- Yellow productions presents...
10 things to know before you visit Disneyland
in Anaheim, California.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining.
And in this video I am gonna be telling you
everything you need to know to visit
the most magical and happiest place on Earth, Disneyland.
This is part of my series of travel guides on Los Angeles.
Got videos on Universal Studios,
you'll find links in the description
or at the end of this video,
but in this video I'm gonna be talkin' specifically about
the Disneyland theme park.
Before we get into it,
let's just talk about where it's located.
I said this part of my series on LA,
it's actually in what's called Orange County.
A city called Anaheim.
It's about thirty miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
So if you're planning to come visit on a trip in LA,
you might want to consider staying in Anaheim,
around Disneyland.
Alright, here we go.
The first to know before you come to Disneyland
is about where to buy tickets,
or should I say where not to buy tickets.
The worst place to buy tickets is at the gate.
Look at these lines.
They're also going to be the most expensive here.
Do not waste your time, an hour on your first day
at Disneyland waiting in these lines to buy tickets.
You can buy tickets online,
you can buy tickets in the hotels in the area,
you can buy tickets from Triple A,
you can buy tickets from Costco,
so buy your tickets before you get here,
and don't stand in that long line.
This is the happiest place on Earth,
none of those people look happy.
This is not the way you want to be starting your trip.
Okay there is only one reason
why you'd want to buy your tickets here,
and that is if you're buying an annual pass,
and you're coming on a blockout day.
If you're coming on a blockout day like July 4th,
or Christmas, or a Saturday, you can actually buy the
annual passes that are blocked out here,
and they'll give you what they call a blockout exception,
and then you can go into the park on the day
you bought the annual pass,
even though it's not valid on that day.
The second thing to know before you come to Disneyland
is about the park layout,
so Disneyland, what this park is named after,
is right behind me.
It's a theme park that's been here for a very long time,
but there's a second theme park over this way.
This is called Disney California Adventure.
California Adventure's another theme park that's based upon
kind of a fairground-type experience.
We'll talk more about that later.
And then over this way,
where the ticket booths I was standing,
walking this direction is Downtown Disney.
We'll talk more about Downtown Disney later,
and then there's a couple hotels that are over there.
What you should know about the different parks
is the one-day ticket if you buy at the ticket booth,
only includes one park.
If you want to go into multiple parks on the same day,
then you have to buy what's called the park hopper ticket,
that'll allow you to go into multiple parks on the same day.
The third thing to know is about when to go
to avoid the crowds.
Well, it is always crowded at Disneyland, let me tell you.
But this is more of a question of when not to go,
just like when not to buy tickets.
The times you really don't want to come to Disneyland are
the heights of the Summer,
and right around Christmas holidays.
Those are gonna be the busiest times.
Obviously weekdays are going to be least busy.
It's also the least busy in the morning.
If you can get here at park opening,
and then leave by noon or one,
noon or one is when the park gets the busiest,
but the advice I have to give you about coming to Disneyland
is to use one of the crowd calendar
or crowd tracker websites.
If you go onto Google and you type in
Disneyland crowd tracker, Disneyland crowd calendar,
you'll find these sites that will tell you what days
are good and what days are not good.
And these sites are surprisingly accurate.
The only thing they don't take into consideration
is weather.
So I will tell you if it is rainy day,
that is the best day to come to Disneyland.
You'll find it won't be very busy.
The almost the worst day to come to Disneyland
is the day after a rainy day,
because now you have about two days' worth of people
all in the park on the same day.
But, just be prepared for crowds and people.
It is the happiest place on Earth,
so lots of people want to come to be happy.
Let's talk about food.
You definitely need to know about food
before you come to Disneyland,
and my favorite thing to eat at Disneyland is
Earl of Sandwich.
It's in Downtown Disney.
I think they make some of the best hot sandwiches ever.
I like the Earl's Club.
It's got the turkey, bacon, some things,
and they like toast it right when you order it.
(bread crunching)
Super delicious.
Sandwich, chips, and drink is $12 dollars.
Which is pretty reasonable for food at Disneyland.
You should know food at Disneyland is pretty expensive.
You pay a premium to eat here.
I think the most inexpensive things
are around Downtown Disney,
but we'll talk about more about food inside the park,
inside the park so let's head over there.
My other favorite spot in Downtown Disney for cheap eats
is Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Express.
Pretty good gumbo, po-boys, and beignets.
My favorite place to eat inside Disneyland
is in the Plaza Inn.
What is the Plaza Inn's specialty?
Fried chicken.
Today it's a chicken wing platter, $17 dollars.
I like the fried chicken dinner.
It's about $17 dollars.
Three pieces of fried chicken,
biscuit, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy;
a good wholesome meal you don't often get at theme parks.
Come inside, let me show you what this place looks like.
It's this old, historic lookin' building.
It's got kind of like these stained glass roofs.
You'll find this to be one of the busiest place to eat.
It opens at noon.
There'll be a long line at noon,
right in front of the castle,
but come on in, make your way back
to the chicken stands in the back,
and you will be enjoying life, I promise.
My second favorite place to eat inside Disneyland
is at the Little Red Wagon corn dog carts,
located right in front of the Plaza Inn.
$9.50, you get a corn dog, you get a side,
which is either chips or apples,
and well that's it.
I mean it's not cheap, but the corn dogs,
they're really delicious.
What I like about them, the corn bread breading
really tastes like corn bread,
and not just a cheap dough.
For me, I need two corn dogs to fill me up,
but they really are that good.
Best corn dogs I've ever had.
From the Little Red Wagon corn dog cart.
They sell them at California Adventure too,
in a little different, I think Corn Dog Castle.
My third favorite place to eat inside Disneyland is
the Royal Street Veranda.
It is this little tiny window right here
that has about eight seats.
What do they specialize in?
They specialize in steak gumbo, $10.99.
You get a bowl of steak gumbo in a bread bowl.
If you're trying to find this place,
it is right next to the Pirates of the Caribbean.
And when I mean right next to the Pirates of the Caribbean,
It's kind of hidden, but see this is the line
for the Pirates of the Caribbean,
and the window was right to the left.
My final favorite place to eat inside the park
is right next to it,
it's called the Blue Bayou.
The Blue Bayou restaurant, it is the restaurant
inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
It is a sit down restaurant.
If you want to eat there,
you really have to make a reservation ahead of time online
30-60 days before you come to the park,
but it's an experience you'll never forget.
Because how often do you get to eat prime rib
right next to people that are riding boats
on the Pirates of the Caribbean.
One thing you should definitely bring
with you to the park is a bottle of water, maybe two.
Water in the park, really quite expensive.
All drinks really quite expensive.
They do let you bring drinks inside.
And if you bring it with you, you'll be hydrated
and you'll thank me later, 'cause you'll probably
saved yourself about four bucks per each one of these
that you brought with you.
Now let's talk about lines and rides.
Disneyland, there's a lot of lines here,
but what you'll want to do is you want to take
the FastPasses.
They have they these things called FastPasses,
and there's two ways to get them.
You can get FastPasses from the machine
in front of the rides.
Every ride will have basically
three entrances into the ride.
One's the standby line,
the second one's the FastPass entrance,
and the third could be the single rider line.
We'll get to single rider in a moment,
but then a fourth entrance isn't to the ride,
but it's to the machines to get a FastPass.
You'll take your park ticket, you insert into a machine,
and it'll print out this thing
that's called a FastPass reminder.
This isn't actually FastPass.
You use your park ticket to go back into the ride,
but it gives you a designated hour to come back,
and then you can pull another FastPass another time.
So we picked this one up from one to two,
and it said the time to come back was at 1:14.
This particular ride, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters,
not really a super popular ride,
so we were back to pick up a FastPass thirty minutes later.
The Haunted Mansion, we picked one up at 2:15.
We got that at one, it was an hour and fifteen minutes
before we could pick up the next FastPass.
So, the time that it takes that you can get your next
FastPass depends on the popularity of the attraction
you picked, and how busy the park is.
But I will say what you wanna know,
if you're here on a busy day,
you pretty much just want to be riding the rides
with FastPasses.
When you come in, pick the FastPasses for some
of the busiest rides,
and that way you won't be standing around for a long time.
Also you can use the Disneyland app on your smartphone
to check wait times,
and if you want to pay a little bit more,
you can get what's called MaxPass.
MaxPass is $10 dollars per person, per day,
and then you can get the FastPasses on the app.
You don't actually even have to go to the rides
to pick up the FastPasses.
The final note,
single rider lines,
I don't think there are any of them at Disneyland,
but at California Adventure,
some of the rides will have single rider lines,
and if you're riding by yourself,
or you don't mind being broken up,
that will be some of the fastest ways to get on the rides.
Two of the busiest rides,
most popular ones at Disneyland,
number one, Space Mountain;
number two, Indiana Jones,
says what I'm standing in front of here.
So those are ones you probably want to pick up
your FastPasses early in the day.
If you're coming with the kiddos,
and you're going on the rides,
and standing in line,
you'll have to park your stroller.
You can't bring your strollers into the line,
they've got designated stroller parking areas.
I am in some in-park stroller parking,
but be careful, don't leave any valuables on the strollers.
Disneyland has had problem with people stealing things
from the strollers.
So make sure all the valuables you take with you
on the ride.
Next thing you need to know before you come to Disneyland
is about shows.
Disneyland has a lot of shows,
but the coolest thing is shows just kind of materialize
out of nowhere.
You'll be standing some place and all of the sudden
a boat will go behind you singing songs,
or you'll be standing in front of the castle,
and Mary Poppins will come by.
(upbeat band music)
(audience cheering)
Or you'll be standing some place,
and a marching band will come by.
And Disney has a way of taking a marching band
and actually turning it into a show.
(marching band playing dramatic music)
But I think the best show at Disneyland,
well it's actually, it's in this lake behind me.
It's called Fantasmic.
It is a nighttime show.
On busy days they do a twice a night.
The second show will be the least busy.
But if you here you should definitely check it out.
They do fireworks over the castle,
and they have another great nighttime show
over at California Adventure called World of Color.
You should also know that they offer dining packages
along with these shows,
so if you want to get a reserved seat,
you can go online Disney's website,
book a dining package like at the Blue Bayou,
it will include dinner and one of these FastPasses
for reserved seating or reserved viewing area
at the nighttime show.
If you're coming to Disneyland,
you might plan to do some shopping.
Disneyland has a lot of gift shops.
I think some of the coolest ones
are in the New Orleans area just around the Blue Bayou
and outside the Pirates of the Caribbean.
OC girl she really loves shopping here,
and one of the stores here is its great dress store.
Look at that cool dresses.
But I think that's the great thing about Disneyland,
is that the stores, they're not just crappy souvenirs,
but actually they have really neat things in the shop.
They're kind of pricey,
but a lot of shops have unique things.
So spend some time,
explore the different gift shops in the different lands.
You'll find different things, almost in each one of them.
Last resort in Downtown Disney,
there's a huge World of Disney shop
that has a lot of the things you'll find
in a lot of the stores, but not all of them.
You'll have to check out each one of them
throughout the park.
I promised I'd get back to Downtown Disney,
and so here we are.
Downtown Disney, it is a shopping and restaurant promenade.
It connects California Adventure, Disneyland
to the Disneyland hotel,
which is the direction that I'm walking.
So if you're looking for sit down restaurants
at normal prices, or things like that,
check out Downtown Disney.
So Downtown Disney area does not require any admission;
so it's free to come into Downtown Disney.
So if you're coming into Disneyland for a few days,
you've got like an evening at the beginning,
or a morning on the last day,
great time to check this out.
Also at park closing,
Downtown Disney is typically open later.
In Downtown Disney, there is also a movie theater,
so you can watch AMC movies,
and just over this way right here
is the monorail station.
You can take the Disney monorail,
I'm gonna spin around this way so you can see it,
it stops right here,
the Disney monorail picks you up here
and take you into Disneyland park.
So that's a quick way to get in.
And then there's two hotels that are in Downtown Disney.
Right here is the Disneyland hotel,
and then there's also the grand Californian hotel.
If you stay in the grand Californian hotel,
that one has a special entrance
that will take you into California Adventure
just for hotel guests.
Well hey, that's it.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
Now you know every thing you need to
to visit Disneyland.
If you enjoyed this video, you'd like to see more of them,
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to watch some of our other videos from LA.
You might like this one.
It's a 10 things to know
about going to Universal Studios Hollywood,
the other big theme park in the area.
Alright, bye-bye.