A frequently asked question about a Disneyland trip is where to eat! But there is SO much more to it. Let me share my best tricks with you!
Everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day! (Well, it’s the first one at least.) Disney parks open at 8am for guests, and hotel guests staying on property may enter the parks at 7:30am currently. But… there are very few restaurants in the parks that serve breakfast (and almost none at 7:30am)! So, you definitely need a breakfast plan. Eat in the hotel, order room service, make an early reservation at a restaurant that serves breakfast, or bring food to the parks with you!Ne
Second, we love character dining! It is on the pricier side for the food quality, I have found, but at age 4 my son is wild for meeting the characters. The two we have tried at Disneyland are Goofy’s Kitchen (at Disneyland Hotel) and Storyteller’s Cafe (at the Grand Californian Hotel). We did a dinner at Goofy’s on our arrival day and a breakfast at Storyteller’s on our departure day. It gave each day something to look forward to, since they were not park days! You can generally book up to 60 days in advance, and you will want to book in advance to ensure you can get your reservation. They do tend to book quickly.
Next, consider mobile dining. A very high proportion of Disneyland and California Adventure restaurants offer mobile ordering. Pull up the menu on the app, and place your order online! Be sure to do this 20-40 minutes in advance of when you want to eat. There may be a wait at popular meal times and this way you won’t be waiting too long when you’re hungry!
Finally, definitely consider getting groceries delivered to your hotel via Instacart, Amazon Fresh, or similar services. We used Amazon Fresh this time and had breakfast options, snacks, water, milk, and even hand soap delivered right to our hotel! (You could also use this service to get diapers, wipes and other things you may not want to haul in your suitcase.) The Grand Californian Hotel did offer to hold even the refrigerated items for us at Bell Services, which was really great. Many hotels will hold the delivery for you but won’t refrigerate anything (often, there is no fridge for them to do) so you have to be on the ball with picking it up from the hotel.
For more Disneyland, check out my posts on the parks’ hidden gems for kids, Disneyland rides for babies and toddlers, and my review of the Grand Californian Hotel!