What order do you pass through each 'land' in DL and why?

[TeacherDad]

Is there a 'smart way' to proceed through each of the 'lands' in DL?

 

[Pirate-Emery]

Ok... here it goes...

EE to Tomorrowland: do Space Mountain and fastpass.

Then go through Matterhorn a couple times until the line becomes too long then head over to Adventureland (should be open by then) and hit Indiana Jones. From there, we go to New Orleans Square and hit Pirates of the Caribbean* (it was empty November 2005 when we last went). From there we went to Frontierland and did Thunder Mountain a couple times, before heading off to DCA.

At DCA, we go through Soarin' over CA, then head off to Screamin'. Do that a couple times then go have lunch in the Pier somewhere. We then do the most obvious after-Lunch attraction: Tower of Terror. By this time, it is around 1-ish. We then go shopping (go back and hit Fantasyland and Toontown), then do Downtown Disney (World of Disney ) before returning to the GC. Pool then Dinner then return to the parks to get whatever we can (HM, Splash, BTM, Indy, Space). Matterhorn is always packed at night, so we never try.


*An alternate morning probably has Splash Mountain instead of POTC.


Now keep in mind, this was a "Big Kids" day at the park.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Yes I agree, we tend to go counter clockwise through the lands in the morning. Or we like to start with Matterhorn (my fave) and switch off getting in a few rides while others take the kiddos on teacups/alice/whatever is near.
We don't ever really start on the Pirates/Haunted Mansion side as those lines move fast all day long when we are there (usually weekdays or off season)

If we are running late or they open at the same time, sometimes we start at DCA (gasp!!!) Never thought I would but it's not so bad.


Andrea

 

[kelmac284]

Well for us we can't do EE cuz we are AP's so we always go straight to splash and get a fast pass then hit Pirates first. (This never used to be a priority but now with the jack sparrow stuff it gets WAY crowded). So after pirates we head to Indy and then to Matterhorn while DH gets a FP for Space. Then depending on if we have a lunch reservation or whatever we do that and then start hitting some of the other things with long waits meanwhile grabbing FP'S as soon as we can get a new one.

We stack up as many as we can to use at night when it is crowded. Now some might say go to Fantasyland early but I think your touring all depends on the ages of the people in your group.

Fantasyland DOES get very crowded and has no fast passes so if you have little ones that say can't ride on the big rides then I would hit Fantasyland first.

Our kids are 5 and 7 and so can go on everything and so we hit the big stuff first and get FP's and then later we may wait in line for some of the fantasyland stuff or do it on another day.

My kids are kind of outgrowing the fantasyland stuff anyway so we do those rides when we have hit everything else.

We have gone the last two trips on sold out days and even with those huge crowds we were able to hit everything more than once with FP.

Hope that helps.

 

[Pirate-Emery]

Well for us we can't do EE cuz we are AP's

You'd think they'd give the AP-ers Early Entry...


How about we make a petition?

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Well for us we can't do EE cuz we are AP's

thats why you stay at one of the resort hotels so you can

 

[kelmac284]

You'd think they'd give the AP-ers Early Entry...


How about we make a petition?

Tell me about it. I spend over 2000 on APS between the 5 of us and yet we can get EE. I am even buying a Premium for myself this year and the rest of us have Deluxe and yet STILL no EE.

It really stinks. I agree. A pettition sounds good!

Heck we even get EE if we buy hoppers from getaway today. I don't see the difference!

 

[kelmac284]

thats why you stay at one of the resort hotels so you can

Yeah I wish I could but with 5 people in my family and my mom goes with us a lot too we just can't afford that.

We used to do that but now that we have AP's we can do a lot more trips by driving and staying in the cheaper hotels.

I would LOVE to do EE but to me getting to go 2 or 3 times a year is better. We do ok though. As I said by getting in first thing and getting fast passes even on the busiest days we have still managed to do everything we wanted.

I miss the days of being able to go "off" season and the park being dead and actually having room to walk around without getting trampled but now that all my kids are in school and I have one in high school I have to go when everyone else does.

But again now that we have the strategy down it is ok.

Plus the one advantage of going on busy times is the park is open longer so we stay at one of the main gate hotels, go early do as much as we can before it gets packed, collect fastpasses and then take a mid day break and nap and possibly even eat lunch outside the park (thus saving cash) and then return later in the afternoon or evening. If you DO leave you can sometimes eat dinner outside of the park as well and it makes it easier.

Then we go back and use all our fast passes and have a GREAT time!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I agree with Kelmac: If you have little ones, hit Fantasyland first, and of those rides, do Peter Pan first! We rode Peter Pan only twice on our trip, because every time we went, the line was enormous. Even first thing in the morning on a slow day, the line took forever. And it winds pretty tightly, so it looks shorter than it actually is. The only reason we bothered is because it's so cool, and the boys just love flying among the stars! Dumbo also gets a pretty long line, so I'd do that one next.

You might check out the schedules in the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland book. There are plans for one or two days, with little ones or without little ones. The general idea is to hit first the rides that have the slowest (and/or longest) lines. This also means darting in and out of the various lands throughout the day and gathering fastpasses along the way, as opposed to touring an entire land before moving onto the next.

We went on our first DL trip last fall, and had 7+ days in the park. We were a little complacent about schedules and touring plans because we thought we had all the time in the world. Silly me. But I learned a lot from my mistakes, so when we go again, I'll make up plans based on what we want to accomplish.

 

[DLR29]

We usually start in Tomorrowland, hit Space, Autopia, BLAB, Star Tours. Then we head over to Indy, grab a FP ride Jungle Cruise, PotC, BTMRR and HM. Then we eat lunch, hit some small Fantasyland dark rides, tour ToonTown and hit BLAB a couple times.

ON our second day, we start at Fantasyland and ride Peter Pan, Alice, Mr. Toad, and Matterhorn. Then we hit Indy again, PotC, BTMRR, HM and grab a FP for Splash. Then ride Winnie-the-Pooh, spend time on TSI and eat lunch and then finally use our Splash FPs.

At DCA we always grab a Soarin FP and a GRR FP first then hit ToT, MI:M&SttR, MuppetVision and Turtle Talk. Then we hit Soarin and GRR with FPs. Then we get Screamin FPs, tour Paradise Pier, ride Screamin, and see ITtbaB. And maybe another ride on the tower.

 

[DisGirl819]

Depends on the day...

If I want to do Space Mtn first I go Tomorrowland, Adventureland and counterclockwise back to Tomorrowland.

Usually I start out in New Orleans Square for the HM, POTC or Critter Country for Splash. THen I go Adventureland for Indy/JC. Tomorrowland next for SM, Buzz and then wander and cover whatever I feel like after that.

I usually go that way because I cover my favorite rides early as well as DH's. Then we like to take our time afterwards and reride anything with fastpasses or whatever until we want a break.

 

[quiltymom]

I agree with Kelmac: If you have little ones, hit Fantasyland first, and of those rides, do Peter Pan first! We rode Peter Pan only twice on our trip, because every time we went, the line was enormous. Even first thing in the morning on a slow day, the line took forever. And it winds pretty tightly, so it looks shorter than it actually is. The only reason we bothered is because it's so cool, and the boys just love flying among the stars! Dumbo also gets a pretty long line, so I'd do that one next.

Ditto, if you have kids. This past summer right after the rope drop, we (me, DD6, DS8 & my friend) hit Space Mountain first, then Buzz; over to Fantasyland where we did Peter Pan, Dumbo, Casey Jr., Carousel (twice), Mr. Toad, Storybook Land Canals, THEN Matterhorn, all within the first 90 minutes. You don't want to go to Fantasyland in the evening - the lines are horrid. We leave and never return the rest of the day! And we do jump around a lot - we just don't go from land to land in one specific order, clockwise or counter-clockwise.

We do it this way:
1. Fantasyland
2. Tomorrowland
3. Critter Country
4. Adventureland
5. New Orleans' Square
6. Frontierland
And we fit Main Street in inbetween parades, before people start lining up for the next one to start.

I've always found that the l-o-n-g lines at POTC and BTTRR go way down in the late afternoon. The day we were there last July, the standby line for POTC at 2:00 was 2-1/2+ hours; by 6:00 it was down to 20 minutes, and we only waited 15. BTTRR only had a 5 minute wait when the standby sign said 20.

Anyway you do it, have fun!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I've always found that the l-o-n-g lines at POTC and BTTRR go way down in the late afternoon. The day we were there last July, the standby line for POTC at 2:00 was 2-1/2+ hours; by 6:00 it was down to 20 minutes, and we only waited 15. BTTRR only had a 5 minute wait when the standby sign said 20.

We noticed this on our trip, too! The lines for POTC had been long all day, and we walked past around 4:00pm, and were stunned when the sign said a 15 min. wait. We decided to go on, and wound up walking right on, we were stunned! Whenever we walked past it in the late afternoon, the lines were nearly nonexistent and we took advantage of it.

Does anybody have a theory as to why this occurs?

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We usually go in this order:

1. Fantasyland
2. Tomorrowland
3. New Orleans' Square
4. Critter Country
5. Adventureland
6. Frontierland

Tha'ts what we usually start out with in the morning. Durning the rest of the day it's pretty much what we feel like, and we've been known to bounce all over the place. Going on Buzz, and then heading over to Pirates. That type of thing.

 

[spazzyjazzy]

We are the ultimate land hoppers. We don't go in any specific order we just go and check out the lines. If it's not too long of a wait we stay if not we go to another ride.

 

[nemofanatic]

due to back problems, my family and I can't go back and forth so much, so here is what we do.

We start by going to fantasyland and toontown. Then we go back to hotel for a nap. When we come back, we go to adventureland and frontier then go off to tomorrowland last. It saves so much walking time.

 

[quiltymom]

We noticed this on our trip, too! The lines for POTC had been long all day, and we walked past around 4:00pm, and were stunned when the sign said a 15 min. wait. We decided to go on, and wound up walking right on, we were stunned! Whenever we walked past it in the late afternoon, the lines were nearly nonexistent and we took advantage of it.

Does anybody have a theory as to why this occurs?

I'd love to know this, too! This has always happened for as long as I can remember!

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Ok it really depends on what the kids yell out they want to do first. 90% of the time it's Buzz then we skip over to fantasyland. After that we head back to Tomorrowland, From there we hit Frontierland, Adventure land and critter country. We usually go for 4 days so one day we will start this way and the next we will do opposite. Buzz is almost always first then it's Peter Pan. I really like to try to beat dh on Buzz first thing in the morning. Never happens!