Alternative to downtown Disney entrance

[MissDisney21]

Staying at Disneyland hotel. Had to wait at downtown Disney entrance until 7am to get to walk to park. Is there an alternative to getting to the park in the morning? We barely got in for 7:30am early hours and we were at the downtown Disney entrance at 6:20am!!!

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Not too many options….you can try and enter downtown Disney thru the Grand Californian. Some days this week have been worse than others. Yesterday we got to front gates of DL at 715 and they didn’t let people in until 730! This morning they opened the gates at about 720ish, which is enough time to get to fantasy land/tomorrow land by 730. If you were in line at 620 you likely got thru security pretty fast. We got in line at 645 and it moved pretty quick once they opened it up. We waited for the monorail only to find out it was down , but still got to the front gates by 715-720 and were in fantasy land by 730.

If you’re going to DCA I’ve heard the Pixar pier gate typically has a short line in the morning for early entry (at least that’s what the guys working that gate told me when I asked, we haven’t tried it yet).

 

[MissDisney21]

Not too many options….you can try and enter downtown Disney thru the Grand Californian. Some days this week have been worse than others. Yesterday we got to front gates of DL at 715 and they didn’t let people in until 730! This morning they opened the gates at about 720ish, which is enough time to get to fantasy land/tomorrow land by 730. If you were in line at 620 you likely got thru security pretty fast. We got in line at 645 and it moved pretty quick once they opened it up. We waited for the monorail only to find out it was down , but still got to the front gates by 715-720 and were in fantasy land by 730.

If you’re going to DCA I’ve heard the Pixar pier gate typically has a short line in the morning for early entry (at least that’s what the guys working that gate told me when I asked, we haven’t tried it yet).

Thank you. I think we will just go the same way tomorrow morning (our only other day visiting). This is our first trip to Disneyland and although we had fun, we were missing Disney World. Pretty sure this is going to be a one and done trip to California.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Got in quickly to DCA today! Hopefully you did better. Got on everything except Mike and Sully, the Ferris wheel and radiator springs by 10:30am.

 

[MissDisney21]

Yes we did better today too!!! DCA was much better for early entry than Disneyland. Glad you did well!!