Need Cars Land Strategy Help

[cfrith5]

We only get to DLR once every few years. We will be arriving Tues. July 24 and our son (age 4) is a Cars fanatic. We will be driving up with our friends who live in San Diego that morning. I'm really worried about not getting there early enough to at least get a FP to get on RSR that day. We will at least be staying a few days, so we'll have the chance another day, but my friend will only be there that first day and wants to go right to Cars Land. My son has seen the videos and I'm sure will be wanting to go straight to CL too. I just hate to take him to Cars Land and get him all excited and then not even get to go on RSR that day. I guess my main concern is getting my friend out of the house at a decent time that morning. Thoughts?

Do you think we HAVE to be at security by 7am to get a FP as I've seen mentioned in another thread on RSR?

 

[HydroGuy]

We only get to DLR once every few years. We will be arriving Tues. July 24 and our son (age 4) is a Cars fanatic. We will be driving up with our friends who live in San Diego that morning. I'm really worried about not getting there early enough to at least get a FP to get on RSR that day. We will at least be staying a few days, so we'll have the chance another day, but my friend will only be there that first day and wants to go right to Cars Land. My son has seen the videos and I'm sure will be wanting to go straight to CL too. I just hate to take him to Cars Land and get him all excited and then not even get to go on RSR that day. I guess my main concern is getting my friend out of the house at a decent time that morning. Thoughts?

Do you think we HAVE to be at security by 7am to get a FP as I've seen mentioned in another thread on RSR?

If you have until July 24 then by far the best bet is not to try and decide now. We have NO IDEA what the impact will be of EMH or APEE and how it will affect FP collections for the simple reason they have not happened yet. Everything is speculation.

Wait until July and then ask and then decide what time to be at the gates. By then we will have lots of reports to go by.

 

[sheetz]

I've seen unconfirmed reports from a CM on another forum that they have been handing out fewer FPs than normal for RSR in order to test what it does to the standby times and that is why FPs have been running out so quickly. Even if this is true, however, I don't know if it will still be the case for your travel dates andyou should ask again closer to your date of arrival. Worse comes to worse there is always the single rider line.

 

[cfrith5]

Thank you both! I'm just getting so nervous. It's hard to explain all this to a just turned 4 year old! I'll check back in a few weeks.

 

[luv2plan]

Would you consider spending the night near DL? Then you would already be there, bright & early! just an idea

 

[WicketsMom]

Do you think we HAVE to be at security by 7am to get a FP as I've seen mentioned in another thread on RSR?

Yikes! By 7:00, really? We're going in a few weeks for our first, and possibly only, trip to DL and are not morning people at all. It will help that we will be two hours behind our regular time, but our normal WDW touring plans never include making rope drop, but we do close the park down every night. Hoping that things settle down a bit by the time we get there.

 

[DLR29]

We only get to DLR once every few years. We will be arriving Tues. July 24 and our son (age 4) is a Cars fanatic. We will be driving up with our friends who live in San Diego that morning. I'm really worried about not getting there early enough to at least get a FP to get on RSR that day. We will at least be staying a few days, so we'll have the chance another day, but my friend will only be there that first day and wants to go right to Cars Land. My son has seen the videos and I'm sure will be wanting to go straight to CL too. I just hate to take him to Cars Land and get him all excited and then not even get to go on RSR that day. I guess my main concern is getting my friend out of the house at a decent time that morning. Thoughts?

Do you think we HAVE to be at security by 7am to get a FP as I've seen mentioned in another thread on RSR?

I agree with Hydroguy in that the only data we have is from the first weekend and that was without any early admission options. I'd be checking these boards over the next few weeks to see how RSR lines build on a normal summer day. But I would not be surprised if you do have to be at security at least by 7:15/7:30 to get a FP that doesn't have an extremely late return.

I've seen unconfirmed reports from a CM on another forum that they have been handing out fewer FPs than normal for RSR in order to test what it does to the standby times and that is why FPs have been running out so quickly. Even if this is true, however, I don't know if it will still be the case for your travel dates andyou should ask again closer to your date of arrival. Worse comes to worse there is always the single rider line.

I don't think this is true. Being there this past Friday and Saturday, the lines to get the FPs were extremely long. Also FP return lines were 45+ min long these past 2 days (on Friday I waited an hour with a FP around 9PM), meaning that they must have distributed enough FPs to create such a long return line.

Yikes! By 7:00, really? We're going in a few weeks for our first, and possibly only, trip to DL and are not morning people at all. It will help that we will be two hours behind our regular time, but our normal WDW touring plans never include making rope drop, but we do close the park down every night. Hoping that things settle down a bit by the time we get there.

Unfortunately with the popularity of Carsland, if you aren't at the ride within the first 15 min of opening, you'll be waiting for a very long time. I'd recommend at least 1 of your days devoted to waking up ridiculously early just for CL. You can always take a midday break and nap! While it would be nice, I wouldn't bank on things settling down too much in a few weeks...just being realistic. I'm predicting an average of 3 hour lines for RSR each day during the summer.

 

[BamaBoy]

Yikes! By 7:00, really? We're going in a few weeks for our first, and possibly only, trip to DL and are not morning people at all. It will help that we will be two hours behind our regular time, but our normal WDW touring plans never include making rope drop, but we do close the park down every night. Hoping that things settle down a bit by the time we get there.

We are from Alabama also and are going in a few weeks as well (July). We will be there at ropedrop and shut the place down too (with no breaks!). We were thinking we would be some of the select few from Alabama to go to CarsLand this first summer.

This will be our first and probably only trip to SoCal and Disneyland, so we are trying to squeeze as much of the LA area as possible into this trip! What dates are you going and where in Alabama do you live?

 

[DisneytheKid]

Interesting...

I've seen unconfirmed reports from a CM on another forum that they have been handing out fewer FPs than normal for RSR in order to test what it does to the standby times and that is why FPs have been running out so quickly. Even if this is true, however, I don't know if it will still be the case for your travel dates andyou should ask again closer to your date of arrival. Worse comes to worse there is always the single rider line.

 

[cfrith5]

Checking back a bit closer to our dates. Again, we do not have early entry to DCA. Hopefully we can get to security at 7am, (driving from San Diego). Do you think it's better to go straight to the regular line at RSR or get FP?

 

[Lm3js]

We were there this Friday. I was at DCA gates at 7:45a, in FP line just before 8:00. Waited a little over 30 min in line for a 2:00pm return. FP done/finished by about 9:15-9:20. The line at ride at the same time (sent my husband and kids to check while I was at FP) was already 110-120 min...

At ride at 2:00p, FP wait was about 30-40 min. It then broke down while we were near front and stayed down another 20 min and then another 20 before we actually got on (test runs after breakdown).

Once on, it was awesome. One of the better rides at DCA. They got it right!

 

[daneenm]

Checking back a bit closer to our dates. Again, we do not have early entry to DCA. Hopefully we can get to security at 7am, (driving from San Diego). Do you think it's better to go straight to the regular line at RSR or get FP?

My thought would be get there early and get a FP first thing. The return time will already be quite a lot later in the day, based on our experience last week. We were in line for FP before the 8:00 crowd and got a morning return time, but I think it will be quite a lot later when you don't have EE. If your son was older, I would advocate getting a FP and then going directly to single rider for your first ride, but I think he is too young for that.

Hope you have fun. We enjoyed Carsland very much!

 

[cfrith5]

We were there this Friday. I was at DCA gates at 7:45a, in FP line just before 8:00. Waited a little over 30 min in line for a 2:00pm return. FP done/finished by about 9:15-9:20. The line at ride at the same time (sent my husband and kids to check while I was at FP) was already 110-120 min...

At ride at 2:00p, FP wait was about 30-40 min. It then broke down while we were near front and stayed down another 20 min and then another 20 before we actually got on (test runs after breakdown).

Once on, it was awesome. One of the better rides at DCA. They got it right!

Great info, thanks!

 

[dismom73]

So it sounds like RSR is still breaking down a lot...I was hoping that problem would have been resolved by now. Anyone know if it still breaking down every morning at opening?

 

[Lm3js]

There were 2 girls in line with us who were on their return try after it broke down in the morning. They also said it broke down a lot.

 

[Malcon10t]

What we noticed last week, on the days with EE for hotel guests, FP ran out between 845a and 9am. On the days with EE for APs, they ran out between 915am and 930am. (We were there the 29th-5th.) If you don't have EE, I would suggest getting there as early as possible. The line on the 3rd at 8amwent down to the Carthay, then turned and went past the Animation building. There were switch backs between Disney Playhouse and Off the Page. They start letting people in at 730a to line up for FPs. If your family can get in the park prior to 8, I would have someone drop one person off to get in line while the others park and hurry in. The FP line will move quickly. And if you get to the front, you must have all activated passes.

 

[HydroGuy]

I would add in RSR's defense that it is running until like 1AM every night (after they empty the standby line that closes at 11PM) and then have to be up an running by 7AM. That means very little time for maintenance each night.

 

[Lm3js]

Just a note on the park and drop off comment. All park tickets must be activated before you can get a FP. Meaning everyone in party has has to enter either DL or DCA first before you am get FP with their tickets.

 

[cfrith5]

What we noticed last week, on the days with EE for hotel guests, FP ran out between 845a and 9am. On the days with EE for APs, they ran out between 915am and 930am. (We were there the 29th-5th.) If you don't have EE, I would suggest getting there as early as possible. The line on the 3rd at 8amwent down to the Carthay, then turned and went past the Animation building. There were switch backs between Disney Playhouse and Off the Page. They start letting people in at 730a to line up for FPs. If your family can get in the park prior to 8, I would have someone drop one person off to get in line while the others park and hurry in. The FP line will move quickly. And if you get to the front, you must have all activated passes.

Do you know if they always let regular guests in at 7:30 for FPs?

It will be a Tuesday, so I'm sure there is some kind of EE, anyone know if it's hotel guests or APs?

 

[gacsmom]

Some may know better than me, but I believe Tuesdays are magic mornings for people with park hoppers. They get one with each hopper. I think there would also be EE for some people as well but don't know which one.
Am I somewhat right?
still learning the ropes as well