Travel Recipes – Unique Experiences at Disneyland

Going to Disneyland for the first time is not only exciting for the kids but also for us. There are memories of when you went as a child and the dreams of seeing your children wide-eyed and innocently delighting in rides and eating cotton candy. It can also be stressful if you are staying too far from the park or the kids are afraid of the rides. We decided to stay at the Grand Californian hotel for our first visit with our children. It was fantastic to be right at the gates to Disneyland, in order to be able to go back to the room or the pool to relax once everyone had been stimulated to the max for the day.

But all was not magical and easy at the Magic Kingdom as we did experience children who were too afraid of the rides. As all the other children whirled around screaming in tea cups, riding on log flumes with sheer delight or venturing into the dark recesses of Space Mountain our children would only ride the old bumper cars; back firing all the way. We had thought at 6 and 8 they were old enough for the thrills of Disneyland, but all kids are different, and it led to some interesting discoveries as we worked to ensure they had an exciting trip too.

Pure delight came in a few unique forms for our wee ones. The best move we made was to get a black Sharpie pen and two Mickie Mouse magicians’ hats as our children delighted in tracking down all the Disney characters and collecting their signatures. While other children held out their traditional signature books, our kids pushed their hats into the faces of every character they could find. It even lead to a wonderful event of teasing between Alice and the Mad Hatter that the entire crowd enjoyed.

The other obsession they developed during their 5 day visit to the Magic Kingdom was to collect the Disney pins. When you check into a Disneyland hotel you are given a lanyard and a complementary pin. From there you can visit the many tourist shops on the grounds to collect other unique pins to add to your collection. The best part is all of the Disney employees who are wearing a lanyard will trade pins with your kids. Our children loved meeting these extremely friendly people, hearing the stories about how they had received their pins, and then being able to trade for their favorite treasures.

By our third day at the park the boys had settled in and began to venture onto a few more rides; with the Pirates of the Caribbean becoming a favorite. Even still it was so nice to have found things that were a little out of the ordinary and ensured that our children loved the Magic Kingdom and want to go back to see Mickey and the gang.

We would love to hear about your unique experiences at Disneyland. We welcome you to comment below or to send us an email with a unique experiences to sarah@connectmoms.com.

Travel Recipe Planning
To assist with your planning there are three hotels directly around Disneyland: Disney’s Paradise Pier, the Disneyland hotel and the Grand Californian hotel. The Paradise Pier is the most economical accommodation choice, while the Disneyland hotel is the original hotel so it offers a lot of nostalgia for a visit to the land of magic. While the Grand Californian is the most expensive it does offer the ease of being right at the park gates, with a separate entrance for hotel guests, the ability to watch the fire works from your room and a lovely pool to hang out in once the frenzy of the day is over. The Disneyland site offers a comprehensive overview of your choices. You may want to check Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com or Kayak for better rates. There is a lot of information about Disneyland on TripAdvisor that you may wish to review before making your decision.

You may wish to pick up a copy of The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland that is full of many tips and tricks for navigating the Magic Kingdom.