Disneyland Tips

1. Temporary tattoos: here and Madeline's box

2. Purchase disney princess dresses, costumes, disney tees, Mickey or Minnie ears, souvenir toys and glo sticks before entering the park to save money.

3. Work the fastpass system: between the 2 parks, you can hold more than one fastpass at a time.

4. If you want to pay to meet characters, make a reservation for a dining experience here . if not, check this out-- here

5. Bring entertainment for long lines or play games. games like Charades, the name game and I Spy are good.

6. Baby Center is AMAZING! nursing room, private room to pump, play area for crawlers, kitchen to wash supplies, high chair for feeding, microwave to heat bottles, changing tables, little toilets for potty trainers, you can also purchase anything you've run out of or forgot to bring, such as formula, diapers, canned baby food, pacifiers, baby powder, lotion, wipes, etc. They also have filtered water there.

6a. First Aid will store your pumping bag for free. They will not store your pumped milk though, you have to take it with you.

6b. First Aid offers over the counter meds and bandages. 

7. For healthy food choices, look for the Mickey check symbol on the menu.

8. Use a baby carrier, especially if you have toddlers. This will help keep your hands free and you won't need to use your stroller as much.

9. Rider switch

10. Do not drink the water in the pirates of the caribbean line. it smells bad, tastes questionable.

11. You can get a free cup of ice water from any restaurant.

12. They have filtered water at Rancho Del Zocalo, Tomorrowland Terrace and the French Market.

13. Plaza Inn, Pizza Port and Rancho del Zocalo give free refills with receipt.

14. Even though restaurants offer full meals, you do have the option to buy meal items a la carte. Except at Rancho del Zocalo. They will charge you for a full meal. 

15. There are lockers with chargers. They are $2/hour. However, if you search hard enough, you can find an outlet almost anywhere and sit for a spell until your phone charges for free.

16. There is a Disneyland wait times app which updates every few minutes to let you know how long the wait times are for every single ride.

17. Look up height restrictions before taking your kid all the way through the ride line only to find out at the end they aren't tall enough.

18. If you ask nicely, Disneyland photographers (or just about any other park visitor) will take your picture for you. 

19. If you stay at the Disneyland Resort hotel or the any of the hotels on the Disneyland campus, you are eligible for "magic morning". This allows you one hour admission before the rest of the world and is good for rides that have long lines such as Space Mountain (an average wait time of 90 min) and Cars Land racers (an average wait time of 120 min).

20. Get a free special button. They have "Happy Birthday", "Just Engaged", "Just Married", "Happy Anniversary", "First Visit", "Celebrating", "Disney Citizen", etc.

21. Blue Bayou and Carthay Circle restaurants require reservations. You can make reservations up to 60 days before your visit. 

22. Once a day, Alice and the Mad Hatter play musical chairs with the children at Coke Corner on Main Street. Ask a cast member what time this happens, usually in the afternoon. 

23. City Hall has some very helpful staff and lots of information with pamphlets and such. They have park maps in several different languages and your children can speak with Disney characters on the phone there.

24. If your balloon pops, a cast member will replace it for free. Same goes for spilled hot chocolate, dropped ice cream and broken souvenirs.

25. If you want a date night with your spouse (you have to be staying the night at the Disneyland Resort Hotel), The Grand Californian Hotel and Spa hosts kids ages 5-12 to an evening of arts, crafts, dinner, Disney films, computer games and snacks with a licensed supervisor. $25 here

26. If You are staying at the hotel, any purchases made in the park can be delivered to your room. No need to cart them around with you all day.

27. Easiest way to get a picture with Mickey Mouse is to go to Toon Town to see him in his house close to when Toon Town closes for the evening due to fireworks.

28. Best place to view fireworks is outside the park in the plaza between both parks.

29. If you have an annual pass, you can receive a discount on your meals and certain purchases, just ask the cast member.

30. Certain rides have a single rider line. If you don't mind not riding with your group, this is a good option.

31. You can bring as many snacks and drinks as you want. You can't bring in glass bottles though. Bring your own bottled water as it is quite expensive inside the park.

32. Selfie sticks are banned now. Don't bother bringing them.

33. If you have an annual pass, go in the morning, most of the crowds show up in the afternoon and stay until the evening. You get on more rides this way and don't end up in traffic at 10pm on the 5 trying to get home.

34. Don't eat your meals at peak meal times. Restaurants will be crowded. Eat earlier or later. 

35. If your kids want to see Anna and Elsa, you'll need to head straight to the reservation tickets spot to get them first thing in the morning. The wait time alone for getting the tickets is 45 min to 1 hour. 

35a. If you want to see World of Color or Fantasmic, you will need to get fast passes for those shows as well. Best to get those first thing in the morning. If you want to pay for dinner and a show for World of Color  you can get the dining package at The Wine Country Trattoria.

36. Give your kids time to enjoy what they like. Don't try to marathon them through the day, they'll be miserable and so will you. If your toddler wants to run around the water spigots in Bug's Land for awhile, then let them have fun and you'll get to rest your feet.

37. You can request to steer the Mark Twain ferry. Afterwards, the captain will give you a certificate.

38. You can request to ride in the Lily Belle car at the Main Street train station.

39. You can request a free map from the Jungle Cruise.

40. If your kids like stickers, there are a few places that offer them for free.

41. Military personnel, AAA club members and D23 club members get discounts on tickets.

42. If you want to know what time of year is best to plan your trip, this website is helpful-- here

43. 

Just keepin' it real.

So my friend Courtney M. recently did a blog post about her top 3 most embarrassing moments and that got me thinking about how many hundreds of times I've made a fool of myself in the past 30-some odd years of my life.

What I find funny is that all of these have happened in my adult life, apparently I've blocked all the embarrassing moments from my childhood out of my mind.

#3: I went to Cal State Univ. Monterey Bay-- I know it sounds glamorous that I went to a beach school-- trust me, it was cold, like 24/7. But I digress. While attending, I was an R.A. (resident advisor) and one of the responsibilities I had was to make rounds of the dorms in my area with another R.A. The building I lived in was across a street and a field from the other dorms. So Chris (the other R.A.) and his girlfriend who decided to walk with us made our way from 101 across the street. The field was dark with lots of hillside slopes and lots of driftwood. We were almost out of it when I tripped on some driftwood and somersaulted my way down the last hill. I don't know why I didn't put my hands out to stop myself. I just tucked them in and rolled. Chris and his girlfriend were trying so hard not to laugh and asked if I was ok. Needless to say, after the rounds, we took another route back. 

#2: Back before my sister Steph got married, she lived with a roommate behind TMC (The Master's College). I was visiting her and drove up a hill to the house where they lived. My sister came out and directed me to a small concrete area across the street from the house where I could park. I saw a log and knew that was where I needed to stop my car. Only I didn't. I drove right over it and drove into a ditch. She was laughing so hard, she was crying and I was angrily shouting at her to help me drive out of the ditch. The log kept me from being able to back up properly. I ended up having to drive further into the ditch, gun it in reverse so my car could get out. Its hilarious now but I was so mad that day. I haven't off-roaded since then.

#1: My friend Courtney L. brought over some homemade pizza for dinner one night a few years ago. It was a really good, only some of the dough hadn't cooked all the way. I took my slice, put it on a ceramic plate and put it in the microwave. I wanted to make sure the pizza dough cooked all the way so I set the timer for 5 minutes. I went back to the living room and sat down to watch tv. Next thing I know, the smoke alarm is going off and I look back at the kitchen, there is smoke billowing out of the microwave. Apparently ceramic plates are not microwaveable. My pizza slice had caught fire and the ceramic plate had cracked apart. My sister Victoria grabbed a cookie sheet and started fanning the smoke out of the kitchen window. I grabbed a towel to put out the flaming pizza and throw it away. My sister (by accident) whacked me in the arm with the cookie sheet and started laughing so hard she stopped fanning the smoke. I wasn't hurt, we were all laughing so hard. I'm seeing a pattern here of my clumsiness, hope ya'll got a good laugh out of this.

welcome!

Ok, so I'm sorta new to blogging. But I'm not. I have a tumblr but it just wasn't the platform I wanted to use. 

So here I am, finally blogging with blogspot (aka blogger) and am as happy as a clam. I think.

I have no idea what I'm doing. My blog definitely has no focus. I'm just jazzed to be on the show, man. Name that movie!

Anyways, sometimes I'll post helpful tips, other times I'll post funny lists or recipes, just depends on my mood.

See you soon...