Disneyland Park Itinerary With 10-Year-Old & 6-Year-Old Sons

Need help mapping out your day at Disneyland Park with two young children? Let this blog article help! It’s intended to (1) give you a feel for what you can fit in a day at the park and (2) serve as a flexible itinerary to assist similarly situated families with mapping out their visits to Disneyland Park.

Our family consists of Grandma, Mom, Dad, 10-year-old AJ and 6-year-old LJ, and it should be noted that LJ doesn’t like rides with drops or any ride that’s on the scarier side, so he sat out some rides that the rest of us chose to ride, and when he would do that, one of us would stay with him and then go on the ride right after if we chose to. Disney offers ride-swapping to accommodate that. We also simply chose to forego some attractions that were “maybes” on our list just because we thought it better to repeat rides that we enjoyed. Despite the dark and the drops on Space Mountain, our brave boy LJ even chose to get on it again in order to get a good photo of him on there because Allan’s head was blocking him in the photo from the first day on Space Mountain. So, little things like that can definitely alter your planned itinerary for Disneyland. During the time we were there, that was just fine, as the entire visit was a nice, self-paced experience we all found to be enjoyable. In other words, we weren’t stuck to a rigid schedule. Your family may have different “must ride” vs. “maybe” attractions, so when reviewing this list of rides and attractions that our family enjoyed, please keep all the things I’ve mentioned above in mind and think of what works best for your family. 

On both days at Disneyland Park, we headed to the park to start with a number of rides before breakfast. We arrived at Disneyland Park at about 8:40 AM, and along with lots of photo ops, and walking through the iconic Sleeping Beauty’s Castle a number of times, we enjoyed the following: 

Disneyland Day 2: 1st Day at Disneyland Park

·      Space Mountain

·      Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

·      Star Tours

·      Jolly Holiday Bakery (breakfast)

·      Star Wars Rise of the Resistance – This required reserving a spot, aka “boarding group” via the Disneyland app at 7 AM. The reservation system opens again at 12 PM also. Note: You can make the 7 AM reservation from the comfort of your bed because the park isn’t yet open. In order to be assigned a Star Wars Rise of the Resistance boarding group through the app at 12 PM, you must already be in Disneyland Park at 12 PM.

·      Pirates of the Caribbean

·      Pizza Planet (lunch)

·      Autopia

·      Disneyland Railroad from Tomorrowland to Mickey’s Toon Town (closest railroad station to It’s A Small World) – We did not actually walk into Mickey’s Toon Town until Day 2

·      It’s A Small World

·      Alice In Wonderland

·      Storybook Land Canal Boat

·      Dumbo, The Flying Elephant

·      Casey Jr. Circus Train

·      King Arthur’s Carrousel

·      Tropical Hideaway (Dole Whip creations)

·      Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room

·      Jungle Cruise

·      Peter Pan’s Flight – We could’ve squeezed in Pinnochio’s Daring Journey and Snow White’s Enchanted Wish, here, but LJ was adamant that he didn’t want to, and we weren’t so tied to doing them, so we decided to forego those.

·      Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, again

·      Pizza Planet, again (dinner for the boys)

·      Watched the fireworks for Mickey’s Mix Magic from Alien Pizza Planet

We left Disneyland Park at a little after 9 PM and bought IHOP dinner for the adults, which we ate at the hotel. Another great day at Disneyland!

Then… 

Disneyland Day 3: 2nd Day at Disneyland Park

·      Space Mountain

·      Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

·      Star Tours – LJ and I sat this out / After the ride, the others said it was a different storyline than the day before!

·      Plaza Inn (character breakfast)

·      Autopia

·      Disneyland Railroad from Tomorrowland to Main Street to visit Main Street Photo Supply

·      It’s A Small World

·      Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin – LJ and Allan sat this out

·      Gadget’s Go Coaster – LJ and I explored Chip ‘N Dale’s Treehouse while the others rode the coaster.

·      Chip ‘N Dale’s Treehouse

·      Disneyland Railroad from Tomorrowland to New Orlean’s Square (closest railroad station to Splash Mountain)

·      Splash Mountain – AJ and Allan rode Splash Mountain while my mom, LJ, and I enjoyed churros.

·      French Market (lunch/dinner)

·      Strolled around Galaxy’s Edge and watched Kylo Ren and two stormtroopers interacting with other guests

From there, we simply strolled around the park, including through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Candy Palace, and Starbucks, with photo ops along the way, before leaving the park somewhere around 6 PM to go back to the hotel and relax a bit before watching the fireworks from our suite’s balcony. At 9PM, we watched the fireworks for Mickey’s Mix Magic from our balcony at the Tropicana Inn & Suites.