Disneyland | Baby's First Trip

I've always dreamed of one day taking my kids to Disneyland for their first time and it finally happened! We planned a Summerhays Family Vacation to Dana Point and spent one of our days at Disneyland. This was a last minute idea so I only had a little time to prepare and research -- "Baby's First Trip to Disneyland" to plan for the best trip ever! 

 

Hotel Stay

We started our morning by arriving around 7:00 AM to the Hilton Garden Inn Anaheim Resort. We ended up getting a hotel room to stay in that night so we wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Dana Point. This ended up working out great because it was a warm summer day, so in the afternoon we went back to the hotel to give Merloe a break, shower and refresh before dinner. The hotel was only a 10 minute walk to the main entrance so it's very close and we felt safe the entire time. Definitely recommend if you're looking for a close hotel that's fairly priced and clean. It just opened recently so everything inside is brand new. 

Ticket Reservations 

We purchased our tickets in advance online and scheduled our date for the parks. Now with Covid restrictions, you have to book far out to confirm your park selection and arrival dates. Our original plan was to just do Disneyland, but the single day passes sold out so we purchased a Park Hopper. The current process for Park Hoppers is you chose your first park of the day (we went with Disneyland) and then you're able to enter the second park (California Adventure) after 1:00 p.m. I think this is their way of managing capacity and keeping guests evenly spread out. Make sure to download the Disneyland app before you go. This is very helpful when scanning your tickets into the park, Virtual Queue process (more on this later), PhotoPass, Dining Availability, Mobile Food Orders (this is key!), Park Hours, Park Map and attraction wait times. 

Disneyland App

Like I mentioned above, once you purchase your tickets download the app so your passes are easily accessible when entering the park. Once you enter, they will give you physical tickets that you'll need to hold on to once you activate your Park Hopper. The Virtual Queue process is a new feature for Disneyland's newest ride - Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and California Adventure's newest ride - Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. These passes go QUICK. If you're wanting to ride either of these rides, you have to get a pass through the queue. There's no regular line for them and Fast Passes are currently disabled (for all rides). Depending on what park you're entering first is the queue you're allowed to join. Since we started at Disneyland, I planned on joining the Virtual Queue for Star Wars, which opened at 7:00 AM (one hour before gates). These passes go within minutes so you have to be prepared. What worked for me was to be on the Disneyland app 5 minutes before the queue opened. I turned off my Wi-Fi and refreshed the page every minute until 7:00 AM. I was able to secure 4 passes for an afternoon time. Another great feature of the app is Mobile Food Orders. Since our trip was booked last minute, I wasn't able to get dining reservations so we did a lot of Mobile Food Orders. You can order from a variety of restaurants, then you walk up to the pick up window and show them your code and it's prepared right there! They also have the PhotoPass feature. In the app you'll have a PhotoPass QR Code and to make things simple, take a screenshot of it and set it as your iPhone or Apple Watch background.

Baby Care Center 

Mamas - take advantage of this space! All of the bathrooms throughout Disneyland have changing table stations, but the Baby Care Center was much nicer and more private. They have a Changing Table Room, complete with disposable sheets to lay under baby and easily accessible trash cans to toss those dirty diapers! They also have nursing rooms and feeding areas with highchairs. And if you forget anything, they have a vending machine with diapers, wipes, formula, snacks, sunscreen, pacifiers and more! Plus it's a nice break from the heat. Seth was able to go in and out as well which was nice. He felt comfortable going into the changing room, even though it was mostly moms - dad's are welcome too! We also used this space to rinse out her used baby bottles.

What I Packed

I didn't want to forget anything and not have the accessibility to buy baby items so I brought:

• Diaper Backpack - we had two backpacks, one for diaper/baby items and one for personal items. We would leave the baby backpack in the stroller during rides, but kept our personal items on us at all times.
• Stroller - we invested in the Zoe stroller - absolute must have for stroller naps and sunny days. The expandable canopy was so nice to block the sun from Merloe's face. And it reclines almost flat, giving her the best possible stroller naps! Not to mention it only weighs 11 pounds but still has great basket storage space.
• Lunch Bag - Since it was warm I brought ice packs, cooling towels, cool water and yogurt snacks. I was able to keep this in the basket storage with the baby backpack.
• Stroller Fan
• Cooling Towels 
• Insulated Water Bottle
• Sunscreen
• Baby Bottles
• Formula
• Change of Clothes
• Diapers
• Wipes
• Diaper Cream
• Pacifiers & Clips

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Hopefully this helps you plan your first trip to Disneyland with your baby! I didn't know what to expect but overall felt very comfortable in the parks. We'll definitely go again soon, maybe once the weather cools off. 

What other tips or questions do you have?

Let me know in the comments!

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