Which park 1rst please

[jeanico2000]

Hello all: my husband and I will be visiting both parks on September 5th (a Thursday) with our park hopper tickets. Our dilemma is deciding which park to start with. We would like to ride the Haunted Mansion Halloween version, but we need a virtual Q. Will those be hard to get later in the day if we can't park hop until 11:00AM? We are not staying on site so no early entry for us, plus we don't want to spend extra for the new Lightning Lane system. In California Adventure, the Cars ride is a must as well as the new version of Tower of Terror, whatever it's called. I imagine that those must be swamped if we enter at 11:00AM? CA is open until 10PM and MK until 11PM on September 5th. What would you do?

 

[scrappinginontario]

One recommendation for the Cars ride is to ride single rider. Huge difference in wait time normally!

The first time my DD and I rode we waited 90 mins. They popped a single rider in with us who had waited less than 10 mins. We rode 5+ times after that, always using single rider and never waited more than 20 mins but often, far less.

 

[jeanico2000]

One recommendation for the Cars ride is to ride single rider. Huge difference in wait time normally!

The first time my DD and I rode we waited 90 mins. They popped a single rider in with us who had waited less than 10 mins. We rode 5+ times after that, always using single rider and never waited more than 20 mins but often, far less.

That's a great tip thank you!

 

[ahhhshmatthew]

You'll never really be able to fully control "when" your VQ return time would be for HHM, so if that is your #1 must-do, I'd rope drop DL and get that VQ when they become available. You'd likely be able to wait a while after they become available (say 45-90 minutes) and snag one that is after 11:00, but again, it's kind of a spin of the wheel as to it working out the way you want or not.

Even if you do DL first, as noted above, single rider is a great hack for RSR that can really cutdown on wait times. In fact, DCA has single rider for: Goofy's Sky School, Incredicoaster, Grizzly River Run, Web Slingers, and Soarin' (as well RSR). Not certain these are all always functioning, but it can help.

It is likely that Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout (formerly ToT) will have a lengthy line post-11:00, but if you're dead set on it, not a big deal to wait in a longer line if it's only for a handful of rides throughout the day. It's my favorite ride in all of Disneyland Resort, so I'd say it's worth the wait

 

[sophy1996]

With only one day, I would start at DL park. You can knock out a lot before 11 am.

Note that during the Halloween season, Guardians (the ToT ride) switches over to Monsters After Dark version around 3 pm. You’ll want to ride before then if you want the regular version.

 

[irlandaise]

You'll never really be able to fully control "when" your VQ return time would be for HHM, so if that is your #1 must-do, I'd rope drop DL and get that VQ when they become available.

Note that they don't actually have to rope-drop Disneyland to do an early VQ request; they just need to have a Disneyland Park reservation and be awake at 7:00 a.m. If they aren't already at the park, they could wait to grab a VQ return time that aligns with their plans to get there. (Although...from what people have been saying in this forum, they could take whatever return time they get and probably use it hours later. No promises...)

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/guest-services/virtual-queue/

 

[NorthernCalMom]

I don’t have any experience with the 7am drop. For our two D’land days (Tuesday & Thursday this week), we pulled one VQ boarding group (on Tuesday) at 12:10pm and the other one (Thursday) exactly at noon, as soon as it allowed us to. Annoyingly enough, it only gives you a boarding group, plus the currently called groups, but not a return time.

We found out that they (in our case) went through roughly 20 groups per hour, so that allows you a tough estimate. I’ve heard of people who had no problem getting in after coming late, but I’m chicken and wouldn’t want to chance it. Our Tuesday boarding group was 198 and became active at 5:30pm. The Thursday one was 169 and became active around 4:20pm or so.