Attempting Disneyland with a Toddler #1

I've always been one of those moms who's vowed to wait until her children were "old enough to remember and appreciate" something. Disneyland in particular. I wanted to wait to take Lucy so that she would remember it and know what's going on, who the characters were, and also so that I could hold off on spending $100 a head on a trip to what may not be "the happiest place on earth."

BUT. We did it. And might I add: successfully. We had an amazing trip and so much fun, that I thought I'd blog about why it was successful and how you too can have a successful trip to Disneyland with your toddler.

Because there are many elements to traveling and to Disneyland, I'm going to split my blog into two. This first blog will be about Money, Flying, Strollers, and Food. These are the 4 most expensive elements to this trip. The second blog will be about being a Mommy in the park, Visiting Characters and going on Rides, and Disneyland from the Eyes of a two-year-old.

When you go is not important. It's always busy, but a weekday is less busy... I guess. If you have social anxiety, start taking your pills now. "There will be a lot of people and it will be OK." This was my personal mantra for the week. Also know that there is never enough time to see everything, so don't set that expectation. You WILL need a couple of days between the two parks and there WILL be things that you miss. Fact.

First let's talk about money. I didn't not have to pay a cent to get into the park. This was one of the deciding factors to even go to Disneyland in the first place. My sister works for Disney and graciously gave us her 6 free passes for the day. It didn't hurt that Lucy is under 3, so she got in free as well. If you are going to spend the money on a trip to Disneyland, I recommend getting a 3-day park hopper. The best deal I've seen is at Safeway (of all places) or booking through an insurance agency like AAA. Booking through AAA will give you other perks as well. That's all I have to say about that. I have no experience in this area otherwise.
*Every offer is different but if you visit Disney Rewards Visa and sign up for their credit card, they will send you a Disney Gift Card (our offer was for $200).


Flying
Driving 10 hours in a car with a 2 year old didn't sound like my ideal way to start a vacation. So what I probably would have spent on admission to the park, I spent on flying to LAX from Reno. TOTALLY WORTH IT. Lucy loved the plane and we were there in under 2 hours and she still talks about it every time she gets on the phone with a family member.

There are a lot of articles I found online that helped me prepare for flying with a toddler. Very helpful. Check them out here: Family.com and Babycenter.com
I took her car seat flying out of Reno on the plane. I'm glad I did because flying out of Reno was like riding on a pioneer's covered wagon with one square wheel. While I white-knuckled it, she hardly noticed and was high enough in the car seat that she could see out of the window. On the way home, flying from LAX I decided to check the car seat because it was one less thing to juggle. It was easier to move her around once in flight, she could sit on my lap so we could both see out of the window; it was the better choice for us. I could imagine that if you have a rambunctious kid that might squirm his way out of the lap belt, the car seat would be ideal.
FYI: Southwest lets you check up to 3 bags per person under 50 lbs for free and airlines HAVE to let you check safety items for your baby such as car seats, playpens, strollers at no extra charge. Double check with your airline, but this was very useful info for me while planning what to bring. Also, 2 years and up is a full adult priced ticket depending on the airline; bummer, but nice when you get to check all that extra baggage and give her her own seat.

Back to the park itself...
Stroller
Chances are you'll be travelling with a stroller. We traveled with an umbrella stroller borrowed from a friend. This was a good choice because it was light weight, it folded up easily for the airplane. However, when we got to Disneyland, we opted to rent one of their strollers. This was a GOOD choice for us. The rental stroller was only $15 per day. This is a good value if you a) have a $400 stroller you don't want to "leave alone" in the park (trust me, you will abandon your stuff several times in the day), b) your stroller doesn't have a large under carriage for storage, c) you do not have front swivel wheels. As petty as these points may be, it really did influence our decision. We saw many people at the park with phil&ted strollers and even bugaboo and it is a safe place. But knowing it could rain, someone could barf, etc, I would rather take the rental and know I don't have to pay for professional cleaning or worry that my investment is being destroyed.

I can understand why they would want to take their reliable, well made strollers however. I saw many people with cheap umbrella strollers struggling over curbs, monstrous doubles trying to weave through people traffic. These strollers are similar to a mid-level jogging stroller with height, swivel wheels, under carriage storage, and strudy enough to have your bag full of stuff hanging on the back and not tip over when your child's not in it.
At $15/day (or $25/day for 2) it's was totally worth it with Lucy's age. If she were older and were doing more walking, I probably would have taken the borrowed umbrella stroller (which we did take our 2nd day which was only 1/2 day in the park).

Food
What ever you think your food budget is for the park, double it. Right now. While the food is excellent and of good quality, you'll pay $5.99 for a hand dipped corn dog and $2 for a green apple. The only thing that seemed reasonably priced when it came to food, was the espresso drinks (comparable to Starbuck's prices), and the Bowl of Gumbo in New Orleans Square ($8.99).
The park does however allow you to take in food so that's what we did. We probably saved ourselves a good 50+ bucks, but it is hard to resist the temptation of a mid-afternoon pick me up espresso drink, and getting the full-experience of New Orleans Square, waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion, while sipping a Mint Julep.

Keep in mind that while perfect planning can propose and perfectly joyous vacation, toddlers are unpredictable and I saw more than one major meltdowns in the park (none by my sweet Lucy, of course). Things occur that were unplanned, both good and bad--It all comes down to how we handle it!

So hold on tight while I develop blog #2 and start planning your trips now--because my conclusion after actually doing it--it's worth it!