Confused about Carsland - help!

[Torontogal]

Hello.

So we are heading to DCA Aug. 18-20th and will be staying on site since we are DVC members.

We want to go to Carsland and heard it is very busy. Can someone recommend a strategy for us for visiting Carsland? We are planning to visit Carsland on the 19th but wondering if Carsland is open during the extra morning hours (to Disney guests). How do we get FPs? It would be a shame to miss any part of Carsland due to the large crowds. Any ideas?

Is there a thread which discusses strategies for Disney guests? TIA

 

[Pooh667]

Hi,

We are at Disneyland now. We did cars land this morning. Since we are staying onsite we were able to get in an hour early. We were at the main gate at 6:48am. Gates were open at 7am and we were through by 7:02. We walked quickly to Carsland. We had done Maters last night about 8:40pm with a 20 minute wait. But if we didn't we would have done Maters first. If we would have done that we would have been in the first group on the ride. Then do Luigis. We went there first and were the first ones on the ride & and one other family was behind us. When we got off the ride there were only 4 people waiting. Then I went online for a Fastpass for Radiator Springs. It was now 7:15am. Fastpass opens at 8am. I was done with Fastpass by 8:05am. Our return time was 8:55 to 9:55am. When the park first opens everyone runs to radiator first. When we returned with our Fastpass we were on the ride in 12 minutes. Also a FYI, as soon as I got the Fastpass we went to paradise pier and got on all the rides within 5 mins. with California Screaming being 10 mins.

 

[aan1701]

I would forget about FP for the Racers. I would use the single rider line. I have never waited more than 45 min for this, yes I can not ride with friends or family, but it sure beats waiting 45 min just to get a FP for a hour or more later, and it sure beats waiting the 120+ min in the stand by line. I would start with the tires and then go to Single Rider for Racers then Mater. Of course this only works if you do not have little kids.

 

[momrek06]

I would forget about FP for the Racers. I would use the single rider line. I have never waited more than 45 min for this, yes I can not ride with friends or family, but it sure beats waiting 45 min just to get a FP for a hour or more later, and it sure beats waiting the 120+ min in the stand by line. I would start with the tires and then go to Single Rider for Racercer then Mater. Of course this only works if you do not have little kids.

THIS ^!!!

I live here so we go often … so my family all get into the Single Rider Line and like aan1701 stated you wait maybe 40-45 minutes and you are on! You will be with your family through the entire time you are in line. Just split when you go to board. Every time I have gone on RSR, its always a group of adults in my car with me and they all waited between 2 - 3 hours …

Yes, if you have small children this will not work.

 

[Tiradan]

I plan on using the single line strategy during my August 17-19 trip, since I'll be there solo anyways. On my last trip there (July 13-15) RSR was down for a little bit all three days, but it eventually came back up again. I wonder if these downtimes are on purpose and the Imagineers are giving the ride a rest, or if something really goes wrong.

 

[chrissiecutie]

Ok- is it really necessary to wait 45 mins for a Racers FP? Why not just head straight to Racers??

I have a kiddo, so obviously single rider line won't work for us. But my plan was to just head straight to Racers at opening. We will be going on a morning when there isn't a MM/EE (whatever they are calling it now!) so I won't be stuck waiting behind all the MM folks. Will the wait really be 2-3 hours??

 

[DLR29]

Ok- is it really necessary to wait 45 mins for a Racers FP? Why not just head straight to Racers??

I have a kiddo, so obviously single rider line won't work for us. But my plan was to just head straight to Racers at opening. We will be going on a morning when there isn't a MM/EE (whatever they are calling it now!) so I won't be stuck waiting behind all the MM folks. Will the wait really be 2-3 hours??

It is not necessary to wait 45 min for RSR FP, and only EMH guests can do so that early anyway. Racers has not been consistently open at 7AM for early admission, so if you go straight there there is a chance that you'll burn your entire EA waiting in line for a broken down ride.

My guess is that by October they'll have more of the kinks figured out and it will be more consistent in the morning. We don't know what kind of lines RSR will have in the fall, but my guess is that the line will grow to be about 45 min within the first 30 min of park opening and hover around 60-90 min during the day. Since you'll be going in October, I would take all recent summer crowd reports with a grain of salt.

 

[chrissiecutie]

It is not necessary to wait 45 min for RSR FP, and only EMH guests can do so that early anyway. Racers has not been consistently open at 7AM for early admission, so if you go straight there there is a chance that you'll burn your entire EA waiting in line for a broken down ride.

My guess is that by October they'll have more of the kinks figured out and it will be more consistent in the morning. We don't know what kind of lines RSR will have in the fall, but my guess is that the line will grow to be about 45 min within the first 30 min of park opening and hover around 60-90 min during the day. Since you'll be going in October, I would take all recent summer crowd reports with a grain of salt.

Good Advice! And I will definitely be checking back on The Racers strategy before going in Oct.

But for all those going now, if you're one of the first few folks in the park & head straight to Racers- you shouldn't really "waste" any time. Right?? Let's assume there's no EMH that morning, you're in the gates 2 mins after official park open & you're #2 in line for Racers. Why wouldn't you get on the ride fairly quickly?? And furthermore, wouldn't you then know fairly quickly if the ride was broke down? Or do CM's just hold folks in line for hours while attempting to fix the ride?

Obviously I'm hoping that by Oct they will have figured out how to operate the ride with more consistancy. And of course, I'm hoping some of the "hype" will have died down & combined with the lower crowd levels in the Fall....well, I just don't want to wait 2-3 hours for Racers. DH would never tolerate that!

 

[Tyrsis]

We are going in less than 2 weeks with a DS5, and of course, he LOVES Cars!!! Are the rides really broken down that often? Didn't they test them before opening? Any mid-summer pointers for us?