What to do in Disneyland when arriving around 5pm Aug 24

[FeboDelaPark]

My gf and I are going to be arriving in Anaheim around 5pm on Aug 24 which is a Wednesday. We do have the southern california pass and plan to stay in anaheim from the 24-27 leaving afternoon of 27th. We are staying at the Red Lion close to DL(booked it after seeing the deal here) so getting to DL wont be a problem.

My question is what would you guys recommend for us to do is we are arriving at 5pm? we are planning to use our magic morning on the 25th and show up 30 min early on the 26th to maximize our DL trip. Ive been reading a lot of threads in this forum regarding tricks and tips on FP's, blockout dates, and always staying a step ahead of everyone by properly planning what we do throughout the day.

The only trouble i am having is what to do on the first day as we will be arriving at 5pm, Im guessing the rides will have long line ups as well as the major attractions. We kinda want to save riding the rides when we use our magic morning. We want to experience everything in DL and we feel like 2 1/2 days should cover it and we will be there opening time till closing time for 3 days.

We will then head to the burbank area for 2 days from 27-29 to do USH and tour LA. We are going to skip SD zoo and seaworld as we wont have enough time and decided on DL and USH as the main priorities.

Thanks in advance,

FEBO

 

[Sydnie]

You could just do Downtown Disney and save a day on your parkhoppers.

 

[sonnyjane]

I can't tell you how many times I have planned an overnight trip arriving after work around 5:00 or 6:00 PM and find that I accomplish much, much more than I expected. At the very least, I suggest going into the parks for a few hours that first night. I went a couple of weeks ago with my mom and didn't arrive until 7:00, but we ate dinner at Plaza Inn, rode a few rides, and then got a good spot for fireworks and then made it back to the hotel around 10 to get some sleep so we could hit the parks early the next day.

 

[FeboDelaPark]

What about if we just watch some shows after having dinner like the fireworks, parades, fantasmic, alladin, and world of color. Is it possible to do all these shows in 6-7 hours just to get them out of the way, and on the 25th and 26th just focus on rides and others?

Ive read that its a good idea to go on the rides when the parade, fireworks, world of color, etc. are going on as the majority of the people will be watching them thus the lines will be lot shorter.

 

[skiingfast]

You may not know until you get there and are checked in and ready to get to the parks. You might weigh how many hours you will have that night versus the last day when you leave in the pm. Consider how tired you are and how tired you will be on the last morning.

DTD would be good, but going in and doing a couple short lines and night shows is a good alternative.

You could do F! and fireworks. Do some fast loaders like POTC, HM, Buzz or BTMRR. Might be able to get a FP or two also.

 

[Eeee-va]

I'm not sure what your schedule is or what your priorities are. If you want to see fireworks and/or Fantasmic!, then Wednesday is a great opportunity for that. If you get to the park by 6 or so you can see the Soundsational Parade, too. You can most likely get a FP for Big Thunder Mountain, and/or ride fast-loaders as others have noted. If you're a night owl, much of Fantasyland really clears out after 10:30 or 11.

Or, the last Aladdin of the night is at 6:20 in DCA, and ElecTRONica is also running. You may be able to take advantage of Single Rider lines on rides like Indy (DL) and California Screamin'. I'd probably go to DL, not DCA, but it is an option.

If you're anything like me, visiting the park will wake you right up, no matter how your travel was!

This is all assuming you're interested in the nighttime shows. If you're really not interested in shows, and if you're a morning person and not a night owl, then if you could, it MIGHT be worth using your "extra" day the morning of your departure, instead of the arrival night. You could in theory check out and stow your bags, then enjoy several hours at the park (the first couple hours will have substantially shorter lines, and you'll be able to get and use some FPs for major rides). And then your arrival day, you could visit Downtown Disney for that extra Disney touch.

In your situation, I would personally go on the arrival day instead of departure day (though in a perfect world I'd do both ). And if you want to do fireworks, Fantasmic!, and World of Color, you really can't see all 3 of those shows perfectly in 2 nights, since it takes time to get an optimal view. But if you can't stay in the parks late on arrival day AND don't care much about the shows, then the departure day visit might be a good idea.

Have a great trip!

 

[cdatkins]

grab a fastpass for Indy (probably looking at a 10-11 return time) or, if that's not available, Big Thunder, then do fastloaders like Pirates, HM, Buzz Astro blasters, etc. Check out smaller attractions like the Tiki Room, great moments with Mr. Lincoln, etc.

We arrived after 4 on July 25 and found that we could get a fair amount done.

 

[FeboDelaPark]

thanks for the responses,

When we arrive on the 24th early evening we decided to just have dinner and watch the parade at 6:30, go on a few rides till about 9:30 then make our way to F! to get an optimal view for the 10:30 show, depending on what time that ends we might do some more rides after or just head back to hotel to get some rest.

We plan to do the WOC and alladin the next day the 25th as they are both in DCA, we're going to be doing most of the rides in the morning when we use our magic morning.

The 26th we just want to do everything else that we missed on the first 2 days.