The Cars Land Wide Right Technique: How to be one of the first 20 people on RSR w/MM

dr matrix

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
My wife, mommommom, persuaded me to post this...

My family had an extended stay at DLR at the end of July and early August. One of our goals was to maximize the use of our magic morning to ride Radiator Springs Racers (RSR) in Cars Land. On four different mornings we tried to make RSR our first ride. We learned a lot during that time and want to pass it on to others.

For the first few days we tried to get to the park at 6:30 to be one of the first two groups at a turnstile. The benefit of this is that the cast member (CM) will scan your tickets before the part officially opens. This means that after the countdown happens then you can directly enter the park and do not have to wait. This works great and by placing yourself in the right position you will be sure to be one of the first 20 people on the ride. However, after learning these tricks we found that you don’t really have to be one of the first groups in the park, and instead can wait until the early entry lines have depleted. This means you can arrive at 7am and pick a line and still be one of the first 20 on the ride.

When you enter the park people will run past Carthay Circle and meet the CM rope drop right before Cars Land. You want to position yourself right behind the right most CM (I will explain why later). Mater and Lightning McQueen (the full size characters!) will be escorted by CMs in front of the rope drop. The rope drop will walk slowly into Cars Land. This slow rope walk allows you to catch the group if you arrive late to the turnstile. Lightning will pull into the cozy cone for pictures and Mater will pull from the right lane onto an alley. As you continue down the street Red, the fire engine, will pull down the street towards you. Red blocks the people on the left side of the rope drop. The CMs on the left side stop when they get to Red and force the people behind them to go to the right. The well positioned folks on the right hand side of the rope drop will have a direct path to RSR. The farther right you can get the better off you will be. This is why I call this technique the Wide Right. The other important thing is to walk fast to get as close to the front of the group as you can while staying on the right side. Instead of walking on the street you can try to drift onto the side walk but you might get forced back behind the CMs with the rope. If you do this you will guaranteed to be the first 20 and if well executed you can be the first 5 people on the ride. After you get through the RSR gate then you just follow the CM to the loading area.

The technique works if you are a late arriver to the main gate, or one of the poor people that try and use the entrance from Grand California Hotel. I don’t recommend using this entrance if you want to ride RSR first. Instead use the main entrance.

On our most successful day we were able to ride RSR, Luigi, Mater, and then Toy Story Midway three times before the park opened. This only happened once as three of the four days RSR was closed when the park opened and on two of those days we just waited in line until it opened. We probably shouldn’t have, but being one of the first 20 in line we felt like we should. For those days it was closed it took a minimum of 45 minutes until the ride opened. One day they announced that it wouldn’t be open until 10 am and another took 90 minutes. Because of this I recommend that if RSR is not open when you arrive then I would not wait unless that will be your only chance to ride it for the trip. One rule of thumb is that even after cars are running on the track to “test” the system it will take 25 minutes before the ride will open. If you get to the attraction and the cars are not running I would leave and either get a fastpass or ride something else.

On the day that it was not open until 10 am, we rode Luigi, Mater, and then stood in line for 45 minutes for RSR fast passes. We used those to ride at night, and it was pretty awesome. Riding at night is very cool. Also, if you can I recommend riding it once as a group with the technique above and then have everyone split up and ride the single rider line. You can ride it twice in 15 minutes. You need to do this before the 8am crowd shows up as the single rider line will be flooded. After that I would get out of there as fast as you can. I feel sorry for the folks that arrive right at 8 am and run to RSR. They are usually met with a solid 90 minute wait. I would recommend fast passes first thing instead.

There are many other awesome things to do in Cars Land. They have a night time ritual where they sing “Life Will Be a Dream” from the movie right as the sun goes down. They turn on the neon lights starting at RSR and sequentially moving down the street to Mater’s. It is very cool. Flo’s V8 is awesome for breakfast and lunch, and the Flo Girls are super fun in their night time performance.

We had a great time and I hope your group does as well.
 
Thank you for posting the Wide Right guide! I was wondering how best to use my APEE for 8/18. Now I know EXACTLY what to do :)
 


All of this info, including the stuff about the night lighting process and the Flo Girls, is super helpful--and has me even more excited!
Hope Lightning, Mater, and Red are all astill out every morning when we get there in October!
 
Your wife is my hero for making you post this :)

Just kidding - this is incredibly helpful. Thanks so much!
 
Just wanted to add my thanks as well! We will be taking DD for her first DL trip in October and all we have been hearing about is riding RSR (thanks to Disney Channel for continually running those commercials! ;) ).

What's wrong with the Grand park entrance?
 


Just wanted to add my thanks as well! We will be taking DD for her first DL trip in October and all we have been hearing about is riding RSR (thanks to Disney Channel for continually running those commercials! ;) ).

What's wrong with the Grand park entrance?

Hi there - I have read on other threads that there are only two turnstiles and two people doing bagcheck at the Grand Californian entrance. It will slow you down, compared to those people going through the main entrance.
 
Thanks for the tip. We are going in January and staying at the Grand Cal, but are already planning on entering through the main DCA gate because of all the reports here on the DIS. I will also have my family stay as far right as possible when walking in.
 
Your wife is my hero for making you post this :)

Just kidding - this is incredibly helpful. Thanks so much!

:lmao: Thanks! It really does work well. As he said, it worked for us on 4 different days. Now, the ride actually being open is an entirely different story...
 
What's wrong with the Grand park entrance?

If your goal is to get to Carsland during Magic Hours (or later), the GCH entrance rope walk is usually behind the main entrance rope walk, which makes it harder to get to the front. That said, the GCH is wonderful to use for any other purpose. I loved having that option while we stayed there. Great pics of Snow White and your daughter in your sig, btw.
 
Great tips - thanks!

Question: Is there an entrance to the Paradise Pier section of the park from Pacific Wharf near Cocina Cucamonga? On the park map it looks like there may be by "N" at Pacific Wharf. Can someone confirm this? This would be a nice shortcut from CL to PP.

DCA Map
 
Thank you so much :). I have printed this out and will keep in my bag. I need to show my family that this is good/accurate information, not just some crazy theory I have :lmao:.
 
Great tips - thanks!

Question: Is there an entrance to the Paradise Pier section of the park from Pacific Wharf near Cocina Cucamonga? On the park map it looks like there may be by "N" at Pacific Wharf. Can someone confirm this? This would be a nice shortcut from CL to PP.

DCA Map

Also, it appears there is a 3rd DCA entrance (besides the main entrance and the GCH entrance) to the right of Soarin' on that map. Is that right?
 
Just wanted to add my thanks as well! We will be taking DD for her first DL trip in October and all we have been hearing about is riding RSR (thanks to Disney Channel for continually running those commercials! ;) ).

What's wrong with the Grand park entrance?

Hi there - I have read on other threads that there are only two turnstiles and two people doing bagcheck at the Grand Californian entrance. It will slow you down, compared to those people going through the main entrance.
Even more than that, the GCH entrance to DCA has historically been a very effective way for Disney hotel guests to get a jump on DCA from those at the main turnstiles who are not Disney hotel guests.

In the case of EMH to DCA, everyone (except for APEE which are fewer in number) is a Disney hotel guest - by definition. Thus the special entrance becomes a liability rather than an advantage because it is a bottleneck compared to the main gates who allow the Disney hotel guests in faster.

As soon as EMH changes over to not being every morning (on October 1?) then the GCH entrance will be best on non-EMH days and the main gates best on EMH days.

:wizard:
 

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