When I tell people we visited the Magic Kingdom over Thanksgiving, they seem to be trying to gauge if their child is a good age for a first visit. My friend Mr. Honea, a father of two boys, who seems to be an expert on the place has a good answer. “Every age is a good age,” he says.
Here’s the one caveat I would make: It’s not so much about the age, but rather the disposition.
Call her crazy, but Scarlett is not wild about the idea of being strapped in an odd-looking car in order to enter a dark tunnel in which she has zero idea of what may happen to her. So that eliminates a fair amount of rides, even age appropriate ones like the classic Peter Pan (up, up and away!) and the (new-to-my-generation) Winnie The Pooh ride.
Here she is, approaching that nail-biter It’s a Small World.
The Tea Cups and Dumbo, rides on which you can see exactly what you’ve signed up for, offered pure delight. Autopia, another entirely outdoor ride, was named as the favorite of the day by both kids.
But no matter, this is only a problem if your expectation of the day is all about the rides. What I’ve learned from two visits to Disneyland as a parent, each with a differently programmed first-timer, is that there is much more to the park than rides. The place is truly magical. Walking down Main Street feels like being in a Hallmark movie, everything sparkling and clean, and the gentle soundtrack of glee (but not Glee) wafting through the air.
Holiday time at Disneyland is extra super fantastic, marked by extra lights on Sleeping Beauty’s castle and truly fabulous parade. (My kids loved this parade so much, it was a little mind boggling.)
It’s a Small World was doing it’s holiday thang, as well, with seasonal decorations and music.
Character spotting is truly exciting for both adults and kids — except for Scarlett who cried for me to take her out of the place where she could view Snow White (who I thought she loved?!), Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all at once. Her reaction didn’t surprise me, but it did disappoint me. I wanted to watch her delight as she realized that dreams do come true, or wishes taste like bubble gum, or that bubble gum never sticks in your hair when you’re at Disneyland, or something like that.
Ryan and I went in to the day with the intention of staying as long as the kids continued to be into it, possibly well after their bedtime, but at about 6.30 PM we could see that they were done. We ate dinner on the premises, purchased the requisite t shirts, and headed home in the Ford Explorer (<— product placement!) we had borrowed for the week.
At the end of the day, it was a pretty joyful experience, especially for my non-anxious kid. The following morning, Scarlett bragged to her grandma about everything she had seen and done, with no mention of the times she spent shaking her head, “No,” or quaking in her boots. If you ask her if she’d agree that Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth, she might agree. But then again, she might say that the middle spot of Mommy and Daddy’s bed at 6 AM on Saturday morning is that place.
A few extra notes:
- Lots of girls are wearing princess dresses around the park. If you think your child will be moping with envy over this fact (mine was), you may want to bring one.
- We had completely decided to go to Disneyland and definitely would have paid for the tickets ourselves, but I did get invited to use media passes, so thank you to Disneyland for that.
- When I sought advice online, I got my hands on this link which has some excellent tips for first-time visitors.
- The food at Disneyland exceeded my expectations. I’m not saying I want to go there for dinner on a regular basis, but my kids got pizza with apple slices and carrots for lunch and then quesadillas or burritos with rice and beans for dinner. Just as good as they eat at home, I’d say, and I was totally happy with my food as well. My husband and I both had salads for lunch. His was of the general garden-variety and mine was asian chicken. Good stuff.
I’d like to keep going to Disneyland every other year as a Thanksgiving tradition, as we spend that week in Los Angeles visiting family anyway, or maybe every year as the kids start to get more out of it. Hello, Space Mountain?
Have you been as a parent? Do you WANT to go? Do you think your kid is ready?
When I was 20 my mom and I took my 7 year old brother. I think it was the prefect age for him. He was still full of awe and wonder when Sleeping Beauty came by our table at breakfast but also old enough to really enjoy the rides. I think we would have spent the whole day on Tom Sawyer’s Island if we hadn’t been able to promise him pirates. So, I think the prefect age is around 7.
My husband works for Disney (not the park though, ha) and we live about an hour from Disneyland so we go fairly regularly since it’s free. My kids are 3.5 & 2 and it’s still pretty rough. Because it’s free we always go when it opens and stay until it isn’t fun anymore. We also go when it’s not crowded and bring at least one extra adult with us if we can.
We’ve had successful days and not so successful days and I completely agree that it’s about disposition, not age. Though I’m looking forward to going when the littler one is 3, just seeing how much more my older one enjoys it at this age I think it will be really fun then.
Glad you had a good time! I am a HUGE Disneyland fan and my husband and I first started taking the kids when my oldest was 10 months old. She’s now 2 1/2 and has been four times. Her 6 month old brother went for the first time at 3 months. Once my daughter was old enough to start fearing the dark rides we started watching them on YouTube. It helped so much. She knew what to expect and was still overjoyed to ride them in person even though she’d seen them countless times on the computer.
@Sam, that is a brilliant idea. We did look at some things ahead of time on YouTube, but I didn’t think to focus on the inside dark rides.
I’m a huge Disneyland fan and honestly, we took my first child when he was 1 month old and I don’t regret it! He could go on all the Fantasyland rides, as well as Pirates & Haunted Mansion. Plus, Disneyland has a “mother’s lounge” with private places to breastfeed and even pump if you need to. They even have special potty training potties for kids there. I love that place, its like they thought of everything!
I am a HUGE Disney fan, although I’ve never been to Disney Land, we are only a few hours from Disney World and my boys, 3 1/2 and 23 months are already veterans at the Disney thing, so I agree that any age is a good age! It is also about the disposition of the child though, my oldest is a bit more anxious about certain things and the poor child is traumatized by the Buzz Lightyear ride because he got really scared of the part at the end with tunnel where it looks like the stars are zipping past you, he was afraid it was taking us far away from the rest of the rides
We just took our kids for the first time. My daughter (age 5) was scared of the Pinocchio ride because it was dark and had scary sounds but she loved the roller coasters. My son (age 3) was fine in the dark if mommy was there but freaked out all through the Matterhorn because it went too fast. After we figured out their preferences the rest of the trip was magical. There are plenty of rides to choose from and kids don’t mind going on their favorites multiple times.
My only advice would be to plan for rest time and keep the kids fed and hydrated.
My parents took me when I was 5 (a special day off school, away from little sister) and that’s what we are doing too. 5 is old enough to remember and appreciate it. Plus the undivided attention of your parents is special any time when you have 2 little sisters. We had a blast AND we recreated my iconic Disneyland photo from my photo album.
We just went for the first time the first week of november while visiting my mom in OC. I grew up 15 minutes from there so not a visitor passed by our house that didn’t get a personal tour of Disneyland. My seven year old loved all the rides including space mountain which he went on twice. My daughter (4.5) freaked out on space mountain. oops. But she loved Matterhorn. She liked the toon town roller coaster (go gadget). Just rights for 3-5 year olds. The thing that saved us was the free Disney line wait iphone app. Awesome. Plus going on a Wednesday in early November means short lines all around. The poor baby was shlepped around all day and I was glad we had grandma babysitting. I think the best part was the Music parade (it’s probably the christmas parade by now). We all LOVED that. great way to end a long day.