Hey friends!! Excited to share this blog post with you!! I got SO MANY questions while we were at Disney I figured it would be easier to put it in one place! We had SO MUCH fun, learned a TON and I'm excited to share all the good the bad and the ugly things we learned the hard way. lol Let's get to business!! KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: Tickets: After looking at all our options we saved the most by getting our tickets via Getaway Today! We purchased one day tickets (not park hopper) for a few reasons. 1. Saved money! Disney adds up FAST. Buying one day tickets helped say a few hundred dollars! 2. Kids! Park hopping with small kids didn't seem necessary to us. They get so tired so fast. Our focus was one on park per day and it was PERFECT!! We ended up doing 3 days at Disneyland and 1 day at California Adventure! Must have kid things: These are all things that we used DAILY and will 100% use every time we go to Disney until they are older. 1. Kid leash: When I used to see parents using these I shook my head. Now I think "YOU ARE BRAVE". Char is a runner and unfortunately we lost her for 8 minutes while we were at California Adventure. Worst feeling in the world. We used the leash 90% of the time. The two seconds that my MIL bent over to help Dash, Char bolted away. I don't care how ridiculous it looks, this world is no joke and there are some awful people out there. Put your kid on a leash if it's needed! Char was wearing this toddler backpack leash. It was great solely because we could use her backpack to keep a few things in there. I saw this Mickey Mouse toddler backpack leash everywhere and I was slightly jealous. lol LAST... a friend told me about this Anti Lost Wrist Link and to be 100% honest, I feel like this would be one of the best options out of them all! Holding the backpack leash got tiring sometimes! 2. Jacket: No matter how hot it is during the day, we always needed a jacket when the sun went down! TRAVELING TIPS: Our flight was only an hour and a half long but it felt like 10 hours. Here are a few tips from us to you on keeping your kiddos entertained! 1. Charly (3 years old): For Char this works GREAT! If she has a new toy that is brand new territory she will stay entertained for quite a while! And of course her iPad. When times get crazy, sometimes the iPad is the answer! She is a happy camper when she can watch her YouTube kids or play her games! 2. Dash (8 months old): Dash was HARD on the way there and the way back. He was sick and I could tell that high altitude was killing him because it was killing all of us! We tried to have him suck on his bottle during take off to help with the pressure, and of course he fell asleep right as we were landing on BOTH flights after screaming (until he was purple) for a good 20+ minutes. Pure torture. We did great at keeping him entertained with toys and bouncing him around until that last 30 minutes of each flight. 3. I have heard of parents bringing their car seat and buying an extra seat so the baby can fly in the car seat. If we had a longer flight we might have done this but we were already paying for four seats so we did not do that this time. Food for thought! 4. Bring someone! Seriously. Worth EVERY penny. We brought my MIL and it was so helpful! I feel like having one extra person there made the experience SO MUCH more enjoyable. We were all able to ride the rides and enjoy our time!! Me and Saunder were able to go on a few roller coasters late one night too! It was amazing! WHERE TO STAY: With kids we wanted to stay close by so we could walk to and from the park every day. BEST decision ever! We stayed at the Marriot Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance. When we first booked it, it sounded like it was closer than it actually was. It was about .7 miles to the entrance. It was a lot of walking but we LOVED the hotel (bunk bends in the rooms - heck yes!), free breakfast and convenient! This was a lower price than the on site hotels and in our opinion, just as good! PARK TIPS: 1. Buy a MaxPass: This will be the best thing you can do for you and your party! What you will do is download the Disneyland App. You will scan your tickets on one persons phone, pay $15 per ticket (I PROMISE it's worth it) and that is where you will schedule out the fast passes! You can schedule a new fast pass every hour and a half which was perfect! We didn't start using this until the 2nd day in and we are still kicking ourselves!! On top of that you also get all your ride photos downloaded for FREE!! You can read more about MaxPass on Disney's website HERE!! 2. Rider Switch: If you are not familiar with this and have babies/small toddlers, this is the BEST!! What you will do is ask for a rider switch pass with the baby/toddler in site. For example. We had 3 adults, Charly and Dash. Since Dash couldn't go on a ride we would go to the entrance with all of us and ask for the Rider Switch. They would let us three go in and then issue three more fast passes so we could come out and switch out my MIL so she could ride next! You can read more about rider switch right at Disney's website HERE!! FOOD YOU HAVE TO TRY: The REAL reason we were at Disney. We experienced food more than ever before and it was AMAZING!! The food is unreal and we did our best to hit as many popular places as possible! Here were some of the things we tried! 1. Use your mobile app to order ahead! This newer feature is genius!! You can skip the lines and go right in and pick up your food! Now here are some of our favs: -Churros: you can get these alllll over the park! -Dole Whip: you can get this at the Tiki Juice Bar -Grilled Cheese + Tomato Basil Soup: Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe (also try the ultimate grilled cheese) -Raspberry Rose Macaroon: Jolley Holliday Bakery Cafe -Mickey Beignets: Mint Julep Bar -Monte Cristo at Blue Bayou Restaurant (this was closed down while we were there but if not I would have been there in a second)! -Breakfast: Napa Rose - this is where we did our Disney Princess Breakfast. Food was GREAT, but the price was... OUCHIE. Just be prepared. ;) -Corn Dog: Corn Dog Castle -Grey Stuff: Red Rose Tavern A few more questions I got on IG: >>How was it taking a baby: GREAT! Dash could go on SO many things in Disneyland and he did so good!! He slept in the stroller when it was nap time and otherwise he was on rides with us! >>How many rides were good for toddlers: SO MANY rides at Disneyland are toddler friendly!! Char was even tall enough to go on a few roller coasters too! She loved all the Disney rides and is scarred for life from Cars haha >>Did you rent a car: NO! Too much work. Stay close and walk! Parking is $$ and walking = burning calories! ;) Win-win! >>How much should a family of 4 save to complete the trip: Doing it as cheap as possible and still having a good time I would suggest to save around $2k-4k! That is a wide range but it is very dependent on your kids ages, how many rooms you need, where you are traveling from etc... I have friends that can do it for around $1500!! With us, we wanted to go all out and make it worth our time. 4 days was great, we loved staying close by and we will always fly vs drive!! I hope this was helpful! Have a blast! It really is the happiest (and craziest) place on earth! XO Instagram || Facebook || Twitter || Pinterest || Bloglovin || LipSense || Poshmark