Morning Plan of Attack - Timing Question

[DisneyJade]

hi there! i'm hoping some planning pros can tell me if the plan of attack for our first morning is do-able:


6am - wake up at anabella hotel and get ready. walk to grand californian
730 - PSA for storytellers cafe character breakfast. walk to park entrances
830 - catch a ride or 2 and pick up a fast pass or 2 in DL (specifically, hoping to ride buzz and/or pirates.. and get FPs for space and/or indy.. to be used later)
930 - in line at DCA for TSMM rope drop

we are 4 fairly fit adults with no children in the group. we don't plan to dawdle at breakfast.
my questions are --
== how long does the storytellers breakfast take? can we really get to DL by 830?
== what can we accomplish at DL in one hour's time in the morning
== is 930 too late to arrive at DCA? do we need to be lined up earlier?


thanks in advance !!!

 

[MATTERHORN]

Storytellers at that hour has never taken me more than an hour and we've done it 4 times!! The earlier the better, I say! You will definitely atleast be leaving the restaurant by 8:30, maybe not to the DL gates already though!!

Most times at DL, there will not be fastpasses available that early because the lines are not long enough yet to justify it. So I don't know if you'll have any luck with that, but you may be able to hit 3 or 4 rides in the one hour.

Andrea

 

[cinderella_mom]

I would give yourself an hour at STC for breakfast and 15 minutes to get to DL from there.

What day are you going and what time does DL open that day? If DL opens at 8am, you will most likely have time to grab a FP, go on a ride and grab a 2nd FP and still head to DCA for a 10am opening. If you are wanting to line up early for Toy Story Mania at DCA, then you need to be in line at DCA at 9:30. If not, then no need to hurry to DCA. You will be able to ride and get FP for most everything even if you get there after opening. Supposing you want to go on Screamin', Soarin' and Grizzly RR, and you get there between 10 and 10:30, then get a FP for Soarin' and GRR (this one is not connected, so you can have it and another FP), and head to Screamin' which will have a shorter line early in the morning.

Hope that helps.

 

[avalon451]

Most times at DL, there will not be fastpasses available that early because the lines are not long enough yet to justify it. So I don't know if you'll have any luck with that, but you may be able to hit 3 or 4 rides in the one hour.

Fastpasses to the headliners like Indy and Space are generally open at 8 a.m. promptly, regardless of the lines.

OP, your schedule sounds a little tight. I think you can do the 8:30 to DL, grab a Space FP, ride Buzz... ride Pirates and then grab an Indy FP before you head out.. but I don't know if you'll do it by 9:30. Since you're starting a half hour after park opening, the FP return times might be longer than an hour already, making it hard to get that second FP right before you head over to DCA. I'm wondering if it might work better for you to ride TSMM later in the day. There's a recent thread talking about strategies for riding it, and it sounds like the wait actually dies down later in the day, after the first mad rush.

Remember that DCA opens at 9:30 for Soarin', and to line people up for rope drop at 10 a.m. If you aren't lined up by 9:15 I'm guessing you won't be very near the front of rope drop for TSMM. You might actually end up waiting longer to ride it, what with waiting a half hour for rope drop, then however long it'll take you to get through the line-- than if you tried it an hour or two later.

Maybe you could split up and do the single rider line if it's open? Don't know how that's working lately, though.

Just a few thoughts, I'm no expert! Good luck!

 

[MATTERHORN]

Fastpasses to the headliners like Indy and Space are generally open at 8 a.m. promptly, regardless of the lines.

bes

Sorry, that hasn't been my experience with Space recently so I was just going off of that!! Last two times, we rode Buzz and the rockets first, and still by the time we got back to Space, no fastpass was available yet!

Andrea

 

[avalon451]

Yikes, that's scary, Matterhorn; seriously messes with the plans on Ridemax if that's the case! Welp, we'll have to try it when we go, and hope that if Space isn't up right at opening, then Indy will be. (Space is DD's fave; I'm thinking we're going to have to ride it about 8 times a day every day! )

 

[MATTERHORN]

Yikes, that's scary, Matterhorn; seriously messes with the plans on Ridemax if that's the case! Welp, we'll have to try it when we go, and hope that if Space isn't up right at opening, then Indy will be. (Space is DD's fave; I'm thinking we're going to have to ride it about 8 times a day every day! )

It could have just been my experience, and I would normally not have mentioned it if it happened all in one trip, but that happened to me in April and June. Hopefully others will have better luck with that! When I asked, the CM just explained that the first hour when there was almost no lines for stand-by, there was no need to offer fastpass yet.

Andrea

 

[DisneyJade]

thanks everybody! that's kind of what i anticipated. it sounds like i could have bought myself some breathing room with a 7am PSA instead of 730, but that extra of half hour sleep was demanded by my fellow travelers (their first rebellion against my type-A touring plan. )