strategy for TSMM

[kelmac284]

So we are going next month. Does it open right at park opening? And if so if we "run/walk" straight back there should we be able to get "right on". In other words if we do like Nemo and go there first thing when the park opens should we be able to get on it with little to no wait?

Is that the best way to get on it without having to wait forever? I am just trying to figure out my best stratgey.

We normally get there at 9:30, go on soaring and get a fast pass for later and then when we get out of soaring the park is open and we hit ToT. Do you think if we go on soaring we might miss the rope drop and our edge for Midway mania? I don't want to wait in an hour plus line so I am trying to figure out my best strategy. I know we are not supposed to run and I have an older person and 2 small kids with me.

Also do they have a certain way you have to go like with Nemo? I am assuming you have to go back straight through by the sun wheel and past Tratoria and over the bridge?

Any advice would be great for those who have gone since it has opened to the general public.

Thanks!

 

[DangerMouse]

I guess there are a couple ways to do this, but either way you are going to wait:

Be at DCA entrance at 8:30 for 9:30 opening. Skip Soarin and go straight past Sunshine Plaza to the rope drop. Wait there for 30 minutes until rope drop. Then walk purposefully to TSMM (unless you see others running, then move, move, move!). You should be one of the first 100 or so in line.

Of course, at that point you have waited 1.5 hours. The benefit is that you can probably find some shade and it will be cooler in the morning.

Another option is to try jumping in the que at DCA closing, and I would suspect the lines woiuld be a bit better, and you wouldn't be in the hot unshaded line. This worked well for Nemo after the initial craziness died down a bit.

 

[kelmac284]

So basically even if you are with the initial group of people because there are only so many cars it takes an hour or however long to get on? Cuz I know with Nemo when we were there at park opening and went straight there we waited like 30 minutes I think at the longest but I guess that is because the subs hold more people and there are more subs obviously I assume. The Toy Story cars only hold say 4 people each is that right? Is it continuously loading like Buzz or does it cycle? I guess we will just have to take our chances. I know my group isn't going to want to wait an hour and a half but I just won't tell them cuz if I tell them up front they will balk LOL.

I guess we will just head back there and if the wait get too long we will just get out of line.

Thanks for the info.

 

[minniecarousel]

We did TSMM 3 times on Wednesday. We assumed that the "first thing in the morning" thing would work the best, but it didn't. We were at the DCA entrance in the Grand Californian at 9 am. They opened the gate there at 9:25. They let us go as far as Grizzly River Run. At 10 am, they let us go and as much as they insisted we "walk", many people ran. We joined the rest of the pack at the bridge going over to Paradise Pier. We lined up on the down-slope over Screamin'. The frustrating thing was people kept rushing past us on our left. We felt we were in line at that point, but people behind us kept pushing past, until TPTB got people to stop. They funneled us in to a line and then it was civilized. We finally got on the ride just before 11:30 !!! So unless you're a runner and pushy, I wouldn't recommend doing this at opening.

Our shortest wait was early afternoon and it was just over an hour. We also waited at about 7 pm for an hour and a half. This was only the second day it was open (first full day - the opening first day was not at park opening since it was a media opening.) We heard there were 3 - 5 hour waits on Tuesday (rumor?).

Maybe Disney will do a better job of crowd control as time goes on. As good as they are with crowd control, they fail at times.

 

[DangerMouse]

So basically even if you are with the initial group of people because there are only so many cars it takes an hour or however long to get on? Cuz I know with Nemo when we were there at park opening and went straight there we waited like 30 minutes I think at the longest but I guess that is because the subs hold more people and there are more subs obviously I assume. The Toy Story cars only hold say 4 people each is that right? Is it continuously loading like Buzz or does it cycle? I guess we will just have to take our chances. I know my group isn't going to want to wait an hour and a half but I just won't tell them cuz if I tell them up front they will balk LOL.

I guess we will just head back there and if the wait get too long we will just get out of line.

Thanks for the info.

The 1.5 hour figure was based on waiting 1 hour (8:30-9:30) at the DCA entrance, and then another .5 hour at the rope drop. It is quicker loading than Nemo, but not as quick as Buzz.

 

[kelmac284]

Oh ok I see what you mean. I thought you meant ANOTHER 1.5 hour wait AFTER the rope drop at the ride. I don't count waiting for the park to open or waiting for rope drop. I thought you were talking about waiting 1.5 hours in LINE LOL. We usually get up and wait in line for awhile for DCA to open and I def will forgo Soaring to get on TSM. But it sounds like if we can't run we will get overrun with people and we may still have quite a bit of a wait. I know though with nemo we walked as fast as we could and with the way they had the que set up we walked pretty much through most of it and then got up to fairly the beginning and then had to wait at most a half hour before loading. But like I said nemo had a fairly large capacity in the subs and quite a few subs so I wasn't sure how it compared. But they also have the que set up fairly well. I hope by the time we get there maybe they will have some decent lines set up so that there is no line cutting as Mininiecarousel stated cuz that is NOT fair. We can only walk so fast and if people are pushing or shoving that is really unfair. I know even with Nemo people were cutting.

Like I said we will do our very best and that is all we can do. I would really like to try it since we won't be going back till next April as a family but I guess we will just have to see.

Thanks for the info and it will be interesting to see how it is in a month.

 

[Sy-]

Get in line just before the park closes. I hear they can't chase you out if you are in line no matter how long it takes!