First of all, we had absolutely no plans on stopping at Disneyland. It wasn’t part of our road trip. We were going to avoid it. However, as is plain to see, we changed our minds and surprised everyone with day at Disneyland!!
We used the app to get our tickets and reservations, showed up early and got great parking. Disney folks know that great parking still means quite a hike.
We got the whole crew unloaded, there is 5 of us and our little one would definitely be needing his stroller for the long day ahead and we hike toward the entrance.
Before you can get to the actual park entrances you need to pass through security. No biggie, right? We just had our basic toddler supplies, wallets, etc. I also had a selfie stick. A short selfie stick that we planned to use once at the park entrance and stow away in the stroller for the rest of the day. We wanted one family picture without having strangers handle our phones (COVID and all).
Well, not being Disney buffs, when the security person who looked at the stuff inside my one pocket hip pouch for entirely way too long and the selfie stick and phone in my hand and said I would have to walk it back to my car or abandon it with him because they were banned in the park we believed him and left it there because we did not want to walk all the way back and waste of Disney time. So we ended up with an okay shot of just the boys in the family. After seeing many other guests in the park with selfie sticks we started to get perturbed. Later, I checked the Disney Rules and it turns out that selfie sticks are banned but not tripods. Well, my selfie stick was a tripod. Many tripods can be selfie sticks. Anyhoo, can’t change the past and I ended up replacing it with a better selfie/tripod.
Once in the park, we were taking turns going on rides with our older boys and at first this was working great. We were able to let the ride staff know and get a fast pass for the other parent to take their turn. Originally, we were told we could get up to 3 fast pass for our group. Which was perfect because we have two older boys, two parents and a toddler. So while one parent stays back to hang with the toddler the other can ride with the boys. Then switch. Well, every single time I was the second parent to ride with the boys and every single time I was grilled about where I got the fast pass, what time was it for, and a few other questions I can’t remember and never knew the answers for. We were not waiting half the day to use these, we were switching right out. It was incredibly annoying, ride staff was loading these passes on to our app and not giving us any kind of instructions to be able to pass the quiz. It really felt like we were being accused of something.
It was a learning experience for us for sure. We still don’t understand the parent/caregiver fast pass program. We absolutely will go back, because I am craving another churro and the boys still had a blast. Next time, it looks like I will have study all the rules before we visit. If you would like to go over park rules visit https://disneyland.disney.go.com/park-rules/
Life of 5 in the RV 