Last year for Christmas, Santa brought our whole family Disneyland Tickets! Talk about the best. gift. ever!!

You may be thinking, “I would love to plan a trip to Disneyland, but I’m not sure when we would go. The holidays are so hectic.” Well here’s the good news: you can book with my travel partners at Get Away Today for their Black Friday Sale, happening right now and your tickets are good for travel through December of 2025.

Here are the important details on the sale:

For our family, we got the tickets and then worked to plan a trip together for the summer. To make it feel more like a magical gift, I found a really cute Etsy shop that creates gold foil printed tickets, and packed them in a bag with new insulated water bottles that I added the kids’ names to, fun Disneyland stickers on them, new Disney tee-shirts for each of them to wear to the park, and fun other Disney themed stuff they could wear to the park on our future trip.

My husband and I have always strived to prioritize experiences over things for our family. I’ll admit – with younger kids, this can be a challenge for them to not have that immediate gratification. Hence why I still wanted to create something for them to open. We have had our share of pouting on Christmas! But I do think in the long run, they will remember these adventures and experiences we had as a family together for much longer than any little toy they got.

Although we don’t go to Disneyland as often as I would like to, I have been several times over the years, and I have so many tips to share! But for the purposes of this post, I am going to try to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

where we stayed

First of all, I want to share where we stayed this time, which was the Embassy Suites Anaheim South. I know that’s a long name, but it’s important to note the “South” because there are many hotels with the same brand name in the area so it can be confusing. We chose this hotel for it’s proximity to the park (about 1 mile), it’s spacious suite sizes which are ideal for a bigger family like ours, and for the great rates.

In general, the closer you are to the park, the more pricey the hotel options. And there are only three Disney owned hotels in the area (unlike the plethora of options at Disney World) and they do usually have the most expensive rates. If you’re looking for more great affordable options, be sure to check out this hotel tour I did last year with 10 hotels options for your Disneyland trip!

my best disneyland tips

#1 always to get Genie+ added to your tickets! You will make the most of your day this way and save time waiting in line. Download the Disneyland app to check wait times and grab Lightning Lane passes for popular rides. If you’re looking to save money, I would say that you DON’T actually need the Park Hopper option. Each park is plenty big enough, with lots to do and see in each. We walked about 20,000 steps per day, just doing one park at a time! Unless you are doing 3 or more days where you want the flexibility of park-hopping for fireworks or special events, I would personally recommend 1-park per day tickets.

#2 Plan your day, but be flexible. It’s a great idea to check out in advance what rides are newly opened, as those rides usually will not have Genie+ Lightning Lanes services available. For example, on our first day at Disneyland for this trip, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was still pretty new, so we got there early and headed straight there, all while getting our next Lightening Lane pass while we waited. On our California Adventure Day, all of the rides we planning to do early were closed (not sure the reason) so we had to pivot our plan. This led to grumpy boys where we ended up on the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind rather than the fast Incredicoaster.

#3 Rope drop. What is rope drop you ask? This is a Disneyland strategy where you get the park about 30-45 minutes before opening. This is how you can get to some of those rides with long waits that don’t have the Lightening Lane. Even though it may seem crowded at the opening, once the park opens it is magic! You’ll typically have about an hour of going on most any ride you want with no wait times.

I have so many other little tips and could go on and on about Disneyland – I just love it! But for now, those are my top 3 best tips. I hope all of this helps you plan the most magical Disneyland vacation for your family with some of the best deals around! You can’t loose with a trip to Disneyland! Best. Gift. Ever!

Don’t forget to use my link HERE for both park tickets and hotel savings through this weekend!

You can also shop my other Disneyland gift ideas, linked here in my Amazon shop if you’re giving this gift this holiday season!