How late can you go in and still have a good day?

[spiderdust]

My kids are still asleep. We had a long drive from San Francisco to Anaheim yesterday and no one's quite ready to run out the door. Obviously rope drop's not happening.

My youngest has said that she wants to make sure we ride the teacups, the Dumbo ride, and the carousel -- all Fantasyland rides -- and to go to Mickey's house. Ideally, all those should be hit first thing in the morning, but I don't think that dragging my exhausted kids out of bed and making them get on rides RIGHT NOW is the point of visiting the Happiest Place on Earth.

So... have I doomed us by letting everyone sleep? I know it's a Saturday morning, and Halloween season to boot... but I just want us to enjoy being here. I'm not feeling like we have to do EVERYTHING today, especially since we're mostly here to see the Halloween stuff.

Yet I know my little one will be disappointed if we don't get to ride those things. I know there will be lines. But at one point to those lines get unmanageable?

 

[DlandAmanda]

We were just there last week and didn't arrive at the parks until about 2 or 3 on Saturday. My DD is 4, we didn't want to have to wait very long and it was HOT which seemed very unusual since we are always there in October. We were able to do Tiki Room, King Tritons Carousel, Gadgets Go Coaster, Rodger Rabbit (fastpass), played in all the Toon Town houses, we met Aladdin and Jasmine, Goofy, Pluto, and Woody. We walked through Big Thunder Ranch and looked at all the pumpkins, and watched the parade that evening. We didn't wait more than 15 minutes for anything, and we just had a nice relaxing evening in Disneyland.

 

[Princess Row]

Not sure if our kids have set bedtimes...but we have always gotten up later and then stayed late to do the bigger rides with no wait.

You havent ruined the day. Youll be thankful that your kids arnt grumpy for later.
The lines shouldnt be too bad and those rides are pretty fast moving lines so you should get on all of them no problem.
Have an amazing time!

 

[All American]

My husband, by his own admittance, can be a real grump (sometimes) at Disneyland if we go early and all day. When we lived there and now when we visit the in-laws and go for date night, we get the parks around 4 and never have had a problem. It's kind of nice getting there rested, fresh, and ready-to-go when lots of people are getting to their wit's end.

 

[Mama Who]

DH is utterly content to pretty much never see the parks before about 11 AM. We've ended up with me getting up in time for rope drop, offering the hubs and the teen the opportunity to come with me and in general, me spending the first couple hours solo. When we took the baby for her first trip, they chose to get up early and not miss the firsts, but they seem perfectly happy with late mornings most of the time.