Planning a Disneyland® Resort vacation takes time and insider know-how, which is why Visit Anaheim has partnered with Mickey Visit to bring you these expert tips, must-know hacks, and everything you need to make your visit unforgettable.

Disneyland® Resort Tips

MICKEY VISIT TIP#1

To avoid lines throughout the day, consider paying to add on Disneyland® Resort Lightning Lane Multi Pass. This service allows you to book return times to skip the line for popular attractions throughout the day. Keep our key Mickey Visit Disneyland® Resort Lightning Lane tips in mind to make the most of this paid service. Always be ready to pull a new pass when it has either been 2 hours or you use the pass you are currently holding. Focus on booking return times for the most popular attractions earlier in the day. Our most expert Mickey Visit Lightning Lane tip is to use the “Modify Plan” button once you have made a return time to see if an earlier return time has become available. Keep refreshing and clicking in and out of the times page until you see an earlier time pop up. Sometimes you’ll end up with a return time that’s hours earlier. This works well throughout the morning and into the mid-afternoon.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #2

When reviewing hotels near Disneyland® Resort, I always consider three key factors: proximity to the theme parks, cleanliness, and affordability. Generally, I enjoy walking to the theme parks in the morning, though there are multiple good hotels with shuttles to Disneyland® Resort, including The Anaheim Majestic Garden Hotel and other hotels that are serviced by the Anaheim ART Shuttle service (see our tips here). When looking for a hotel, I want one that’s comfortable, clean, and has a great shower. Since Disneyland® Resort is typically the focus of my trip, I opt for a hotel that has all of these amenities and is close in proximity to the theme parks. For families, I love the walking distance to Disneyland® Resort from Element By Westin in Anaheim. This hotel also has a fantastic included breakfast which has all your standard fare but also healthier fare including egg white scrambled eggs, sauteed peppers, almond butter, and turkey sausage.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #3

Crowd levels at Disneyland® Resort and in Anaheim vary dramatically based on several different factors. We have built our Mickey Visit Disneyland® Resort Crowd Calendar to consider school breaks, seasonal weather, conventions, and Disneyland® Resort annual pass blocked-out dates and ticket pricing. Since the parks reopened after the pandemic-era closure, Disneyland has shifted to require theme park reservations for all guests. This has completely changed the dynamics of crowds at the parks to increase crowds on dates you wouldn’t necessarily expect. Now, crowds can be high on a random Tuesday in February because Disneyland® Resort ticket prices were lowest, or a Sunday or Thursday in September because it was the final day to use a seasonal multi-day discounted ticket. That’s why we recommend going into the parks with a solid plan and checking our crowd resources in advance.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #4

There are a couple of secret paths and eating areas at the Disneyland® Resort that you should be aware of.

• Across from the Haunted Mansion at the Harbour Galley restaurant, there is a secret seating area and path that remains very peaceful throughout the day. This connects back towards Bayou Country, and also gives you a nice view of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

• Across from the exit of Big Thunder Mountain, there’s a seating area with a nice view of the Rivers of America.

• Over in Disney California Adventure® Park, there’s a slightly less hidden, but still underrated, large seating area in Paradise Garden. This is back near the Silly Symphony Swings attraction.

• You can also pop into Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel® and Spa, and enjoy a great secret Disneyland® Resort restaurant many walk by, called the Craftsman Bar.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #5

Disneyland® Resort and Knott’s Berry Farm have had a close relationship dating back to the time of Walt Disney and Walter Knott, the founders of the two parks. The two men were friends. Some have suggested that Disney drew inspiration from Knott’s Ghost Town and Calico Railroad for Disneyland® Resort’s Frontierland and railroad. They exchanged ideas about what was working in their theme parks, including disguising the long queue of a popular attraction from guest view. Disney creatives also took inspiration from the park. Knott's Berry Farm's Timber Mountain Log Ride helped inspire the Disney Imagineers to build what is now Tiana's Bayou Adventure. You can see how the two parks influenced one another when visiting today. Look for a reference to Knott's Berry Farm on the stagecoach that is parked near the Fantasyland entrance to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. You'll see a big "W" that is stretched out on one side in the style of the "K" in the Knott's logo. You can also find Fried Chicken at the Plaza Inn Restaurant in Disneyland® Resort that is almost as good as the fried chicken at Knott’s.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #6

You’ll want to stay multiple nights at one of the hotels near Disneyland® Resort to see everything Disneyland® Resort has to offer and to make time for some of the fantastic other attractions and local food in Anaheim. We recommend three days at Disneyland® Resort and at least one more day to explore some of the other great things to do in Anaheim listed on this page. There are so many hidden activities around that you will easily miss. Some of my favorites include:

• Ordering from the Disneyland® Resort  secret menu at the Lamplight Lounge.

• The history tours you can sign up for that also include exclusive experiences like visiting Walt Disney’s Apartment above the firehouse on Main Street or riding in the Lilly Belle car on the Disneyland Railroad.

• Taking a fitness class inside Disney California Adventure® Park.

Even if you don’t take one of the tours, keep an eye out when you walk into Disneyland® Park. Look up in the window above the firehouse. This is the window into Walt’s apartment. You’ll see a lamp there that is always kept on to honor the enduring legacy of Walt Disney.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #7

When I started what became Mickey Visit when I was just 13 years old, my primary motivation was my curiosity about all the historical stories and secrets of Disneyland® Resort that were hidden in plain sight. This led me to write a best-selling book on Disneyland® Resort Secrets. Here are some of my favorites to be on the lookout for.

• In Adventureland, by a tree that is on the right-hand side of the entrance to Indiana Jones Adventure, look for the house of the "Little Man of Disneyland", a leprechaun who has now inspired a lovely Disney Golden Book.

• When you walk through Sleeping Beauty Castle, look down and see a gold spike that was used during the surveying of the area to properly center the castle at the end of Main Street.

• Inside Fantasyland, look up above the Snow White’s Enchanted Wish attraction (this is sneakily one of our top best Disneyland® Resort rides) and you’ll see the Evil Queen opening the curtain and looking down at you.

• Onboard the “it’s a small world” attraction in addition to very cute Disney characters, you can also find a doll meant to resemble the designer of the iconic style of the attraction, Disney Legend Mary Blair. Find the doll in the French scene in a yellow poncho holding the string of a balloon on the Eiffel Tower.

• Finally, as you are leaving for the day, look up at the buildings on Main Street and find the windows on the second level that have names painted on them. There are over 100 windows on Main Street that honor the creatives and executives who pushed to make Disneyland® Resort a reality and made extraordinary contributions to the park over the years.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #8

Check out these spots for better Disneyland® Resort photos to remember your experience.

• Rather than taking a shot in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle, walk to the right-hand side along the path and take a photo that is slightly off center. This will put the water from the moat in the background and give you a great angle with the castle.

• In Fantasyland, look for the ride car from Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in front of the attraction. This is a fun spot to grab a photo.

• You can also find a Dumbo ride vehicle on the left-hand side of the attraction for photos.

• Finally, I love a late afternoon ride on the Mark Twain Riverboat along the Rivers of America for the ambiance and a wonderful photo session.

On our Mickey Visit Disneyland® Resort packing list, we specifically call out remembering to bring clothes to look good in your photos and in the background of other guests’ photos.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #9

At Mickey Visit, we work hard to find all of the little hidden details and offerings around Disneyland® Resort. One that we love to share is that a couple of attractions have guest books for the first guests of the day who ride that attraction to sign. The last time that we checked, below are the attractions that have guest books:

• Storybook Canal Boats

• Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin

• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Note that they won’t necessarily do this every day, but it is a very cool sense of accomplishment to be the first family on one of these attractions. Some guests have even started to specifically rope drop these attractions to sign the books.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #10

Don’t miss out on mobile order via the Disneyland® Resort app. This service allows you to order from most quick-service restaurants across the resort directly from your app. Just open the app, go to the restaurants section, select order food, and you’ll see return times for restaurants near you. Some of our top best Disneyland® Resort restaurants are offered on here, including:

• Bengal Barbecue

• Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe

• Pym’s Test Kitchen

Note that it’s better to order some time before the time that you want to eat, as the return times for food can creep up if you wait too long.

MICKEY VISIT TIP #11

Here’s a great way for adults to get on the big rides if they need to break off from the group! There are special Disneyland® Resort Single Rider lines for certain attractions that allow guests who are willing to be separated from their party or are visiting alone to skip the line to fill in available seats left behind by odd-numbered or large groups. There are certain attractions where this is a great service to use, where it really cuts down the wait time, and other attractions where the wait can actually end up being longer. We recommend you skip Single Rider for:

• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, since the Single Riders often end up in the Engineer position on the ride, which is the least enjoyable.

• Soarin’ Around the World because it often ends up being a longer wait than the normal standby queue.

We highly recommend Single Rider for:

• Radiator Springs Racers because this ride can only be ridden by using what is typically a very long standby queue or by paying individually for Lightning Lane Single Pass.

• Indiana Jones Adventure

• Grizzly River Run

• WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure

Ready to dive even deeper into your Disneyland® Resort planning? Our brand-new Disneyland® Resort Planning Guide, created in partnership with Mickey Visit, has everything you need — from step-by-step planning advice to insider secrets that make your trip smoother, easier, and more magical. Check out the full planning guide and start planning your dream Anaheim getaway today!