Which rides do you do for your first couple hours at each park?

[imjen]

Trying to figure out the best strategy for our trip in 3 weeks. Without FPs I'm not sure the most efficient ride order without a lot of back tracking/ extra walking. We have 2 days at DL(Tues and Fri) and 1 at DCA (Wed).

What do you typically do for the first couple hours? When is the best time to ride RSR?

 

[Mom of three]

If i'm starting in DL, I try for the more popular rides, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain...If i'm starting in DCA, RSR or Guardians. I find during the day they tend to have longer wait times.

 

[Tracieee]

From what I've seen and heard here and in looking on the app, if you're not at the very front of rope drop at DCA, then doing RSR first doesn't make sense. We'll be at the parks this Thursday through Monday so I can report back on what we end up doing and how it goes. Right now, for DCA, we're planning on trying for TSM first and then maybe some other Pixar Pier rides - hoping to maybe knock out the pier in the first hour or so.

In Disneyland, one strategy is to try and knock out all of the Fantasyland rides at rope drop/first few hours. I find that area can be so congested later in the day, so it's nice to experience everything in the morning or wait until the last two hours of the night. The only thing is, with the return of fireworks, I believe some of the Fantasyland rides will close during the show temporarily.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I can speak to DCA because we rope-dropped there yesterday.

It definitely appeared that the vast majority of the rope-drop crowd was headed to RSR. IF you can be at the front of the pack hitting RSR (which means you're near the rope and able to walk very quickly all the way back to the RSR line), that might be worth hitting first. Getting RSR out of the way with a 20-minute wait or less would probably be worth it.

However, that wasn't an approach we cared to take, so we went to Incredicoaster first. In 90 minutes, we hit Incredicoaster, Toy Story Midway Mania, the ferris wheel, Emotional Whirlwind, Silly Symphony Swings, Goofy's Sky School, Jumpin' Jellyfish, and Little Mermaid. (We waited a couple of cycles to be in the front of Incredicoaster, too.) The one ride I never rope drop at DCA is Soarin' - the ride process itself is so long and isolated from other rides that I feel like it squanders a lot of that golden time before the park fills up. The wait was 30-40 minutes for most of the day, much of which is indoors/shaded/misted, so I don't think it's a terrible thing to just wait for later.

 

[Matrixleos]

Couple of detailed threads on this topic at both parks from @DLRExpert I've linked them below...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...egy-7-3-and-specific-day-experiences.3837037/
https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-california-adventure-park-opening-strategy-6-18.3837150/

 

[GeneralTso]

If we start at CA, we always ride Soarin first.

 

[avalon451]

For DLR in the time of Maxpass, we would knock out Fantasyland first, but the way things are now, we did “left side” strategy when we were there a few weeks ago. Indy, HM, PotC, Splash, BTMRR. Now that single rider is back up, if you can do that it would help a lot on the rides with big waits.

 

[DLRExpert]

With 8am opening...
DL: You can get most of Fantasyland done before 9am. Chose between Pan or Snow for first ride, if you are there for Rope Drop.
Then order is Alice, Dumbo, Toad, Pin, and Casey Jr. However, after Dumbo, ride Casey Jr when the train is not on track and not boarding.
Goal should be to head to the West Side by 9am, If Toontown is important, head to Toontown at 9am (when it opens) and finish that area by 920am.
9am you want to be on Pirates, 930am Mansion, 950am Splash. If you choose Toontown, you want to save Pirates for later in the evening. Skip to Mansion, with goal of being on Splash before 10am.
Note: The Jungle Cruise return (also the upcoming movie) has made that attraction very popular in the morning, save that for later in the day or when you have nothing else to do.

DCA: If there at rope drop go to Racers first, then Luigi, then Maters, with goal to head to Pixar Pier by 845am. Once at PP ride Midway Mania, then Pal Around, Whirlwind, Sky School, Jellyfish, Symphony. Save Incredicoaster for later. Goal is to be on Grizzly River before 10am.

ME

 

[azdisneylover]

After losing the family in the crowd, I high tail it to the train and ride it until the family finds me! Or, instead of the train, it is the Monorail I ride! I love the train, my favorite ride.

 

[HenDuck]

We used to zig zag back and forth through the parks to ride our favorites, but when we go next month, I'm feeling like I won't be able to do that.

I like DLRExpert's approach and will modify accordingly.

We only hit Fantasyland rides as filler, so we would skip that and ride as needed. (I know this is sacrilege, but I don't care if I ride Peter Pan or Snow White )

Our loose plan (for our first day only, which will be a Saturday ):
Rope drop!
Plan A:
Space
Star Tours
Buzz
Plan B:
Indy
or Thunder Mountain

Then switch A/B accordingly. Hopefully have a BG for ROTR...

Fillers:
Pooh, teacups, carousel
Walk around Galaxy's Edge
Snacks
Ride Buzz and Star Tours again or hit mainstreet vehicles

1:00
Park hop to DCA
See Avengers Campus shows
Ride anything under 30 minutes

3:00-ish
Return to hotel - eat, nap, swim

6:30-7:00-ish return to parks
Hit anything 30 minutes or less (including some Fantasyland stuff)
Ride MFSR after 8:00 pm (maybe during the fireworks)

Drag mama home

We will have PHPs and will alternate opening parks, so on DCA days, we will head straight for RSR on one day and Guardians or Toy Story the others. I feel like we don't need a hard and fast plan for DCA. It's not a full-day park to us, so we'll get it all done.

I think we will hit rope drop for the first few days of our trip, and after that, we'll mix it up. sleep in a day or two; do some shopping outside of Disney; and do other personal things we need to do on this trip.

 

[HenDuck]

Also wanted to add that it seems evenings are pretty slow at Disneyland. So we will make use of the 7-10 pm hours to also hit Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and hopefully MFSR.