Need help with 1 day touring plan.

[victorandbellasmom]

We'll be there in a week for just one day (no parkhopper just disneyland) after a 2 year hiatus from Disneyland and I've so many question. We'll have 2 adults & 2 teens in our party. We plan on going Friday, November 14, 2014 and we expect that it'll be busy due to the Avenger's marathon. Park opens at 9am and we are planning on being at turnstyles around 8:15am. The enforcement of fast passes definitely changes the way we had previously toured the park. Ideally, we'd like to be able to go on all the rides and watch all the entertainment. Realistically, we'd want to ride Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Peter Pan, IASW (in the evening), HM, PotC, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Tiki Room, watch the parade, fantasmic and fireworks. Is this doable? Park closes at midnight and we plan on staying til closing.
1. Which ride would you ride first and which fastpass would you grab first?
2. I've forgotten which way the parade goes when there's 2 parades scheduled in a day. Does the first parade start at main street or does it start by IASW?
3. Is Mickey and the Magical map a must see.
4. We're planning to watch the fireworks by the HUB and then hightailing it to see the 10:30pm fantasmic. Is this doable and if so where around the HUB should we watch the fireworks so that we can minimize foot traffic heading to fantasmic?
5. We plan on having lunch at Earl of Sandwich (thanks to the freebie coupon) and having dinner at Plaza Inn. Is there a best time to have dinner at Plaza Inn to avoid the "dinner rush". We plan on snacking our way through the park so we wouldn't mind eating at "off times". If it's best to not even leave the park for lunch we can easily have lunch in park as well.
6. Is there a starbucks in Disneyland on main street and can you pay with your starbucks card. I know when we went in 2012, we could pay with our starbucks card in DCA.

 

[TheChapman6]

We'll be there in a week for just one day (no parkhopper just disneyland) after a 2 year hiatus from Disneyland and I've so many question. We'll have 2 adults & 2 teens in our party. We plan on going Friday, November 14, 2014 and we expect that it'll be busy due to the Avenger's marathon. Park opens at 9am and we are planning on being at turnstyles around 8:15am. The enforcement of fast passes definitely changes the way we had previously toured the park. Ideally, we'd like to be able to go on all the rides and watch all the entertainment. Realistically, we'd want to ride Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Peter Pan, IASW (in the evening), HM, PotC, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Tiki Room, watch the parade, fantasmic and fireworks. Is this doable? Park closes at midnight and we plan on staying til closing.
1. Which ride would you ride first and which fastpass would you grab first?
2. I've forgotten which way the parade goes when there's 2 parades scheduled in a day. Does the first parade start at main street or does it start by IASW?
3. Is Mickey and the Magical map a must see.
4. We're planning to watch the fireworks by the HUB and then hightailing it to see the 10:30pm fantasmic. Is this doable and if so where around the HUB should we watch the fireworks so that we can minimize foot traffic heading to fantasmic?
5. We plan on having lunch at Earl of Sandwich (thanks to the freebie coupon) and having dinner at Plaza Inn. Is there a best time to have dinner at Plaza Inn to avoid the "dinner rush". We plan on snacking our way through the park so we wouldn't mind eating at "off times". If it's best to not even leave the park for lunch we can easily have lunch in park as well.
6. Is there a starbucks in Disneyland on main street and can you pay with your starbucks card. I know when we went in 2012, we could pay with our starbucks card in DCA.

This is my personal opinion, yes you can do it all! I would start with peter pan always ride peter first!!! Then head to get a space fastpass. Otherwise you might want to join Touring plans and make a plan???

 

[DLR29]

Yes, with some planning, all of that is possible!

1. I'll echo the PP and say run straight to Peter Pan. Since it builds lines quickly and doesn't have FP, you'll want to do this as early as possible. Pick up a Space Mountain FP and continue through Fantasyland/Tomorrowland (Star Tours). Then head over to the other side of the park, using FP for Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain (if it's warm).

2. The first parade starts at It's A Small World and goes down Main Street. The second parade travels the other direction.

3. If you've never seen Mickey and the Magical Map, I highly recommend it. It's a really fun show with some pretty impressive singing and dancing!

4. Anywhere in the hub is fine, you'll just have to wade through the crowds going from the hub through Frontierland to the Rivers of America. I recently did this and had spots right in front of the castle and then went over to Fantasmic and had great spots on the river!

5. Earl is really easy to do if you take the monorail. It'll drop you right off next to the restaurant. For the Plaza, lines shouldn't be long before 6, and they don't get really long until probably 7 or so.

6. Yes. There are actually 3 Starbucks locations on property. One in each park and one in DTD. All 3 of them accept Starbucks cards as well as the mobile app card payment methods.

 

[cdatkins]

We'll be there in a week for just one day (no parkhopper just disneyland) after a 2 year hiatus from Disneyland and I've so many question. We'll have 2 adults & 2 teens in our party. We plan on going Friday, November 14, 2014 and we expect that it'll be busy due to the Avenger's marathon. Park opens at 9am and we are planning on being at turnstyles around 8:15am. The enforcement of fast passes definitely changes the way we had previously toured the park. Ideally, we'd like to be able to go on all the rides and watch all the entertainment. Realistically, we'd want to ride Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Peter Pan, IASW (in the evening), HM, PotC, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Tiki Room, watch the parade, fantasmic and fireworks. Is this doable? Park closes at midnight and we plan on staying til closing.
1. Which ride would you ride first and which fastpass would you grab first?
2. I've forgotten which way the parade goes when there's 2 parades scheduled in a day. Does the first parade start at main street or does it start by IASW?
3. Is Mickey and the Magical map a must see.
4. We're planning to watch the fireworks by the HUB and then hightailing it to see the 10:30pm fantasmic. Is this doable and if so where around the HUB should we watch the fireworks so that we can minimize foot traffic heading to fantasmic?
5. We plan on having lunch at Earl of Sandwich (thanks to the freebie coupon) and having dinner at Plaza Inn. Is there a best time to have dinner at Plaza Inn to avoid the "dinner rush". We plan on snacking our way through the park so we wouldn't mind eating at "off times". If it's best to not even leave the park for lunch we can easily have lunch in park as well.
6. Is there a starbucks in Disneyland on main street and can you pay with your starbucks card. I know when we went in 2012, we could pay with our starbucks card in DCA.

It's more than doable, even on a very crowded day. In fact I would say that you could have everything you listed done by mid-afternoon, leaving you free time to revisit things or add things to your tour.

I guess I would say do PP first. I would be there by 8am to get through security and ensure a good place in line for the DLP main entrance. Then make your way to end of Main Street for the rope drop, then head straight for PP. I would recommend then hitting Toad, Alice and IASW. You might hit Matterhorn next, then head to Tomorrowland, grab a Space Mountain fastpass, do Star Tours standby, then Space Mountain using fastpass. Take monorail to Earl of Sandwich, then back, you may need a handstamp when you exit monorail. Then take monorail back, grab a Splash fastpass, do Pirates and HM, then grab a Big Thunder fastpass, do Tiki Room, then Big Thunder. You should have this done by 4-5pm honestly. I would make a 5:30 Plaza Inn reservation. You should then have 1-2 hours of free time until fireworks, watch them from left side of Hub within sight of Frontierland sign, then head to Fantasmic after fireworks through Frontierland. You should get a good viewing area.

 

[cmpeter]

This was our plan when we were there a couple weeks ago...I generally only plan the mornings and we wing it in the afternoons.

We were there for MM so we planned for Peter Pan, Matterhorn, Alice, Toad and Snow White.

Then when the park opened for everyone our plan was:

Pull Space Mountain Fast Pass
Ride Buzz
Ride Star Tours
Pull Indiana Jones Fast Pass
Use Space Mountain Fast Pass
Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road
Pirates
Indiana Jones
Haunted Mansion

We were there for three days, so there were things we did on other days. It was me and my 14 year old daughter.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Thank you guys for letting me know that we we should be able to ride our must-do rides and shows. We usually stay 4-6 days when we do Disneyland so we usually have plenty of time to do the rides and shows over and over again but since this is a side trip from our main vacation in San Dieo, we only have 1 day here. And I've never ever planned a 1 day trip Our shortest trip prior to our upcoming trip was 3 days, so all of your help is appreciated. Thank you.

We'll definitely do Peter Pan first. We'll probably follow cdatkins and cmpeter's modified plan. Does Plaza Inn take dinner reservations? I thought it was counter service for lunch and dinner withe reservations only for the character breakfast. Thank you DLR29 for answering all my questions. Dh and kids will be so happy they can use their starbucks card in DL and we'll make a point to watch Mickey & the Musical map.

 

[grannyminnie]

OP, how did you get the Earl of Sandwich free coupon?

 

[DLR29]

The Plaza Inn does not take reservations. It is the counter service fried chicken meals for dinner!

 

[victorandbellasmom]

OP, how did you get the Earl of Sandwich free coupon?

A previous OP had posted that if you sign up for their eclub, you get a coupon for a free sandwich which expires within a month of sign up I think. Not sure about expiration date.

The Plaza Inn does not take reservations. It is the counter service fried chicken meals for dinner!

That's what I thought. We've been to DL many times in the past but have never had their fried chicken so that's the plan for dinner.

 

[grannyminnie]

Thank you. I did sign up but it was several months ago so I guess I'm out of that deal!