Radiator Springs racers question

Pluto468

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So our trip is coming up and we've never been to Cars land. I really want my kids to be able to ride RSR. Is it possible to do that even if we don't rope drop DCA? I might start all my days at Disneyland because we want to get on Rise of the resistance and we have so much more we want to do at DL. If we head over to DCA later in the day will we still have a chance to get on RSR without a huge wait?

Also..Is RSR really bumpy? I'd love to try it but I have a bad back so I should avoid it if it's intense.
 
It is smooth, so I don’t think it will hurt your back. You can look at wait times anytime you want on the app and see what they look like to get an idea. If you go over on the 1pm hopper, the line will have built up and may be over an hour. You can get it, but you will be waiting. If your kids are old enough, you can do Single Rider if it is open, which saves a ton of time, but I have found that I don’t enjoy the ride nearly as much when I don’t ride with my family. Once G+ starts, I think it is going to be a ILL$ so you can wait in the standby or pay to go through the LL.
 
If the line hits 60 minutes or below I would say it’s worth that wait, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t like to wait in lines! It’s a great ride. Even rope dropping doesn’t guarantee it because sometimes the ride is not open at rope drop or you are so far back that it’s still 60 minutes (people beeline to that ride!).

I would plan to stack the app, wait until it’s 60 or less, grab a good snack or two and just wait it in line.

Edited to add: The wait will be consistently long all day unless you are among the first 100 people in line at rope drop AND the ride is open at rope drop. So I wouldn’t worry about starting there versus DL if you really want to ride Rise of the Resistance. It’s nice to have two chances for that ride rather than one since there is no standby option at this time.
 

To be honest, even if the queue is long for RSR it is worth the wait - the queue does tend to move fairly quickly even when there's a lot of people waiting.
 
If the line hits 60 minutes or below I would say it’s worth that wait, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t like to wait in lines! It’s a great ride. Even rope dropping doesn’t guarantee it because sometimes the ride is not open at rope drop or you are so far back that it’s still 60 minutes (people beeline to that ride!).

I would plan to stack the app, wait until it’s 60 or less, grab a good snack or two and just wait it in line.

Edited to add: The wait will be consistently long all day unless you are among the first 100 people in line at rope drop AND the ride is open at rope drop. So I wouldn’t worry about starting there versus DL if you really want to ride Rise of the Resistance. It’s nice to have two chances for that ride rather than one since there is no standby option at this time.

Good to know it's possible without rope drop! Some rides I will wait for no matter how long the line is, like Peter Pan. It sounds like an amazing ride!
 
It is smooth, so I don’t think it will hurt your back. You can look at wait times anytime you want on the app and see what they look like to get an idea. If you go over on the 1pm hopper, the line will have built up and may be over an hour. You can get it, but you will be waiting. If your kids are old enough, you can do Single Rider if it is open, which saves a ton of time, but I have found that I don’t enjoy the ride nearly as much when I don’t ride with my family. Once G+ starts, I think it is going to be a ILL$ so you can wait in the standby or pay to go through the LL.


Thanks! I was really hoping I could try it. It sounds like it's worth the wait. I'm glad it isn't as jarring as something Big Thunder. That's my favorite ride but I haven't been able to ride it in years.
 
Thanks! I was really hoping I could try it. It sounds like it's worth the wait. I'm glad it isn't as jarring as something Big Thunder. That's my favorite ride but I haven't been able to ride it in years.
You might want to try the first row (right behind the engine car) on Big Thunder. It tends to be a bit slower/calmer there, just due to the ride mechanics of speed and such. Basically, the effort/energy it takes for the train to reach the crest of a hill keeps the front cars in a calmer pattern compared to the back cars, that don't have a load to pull and hit the crest at a different speed.

I'm really bad at explaining this :) It was on a Disney Imagineering science DVD set that my hubs shows in his classroom.
 
It’s also worth noting that the wait times (at least pre genie) tend to be overstated.

On Sunday the app said it was a 75 minute wait, but the touring plans app said it was 45 minutes. When I got to the line I was worried because it was backed up to the line entrance, but decided to wait because my daughter had forgotten the ride since the pandemic. Despite the line having all the zig zag parts open, it was still closer to that 45-50 minute range.

On a related note, I think touring plans is like 10 bucks for a year subscription for Disneyland. I highly recommend it if you are wait time sensitive. It’s not always right, but I find it more reliable than the posted times. I don’t know what magic they are using but there have been a lot of times since reopening that the official app has a time posted that would otherwise be a dealbreaker for me, but touring plans has something more reasonable. For example I don’t wait over an hour for space mountain. The other day the app said 70 minutes, touring plans said 35, it was probably like 40-45.
 
DON'T do single rider. There's nothing like going to Disneyland as a family and experiencing it all in different vehicles. Besides, it won't save you all that much time. This ride is always worth it. And if the sign says 90 minutes, that the time to head over there because everyone else sees that big number and heads the other way. I've never waited in line over 55 minutes there unless there was a breakdown.
 
DON'T do single rider. There's nothing like going to Disneyland as a family and experiencing it all in different vehicles. Besides, it won't save you all that much time. This ride is always worth it. And if the sign says 90 minutes, that the time to head over there because everyone else sees that big number and heads the other way. I've never waited in line over 55 minutes there unless there was a breakdown.
I gotta disagree with this one. I get wanting to ride as a family, that can be priceless. That’s why we have waited in a posted 60+ minute standby, which was close to accurate. However, once you have checked the “ride RSR together” box on your to do list, I highly recommend single rider here. We’ve used it several times with no more than a 5 minute wait when posted wait time was 60+. Yes, we did enter single rider once and saw it had a longish looking line and we turned around. So, there my be times that single rider doesn’t save a lot of time, but in our experience it usually does. Especially first thing in the am.
 
It would be fun to ride as a family all in one car for the experience and the ride photo; however, single rider is also great. We used to FP it once as a family and then single rider it as my DD always wants to ride it more than once. Our October trip, with no FP we only did it single rider because the line was always so long and we weren't there before rope drop to be near the front at opening to skip out on the long line. The longest we have ever waited in the single rider line is about 25-30 minutes and that has been when the posted ride time was 150 or 180 minutes. Typically, we wait from 5 to 20 minutes, when the ride time is posted anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes. We've done single rider at all times of the day, but usually we do it in the afternoon and evening. It is a not to be missed ride, so time wise if you need to do single rider to get on it, I would recommend it. When my DD was around your DD's age, she preferred to single rider next to a kid if possible and if you keep an eye on the groups being loaded, you may be able to shuffle your family around in the single rider line so she gets pulled next to a kid. We did that several times, but sometimes it just works out where several groups in a row are all adults for which are pulling single riders, so there is no guarantee.
 
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DON'T do single rider. There's nothing like going to Disneyland as a family and experiencing it all in different vehicles. Besides, it won't save you all that much time. This ride is always worth it. And if the sign says 90 minutes, that the time to head over there because everyone else sees that big number and heads the other way. I've never waited in line over 55 minutes there unless there was a breakdown.


Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...................ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!


I needed a good laugh.



Single Rider at Racers will in most cases cut your wait by 75% or more. If you are willing to split up from your group, DO IT. It will save you a lot of time.
 
Waiting to do it as a family makes sense if you want to be together in the same car or get the pictures. But if you have the option for single rider and don't mind being in different cars, absolutely do it.

We always ride RSR at least two or three times each day we go and always Single Rider. Best case, it's basically walk-on. (I rode three times in a row during one of my October visits. Could've kept going, but wanted to get to Guardians.) Worst case, I've waited 30 minutes when the posted stand-by was listed at close to 3 hours. I went to DCA three times last month, always on the weekend and only after park hopping at 1 p.m. and rode single rider every time. Longest wait I had was 20 minutes on Halloween when posted time was 150 min. Shortest was walk-on on a Friday afternoon and also later that evening.

There will be exceptions, but as noted above by others, in most cases Single Rider will dramatically shorten your wait time.
 
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Single rider rocks. And several times, we’ve gotten the same vehicle, though not the same row. You’re almost always within a car or two of each other anyway, and we’d just meet at the photo kiosk in the exit way.
 
Thanks! I was really hoping I could try it. It sounds like it's worth the wait. I'm glad it isn't as jarring as something Big Thunder. That's my favorite ride but I haven't been able to ride it in years.
I agree it is very smooth. It accelerates very fast at the end of the indoor section when you’re lining up to race the other vehicle. So the key is to make sure you are sitting back in your seat with your head against the headrest so you’re not thrown back in your seat upon takeoff.
 
DON'T do single rider. There's nothing like going to Disneyland as a family and experiencing it all in different vehicles. Besides, it won't save you all that much time. This ride is always worth it. And if the sign says 90 minutes, that the time to head over there because everyone else sees that big number and heads the other way. I've never waited in line over 55 minutes there unless there was a breakdown.
Bad advice. Single rider is the only way to go
 
Bad advice. Single rider is the only way to go

Well...if you come to Disneyland lonely, or have an AP that lets you in every day of the year, maybe single rider is the "only way to go". But if you have a family, splitting up is killing the whole purpose of a "family" vacation. It's Good advice...for a family.
 

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