Thanks to Disneyland, we were given tickets to come and spend a day at the greatest place on earth! We’re a little bit of a nerdy Disney family. Maybe not as much as my friend Oh Amanda, but we would move in if they let us! See the t-shirts (nerdy), and my husband is also decked out in Mickey-wear behind the camera! We try to make our way to Disneyland every other year and we usually go for a whole week (more nerdy) as we want to make sure to do everything.

So when we went to California this past summer, we only had one day to spare at our precious Disneyland and we had to make the most of it. Here are a few tips and tricks I picked up that helped us spend our day at Disneyland.

Do a little research before. If you’re able to do a little research before you get there, then you can schedule some of your day. Find out where you want to eat, what characters you really need to meet, and what are the absolute must for rides. We made sure to get in the top 2 rides from everyone’s wish list. A fabulous website with some great information about Disneyland, the ins and outs of it all, is Just Spotted. Those ladies have done a lot of research themselves and can give you some advice.

Wear good shoes. You’ll be walking a lot, as you’re trying to go fast to get from place to place, so you’ll want a good pair of shoes! We have a mix of Skechers, Buster Browns, and Keens. These style of sandal/shoe is a great choice for walking all day and in the heat.

Download the Ride Max program. The Ride Max program is a website that has a form you fill out, choosing your list of desired rides, and then it calculates the day’s schedule for you. It tells you what rides to go on at specific times and even schedules in a few breaks. All the work is done for you, totally worth the $14.95 it costs to use. We were able to get in every single ride we wanted, and some with time to spare. Which was good, as we were also using Disneyland’s ride share program as we had our toddler with us.

Have you been able to do Disneyland in just one day? What’s your favorite thing to do?