks. We chose Staybridge Suites because they offer a two bedroom, two bathroom suite for around $200 a night. One bedroom has a king and one has two queens. There is a small kitchen with a fridge, microwave and a normal coffee pot. There was a toaster too. The hotel is near the freeway and pretty close to D-Land, although not walking distance. We liked this place! DGD loved the view of the freeway, LOL. The pool was big and the drinks served at the bar there were better than average, although it was not always open. The room was a bit worn, but clean. This hotel also has free breakfast and free parking, as well as a happy hour on some days of the week (we did not have the option for this.) With this and not having to pay for two rooms, the value was great. It cost about $7 to Lyft to the parks. The pick up and drop off is where the buses take you-- off of Harbor–it seemed like a shorter walk than the one from the Mickey and Minnie tram. We never had an issue with waiting long for a ride. With the expensive parking, we felt Lyft was easier and cheaper.
We did dinner at Chef Goofy’s the night we drove in. Everyone had a great time and we thought the food was better than it had to be. DGD ate well there and loved meeting characters. She also really loved going up and down the escalator at DL Hotel. This was the another of many fun things about traveling with a 6 year old. They just really get into some things that you would not expect. Another example is the automatic towel dispensers. I got her an Elsa dress ahead of time. ($20 - Thanks to all of you who advise buying these things before you go!) She kept ordering the towel dispenser to give her a towel “in the name of the queen.” LOL! This is an expensive meal, but it did provide a whole evening’s worth of fun, so it was worth it for us.
Maxpass is wonderful. I was wondering if it would be worth it since we had a little, but it was absolutely worth it!!! The only glitch I experienced was that it wants your credit card security code each time you purchase, and I didn’t have my card with me since I set it up before we left home. I ended up having to put in another card which ate some time. I set my alarm on my phone each time I got a Maxpass so that I could get another one as soon as possible and we basically had three going at all times. We just went on ride after ride with it, walking past the hundreds of people in the standby line. It saved us hours, plus you get the photopass too.
Our DBG is tall for her age so she could go on everything. She turned out to be quite a dare devil too, with Thunder Mountain being her favorite ride. What did freak her out was loud noises and pitch black darkness. The thunder on the train and the tunnels were not her favorite. She also was NOT happy about getting wet on Splash, but the big drop didn’t phase her. I think ultimately every kid is going to be different when it comes to that stuff. She loved Small World, Jungle Cruise and Tiki Room. I may have told her that some of the birds and animals are real and some are anamatronics. My Dad pulled this with us when we were little so I figured I should continue the tradition, LOL.
We all loved Radiator Springs and the Mater ride. Luigi’s is funner to watch than to ride. Pizza Planet was the hugest hit with DGD ever. Some folks are meh on the Pixar decor in here, but man, was she into it. Another of those funny things.
We tried to leave and swim and come back for the evening, but DGD could not nap and she ended up getting exhausted at 9pm no matter what we did or how much sugar we let her eat. We had an unfortunate incident our second morning which involved barfing at the wishing well, not in it, thank god. I think she was just too tired and we should have let her sleep and go to the parks later, wait times or no. We went back for a long nap after that and she perked right up for the rest of the night…well, until 9, when we acted like adults and took her home to bed.
It was an awesome trip, hope yours will be too!