DLR29's plan for CA opening worked

[Keyser]

I decided to put this in a thread of its own, though it's likely to just rotate off the page. If there's ever a "strategy superthread" this should be part of it...

Some of you remember a plan that DLR29 proposed and tried out for entry time at California Adventure. I also tried this on our recent trip a couple of weeks ago, and it worked really well for me, so I wanted to add one more data point of confirmation. Here's what I did:
- Got there at park opening (not even early, actually).
- Most of the group heads for Toy Story Midway Mania. However, the "runner" (me) does the following:
1) Get Soarin' fastpasses (no wait at fastpass machines - get earliest return slot --- 8:40)
2) Pick up World of Color Fastpasses (basically no real wait)
3) Go to Toy Story ride, meet up with others. (This didn't go as expected: see below***)
4) Picked up California Screamin' fastpasses (disconnected ride).
5) After that, let rest of the party ride other things (Paradise Pier area), while the runner goes to get in the Radiator Springs Racers fastpass line
6) I was getting into line around 8:35. The end of the line at this point was outside the Disney Jr. theater.
7) By the time the line made it up to the Fastpass machines, it was about 8:45 (i.e. after my "next fastpass" time from the Soarin' ones).
8) The tickets I got were for a mid-afternoon return time on RSR. They also spit out some bonus Little Mermaid fastpasses, but that never seemed to have a significant wait on the day we were there (kind of a shame - I thought it was a really well done dark ride, better than almost all in Disneyland).
9) Met back up with my family in the Paradise Pier area a bit before 9:00.

*** OK, for us, there was a problem at Toy Story - the ride was down when we got there. However, when you consider that I spent close to 15 minutes trying to find the rest of my family (who had gone on to another ride) and deciding what to do at that point, I think it would have been about the length of time needed to stand in line and ride right there near the beginning of the day.

So, basically you come out after the first hour having ridden Toy Story Mania, and having FPs for Soarin', RSR, Screamin', and WoC (plus a useless bonus one in our case); plus, the rest of the party had time to do some other stuff. I was happy with the plan, and it beat having to wait in the long line for the first 20+ minutes after opening and then be blocked from getting any more FPs for a couple of hours.

For reference, we were there on a weekday in mid-August on a day that did not have a Magic Morning option for Disneyland, and had two of the level of annual passes blacked out. I'm not an expert, but I'd estimate these were medium-good size crowds, but not peak.

I think the method worked really well, and would recommend it if you are there at opening (again, don't even need to be particularly early!). But, if things get thrown off (don't get the earliest return time for Soarin', or encounter a big wait at Toy Story, or can't walk fast, or have a much much longer RSR fastpass line), it would throw things off. We did this when we still had one more day to fall back on if we messed it up.

 

[bakerudall]

Thanks for summarizing/confirming this technique. It sounds like a great option if you don't like coming early or doing rope drops. We will be there on a Thur-Sat trip in October, so I will try it on my second day when, like you, we will have one more day to try if it doesn't work the first time. We wont even have a party besides the two of us, but when staying off-property and coming in behind the EMH crowds, this sounds like the way to go.

 

[Amommy21]

My experience thist past week (last week of Aug) was that no FP was needed on anything other than RSR and Grizzly, which had a long line in the heat of the day. Whether we had FP or not Soarin was always basically walk on as well as Screamin' and Tower of Terror. Nothing more than 10 min anyway.

A lot of the FP machines spit out the Mermaid FP's now to remind people to go over there. It was so well done, almost tooo well done that it is a super fast loader, in fact they can't get poeple loaded fast enough.

I say best bet in a large party is directly after entry to send most the group to RSR and 1 person to the RSP FP line. Hopefully guaranteeing 2 rides.

Although crowds were very reasonable, RSR seemed to go from either over an hour1/2 wait to being down and we felt lucky our morning worked out for us, as it didn't for DH and DS the next day (you can read my report on the other RSR wait time thread)

 

[Keyser]

My experience thist past week (last week of Aug) was that no FP was needed on anything other than RSR and Grizzly, which had a long line in the heat of the day. Whether we had FP or not Soarin was always basically walk on as well as Screamin' and Tower of Terror. Nothing more than 10 min anyway.

If it's any help in judging the crowd level, when we rode Screamin' (late morning), the standby wait was listed as 20 minutes (and I walked past what seemed like a lot of people...). The Soarin' standby wait was listed as 30 minutes (and there was a pretty good line of people outside). The FPs to those two certainly helped. We rode Grizzly at about 10:30, and waited almost 45 minutes.

I expect you could swap out the Soarin' FPs for Grizzly FPs easily enough in the plan above. But, if attendance is light enough, you probably don't need to worry about it.

A lot of the FP machines spit out the Mermaid FP's now to remind people to go over there. It was so well done, almost tooo well done that it is a super fast loader, in fact they can't get poeple loaded fast enough.

That's smart on their part, I guess. I'm really surprised I don't hear more people talk about that ride. When I compare it to rides in DL such as Alice in Wonderland or Snow White, I think it's light years better! And yet, there seems to be more interest in (and much longer waits for) the DL dark rides - is it location? The loading is indeed very efficient, but I guess I just hear more talk about the DL dark rides - maybe they get the same numbers of people through.

I say best bet in a large party is directly after entry to send most the group to RSR and 1 person to the RSP FP line. Hopefully guaranteeing 2 rides.

Yes, if you want 2 rides, I'd certainly suggest that approach or something like it. Or, if you want Luigi's (at least until the novelty wears off - we didn't even try to go to it, since it didn't look like much for the lenght of wait).

 

[starshine514]

I expect you could swap out the Soarin' FPs for Grizzly FPs easily enough in the plan above. But, if attendance is light enough, you probably don't need to worry about it.

Normally you can't get GRR FPs until later in the day (in my experience, about 1 pm) since their FP machines are used for WOC.

 

[mrswh]

Normally you can't get GRR FPs until later in the day (in my experience, about 1 pm) since their FP machines are used for WOC.

We were worried about this too, but got FPs for GRR as early as 10 am - not sure what time they start since we didn't get over there before 10, but definitely did not have to wait until noon as used to be the case.

 

[MillauFr]

Thanks for the info. I love these boards for the excellent advice many of the experts here share. Makes DL much more enjoyable.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

that worked out good for you...now here is where my concerns are coming in...since before CL opened, I have felt that as the year progresses, that we are going to see a significant increase in guests...regardless of the fact that this summer hasnt had the major issues that disney themselves were concerned with...my feelings are coming from the fact that MANY people have stated that due to their thinking that everyone would be going this summer, they were going to wait until a few months after opening.. so instead of the huge crowds in summer, I think we will get them this fall...couple that with cooler weather and the halloween parties. so....im wondering how much of that strategy will work if that is the case...for example: what happens if you dont have EE??? what would your strategy be then if your biggest focus was getting FP for the rides in CL????

 

[Keyser]

that worked out good for you...now here is where my concerns are coming in...since before CL opened, I have felt that as the year progresses, that we are going to see a significant increase in guests...regardless of the fact that this summer hasnt had the major issues that disney themselves were concerned with...my feelings are coming from the fact that MANY people have stated that due to their thinking that everyone would be going this summer, they were going to wait until a few months after opening.. so instead of the huge crowds in summer, I think we will get them this fall...couple that with cooler weather and the halloween parties. so....im wondering how much of that strategy will work if that is the case...for example: what happens if you dont have EE??? what would your strategy be then if your biggest focus was getting FP for the rides in CL????

I'm not enough of a Disneyland person to know much about crowds, but just to make it clear, this is more of a strategy for when you do NOT have EE to California Adventure. I don't think the fastpass machines are even on during EE. The people from Disney hotels could get in to EE that day, though.

If your only focus is on getting to the Carsland rides and spending time there, then maybe this is not the strategy to take - this is more of an option if you want to do the other rides (like Soarin' and Toy Story) with minimal waits while still getting a FP to Radiator Springs Racers.

 

[DLR29]

Hi

Glad this worked out for you. You can definitely switch it up and do Luigi's or Tower or _________ (insert your favorite attraction) instead of Toy Story in the morning too, although it's good to do TSMM during that first hour with little to no wait. I've done this plan several times now and it works very well, especially because RSR FPs aren't going as quickly anymore. On days where DCA opens at 8, they're not gone until around 10 now, which means you can get in line as late as 9:30 perhaps and still get a FP.

I also wouldn't recommend it to everyone because, like you said, it does require good timing and the ability to walk pretty quickly (at least the runner). Some people don't like to have to run around for those FPs.

Also the lack of a wait at Little Mermaid has nothing to do with its popularity. In fact, I've seen stats that say that during a regular operating day the Ariel's cycles through more guests than a major ride like Star Tours because it is SUCH a high capacity attraction. I love how it's a fantastic attraction AND it can be done at anytime without much of a wait.