Disneyland Tips from my recent trip

These are tips that I picked up while being at Disneyland during the peak of season....

• To make the memory get jogged better for trip reports, take a picture of the signage of everything you do. Then you can sort the pictures by date/time taken and use it as an outline for your trip report.
• Internet is free in Disneyland Resort hotels. I brought my computer so I could dump my flash cards of their pictures. My laptop fit into the room safe so that is where it lived during the day. If you have a way to empty your flash cards, you can take as many pictures as you want. I took over 2,600.
• Paying extra for the Concierge-level room paid off for us. We were able to stay in constant supply of bottled waters for the parks, plus get snacks throughout the day. We stayed at Paradise Pier Hotel and if you cut through the Grand Californian, and didn't have kids, you could get from "It's a Small World" to the hotel in less than 20 minutes. (if you are a brisk walker like my wife and I). It's still a heck of a lot more convenient than the resort hotels at WDW.
• Only Coke products are available on Disneyland property. If you must drink something else, buy it offsite and bring it with you.
• The Finding Nemo Submarine Ride is the people eater of the season. Even though the times board only listed a 90 minute wait, it was topping out around 4 hours. Even if you made it to rope drop, you'd still end up in an hour-long wait unless you were really lucky. People were camping out from 5am onward to get first in line for park opening. Because of this, you can get to the park at opening and pretty much ride anything you want for about 2 hours without a wait or a very, very short wait.
• This tip was passed onto me from Tim Devine (owner of The Magic in Pixels). Once the fireworks are done, if you give it about an hour the park will be practically yours. We rode both Pirates and Haunted Mansion between 10:30 and 11:30PM without any wait.
• Strategy is key. If you like standing in lines, this isn't important for you. The unofficial guide preached this and it's true. Once it gets close to lunch, the parks are PACKED. If you want a nap, this is the time to take it (between 2-6PM). Or you can shop. The shops seemed to be very easily managed during the height of the day.
• Chicken Strips are a rare find at Disneyland. If you do find them, they would only sell them to you if you were under the age of 10. When we ate at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill I wanted a bean & cheese burrito which was only on the kids menu. So my sister-in-law ordered it for her kid so I could get it. They don't let you order off the kids menu if you are an adult with no kids in sight.
• There is a McDonald's within walking distance from the parks. As Tim Devine put it, it's the best McDonald's on the planet. Prices are cheap in comparison to Disneyland.

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