Tips for the Perfect Girls Trip: Disneyland Edition

You know what I love? Vacations. You know what else I love? My girl friends. You know what else what else I love? Disneyland. Put all three of those things together and what do you have? Girls trip to Disneyland!

In August 2018, my friend, Kristen, and I hopped on a plane – well, two separate planes – and made our way to Anaheim, CA to experience my favorite place in the world, Disneyland! This was my second trip to Disneyland – first multi-day trip – and Kristen’s first ever trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. We had 48 hours in California and had the best time in the world! Here are my tips to having the perfect girls trip.

Hotel

For a girls trip, you need to have a space where you can lay your head at night and plan out all your outfits. This space also needs to be semi-close by to the places you’ll be visiting frequently and have some kind of perk – like free breakfast, shuttle service, discount tickets, etc. For us, we found the Anaheim Majestic Garden Hotel. (As I write that out, I can hear Kristen saying “The Majestic Garden” in my head.) It checked off all of our boxes – close to Disneyland, shuttle service to the parks, and offered a baggage service for early check in/late check out. It was extremely affordable – some might even say a steal, since it was less than half a mile away from Disneyland. We loved the spacious room, the friendly staff, and just how stinkin’ cute the entire place was. I highly recommend!

We were very excited about being in the elevator at the Majestic Inn.

Plan

Kristen and I are both planners. We took part in the #4Parks1Day Challenge back in February (blog post coming soon) and that involves some serious planning! For our trip to Disneyland, we did what I would call “basic planning”. We knew what time we were arriving and what time we needed to leave to catch our flights. We knew what rides we absolutely had to do, what photos we wanted to take, and, of course, Kristen wanted to see the Paint the Night parade. But we did not have a set schedule for every minute of the day. We made plans a few hours at a time. Since Disneyland has the paper fastpass system, and we only purchased MaxPass for our one full day in the park, we usually made our three to four hour plan based on wait times and how hungry we were. My tip for you is to know your planning styles and your flexibility levels. Know the things that you absolutely have to do, but also be flexible on when you do those things.

Radiator Springs Racers was a MUST RIDE for both of us! Extra trip: go to the single rider line! We walked on to the ride twice by using that line.

Eat (& Drink Water)

I feel like I’m only writing this part of the post for my husband, Jimmy. I have a bad habit of not eating when I’m busy and he’s always wagging his finger at me about it. So I promised him that I would eat regular meals while on vacation. I kind of didn’t do that on the first day – woke up at 3am CST and didn’t eat my first food of the day until around 4pm CST – but I did successfully eat normal meals for the rest of the trip! There are tons of delicious snacks and sweets and wonderful food at Disneyland. Enjoy them all because calories don’t count on vacation! But make sure you’re eating three meals a day. It helps with your energy and keeps you from getting “hangry” while on vacation. Also… drink lots of water! Even though the temperature and humidity levels were much better in Anaheim than they were in Austin, it was still very hot. Plus, there’s not much shade in Disneyland (I’m looking at you, California Adventure), so it’s very important to stay hydrated.

Hello sweets! I got the Minnie Mouse cake pop, which I would HIGHLY recommend!

Use Technology Wisely

Everyone knows that Disney photos are the best photos, and we definitely had a list of all the photos we wanted to take! Special walls, snacks, and character interactions were just some of the things that we took pictures of! Kristen and I are also a riot when it comes to Instagram stories, so we, of course, had to update our people with some entertaining videos. But it was also super fun to just put the phone in my backpack for an hour or two at a time and enjoy the rides and talking to Kristen. I usually saved posting a photo to Instagram for the times where we were taking a break at the hotel or were settling in to go to sleep. As for texts, I pretty much only kept in touch with Jimmy while I was away, just to keep him updated on where we were and when I was taking an Uber by myself. Like with posting photos, I usually saved texting others for hotel time. You have to find a healthy balance between documenting your trip and being present with everything going on. I, like most people, can say that scrolling through Instagram does help with the long waits in line.

You definitely need to have your phone ready for the perfect photo op.

Have the Best Travel Partner

What can I say? I had the best travel partner! Kristen is my Disney Bestie and we always have the best times together whenever we’re together, but especially when we’re at Disney! It helps that we understand each others moods – when one of us just needs some quiet or needs food – and we’re both very flexible with what we’re doing and when we’re doing it. Find the person that works best with your personality when choosing a travel partner!