we are never in a rush when go to Disneyland. We always plan and budget ahead well in advance for a multiple day trip. Makes it so stress free and way more laid back.
Before we moved to San Diego, we always planned 3 day trips. Those were perfect. If you add in a fourth day or even an off-day, you can definitely go way slower.
Mobile ordering is the BEST time saver! We LOVE it! We often spend time while we’re waiting in ride lines planning our meals. Being able to use the app features to find restaurants that are “Available Now” and “Nearby” are super convenient. Also, being able to schedule and modify orders allows flexibility. 🤩
We rope drop Peter pan. We get to park at 715 to start our rope drop lines. We do all fantasy land rides at rope drop. Then it's about 10am. We then get our dole whip. No line there either. We knock out so much with rope drop... Keep up the great videos. 🎉
If you are at the front of the line, then yeah, Peter Pan is doable first thing. We usually don’t get there until about 7:45 at the earliest. And with the stroller, we get passed pretty easily that by the time we make it up there, there’s already at least 20 minutes of people in front of us. Once we can ditch the stroller entirely (we are very close) it’ll be a little easier to rope drop some of those more popular attractions.
Hello Traver, thank you for explaining what is rope drop and verbally describing what it is ------ a real rope at the very front. Nobody has fully explained this. We love all of your unique videos which are filled with helpful tips, descriptions, and explaining everything to some of us who are clueless so we can plan for a very enjoyable visit and are much better prepared. Being unprepared does result in frustrations, big disappointments even if Disneyland is The Happiest Place on Earth. Your videos are awesome and the reason your channel will soon have 100K Subscribers. 😂😂😂 We are excitedly waiting for your Silver Play Button Award unboxing video. 🎉🎉🎉
I eagerly look forward to that day as well! We are hoping for 50k by the end of the year. We might fall just shy of it, but it’s within reach. Thank you for your kind words and support!
Bravo. You always have excellent videos/advice. Great well paced narration. Articulate w/ correct pronunciation and unhurried. Other bloggers speak perhaps 5-10% too fast or mumble their words.
Wow, never knew that about Haunted Mansion. Good call. And I agree on the Go Left strategy, it almost always is quicker. In fact last time we rode Big Thunder my family was ahead of me and went right because it was shorter at the split - I made them hurry and switch over to the left and we still got on the ride well before the people that had been ahead of us who went right.
As someone else explained, that’s because on Big Thunder the right lane is the disability side of the attraction. So they’ll fill up seats from exit then let the standby queue in.
Our biggest hack... and it was a game changer for my family... Split the park in half. Obviously this will only work if you're going for more than a day. We're from AZ so we normally do 5 park days (M-F), but this will work for 2 day trips with just Disneyland or for 3 days if you're doing both DLR parks. Basically on drive out day, we just do DTD. It's a 6 hr drive, so we don't waste 3/4 of a ticket going into the park on that day. So what we do, on day 1 in the parks, is go to Disneyland and go to Adventureland, NOS, Critter Country & Frontierland. On day 2 we usually do all of DCA. There's not that many "Must Do" rides there for us. On day 3 we're back in Disneyland for Tomorrowland, Fantasyland & Toon Town. What this does is basically reduce the amount of walking we do "looking for short lines" but, and arguably more importantly, it just hacks off the stress level at the knees. Buy only thinking about the rides in those specific lands vs ALL the rides, it's less overwhelming. But also, this by no way means we won't venture into the other lands if we've done everything we want on that day... or if we want to eat at a spot "on the other side". And I just realized I forgot about Star Wars land. Unfortunately, we haven't had the chance to see it yet (& I'm a huge fan) due to the pandemic and a change of work that saw a loss of vacation time. So this Jan will be our first trip back in almost 4 years. Ouch. We plan on doing Batuu on our 4th day... all day. Kinda. Because we've had longer to save, we are going to be staying 2 nights at each of the DLR hotels. Batuu will be on a changing hotel days so we'll go in the morning, deal with the hotel change and go back for nighttime in there. After this visit, we'll decide what day we want to put Batuu on. But also... Do the Genie thing. We used the original version and never looked back.
All awesome suggestions! I hope you guys have an awesome vacation after so long. It'll be like it's fresh all over again. And so awesome you've got Galaxy's Edge to look forward to!
Funny story in January when my sister and niece went to Disneyland, and we did Rise. And in the first little ride , it feels like you're flying. We thought we would be the first ones out of the door and see the troopers. We were so cool. Nope, total opposite door. We were so embarrassed. I do like, right when they close Disneyland down. To go on your favorite ride. Walked right on Indiana Jones with 2 mins to spare. It was awesome.
The nice thing with park close is that even if the line is like 45 minutes long, so long as you step into line before official park closing, you can stay in line until you ride it. Kinda sucks for the cast members but I assume that they never really plan on being off work when the park closes so maybe it’s not so bad. But I always hated it in retail when we’d get a customer who walked in 2 minutes before we closed because literally I could leave as soon as the hour ticked to close, but if there was a customer in the store, we had to wait until they left.
@SoCal Disney Dad I was a manager at Blockbuster. I always disliked the customer right before closing. And they didn't have an account either. So annoying. I did ask the cast member at Indiana before I entered the ride. If there was a wait. She said go ahead. It's a walk on. I got lucky. It is different at Disney cast members expect last minute people entering the line.
I’m so glad to hear that. I hope you have an absolutely magical trip. If you have any questions, feel free to ask on any video. I’m always happy to help.
Here’s our standard rope drop: BEST Rope Drop Strategy for Disneyland w/ Tips & Tricks ruclips.net/video/Bz38PiizM5w/видео.html Or our Fantasyland rope drop: BEST Fantasyland Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland ruclips.net/video/rDIlA-phq6U/видео.html Here’s Oogie Boogie Bash from this past year: Oogie Boogie Bash 2023 Opening Night | EVERY Character & Candy Trail ruclips.net/video/kG6CVgEWD1I/видео.html
Aloha - What about the friends hotels? I will be staying at the Camelot soon, do they get early in? Also such a big fan of your posts. I have a very stressful job and when it gets to be too much I just watch your walk throughs of the parks that you made a month ago. It makes me feel like I'm there. Thank you!, Thank you! Thank you!
Unfortunately not. Only the three Disneyland hotels get early entry. But the Good Neighbor hotels are significantly cheaper (for the most part) so that’s a decent trade off. It’s only 30 minutes and only two lands within the park. Glad you enjoy the videos!
@@fabianf585 It doesn’t really matter unless you’re trying to rope drop Rise, Peter Pan, or Radiator Springs Racers. All other rides are negligible differences.
Awesome tips, as usual! ❤ I do want to point out that I choose to go right only on Pirates. They issue fastpasses when the ride goes down and funnel them on the left side. This added 20 minutes to our 30 minute posted wait. The right side does add guests with accessibility needs, but I have personally not noticed an additional wait.
I’ve not noticed that personally. Usually when I’ve gone right (because sometimes the left line has more wiggle to the queue), it still would have been faster for me to wait on the left. I always find one guest with distinguishable clothes or backpack and watch them the whole time to see how the other line is moving. But I can see how that might be the case. Usually I don’t ride Pirates when it’s busy though.
On busy days, I've found it's smart to mobile order food, then go ahead and click the "I'm Here" button before you even get there. Factor in your walking time, so you aren't standing around waiting for the kitchen.
You mean like how do posted wait times stack up to actual wait times? We do often time them and find them to be mostly accurate, if not a little under estimated (5 minutes posted turns out to be 8 minutes, or 25 minutes turns out to be 27 minutes, etc)
@@SoCalDisneyDad I think I posted this question out of context given the theme of your video. I just want to know how long each attraction lasts from any pre-show to the time you board the attraction to the end when you exit. I once timed the roller coaster in toon town long ago and it was like 30 seconds. I’m trying to find out if the outcome of the experience is worth some of the posted wait times. For instance, how long is Rise of the Resistance experience and why the heck is it such a long wait typically? Is it all worth it? Thank you!
@@jessicamcvay1616 Oh! I get it. That wouldn’t be the type of thing I could really easily do in a video. If you have specific rides in question, I can address those here. Since you mentioned Rise, that experience truly begins at the first pre-show, even though there’s some waiting following the second pre-show. If you include all three pre-shows plus the ride, the total experience is about 20 minutes. Disney’s wait times are to the ride, though, ignoring pre-shows. So a 45 minute wait, is 25 minutes to the first pre-show. The ride itself is about 6 minutes long. But I stop caring about the wait as soon as I hit the first pre-show. Everything from that point forward is pure awesomeness.
Unfortunately not. Only at Oogie Boogie Bash. You can still wear outfits that get close. Search Disney Bounding online for what people do. The short of it is, though, if you could be mistaken for a character in the park, then it’s a no-go because they don’t want guests getting confused (mostly kids who might follow a character).
Unfortunately no. I don’t usually participate in night time events for a few reasons. The first is purely a financial one. I’d love to cover all the events, but can’t afford them at this stage of my RUclips career. Maybe next year! 🤞 The second is that I live in San Diego and staying for a night time event means I need a hotel (driving back late at night is a disaster because of tiredness) and that’s another added cost on top of the event itself. I will most likely cover Oogie Boogie Bash again this year, but it will probably be the only nighttime event I do this year. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to do Star Wars in the future as I’m a huge Star Wars fan.
Yes I thought I’d ask because of your hat!! I really wanted to go this year because I’m big fan too but it sold out pretty quickly, to be expected. It’s definitely understandable that you need to make sure all of your visits need to be doable financially. I’m amazed already by how often you go! Thanks for all the detail and work you put into your content. It’s much appreciated for somebody who hopes to go to Disneyland for the first time this year 😁
@@katemazz14 A little secret is that I film multiple videos during a visit, so what might appear like me going several times a week is really once every 1-2 weeks. I generally average 2-3 visits a month. If I were closer, I’d go more often. I envy those folks that can just “pop in” for an evening stroll, grab a snack, do 1-2 rides and then go home. When we go, it’s an all day affair to make the 3-4 hour round trip drive worth it.
I’ve noticed, at least in DLP, that the disability loading area on some rides is on the right hand side, making that line go a little slower at times. This is true on big thunder mountain, hyperspace mountain. Pirates of the Caribbean usually boards disability line on the second boat which is the left hand line.
That’s a great point! Though I’m pretty sure Pirates the left lane is the first boat. However, on it’s a small world, the left lane is the wheelchair line. Trouble is, you don’t usually get a choice on small world. It’s wherever the cast member sends you because the lightning lane meet up is right at the split.
@@SoCalDisneyDad I moved to Europe 2 decades ago from California so my go-to park is now paris. I have the loading areas and camera’s on the rides memorized here. I don’t remember them in California park as it’s been almost 18 years since I last went for the 50th anniversary. I will be going back this Christmas. I would love to see a video pointing out where the cameras are on the rides there. I try to pose for my pictures.
@@Karideplov That’s awesome! I’ve never been to one of the international parks, but would love to eventually. Hope you have an amazing trip back to California. Thanks for the video suggestion. I’ll see if there’s a way to work it in somewhere.
For Disneyland, we like Space Mountain, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Indiana Jones, or Big Thunder. You could reasonably go for Rise of the Resistance, but you’ll probably be wasting most of the first hour if you do that. At DCA, we go for Toy Story Midway Mania, Incredicoaster, Soarin’, or Web Slingers. As with Disneyland, you can go for Radiator Springs Racers, but be prepared to lose a lot of time. It’ll be shorter in the morning than later in the day, but you sacrifice getting 4-5 other rides done while you wait in line for that single ride.
Hi! Looking for advice on when to visit Disneyland based on just a few short periods of time we can come. From Alabama and have visited WDW many times. Our options really are limited to a time period between the last week of May 2024 - mid July 2024. I have heard about grad nights so concerned about these if we visit late May/early June. Any advice is much appreciated! (3 adults)
You really can’t go wrong anywhere in that time frame, but if you want warmth and sunshine, visit in July. If you’d prefer it be cooler, then mid-June is better because of “June Gloom”. It’ll keep the park at around 68 degrees and cloudy for the most part. Grad nights aren’t really a problem unless you’re planning on being in DCA on a grad night itself. So if May is your preference, then just plan to be in Disneyland on the grad nights and you’ll be fine. It’s best to avoid the park with the after hours event. Sometimes Disneyland has after hour events too. On those days, you’ll want to be in DCA.
@@SoCalDisneyDad thank you! Should we be concerned about grad nights possibly being held during our scheduled visit? If we already have tickets for a particular day and then grad night is scheduled for that date what should we expect?
@@ChristieColeman-b2w If you can, I’d try to switch your reservation to Disneyland. If you can’t, don’t worry about it too much. The park only closes an hour earlier at 9 PM instead of 10 PM. But you will experience A LOT more teens in the park. They get MAJORLY discounted tickets for grad nites. So it’s almost a guarantee they’ll be there all day.
I have no idea. Nor any speculation really. Could be "space" related. Har har. Or it could be that they are just moving at such a high rate of speed in there churning people through the attraction that taking the time to merge in a single rider line might disrupt the flow enough to significantly reduce their efficiency. I'm not sure.
You mention not to waste the golden hour on something like ROTR, but if you're determined to ride ROTR, wouldnt it still be better to ride it first thing after rope drop compared to pretty much any other time of the day?
No, and there’s a few reasons for that. First, and the most basic reason, is that ROTR routinely has a shorter wait at 9 AM than it does at 8 AM. The initial rope drop crowd is greater than the new guests flooding into the park that early in the morning thar about 50-75% of the time, the line is SHORTER an hour later. But the more complicated answer is that you can use the first hour to ride around 4 other rides that routinely get high waits. You could hammer out Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Haunted Mansion easily in the first hour. Then go ride ROTR. If you spent that morning hour waiting for ROTR, you’d have to deal with 30 minute waits (on average) at those attractions later and that’s 90 minutes of waiting. Whereas you could have ridden ROTR at 9 AM with a 45 minute wait AFTER having already conquered 3 rides.
@@SoCalDisneyDad Thanks! Does Genie+ change the calculus at all? The only non-Genie+ attractions I'm planning to ride are POTC, the Jungle Cruise, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Runaway Railway. I figure Runaway Railway is like ROTR. Do you think it would make sense to ride POTC/JC/MTWR first and then ROTR? And if so, any particular order? I'm organizing a company trip for tomorrow which will have 14 attendees (all with Genie+), so your advice is definitely appreciated!
@@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou Yes, that would significantly change the strategy. Especially the date being tomorrow. The park is pretty empty right now (compared to a month ago). At 8:30, ROTR was only a 40 minute wait (pretty unheard of. I never see it below 45). MMRR is at 15 minutes right now. 15! That’s the lowest I’ve seen it after 9 AM since it opened. Toad will max out at 25 during the busiest times of the day. I wouldn’t be too concerned with that one. Jungle Cruise is the same. It maxes out at around 30 but is routinely much much less crowded. I’d just do it whenever. With Genie+, you’ll be able to ride what you want pretty much when you want. So yes, you may consider doing something like rope dropping MMRR or ROTR (or both) if the goal is to avoid paying for ILLs. Rope dropping Toad or Jungle Cruise would really be a waste of the morning.
@@SoCalDisneyDad Really appreciate it! Yes, we chose tomorrow specifically hoping it will be a low-traffic day. Looks like we also lucked out on the weather. =)
@@SoCalDisneyDad Just wanted to provide an update that our company trip was a big success, thanks in no small part to your advice and tips. We were waiting in line at rope drop, and despite power walking directly to ROTR, the line when we got there was visually very long-it stretched out way past the attraction. However, the line moved very quickly-we spent basically the entire time in line walking toward the entrance, so it barely even felt like we were waiting at all. We managed to pack all of the following attractions into our day: 1. Rise of the Resistance 2. Smuggler's Run 3. Splash Mountain 4. Haunted Mansion 5. Pirates of the Caribbean 6. Jungle Cruise 7. Indiana Jones 8. Tiki Room 9. Hyperspace Mountain 10. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 11. It's a Small World 12. Star Tours It was only about 5:45pm by the time we finished Star Tours, and that was with a leisurely lunch at Tortilla Jo's! And amazingly, no ride breakdowns, either. After the above, a few of us had park hopper tickets and waited in line for Soarin' Around the World, but literally just as we were watching the safety video before stepping through the doors, the ride closed. Fortunately, we were given lightning passes to be used on any ride except the really popular ones, but since we didn't feel like walking back to the other park to use them on something like Peter Pan, we used them on Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, which was pretty underwhelming but still better than leaving the Soarin' line empty handed! Thanks again for your help!
disneyland.disney.go.com/admission/tickets/ Select Standard ticket, 1-day. If you select a 2-day or more ticket, the prices are actually a flat rate. $285 for two days no matter when you go, even if it’s over two $104/ticket days. It basically gives you Tier 6 tickets automatically for multi-day tickets. First day would be $179, second day is $106. Third day is $75.
Love the tips...Great video Trav! Also, my only Jeff tip is DON'T SIT 1ST ROW @ WDW'S FANTASMIC OR U WILL GET YOUR CAMCORDER RUINED...ALSO, DON'T HAVE JEFF PICK 1ST ROW ON POTC...I got drenched 3 times both @ DL/WDW...LOL!
Hi! I just went to disneyland a few weeks ago but never got to have that much fun due to online classes back in my hometown haha, and as of the current I'm planning my 2nd arrival next year. I'm still in the beginning of your video, but I'm curious if Space Mountain is also crowded during Golden Hour. And are there any other tips that you have that weren't mentioned at the video? I'll keep on watching the video, so far it's well explained!
I’ve got LOADS of tips. 😂 But the easiest thing to tell you is check out the rest of the videos on my channel. To answer the Space Mountain question, if you rope drop it, you’ll wait about 15 minutes, but the line moves crazy fast so it doesn’t even feel that long. It’ll hang around 25-30 minutes most of the morning, which is fine and a good time to ride it as it often goes over an hour in waits at the prime of the day. Space Mountain is a very high capacity, fast loading attraction.
@@SoCalDisneyDad whoa that was a reply as fast as space mountain hahaha. Thanks! Currently my itinerary goes as follows: Arrive at Disneyland before 7 30 Rush to space mountain first (if we cna run past the rope line haha) Go to the nearest route towards matterhorn (now here Im not sure as well if the line will also be low during Golden Hour) Rush towards big thunder mountain (same question as before) Go to nearest restrooms for bathroom breaks (yes I need to plan for bathroom breaks too haha) Now this is just for golden hour. I'm not for certain if all of these rides will be possible to finish before 10 am, and if the lines will be short as well. We are planning to go by May of next year, and it's a month close to summer so I'm kind of worried if may isn't considered off season haha
@@notmalcolmm Funnily enough, I have been tracking wait times for the last two weeks. Matterhorn is routinely a 5 minute wait around 8:15-8:30. By 9 AM it’s anywhere between 15-25 minutes. And by 10 AM it’s usually around 45-55 minutes. Big Thunder has a lot of fluctuation, but it’s usually 5-15 minutes between 8 and 9. By 10 AM it’s usually around 25-30 minutes.
@@SoCalDisneyDad I have discussed this with the family, and they've been asking a few questions like "after the rides is it important to have an early lunch before 12 to enjoy the rest of the afternoon" and "is the standard genie intiniraty enough to suffice the remaining hours on the park" I apologize if we have a lot of questions haha, we just want to write down everything in advance
I checked the app and it says dining package for World of Color reservations can't be done online. Any clarification? Or can I just make a dinner reservation and tell them I want to do dining package at that time ?
Correct. You speak to your server at either Wine Country Trattoria or Storytellers Cafe. You need to eat at one of these two places to have the option.
@@Cadetsc The time doesn’t matter. You won’t actually watch it while you eat. All the dining package does is gives you a reserved seating area during the show. You can eat at 11 AM and still do the dining package. In fact, earlier is probably better because they can run out of these reservations once the space for area fills. So if you wait until later in the day, they might all be gone.
@@SoCalDisneyDad but wouldn't that mean I'd be spending the entire day at my table instead of enjoying the rides? So would it be better to just stand and watch World of Color?
@@Cadetsc No. I think you’re misunderstanding. You don’t watch the show from your table. The restaurants aren’t anywhere near world of color. All you get with the dining package is a ticket to a reserved seating area later when world of color happens. It’s not a “watch and dine” experience.
It’s the rope drop ride of choice for families with small children and easily the longest line in Fantasyland. Why? I don’t know? Maybe because it’s a pirate ship that flies above the set, rather than a car on a track? I couldn’t rightly tell you. I think Snow White’s Enchanted Wish is the best of the Fantasyland dark rides.
Any time but major holidays, Thanksgiving Week, Christmas Week, and Spring Break (Mid-March to Mid-April). Summer is honestly not as bad as one might think because most passholders are blocked out. The times I like the most are end of August and mid-January, but you really can’t go wrong with whatever fits in your schedule so long as you avoid those things I listed above.
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we are never in a rush when go to Disneyland. We always plan and budget ahead well in advance for a multiple day trip. Makes it so stress free and way more laid back.
Before we moved to San Diego, we always planned 3 day trips. Those were perfect. If you add in a fourth day or even an off-day, you can definitely go way slower.
We do the same thing. We still do rope drop but then have time to relax and wander and shop and eat when lines are long.
Mobile ordering is the BEST time saver! We LOVE it! We often spend time while we’re waiting in ride lines planning our meals. Being able to use the app features to find restaurants that are “Available Now” and “Nearby” are super convenient. Also, being able to schedule and modify orders allows flexibility. 🤩
For sure! Why waste valuable time at the restaurant when you can peruse the menus of a dozen different places while standing in line for a ride?
Hi. What app is that?
Another great video!
I hit all the Fantasyland rides after the fireworks wait times are usually way down then.
Rope drop Fantasy Land, it feels like you own the park 😂
For sure! All except Peter Pan is usually pretty low wait times.
We rope drop Peter pan. We get to park at 715 to start our rope drop lines. We do all fantasy land rides at rope drop. Then it's about 10am. We then get our dole whip. No line there either. We knock out so much with rope drop... Keep up the great videos. 🎉
If you are at the front of the line, then yeah, Peter Pan is doable first thing.
We usually don’t get there until about 7:45 at the earliest. And with the stroller, we get passed pretty easily that by the time we make it up there, there’s already at least 20 minutes of people in front of us.
Once we can ditch the stroller entirely (we are very close) it’ll be a little easier to rope drop some of those more popular attractions.
@@SoCalDisneyDad right! I would say you do have some great tips! Smart ones at that!
When should you go to Peter Pan and Rise?
Hello Traver, thank you for explaining what is rope drop and verbally describing what it is ------ a real rope at the very front. Nobody has fully explained this. We love all of your unique videos which are filled with helpful tips, descriptions, and explaining everything to some of us who are clueless so we can plan for a very enjoyable visit and are much better prepared. Being unprepared does result in frustrations, big disappointments even if Disneyland is The Happiest Place on Earth. Your videos are awesome and the reason your channel will soon have 100K Subscribers. 😂😂😂 We are excitedly waiting for your Silver Play Button Award unboxing video. 🎉🎉🎉
I eagerly look forward to that day as well!
We are hoping for 50k by the end of the year. We might fall just shy of it, but it’s within reach.
Thank you for your kind words and support!
Bravo. You always have excellent videos/advice. Great well paced narration. Articulate w/ correct pronunciation and unhurried. Other bloggers speak perhaps 5-10% too fast or mumble their words.
Thank you!
As always amazing tips. Thanks for all the advice ❤
Cant wait to come!
This video is spot on all great tips
Wow, never knew that about Haunted Mansion. Good call. And I agree on the Go Left strategy, it almost always is quicker. In fact last time we rode Big Thunder my family was ahead of me and went right because it was shorter at the split - I made them hurry and switch over to the left and we still got on the ride well before the people that had been ahead of us who went right.
As someone else explained, that’s because on Big Thunder the right lane is the disability side of the attraction. So they’ll fill up seats from exit then let the standby queue in.
Our biggest hack... and it was a game changer for my family... Split the park in half. Obviously this will only work if you're going for more than a day. We're from AZ so we normally do 5 park days (M-F), but this will work for 2 day trips with just Disneyland or for 3 days if you're doing both DLR parks. Basically on drive out day, we just do DTD. It's a 6 hr drive, so we don't waste 3/4 of a ticket going into the park on that day.
So what we do, on day 1 in the parks, is go to Disneyland and go to Adventureland, NOS, Critter Country & Frontierland. On day 2 we usually do all of DCA. There's not that many "Must Do" rides there for us. On day 3 we're back in Disneyland for Tomorrowland, Fantasyland & Toon Town. What this does is basically reduce the amount of walking we do "looking for short lines" but, and arguably more importantly, it just hacks off the stress level at the knees. Buy only thinking about the rides in those specific lands vs ALL the rides, it's less overwhelming.
But also, this by no way means we won't venture into the other lands if we've done everything we want on that day... or if we want to eat at a spot "on the other side". And I just realized I forgot about Star Wars land. Unfortunately, we haven't had the chance to see it yet (& I'm a huge fan) due to the pandemic and a change of work that saw a loss of vacation time. So this Jan will be our first trip back in almost 4 years. Ouch. We plan on doing Batuu on our 4th day... all day. Kinda. Because we've had longer to save, we are going to be staying 2 nights at each of the DLR hotels. Batuu will be on a changing hotel days so we'll go in the morning, deal with the hotel change and go back for nighttime in there. After this visit, we'll decide what day we want to put Batuu on.
But also... Do the Genie thing. We used the original version and never looked back.
All awesome suggestions! I hope you guys have an awesome vacation after so long. It'll be like it's fresh all over again. And so awesome you've got Galaxy's Edge to look forward to!
I’ve been going to DL and WDW for over 50 years. Your “half the park” tip is BRILLIANT. I cannot wait to try it. THANK YOU!!
Excellent and informative video. Thank you.
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
Funny story in January when my sister and niece went to Disneyland, and we did Rise. And in the first little ride , it feels like you're flying. We thought we would be the first ones out of the door and see the troopers. We were so cool. Nope, total opposite door. We were so embarrassed. I do like, right when they close Disneyland down. To go on your favorite ride. Walked right on Indiana Jones with 2 mins to spare. It was awesome.
The nice thing with park close is that even if the line is like 45 minutes long, so long as you step into line before official park closing, you can stay in line until you ride it.
Kinda sucks for the cast members but I assume that they never really plan on being off work when the park closes so maybe it’s not so bad.
But I always hated it in retail when we’d get a customer who walked in 2 minutes before we closed because literally I could leave as soon as the hour ticked to close, but if there was a customer in the store, we had to wait until they left.
@SoCal Disney Dad I was a manager at Blockbuster. I always disliked the customer right before closing. And they didn't have an account either. So annoying. I did ask the cast member at Indiana before I entered the ride. If there was a wait. She said go ahead. It's a walk on. I got lucky. It is different at Disney cast members expect last minute people entering the line.
I just want to say thank you thank you thank you, I am going to Disneyland with my family in 3 weeks and your videos have been extremely helpful!
I’m so glad to hear that. I hope you have an absolutely magical trip. If you have any questions, feel free to ask on any video. I’m always happy to help.
Very important!! If I have only 1 day and 2 people, should we buy park hopper???
Which rides do you recommend rope dropping? Do you have any info on the boogie bash?
Here’s our standard rope drop:
BEST Rope Drop Strategy for Disneyland w/ Tips & Tricks
ruclips.net/video/Bz38PiizM5w/видео.html
Or our Fantasyland rope drop:
BEST Fantasyland Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland
ruclips.net/video/rDIlA-phq6U/видео.html
Here’s Oogie Boogie Bash from this past year: Oogie Boogie Bash 2023 Opening Night | EVERY Character & Candy Trail
ruclips.net/video/kG6CVgEWD1I/видео.html
Aloha - What about the friends hotels? I will be staying at the Camelot soon, do they get early in? Also such a big fan of your posts. I have a very stressful job and when it gets to be too much I just watch your walk throughs of the parks that you made a month ago. It makes me feel like I'm there. Thank you!, Thank you! Thank you!
Unfortunately not. Only the three Disneyland hotels get early entry. But the Good Neighbor hotels are significantly cheaper (for the most part) so that’s a decent trade off.
It’s only 30 minutes and only two lands within the park.
Glad you enjoy the videos!
I remember Goofys sky school was closed temporarily so I waited and I was first in line
If you are not a guest of a Disney hotel, do you recommend rope drop the park which does not have early entry for Disney hotel guests?
@@fabianf585 It doesn’t really matter unless you’re trying to rope drop Rise, Peter Pan, or Radiator Springs Racers.
All other rides are negligible differences.
@@SoCalDisneyDad Thank you!
Awesome tips, as usual! ❤ I do want to point out that I choose to go right only on Pirates. They issue fastpasses when the ride goes down and funnel them on the left side. This added 20 minutes to our 30 minute posted wait. The right side does add guests with accessibility needs, but I have personally not noticed an additional wait.
I’ve not noticed that personally. Usually when I’ve gone right (because sometimes the left line has more wiggle to the queue), it still would have been faster for me to wait on the left.
I always find one guest with distinguishable clothes or backpack and watch them the whole time to see how the other line is moving.
But I can see how that might be the case. Usually I don’t ride Pirates when it’s busy though.
On busy days, I've found it's smart to mobile order food, then go ahead and click the "I'm Here" button before you even get there. Factor in your walking time, so you aren't standing around waiting for the kitchen.
Have you timed all the rides? I am genuinely interested in knowing how long each experience is at both parks. Thanks!
You mean like how do posted wait times stack up to actual wait times?
We do often time them and find them to be mostly accurate, if not a little under estimated (5 minutes posted turns out to be 8 minutes, or 25 minutes turns out to be 27 minutes, etc)
@@SoCalDisneyDad I think I posted this question out of context given the theme of your video. I just want to know how long each attraction lasts from any pre-show to the time you board the attraction to the end when you exit. I once timed the roller coaster in toon town long ago and it was like 30 seconds. I’m trying to find out if the outcome of the experience is worth some of the posted wait times. For instance, how long is Rise of the Resistance experience and why the heck is it such a long wait typically? Is it all worth it? Thank you!
@@jessicamcvay1616 Oh! I get it. That wouldn’t be the type of thing I could really easily do in a video.
If you have specific rides in question, I can address those here.
Since you mentioned Rise, that experience truly begins at the first pre-show, even though there’s some waiting following the second pre-show.
If you include all three pre-shows plus the ride, the total experience is about 20 minutes.
Disney’s wait times are to the ride, though, ignoring pre-shows. So a 45 minute wait, is 25 minutes to the first pre-show.
The ride itself is about 6 minutes long.
But I stop caring about the wait as soon as I hit the first pre-show. Everything from that point forward is pure awesomeness.
Great video brother!! Im going on halloween day are adults allowed to wear costumes?
Unfortunately not. Only at Oogie Boogie Bash. You can still wear outfits that get close. Search Disney Bounding online for what people do.
The short of it is, though, if you could be mistaken for a character in the park, then it’s a no-go because they don’t want guests getting confused (mostly kids who might follow a character).
Great thanks for the info 😊
Hi Traver! Love your videos. Are you going to Star Wars Nite this year?
Unfortunately no. I don’t usually participate in night time events for a few reasons. The first is purely a financial one. I’d love to cover all the events, but can’t afford them at this stage of my RUclips career. Maybe next year! 🤞
The second is that I live in San Diego and staying for a night time event means I need a hotel (driving back late at night is a disaster because of tiredness) and that’s another added cost on top of the event itself.
I will most likely cover Oogie Boogie Bash again this year, but it will probably be the only nighttime event I do this year.
That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to do Star Wars in the future as I’m a huge Star Wars fan.
Yes I thought I’d ask because of your hat!! I really wanted to go this year because I’m big fan too but it sold out pretty quickly, to be expected.
It’s definitely understandable that you need to make sure all of your visits need to be doable financially. I’m amazed already by how often you go!
Thanks for all the detail and work you put into your content. It’s much appreciated for somebody who hopes to go to Disneyland for the first time this year 😁
@@katemazz14 A little secret is that I film multiple videos during a visit, so what might appear like me going several times a week is really once every 1-2 weeks.
I generally average 2-3 visits a month.
If I were closer, I’d go more often. I envy those folks that can just “pop in” for an evening stroll, grab a snack, do 1-2 rides and then go home.
When we go, it’s an all day affair to make the 3-4 hour round trip drive worth it.
I’ve noticed, at least in DLP, that the disability loading area on some rides is on the right hand side, making that line go a little slower at times. This is true on big thunder mountain, hyperspace mountain. Pirates of the Caribbean usually boards disability line on the second boat which is the left hand line.
That’s a great point! Though I’m pretty sure Pirates the left lane is the first boat. However, on it’s a small world, the left lane is the wheelchair line.
Trouble is, you don’t usually get a choice on small world. It’s wherever the cast member sends you because the lightning lane meet up is right at the split.
@@SoCalDisneyDad I moved to Europe 2 decades ago from California so my go-to park is now paris. I have the loading areas and camera’s on the rides memorized here. I don’t remember them in California park as it’s been almost 18 years since I last went for the 50th anniversary. I will be going back this Christmas. I would love to see a video pointing out where the cameras are on the rides there. I try to pose for my pictures.
@@Karideplov That’s awesome! I’ve never been to one of the international parks, but would love to eventually. Hope you have an amazing trip back to California.
Thanks for the video suggestion. I’ll see if there’s a way to work it in somewhere.
I'm taking my family in 3 weeks. What are the top 5 rides to get on at rope drop
For Disneyland, we like Space Mountain, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Indiana Jones, or Big Thunder. You could reasonably go for Rise of the Resistance, but you’ll probably be wasting most of the first hour if you do that.
At DCA, we go for Toy Story Midway Mania, Incredicoaster, Soarin’, or Web Slingers. As with Disneyland, you can go for Radiator Springs Racers, but be prepared to lose a lot of time. It’ll be shorter in the morning than later in the day, but you sacrifice getting 4-5 other rides done while you wait in line for that single ride.
My tip is to go solo. So I don't need to wait for other people, wait for them to be done with bathrooms, eat.
I eat fast anyways
Hi! Looking for advice on when to visit Disneyland based on just a few short periods of time we can come. From Alabama and have visited WDW many times. Our options really are limited to a time period between the last week of May 2024 - mid July 2024. I have heard about grad nights so concerned about these if we visit late May/early June. Any advice is much appreciated! (3 adults)
You really can’t go wrong anywhere in that time frame, but if you want warmth and sunshine, visit in July.
If you’d prefer it be cooler, then mid-June is better because of “June Gloom”. It’ll keep the park at around 68 degrees and cloudy for the most part.
Grad nights aren’t really a problem unless you’re planning on being in DCA on a grad night itself. So if May is your preference, then just plan to be in Disneyland on the grad nights and you’ll be fine.
It’s best to avoid the park with the after hours event. Sometimes Disneyland has after hour events too. On those days, you’ll want to be in DCA.
@@SoCalDisneyDad thank you! Should we be concerned about grad nights possibly being held during our scheduled visit? If we already have tickets for a particular day and then grad night is scheduled for that date what should we expect?
@@ChristieColeman-b2w If you can, I’d try to switch your reservation to Disneyland. If you can’t, don’t worry about it too much. The park only closes an hour earlier at 9 PM instead of 10 PM. But you will experience A LOT more teens in the park.
They get MAJORLY discounted tickets for grad nites. So it’s almost a guarantee they’ll be there all day.
Does anyone know why they stopped the single rider for Space Mountain??
I have no idea. Nor any speculation really. Could be "space" related. Har har. Or it could be that they are just moving at such a high rate of speed in there churning people through the attraction that taking the time to merge in a single rider line might disrupt the flow enough to significantly reduce their efficiency. I'm not sure.
You mention not to waste the golden hour on something like ROTR, but if you're determined to ride ROTR, wouldnt it still be better to ride it first thing after rope drop compared to pretty much any other time of the day?
No, and there’s a few reasons for that.
First, and the most basic reason, is that ROTR routinely has a shorter wait at 9 AM than it does at 8 AM. The initial rope drop crowd is greater than the new guests flooding into the park that early in the morning thar about 50-75% of the time, the line is SHORTER an hour later.
But the more complicated answer is that you can use the first hour to ride around 4 other rides that routinely get high waits. You could hammer out Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Haunted Mansion easily in the first hour. Then go ride ROTR.
If you spent that morning hour waiting for ROTR, you’d have to deal with 30 minute waits (on average) at those attractions later and that’s 90 minutes of waiting. Whereas you could have ridden ROTR at 9 AM with a 45 minute wait AFTER having already conquered 3 rides.
@@SoCalDisneyDad Thanks! Does Genie+ change the calculus at all? The only non-Genie+ attractions I'm planning to ride are POTC, the Jungle Cruise, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Runaway Railway. I figure Runaway Railway is like ROTR. Do you think it would make sense to ride POTC/JC/MTWR first and then ROTR? And if so, any particular order? I'm organizing a company trip for tomorrow which will have 14 attendees (all with Genie+), so your advice is definitely appreciated!
@@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou Yes, that would significantly change the strategy.
Especially the date being tomorrow. The park is pretty empty right now (compared to a month ago).
At 8:30, ROTR was only a 40 minute wait (pretty unheard of. I never see it below 45). MMRR is at 15 minutes right now. 15! That’s the lowest I’ve seen it after 9 AM since it opened.
Toad will max out at 25 during the busiest times of the day. I wouldn’t be too concerned with that one.
Jungle Cruise is the same. It maxes out at around 30 but is routinely much much less crowded. I’d just do it whenever.
With Genie+, you’ll be able to ride what you want pretty much when you want.
So yes, you may consider doing something like rope dropping MMRR or ROTR (or both) if the goal is to avoid paying for ILLs.
Rope dropping Toad or Jungle Cruise would really be a waste of the morning.
@@SoCalDisneyDad Really appreciate it! Yes, we chose tomorrow specifically hoping it will be a low-traffic day. Looks like we also lucked out on the weather. =)
@@SoCalDisneyDad Just wanted to provide an update that our company trip was a big success, thanks in no small part to your advice and tips. We were waiting in line at rope drop, and despite power walking directly to ROTR, the line when we got there was visually very long-it stretched out way past the attraction. However, the line moved very quickly-we spent basically the entire time in line walking toward the entrance, so it barely even felt like we were waiting at all.
We managed to pack all of the following attractions into our day:
1. Rise of the Resistance
2. Smuggler's Run
3. Splash Mountain
4. Haunted Mansion
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. Jungle Cruise
7. Indiana Jones
8. Tiki Room
9. Hyperspace Mountain
10. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
11. It's a Small World
12. Star Tours
It was only about 5:45pm by the time we finished Star Tours, and that was with a leisurely lunch at Tortilla Jo's! And amazingly, no ride breakdowns, either.
After the above, a few of us had park hopper tickets and waited in line for Soarin' Around the World, but literally just as we were watching the safety video before stepping through the doors, the ride closed. Fortunately, we were given lightning passes to be used on any ride except the really popular ones, but since we didn't feel like walking back to the other park to use them on something like Peter Pan, we used them on Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, which was pretty underwhelming but still better than leaving the Soarin' line empty handed!
Thanks again for your help!
Good tips! Where can I find the calendar with the ticket prices per day? Thanks!
disneyland.disney.go.com/admission/tickets/
Select Standard ticket, 1-day.
If you select a 2-day or more ticket, the prices are actually a flat rate. $285 for two days no matter when you go, even if it’s over two $104/ticket days. It basically gives you Tier 6 tickets automatically for multi-day tickets.
First day would be $179, second day is $106. Third day is $75.
Love the tips...Great video Trav! Also, my only Jeff tip is DON'T SIT 1ST ROW @ WDW'S FANTASMIC OR U WILL GET YOUR CAMCORDER RUINED...ALSO, DON'T HAVE JEFF PICK 1ST ROW ON POTC...I got drenched 3 times both @ DL/WDW...LOL!
Haven’t been to Fantasmic yet. We are going to try to go on April 14th just Amy and I.
@@SoCalDisneyDad Its my favorite @ DHS...DON'T SIT 1ST ROW...LOL
@@InTheLifeOfJeff I’ve seen it there. Long long time ago, in a galaxy far… uh, Nevermind. 😂
But I haven’t seen it at Disneyland.
What app is the for mobile order?
The Disneyland app
@@SoCalDisneyDad thank you! I’ve saved this content for our next week’s trip. I love this video! Thanks for the tips!
Hi! I just went to disneyland a few weeks ago but never got to have that much fun due to online classes back in my hometown haha, and as of the current I'm planning my 2nd arrival next year.
I'm still in the beginning of your video, but I'm curious if Space Mountain is also crowded during Golden Hour.
And are there any other tips that you have that weren't mentioned at the video? I'll keep on watching the video, so far it's well explained!
I’ve got LOADS of tips. 😂 But the easiest thing to tell you is check out the rest of the videos on my channel.
To answer the Space Mountain question, if you rope drop it, you’ll wait about 15 minutes, but the line moves crazy fast so it doesn’t even feel that long.
It’ll hang around 25-30 minutes most of the morning, which is fine and a good time to ride it as it often goes over an hour in waits at the prime of the day.
Space Mountain is a very high capacity, fast loading attraction.
@@SoCalDisneyDad whoa that was a reply as fast as space mountain hahaha. Thanks! Currently my itinerary goes as follows:
Arrive at Disneyland before 7 30
Rush to space mountain first (if we cna run past the rope line haha)
Go to the nearest route towards matterhorn (now here Im not sure as well if the line will also be low during Golden Hour)
Rush towards big thunder mountain (same question as before)
Go to nearest restrooms for bathroom breaks (yes I need to plan for bathroom breaks too haha)
Now this is just for golden hour. I'm not for certain if all of these rides will be possible to finish before 10 am, and if the lines will be short as well.
We are planning to go by May of next year, and it's a month close to summer so I'm kind of worried if may isn't considered off season haha
@@notmalcolmm Funnily enough, I have been tracking wait times for the last two weeks.
Matterhorn is routinely a 5 minute wait around 8:15-8:30. By 9 AM it’s anywhere between 15-25 minutes. And by 10 AM it’s usually around 45-55 minutes.
Big Thunder has a lot of fluctuation, but it’s usually 5-15 minutes between 8 and 9. By 10 AM it’s usually around 25-30 minutes.
@@notmalcolmm May is fine. It doesn’t get busy until Memorial Day weekend and following.
@@SoCalDisneyDad I have discussed this with the family, and they've been asking a few questions like "after the rides is it important to have an early lunch before 12 to enjoy the rest of the afternoon" and "is the standard genie intiniraty enough to suffice the remaining hours on the park"
I apologize if we have a lot of questions haha, we just want to write down everything in advance
I checked the app and it says dining package for World of Color reservations can't be done online.
Any clarification? Or can I just make a dinner reservation and tell them I want to do dining package at that time ?
Correct. You speak to your server at either Wine Country Trattoria or Storytellers Cafe. You need to eat at one of these two places to have the option.
@@SoCalDisneyDad what time should I be having dinner to enjoy World of Color?
@@Cadetsc The time doesn’t matter. You won’t actually watch it while you eat. All the dining package does is gives you a reserved seating area during the show.
You can eat at 11 AM and still do the dining package.
In fact, earlier is probably better because they can run out of these reservations once the space for area fills. So if you wait until later in the day, they might all be gone.
@@SoCalDisneyDad but wouldn't that mean I'd be spending the entire day at my table instead of enjoying the rides?
So would it be better to just stand and watch World of Color?
@@Cadetsc No. I think you’re misunderstanding. You don’t watch the show from your table. The restaurants aren’t anywhere near world of color.
All you get with the dining package is a ticket to a reserved seating area later when world of color happens. It’s not a “watch and dine” experience.
8 rides in an hour the last time I went to Disneyland. I think I could have gotten ten if I had changed a couple of things.
so why is Peter Pan so popular?
It’s the rope drop ride of choice for families with small children and easily the longest line in Fantasyland.
Why? I don’t know? Maybe because it’s a pirate ship that flies above the set, rather than a car on a track? I couldn’t rightly tell you. I think Snow White’s Enchanted Wish is the best of the Fantasyland dark rides.
It's a fan favorite
When is the best time to visit Disneyland?
Any time but major holidays, Thanksgiving Week, Christmas Week, and Spring Break (Mid-March to Mid-April).
Summer is honestly not as bad as one might think because most passholders are blocked out.
The times I like the most are end of August and mid-January, but you really can’t go wrong with whatever fits in your schedule so long as you avoid those things I listed above.