Confused about opening times

[soaringirl]

After reading some posts, I don't know at what time is the real opening!!
For example, September 17th DL opens at 9am and DCA at 10am. I'm staying on-site.. at what time can I go in? 8am at DL? 9:30am at DCA? or 9:30am is for everyone and 9am for everybody??? Heeelpp!!!

 

[cutedisneygirly]

Sept 17 is a Friday so it is not a MM day. You can get into DL on Main Street at 8:30 and DCA at 9:30.
If you go in on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday you can get into DL in Fantasyland and Parts of Tomorrowland an hour early for MM. There is no MM for DCA.

 

[HydroGuy]

Sept 17 is a Friday so it is not a MM day. You can get into DL on Main Street at 8:30 and DCA at 9:30.
If you go in on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday you can get into DL in Fantasyland and Parts of Tomorrowland an hour early for MM. There is no MM for DCA.

Adding to this, you can only get into DL for Magic Morning if you have MM privileges - see "Magic Morning (Early Entry) Super Thread" by DLR29 www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1675403. But Friday Sept 17 will not be a MM day. So DL will open at 9AM and they often let people thru the gates early and onto Main Street and hold them there until 9AM. No one can do rides until 9AM if 9AM is the park opening and it is not a MM day.

DCA opens officially at 10AM and has for many years opened unofficially every day at 9:30AM with one ride available - Soarin. Also the Soarin FP machines start at 9:30. As do the World of Color FP machines at GRR. Other than that DCA is closed.

The one temporary exception to the above is that GRR is also opening at 9:30AM - thru Sept 6 I believe. That has never happened to my memory until this summer so I doubt it will happen Sept 17.

 

[soaringirl]

Yes I'm allowed to MM, since I bought a Disney package direct with them...
So.. for Friday, I can be inside the park in Main St at 8:30am, but only at 9am will they open the rides.. we're a family a four (2 kids 11 & 9) but we like to ride all rides, I was thinking on going first to Indiana, then Pirates (my fav! ), Haunted Mansion (which will be open that day after several days closed) and then Fantasyland. Does that makes sense? or should it be first Fantasyland (with a FP for Indy first) and then the other rides? And Space Mt.. Ghost Space Mt should I say. .with a FP after the Indy's FP?
Then at noon I should head to DCA, right? and get first a FP for Soarin' (another fav for us!!).
We'll also be there on Saturday, and part of Monday.
Thanks for your help!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

It really depends on your preferences. I would use an MM day (Saturday) to do Fantasyland and just do your plan on Friday. HM will be very busy since it is the first day with the NBC layover, so I would get a fast pass for that after Indy, before Pirates.

 

[HydroGuy]

Yes I'm allowed to MM, since I bought a Disney package direct with them...
So.. for Friday, I can be inside the park in Main St at 8:30am, but only at 9am will they open the rides.. we're a family a four (2 kids 11 & 9) but we like to ride all rides, I was thinking on going first to Indiana, then Pirates (my fav! ), Haunted Mansion (which will be open that day after several days closed) and then Fantasyland. Does that makes sense? or should it be first Fantasyland (with a FP for Indy first) and then the other rides? And Space Mt.. Ghost Space Mt should I say. .with a FP after the Indy's FP?
Then at noon I should head to DCA, right? and get first a FP for Soarin' (another fav for us!!).
We'll also be there on Saturday, and part of Monday.
Thanks for your help!

You might want to use RideMax - www.ridemax.com. Ride order is highly personal. We rarely would ride Indy first thing because it has FP and takes so long to go thru the line and ride it. HM and POTC we also save until the park has been open 2 or 3 hours because the lines build so slowly in the morning are are still 5-10 minutes long up thru lunch often. That is just us. We usually spend morning hours on things like Fantasyland, Nemo Subs, Star Tours (when it was open), Toontown, which develop long lines later in the day.

Ridemax can help you decide if you want help.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

I'd get a FP for Space Mt Ghost Galaxy before Indy. They went really fast last year, and the line was always really long (I never saw it for less than an hour)!

 

[soaringirl]

You might want to use RideMax - www.ridemax.com. Ride order is highly personal. We rarely would ride Indy first thing because it has FP and takes so long to go thru the line and ride it. HM and POTC we also save until the park has been open 2 or 3 hours because the lines build so slowly in the morning are are still 5-10 minutes long up thru lunch often. That is just us. We usually spend morning hours on things like Fantasyland, Nemo Subs, Star Tours (when it was open), Toontown, which develop long lines later in the day.

Ridemax can help you decide if you want help.

I invested in Touringplans last December, and found that mostly was common sense, at the end I didn't use it really, that's why I'm reluctant to try another plan like that. And another thing, DH doesn't plan, he lets me enjoy all the planning stage, but when he's finally there, he likes to take charge, so we always have minor changes as we see fit, so I prefer to have just a general idea of what's better. What you're saying makes perfect sense to me, I'll go with my 2nd idea, Fantasyland first and get FPs for HM, SM and Indy, and we'll take it from there.

I'd get a FP for Space Mt Ghost Galaxy before Indy. They went really fast last year, and the line was always really long (I never saw it for less than an hour)!

I believe that's going to be our 1st FP! In WDW, even the lines were long last Dec, we didn't do more than 20mins in line thanks to FPs, so I'm a mayor fan.

Thank you all for your responses! they really help me to know where to go!