Jeremy and I have long wanted to take Livia to Disney. Land or World, it didn’t matter much to us. Both of us had been to the parks as children and we wanted to take Livia while she was still young enough to enjoy the magic of the place. But every time I looked into going, I felt overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available to me. Did a Disney vacation really require this much planning? And was it worth the amount of stress I’d feel by pouring over the information?

The long and short of it is, yes, Disney does require advanced planning. But yes, it absolutely is worth the effort.

Our trip didn’t happen by my own efforts; rather, our Disney dreams got kickstarted when our friend Brian was planning to attend a work conference in Anaheim. After delicately stepping into conversations with Brian and Maralee—Would you mind if we went with you? Feel free to say no!—we hitched our wagon to their star and we were off. Plane tickets were first. I wanted for our families to sit next to each other on the plane and have our hotel rooms next door as well because the trip would be more fun that way. A few weeks later we purchased park tickets and negotiated all that meant too. Two day park-hopper passes which allowed us to enter both parks for two days in a row. We planned a third day to relax by hotel pools and maybe visit a nearby beach.

With plane tickets purchased, hotel rooms secured and park tickets arranged, we just had to wait for the vacation to start. Oh and plan the details of the actual trip.

You can jump over to Maralee’s website and read all about her uber-planner personality. About two weeks before the trip I realized that merely talking to Maralee about it was stressing me out. This girl is crazy about details. I’m a J on the Myers-Briggs scale, but only just so. Maralee, well, she’s something special. (I say this in absolute love and will acknowledge shortly how simply being close to such a planner benefited us at Disneyland.)

In preparation for our trip I wanted to get Livia excited about all things Mickey Mouse. We watched Youtube videos of theme park rides, caught up on Disney movies and watched a behind-the-scenes feature on Netflix. When her jaw dropped at the sight of real-life Tinker Bell, we knew she was engaged. Over time we discussed the things she most wanted to do at Disneyland, and it was a relatively simple request: visit Tinker Bell and see Cinderella’s castle lit up at night. Jeremy and I also decided to remain really flexible once in the parks. Our goal was having a good time as a family, so we wanted to be able to go with the flow and do what felt right at the time. Most importantly, we knew that having a tight agenda and rushing our daughter would only frustrate the three of us.

Enter one plan-loving Maralee Bradley. Maralee, as you can read for yourself, developed a game plan based on the rides her boys wanted to go on and mapped out park routes with help from a cousin who used to work at Disney. This was pure gold, my friends. I’d say my forte is travel plans—I’m all about getting on the right flights at the right times and making arrangements with the front desk at hotels. It was delightful to then back off and let Maralee take the lead on times to get into the parks and where to go once we got there. We basically followed Brian and Maralee like ducklings into Disneyland, and left their sides when something more girlie appealed to Livia. I think we visited Pixie Hollow instead of Toad’s Wild Ride, and Ariel’s Undersea Adventure instead of another Toy Story attraction. The Tredway strategy would not have included getting up at 6:00am to get into the parks at 7:00am, but the Bradley strategy did. And it paid off big time! We got on rides quickly and thoroughly enjoyed our adventurous mornings.

There are countless resources available to Disney travelers, but here are a few tips that helped our trip go smoothly.

• Travel with friends or family. You will multiply your fun and reduce marital stress by sharing friendship and laughing at the ways your kids push your buttons. You can also share trail mix, lollipops and Skittles this way.
• Buy Disney shirts and even toys from local stores or internet retailers prior to your travels. Disney is all about being cheesy—matching clothing and Mickey on your shirts is encouraged there. But you can save tons of money by purchasing the clothing in advance.
• Brings snacks and an empty water bottle with you. Everything in the park is crazy expensive. Yes, you’ll have to spend money once you’re there, but granola bars for breakfast and a refillable water bottle will save you money. Says the woman who paid $3 for a banana. Seriously.
• Figure out how the parks work. We got in early (during the Extra Magic Hour) because we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and used the Fast Passes when needed. Awesome.
• Pretend to be a kid again. The magic of Disney wasn’t for Livia only—we all enjoyed it. From the kindness of the park employees and characters to the magical fireworks at night, from the little rides I remember as a child (Snow White and Pinnochio!) to the newer attractions at Disney’s California Adventure (Cars and roller coasters!), the experience was incredible. Jeremy, Livia and I had the time of our lives and made joyful memories we’ll cherish for a lifetime.

**The first and third images were snapped by Maralee. This last picture makes me laugh so hard. Half of Livia’s Mickey-shaped ice cream treat had just sheared off and, clearly, she is in dismay. I did what any good mother would do; picked it up and handed it to her to eat quickly. What? You wouldn’t do that. Okay, that’s fair. I love this shot and I love that Jeremy is wearing a Livia-given flower tucked behind his ear as well.

**I have perhaps a million Disney photos on my Facebook page for friends to peruse. I’m showing great restraint—or maybe just exhaustion—by posting so few here.