Rope Drop Strategy for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure with Lightning Lanes and Individual Lightning Lanes

[Chereya]

Normal Guardians and Halloween Guardians is considered 2 separate attractions and are show separately within the app.

However, Halloween Guardians becomes available around 11am-12pm. Sonif you vook Guardians in the AM you should be able to easily book an additional LL and a Halloween Guardians LL. Before the Halloween Guardians LL sells out.

Gotcha! Thanks for the quick reply back!

 

[Killer Fish]

Quick questions on this?

How are you grabbing a Guardians LL first thing and grabbing the LL for Indiana Jones before 2 hours goes by? I thought you could not book a second until scanning in/2 hour rule.

Thanks for all of these tips!

Disneyland Start (non-EE using ILL for WS and Racers)
Fantasyland Plan
730am: Arrive at the main entrance to Disneyland.
Note: It takes about 20-30 minutes to get from Disney parking areas to the main entrance (Disney parking areas open an hour before park opening).
730am-745am: They will start to let guests into Main Street between this time. The goal is get as close to the rope as you can. There is a left, middle, and right of the hub rope area. I usually choose the Tomorrowland side as the Frontierland side can be crowded due to guests going to Rise of the Resistance.
Note: Once settled near the rope, purchase Genie+ on the Disneyland App. Grab a LL for Guardians first, then purchase a ILL for WS, then a ILL for Racers. The app will automatically choose a return time of 1pm. Your two hour window will start and you can get your next LL at 10am.
8am-815am: Once the rope drops walk briskly on the right side of the castle and towards the Matterhorn and ride Alice in Wonderland first
815am-830am: Dumbo and then Mr. Toad. Your goal is to be out of Fantasyland by 830am and walking towards the back of Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain.
Book your first LL for Indiana Jones Adventure.

 

[DLRExpert]

Quick questions on this?

How are you grabbing a Guardians LL first thing and grabbing the LL for Indiana Jones before 2 hours goes by? I thought you could not book a second until scanning in/2 hour rule.

Thanks for all of these tips!

Disneyland Start (non-EE using ILL for WS and Racers)
Fantasyland Plan
730am: Arrive at the main entrance to Disneyland.
Note: It takes about 20-30 minutes to get from Disney parking areas to the main entrance (Disney parking areas open an hour before park opening).
730am-745am: They will start to let guests into Main Street between this time. The goal is get as close to the rope as you can. There is a left, middle, and right of the hub rope area. I usually choose the Tomorrowland side as the Frontierland side can be crowded due to guests going to Rise of the Resistance.
Note: Once settled near the rope, purchase Genie+ on the Disneyland App. Grab a LL for Guardians first, then purchase a ILL for WS, then a ILL for Racers. The app will automatically choose a return time of 1pm. Your two hour window will start and you can get your next LL at 10am.
8am-815am: Once the rope drops walk briskly on the right side of the castle and towards the Matterhorn and ride Alice in Wonderland first
815am-830am: Dumbo and then Mr. Toad. Your goal is to be out of Fantasyland by 830am and walking towards the back of Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain.
Book your first LL for Indiana Jones Adventure.

Updating

 

[Jrog92]

Updating

I also noticed in the Fantasyland without EE plan that you don't mention when to ride Pan?

 

[DLRExpert]

I also noticed in the Fantasyland without EE plan that you don't mention when to ride Pan?

Fit in Peter Pan when you are okay with the wait time of the ride. Anything 35 minutes or lower is a good time to ride.

I just wouldn't do it if I don't have access to EE. If you are close to the rope line maybe 20 minutes for Pan without EE. However, you can probably finish Alice and Dumbo in the same amount of time.

 

[katyringo]

For folks with EE, specifically coming from DLH, what time should we leave DLH for 730 EE? what time has security been opening on the DTD side?

 

[goofy1954]

Somebody wrote it opened just before 7 a.m. Does that sound right?

 

[DLRExpert]

For folks with EE, specifically coming from DLH, what time should we leave DLH for 730 EE? what time has security been opening on the DTD side?

be at the security screening area by 645am.

 

[Version 6]

be at the security screening area by 645am.

So ridiculous that there are no dedicated turnstiles.

So many people will chew up a significant portion of their EE waiting in line to get in with regular rope droppers.

 

[DLRExpert]

So ridiculous that there are no dedicated turnstiles.

So many people will chew up a significant portion of their EE waiting in line to get in with regular rope droppers.

It is and hopefully they will change things if more hotel guests complain.

However, if you can get to the entrance by 710am you should be ahead of most of the parking structure and lot guests.
Plus they usually open the turnstiles a few minutes before 730am.

 

[egxflash]

We were able to do both, really fun. Haunted Mansion was a mad house every day it seemed, no pun intended...Granted, that was the first time at HM, so we had nothing to compare to in the past.

Fortunately Haunted Mansion offers LL but yes, I agree, the lines have been pretty crazy because they just decorated it for Halloween.

 

[katyringo]

How reliable has Racers been lately- as in open at park open?

I would like to plan our early Entry to hit Web slingers, maybe guardians and then get to racers to line up.. but hasn't it been down a lot first things in the morning recently?

 

[DLRExpert]

How reliable has Racers been lately- as in open at park open?

I would like to plan our early Entry to hit Web slingers, maybe guardians and then get to racers to line up.. but hasn't it been down a lot first things in the morning recently?

Racers is hit or miss.
More than likely will not have time to do both WS and Guardians. At the least you will be cutting it close (both attractions have long preshows).
Better to make sure you get on WS, then get in line for Racers. After the initial park opening surge the wait for Guardians is not to bad for the first 30 minutes and can easily be done after Racers.

 

[mtemm]

Thanks for all of your work posting this!

I have a one day solo trip in mid November. I will not be staying on site so no ee but plan to be there by rope drop. I pre-bought genie+ because my time is limited. I would love to hit all the fantasyland rides, pirates (2x), haunted mansion (2x), and both Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers run. Indy will be closed so will miss that. I doubt I will do splash, thunder, space on this trip so am not prioritizing them. Not sure I care enough about Matterhorn to risk the sore neck. Lol.

So my question is how should I tackle things? Should I still try to head to fantasyland first, or should I head left and do my first pirates and hm (since I want those twice over the course of the day) then head to fantasyland?

I haven’t been to DL in ages, but was just at wdw last month. Is DL FL mobbed like wdw?

 

[Osferth]

I'm going to be staying at the Disneyland Hotel and will be using early entry. I understand that we will be in the same queues with everyone else for security check and park entrance, but will we also be part of the horde waiting for rope drop once we get inside the park? How do we get through the crowd and past the ropes prior to park opening, during the early entry period?

 

[Chereya]

I'm going to be staying at the Disneyland Hotel and will be using early entry. I understand that we will be in the same queues with everyone else for security check and park entrance, but will we also be part of the horde waiting for rope drop once we get inside the park? How do we get through the crowd and past the ropes prior to park opening, during the early entry period?

If you're doing EE at Disneyland, you stay to the right past main street and the Plaza Inn heading towards Tomorrow Land. There will be cast members there that you show your room key card to enter. There's a picture in the 1st post of this thread with EE labeled to the far right. I didn't do EE on the CA side but I think the EE entry is by Carthay Circle heading towards Avengers/Cars areas.

 

[Osferth]

Thanks Chereya! And they keep that area clear except for EE guests?

 

[alleighboo]

We are staying at Paradise Pier and planning on using EE. Does anyone have a recommendation for what time we need to be at the front entrance? I don't want to waste any of our 30 minutes if possible! Also is it better to go through security at Downtown Disney entrance or go though GCH? Thanks!

 

[ionz13]

Hi guys,

My wife and daughter are planning to drive down to get to the disney parking garage at the earliest time possible (we have an electric vehicle and need to get one of the chargers b/c we are driving down to San diego after DCA that evening). I understand that the parking garage opens 1 hour prior to park opening, which for our day is 8am park opening and early entry at 7:30am. Does this mean that the garage will open at 6:30?

Also anyone have input on how difficult/easy it is to get an electric vehicle charger?

 

[Brandonius]

Thanks for all of your work posting this!

I have a one day solo trip in mid November. I will not be staying on site so no ee but plan to be there by rope drop. I pre-bought genie+ because my time is limited. I would love to hit all the fantasyland rides, pirates (2x), haunted mansion (2x), and both Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers run. Indy will be closed so will miss that. I doubt I will do splash, thunder, space on this trip so am not prioritizing them. Not sure I care enough about Matterhorn to risk the sore neck. Lol.

So my question is how should I tackle things? Should I still try to head to fantasyland first, or should I head left and do my first pirates and hm (since I want those twice over the course of the day) then head to fantasyland?

I haven’t been to DL in ages, but was just at wdw last month. Is DL FL mobbed like wdw?

Pirates and HM are both people eaters - those will be just fine to do mid-morning, late afternoon, or evening. The lines will look long but move fast. If you have Genie, that's 1 use on HM. Still hit Fantasyland first - everything is right next to each other and the rides are shorter. You'll get MUCH more done in that first hour than if you spend literally 30 minutes in one of the long new Orleans square experiences.

With Rise, for my money either rope drop it (it's a fun experience imo - and you can be pretty certain that it'll be open for your ride since it's coming off of a whole night of maintenance work) or get genie. Standby is just miserable - breakdowns, Genie slowing it down, and being stuck in those caves the whole time. Not a fan.

Hope that helps.