Just back- Carsland super crowded

[AustinTink]

We're just back from 2 dyas at DLR. I had very high hopes for Carsland crowds based on a popular thread here in the last few weeks. I though the crowds would be manageable with planning.

I can tell you we were very disappointed. We arrived last Sunday before 7:30am and joined the fastpass line to await the 8am opening. Once the line started moving at 8, we had our tickets by 8:30 for a 11:15 return time. FPs were all given out by 9:45. This was all expected, so I still had high hopes for the rest of the day.

But, once we got to Carsland from the FP machines, both Luigi's and Mater were at 45 minutes. We really should have ridden them then, because those were the shortest lines we would see all day.

RSR was never under 120 minutes while we were there... even when we checked back at 10:30pm! Single rider was also at 1 hour plus all day, when we checked in.

So, while we did get to ride RSR once with our FPs. We never got a second ride and never got to do the other two rides in carsland.

Fortunately, our 13-year old wasn't really interested in them anyway. He just wanted to ride Screamin' over and over... and did. So all was good in his world.

I was disappointed, having read that the hype was blown out of proportion. But, in my opinion it is indeed extemely crowded. And, unless you are staying on property with EE, or have a MM from a 3-day park hopper you won't have much luck finding a short line in carsland.

Oh well, I'm really glad we woke up at 6am on Sunday and scurried to the FP line. RSR is an amazing ride. Loved it.

 

[disneychrista]

And, unless you are staying on property with EE, or have a MM from a 3-day park hopper you won't have much luck finding a short line in carsland.

1. 3-day park hoppers only include MM to Disneyland, not DCA.

2. You knew that there would be crowds. Not only is Carsland a brand new land it is the middle of summer. I am sorry you were dissapointed. But even without APEE/EMH Carsland would be crowded ALL DAY! I have not seen any reports of lines being any less than 2 hours for RSR. 90 mins for Luigis. And 30 - 45 mins for Maters.

 

[DisneytheKid]

Thats too bad but I really can't say that I am surprised. It will probably be like this for many months to come...

 

[AustinTink]

1. 3-day park hoppers only include MM to Disneyland, not DCA.

2. You knew that there would be crowds. Not only is Carsland a brand new land it is the middle of summer. I am sorry you were dissapointed. But even without APEE/EMH Carsland would be crowded ALL DAY! I have not seen any reports of lines being any less than 2 hours for RSR. 90 mins for Luigis. And 30 - 45 mins for Maters.

1. You got me!

2. Yes, we have been every summer for the last 8 summers. I'm well aware of the summer crowds. My disappointment stemmed from prior posts in this forum saying crowds were not that bad. Yes, they were. Do expect the worst and then you won't be as disappointed as I was. And by disappointed, I mean I was minorly irked. Nothing a mickey's premium bar couldn't fix.

 

[larina]

I think it depends on what you think of as bad. The posts I've read (and I haven't read them all by any means) about Carsland all sound about like what you said or worse. But others have reported those same wait times and said they weren't bad. I think it may all be in perspective. I agree with the thought that if you plan for, and think of, the worst, then you can be nothing but pleasantly surprised if it isn't horrible in the end.

 

[Jkpark]

I am sorry you didn't get to do everything you wanted in Cars Land and I'm glad to hear you didn't let that ruin your trip. I'm not sure which prior thread you are referring to, so forgive me if it isn't the same one. What I got from the main thread around it not being as bad as people were fearing was that the rest of DCA and DL were even lighter crowds than typical summers - because everyone was in Cars Land. That is what I saw on my trip, too. CL is just packed. I'm hoping once you got out of CL, you found shorter waits through the rest of the park.

 

[AustinTink]

I think it depends on what you think of as bad. The posts I've read (and I haven't read them all by any means) about Carsland all sound about like what you said or worse. But others have reported those same wait times and said they weren't bad. I think it may all be in perspective. I agree with the thought that if you plan for, and think of, the worst, then you can be nothing but pleasantly surprised if it isn't horrible in the end.

You are exactly right.

 

[disneychrista]

My disappointment stemmed from prior posts in this forum saying crowds were not that bad. Yes, they were. Do expect the worst and then you won't be as disappointed as I was..

I think it depends on what you think of as bad.

I have to agree with larina. It all depends on what you think of as bad and the attitude you go in with.

 

[Hoku]

The thread you're referring to was discussing the resort as a whole. People were worried that the entire resort was going to be insane, which prompted someone to start a post explaining why things were really fine, and even easier than usual for most of the resort. It NEVER said that Carsland was going to be easy. Instead, it said that Carsland was going to be the only super crowded area, which was part of the reason why we didn't need to worry as much about the rest of the resort. I'm sorry you were disappointed, but maybe you just didn't the thread very well. BTW, 45-minutes isn't something to complain about at the parks.

 

[Argento]

Also, the threads I've read all talked about how Disneyland crowds were mellow. I've yet to see anything saying Cars Land was mellowing but I'm hopeful things will chill out a bit come Fall but I'm prepared for the most crushing crowds imaginable.

 

[DarthMole]

Also, the threads I've read all talked about how Disneyland crowds were mellow. I've yet to see anything saying Cars Land was mellowing but I'm hopeful things will chill out a bit come Fall but I'm prepared for the most crushing crowds imaginable.

This is correct. I was expecting CL to be a waitfest and pretty much the rest of the parks, including DL, to be pretty easy going. That's exactly what we found for the first half of our trip. Then on 7/16 DL was very crowded and on 7/17 it was packed. We figured out pretty quick it was because of the 57th anniversary, then it was mellow again on 7/18. Heck, even on 7/18 we only dealt with 10 minute waits for Maters at 8:10 and 8:25. You must have hit a really, really bad day if that ride had a 45 minute wait at 8:30. I was on Mousewait like a hawk and 45 minute wait for Maters was rare the whole trip. Heck, right now it's only 20 minutes.

 

[AustinTink]

This is correct. I was expecting CL to be a waitfest and pretty much the rest of the parks, including DL, to be pretty easy going. That's exactly what we found for the first half of our trip. Then on 7/16 DL was very crowded and on 7/17 it was packed. We figured out pretty quick it was because of the 57th anniversary, then it was mellow again on 7/18. Heck, even on 7/18 we only dealt with 10 minute waits for Maters at 8:10 and 8:25. You must have hit a really, really bad day if that ride had a 45 minute wait at 8:30. I was on Mousewait like a hawk and 45 minute wait for Maters was rare the whole trip. Heck, right now it's only 20 minutes.

The bolded part is the story of my life, LOL. No biggie. We rode everything else we wanted and used the fastpass system to the fullest.

BTW, just to answer some of the other posts about the others part of the park(s) being lighter than expected... I didn't see that at all. It was just as crowded everywhere else in the parks as it has been for the last 8 Julys that I have been. Summer crowds. It is what it is. I didn't find DLR to be lighter than normal.

 

[ValpoCory]

Hi AustinTink. Greetings from another Austin DISer (Wells Branch area).

We are going on an off-week in January and staying onsite. I can only hope RSR will be less than an hour when we go. Maybe in EMH at least.

 

[andyman8]

We're tackling Cars Land, DL, and DCA on August 8 (my birthday) in ONE day! We're in for a wild ride!

Anyways, did you notice if CS was still "disconnected" front the FP system?

 

[AustinTink]

We're tackling Cars Land, DL, and DCA on August 8 (my birthday) in ONE day! We're in for a wild ride!

Anyways, did you notice if CS was still "disconnected" front the FP system?

CS was connected to the system when we were there. It's also down during both world of color shows, which we expected. We didn't realize it is also closed in between the two WOC shows. So, get all your rides in early. DS rode morning, afternoon and in the 30 minutes it opened back up after WOC. He was one of the last riders of the night. We lined up for CS just as the last WOC show started.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[AustinTink]

Hi AustinTink. Greetings from another Austin DISer (Wells Branch area).

We are going on an off-week in January and staying onsite. I can only hope RSR will be less than an hour when we go. Maybe in EMH at least.

Greetings! We're not too far from you.

 

[PinkBudgie]

Hi, Missed you while you were here!

We've ridden RSR twice with FPs for each one. Total waiting time from 7:30- to tickets and then in line was less than hour so pretty good. But we don't expect to get on it much. MJJ is at 20 min a lot. We never ride if it is more than that. Actually, we've timed it and when it says 20 it is really more like 25, but do-able. We've been on it 3 times and it's really fun! Did LFT once to try it at 60 min wait. It is fun but don't want to wait that long. We have APEE so we may ride then, we'll see. But we are loving CL and all other things to do in DCA. I wish CL wasn't so crowded walking down the street. But the view from Flo's outside in back is amazing! Did you get to try there?

 

[mouseymommy]

We were there mid July, and although Carsland was crowded, it was awesome!! The music was so fun, and people were dancing in the street. It was just a a fun place. My DH and I were on our kid free trip, and we decided to wait to go on LFT and MJJ until we had the kids. We did do RSR though, and thought it was really great. OP, glad your family had a great vacation!

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Hi, Missed you while you were here!

We've ridden RSR twice with FPs for each one. Total waiting time from 7:30- to tickets and then in line was less than hour so pretty good. But we don't expect to get on it much. MJJ is at 20 min a lot. We never ride if it is more than that. Actually, we've timed it and when it says 20 it is really more like 25, but do-able. We've been on it 3 times and it's really fun! Did LFT once to try it at 60 min wait. It is fun but don't want to wait that long. We have APEE so we may ride then, we'll see. But we are loving CL and all other things to do in DCA. I wish CL wasn't so crowded walking down the street. But the view from Flo's outside in back is amazing! Did you get to try there?

Oh yay, you got your APEE. I remember reading that you were going to have to wait since you were activating new passes this trip. We rode RSR twice on Sunday, once during APEE and once with fastpass and left it alone for the rest of our brief trip. We really enjoyed it, and I feel that we would wait for it up to 45 minutes to an hour if the lines ever get that low. Definitely try for Luigi's during EE. We got in line around 7:40 AM on Sunday, got off just before 8 AM. After reading all the reviews, I really expected Luigi's to be a dud ride. Our whole family though thought it was surprisingly fun. However, we also all agree that it's not worth more than a 20-30 minute wait, and, of course, it was 60-90 minutes the rest of the time we were there after our APEE. Agree with you about Mater's. Our family rode it 3 times also. It was nice to be able to go in on Saturday afternoon and find the wait time to be only 20 minutes. DS10 likes to run his stopwatch and found the wait times for Mater to be accurate within 2 minutes each of our 3 times riding it. Toy Story wait times this trip though were really screwed up. @@ Still, it's been a long time since I've experienced such short wait times for Toy Story (mornings), so that was a nice side effect of the earlier park opening and the Carsland crush.

 

[Mr Snappy]

I am sorry for your dissapointment.

This is also a danger or reading TOO MANY forum posts. As already pointed out, it is a matter of perspective. For an AP holder who's only mission is to try RSR and soak up the themeing, two hours is not bad at all for a wait. For a family of four who is on a vacation with a schedule, a two hour wait means a large portion of their day sacrificed to just stand and do nothing.

This is why we moved our annual trip from the week of 4th of July to October this year. Cars land will be busy for some time, but hopefully it will be equal to waiting for Indiana Jones or Splash Mountain by the time we get there.

The good news for everyone is that I have yet to read a bad review of RSR. Some people get cranky about the wait, or the frequent break-downs, but it seems like everyone enjoyed the ride.