California Adventure EMH what is your game plan?

[poptart90]

Most GCH guests will be using the hotel entrance. Security and turnstiles are limited.
If you’re one of the first in line that is fine but it can build up fast and take a lot of time if you are not close to the front.

That’s true, the line can look very long but it moves far faster IMO than going through the DTD security, walking with the herd from all surrounding hotels, and lining up at the main entrance to get through the turnstiles. Also, once you are through the hotel entrance you are way closer to the Pier and RSR. I guess it’s personal preference, but I would not discount the hotel entrance just cause other hotel guests are using it...I’d rather line up with 100 people vs who knows how many? But maybe that’s me.

 

[poptart90]

Show up to the Main Entrance 15 minutes before EMH starts. If you are staying at the Grand California DO NOT use the Hotel Entrance.

Then ride the attractions in this order
7am - 8am Head to Cars Land and ride Radiator Springs Racers first. If you have MaxPass use it to get a FP for Toy Story Midway Mania.
Then ride Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and finally Monsters Inc.

Now the park should be open...
8am- 9am: Head to Pixar Pier and ride Pixar Pal Around
Second FP you get should be for Incredicoaster.
Then ride Emotional Whirlwind, Goofy's Sky School, Jumping Jellyfish, and then head to Toy Story Midway Mania and use the FP.

9am-1030am While in line for TSMM get FP for 2nd ride on Radiator Springs Racers, then ride Jessie's Carousel, then use FP for Incredicoaster, ride Symphony Swings, and Golden Zephyr.

1030am-1130am: Next FP you get is for Guardians of the Galaxy (this way you do Guardians before lunch), ride the Little Mermaid Adventure, Grizzly River Run (won't need FP if your are there before 11am, however, if you do need a FP get it after the Soarin FP), use FP Guardians of the Galaxy

1130am: Lunch and Next FP is for Soarin.

1230pm-130pm: Use FP for 2nd Radiator Springs Racers ride, use FP for Soarin.

done

ME

This is a great strategy for hitting every ride in the park for sure...except for one hiccup due to the construction of Marvels Land. I would not plan to end the EMH at Monsters, Inc. now that the former Bugs Land-to-Carsland cut-through is closed. Monsters is in the far corner of the park. If the next step after Monsters, Inc. is to get down to the Pier and the only route available at park opening is to walk back to Carthay Circle and then follow the rest of the herd to the Pier, that’s going to put you behind everyone else. I would wait on Monsters and do the Pier much sooner. It gets so hot and crowded there fast. Better to knock that out during EMH before the stampede of park opening. Monsters is totally doable most of the day (certainly the morning hours) with a short wait. Just food for thought!

 

[patyoung]

When stayed at the GCH a few months ago and there really wasn’t much of a line to use their entrance before EMH and we used that on two different days. We got there maybe 10 minutes before open time and got through in a minute or two and had a few minutes to wait at the rope by Liitle Mermaid, super easy to go to Pixar Pier from there. Maybe with everyone saying not to use it there isn’t much of a line?

 

[poptart90]

I read that your post to my dh and he likes your strategy.


So should I try to start my fast passes around 11? Or is that a waste? I know that these parks get busier later in the day

The great part about MP is that you can always cancel them and then go back in and select something else. So you have flexibility to adjust your plans if you start in one direction and then go a different way. If you are in for EMH at 7:00am you can start pulling MP for 8am. And once that MP is scanned at 8:00am, you can immediately grab another one.

We’ve had luck with pre-selecting an area of the park where we want to spend the bulk of our EMH. We don’t ping-pong around, just try to get in as many rides in a certain area during that first hour. As I mentioned, there’s a lot we like at the Pier so we head there and walk on as many things as we can. I also pull a FP for either Incredicoaster or TSMM for 8am, which will be our last ride of the Pier once the park opens. As others have mentioned, you can typically scan a MP a few minutes early. Once that’s done (while walking in line) I grab RSR. After the last Pier ride, we move to Carsland. Walk on Mater & Luigi, then hopefully use our MP for RSR. If we happen to have more time to wait, we grab breakfast at Flo’s. The mobile ordering is fast and after EMH, DH and I could always do with a caffeine pit stop! After the RSR MP is scanned, sometimes I immediately grab another (again while walking the queue) so that, at least for us, two chunks of the park are done...like well done...so that everyone feels satisfied that they did what they wanted in those areas. (Sometimes breakfast comes after the first RSR ride, while we wait for the next MP to go live)

After that, we return to the hotel for some pool time and I continue to plan our evening by grabbing passes for the rest of the things we’d like to do later when it’s cooler.

We’ve always waited only 5-15 minutes for rides like Ariel, Jumping Jellyfish, Zephyr, Silly Swings, and Monsters, Inc. We’ve had good luck keeping an eye on those areas with the App while moving around to the FP rides in the evening and always managed to jump on at some point with little to no wait for those.

That’s been our strategy and it works for us, but the other tips on this post are great too!

 

[DLRExpert]

This is a great strategy for hitting every ride in the park for sure...except for one hiccup due to the construction of Marvels Land. I would not plan to end the EMH at Monsters, Inc. now that the former Bugs Land-to-Carsland cut-through is closed. Monsters is in the far corner of the park. If the next step after Monsters, Inc. is to get down to the Pier and the only route available at park opening is to walk back to Carthay Circle and then follow the rest of the herd to the Pier, that’s going to put you behind everyone else. I would wait on Monsters and do the Pier much sooner. It gets so hot and crowded there fast. Better to knock that out during EMH before the stampede of park opening. Monsters is totally doable most of the day (certainly the morning hours) with a short wait. Just food for thought!

Monsters Inc. is the one ride at DCA which can have long lines later. During EMH it will be a walk on. In my opinion the ride is not worth waiting more than 5 minutes for.

From my past guest experience, you will either be on the ride as the park is about to open or on the ride as it opens. There will be no "herd". Most of the entry guests will be heading to Cars Land first the other popular rides in the morning are Soarin or TSMM.

You will already have Cars Land done and if you have MaxPass you will already have that FP for TSMM. No need to get to Pixar Pier during the EMH as the only attractions open in that area are TSMM and Incredicoaster. Both are FP attractions that you will do later.

You want to focus on the Non-FP attraction in Pixar Pier, with the Pixar Pal Around being first. As that ride will build up by 9am and it takes about 15-20 minutes to complete once you are on the ride. Emotional Whirlwind next as its the newest thing in the park.

ME