Disneyland with kids – it can’t be beat. If you’re keen to book in the ultimate bucket list family holiday, Alice has just got back from a truly magical holiday to Anaheim in California – home to Disneyland, and as it turns out, so much more.
When I was in my twenties I loved travelling on a whim. I’d throw things into a bag the night before a flight, land in a new city, often alone and without having made a single plan – including where I’d be staying.
Now that I’m in my forties with two kids in tow, travel looks…well, quite a lot different. But – sometimes rather surprisingly – I find myself loving travelling just as much.
There is something exquisitely beautiful about getting to travel with your children. You get to see new places from an entirely new perspective. There’s so much joy to be had watching them marvel at new sights, smells, tastes and hearing their squeals of delight makes it all so worthwhile. I say ‘it all’ because, yes, it’s no cake walk. In order for it to run as smoothly as possible, it requires a heck of a lot of preparation (and patience – and preferably another parent along on the journey so you can have a moment to yourself every now and then).
But the good news is, Disneyland – and the surrounding area of Anaheim in California – is one of, if not the most magical places you could dream of taking your kids and they make it all just that bit easier to travel as a family. To be honest, it’s not hard to have a good holiday when you’re surrounded by cheer, Mickey Mouse and churros at every corner. It’s a place custom built for families.
It’s also the perfect time to be thinking about booking in a trip – the US Dollar is starting to fall against the Kiwi, giving us more bang for our buck, plus airfares are getting cheaper. There are now more airlines offering flights to Los Angeles from Auckland than anywhere else in the Pacific, and that competition means better prices for us all. One Kiwi father recently discovered that it would be cheaper to buy a flight for his daughter to Los Angeles than it would be to fly domestically from Tauranga to Wellington.
I am one of those (crazy?) people who has been to Disneyland a fair few times. My Dad worked for an airline and had a basing in Honolulu for a while, so I was lucky to first visit when I was three. But in January I went for the first time with my kids and it was an out-of-body-incredible experience.
You can’t go wrong if you base yourself across the road at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Anaheim Hotel & Water Playground, like we did. It’s an eight-minute walk to Disneyland, an easy walk to plenty of restaurants and it has a huge pool and separate water park area, so on your rest days, there’s still plenty of fun (and relaxing) to be had.
I still get a warm, tingly feeling when I think about my own Disney experiences as a child but getting to see my children discover that for themselves is a whole other level of warmth and cheer. My almost three-year-old walked through Cars Land in the Californian Adventure Park, absolutely stunned. The look on his face was priceless. It was like a magic trick – he truly believed he was in Radiator Springs, getting to see where Lightning McQueen, Mater, Flo and Sally hang out. We ate at Flo’s V8 Café, went on a ride through Luigi’s Casa Della Tyres and bought souvenirs at Lizzy’s Curios Shop. In the months since, we have talked about it every single day – he reminds me of exactly what we ate at the cafe and how we danced with “the dancing cars”.
I’d been gearing our two boys up for years – from the Finding Nemo play gym I bought my son at four months, to the Disney cruise we went on when the kids were one and eight. Last year I bought us tickets to Disney on Ice (amazing) and, in preparation for this trip we worked out way through many Disney classics (the 10-year-old’s favourite is Ratatouille, while the two-year-old’s is Cars).
It can feel cheesy to talk about, but that cliché of it being ‘the happiest place on earth’ really does ring true. Yes, of course, you’re going to see a few meltdowns (sugar and overexcitement will do that!), but really everyone does just seem delighted to be there, whether they’re young or old.
And the staff go above and beyond. I stopped and asked a woman in Cars Land what time they’d be switching on the lights that night (I’d heard they recreate the scene from the movie where the shop owners turn all their neon lights on for Lightning and Sally, all set to music). She told me exactly when to come back and where to go to get a good spot. We saw her again when we returned and gave her a smile – next thing, she came over and asked where we were from (she raised her eyebrows and said “wow!” when we said New Zealand) and then asked our two-year-old if he would like to walk with her in the parade. A few minutes later he was holding her hand, waving a glow stick and dancing around to the music in front of a crowd. As if it wasn’t magical enough, she got us to the front of the line on one of the Cars Land rides. “You’ve come so far,” she said. “Let’s make this a night to remember!”
We spent two days back-to-back in the parks, which was a good amount of time to cover a lot of ground. Going in, we had something of a plan: we knew which rides we definitely wanted to go on, where they were and what rides would have short lines that we could go to if we were feeling over having to queue (there’s a handy app that tells you exactly what the current estimated wait times are for each ride – and there’s plenty of rides that are excellent that often only have a five to 10 minute wait time). You still want some flexibility in your plans, depending on how things are going though. We changed our plans somewhat – my son who’d been saying “slides are too scary” before we left – turned into a thrill junkie, wanting to go on every ride he was tall enough for. I’d never even heard of Chip n Dale’s Gadgetcoaster before we left, but our son was just tall enough for it and we rode it three times while he threw his hands in the air in glee each time – it ended up being our family’s favourite ride.
But if you’re doing Disneyland, you also need your rest. We stayed at the Howard Johnson for five nights, which was ideal: it allowed for some downtime settling in on the first afternoon/night, two days/nights at Disneyland, a rest day (making the most of the water park and pool – even when we visited in January, the dead of winter, it was still 27 degrees), then a day at Knott’s Berry Farm, before checking out the next day and doing some shopping at the nearby outlet malls.
From the HoJo, it’s easy to access public transport – especially the Anaheim Resort Transit, or catch and Uber, or park your rental car. Because, Anaheim is certainly about a lot more than just Disneyland.
A short drive down the road, or a 15 minute walk you’ll find Anaheim Garden Walk – a slick, modern, outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex. It’s huge and features all those US family-friendly restaurant chains you’d expect to see, including The Cheesecake Factory (known for it’s massive plates – the miso salmon was so delicious I still managed to clean my plate, plus it was great with kids), Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (if you’re a Forest Gump fan, it has to be done), California Pizza Kitchen, P.F Chang’s and Johnny Rockets.
There’s also a slew of different entertainment options – with the highlight being the Flightdeck Flight Simulation Center. There, you (and your older kids) can get a very realistic experience of what it’s like to be behind the controls of three different thrills: a fighter jet in air-to-air combat, racing a Formula 1 car at Monaco or landing a Boeing 737 commercial jet. It’s a great hidden gem, that’d I’d definitely recommend trying.
A little further away you’ll find the Anaheim Packing District, which encompasses four historic landmarks – the central one being the Anaheim Packing House which is one of the last remaining citrus packing warehouses that Orange County was once world-famous for. It has been retrofitted as a market hall, housing around two dozen different delicious eateries. You’re spoilt for choice, with everything from Creole to Indian to French to Japanese to Syrian outlets, but my pics would have to be White Elephant Thai or the Pique-Nique Charcuterie.
For a little more action, about a 15-minute drive from the HoJo, you’ll find Knott’s Berry Farm – another theme park. I’m going to be totally honest here and say that I was feeling a bit ho-hum about visiting. We were going after Disneyland and I figured it could only like a letdown after that experience – plus, I wondered if our littlest was going to hate it, with it primarily being known for all its very extreme thrill rides. But, it was easily the greatest surprise of the trip.
The day we headed there, it had started raining for the first time in California in eight months. The temperature also dropped from a balmy 27 to a suddenly very chilly feeling 15, which only dropped further over the day as the sun began to disappear. Luckily, after Anaheim we had packed to head to Yosemite where we knew there was the possibility of snow, so had woolies and puffer jackets that we pulled out of our suitcases a lot earlier than expected. When we got to the park, we found it easy to get a park and then realised the light rain/cold had obviously scared away any crowds. So, if it rains, head here. The queues were so short that our 10-year-old rode all the most terrifying rollercoasters five times over, never having to wait more than a few minutes. From the famous GhostRider (an old-fashioned wooden, terrifying rollercoaster) to the newer, insane Silver Bullet rollercoaster or the Supreme Scream (where they drop you 252 feet in three seconds) there was plenty to scream about.
I also discovered there was a heap more to Knott’s Berry than just crazy rollercoasters (although there are a lot of those). The whole place has a great vibe and a heap of character – particularly the Old West Ghost Town which is incredibly well done. If it wasn’t for being able to see other visitors walking around in modern clothes, you’d swear you’d somehow been transported back to the Old West. The attention to detail is out of this world – there’s also a cast of characters walking around and you never know when bandits might appear.
Our toddler’s favourite area though was Camp Snoopy – which is home to the cast of PEANUTS. The area is especially for younger kids and has so many incredible rides that little kids can go on, from rollercoasters (Snoopy’s Tenderpaw Twister Coaster was a hit) to a little floating hot air balloon experience (the Balloon Race) and even a little off-roading experience (Camp Snoopy’s Off-Road Rally). You can also meet Snoopy and the PEANUTS gang. It was honestly magical – and just a fraction of the cost of Disneyland.
We made sure we took rest days between the action though – as much for us as for the tired kids. Which is when you really get your bang for buck at the HoJo, being able to laze by the pool, plus, come nighttime you can still lap up the Disney magic by watching the fireworks with great views from the car park or even some of the rooms.
Or, you can leave your husband in charge of the kids for the afternoon and head to one of the many great outlet malls in the area. Just down the road you’ll find The Outlets at Orange where there is more than 120 outlet stores – there’s everything from Bloomingdales to Gap to Old Navy to Ralph Lauren. There’s also plenty of fast food outlets, and a movie theatre.
A 20-minute drive away you’ll find the even bigger Citadel Outlets, which has high end outlet stores like Armani and Coach, as well as the likes of Old Navy and Gap.
If you’re looking for a bucketlist family holiday, there’s no bigger than Anaheim. It’s not particularly cheap, but, the memories are unbeatable.
If you’re ready to book it in – make sure you check out my Golden Rules for Visiting Disneyland Cheat-sheet, and feel free to drop me a line at alice@capsulenz.com with any questions!
Alice was a guest of Disneyland, The Howard Johnson by Wyndham Anaheim Hotel & Water Playground, Knott’s Berry Farm and Visit Anaheim. All opinions are her own!
