Best Way To Tour Fantasyland

[DisneyJade]

Question for those who weighed in saying Peter Pan will be a 30 or 45 minute wait even if you go there first at rope drop. Is this only because the OP is going in August? Or is that true all year? We are going in a couple of weeks (end of Feb/beginning of Mar) and planning to do Fantasyland at 8:00 am rope drop on a normal entry day (not a magic morning). I use touring plans to help plan attraction order, and it recommends PP first thing in the morning and estimates only an 8 minute wait. I would love to know if DL vets think that 8 minutes is a fantasy.

Thank you, and I hope I'm not hijacking the thread!

 

[jfk4]

Question for those who weighed in saying Peter Pan will be a 30 or 45 minute wait even if you go there first at rope drop. Is this only because the OP is going in August? Or is that true all year? We are going in a couple of weeks (end of Feb/beginning of Mar) and planning to do Fantasyland at 8:00 am rope drop on a normal entry day (not a magic morning). I use touring plans to help plan attraction order, and it recommends PP first thing in the morning and estimates only an 8 minute wait. I would love to know if DL vets think that 8 minutes is a fantasy.

Thank you, and I hope I'm not hijacking the thread!

If you arrive early enough it is possible to get through the Peter Pan queue in 8 minutes. But I think that the point many of the early posters are making is that you end up trading off 30 minutes of waiting in the Peter Pan queue for 45+ minutes of waiting outside for the park to open (and you do need to be there early; if you're not at the front of the pack for Peter Pan you'll end up waiting 20-30 minutes anyway). And yes, the wait is pretty consistently 30-50 minutes all day throughout the year. Right now (12:50 PM on Feb 18) the wait is listed as 40 minutes.

If you're going to do Morning Magic I think you definitely need to get there somewhat early, but I'm not convinced the savings gained not waiting for Peter Pan is worth it in and of itself.

 

[Sue M]

Great advice above. I love Disneyland Fantasyland first thing in the morning. I have encountered times when the Canal boats are not yet open, so be aware of that. They sometimes open a bit later in the morning. And it can be a slow go in the morning as they casually add boats to the rotation. The ride is adorable, but it's not a quick one. The Castle walk through is easy to skip, but don't. It's worth a look for sure.

I have to gasp at comparing the Matterhorn to Mt. Everest. That's like comparing riding in a beat up rusted out VW bug to riding in a porche! I have an affection for the Matterhorn and its history but I can barely ride it once because it is ROUGH and a huge rattle trap. However I once rode Mt. Everest 9 times in a row via since rider and FP one morning. It was chilly and we rode over and over until our lips were turning blue. The two rides are worlds apart.

I had a good laugh at your comparison of Matterhorn vs Everest. So true. I can’t ride Matterhorn more than once but can do EE 3x if wait time is under 15min!

 

[bethwc101]

I am guessing I should be able to get most of that done within the first hour of park opening?

Not necessarily. If you miss Alice right away or it is closed when the park opens and you have to back track it can be a 30-40 minute wait on its own.

 

[tator320]

What Fantasyland rides are notorious for not being up and running when the park opens? Are there some you can count on being up and going?

What are peoples thoughts on Matterhorn or Alice first if you don't care about Pan at all? Which is most strategic among those two?

 

[chickapin parterre]

Matterhorn has fast pass, so strategic all day long. Alice is positioned

What Fantasyland rides are notorious for not being up and running when the park opens? Are there some you can count on being up and going?

What are peoples thoughts on Matterhorn or Alice first if you don't care about Pan at all? Which is most strategic among those two?

in a very small area, so easy to move from attraction to attraction

 

[chickapin parterre]

Question for those who weighed in saying Peter Pan will be a 30 or 45 minute wait even if you go there first at rope drop. Is this only because the OP is going in August? Or is that true all year? We are going in a couple of weeks (end of Feb/beginning of Mar) and planning to do Fantasyland at 8:00 am rope drop on a normal entry day (not a magic morning). I use touring plans to help plan attraction order, and it recommends PP first thing in the morning and estimates only an 8 minute wait. I would love to know if DL vets think that 8 minutes is a fantasy.

Thank you, and I hope I'm not hijacking the thread!

As a first time visitor, you will not find a 8 minute wait, probably in the 10-15......the beauty of doing PP first is that it is the least magical area to wait to board an attraction, so eat that lemon of a wait and nothing bad will happen to you the rest of the day.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Would Monday be better for early entry? And should we plan on a 7am park opening?

Monday morning you are at DCA, so Tuesday morning is your fantasyland adventure.......as for Sunday afternoon, Tomorrowland is easier to gather Fastpass that the ROA area and that would allow you to see Toon Town, nemo and small world whle waiting for the fastpass. . And on Tuesday, after Fantsyland, then head over to the ROA area, it is usually quiet first in the morning.

 

[agamble]

We

Question for those who weighed in saying Peter Pan will be a 30 or 45 minute wait even if you go there first at rope drop. Is this only because the OP is going in August? Or is that true all year? We are going in a couple of weeks (end of Feb/beginning of Mar) and planning to do Fantasyland at 8:00 am rope drop on a normal entry day (not a magic morning). I use touring plans to help plan attraction order, and it recommends PP first thing in the morning and estimates only an 8 minute wait. I would love to know if DL vets think that 8 minutes is a fantasy.

Thank you, and I hope I'm not hijacking the thread!

If the wait really is less than 10 min then of course you should ride. What happens, even in the "slow" season is everyone rushes to Peter Pan first thing because they read/heard that they should. But when hundreds of people RUN there at rope drop only the first few will have a short wait. Yet more and more will get in line wasting the best part of the day waiting for a ride that has almost the same wait time all day long, roughly 45 min. If you can be one of the lucky groups to be first in the line then it could be a 10 minute or shorter wait. If it's not. It's not worth your morning time.

ETA: we were there on a non holiday Friday morning in late January and there was a mad rush for Peter. The queue was full in 1 min. We went to Alice instead. Alice and toad are the other 2 that can get long waits. Pinocchio and Snow White will be good all morning.

 

[smartlabelprint]

On our first day at DL (Sunday) we won’t be getting to the park until around noon. Is DL or DCA a better choice for a midday arrival? At DL the plan would be to hit things on the left side of the park (Pirates, HM, Big Thunder, etc) while saving Fantasyland for an early morning.

Our family has two toddlers with special needs. So, we usually get there for park opening (10 am in the past), stay until lunch, eat then go to the hotel. When we come back for a couple hours late afternoon we always go to dca because the walkways feel less crowded.
Our next trip is next month and we've never been with the kids for early opening times. I'm looking forward to it. But I will be scanning the app to see wait times to get a feel for how busy the parks are.

 

[jhaig]

General consensus - with DL opening at 7am, would it be better to

A) Matterhorn, Space Mountain and Nemo subs then Fantasyland (skipping Peter Pan) or :

B) go straight to Alice, Mr Toad etc while getting FP for Matterhorn then do Space and subs after?

 

[chickapin parterre]

.....so what are you going to to do on Sunday? By the time you arrive at the park ROA will be more crowded than tomorrowland

B. but don't worry about the fastpass Tuesday magic morning, knock out Fantasyland, then when public is admitted, work the tomorrowland fastpass including Matterhorn,

 

[jhaig]

.....so what are you going to to do on Sunday? By the time you arrive at the park ROA will be more crowded than tomorrowland

B. but don't worry about the fastpass Tuesday magic morning, knock out Fantasyland, then when public is admitted, work the tomorrowland fastpass including Matterhorn,

Not sure about Sunday yet. We won’t get there until noon-ish so we might just wing it and get the lay of the land, so to speak. Ride a few things and maybe do a FP or two, explore the hotels etc.

 

[sleepymouse]

Everyone rushes for PP when rope drops every single day of the year. If at front of rope and an incredibly fast “walker”, go for it. If not, skip and go to Alice, then Toads. We usually hit Matterhorn next and grab first FPs for Space. We are here right now and managed to do PP twice at rope drop. Front of rope and we are quick so were within first 10-15 people in line.