EMH, Snow Fest, Olaf, Anna & Elsa, Cars, TSMM

[adykate]

Okay, I have been searching around the boards trying to get a better idea of a good strategy for CA EMH this week, with the newly added Frozen stuff. But honestly, I am still totally confused! We use to hightail it to Cars and TSMM and get those in once or twice, and get a FP and called it good for the extra hour. We don't move particularly fast with our two young girls . With all of the Frozen stuff there now, I am at a loss as to what to do first to minimize waits and get everything in. I am still a bit confused about the whole Olaf procedure (no FP, but wait for a pager, then wait once buzzed?). We have two young girls, 4 and 2.5. We want to meet the sisters and Olaf, possibly do the sing a long, and see the Snowfest area. But we also love to walk on TSMM and possibly get a ride in on Cars, and grab an early Cars FP to do later. How crazy are the Olaf waits throughout the day? We have a lot of flexibility and are staying at GC so we can come and go pretty easy from that area. Does it clear out later in the day? Is it a must for EMH to avoid long lines? Help!

Also, just to clarify, the Frozen SHOW over in DL (not the sing along in CA) has a FP that is connected? We have never been to the Tangled/beauty and the Beast show, as my youngest does not sit still very well. Is it pretty captivating? How long is it? She likes the movie and the music- does it have singing in it?How long is stand by on a slow day? On a crowded day?

Oh, and do people recommend going into CA at rope drop, instead of doing EMH at Disneyland? The times we have done EMH/MM at DL it was total madness. Worst crowds we often see in a trip. Just curious if going into CA at regular opening on those days is better than battling the early crowds in DL.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Mysteryincorp]

I just wrote a whole response and it disappeared!

Olaf today was 60 minutes. The CM said you wait in line and then after a certain amount if time you get a pager and are allowed into the snow area to play while you wait the last 20-30 minutes.
We just played in the snow and skipped Olaf.
Lines and crowds were great today so don't stress too much!
As for strategy, I would send one a adult to grab a cars fast pass while the other with the kids heads to Olaf. Then Maybe head over to toy story. Cars was only 45 minutes at one point today so maybe do a standby line later too?
Have fun, we come every year at this time and crowds are always low!

 

[rms123]

I would definitely put Olaf in there in the early entry hour. Right after rope drop this week (on a practically ghost town day) it was a 90 min wait. Crazy. I'd go there straight at rope drop since there is no fastpass. Finish that then head to TSMM. Do racers with a fastpass. Grab fastpasses for the sisters also. After your cars window opens, grab passes for the sing a long.

 

[rms123]

And don't forget to get rider swap passes on cars so you can ride a few times for each fastpass.

 

[rms123]

My DH and I are discussing and if you don't want to pull fastpasses for RSR, you need to do that first, then Olaf and hope you have time then to book it back to TSMM.

 

[adykate]

Thanks for the help everyone! Can you get rider swap passes if using FP? I wasn't aware you could do that . Only problem is my 2.5 year old gets really pissed when she sees the Cars ride because she wants to go on. So when we walk up to it to show the CM we need a rider swap, we then have to bribe her with something to steer off a total meltdown, lol! I like the idea of sending one person for Cars FP while the other takes the kids to wait for Olaf. But doubting we would make it to TSMM before it was up to a decent wait. Keeping in mind that with our two young kids, anything over about 20minutes is long for us, lol! My mind is just kind of spinning trying to coordinate so many FP between the sisters, Cars, a show, possibly grabbing Fantasmic FP in the other park, while waiting for Olaf and hoping none of the times interfere. We have several days in the parks, but minimizing wait times is a must with the kids, or it just isn't worth it.

 

[rms123]

Some rides you can get away with the single rider / baby swap, but not RSR. We have had luck there just telling them our baby was asleep and they gave us a pass without seeing the child but I wouldn't bet on it. TSMM lines usually don't start building until about 45 min into the early hour, so if you got right into Olaf it might still work and be around a 25-30 min wait.

 

[rms123]

I misread your question, yes, you can combine fastpass and rider swap. So, you could really get one fastpass for RSR, one for something else like ToT then get baby swaps for both and get two rides fastpass for the price of one.

 

[VandVsmama]

I don't have any useful advice because we are in the same boat. We will be going to DL this summer and I have already started to wonder how I am going to coordinate my kids seeing Anna and Elsa, going on RSR & Toy Story.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Avoid GCH entry at EMH & park opening. It clears up later & is great come afternoon & evening!

 

[dznyfam3]

I think since we have are going for three park days that I'm going to split it up. On EMH day since we are staying at the DLH I'm going to take advantage of that early hour for TSMM because that line can get really long really fast and then pull RCR FP at park opening. Then the next morning at park opening at DCA head over to all the Frozen Fun stuff starting with Olaf and the Snow Fest. I can't drag my DS6 from one end of the park to the other all in one morning trying to do it all so I'm just going to spread it out over two mornings. That way we make sure and get the very popular things done when the lines are shorter and the rest of the day enjoy the other rides and shows.

 

[adykate]

That is great to know about the rider swap and FP! But help me understand a bit better because I am not quite getting this...There are two adults, and one child who can ride the "big" rides, and one child (under 3 so no ticket) who can not. Say we pull 2 FP for Cars. Then we pull 1 FP for ToT. We go to the Cars front, get a rider swap, and 1 adult and 1 child goes on using their FP. The other adult and smaller child waits. When the riders come off, can the other adult go on, with the same bigger child using the rider swap, and ride again without additional FP? We have used rider swap but not when using FP, so not sure how many FP you need to have with two different adults WITH the same child in order to ride twice. I am sure I am way overthinking this, but just trying to maximize our time and lessen our waits...like the rest of the world .

I know it will all work out one way or another, I just hate waiting for something for 45+ minutes when it is possible to wait much shorter if I do my homework first .

 

[Lauren in NC]

With the Fps, you need however many will be used the first ride through - so, yes, two total for the first adult and the big kid. Then the second adult and the big child will use the child swap pass the second time around, no additional Fps needed. Clear as mud?

 

[rms123]

Right, get 2 fastpasses for the ride you want the older one one twice and 1 fastpass for a second ride the big kid will only go on once. (Assuming the second kid is under 3 and doesn't have a ticket to use to get another pass). Then for one ride, the adult and kid go first with fastpasses and get a swap pass. Then one adult goes on the other ride and gets a swap pass. Now you have 2 swaps to 2 rides to use anytime that day that are good for 3 people.

As for splitting up the rides over different days, I'd still do Olaf on an early entry day unless you want to do a mad dash at rope drop. It goes from no line to totally filled up in an instant.