Hi everyone! We are taking our two sons to disneyland in May. I've been to Disney World TONS of times, but never disneyland. My boys will be three years and 10 months. We are staying at the Disneyland Hotel. I read in one book that the Disneyland hotel is in walking distance, then another that you have to take the monorail. I was wondering if anyone knew how long, or how far, the hotel is exactly. My reasoning is that I am bringing a double stoller with us, and it's kinda bulky. I orginally thought it would be great to bring it since we would be walking to the park. Then I wouldn't have to worry about lugging it on and off of transportation. And if we have to take the Monorail, is is going to be a pain to drag a stroller on and off.

Second, I have gotten really conflicting information on if we should bring a stroller or not. I really feel that we should, just for the comfort, especially because the baby will still be napping in the stroller. People keep telling me that my stroller will get stolen. But I keep thinking about the airport and to and from the parks, having to lug a baby and a toddler around, doesn't seem fun to me. Any experiences?

Third, I have a question about the tickets. Many people have told us to just say that my three year old is still two. This way he'll get in the park free. (He will have just turned three a month before the trip.) But I noticed in my Disneyland book that many of the rides say "three and up". Is there a way they check this? I want to make sure he can go on everything he wants to, to ensure he has a good time. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this.
Thanks a lot for any help you guys can give me!!

On the question of distance. The Disneyland hotel is approximately a 10-15 minute walk to the front gate, through Downtown Disney. Not very long, definitely not nearly as long as the ammount of distance you will end up walking once inside the park, but lugging a stroller and everything that goes along with that, it might seem longer. The Monorail station is about half that distance.

As for the age of your kid. As I understand, it's easy enough to bend the truth about age at the ticket booth. There may be moral questions (especially if you plan on bringing him on rides that are "three and up"), but you'll have to answers those yourself ;). As for getting on the rides once you're in the park, as I understand it the CMs are trained to ask, give you the standard "it's not safe for children under 3" warning, but if you say they are over three, they are trained to take your word for it. They don't ask for a birth certificate.

Like GD said the walk from DLH to the main gate isn't too far. (It's nothing like the size of WDW and the distance between hotels and parks.) If it was me I would probably walk it just because I wouldn't want to fight the monorail lines or juggling the folding of a stroller trying to get on the monorail.

I would definitely bring my own stroller. If you rent at the parks you cannot remove that stroller from whichever park you rent it from. Then you end up carrying the kids...ugh! (When my kids were under a year we used our Baby Bjorn frontpack ALOT at the parks. I don't know if that is something that would work...) There was a thread not too long ago in the Parenting in the Parks section about bringing strollers vs. renting. (I've been on MP a year and still have no idea how to provide links so you may want to search for that.) We've had the contents of our stroller stolen but never the stroller. I would just make sure you take out whatever looks like something of value when you leave the stroller for rides.

The under 3 thing...It's up to you how you play it. The CM's at the rides are usually more concerned with height requirements than age requirements. If your 3 y/o doesn't have a pass he can't get a FastPass but then they don't require Fast Passes for 2 y/o's. For me personally I worry things to death and I know that if I were to do that I would worry too much that the CMs at the gate would stop and question the age of my child. To save myself the stress I would buy the ticket. But that's just me. When my 2 y/o was almost 3 (he's very tall for his age) we got stopped a lot at the main gate and asked his birthdate and year. I would have been very flustered if I had to make it up on the spot.

Anyways...have a great trip. I'm sure you'll get a lot of good suggestions and ideas on this board.

I would definately suggest bring your stroller. Not only will it make it easier to get around, but you won't have to worry about your little one wondering off. The only suggestion I would have is that you might want to consider getting a double umbrella or other light weight stroller.

Walking from the DLH to the Disneyland and DCA gates is, IMO, totally doable. As others have said, it's a 10 to 15 minute walk. Frankly, I walk to the parking structure rather than take my stroller on the tram. I'm not a person who's into fitness by any stretch of the imagination, but I find it's totally doable and easier than dealing with crowds to get onto the Monorail and/or trams anyway.

Re: taking your stroller: DO IT. My children are 4 and almost 2 and I still take mine. I love having it with me. If Mr. 4-year-old gets tired or difficult, he can jump in. We can carry the diaper bag, lunch leftovers, snacks, drinks, water bottles, etc in the stroller with us.

Here is my article (http://www.mouseplanet.com/akrock/akrock2.htm) about renting strollers and it's biased against renting, just to give you the heads up.

Do strollers ever get stolen at DLR? Yes. Is it a frequent occurance? Not that I can tell. I have had readers mis-read my articles to mean that stolen strollers are urban legends. They are not. Strollers stolen with babies still in them are urban legends.

Don't leave anything of value in your stroller. I do not recommend chaining your stroller to fences because fences sometimes turn into queue areas for rides, parades, meet and greets, etc. It can be a fire safety issue, too. I just don't do it. If you are concerned enough to take a bike lock, you can use a cable to lock the wheels to another part of the stroller so they're immovable without needing a fence.

Here's an article (http://www.mouseplanet.com/akrock/akrock3.htm) about taking your own stroller to DLR.

Most rides don't have age requirements on them anymore. It's hard to prove age, much easier to rely on height, so rides such as Matterhorn and Gadget's Go-Coaster, which formerly had age-minimums now have 36" height minimums.

We bought our son's first ticket to Disneyland about four days after he turned three.

Adrienne K

I wanted to add something that's obvious to previous DLR visitors, but maybe not to mom2alexnmatt.

The walk from the Disneyland Hotel to the park gates is through Downtown Disney. You will pass the Monorail station on the way. So, not only is it a brief walk, it's through an attractive, very safe, pedestrian-only area.

It wasn't long ago when walking to Disneyland was a somewhat dangerous adventure through traffic and a parking lot. This is no longer the case. The Disneyland hotel used to be accross a busy road from Disneyland, which did require you take the monorail. Perhaps the book suggesting you must ride the monorail is outdated. There is now a pedestrian bridge crossing that road. Unless you look for it, you likely won't even realize you're crossing a road.

Be sure to check out the Fantasy Water Show (or something like that) on the grounds of your hotel. It's quite lovely and quite often overlooked.

Enjoy your visit.

Originally posted by mom2alexnmatt

People keep telling me that my stroller will get stolen. But I keep thinking about the airport and to and from the parks, having to lug a baby and a toddler around, doesn't seem fun to me. Any experiences?


Bring the stroller. The chances of it getting stolen are pretty low. As adriennek mentioned, it does happen, but it never happened to us in 5 years and I've never heard of it happening from posts to this board.

I would advise walking from the hotel in the morning, to gage how you do. Just remember, most walking times you are given are from the front gate of Disneyland, if you are in Tomorrowland, add another 10 minutes to get to the front gate.

On a stroller note, I have a side by side jogging stroller and it DOES NOT fit thru the turn style at DCA. I usually send someone in my party thru the trunstyle w/ my daughter and my AP's and stand by the overflow gates. My sister/husband tells the gate CM that we need the overflow gate open to get these (hands them our tickets) in. After less than 2 minutes, a CM comes over and opens the gates. We also have to get out this way if the overflow gates are not already open.

It's kind of a pain in the rear, but it has never taken more than 2 minutes to get the gates open.

Thanks everybody! I think maybe we'll walk, and if it turns out to be a pain, then we'll just take the monorail. As far as the stroller, I'm pretty convinced that I want to take it. My husband is still undecided. But I think we'll end up talking it. Thanks again!

My opinion, definitely take your stroller. You'll love it for keeping track of your kids (well the older one) when you are leaving the hotel and getting to Disney. Having a double stroller myself, I hate having to fold it up so walk to the entrance, the Monorail will be more of a hassle with a 10 month old than not. It is a nice walk and very safe as others have mentioned and really it's part of the whole Disney experience.

You are going to fall in LOVE with the hotel!! It is fantastic and will bring you lots of great memories. I'm glad you chose it.