toy story mania question

[disfan07]

when we went to DL in december, the shortest wait we ever saw for toy story mania was 40 mins which we did wait in.

We're going again in 2 weeks adn my dad and i both really want to ride it again. What is the wait time usually like during the first hour that DCA is open. ? We are driving down form santa clarita and we are hoping to get to our hotel (the tropicana inn) around 9:30 adn check in and park before we walk over to the park so we are really hoping to eb there by 10.

Also, we're going to be arriving on my birthday. I bought teh SOCal 3 day pass so i want to get the bday fun pass instead of the free ticket. Does anyone know what th eprocedure id to get this?

Thanks

 

[SilentFeline]

Sorry, I can't answer your first question because we never were at DCA right when it opened. The shortest wait time for TSMM was 40 mins when we were there as well. However, I can help you with your second question. To get my boyfriend's bday fun pass, we went to Guest Services to the left of the DL entrance, just before you would get in line to enter the park. We didn't even get there very early and we only had to wait a minute. Make sure you bring the bday email confirmation if you signed up early because it will save you a lot of time. Also, you should bring a valid photo ID.

Hopefully someone else can help you with your other question.

 

[PinkBudgie]

DCA opens at 10am everyday.

On Ridemax for our trip next week it suggests going on Toy Story between 2 and 4 with a line wait of 35 min. (about what you said)

Even before I got Ridemax I always thought that ride should wait until the afternoon and this is why:

Often DCA opens early at 9:30 for just for the Soarin area. I don't know if this is always the case or if they've changed that, but if so, you would need to be at the gates around 9am. Then you go to a line (or you used to) for you to wait for TSMM. Then at 10 you are allowed to go back to the ride and you probably won't be first so you still have a wait there. By the time you add up all the waiting you did from 9 to at least 10:15 or 10:30 you have waited longer at that ride then if you just waited about 40 min in the afternoon. In the meantime, you have missed the primetime at DL when there are light crowds in the morning.

I have been saying this on the boards for awhile and not everyone agrees with me, but I was happy to discover that the people at Ridemax thought the same thing so at least now I feel justified.

So, if you arrive at 10am you will already be late and the line will proabably be long already. Or you can ask if they have the single rider line open and try that.

Well, that's my TSMM theory anyway. Good luck!

 

[Eeee-va]

I personally agree with PinkBudgie as well. Even IF you were able to arrive at DCA at 9:30 sharp and get in the front of the line for TSMM (which isn't really possible), you'd still be waiting at LEAST 30 minutes, at a time when waits for many rides at Disneyland itself are only 5 minutes or so. That's not how I plan to use my time.

I'm not sure the Ridemax 35 minute estimate will hold true during the very busiest days that are coming up, but we'll see.

 

[DangerMouse]

I would always choose the single rider option if available over a 35+ minute line.

 

[abckid]

I also noticed that Ridemax gave me a minimum 35 min. wait pretty much all day. We are going to wait though because the boys will love it, the line looks pretty fun, and we are not interested in the single rider line. We're planning to go between 2-4pm next Thursday, but I heard it's going to be a busy day, so we'll see. I really don't want to wait longer than 35 minutes

 

[ScooterL]

Since you'll be there during the summer, it's pretty much going to be busy all day. Our experience last summer was that the line was about as short as it was going to get during the Pixar Play Parade - but as soon as the parade ended it got really long.

 

[PinkBudgie]

I also noticed that Ridemax gave me a minimum 35 min. wait pretty much all day. We are going to wait though because the boys will love it, the line looks pretty fun, and we are not interested in the single rider line. We're planning to go between 2-4pm next Thursday, but I heard it's going to be a busy day, so we'll see. I really don't want to wait longer than 35 minutes

Yeah, I wasn't sure about that time either. Especially since it seems to be very crowded lately. I just get the feeling there are more people there this summer than last.

 

[bumbershoot]

Except for taking time from other things, our family hasn't had a problem waiting the 40 minutes for one of the Best Rides Ever.

That said, DCA will open its gates at 9:30, and there will be a big clump of people waiting to walk briskly to TSMM. If you're only getting there at 10, you're going to be behind allllll those people. I'd try to get there earlier, so you can be in the big clump of people, and not behind them.

When we were in that first clump (we got in line at DCA at 9am and did not ride Soarin', going straight to the rope just before Grizzly) and there were people in front of us, and we had to walk through the line, but we didn't have to STOP in that line.

 

[liesel]

We were at DCA last week. We arrived at the gate at 9:28 am and was let in two minutes later. The line to get in was pretty short. We went straight to Soarin' after I took pity on a CM and did a survey. Because of that brief delay, we were in the second group to ride, still pretty good. When we got out of the ride it was 10:00 and we proceeded to TSM with a pretty good sized crowd. We walked fairly quickly, and had a 15 minute wait upon arrival. When we exited the ride, it was at 30 minutes. We decided that we would rather ride Soarin' than line up for 30 minutes for the park to open and still had a much shorter wait than the 30-40 minutes the ride was the rest of the day. I thought it was a pretty good use of our time.

 

[PinkBudgie]

We were at DCA last week. We arrived at the gate at 9:28 am and was let in two minutes later. The line to get in was pretty short. We went straight to Soarin' after I took pity on a CM and did a survey. Because of that brief delay, we were in the second group to ride, still pretty good. When we got out of the ride it was 10:00 and we proceeded to TSM with a pretty good sized crowd. We walked fairly quickly, and had a 15 minute wait upon arrival. When we exited the ride, it was at 30 minutes. We decided that we would rather ride Soarin' than line up for 30 minutes for the park to open and still had a much shorter wait than the 30-40 minutes the ride was the rest of the day. I thought it was a pretty good use of our time.

That sounds pretty good. I wonder if it will continue that way for the rest of the summer.

 

[Minuet888]

I found that every time the ride cue said 40 minutes we only waited about 20-25 minutes.

 

[dawnrose]

Can anyone do the single rider line? We will have 2 adults and 2 kids ages 8 and 11...Could we just put one adult on either end and wait at the end of the ride for each other?

 

[liesel]

I found that every time the ride cue said 40 minutes we only waited about 20-25 minutes.

Yes, the line does move quickly. We also went before closing and waited 20 minutes. We just missed being able to ride again by about 2 minutes (they closed the line at closing, but you can still ride). If only we had moved just a little faster to get there, but we now have a good game plan for the next trip!

 

[bumbershoot]

Can anyone do the single rider line? We will have 2 adults and 2 kids ages 8 and 11...Could we just put one adult on either end and wait at the end of the ride for each other?

Your kids are old enough to do the SR line. Lucky you!

Just know that they will each be put with someone else. The CMs ask the standby riders if it's OK to have a SRider with them. So it's conceivable that one person will get on, then there will be a wait in between the other members of hte family...if the standby is filled with groups of even numbers, or if a bunch of standby people aren't listening and don't understand what they are being asked, you can have a wait. But other than the possible wait, yes, sounds like a good plan!



On the other hand, like I mentioned earlier, we've never had a bad time in the line. For some reason, that queue and Nemo's queue just don't bother us. They are wide, open, brilliant switchbacks that you hardly see coming (and make me laugh), and everyone's so excited...it just never seems like a bad time (and our waits for TSMM are always the times listed, never shorter, unlike with Nemo).

 

[pixiewings71]

We did standby line with our family of 4 and I've done it with just DBF and myself. They never asked the standby line if a SR could ride, they just told us where to go. But the standby line isn't that bad. It's fun to walk thru, it moves quickly and even when the sign says 40 min it's more like 20-30.

 

[Buttercup26]

I can tell you that when we were there last month (May 13 - 18) the shortest wait we encountered was first thing when the park opened. We did wait in line in the afternoon a couple times (because we LOVE the ride) and it was 45 minutes on a Thursday afternoon and 55 minutes on a Friday afternoon. It was fairly busy that weekend, so if you are there at a less busy time, might not be so bad.

We rode it at least once every day and checked the line often throughout the day - we park hopped a lot this last trip just because it was busier than we had expected. There was a high school band thing going on and there were thousands of high school kids there. We even tried to go at the end of the day and the line was HUGE 20 minutes before closing.

 

[disfan07]

Thanks everyone. I figured it was probably never less than a 40 minute wait.
The reason we wont be getting to the park until around 10 is that we cant leave santa clarita until 8:30AM b/c we cant drop our dogs at the kennel any earlier. We were goin gto drop them off the night before but its another $70

So right now our plan is to hopefully get to DCA by 10 and really the only 3 things we want to do there are soarin, grizzly adn TSMM.
After we do those 3 rides, we're going to go to DL. In DL we dont do any of the mountains b/c i cant b/c of my heart. so t least we dont have to wait for those. Really at DL that day we're going to do what we can and we know that there are things we wont get to do. We're planning on seeing the fireworks adn fantasmic (those two things are the most important to us)

We are staying the night and the next morning we are planning on being at DL befoere the 8 AM opening on monday so we can do fantasyland before the crowds get really bad. We're planning on leaving around like 5 PM to drive home

One more question....we've never seen fantasmic at DL before, we're do you watch the show from?

 

[farmfresh]

My experience from last week is as follows: You will be let in at 9.30am. Make your way towards grizzly, where they hold the line for the GCH entry. At this line they create a TSM queue. At 9.30ish it was reasonably short, but it did grow quickly. This queue was led past the rope line shortly before 10am rope drop (say 5- 10 mins beforehand). If you miss that queue being led away, you will have to wait until actual rope drop at 10am.

Our party (I skipped it - it's fun, but the kids and I prefer other rides) joined the queue shortly after 9.30 am, were led away around 9.50, and had completed the ride by 10.10. We walked rapidly to CS at 10am rope drop, and they were all out of TSM in time to photograph us sitting ready for CS takeoff. So if you are there by 9.30, I think it's a no-brainer - get in line and go.

 

[Eeee-va]

One more question....we've never seen fantasmic at DL before, we're do you watch the show from?

You sit/stand around the Rivers of America. I'm sure someone else can be more specific, but there will probably be people camped out for seats as early as 5 PM (maybe much, much, much earlier), so you should be able to see it when you get there.