Disneyland Family Vacation March 2025
(17 Reviews)
100% Recommended
Nicole Newfield
Mahtomedi, MN
Magic Coordinator & Travel Specialist
Walking down Main Street with the scent of Magic in the air...is there anything better?! Let me help get you into that moment and so many more, where your days are full of fun and memories to last a lifetime! I love planning and will design an i...
Walking down Main Street with the scent of Magic in the air...is there anything better?! Let me help get you into that moment and so many more, where your days are full of fun and memories to last a lifetime! I love planning and will design an itinerary based on what is important to you and yours. I will share tested tips and tricks to make your vacation stress-free! Want an incredible experience outside of Disney? I can make that happen for you as well! Let's get you set for your journey!
Can Be Reached At
1-651-307-0503
Day 1 of our family Disneyland vacation-wow, staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa with that amazing lobby and fireplace is so wonderful and we loved the Downtown Disney view from our room. Great people-watching from the balcony! The hotel reminded us of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World. We took the 7 am flight out of Minneapolis St Paul and were really happy with our Karmel shuttle experience from LAX to the hotel. 35 minutes and no stress as our LA driver whisked us away to the magic!
We had so much of the day left to enjoy and enjoyed time at Downtown Disney, a mid-day rest/nap for the girls and time spent luxuriating by the lobby fireplace for Mike and me, Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar (outdoor terrace this time) at the Disneyland Hotel, pool and hot-tub time back at our hotel, and the newly themed Broken Spell lounge at the Disneyland Hotel. Definitely ready for sleep by 9:45 pm and ready for hitting early entry at Disneyland Park in the AM!
For our 1st park day, we rode the monorail into Disneyland Park for early entry and our family got to ride together in the “caboose” back compartment of the Disneyland monorail and that was so cool! Definitely a perk of staying on-property at Disneyland! We began our morning in Fantasyland, including my favorite, Peter Pan’s Flight. We got our pictures by the castle with Photopass photographer lines being short-these pictures I definitely treasure to remember the trip when looking back, and to remember the family at that exact stage in time! Photopass is included at Disneyland with the purchase of Lightning Lane Multi Pass.
Our 1st lightning lane was at Indiana Jones Adventure (the girls’ 1st time on this ride as it was closed during our 1st family trip in March 2022)- this one ranks high! Their top attraction at Disneyland Park was the next one though, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure! This one really gets people soaked so they had spare shoes (sandals) and ponchos to wear on this ride!
We enjoyed lightning lanes for the classic Pirates of the Caribbean (we LOVE the Disneyland version which is so much longer), Haunted Mansion, and Matterhorn Bobsleds. We included a 90 minute break back at the hotel (so refreshing and most of us napped)! Then it was time for more lightning lanes at Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, which were favorites of the girls as well. We visited Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in the evening! The girls love both of the rides here- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (we used a lightning lane multi pass selection here) and Star Wars:Rise of the Resistance (which had a posted 60 minute wait at 7:30 pm but ended up being just a 30 minute wait).
For meals this day, we grabbed breakfast before the monorail at The Coffee Shop at The Disneyland Hotel, enjoyed a lunch reservation at Carnation Cafe on Main Street (cool to see Mickey & Minnie’s cavalcade go by as we ate and Walt’s chili here was ranked high), and had our quick service dinner at Plaza Inn (Mike’s fried chicken and the girls’ chicken Alfredo pasta ranking highest here).
For snacks, the beignets and mint juleps from The Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square were the top choice (of course- these beignets are simply the BEST)! We also enjoyed garlic cheesy bread from Maurice’s treats.
The night-time spectacular was Mickey’s Mix Magic with projections (no fireworks this night but the projections were really cool all along Main Street and on the castle). I fell into bed at 11:45 pm after a full and magical day-ready to see what the next park day holds!
See my Wordpress blog for more details about the rest of the trip and more pics (link found with my other social media icons on the home page of this website). And you can find more Disney and travel fun on my podcast, Trip Tales by Nicole Marie, on your favorite podcast app!