DCA GAD FP Strategy

[buyerbrad]

My GF and I will be making our first trip to Disneyland next week. We will have 2 days and a bit to do the parks. We have both never been. I know most people suggest park hopping, but since we have never been and have the GAD FPs,we figure our best strategy is just to stay in one park and knock it out. Our goal is to do everything once, instead of loading up on the big stuff and possibly missing others. We will collect extra FPs as we go, incase we have extra time at the end, but will not make an extra effort to get them so we can waste them. Please let me know what you think of our plan.

We will be arriving on Sunday around 2pm and plan on staying until 8pm at the latest (Our flight leaves at 6am eastern). We have 3 goals for the day.
See Aladdin, Pixar Parade and take a slow up main street in Disneyland (we will be returning here the next day)

We will be returning to DCA on Thursday. With Aladdin and the Parade complete, and WOC Picnics purchased, here is our plan when we arrive for DCA's park opening.

- TSMM
- California Screamin (hopefully walk on, use GAD if needed and grab an extra FP)
- Fun Wheel
- Maliboomer
- Mulholland Madness (use GAD if needed)
- GRR (use GAD)
- eat and dry off
- Soarin (use GAD and grab another FP)
- Monsters INC
- Tower of Terror (use GAD)
- Turtle Talk/Animation Academy/Character Close-up/Sorcerers Workshop (complete based on show schedule when we arrive in the area)
- Muppets 3D
- Bugs Life
- Eat our Picnic Meals

How long do you think this will take?
If we have extra time, we should have 2-3 extra FPs that we collected on our journey and we can have a look at the TSMM line when we use our California Screamin FP. We would then head to WOC around 7:30pm.

We may head back to see F! again after WOC.

 

[DLR29]

Depending on how early you arrive at DCA, your wait for TSMM could be between a walk-on and 30 min first thing. If you arrive at 9:30, then you shouldn't have to wait at all for it, but if you arrive right at 10, there will be lots of people ahead of you. It just depends on if you want to wait the 30 min before or after the park opens.

Let's just assume you fall in between the two (for practicality sake) and you wait about 15 min for TSMM. By then, Screamin's line will be about 20 or so min. You can decide if it's worth using the GAD or not. But you can always get a regular FP.

Fun Wheel, Maliboomer, and Mulholland Madness' lines will not be more than 20 min hopefully if you got TSMM done quickly. You can always use the single rider line at Maliboomer or Mulholland Madness also. By this time it will be warmish probably and so GRR will have a decent sized line and you will want to use your GAD. Keep in mind that you can pick up your picnic meals for lunch if you really want to (even though they say you can between 2 and 8 I think). I was just there last Thursday and picked up the picnic meals a little after 12.

Soarin shouldn't take more than 20 min with a GAD FP. Also monster's should have about the same wait: 20 or shorter. The unfortunate thing is that ToT is not using FP right now because of construction (they are making a permanent path from Hollywood Pictures Backlot to A Bug's Land), so you would not be able to use your GAD here. And by now the stand-by time will probably be somewhat lengthy. I recommend seeing ToT before lunch because there is never a long line until mid-afternoon.

You could spend a long time in the Animation Building depending on how much stuff you want to do in the Sorcerer's Workshop. And the 2 3D movies all depend on when you get there and if you have to wait for the previous show to finish. My guess is that you could finish this plan by 5 or 6, depending on the ToT situation.

 

[buyerbrad]

Thanks for the Fantastic Feedback. So no FPs for ToT even with the GADs? I've read that even though GRR doesn't have FPs when handing out WOC FPS that they are still allowing people to use the GAD FPs for it.

Now to work on my DL plan. With DL we do have the ability to use MM and and 2+ hours before we go to DCA, but that would be a very long day.

 

[DLR29]

Nope, not even GAD FP. They've closed the entire FP line and front entrance to ToT. They are using a temporary entrance.

For MM info, check out my superthread here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1675403

 

[DLR29]

Change of plans, the ToT area opened up earlier than expected. They are now using the FP line, so you would be able to use GAD FP on ToT.