The Big and Little: Rides and Shows with "Big" Kids

Our first trip to Disneyland was for Phenex’s 7th birthday, and despite waiting for what I would now consider too long, it may have paid off well.

Before I get too far with this post, I should probably start with a disclaimer about my kid. Phenex hit the Disneyland jackpot, and my husband and I certainly lucked out too. At 7 years old Phenex is EXACTLY 54 inches tall. For those of you not keen to these magic numbers, they are the largest height requirement for any ride in the Disneyland resort, and the minimum age to ride without an adult. At 54 inches and 7 years old Phenex found an entire world of independence in Disneyland. On Autopia he was able to drive his own car (although he could barely reach the pedal) and he could ride single rider on any ride we wanted to, greatly reducing the wait time on many of the big attractions. Mom and Dad certainly lucked out as well. Phenex is absolutely fearless, and very anxious to ride just about every ride in the parks, and had no qualms about riding single on anything. With careful planning and placing Phenex between us in the single rider line, we could ensure someone was always waiting at the exit for him, but he felt free riding without us, and loved the reduced line times this opened up. One evening we managed 4 or 5 rides on the Matterhorn Bobsleds in an hour, and had spectacular views of the fireworks on two consecutive rides.

Part of the disadvantage of waiting for Phenex to turn 7 before our first trip was the complete lack of desire he has for any of the rides in Fantasyland. Phenex is a very high energy kid, and while I can talk him into most any line that is 15 minutes or less, there is no way I could get him in a 45 minute+ line for the classic dark rides. We began just about every morning in Disneyland at Tomorrowland, and typically ended there too. We had studied the FastPass system before leaving for the park, and knew exactly how we wanted to approach the system. Space Mountain and Star Tours, having no single rider system were our 2 must FastPass rides in Disneyland, and we would typically alternate the two, grabbing the next pass as soon as the window opened. Thunder Mountain Railroad was closed during our first trip, but during our most recent trip it had just reopened. This threw a kink in our FastPass system, and caused a lot of running from Tomorrowland to Frontierland to alternate passes until midday when Big Thunder Mountain or Space Mountain ran out of passes (typically around 2 to 4 pm during spring break).

In California Adventure, Tower of Terror has no single rider line, so that was the big FastPass ride for us. The trick to California Adventure is arriving at opening, and right away collecting the Radiator Springs Racers FastPass. Usually I would wait in line for the FastPass and my boys would head right for Screamin'. They could typically log 3 to 5 rides on the coaster in the 30 to 45 minutes it took me to collect the Cars and Tower of Terror FastPasses before meeting them on the Pier. 

The Top Rides from Phenex: