Today we finally used the 3rd day of our SoCal ticket from 2020. Fantastic day at DL!
We took the monorail in and arrived in Tomorrowland around 8:45 a.m. Headed to Space Mountain, which had a 10 minute wait posted (pretty much accurate). Finished that, went to Indiana Jones that had a posted wait of 25 minutes (I think?) but it was less. This would be a theme throughout the day- wait times were anywhere from WILDLY overstated to pretty close to accurate. Didn't wait longer than 30 minutes for ANYTHING.
Did Haunted Mansion next, which had a posted wait time of 25 minutes but took half that. At that point we decided to try to see if ROTR was open (it was still listed as closed in the app). There was a line out to Critter Country, and a CM at the end informed us that it was not open. He also said when it opened the line was likely going to be 2 hours or longer, so we moved on to Splash Mountain (maybe a 5 minute wait?).
Did Pirates next, wait time again shorter than posted. Other than ROTR, I don't think any of the posted wait times ever got higher than 40-45 minutes for any ride. After Pirates, checked the app and it said ROTR had a 75 minute wait. We assumed we'd have to wait a long time for it at any time of the day, so we decided this was probably as good as it was going to get. Headed over. SIXTEEN MINUTES later, we were in! I have no idea why the posted time was 5 times longer than the actual wait time, but after waiting for 3 hours to ride it the first time (see my review from 2020 for the full rundown of that travesty) this was beyond a pleasant surprise. Did Smuggler's Run since we were in the neighborhood, which again was a shorter wait time than posted. (Discovered that if you're not the pilot Smuggler's is basically Star Tours with buttons.)
Somewhere in here we did Jungle Cruise, which had a pretty accurately posted 30 minute wait. Ate at Stage Door cafe (walk up, not mobile ordering, only took a couple of minutes).
Headed to Fantasyland to check out the Snow White revamp which was pretty cool. 20 minute wait, pretty close to posted. DW and DS did the teacups, which were a walk on. Then on to Alice, which I think was posted as 25 minutes and was pretty close to that (the Fantasyland rides seemed to be closest to the posted times).
Went over to Tomorrowland to do Buzz and Star Tours. Buzz was maybe a 10-15 minute wait, Star Tours maybe 5-10.
Started getting hungry enough for a snack (well, a second snack, had to hit the churro cart back in Fantasyland) so DH and DS headed to the Dole terrace thingy in Adventureland while I picked up a bowl of clam chowder. (Not exactly a snack, pretty much ended up being dinner). Line for Dole was pretty long, but I like that area back there. Very small line for clam chowder.
Did the Tiki Room, then over to Thunder Mountain. Posted time was 35 minutes, took around 20. When we got off we noticed the line had almost totally evaporated, so we decided to go again- this time waited 5 minutes. No idea why the line went from 20 minutes to 5 in a span of about 25 minutes, but we weren't complaining.
At that point it was about 5:30 and we had done pretty much everything we wanted to do. Did a little window shopping (and a bit of actual shopping at the Gallery) and decided to head out.
Pretty much a perfect day. I was expecting at least somewhat long lines, particularly for ROTR, Space Mountain, etc. Couldn't believe we did almost all of the "big" rides in 30 minutes or less. Getting food wasn't nearly the issue I was led to believe it might be. Maybe it was just a really good day to be at the park, I don't know. The park never felt crowded- busy, but not crowded, other than a few moments here and there like Main Street during the parade.
The only bummer is that we realized we were probably never going to have a day at the park like this again. It was an odd quirk in timing that we got to visit on a slow-ish day when there is absolutely no Fastpass system in place, and it was kind of wonderful. I'm not at all opposed to having some sort of Fastpass system (as an occasional visitor to WDW I totally understand the value it has for people looking to do EVERYTHING in a short time span), and when I visit the park again someday I'll probably be grateful for whatever system they have in place. But man, today was like a throwback to the early '90's when the park wasn't too busy, Fastpass wasn't a thing yet, and you could pretty much get on everything you wanted to get on without much hassle. Couldn't have asked for a better experience.
We took the monorail in and arrived in Tomorrowland around 8:45 a.m. Headed to Space Mountain, which had a 10 minute wait posted (pretty much accurate). Finished that, went to Indiana Jones that had a posted wait of 25 minutes (I think?) but it was less. This would be a theme throughout the day- wait times were anywhere from WILDLY overstated to pretty close to accurate. Didn't wait longer than 30 minutes for ANYTHING.
Did Haunted Mansion next, which had a posted wait time of 25 minutes but took half that. At that point we decided to try to see if ROTR was open (it was still listed as closed in the app). There was a line out to Critter Country, and a CM at the end informed us that it was not open. He also said when it opened the line was likely going to be 2 hours or longer, so we moved on to Splash Mountain (maybe a 5 minute wait?).
Did Pirates next, wait time again shorter than posted. Other than ROTR, I don't think any of the posted wait times ever got higher than 40-45 minutes for any ride. After Pirates, checked the app and it said ROTR had a 75 minute wait. We assumed we'd have to wait a long time for it at any time of the day, so we decided this was probably as good as it was going to get. Headed over. SIXTEEN MINUTES later, we were in! I have no idea why the posted time was 5 times longer than the actual wait time, but after waiting for 3 hours to ride it the first time (see my review from 2020 for the full rundown of that travesty) this was beyond a pleasant surprise. Did Smuggler's Run since we were in the neighborhood, which again was a shorter wait time than posted. (Discovered that if you're not the pilot Smuggler's is basically Star Tours with buttons.)
Somewhere in here we did Jungle Cruise, which had a pretty accurately posted 30 minute wait. Ate at Stage Door cafe (walk up, not mobile ordering, only took a couple of minutes).
Headed to Fantasyland to check out the Snow White revamp which was pretty cool. 20 minute wait, pretty close to posted. DW and DS did the teacups, which were a walk on. Then on to Alice, which I think was posted as 25 minutes and was pretty close to that (the Fantasyland rides seemed to be closest to the posted times).
Went over to Tomorrowland to do Buzz and Star Tours. Buzz was maybe a 10-15 minute wait, Star Tours maybe 5-10.
Started getting hungry enough for a snack (well, a second snack, had to hit the churro cart back in Fantasyland) so DH and DS headed to the Dole terrace thingy in Adventureland while I picked up a bowl of clam chowder. (Not exactly a snack, pretty much ended up being dinner). Line for Dole was pretty long, but I like that area back there. Very small line for clam chowder.
Did the Tiki Room, then over to Thunder Mountain. Posted time was 35 minutes, took around 20. When we got off we noticed the line had almost totally evaporated, so we decided to go again- this time waited 5 minutes. No idea why the line went from 20 minutes to 5 in a span of about 25 minutes, but we weren't complaining.
At that point it was about 5:30 and we had done pretty much everything we wanted to do. Did a little window shopping (and a bit of actual shopping at the Gallery) and decided to head out.
Pretty much a perfect day. I was expecting at least somewhat long lines, particularly for ROTR, Space Mountain, etc. Couldn't believe we did almost all of the "big" rides in 30 minutes or less. Getting food wasn't nearly the issue I was led to believe it might be. Maybe it was just a really good day to be at the park, I don't know. The park never felt crowded- busy, but not crowded, other than a few moments here and there like Main Street during the parade.
The only bummer is that we realized we were probably never going to have a day at the park like this again. It was an odd quirk in timing that we got to visit on a slow-ish day when there is absolutely no Fastpass system in place, and it was kind of wonderful. I'm not at all opposed to having some sort of Fastpass system (as an occasional visitor to WDW I totally understand the value it has for people looking to do EVERYTHING in a short time span), and when I visit the park again someday I'll probably be grateful for whatever system they have in place. But man, today was like a throwback to the early '90's when the park wasn't too busy, Fastpass wasn't a thing yet, and you could pretty much get on everything you wanted to get on without much hassle. Couldn't have asked for a better experience.
