Visiting DCA or Disneyland in the evening

[Jhornick]

I plan to rope drop both parks on different days, go to the hotel late afternoon and then return after dinner. I'll have Genie Plus. Would love to hear your ride strategies for the evening until close? Which park sections get the quietest for lines? Thanks!

 

[Steven G]

basically, after the fireworks end, Disneyland is emptied, and you should be able to enjoy the park until closing.

Note that DCA typically closes earlier (usually even before the last WOC show), so you can't take advantage of that there.

You can probably get some pretty good attraction riding at DCA from 9 to 10 (when a lot of people are hanging around WOC), and then go to DL for the rest of the night.

Typically, DCA closes at 10PM, and DL at midnight.

 

[aymiewilson]

This is always my strategy - to rope drop parks, take a late afternoon nap at the hotel, and then return to parks to close the night (although i usually come back around 5 pm and have an early dinner in the parks.) My biggest tip is to use Genie+ to keep stacking up lightening lanes for the remainder of your evening, since you can reserve them from your hotel.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Often times at night many rides like Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion and Pirates can be almost walk on. Late night is my favorite time in the parks!

We skip rope drop and we sleep in to start fresh late AM then close out the parks…feel like we get way more done at night than trying to be first in the parks

 

[Kit Jackson]

I realize this does not maximize the number of rides you get to experience or minimize time spent waiting for rides, but if fits into your plans, see CarsLand at night. You will not regret it. It is Disney imagineering at its absolute best.

 

[TinkAgainU]

I realize this does not maximize the number of rides you get to experience or minimize time spent waiting for rides, but if fits into your plans, see CarsLand at night. You will not regret it. It is Disney imagineering at its absolute best.

Agreed. Although Galaxy’s Edge is pretty amazing at night too.

 

[aymiewilson]

I realize this does not maximize the number of rides you get to experience or minimize time spent waiting for rides, but if fits into your plans, see CarsLand at night. You will not regret it. It is Disney imagineering at its absolute best.

OH yes that is a good tip! Also have you seen the Sh-boom lighting in Cars Land @Jhornick ? If not, definitely try to! At sunset, they play the song "Sh-Boom" from the soundtrack and all the neon lights come on one by one. It lasts for like... 3 minutes, so its easy to miss, but it's such a fun little thing to see.

 

[PiratesMansion]

One thing worth noting is that most of Fantasyland and all of Toontown (and several paths nearby) largely shut down around an hour before fireworks until sometime after they've concluded. So there's a fair amount of ride capacity that doesn't exist for an hour or so, in addition to the paths becoming more congested. There are also several Pixar Pier attractions that shut down before/during World of Color.

After fireworks, the west side of Disneyland especially clears out pretty good. Pirates and Mansion most notably, but at the end of the night even things like Indy will have much shorter waits. Space Mountain will stay busy up until closing-most everything else will ease up at least a bit prior to closing.

Note also that Rise of the Resistance goes to bed at 10 PM each night and is not in operation the last two hours of Disneyland's operating day.

 

[TinkAgainU]

Note also that Rise of the Resistance goes to bed at 10 PM each night and is not in operation the last two hours of Disneyland's operating day.

Super good point - honestly, if this is on a must-do list (and it really Should be for even a moderate StarWars fan), I would suck it up, and pay the ILL fee to do the ride earlier in the day, then just go back to enjoy the ambiance at night. I feel the same about the Cars ride - although the Single Rider Line is an option on that one to save time and money - but again, do not wait until late for either, in case they go down for repairs.

 

[Jhornick]

OH yes that is a good tip! Also have you seen the Sh-boom lighting in Cars Land @Jhornick ? If not, definitely try to! At sunset, they play the song "Sh-Boom" from the soundtrack and all the neon lights come on one by one. It lasts for like... 3 minutes, so its easy to miss, but it's such a fun little thing to see.

I didn't know that! Thanks.

 

[Jhornick]

One thing worth noting is that most of Fantasyland and all of Toontown (and several paths nearby) largely shut down around an hour before fireworks until sometime after they've concluded. So there's a fair amount of ride capacity that doesn't exist for an hour or so, in addition to the paths becoming more congested. There are also several Pixar Pier attractions that shut down before/during World of Color.

After fireworks, the west side of Disneyland especially clears out pretty good. Pirates and Mansion most notably, but at the end of the night even things like Indy will have much shorter waits. Space Mountain will stay busy up until closing-most everything else will ease up at least a bit prior to closing.

Note also that Rise of the Resistance goes to bed at 10 PM each night and is not in operation the last two hours of Disneyland's operating day.

Lots of new tips here! Thanks.