Arriving to Disneyland mid-day?

[hakunamatata16]

Hi all!
We will be arriving to our first Disneyland trip mid-day (around 1-3 PM, probably) and will have Genie +. Wondering what are the good things to hit during the mid-day crowd levels or what the Genie + strategy should be. Will have another full day to do rope drop festivities and "big rides". Or, do you still recommend trying to do the more popular things on a half day? Thanks in advance!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Since you already have G+, you can use it to get LL's for many attractions still with a short window, and get some evening times for the bigger ones. Or you can just focus on the non-G+ experiences like the railroad, mark twain/columbia, and those. I would probably avoid fantasyland other than matterhorn and iasw, as the lines for all the other rides get pretty long midday and don't have G+. You could also focus on characters - Pixie Hollow and princesses might still be out depending on how close to 1 you arrive, and you might see someone in tomorrowland, critter country, and galaxy's edge. Depending on day of the week, you could also catch some shows at Royal theater and fantasyland theater, plus the various shows they put on in galaxy's edge can be fun too.

 

[Chemist]

Nevermind

 

[xipotec]

What would you’all suggest for a DCA 3pm arrival?

 

[DLgal]

This is basically how we do it every time we visit at this point, with teen boys who don't even emerge from their rooms until 10am. We typically arrive between noon and 3 or 4pm. We never even stay until closing, but we get a LOT of stuff done in those visits. I love the parks at night the best anyway.

Never used G+ that late, but we use DAS which is kind of similar.

I would just not try and plan too much in advance. With an arrival at that time, you can take stock of which rides are down, which ones have good G+ return times remaining, etc, which changes from day to day. I'd probably use this day to focus solely on G+ attractions to get the most of my money, and I would completely skip over any nighttime entertainment. Do just rides and meals. You will be able to do a lot in a relatively short amount of time at DL because SO many people will be camped out waiting for the parades, fireworks, and Fantasmic. It's a good strategy to be doing rides between about 7 and 11pm.