I’m currently here. Tuesday D’land with my husband & two daughters (16 & 18 yrs), Wednesday California Adventure, Thursday D’land just me and the girls (husband is at a conference Wed to Sun morning) and y today, Friday, another California Adventure day. We are staying at the D’land Hotel & are taking advantage of early entry. No
Genie+ (or
lightning lane multi pass or whatever that’s called these days).
In order to not spend the 30 mins early admission in line waiting, we did the following: My alarm rang at 5:45am, and I went down to the security line. Then the rest of the family joined me before they opened security & started checking bags (7am-ish). The husband & I would take the kids’ fanny packs & we sent them through security first, so they could speed walk to the turnstiles. We ended up about 5th to 8th at the turnstiles each morning, so that worked for us.
The one day that I came down to line up for security & saw 30 people already standing there was Thursday, which, as I later figured out, was
D23 day. Even though the lines to get in were daunting that day, once in the park both foot traffic and ride wait times weren’t too much affected. Apparently many of the D23 folks ended up in lines for special edition this and limited release that, so the effect of all the extra bodies on our touring was negligible. In fact, I liked the atmosphere—there seemed to be a lot of joyful intensity all around us.
I chatted with some cast members, and apparently some of the panelists and their families were supposed to be in the park that day. Also, Bob Iger was rumored to be there as well (as was a camera team at the tunnels by the entrance to cover all the excitement.
Our usual rope drop is Space Mountain, which is unfortunately closed for refurbishment. Instead we rope dropped Star Tours & rode it twice, followed by Buzz Lightyear & Indiana Jones (which broke down whole we were in line, so what was supposed to be a 40 mins wait ended up being over an hour.
Lots of ride breakdowns/closures on Tuesday (less on Thursday—I figure with all the bigwigs in the park maintenance techs brought their a-game?).
In the end we got everything done we wanted to do. We found out that the Mark Twain landing is used for general audience seating for Fantasmic & watched the 10:30pm show there on Tuesday. The view is partially obscured and you stand off to the dude, but you’re very close to the action, so that was fun.
Safe travels!
