Disneyland Tips for Staying off Your Phone

 

Everyone needs some Disneyland tips these days. It's getting harder to avoid spending all day on your phone at in the park. Genie+, posted wait times, mobile orders, virtual queues, show times, park tickets, dining reservations, Photo-Pass, and customer service are all handled through the Disneyland App. It's becoming a frequent complaint from park goers. And since the Disney apps are not well optimized for battery usage either, so many guests have to take battery packs to extend life. Some of it is unavoidable, but here are some tips you can use to reduce the time you spend on your phone.

  • Prioritize experience over recording. There are Point of View (PoV) videos of full ride throughs and shows all over YouTube. You can find a video of just about anything you'd like to see, and it'll be higher quality than you can get. Focus on enjoying the experience, not recording it.
  • Set alarms for Genie+. People using Genie+, the service that gets you into most of the Lightning Lanes at the park, will check their phones often to see if the window is open for them to get their next Lightning Lane. Instead of checking back frequently, you can set an alarm on your phone for the time. Then, just wait for the alarm to go off.
  • Wear a watch. I often find myself pulling out my phone to just to check the time. And then while it's out, I'll look at other notifications. A watch can help you avoid this - just look at your watch to check the time, and don't worry about seeing your phone.
  • Don't answer calls and texts. If you're carrying on a text conversation or answering a phone call, it's easy to get absorbed into looking at your phone. Don't answer, especially if you're on a ride. Focus on the experience.
  • Turn off notifications. Lots of your apps will give you notifications that aren't really urgent. You could silence the notifications so that it's not buzzing at you throughout the day.
  • Create memories together. Theme parks give you a new environment. Instead of scrolling through social media, play games with your friends or family. You can play I-Spy, search for Hidden Mickeys, play charades, or just talk... The queues can give you some great time to spend together.
Walt Disney created Disneyland as a place for people to spend time together, and the company has continued to build the environments with that in mind. There's art, architecture, music, and entertainment all over the park. Most things on your phone can wait. Live in the moment and enjoy the experience you're paying for. Use these Disneyland tips to get the most out of the experience.

Popular Posts

Height Restrictions Translated to Age Ranges

Image
Height restrictions keep kids safe, but they can be frustrating. If you have ever taken kids to the parks, you know what I mean. Every cast member measures a little differently, so sometimes you make it all the way to the loading zone and then get turned away. Other times your kids are just slightly too short, and you wish they would have worn taller shoes. One of the most difficult things, in my mind, is planning trips and figuring out how long it will be ’till your kids can meet height restrictions. Especially when some can ride and some can’t, the younger ones want to know how much longer ’till they’ll be big enough. I don’t know any parents that have memorized a growth chart and can say, “My child will grow 1 inch in the next 9 months, so we should plan a trip then.” When we plan trips with our kids, we just keep measuring them and telling them to eat a bunch in hopes they’ll be tall enough for more rides. Fortunately, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has released  data  that s
Read more

Nostalgia's Role in the Parks

Image
Disney has carved a strange place in the consumer’s mind. Few other brands command the love and respect of a group of fans the way Disney can. Not many people set goals to see every Six Flags park, collect every variation of Great Value pasta, or to decorate their homes like natural architecture symbols. But Disney fans try to visit each of Disney’s parks, impulse buy pins, plush, figurines, and hundreds of other collectibles, and decorate their homes to match Disney architecture. Simple themes – like the American Frontier, a European Village, or a Tropical Paradise – are instead labelled as Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Adventureland, whether they are actually connected to the Disney places or not. This is partly because of Disney’s skilled marketing teams. But the reason these teams have been so successful can be attributed to nostalgia. Disney thrives on nostalgia. Here are several websites that describe Main Street as nostalgic – one , two , three ,. It’s a common claim, but there
Read more

Ward Kimball and the Disneyland Railroad

Image
It was 1948, and Walt desperately wanted to go to the Chicago Railroad Fair. Knowing Lillian and his daughters wouldn’t want go, Walt invited his friend Ward Kimball. Walt and Ward enjoyed the fair, and when Walt started building Disneyland in 1954, he knew he had to have a train. This wasn’t the first time Walt and Ward talked about trains. Back in 1945, Ward let Walt drive one of his engines at the Grizzly Flats Railroad, Ward’s personal railroad. We can’t say for sure, but it’s very likely that Walt’s Lilly Belle came because he wanted to have a railroad just like Ward’s. Now Ward Kimball is immortalized in the Ward Kimball engine at Disneyland. The Person Ward Kimball was an animator for Walt Disney. Hired in 1934, Ward started on the Silly Symphony cartoons. He went on to help animate many films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. Ward was one of the studio’s “Nine Old Men”. He was a brilliant animator, known f
Read more