Disneyland Day Trip with my 5-Year-Old (Brief Report)

I finally took my son on his 5th birthday trip on Friday.  I will be brief because I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to share some thoughts.  First off, it was our first day-trip where I allowed my son to stay up for Paint the Night and fireworks.  He enjoyed it, but I think he would not have made it had he not taken a nap on the train while I rode around 3 times.  It was also hotter than I expected due to the humidity.  I don't usually go in the summer, but we've got multiple summer trips planned this year.  If you're going this summer, stock up on sunscreen and water bottles.  Freeze the water bottles.  You won't regret it.  And the water spigot at Tomorrowland Terrace is filtered, FYI.

I was able to view Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever fireworks from Main Street very close to the hub this time, which is hugely different from when I went by myself on the 24 hour day and sat at It's a Small World.  Definitely do Main Street near the Hub if you can.  We waited about 2 1/2 hours for it, but it was definitely a much better experience than Small World.  Everything is much closer up and the fireworks are much more detailed.  You get a view of all the low level stuff that you miss at the other viewing locations.  The only part I couldn't see was the Matterhorn, but that was not so bad.  It really is a much more immersive experience anywhere that you can have a view of the castle.

I will also note that a lot of people on discussion forums have mentioned poor crowd control with all the night entertainment.  I did not feel this was the case.  I was there on a Friday night and it was very busy.  Traffic remained flowing throughout the parade and the only time there was a huge mess was after the fireworks when everyone was trying to get out, but this has always been a problem at Disneyland as it's a mass exodus situation.  Yes, it was crowded and I'm sure some people were annoyed by having to take the long way around to get anywhere, but I feel like it wasn't terribly different from when the Electric Light Parade was running in the 90s.  In fact, I think the Soundsational Parade had much worse issues with traffic control yesterday.  At any rate, it's nice to see improvement from that crazy 24 hour day until now.  I do feel for the people whose toes I ran over with my stroller though, so if I accidentally ran into you, I apologize.  People kept stepping right in front of me and there wasn't much I could do.

Overall, a great trip.  Here are some pictures: