What's your favorite visit strategy?

[Pirate-Emery]

Relatively new here, but one of my most favorite pastimes is thinking up different strategies.

For example:
Get in line as soon as possible and once it opens run to Space Mountain. Then so on and so forth.

Looking for more methods, I thought this would be the best way to broaden my way of thinking.

Do you have a given strategy, or do you just wing it?

 

[spazzyjazzy]

We just wing it....no plans until we get in and we go with the flow.

 

[HydroGuy]

We usually do not follow a strict plan. But we do tend to follow guidelines which means get to the parks early and focus on certain rides for the first few hours and then transition to a more relaxed "go with the flow" pace.

Here is one guideline worth mentioning. Learn how to use FastPass. It completely changes the dynamics of how you tour the parks. And try to avoid rides like Space Mtn (which has FastPass) first thing. Why? Because it is better to do rides without FastPass first thing when their lines are short - and then come back to FP rides like Space Mtn some time later and ride it with a short line with your FastPass.

If you are smart about all of this, you can double or triple the number of rides you go on.

Also, consider using RideMax (www.ridemax.com ). The DLR version is quite good.

Here is a link to using FastPass at DLR that is really popular around here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

 

[mundaremom]

Totally agree, with spazzyjassy, Just Wing It! As much as I overplan for a vacation, when it comes to our actual time in Disneyland, we wing it! The rides aren't going anywhere we will ride every ride a few times eventually. I also found by winging it last year we had incredible luck and walked on POTC, Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise, Small World, Dumbo and Matterhorn. Fast pass took care of the Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. We had the same luck at California Adventure. We are heading back this November and are hoping our great luck will come with us!

 

[scottygirl]

We will be at DL next week and plan on using the Unofficial Guide Touring Plan. With POTC not having Fastpass, I am wondering where we should fit that into our schedule. I am NOT waiting in line for 3 hours for ANYTHING! Should we do POTC first thing in the morning? FYI, we are from Michigan and won't be back anytime soon!

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We usually wing it also. The only things we try to do is get there early, and then hit our favorite rides first. Last year it was Buzz, seemed like the first ride we always made our way to! This year looks like Space Mountain for DH and DS. Although I'm not sure what to think about POTC now. If at opening it's 3 hours long because everyone rushes over there, may just be better to wait a while? I don't know! I'm hoping the line will get a bit shorter since we don't leave for 2 weeks still.

 

[HydroGuy]

We will be at DL next week and plan on using the Unofficial Guide Touring Plan. With POTC not having Fastpass, I am wondering where we should fit that into our schedule. I am NOT waiting in line for 3 hours for ANYTHING! Should we do POTC first thing in the morning? FYI, we are from Michigan and won't be back anytime soon!

If DL opens at 8AM, in the past you could put off POTC until 10AM or even 11AM and the line would still be 10 minutes max. POTC is the highest capacity ride at DL and handle something like 3500 an hour so the line builds very slowly. This will work in everyone's favor trying to get on POTC this summer.

I am planning a day trip in early August (8AM opening) and I am not planning POTC first thing but will try to get in line at 9AM just to be safe.

 

[JulieNMM]

I make a vague plan before we go so I know which days to plan on eating at character meals and to make sure we don't miss anything that is scheduled, such as Aladdin. We're not big fireworks or Fantasmic fans so we don't worry about scheduling those in, but we do like to plan for the parades.

I have little kids and most of the rides we go on don't take Fast passes so that's not really a consideration. I just wish those Princesses had FastPass! Sometimes we wait 30 minutes just to get an autograph and picture!!

We're going again in 2 weeks so we will try to do the Early Entry one day and follow the schedule someone posted here a while back (eg, Peter Pan and Dumbo first). I think that might be all the scheduling we can handle!

JULIE

 

[tiggersis]

My family also wings it. We go so often we don't care if we hit all the rides. We love to sit and smell the roses and shop!! The one thing my sister and I also do, is go single rider on Splash Mount. They always need single riders and actually will ask you to go on again. The best plan is to not rush, your on vacation! And have fun!
I'm going in a week and I know that POTC will be the first thing we do to fight the crowds.

 

[Amy&Dan]

My family's plan is almost always to do Fantasyland first. Since all of those rides do not have fastpass the only way to have a short wait for Peter Pan and Dumbo in particular is to get there early. I agree with Hydroguy, save the fp attractions for later but get the fp's early while they still have them so you can begin to accumulate them. As far as Pirates, I would imagine that if you head there first thing you would be able to ride with a shorter wait. Since most people seem to either head to Tomorrowland or Fantasyland first, Frontierland/New Orleans Square seem to fill up a bit later. But with this reopening who can say for sure? If you are late nighters, things really begin to clear out after the fireworks.

 

[bellelinus]

We were there last week and the crowds were huge -- I wouldn't try to wing it during the busier times. Since Indiana Jones no longer gives FPs, we would go straight there, then go over to Space Mountain and get a FP for that. Since POTC is open now and new, I would probably do that after Indy and before getting the FP for SM right now. Of course, if you are interested in the Fantasyland rides, the best is early entry -- we were able to do virtually everything there including Matterhorn before the rest of the park opened.

 

[HydroGuy]

We were there last week and the crowds were huge -- I wouldn't try to wing it during the busier times. Since Indiana Jones no longer gives FPs, we would go straight there, then go over to Space Mountain and get a FP for that.

I am quite certain that the Indy FP machines being off is a temporary situation. It is my understanding that they will come back on this week. The idea was to reduce traffic in the AdventureLand/New Orleans Square area because of all the construction and hoopla of the POTC movie premiere and ride relaunch.

And I would also agree with the idea to not wing it during busier days. But I am glad so many people do because it makes it easier to predict what others will do in aggregate and then do the opposite.

 

[zandjmom]

We were in the gate at 8:00 and followed Ridemax. My guys were blown away at how fast we rode everything. Buzz, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Splash, BMTRR (twice) in a little over an hour. Jungle Cruise was the longest wait by far, 20 minutes. We had POTC in our plans which called for a 16 minute wait. HA! When we walked in the line for POTC was at the end of Main Street. We heard it was a 2-3 hour wait. We'll do it later, no hurry for us.

I also read tips from Hydroguy and they seemed to work too. I just needed concrete directions written down for me so Ridemax worked well. I can't say enough good things about it if you can get in the park on time.

 

[azgal81]

No plan usually just go by what the lines look like. Normally we do peter pan first, then matterhorn, get a fastpass for space moutain, hit up buzz and star tours then head over to the other side of the park. Getting there early helps alot it's great how uncrowded the park is for two hours even in the summer!

 

[mermaidlagoon]

We plan our meals and then the park areas , attractions parades etc around that. My family could waste alot of time being indecisive about food choices. So avoid busy times for food stops .Eat something in the room while getting dressed, we eat a late, big breakfast around 10:30 to 11:00 then eat a very late lunch around 3:30 to 4:00. As a mom I get to be a "good guy" when I let them have a dessert for dinner. Here in Hawaii we eat light "pupus" or heavy pupus, try that type of small meal , it can save lots of time and possibly some expensive dinners. Then we blow it out on a lunch maybe at BB! ( I guess saving $$$ is relative!) We are more used to going to WDW, so I have all my ps done as early as possible, as soon as park schedules are posted, along with parade and firework schedules.( Anyhoo, you cant have much fun with a tired cranky hugry family. )