Park Strategy for Thanksgiving Day Weekend with LL Multi Pass

[Matrixleos]

We'll be at DLR over Thanksgiving Day weekend. I know the parks will be packed over a holiday weekend and would love to hear ANY feedback or suggestions to improve the strategy...

Reservations: wife DW, daughter DD and me DH
Tickets: 1-Park Per Day (No Hoppers)
LLMP: Decided to get Lightning Lane Multi Pass over the ability to Hop
Last Visited: July 2021 (Never been to DLR during the Christmas holiday season)

Friday, November 29: Disneyland
7:00AM
Virtual Queue: Tiana's Bayou Adventure
Lightning Lane: Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Once scanned into the park)

Normally I was planning on picking Indiana Jones first. Although, we'd like to do Tiana's twice, especially DD would like to see the full Standby Line that we'd be skipping with the LL. Depending on if we get the Virtual Que for Tiana's, I'll try to modify the LL for a similar return, so that we can do it back to back.

Mobile Orders - I'll most likely will stagger the times a bit but will want to pick them all up at the same time.
Mobile Order: Mickey Gingerbread (Jolly Holiday Bakery on Main Street) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Cheesy Garlic Pretzel Bread (Edelweiss Snacks at Fantasyland) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Beef and Chicken Skewers (Bengal Barbecue at Adventureland) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Mickey Beignets and Mint Julep drink (Mint Julep Bar at New Orleans Square) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Chocolate Chip cookies (Harbour Galley at New Orleans Square) for 12pm

8:00AM (Park Open)
Rope Drop the Fantasyland rides in this order......
Peter Pan, Snow White, Pinocchio's, Casey Jr. Train, Mr. Toad, Alice in Wonderland, Storybook Land Boats and Matterhorn (single rider).

We wanted to hit the FantasyLand rides at rope drop with low wait times since we have LL Multi Pass. Hoping we can complete all 8 of those rides in 2-3 hours by 11am. If we got time, we could do Small World standby if short wait, if not, we do want to get a LL for Small World later on at night with the lights lit up.

10:00AM

Lightning Lane: Mickey & Minnie's Runnaway Railway (will try to modify for as early as a return time I can find)

Planning to head to Toontown around 11am and use the LL for MMRR and once checked in, use another LL for Roger Rabbit. Once LL is freed up after Roger Rabbit, I'll take the next available time for Indiana Jones LL for late afternoon.

12:00PM
Once we are done with Toontown, planning to take the Disneyland Railroad from Toontown to New Orleans Square. We'll find a spot to sit down for lunch and I'll pickup all five of our Mobile Orders. DD wanted to do the food hack of putting the Bengal BBQ skewers inside the cheesy garlic pretzel bread for lunch. I'm a huge fan of Mint Julep and Beignets. Plus a good time to try the Mickey Ginderbread that everyone raves about.

1:00PM
By this time, we'll be close to the 2 hour time for getting another LL. Next up will be to secure LL for Haunted Mansion Holiday. Not sure when the return time might be or how many hours later the LL will be available. In the mean time, we'll do Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Winnie the Pooh and use out LLs that we got earlier in the day for Indiana Jones and Tiana's. Then around 3PM the next LL I'll reserve for will be Space Mountain. I'll try to modify that LL for later in the evening. Those should wrap up the hard to get LLs, which after 5pm or so, should allow us to use the LL for the next available times.

5:00PM
Factoring in the long wait time for the Virtual Queue for Tiana's (if we're lucky to get it). We should finally be heading to Galaxy's Edge around 5PM. We should be up for another LL around a little after 5pm, which I'll use for MFSR. Depending on time with the Standby, we might jump in line for Rise of the Resistance or save it closer to the Fireworks when there should be a lower standby line.

7:00PM
We should finally make it to Tomorrowland around 7pm. We'll use LL to go on Star Tours and Buzz if their lines are a bit long in Standby. I'll also will be trying to modify my LL from earlier in the day for Space Mountain for around this time too if possible.

8:00PM
We'll be heading to the Disneyland Monorail around this time as we have 8:15pm reservations for Goofy's Kitchen for dinner. After dinner, pretty sure my wife and daughter might call it a night and head back to the hotel but I like to stay till Park Closing at midnight.

9:30PM
After dinner, will try to navigate Main Street to avoid the Fireworks crowd and head to Galaxy's Edge to get in line for Rise of the Resistance again, as I believe the standby line closes at 10pm from what I read. After that I'll just walk around and will do any of the rides I wanted to do again that have short standby lines till park closes.



Saturday, November 30: DCA
8:00AM (Park Open)
Lightning Lane: Web Slingers

Rope Drop Avengers Campus and try to ride Mission Breakout multiple times with short lines at park open. After that, use the LL for Web Slingers to free up getting another LL for Mission Breakout for later in the day. Plus we wanted to avoid the large crowd who want to rope drop Radiator Springs Racer, as we're fine going on that ride with the short wait times of Single Rider. If the lines are short in the morning for Luigi's and Mater's Jingle Jamboree, we'll go on those rides. If not, we're fine skipping it.

11:00AM
Once done with Avengers Campus and Cars Land, we'll head on over to Pixar Pier. We should have another LL to reserve around this time, after waiting 2 hours for a later in the day LL for Mission Breakout. Next LL to target will be Toy Story Mania and after that Incredicoaster. We also might do Incredicoaster twice with Single Rider, as DD wants to ride the coaster a couple of times.

12:00PM - 1:00PM
Virtual Queue: World of Color- Season of Light at noon
Not planning on doing any Mobile Order or reserve a spot for lunch due to the Festival of Holiday food around DCA and we might get Sip and Savor passes. Backup option would be to wait Standby for Lamplight Lounge.

4:00PM - 5:00PM
We should be wrapped up with all the rides at Pixar Pier by this time and start heading to Grizzly Peak with LL for both Grizzly River Run and Soarin. After those rides, the only LL left to use will be for Monsters Inc and we then can do shows and just enjoy walking around the park.

6:00PM
My favorite time to be in DCA is at night time! Especially when it gets dark, which is the best times to visit Avengers Campus and Cars Land when they're all their lights are on during the night time sky. We should have the LL from earlier on in the day for Mission Breakout to enjoy again and we might also do Radiator Springs with Single Rider to experience the ride during the night sky. We might even Mobile Order food at Pym's Test Kitchen around this time.

9:00PM
Hopefully we get the Virtual Queue for the 9PM and will be able to call it an early night after back to back VERRRRY long park days!

 

[LKing]

Mobile Orders - I'll most likely will stagger the times a bit but will want to pick them all up at the same time.
Mobile Order: Mickey Gingerbread (Jolly Holiday Bakery on Main Street) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Cheesy Garlic Pretzel Bread (Edelweiss Snacks at Fantasyland) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Beef and Chicken Skewers (Bengal Barbecue at Adventureland) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Mickey Beignets and Mint Julep drink (Mint Julep Bar at New Orleans Square) for 12pm
Mobile Order: Chocolate Chip cookies (Harbour Galley at New Orleans Square) for 12pm

12:00PM
Once we are done with Toontown, planning to take the Disneyland Railroad from Toontown to New Orleans Square. We'll find a spot to sit down for lunch and I'll pickup all five of our Mobile Orders. DD wanted to do the food hack of putting the Bengal BBQ skewers inside the cheesy garlic pretzel bread for lunch. I'm a huge fan of Mint Julep and Beignets. Plus a good time to try the Mickey Ginderbread that everyone raves about.

Be careful with the mobile orders as you have a limited window when you can pick them up. Some restaurants run behind on mobile orders so it will be very difficult to run across the park and pick up very popular items all with the same pick up time.

Jolly Holiday and Harbour Galley (which has gingerbread instead of chocolate chip cookies right now) fill quickly, so you will want to mobile order those close to park opening.

 

[Mandykaym]

I see gingerbread cookies but I also see chocolate chip cookies on the menu for Harbour Galley. Really hoping the CC really are available as I'm coming after xmas and really want to get some! Also, would love to hear how your ride plan pans out! I'm really nervous about trying to get on all the rides we want. We're also doing LL & one park per day. I got on here to find some ride plans with LL when crowds are at their worst.

 

[LKing]

I see gingerbread cookies but I also see chocolate chip cookies on the menu for Harbour Galley.

It may depend on the day. They could have been sold out when we went the first weekend of gingerbread.

 

[Matrixleos]

Be careful with the mobile orders as you have a limited window when you can pick them up. Some restaurants run behind on mobile orders so it will be very difficult to run across the park and pick up very popular items all with the same pick up time.

Jolly Holiday and Harbour Galley (which has gingerbread instead of chocolate chip cookies right now) fill quickly, so you will want to mobile order those close to park opening.

Good points, I'll break them up a bit so that I don't have to pick them all up at once.

With Disneyland mobile orders, does it open up at 7am or closer to park open?

 

[Matrixleos]

I see gingerbread cookies but I also see chocolate chip cookies on the menu for Harbour Galley. Really hoping the CC really are available as I'm coming after xmas and really want to get some!

Recently watched a YouTube video from a few days ago and they had the chocolate chip cookies. Hope they still have them in 2 days when we visit on Friday.

 

[LKing]

With Disneyland mobile orders, does it open up at 7am or closer to park open?

Looking at the app today, at 7:30 am, the earliest Harbour Galley pick up is in 2.5 hrs. Granted it doesn't open until 10 am, so that isn't too bad. You can go on the app before 8 am and select a 15 min arrival window closer to the noon pick up that you want.

Can you divide and conquer? For example, send your wife to wait in the beignet line while you go to Bengal BBQ? The other challenge you might have on a busy day is finding a place to sit. The tables on the decks by Harbour Galley are a nice place to eat. Are you able to leave someone there to hold the table while you and/or your wife run around getting all of the food?

I'm not sure you will want to eat three desserts at one sitting. The Mickey gingerbread and CC cookies are something that you can eat on the go. You probably want to sit down for the beignets. You might walk (instead of taking the train) from ToonTown. Pick up the garlic bread on the way into Adventureland, pick up Bengal BBQ, and then either the beignets or the chocolate chip cookies. Sit near the beignets or, if you are getting cookies, at Harbour Galley.

Regarding the CC cookies vs gingerbread, I am wrong that they subbed out gingerbread for CC. We were there and were told they weren't serving CC cookies. It could be that they had too much demand for gingerbread that weekend or they ran out or who knows what. It looks like you should be able to get either type of cookie.

The Mickey gingerbread that everyone talks about has green buttons, not yellow stars. It looks like Jolly Holiday was initially selling the ones with yellow stars and guests were disappointed. I saw someone post that Jolly Holiday changed to the green button version, but I'm not sure if that is permanent. If Jolly Holiday has the one with yellow stars, GCH should have the original version.

 

[mel2014]

Unless you're at the very front of the rope drop line, I'd veer right around the castle and start with Alice rather than Peter Pan and go Alice, Toad, Snow White, Pinnochio, Circus Train, Storybook Land boats, Matterhorn and then Peter Pan.

The Peter Pan line builds up to 30-45 minutes almost immediately and in the time you're waiting in that line, the lines are building for the others, so I think it actually reduces the overall wait time to tackle that last.

One thing I've noticed about the Storybook Land boats is that they minimize the number of boats until the crowds really start building, so sometimes with that one paradoxically the wait is longer when the line is shorter.

On your DCA plan, we've never had good luck with the single rider line at Incredicoaster and have had mixed results in recent visits with Single Rider at Radiator Springs -- several times it has been back up all the way to the bridge -- still shorter than the standby line, but not as empty as it used to be.

 

[Matrixleos]

Also, would love to hear how your ride plan pans out! I'm really nervous about trying to get on all the rides we want. We're also doing LL & one park per day. I got on here to find some ride plans with LL when crowds are at their worst.

I'll definitely will do a detailed trip report when we get back and will post a link on this thread. I did a similar ride plan for when we went to WDW in May and did 4 parks in 2 days. The ride plan worked perfectly, except we had to skip Remy. It was 105 degrees at Epcot and instead of waiting in a long outdoor queue, we decided to skip it. Instead we opted to go to Disney's Rivera resort to cool down and get something to drink/eat before hopping over to Hollywood Studios. Best thing was stacking rides and walking into the afternoon parks with 6-7 Lightning Lanes already stacked up. Here's the ride plan for that visit....

https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...-in-2-days-over-memorial-day-weekend.3944438/

 

[Matrixleos]

Looking at the app today, at 7:30 am, the earliest Harbour Galley pick up is in 2.5 hrs. Granted it doesn't open until 10 am, so that isn't too bad. You can go on the app before 8 am and select a 15 min arrival window closer to the noon pick up that you want.

Can you divide and conquer? For example, send your wife to wait in the beignet line while you go to Bengal BBQ? The other challenge you might have on a busy day is finding a place to sit. The tables on the decks by Harbour Galley are a nice place to eat. Are you able to leave someone there to hold the table while you and/or your wife run around getting all of the food?

I'm not sure you will want to eat three desserts at one sitting. The Mickey gingerbread and CC cookies are something that you can eat on the go. You probably want to sit down for the beignets. You might walk (instead of taking the train) from ToonTown. Pick up the garlic bread on the way into Adventureland, pick up Bengal BBQ, and then either the beignets or the chocolate chip cookies. Sit near the beignets or, if you are getting cookies, at Harbour Galley.

Regarding the CC cookies vs gingerbread, I am wrong that they subbed out gingerbread for CC. We were there and were told they weren't serving CC cookies. It could be that they had too much demand for gingerbread that weekend or they ran out or who knows what. It looks like you should be able to get either type of cookie.

The Mickey gingerbread that everyone talks about has green buttons, not yellow stars. It looks like Jolly Holiday was initially selling the ones with yellow stars and guests were disappointed. I saw someone post that Jolly Holiday changed to the green button version, but I'm not sure if that is permanent. If Jolly Holiday has the one with yellow stars, GCH should have the original version.

I think that might be our best option. My DD can sit at an open table and my wife and I can each make a pickups from different locations.

That's for the tip on the Mickey gingerbreads with the green buttons and yellow stars. I'll keep an eye out for them.

 

[Matrixleos]

Unless you're at the very front of the rope drop line, I'd veer right around the castle and start with Alice rather than Peter Pan and go Alice, Toad, Snow White, Pinnochio, Circus Train, Storybook Land boats, Matterhorn and then Peter Pan.

The Peter Pan line builds up to 30-45 minutes almost immediately and in the time you're waiting in that line, the lines are building for the others, so I think it actually reduces the overall wait time to tackle that last.

One thing I've noticed about the Storybook Land boats is that they minimize the number of boats until the crowds really start building, so sometimes with that one paradoxically the wait is longer when the line is shorter.

On your DCA plan, we've never had good luck with the single rider line at Incredicoaster and have had mixed results in recent visits with Single Rider at Radiator Springs -- several times it has been back up all the way to the bridge -- still shorter than the standby line, but not as empty as it used to be.

Thanks for the feedback. Good call on Rope Dropping Fantasyland. I guess it will depend on where we are in the crowd. If we are near the front, we'll go to Peter Pan. If we are near the middle or back of the crowd, we'll pivot and go to Alice instead.

On our last visit to DCA in 2021, using Single Rider didn't take up more than 3-5 minutes. Although that was before Genie+/LL Multi Pass was available and I'm sure a lot has changed. We'll keep an eye on how long those Single Rider lines are.

 

[KimberMama]

Thanks for the feedback. Good call on Rope Dropping Fantasyland. I guess it will depend on where we are in the crowd. If we are near the front, we'll go to Peter Pan. If we are near the middle or back of the crowd, we'll pivot and go to Alice instead.

On our last visit to DCA in 2021, using Single Rider didn't take up more than 3-5 minutes. Although that was before Genie+/LL Multi Pass was available and I'm sure a lot has changed. We'll keep an eye on how long those Single Rider lines are.

I was there Monday 11/18 and was paying attention to single rider lines a few places. Single rider at Incredicoaster was longer than I’ve ever seen it, but I expect it moved fast. Single rider at RSRacers was very long and I heard a cast member telling the single riders it would be at least 30 minutes in that line. Single rider for Space Mountain filled the entire queue area (with the little switchbacks) and was out past the underground entrance. Single rider on Matterhorn Saturday was also quite long, but looked like it was moving well.

My experience last November and now this year is that more people are using single rider than ever, to help maximize their day, especially with the loss of free FastPass and for a large segment of the disabled population, DAS as well. I think we’ve utilized single rider once in all of the decades I’ve been going to DL, and that was when my teenagers really wanted to ride Splash Mountain so they used the single rider line while we chose not to get soaked.

 

[foolish_mortals]

On our last visit to DCA in 2021, using Single Rider didn't take up more than 3-5 minutes.

Unfortunately 2021 was a different time my friend.

Single rider for Incredicoaster is often 20 minutes or more. If you can see the single rider line on the bridge and it's 10 or more deep probably closer to a 30 minute wait, since that line moves slow.

The actual wait for Incredicoaster is often less than the posted time, if it's 30 min or under regular standby is the way to go. Definitely standby if the regular queue hasn't spilled onto the bridge

 

[kappyfamily]

Unless you're at the very front of the rope drop line, I'd veer right around the castle and start with Alice rather than Peter Pan and go Alice, Toad, Snow White, Pinnochio, Circus Train, Storybook Land boats, Matterhorn and then Peter Pan.

The Peter Pan line builds up to 30-45 minutes almost immediately and in the time you're waiting in that line, the lines are building for the others, so I think it actually reduces the overall wait time to tackle that last.

One thing I've noticed about the Storybook Land boats is that they minimize the number of boats until the crowds really start building, so sometimes with that one paradoxically the wait is longer when the line is shorter.

On your DCA plan, we've never had good luck with the single rider line at Incredicoaster and have had mixed results in recent visits with Single Rider at Radiator Springs -- several times it has been back up all the way to the bridge -- still shorter than the standby line, but not as empty as it used to be.

Here now and went to CA on early entry today. We decided to use our 30 min of extra time to get in line at Radiator Springs, glad we did. Since it doesn’t open until 8am, we had a total wait time of 35 minutes. While in line they announce 10 minutes after opening that it was already at 2 hours and single rider was at 45. With LL we’ve been able to do all the rides we wanted to pretty easily. Break now then headed to DL for the next half of the day.

 

[Matrixleos]

Just got back from Disneyland. From rope drop to tapping out at 10:30pm, we did 28 rides (counting Disneyland Railroad and Monorail).

With Big Thunder closed and not counting the Rivers of America boats or Main Street vehicles. The only 4 rides we didn't get a chance to ride on was Nemo Sub, Astro, Autopia and Buzz. We did every other ride.

I'll write a more detailed trip report when we get back. Tomorrow we got DCA!