How might you change the way you tour the parks after Carsland and BVS opens?

[mad hatter fan]

With CA having longer hours and perhaps its own early entry days will it change how your plan your days at the DLR? I am wondering how the new changes will affect how we plan our days. In the past, we would start out most of our park days in DL and hop over to CA later. We are planning a trip for the end of July so we should have around a month to see how things go for others. Anyone have any thoughts as to having Carsland and BVS finished and CA having longer hours will affect your days and park touring?

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We will definitely aim for an early morning at DCA. We usually start at DCA on our late start days.

I'm interested in how they'll do MMs in DCA (if they do). Will the 3+ day tickets include one and you have to choose which park? Maybe longer tickets (5+ days) can have 2?

 

[HydroGuy]

Great question. I think first we will need an extra day on our trips. The days of "three days at DLR" will be gone forever. And we will need to make sure to dedicate at least one opening morning to DCA if not two. For awhile I think DCA will steal some traffic from DL (!) but over time the overall resort attendance will increase significantly.

 

[skiingfast]

I don't think 3 days in the parks will work anymore.

 

[Tarijeno]

With our upcoming trip, which includes two little boys who are die hard Cars fans, I imagine we'll be spending a lot more time at DCA than we have in the past. DCA is really coming in to it's own. It would be nice if they would extend park hours to more closely match DL's.

 

[Geemo]

I don't think 3 days in the parks will work anymore.

I've never been able to get three days to work.....

If I can't have at least five days in the parks then I don't even bother.

I had always thought I needed five days because the kids like to swim in the middle of the days.

This last trip I went with my grandkids 17 and 14 years old for five days. They weren't interested in the pool. We opened and closed the parks each day.

It will be interesting to see how things go once the new areas open. It would be nice if CA was open longer hours.

 

[skiingfast]

I've never been able to get three days to work.....


It will be interesting to see how things go once the new areas open. It would be nice if CA was open longer hours.

3 Days isn't for everyone, but it has worked for me when I haven't gone during a busy period. I'm just sure with the long lines in Cars Land, and that CL will bring a lot more people into DCA generally increasing waits for everything else. That's why my 3 days won't do.

Of course part of what is likely to happen, the bulk of visitors who go for 1 sinlge day, won't have the easy choice of just going to DL. Theses will make up a lot of the people in line in DCA.

I have little doubt the hours will get longer. They stretched to 11pm with WoC. We will get earlier openings, not later hours.

 

[DLR29]

I am slightly different in that most of my trips are 1 day trips, and multiple of those throughout the year are 8AM-11PM/12AM trips, trying to hit as much as possible (20-30 rides + nighttime shows).

It will make things more difficult for me to try and squeeze in as much stuff, but overall I think I'm still gonna start at DL and later hop over to DCA, even if DCA begins to open earlier.

I think what I do on my 1 day mega days will be influenced by:
-How quickly Radiator Springs Racers' FP runs out
-How Carsland affects the Toy Story lines in the morning
-How DCA's new operating hours/opening procedures/potential Magic Mornings? affect the crowd levels at DL in the early morning.

 

[Eeee-va]

I'll definitely have to start out at least one day at DCA. Which we often did before Cars Land, but that was usually 3 or 4 days into the trip when we were tired and declared that starting with the park that opened at 9:30/10 AM was a perfectly legitimate strategy. I would definitely consider using a Magic Morning at DCA instead of DL. If MMs are offered on off days from DL's and on-site hotel guests can get in to MMs at both DCA and DL, the value (and prices) of the hotels will probably go up even more.

Now that I think about it, it might actually take two regular park opening mornings to experience Cars Land without long lines, as I believe Mater's ride and the Flying Saucers are both low-capacity. By the time you got through riding one, I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the other was at a 30 minute wait, and wouldn't be shocked if it was more than that. Will be interesting to see.

I'm not honestly certain how much of a difference Buena Vista Street will make for crowds when it comes down to it--initially, fans will be flooding to see the changes, but in the long run I think the decor will be more of (an amazing) atmosphere than something that will consciously draw people. And while a lot of people love Main Street, a very small percentage (I'd say pretty much the die-hardest of die-hard fans) actually visit the park BECAUSE of Main Street. In fact, I'd wager the overwhelming majority of visitors want to go for the thrill rides and/or kid rides, and see Main Street as a place to shop and watch a parade/fireworks, but otherwise take it as a place you walk through to get to more exciting things. Now, granted, if BVS consciously or unconsciously brings in 20% more visitors, that would make for substantial crowds, but I'm thinking the actual number it brings in (once it's been around a while) will be much lower.

Cars Land will definitely draw substantial crowds, of course. I think DCA will get particularly busy because Disney pushes people to get non-hopper passes now, so a large number of those people who come over for Cars Land will be in the park all day. On the other hand, I am guessing the vast majority of people with 3-day non-hopper passes will still probably spend 2 of those days at Disneyland and 1 day at DCA. I'm not sure if DCA will ever be able to replicate the nostalgic appeal of Disneyland, and Disneyland still has a higher capacity and more rides.

But if Cars Land and DCA's extended hours make people spend 2 days at DCA and 1 at DL (or turn that 3-day trip into 4 days, 2 in each park)...then we might almost get to the point where people go to Disneyland as the safety valve when DCA is too busy. Or both parks could be totally crowded....which Disney would love! Me, not so much.

 

[helenb]

I think it also depends on which rides might be open during a DCA Magic Morning. Would it just be Carsland? Carsland + Toy Story? Carsland and all of Paradise Pier? Will Soarin' be in that mix (seeing as it has historically opened earlier than the rest pf the park)? Bug's Land? Twilight Zone? On MM mornings people will already be filling whatever the 'open' areas are when the park 'officially' opens. This will affect the touring plans both of those participating in the MM, and those who are not.

It will definitely change the 'hopping' potential. The whole point of hopping from DL to DCA is to take advantage of double openings. I suppose with this new setup, it might be advantageous to have your party in DL doing rides, then send a runner over to DCA to pick up Radiator Springs FPs, then meet back at DL... something of this nature. A pain, but I could see park-hopping working better in this scenario.