California: Disneyland for big kids

If you book a hotel near Disneyland you can easily fit in an afternoon nap before heading back for the theme park's fireworks display. Photo / Creative Commons image by Flickr user Tom Bricker

Visiting the Happiest Place on Earth is better with a plan, advises Shandelle Battersby.

Who says you need to have a kid in tow to spend a day at Disneyland?

There are plenty of things I know I probably shouldn't still be doing at the age of 37, but I'm glad I didn't consider myself too old to visit the most famous theme park in the world during a trip to the US last year. This happened to fall on July 4 - Independence Day - which is one of the busiest days of the year for the park, so we knew it would be absolutely crazy, but decided to just get in among it and enjoy the place in all its insane glory.

Here are a few tips for surviving a day at Disneyland for the, ahem, older person.

Get there as early as you can

Los Angeles is actually quite far from Anaheim where Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park are, so we discovered it's better to travel there the day before. We left LA at 6.30am and got to our Anaheim hotel about an hour later in a shuttle van at a cost of US$60 each, plus tip. Even at that time of day the freeway was as busy as Auckland in rush hour and that was on a public holiday. Still, this meant we were at the park at 8am, which meant we got on most of the rides we wanted to without having to queue for too long.

Have a plan

It's not rocket science to work out that tackling the most popular rides first while the park is relatively quiet is a good idea, because obviously the queues grow as the day goes on.

At Disneyland Park the big attractions are Splash and Space Mountains, Indiana Jones Adventure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Star Tours, Autopia and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

These rides are so popular the park offers a Disney FastPass, which means you get a return time so you don't have to wait in line.

I recommend researching the rides - we didn't know what some were and the map you get at the gate doesn't have any descriptions. This might help you decide what's worth waiting in line for.

Get a hotel close by

Good news! When it all gets a bit crazy and that endless happiness starts to wear you down, you can get a pass-out. After a stress-free morning things went a bit pear-shaped post-1pm for us - the sun was beating down and the crowd seemed to quadruple. After a particularly painful wait to get on to Splash Mountain, we pulled the pin and walked the five minutes to our hotel and had a shower and nap. We also had something to eat outside the park - there are only so many Mickey Mouse pretzels you can eat in a day. We returned about 6pm in time for the parade (characters dancing and singing in Main Street) and a photo with Goofy, then found a spot to enjoy the best fireworks display I've ever seen. There are fireworks every night, but July 4 is an extra-special display.

Pace your merch shopping

There are opportunities to spend money everywhere you turn. And every area and ride has its own specific merchandise so, for example, outside the Star Tours area, which has loads of Star Wars-themed attractions, you can pick up R2-D2 mouse ears or a Stormtrooper costume, and at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride you can get pirate ears and Mickey Mouse pirate ship playsets. When you're swept up in the madness, the merch is all incredibly tempting. If you do happen to go overboard and can't be bothered lugging your jewelled Cinderella coach or your Donald Duck steampunk figurine around for the day, you can leave it at one of the package check services onsite and collect it at the end of the day.