Ok, so we got a later start than anticipated yesterday and encountered a LONG wait at Mickey and Friends when we got there at about 8:40 (I used to park at Toy Story pre-Covid, so I’m not sure if that’s normal). It was 9:30 by the time we reached the park gates.
This was the DL side. The lines went back almost halfway through the esplanade.
We were glad we were headed to DCA:
We found DCA to be quite manageable. We rode Webslingers, RSR with single rider (walked straight on and then they sat us together!), Ferris Wheel, Incredicoaster, got snacks and watched some Avengers Campus shows, and did a drawing at the Animation Academy. Overall, it was fairly crowded (smaller rides, like Luigis and Emotional Whirlwind, had 1/2 full queues, for reference), but not crazy or miserable at all.
Then we headed over to DL for our 1:00 Carnation Cafe rezzie.
Look at the DCA line! This really surprised me. Why are so many people trying to get into DCA at 1:00 when OBB closes at 6? Also DL had NO line; we walked right in. I thought this was bizarre. I would have expected more people to be hopping the other way.
We did lunch at Carnation Cafe and walked around a bit, but the app was showing long waits all over DL, and our lap around Fantasyland deterred us because those lines were all pretty long. So we visited some characters and headed out by 3.
For what it’s worth, around 2, the wait times at DCA looked pretty good - RSR was at 45 minutes - so in spite of those long lines to get in at 1, it doesn’t seem like the crowds there really spike until the OBB mix-in. I think if someone rope-drops DCA on an OBB day, there’s a nice day to be had before the party.
Hope that helps!
