We will be at Disneyland and DCA on 9/9 and 9/10 (respectively), and unfortunately, bad luck has struck in that we will be at the parks on the hottest days of this upcoming heatwave. I think it isn't forecasted to be humid, but since the low temperatures are going to be pretty high regardless, it probably will still feel very warm even when the sun goes down.

We are going to rope drop as best as we can both days, and we are planning to bring cooling neck fans, hats, sunscreens, and big refillable water bottles. We were preparing for hot weather, but kinda sad it will be in the middle of a heatwave. If any locals on here have any suggestions outside of what we are already preparing to bring, I will gladly take!

Also, I know that the parks had been pretty dead during that intense heat/humidity a couple weeks ago. Given that this will be right after Labor Day weekend, is it anticipated that the crowds will be lighter than normal because of the heat? Do locals show up later when the sun goes down on really hot days?

Any other tips and tricks that can help make our visits to the park fun will be appreciated, thank you!

Will Disneyland have fantasmic on weekdays in early February?

I have heard that fireworks only occur on weekends but I wasn’t sure if that also applies to fantasmic.

Will Disneyland have fantasmic on weekdays in early February?

I have heard that fireworks only occur on weekends but I wasn’t sure if that also applies to fantasmic.

Also how is the after dark sweethearts event? We will be arriving late on a Saturday so Sunday will be our first day in the parks.

Was hoping to go to broken spell lounge this trip, noticed today on the website it says it's closed for refurbishment. I couldn't find any announcement about it online or when it'll reopen, does anyone have any information about it?

Hi all! We are planning a trip to Disneyland and want to be able to take breaks throughout the day. We are thinking this means on site is best, but I am a bit overwhelmed by all the information out there, especially saying there are hotels that are just as close? Thoughts please!

On our way to the airport after three days at Tokyo Disneyland staying at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Thought I’d share answers to a handful of questions I couldn’t find online. Hopefully this helps someone Googling similar things.

AI tools are of some use here becuase they can find Japanese language information (but don’t always trust the tools’ advice).

I booked our hotel room using an online travel agency, japanican.com. I couldn’t find anyone specifically talking about using this large agency to get a room at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. The booking worked fine and we qualified for “Happy Entry” which is the all-important early admission perk. The room also came with 5,000 yen a day of free spending in the hotel (a benefit I was emailed about after booking and didn’t see on the site). The big catch is that it didn’t come with early access to dining reservations, unlike direct booking.

Dining reservations are a challenge. The sit down establishments all fill up, often within minutes, and I didn’t see any lunch/dinner reservations available at the hotel at all. If you can’t book early with a hotel booking, reservations go online a month before, be sure you are on the site at that time (9:00 PM EDT) for a chance at getting one.

When traveling in Japan it’s possible to ship luggage from hotel to hotel, even across cities, for about $30 a bag. This is amazing because taking large bags on the train would be a challenge. I had seen the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel can ship bags out (I think they charge a small extra fee) but I can also confirm (which I didn’t see online) that they can receive them too (no extra fee).

You can ship postcards from the front desk, they have postage too.

Earlier in the trip we had stayed at western chain hotels. In comparison, staff Tokyo Disneyland had a bit less English proficiency. However, it wasn’t a problem and it was always possible to show a translation from my phone, if needed.

Make sure you have plenty of data when at the parks. Unlike the US parks, I didn’t see any in park WiFi and the app is even more important than in the US parks.

The parks sell after 3pm and after 5pm tickets for less than full price. I however tried to buy these after 3pm the first day and couldn’t get them to work (it said they were sold out). Had to pay full price instead. If you want to utilize these tickets it may be worth buying ahead.

If you think you could possibly ever make it to Tokyo Disney, don’t watch videos of the attractions ahead of time. You can only experience a Disney attraction for the first time once and many of the unique attractions are amazing and it’s not worth spoiling the surprises. Some of the rides really are incredible.

This is pretty well documented elsewhere, but food works a bit differently. There are many fewer snack/drink stalls than at the US parks and many are closed for all/chunks of the day (apparently this started around COVID time). It’s not a big deal but you might find if you want a soda it’ll be a $2 bottle from a vending machine instead of a $5 fountain soda.

There is currently no free way to skip lines (I think this changed within the last week or so). Disney Premier Access is bought ride-by-ride.

Kids under 4 are free at Tokyo Disney, rather than 3 at the US parks. A big win if you have a 3 year old. Under 4 get to skip lines with their parents if you buy premier access.

Hope this all helps someone!

Just came back from an 8 day/7 night stay (Aug 28-Sep 5) at WDW. Thought I’d share what a realistic trip looks like with a child qualifying for DAS (Disney Accessibility Service). I’m also happy to answer any questions on how we used it, tips for ND kids, etc. but I will not be sharing what was said during my daughter’s DAS interview. (IYKYK)

Background:
This is our sixth trip where my daughter qualified for DAS (third since the new system was in place). We only ever go as our little family (daughter, husband, and me) and we double up using Lightning Lane Multi-pass. We also utilize special ticket events to get extra low wait times. To make this all work with our budget, we stay at Pop Century and live that value resort life.

Kiddo is sensory seeking and also has memorized every single imagineering “secret” on the rides (she has memorized every show on rides and imagineering available on Disney+).

Even during this “slow” week, Guardians hit 100, Slinky was down four straight days, weather was a MESS, so we came already prepped that we were going to have to pivot on the fly. We were able to ride what my kiddo wanted, but also had way more early nights than the average family.

Lines:
- If you use DAS, this does not mean you are going to walk straight onto the ride. Look at the queue. If it’s snaking out the door, there’s a good chance that you’re waiting a while. We have about 20 mins MAX (including pre shows). We gave up on Guardians (90 min wait posted) when we walked into the LL queue and it was at the automatic doors. Be realistic on what you/your kiddo can handle.
- Bring tools to help you get through the lines. We have a YOTO player that fits in my daughter’s backpack. We have colouring, rainbow looms, fidgets, and screens that we use. You will use all of them because you will generally wait in that LL for 5-15 mins when in the LL, not including pre shows.

Prepping and listening to your kiddo:
- I know that my kiddo will want to touch all of the railings, climb them, swing on them etc. so we spent a lot of time working on our line etiquette.
- We maxed out at 8 hours in a park per day. When my kiddo was done, we were done. And that meant that we had a good start the next day.
- Whatever you had planned, just toss that plan out the window. Things break down. Rain closes rides. The Skyliner will go offline and you’ll need to bus to CBR and it will shake up your morning.
- Because we are aware that we could be denied for our next trip, we also use the Parks for resilience building. We’ll use Standby for walk ons, and try for wait times that are 20 or less.

Supplementing DAS with LLMP/LLSP
- The combo of DAS + LLMP works for my family. I can get some rides secured and keep her sensory seeking satisfied. DAS still has you waiting for the whole wait time (minus 10 minutes). It doesn’t just propel you to the top of the list.
- Some days, the kiddo only wants to ride something once, other times, we’re doing ToT 5 times in a row. Lucky for us, her favourite rides generally have lower wait times outside of midday peaks (BTMRR, ToT, Mission:Space, Everest) so we try to ride them as much as possible in the morning and then stack our LLMP and use DAS for the afternoon. But seriously, before 11 am, most of these were walk ons or within our tolerance windows.
- My kid loves Tron and GoG. I buy those LLSP. That way I know we’re riding them at least once. I tend to buy these for late morning before the mid day rush.
- MNSSHP was not sold out on the day we went and that was amazing. Some party nights, waits for rides can be ridiculous but even Tron stayed around 15-25 minutes the whole night.

Solid week in the Parks. Some wild LL lines that we had to bail on, but the slow mornings really worked in our favour. This might be our new favourite time to visit. Really think early entry and pre-night show exit might be our best move for the next couple of visits but I’ll take missing Fantasmic and the Starlight Parade if that means having a good start the rolling morning. I’ll watch those on a solo trip or when the kiddo can handle longer days in the parks.

My kids have worked their BUTTS off to pay their own way to do Disneyland!

Now we're prepping and I want to go in without getting overwhelmed and miss out on the fun! It's just me and my girls (14, 11, 8) and we don't want to do fast passes IF we can help it.

Who can get me the tips to do it right?? We plan to rope drop and push through the whole day if possible. Our date options are September 28,29, 30 we are prepared to do one day at Disneyland and one day a park hopper.

Tell me Disney masters what should I actually do and what should I skip?! I want to make it magical. They've been working for months selling stuff to pay their own way

Will it be busy? And suggestions on what rides to ride first?! Just curious your guys choice!

We are going to be going to Disneyland on October 1. My daughter has been to Disneyland several times. I have been once when she was two and we went to Disneyland Paris last November. How can we maximize our time at the park? I plan to buy a lightning pass. I was gonna wait until it’s a little closer to buy the tickets since they’re not refundable in case our plans change.

My brother and I each just got a $400 physical Disney Gift Card from our dad, he ordered them from the official Disney Store website to keep us from going overboard with shopping. 🥲

We’re heading to Disneyland in California soon, and it’ll be our first visit. I’m planning to pick up Minnie Mouse ears, some clothes, and a few cute souvenirs.

Do we need to bring the physical gift card with us, or can we add it to the Disneyland app or Apple Wallet to use through Apple Pay?

This is my first time ever having a magic key holder pass, I did the imagine key.

I have a trip planned for this week, 9/9-9/11. I think I possibly messed up and reserved for 9/9 and 9/10 instead of doing 9/9 and then 9/11. Within 30 minutes it went from showing California adventure being available to it being completely unavailable. Do people find that reservations open back up ever? I'm ok with buying a ticket for that day, but unsure if I should hold off until Friday morning or not.

Definitely a learning moment for me, I'll be booking the first day and then the Friday if that's a day I go in the future instead of the first two immediately.

EDIT: thank you everyone for help, I really appreciate it! I just got my Friday reservation!

Looking for anyone with personal experience here. We’ll be traveling Southwest staying at Pop Century and want to use the luggage transfer service. We will be bringing car seats for the kids and getting a rental car (I’m aware we don’t need a car in the bubble, that’s not the point of this post). The FAQs on Disney’s website say you have to gate check them in order to have them separate from your other checked luggage, otherwise they’d go along to the hotel and we obviously need them with us to drive. But lugging them through the airport, with a layover, in order to gate check them sounds terrible. I’m wondering if we put the bags in separate names/tickets (ie car seats under husband and checked bags under me & the kids) that you can still check the car seats at the counter before security while the rest goes through the luggage pickup service?

I have two possible itineraries for a Disney and Universal trip. Which one do you think is better?

OPTION 1

Sat 25: Arrival

Sun 26: Walmart + Vineland Outlets

Mon 27: Universal Studios + Islands of Adventure

Tue 28: Epic Universe

Wed 29: Move to Disney — no park

Thu 30: Rest + BBB + MNSSHP

Fri 1: Animal Kingdom

Sat 2: Magic Kingdom

Sun 3: Rest + International Premium Outlets

Mon 4: Hollywood Studios + Fantasmic!

Tue 5: EPCOT + Food & Wine

Wed 6: Fly to NYC

OPTION 2

Sat 25: Arrival + Disney Springs

Sun 26: Walmart + Outlets

Mon 27: Animal Kingdom

Tue 28: EPCOT + Food & Wine

Wed 29: Magic Kingdom

Thu 30: Relaxing morning + BBB + MNSSHP

Fri 1: Free morning + Outlets

Sat 2: Hollywood Studios

Sun 3: Move to Universal

Mon 4: Universal Studios + Islands of Adventure

Tue 5: Epic Universe

Wed 6: Depart for NYC

Which itinerary would you choose, and why?

Hello, maybe I’m in the wrong place both here and in the Disney App, and i apologize if that’s the case. But can you no longer see the future reservations you have? I’m searching for my trip next October because my grandparents are coming along and want to see the countdown in the app. However, we can only see my trip in December. Did they change where I can view all the plans?

Hello i have a question about lighting lane if anyone can help, I remember coming earlier in the year and I had the same lighting lane pass and i remember being able to to do the ride multiple times but today i get an error saying i’ve reached the maximum of times for today after i redeemed the lighting lane pass, did they change how the lighting lane works, is there a long cool down after doing it? any help is appreciated thank you

I have always gotten resort packages to include tickets. I am pricing my trip now and it looks to be over a grand cheaper to just get the resort and buy tickets separately. Has anyone done this? Are there cons to this that I am not seeing?

Terrible customer service all throughout the park. Dont let it bring you down.

Hi! I’m wondering if anyone has any experience bringing magnets to the park and using those to attach buttons to clothes. I’m not wanting to put holes in my clothes with the buttons and hope to attach them like a name tag!