It’s time to rethink everything you used to know about Disneyland - SF Gate

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It’s hard to miss the complaints about Disneyland these days. Even before the unusually bad press the Walt Disney Company has been getting for the past couple of weeks, there has been a steady stream of grumbles from longtime park fans.

Annual passholders frequent the parks with the most regularity. They are, without question, the most vocal critics of what happens at Disneyland: not just of major ride changes and sweeping cost increases, but of minutiae on the smallest level. Make a St. Paddy’s Day corn dog not quite as green as the one advertised on social media — the one made in a commercial kitchen by an accredited chef and photographed (and photoshopped) by professional photographers and designers — and the #DisTwitter corner of social media loses its collective mind. Their expectations are high, and they are not shy about hitting the “send” button.

But I think part of that dissatisfaction, especially from passholders, comes from the fact that the people who go to the parks the most have a certain sense of pride about how “good” they are at going to Disneyland. They think they know all the shortcuts, all the secret menu items, all the ride queue life hacks, all the best times to go to have the lowest crowds.

I know because I used to be one of those people who thought they knew every trick in the Disneyland book. But the truth is: Those insider tips no longer apply.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about why some people — what feels like an unusually high amount, more than I’ve ever seen before — seem to be so unhappy with everything that happens at Disneyland these days. And I think it comes down to a simple idea: The Disneyland that reopened last year is not the same park that closed in March 2020, and we can’t expect things to be exactly what they once were.

In short, the theme park game has changed, and it’s up to fans to adapt to those changes. It’s time to throw out everything you think you know about Disneyland.

There are so many different rules and procedures to adopt in the new Disneyland, not just for buying tickets across six price tiers depending on the day, but for making a reservation for that same day, making sure your group is all reserved for the same park, and knowing when you’re allowed to park hop and when you’re not. You need to plan in advance, not just for where you plan to park and what you want to eat, but for when and how you’re going to make that mobile order or dining reservation. (It’s more difficult than you might think — but we have it all laid out here.)

Why? Because the parks are crowded, the lines are long, and mistakes can cost you valuable hours in which you should be enjoying yourself. SFGATE columnist Rod Benson tried showing up and just doing a normal Disneyland day, basing his trip on what he had experienced the last time he went, which was a few years ago. Given how disappointed he was to miss the park’s most in-demand ride and to wait hours for his mobile food order, I don’t recommend his approach.

An elderly couple was recently turned away at the park gate because they had only bought tickets and didn’t make reservations. Reservations were at capacity, and they couldn’t go in. A lot of the responses were ageist or critical because the couple didn’t know they needed two different things to get in; previously, they only needed one. They were likely basing their day off their previous experiences from the Before Times, before everything in the park changed two years ago. I can’t imagine how awful it was for the cast member who had to turn them away because they didn’t know the new system.

And there are too many new systems — not just the reservations and an increased emphasis on mobile ordering and mobile payments, but Disney Genie. The piece of technology was created to improve guests’ confusion about how to spend their day, with a free, algorithm-based itinerary based on your preferences.

I’ve tried it, and it’s OK, but no suggestion for where to go next is going to fix the fact that lines for food and rides are much longer than they used to be and more of your day will inevitably be spent waiting.

The other half of Disney Genie is Genie Plus, which is the paid FastPass system that lets you utilize faster Lightning Lanes. It’s helpful, but it’s also very confusing to try to time your selections and get the most out of that extra expenditure. The first time I tried it, I spent at least half an hour of my park day trying to figure out how to use the system — and knowing Disneyland inside and out is my actual job.

It used to be fine to just show up at the park and see how the day shook out. These days, it’s harder than ever to have that kind of experience. Here’s my advice for learning the new Disney rules before you go:

Study first

To me, the worst part of the new park systems is how much more time I spend on my phone than before. Download the Disneyland app before you go, and familiarize yourself with its different sections. Look at the rides and wait times, but also look at what’s closed for refurbishment so you know in advance what you won’t be able to do. Also, comb through Disney Genie as much as you can. It’s a section within the Disneyland app, but it’s confusing to navigate, especially since the Genie functions are broken up into two tabs not called Genie: They’re the Tip Board and My Day sections.

Figure out your priorities

If you’re only going for one day, there’s no way you’ll be able to do everything. Figure out how you want to spend your time by making a loose list of rides you’d like to experience, and whether you want to time those around parades or evening shows. Look at menus and pick out what restaurants you think you’d like to try before you go. It’s not feasible to just walk around, look at menus and shop for options — that will take up too much of your day.

Decide whether you want to focus on classic Disneyland or what’s brand new

If you’re only going for one day, you can’t fully experience Disneyland Park and make it across to Disney California Adventure to explore a festival like the California Adventure Food & Wine Festival (especially since the kiosk lines are getting longer and longer with every festival over the past year). If you want to taste through the festival, make that your priority and plan to spend the whole day in DCA. If you want the classic Disneyland experience, plan to be only in that park, and then park hop if you’ve got time. I recently took someone who had never been to Disneyland before, and my biggest mistake was assuming we needed to park hop, rather than just focusing on quintessential Disneyland. We missed a lot, and though my guest didn’t really know the difference, I was disappointed in what I wasn’t able to show him.

Buy Genie Plus

I definitely don’t advocate this for everyone, especially if you go often enough that it’s not a big deal to only ride a few rides in a day. But if you only have one day and you really want to maximize your time, invest the extra $20 in being able to skip standby lines and use Lightning Lane. But remember, you can only start booking your LL selections on Genie Plus when you’re in the park — so if you want to make sure to ride everything you want, get there early. The rides you pay extra for are called Individual Lightning Lane selections. Those three (Rise of the Resistance, Radiator Springs Racers, Web Slingers) sell out very quickly at the beginning of the day. If any of them are in your top priorities, plan accordingly.

Place mobile food orders in advance

Since operations are edging toward normal, it’s not as hard to get quick-service food near-ish the time you want to eat, as it was for Rod, who faced long waits. But my rule is always this: plan for your next meal before you’re hungry. I don’t know about you, but I go from not-hungry-at-all to full-on hangry a lot more quickly at a theme park than I do anywhere else. If you’ve got something planned, you’ll be able to avoid the scramble for the first available thing and waste $15 on something you don’t actually want to eat.

Accept that things are different

I don’t love the longer lines that Genie Plus has created, or the difficult-to-get dining reservations, any more than you do. But I’ve mostly accepted that things are different right now, and we’re likely never going to get back the perks we enjoyed before the pandemic, like free FastPasses or the single rider line at Space Mountain.

If you don’t walk into the park primed to be upset about what has changed, you’re much more likely to enjoy your day.