Quick trip- WWYD?

[tkitty]

We will be heading to DL this week with 1 day hoppers. (3 adults & 2 kids 4 and 9) Staying Wens. and Thurs. nights at HOJO. I normally would not try to hit both parks in one day, but won some tickets and need to use them.
Thursday is our park day. Hours will be 10-8pm for both parks. Normally I want to hit DL as soon as the park opens and head straight through the castle doing PP soon after. I think I saw that this is a early morning for onsite hotels.
We want to spend most of our time in DL, but DH has never been to DCA, so I was thinking it might be better to go there as soon as the gates open and do the 3 or so things we want to do. (Soarin', TSM, Monsters Inc.- Possibly GRR too) Then go to DL and spend the rest of the day till closing.
I'm wondering if being Thursday, no Fantasic or fireworks- we'll have really short wait times etc. and not regret not going to DL first.
We also want to have lunch at Village haus, and dinner at the mex place (forgot name Z del P?)
We do use FP when possible but not sure if they always offer FP on real slow days.
I'm thinking that it might be better than exit/enter the park that extra time and the little extra walking.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

We will be heading to DL this week with 1 day hoppers. (3 adults & 2 kids 4 and 9) Staying Wens. and Thurs. nights at HOJO. I normally would not try to hit both parks in one day, but won some tickets and need to use them.
Thursday is our park day. Hours will be 10-8pm for both parks. Normally I want to hit DL as soon as the park opens and head straight through the castle doing PP soon after. I think I saw that this is a early morning for onsite hotels.
We want to spend most of our time in DL, but DH has never been to DCA, so I was thinking it might be better to go there as soon as the gates open and do the 3 or so things we want to do. (Soarin', TSM, Monsters Inc.- Possibly GRR too) Then go to DL and spend the rest of the day till closing.
I'm wondering if being Thursday, no Fantasic or fireworks- we'll have really short wait times etc. and not regret not going to DL first.
We also want to have lunch at Village haus, and dinner at the mex place (forgot name Z del P?)
We do use FP when possible but not sure if they always offer FP on real slow days.
I'm thinking that it might be better than exit/enter the park that extra time and the little extra walking.

I have rarely been to the parks when both open at the same time and don't know as much about how to work the parks with low crowds versus heavy crowds. Based on what you want to do though, I think you might have the right idea about going to DCA first. Since you're going on a Thursday, many people will already be in Disneyland before you because it is a Magic Morning, so the Peter Pan line probably won't be all that short anyway.

If you are at the gates nice and early, you will probably be allowed in to DCA at 9:30. You have a few choices at that point. You could head straight to Soarin' and ride that immediately. It's the only ride open before the official 10 AM opening. If you're in the first group of people to get there, you will be done with the ride before 10 AM, but you will have given up any advantage of positioning when waiting for rope drop to the rest of the park. You could instead head to Soarin' and grab a fastpass for later and then go wait with the mob of people for Toy Story. You could go wait in the Toy Story mob without stopping for the Soarin' fastpass, but I don't see why you wouldn't stop to get one. You can always have one adult in your party stop to get the fastpasses while the rest of you head over to rope drop. It will be easier for one adult to make their way through the crowds to meet you at rope drop.

In any case, I see no reason why you can't get the rides you want to do done by lunchtime, and then you can head over to DL where you want to eat your meals and spend the rest of your day. Fastpasses should still be available if crowds are low, but I have heard that Big Thunder and Roger Rabbit sometimes don't have their machines on if it's not a busy time.

 

[tkitty]

Thanks! I almost had my self convinced to do DCA first, but it's nice to see if others might agree. I think I would get the FP on the way to TSM, but maybe just riding it while we're there first wouldn't be so bad, and let the throngs of TSM riders get through the line first! I hate the running, shoving, pushing, & biting!