Which rides should we do first? Ride Strategy Help!

[caribear]

1st trip to Disneyland....and unsure what our ride strategy should be. We will be purchasing Maxpass. Since we are from FL and go to WDW often....we definitely want to ride the rides that we don't have at WDW. I would love some help coming up with a plan for our 3 days. Kids are 10 and 15. We will probably skip Star Tours......maybe Soarin' (although I heard the que is much better than WDW)

We will be going to the parks for 3 days......

June 7th - 1 day park ticket for DL
June 8th - park hopper (Grad Night)
June 10th - park hopper

Looks like we should head straight to Hyperspace Mountain on the 7th...and grab a FP for Matterhorn or Indiana Jones....but what about the non-FP rides? What will those wait times look like? I really want to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Pirates, Peter Pan......and it looks like all of these do not have MaxPass.

Looking for a strategy to help maximize the number of rides we will be able to go on per day. Any "game plan" advice would be much appreciated!!!! What I love about going to WDW is I know all of the routes...the fastest way to the rides...which ones to head to first....but I do not know anything about DL! It is stressing me out! LOL

Thanks!!

 

[tarheelalum]

All of the non fast pass rides will not be that crowded an hour after rope drop except Peter Pan. Peter Pan will have a 40+ minute wait a couple of minutes after rope drop and it will remain that way for the rest of the day. If you really want to ride it, and not waste a lot of time, you need to be there before rope drop and run to it the moment the park opens.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I’d skip soarin

 

[Jokiho]

WDW vets here as well. Honestly, Peter Pan isn’t far different than WDW but like Tarheelalum said you must be there at rope drop for that ride.

I really enjoyed Pinocchio and Snow White. The latter might be a blast from the past if you’re a WDW veteran. They are quick to get.

We did a ridemax plan and it was very helpful. If you have a Magic morning be sure to use that for fantasyland. We got up 20 minutes late and when we did we missed the chance to see Peter Pan. So we had to get that one late at night

Otherwise on a normal day hit up space Mountain and the main tomorrow land rides. Then BTRR, haunted house, etc.

In the morning stick with one land at a time, use maxpass, and you’ll get 70% done by noon.

We had a 3 day hopper but honestly we did just about everything by two days and had ridden rides twice or three times in fact. The short distance between rides compared with WDW really impacts how much you can get done. That being said, when we went Pirates was downnand so was all of Pixar Pier.

 

[DizneyMommy]

If you want to build a solid plan for each day, check out TouringPlans.com. They offer some pre-made plans andyou can modify or build your own. They are super useful for timing, planning, and tracking what you want to do when

 

[theluckyrabbit]

1st trip to Disneyland....and unsure what our ride strategy should be...Since we are from FL and go to WDW often...

Have you seen this thread:A DLR Guide for WDW Vets? Lots of helpful information there!

For Peter Pan, if you are within the first few groups in line at opening, great! Otherwise, don't waste your MM on it. Do the other rides first and come back to PP later, if you must ride it in the morning. Otherwise, any time later during the day, if you can get in the line when it is 30 minutes or less, great! Or, just wait until later in the day when you have the time to invest in that line (e.g. grab lunch and eat while in line -- then you'll do two things at once). Our favorite option is to make PP our last ride of the day. Grab a snack, enjoy the pretty lights in FL, relax in the line, and exit the ride to a closed park.

 

[agamble]

I'm confused about your tickets. Is there a reason you have a 1 day ticket and then 2 day hoppers? If you had a 3 day ticket you would have Magic Morning.

June 7th is a MM. So when you get to the park both Fantasyland and Tomorrowland will already be open and have lines. You should start on the other side of the park with rides like Indiana Jones, Thunder Mtn, and Pirates. You can use MP to get FP for Tomorrowland rides.

June 8th you could rope drop the park and do Fantasyland first. Head to Alice first and then Mr. Toad. Then do any other rides you want to there. Everything will have short lines except Peter Pan as others mentioned.

June 10 is an EMH at DCA (as is the 8th). But you should rope drop DCA at least one morning.

Also, Hyperspace Mtn is set to close June 3.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

With Maxpass and starting early in the morning I found I was able to hit most of the big attractions by 1 pm - it was really easy to get sequential fastpasses through Maxpass. As soon as you scan for one ride then you can book the second. Doing it this way we basically went from fastpass to fastpass. I even booked a fastpass standing in front of It's a Small World - the standby queue was 30 minutes and I wondered if a fastpass was available - looked and it was and walked on the ride. It seems that not everyone at DL is clued into the Maxpass feature yet. Actually worked much better than WDW - where you only get three fastpasses a day. I utilized at least 6 fastpasses a day if not more. I rode the monorail into Tomorrowland - so started in Tomorrowland at Space Mountain and went from there. Also Nemo Submarines is really good and surprised me - glad I didn't miss it. Started early there was not much of a queue. In the afternoons the park was crowded so I would take that time to head back to the hotel (on property) and come back later for the evening events. When you get all the big attractions done so quickly it makes waiting for a smaller ride not so painful (but try them in the morning) I was actually glad to wait for thirty minutes and slow down the pace a little - LOL!

 

[PHXscuba]

I read in another thread that Hyperspace Mountain was ending before your visit. Might want to confirm that independently?

As for the the Soarin' queue, the part you skip with Fastpass/MaxPass is the outdoors shaded section - FP or MP just puts you on the long ramp that has pictures and banners along it. It's a much lower priority in a park that has several "bigger" headliners like Radiator Springs and Guardians of the Galaxy. Toy Story Mania could also be skipped -- the queue is much less exciting than the WDW version and the ride is exactly the same.

I would try to knock out the Fantasyland rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland in less than an hour first thing in the morning on June 8 -- you'll be starting at the same time as everyone else and most people have higher priorities. Once you enter the park get a MP for something (maybe Matterhorn?), ride the FL rides, and you will be able to get a second MP before you ride with your first MP. Or you could get a couple DCA MPs while doing FL and hop over when lines start getting long or your MP time comes.

PHXscuba