There is something slightly surreal about standing in front of Disneyland in California.
You’ve seen the castle in a hundred photos. You’ve watched the movies. You’ve been to Disney parks before. Maybe you’ve even stood in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle in Paris, walked through the gates of Hong Kong Disneyland or spent days getting lost in the enormous world of Walt Disney World in Orlando.
And yet, when you walk through the entrance to Disneyland California, it feels different.
Because this is where it all started.
And yes, we knew that before we went.
But knowing it and actually standing there are two very different things.

“Are we really here?”

That was pretty much our feeling as we walked towards the park.
The excitement in the children was obvious, but I think the adults were just as bad.
There is something about Main Street, U.S.A. that immediately pulls you in. The music, the shops, the smell of something sweet baking somewhere nearby and, of course, that first glimpse of the castle at the end of the street.
It isn’t the biggest Disney castle we’ve seen.
But honestly?
It doesn’t need to be.
This is the original Disneyland.
And suddenly all those Disney parks we’d visited before started making a little more sense.
We’ve been to Disneyland Paris, which is probably the Disney park that feels most familiar to us as Europeans. We’ve spent time at Hong Kong Disneyland, which we combined with our trip around Hong Kong. We’ve experienced the incredible world of Tokyo Disney Resort, visited the futuristic Shanghai Disneyland, and tackled the sheer scale of Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Every one of them has its own personality.
But California feels like meeting the original character after getting to know all the spin-offs.
And we loved that.

The castle isn’t the biggest. But it feels important.

We stopped in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle for the obligatory family photo.
Of course we did.
You can’t come all the way to California and not take that picture.
But then we simply stood there for a moment.
There is something quite special about knowing that this was Walt Disney’s first theme park. This is the place that started the Disney park story that eventually reached Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Florida.
And when you think about it like that, Disneyland suddenly feels less like a theme park and more like a piece of Disney history.
Of course, five minutes later we were back to behaving like everyone else.
“Which ride are we doing first?”
Because history is lovely.
But the children wanted rides.

You can’t do Disneyland without a plan…

…but you also shouldn’t make a plan so strict that you forget to enjoy yourself.
That’s something we’ve learned from travelling with our girls.
Disney brings out the organisor in you.
Suddenly you’re checking queues, opening times, show schedules and trying to work out whether you can squeeze in just one more ride.
And then somebody is hungry.
Someone else needs the toilet.
Someone’s feet hurt.
And suddenly your perfectly planned Disney day has completely fallen apart.
So we learned to leave some room.
We picked the things we really didn’t want to miss and then allowed the rest of the day to happen around them.
And that worked much better.
Especially because Disneyland California isn’t enormous in the way Walt Disney World is.
You don’t feel as though you need a military operation just to get from one side of the resort to the other.

And then you find the rides you know…

…and the rides that are completely different.
That was one of the things we enjoyed most.
Some attractions immediately felt familiar.
Pirates of the Caribbean, for example, is one of those Disney rides where you don’t really need an introduction. You see the entrance and you already know you’re going in.
But then there are attractions that make you realise you’re in California.
The Matterhorn Bobsleds is a perfect example.
We had seen it before in pictures, but seeing that enormous mountain rising above the park is something else. It is one of those Disneyland icons that makes you think, yes, this is definitely not Paris.
And then, of course, there is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Now, we’re not necessarily the biggest Star Wars family in the world.
But even we couldn’t help being impressed.
You don’t just walk into a themed area.
You walk into another world.
The children were looking around, we were looking around, and for a few minutes nobody was asking how long the queue was.
Which, in our family, is saying something.

Then came Cars Land…

And suddenly the atmosphere changed completely.
Disney California Adventure is right next door to Disneyland Park, but it feels like another world.
We went from the classic Disney feeling of Disneyland to the bright, colourful world of Cars Land.
And if your children grew up watching Cars, prepare yourself.
Because they will want to stop for photos.
Then more photos.
Then probably more photos.
And when the sun starts to disappear and the lights come on, Cars Land becomes even more fun.
This is also where Radiator Springs Racers comes in.
Let’s just say that this was not a ride we were going to skip.
Some Disney rides are cute.
Some are nostalgic.
And some make the entire family come off shouting, “Again!”
This was definitely one of those.

Two parks, one very easy decision

One of the things we really liked about Disneyland California is that Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure are literally next to each other.
After experiencing Disney World Orlando, where the scale can sometimes feel almost ridiculous, California felt refreshingly manageable.
You can spend the morning in Disneyland.
Have lunch.
Cross over to California Adventure.
And if you have a Park Hopper ticket, you have the flexibility to move between the two parks during your day.
That flexibility is brilliant with children.
Because sometimes they desperately want to go back to one particular ride.
And sometimes they desperately want a snack.
And sometimes, let’s be honest, we desperately want a snack.

Disney food deserves its own category

We have yet to visit a Disney park where someone in our family hasn’t suddenly become extremely hungry.
Disney hunger is different.
You can eat breakfast.
Then walk for twenty minutes.
And apparently you’re starving again.
Luckily, Disneyland has plenty of food choices, from proper meals to the snacks that somehow become part of the Disney experience themselves.
And yes, you will probably end up buying something because it is Mickey-shaped.
You know you will.
We certainly did.
But these are the things that become part of the memory.
Years later, you don’t necessarily remember exactly what time you went on a particular ride.
You remember sitting down with an enormous Disney snack, watching the girls laugh and thinking:
“This is why we travel.”

And then Disney does what Disney does best

Night-time.
The lights come on.
The crowds change.
The music feels different.
Everyone is tired, but nobody wants to leave.
We’ve had this feeling in almost every Disney park we’ve visited.
We felt it in Paris.
We felt it in Hong Kong.
We felt it in Tokyo.
And we certainly felt it in California.
At Disney California Adventure, World of Color adds another one of those moments where everyone stops talking and simply watches.
Water, lights, music and Disney stories come together, and suddenly all those tired legs don’t seem quite so important anymore.
Until you start walking back to the hotel.
Then they become very important again.

So, how long would we stay?

If you’re traveling all the way from Europe, we wouldn’t fly to California and try to squeeze Disneyland into one day.
Could you?
Absolutely.
Would we recommend it?
Not really.
We’d give Disneyland Resort at least two full days.
One day for Disneyland Park and one for Disney California Adventure gives you the chance to enjoy both without spending the entire holiday looking at your watch.
And if you have three days?
Even better.
Because the third day gives you something rather valuable:

time to do things twice.

And that’s actually one of the nicest things about Disney.
You don’t have to experience every attraction.
You can find the ones everyone loves and simply go again.
No explanation needed.

Where did we stay?

This is where the practical side of travelling with a family kicks in.
Because yes, staying at a Disney hotel sounds wonderful.
Waking up in the Disney bubble, walking to the parks and not having to think about transport is incredibly tempting.
But then you look at the price.
And you remember that you’re travelling as a family.
Suddenly that lovely hotel across the road starts looking very interesting.
There are plenty of hotels around Disneyland, and depending on your budget, staying nearby rather than inside the official resort can leave you with quite a bit more money for the things that actually make the holiday fun — rides, food, souvenirs and perhaps another day at the park.
Whenever we book family trips, we tend to compare both options rather than automatically choosing the Disney hotel. We usually check the nearby hotels and prices on Booking.com before deciding where we’re going to stay, 
Sometimes the Disney hotel wins.
Sometimes it absolutely doesn’t.
And that’s okay.
Disney magic doesn’t disappear when you sleep somewhere else.

And yes, Disneyland can be expensive

There is no getting around that.
Tickets, hotels, food, snacks and all those little things the children suddenly need add up quickly.
But this is where planning a little in advance really helps.
We’d decide first how many days we actually wanted in the parks, then look at the ticket options and work out whether Park Hopper makes sense for our family.
And because Disney ticket options can change, we’d rather check the current options before committing than turn up and hope for the best.
When we’re planning our Disney trips, we also like to compare ticket and experience options before we go, 
It takes a little of the stress out of the trip.
And once you’re inside?
Stop planning for a while.
That’s the trick.

California versus all the other Disney parks

We get asked this a lot.
“Which Disney park is your favourite?”
And honestly, that’s an almost impossible question.
Paris is the easy Disney escape from home, 
Hong Kong was fantastic to combine with a city trip, and if you’re planning that adventure, make sure you read our Hong Kong Disneyland guide too.
Tokyo is completely different again. The Japanese attention to detail, the food and the atmosphere make Tokyo Disney Resort and Tokyo Disney Sea an experience of its own. We wrote about that experience in our Tokyo Disney guide.
Shanghai feels futuristic and enormous, with attractions you won’t find in the other parks. Our Shanghai Disneyland guide goes into everything we loved there.
And then there is Orlando.
Walt Disney World is simply on another scale. Four theme parks, water parks, Disney Springs and enough to keep a family busy for days. If you’re considering Florida, don’t miss our Disney World Orlando guide.
But California?
California isn’t trying to beat them.
It doesn’t need to.

Because this is where it began

That was probably the biggest thing we took away from Disneyland California.
We weren’t just visiting another Disney park.
We were visiting the first one.
The place where Walt Disney’s crazy idea of creating a theme park became reality.
And somehow, despite all the newer parks being bigger, more futuristic and sometimes much more spectacular, Disneyland still has something the others can’t quite recreate.
It has history.
It has nostalgia.
And it has that feeling of being the original.
So when we eventually walked out of the park, tired, slightly poorer and carrying far too many things we probably didn’t need, we looked back one more time.
The castle was still there.
The music was still playing.
And the girls were already talking about which ride they wanted to do again.
Typical.
And that’s probably the best review we can give Disneyland California.
We’d go back. In a heartbeat.