Crowds in August?

[Hollymom1229]

Okay all, I have not been to DL since I was 10 y.o. and it was the only park and there was just the one hotel. On August 5th we will be flying out to LA, and are going to spend two days at DLR before his convention starts. That first night we'll be staying in an off-site super budget hotel. On the morning of the 6th we'll check into DLH for two nights. We hope to be to DCA by 10 AM. We are wondering what kind of crowds to expect.

All we really want to do at DCA is:
Soaring Over California
Grizzly River Run
Monsters Inc.
Tower of Terror
California Screaming
Mailboomer
Sunwheel
Electric Light Parade

Is there any chance we can get the rides in by 4 PM. Possibly get in a couple of hours at DL, and then swing back for ELP. How early would we need to get seats. I'm so overwhelmed, so much we want to do and we only have 2 days.

 

[IandGsmom]

Welll if you go on Soaring FIRST then Grizzly (when its hot, this ride is super busy) thing in the morning you probably will be able to do all those rides if you go commando style. I dont know about Monsters since they added it since I have been there last, I dont know how busy it is. The Sunwheel may have a line for the ones that swing. The electrical parade is my favorite parade. If you know or ask where the route is, we usually get a seat 35-45 mins before hand. Its usually not as bad as getting good seats for the fireworks or Fantasmic.

 

[HydroGuy]

Okay all, I have not been to DL since I was 10 y.o. and it was the only park and there was just the one hotel. On August 5th we will be flying out to LA, and are going to spend two days at DLR before his convention starts. That first night we'll be staying in an off-site super budget hotel. On the morning of the 6th we'll check into DLH for two nights. We hope to be to DCA by 10 AM. We are wondering what kind of crowds to expect.

All we really want to do at DCA is:
Soaring Over California
Grizzly River Run
Monsters Inc.
Tower of Terror
California Screaming
Mailboomer
Sunwheel
Electric Light Parade

Is there any chance we can get the rides in by 4 PM. Possibly get in a couple of hours at DL, and then swing back for ELP. How early would we need to get seats. I'm so overwhelmed, so much we want to do and we only have 2 days.

1. We went first week of August 2005. FYI, DCA (usually) opens its gates for a 10AM opening at 9:30AM, and the only open ride is Soarin over Calif.

2. Monsters Inc is popular and you should plan that first thing after 10AM.

3. GRR has FastPass and is disconnected from the FP network, so you can get FP any time (see my DLR FastPass discourse here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132 )

4. If it were me, I would do your rides in this order:

Ride Soaring Over California (at 9:30AM)
Ride Monsters Inc.
Get Tower of Terror FastPass
Get Grizzly River Run FastPass
Ride Maliboomer
Ride Sunwheel
Get California Screaming FastPass
Ride Tower of Terror with FastPass
Ride Grizzly River Run with FastPass
Ride California Screaming with FastPass

In addition, if it were me I would also do Turtle Talk with Crush at the DCA Animation Studios. If you haven't seen this, you really need to do it. And I would see the Aladdin show. You should be able to do all of your rides plus Turtle Talk and Aladdin by 4PM if you followed the above schedule.

5. Consider using RideMax (www.ridemax.com ) to schedule your rides.

 

[IandGsmom]

question Hydroguy...last time I was there TOT had their FP machines covered up and closed everyday and this was when the 50th started so it was busy. Are they all operational now? I checked on DL website and TOT is not listed as a ride having FP anymore.

 

[Hollymom1229]

Thanks for all the advice, these will definitely be 2 commando style days. I'm not worried about seeing Turtle Talk because we'll be back in WDW next year and can see it there. I'd like to see Aladdin, but I think that will depend on time. I know that DH will not want to go on the swinging cars on the Sunwheel, so we should be fine there.

 

[HydroGuy]

question Hydroguy...last time I was there TOT had their FP machines covered up and closed everyday and this was when the 50th started so it was busy. Are they all operational now? I checked on DL website and TOT is not listed as a ride having FP anymore.

It is true that the standby lines for ToT have not been very long. When were you there last? For me it was November (during Thanksgiving week) and the ToT FP machines were open. During slower times DL and DCA will not turn on some FP machines. I have not heard of ToT FP being off during busy days.