Disneyland and Walt Disney World: FIVE TIPS for Beating the Spring Break Crowds

Magic Kingdom Crowds - Walt Disney World

It’s spring break, and with it comes very large crowds at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Here are five tips for beating the crowds and making sure your family has a great vacation during this busy season of the year:

Tip #1: Arrive Early!

This may seem obvious, but it’s listed first because I really can’t emphasize it enough. There are certain attractions in each of the Disney theme parks which get very busy very quickly (sometimes within SECONDS of the park opening), so arriving early is key to beating the crowds.

Spring Break at Walt Disney World - Low Crowds at Opening

The above picture, taken during another spring break season at Walt Disney World, shows the low crowds first thing in the morning.

Spring Break Walt Disney World - Fantasyland Crowds

Here is the same scene just two hours later.

Although these picture are a few years old now (you can tell by the FastPass machines on the left in the top image, which are no longer in use at Walt Disney World), the pattern remains the same. Lower crowds first thing in the morning, with very crowded walkways and busy attraction lines as the day progresses.

Another often-overlooked bonus of arriving early is that it helps you maximize your use of Disney’s FastPass system (or FastPass+ at Walt Disney World).

FastPass+ System at Walt Disney World

The image above shows FastPass+ (FP+) in use at Walt Disney World. Arriving early allows you to use your first three FP+ reservations earlier in the day, which opens up the possibility of obtaining more FP+ slots once you’ve used your first three. If you arrive much later in the day, it’s more likely that “good” FP+ slots will be sold out, leaving you at a disadvantage to those who arrived early.

Disneyland - Radiator Springs Racers FastPass Ticket

If you’re visiting Disneyland, arriving early is especially key. Consider the FastPass (FP) ticket above, which is for the most in-demand FP attraction at the Disneyland resort, Radiator Springs Racers. This image was taken last year before spring break began in earnest, near the end of February. Even so, the time stamp on the FP ticket shows it was obtained just before 11:00am, and the “return time” on the FP ticket is already 4:25pm. Had I attempted to obtain that FP ticket much later, they would have been sold out for the entire day, leaving me with little choice but to wait in a very long line.

The other huge advantage of arriving early related to FastPass is that early in the day, the return time on many FP tickets is just 40 minutes away, and once your first FP is valid, you can also obtain another FP ticket.

Contrast this with later in the day, when you might have to wait two hours before obtaining your next FP ticket. This puts you at a really big disadvantage compared to someone who arrived early!

Tip #2: Have a Plan!

Since I’m the main software developer behind RideMax, I’m sure you saw this one coming, and I’m also sure I’m biased in favor of using an optimized “game plan” to visit the attractions you want to see on any given day. But really, in this day and age when a computer can do the work of figuring out an optimized, customized itinerary for you, why would you NOT take advantage of this?

I know there are free “wait time” apps out there as well, but how much good does it really do you to pull up that wait time app in the middle of the day, only to be told that the wait for Space Mountain is now 90 minutes? I don’t know about you, but whether the wait is 90 minutes or 120 minutes, I don’t want to be waiting in that line. And to AVOID that long line, it helps to make your “touring order” decisions before you even step foot in the park.

Remember, you’re likely spending THOUSANDS of dollars on this trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. Debating whether to spend another $15-$20 to help you make the most of your precious time in the parks seems almost silly.

Walt Disney World Crowds at Rope Drop

In addition to the itinerary itself, RideMax also includes some in-plan tips to help you navigate that plan. So, for example, if you’re facing a pre-opening crowd like the one shown in the image above, but you’re trying to visit Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Radiator Springs Racers first thing in the morning, those tips can help you know where to line up and how to navigate that brisk walk to the attraction entrance in such a way as to boost your advantage over those crowds.

So yes, buy RideMax. Use it. Have a plan!

Tip #3: Have a Daily Rhythm that Helps You Stick to Tips #1 and #2!

Magic Kingdom Clock

If you’re visiting the Disney theme parks over multiple days, it’s easy to underestimate how much physical stamina this will require. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to wipe yourself out the very first day of your visit, making it nearly impossible to stick to Tip #1 (arriving early) the next day. And if you’re not following Tip #1, it’s easy to assume that Tip #2 (having a carefully-created game plan) has gone out the window as well.

World of Color - Disney California Adventure
Early mornings, full days, and late nights. Something’s gotta give!

OK, I know what you might be thinking. “But I’m so excited about this trip that I’ve been planning for months, there’s NO WAY I’ll get worn out being in those Disney theme parks. The thrill of being there will get me through the day, and I’ll be excited and ready to go the next day too!”

My advice: Just STOP! Realistically think about this for a minute, especially if you’re taking young children to the park. Even doing something as fun as a Disney visit, none of us is super-human. Just with all of the walking involved alone, you WILL get worn out if you’re not careful.

So, what is the best daily rhythm to help avoid burnout?

One key to having a relaxing visit to is purposefully include some “down time” in your plans. And since the crowds are at their peak (and you’re the least productive) during the afternoon hours, my recommendation is to arrive early in the day, but take an afternoon break back at the hotel during the busy afternoon hours.

If you create a RideMax plan which begins when the park opens and runs late into the evening, you’ll often find that it includes a large block of “free time” on the plan in the afternoon. This “free time” is the time left over after all of your attractions have been scheduled for the day. And the afternoon is also an ideal time to get out of the park and take a rest, whether you’re using a RideMax plan or not. Taking an afternoon break will allow you to return later in the evening re-energized, PLUS make it more likely you’ll be able to repeat the early arrival process the next morning as well.

Along with the afternoon break, if your schedule allows, I also recommend a two-day-on, one-day-off schedule for visiting the parks. That is, you’d visit the parks for two days, then take the third day off completely, before returning to the parks on days four and five. Taking this “day off” further increases your chances of having an enjoyable vacation, rather than something that feels like the Forced Death March to Dumbo.

Tip #4: Buy Your Park Tickets in Advance!

This tip applies especially to Walt Disney World visitors, because you need to actually have your tickets in-hand before you can go online and schedule your FP+ reservations. And since Disney hotel guests can set up their FP+ reservations up to 60 days in advance, it puts you at a huge disadvantage if you’re waiting until just a few days before your vacation to make your own FP+ reservations, since reservations for very popular attractions “sell out” early. It’s even worse if you purchase your tickets at the park gates, since many of the “good” FP+ reservations will be long gone by the day of your actual visit.

So, buy your tickets in advance and get a nice jump on those FP+ reservations. Waiting until you’re actually at the park to buy them is a very costly mistake in terms of making the most of your time in the parks.

Tip #5: Avoid Early Entry!

Disneyland Magic Morning

Disneyland hosts an early entry program for its hotel guests and special ticket-holders called “Magic Morning,” which is available on certain days of the week. At Disney California Adventure and Walt Disney World, the similar program is called “Extra Magic Hours,” or “EMH,” for short. Regardless of the name, these programs allow these special-access guests to enter the park one hour before the official opening time on selected days of the week.

Although Disney sells this early access as a “bonus,” the reality is that the program draws thousands of extra visitors into the park hosting early entry on any given date. So while I may not *always* recommend against visiting a given park on its early entry day, as a general rule of thumb, it’s a good practice to simply avoid it. This is especially true if you don’t have access to early entry yourself, since it can negate much of the advantage of following Tip #1, arriving early. You can’t get a jump on the crowds by arriving early if thousands of guests are already in the park by the time you’re allowed entry.

Note that Disneyland normally hosts Magic Morning on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with DCA hosting EMH the other days of the week. Again, I recommend visiting these parks on the days of the week when the OTHER park is hosting early entry. Walt Disney World’s EMH schedule (that is, which park is hosting EMH on any given date) can change from month to month or even from week to week, so I recommend checking the Walt Disney World website for the daily schedule during the date(s) of your visit.

Disney California Adventure Trolley

Have Fun!

I hope you’ve found these five tips helpful in making the most of your spring break vacation to Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

As always, be sure to check out RideMax to help you create optimized and customized game plans for visiting the parks.

If you have further ideas or suggestions for beating those spring break crowds, please share them in the comments below!

Oh, and have a great trip!

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RideMax Roulette Tuesday at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

RideMax Roulette at Disney's Animal Kingdom

I’m heading out tomorrow (Tuesday, January 12th) for another round of RideMax Roulette, this time at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Feel free to follow along as I send out live tweets and Facebook updates throughout the day. Who knows, I may even try out that Periscope thing for a ride on Expedition Everest or something. You can find me at the Periscope username @RideMax4Disney.

For those who’ve followed the blog for a while, you know that RideMax Roulette is a sort of game where I choose a set of attractions at random, and plug them into the RideMax optimizing software. I then take the resulting plan to the park to see how well it works out. Playing this game gives me a good chance to test the plans RideMax comes up with, as well as — quite frankly — forces me to visit attractions I might not otherwise be all that inclined to see.

One additional goal with tomorrow’s plan is to check out the new Pizzafari restaurant, something I haven’t done since it came out of refurbishment a little over a month or so ago. Josh over at easyWDW did a write-up on this recently, which has me intrigued.

My random number generator came up with the following list of attractions for tomorrow’s visit. I’ve listed these in alphabetical order:

  • Dinosaur
  • Dinosaur again (yes, we’re doing this one twice)
  • Discovery Island Trails
  • Expedition Everest
  • Finding Nemo, the Musical
  • Flights of Wonder
  • It’s Tough to Be a Bug
  • Maharajah Jungle Trek
  • Primeval Whirl
  • Primeval Whirl (yes, also twice — hopefully no barf-bag required)
  • TriceraTop Spin

This may seem like sort of a “softball” list of attractions, as I’m expecting tomorrow at Animal Kingdom to be fairly uncrowded. Tomorrow is a RideMax “recommended day” for Animal Kingdom, coming off an Extra Magic Hours morning day today. To make things even easier, Kilimanjaro Safaris didn’t even come up in the list of attractions I’ll be visiting. I decided to push ahead anyway.  🙂

For FastPass+ selections, I decided to tell RideMax I wanted to use FP+ at Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, and Primeval Whirl. I also plugged in a lunch break at Pizzafari, and RideMax came up with the following game plan for the day.

RideMaxRouletteDisneysAnimalKingdom

We’ll see how this actually works out in practice, but on paper, it looks pretty decent, with just an estimated 64-minute wait to visit 11 attractions, or just six minutes per attraction. Even if you take out the two zero-wait “walking” attractions — Discovery Island Trails and Maharajah Jungle Trek — the average wait is still just a hair above seven minutes each, and that assumes we arrive 20 minutes early to wait for Finding Nemo. Overall, this looks like a great day with very little wait.

Continuing on with the planning, as a further confirmation of my expectation of low crowds tomorrow, I didn’t have any trouble securing FP+ reservations at the times recommended by RideMax on this plan, even though I made the reservations this afternoon, just one day before my visit. Here’s a really big picture taken from my phone, just to emphasize the point (and because I’m too lazy to size it down lol):

AnimalKingdomFastPassPlus

Note that if I hadn’t been able to secure the FP+ reservation times shown in this RideMax plan, I would have used the new feature added recently to RideMax which allows me to specify the times at which I want to use my FP+ reservations, and had RideMax recalculate accordingly.

So, wish me luck on my quest tomorrow. Again, feel free to follow along on Twitter, Facebook, or (possibly) Periscope @RideMax4Disney. I also welcome any guests for lunch at Pizzafari if you’re free at the lunchtime shown on the RideMax plan.

Here’s looking forward to tomorrow!

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Disneyland and Walt Disney World Spring Break 2015 — Four Tips to Reduce Your Wait

Here we go again — it’s the time of year when people start planning that spring break trip to the theme parks. Whether you plan to visit Disneyland or Walt Disney World, here are four tips that can help you avoid the crowds and have a successful, fun vacation:

  • Arrive early, well before the park opens for the day
  • Buy your tickets in advance
  • Have a game plan
  • Choose the “right” park for your visit date

Let’s elaborate on these in more detail.

Tip #1: Arrive Early, Before the Park Opens for the Day

When visiting Disney’s theme parks during crowded seasons of the year especially, it’s important to be at the front gates well before the park opens for the day.

Consider the two pictures below, taken a couple of years ago at the Magic Kingdom during spring break. The first shows what Fantasyland looked like just after the park opened for the day:

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-8f7jvBt/0/X2/i-8f7jvBt-X2.jpg

Now, compare this to following picture taken two hours later:

Magic Kingdom Spring Break -- Mid-morning

Arriving early gives you access to the shorter lines right after the park opens, as you can imagine. But another huge advantage of arriving early is that it helps you get the most out of the FastPass-Plus (FP+) system at Walt Disney World, and the FastPass (FP) system at Disneyland.

At Walt Disney World’s theme parks, where the FP+ system is now in full use (with no paper FPs in use at all anymore), arriving early allows you to use your FP+ reservations earlier in the day, opening up the possibility of obtaining more FP+ slots once you’ve used your first three.

At Disneyland, arriving early is even more critical for efficient FastPass (FP) use. For those who aren’t aware, after you obtain your first FP ticket, you can’t obtain another one until either two hours have elapsed, or until the “ride window” for that first FP ticket has arrived, whichever comes first. Early in the day, those FP windows can be as close as 40 minutes away from the time at which you obtained the FP ticket, allowing you to get your next FP ticket 40 minutes after the first. Contrast this with later in the day, when the return windows for some of the more popular attractions can stretch out to several hours away instead, forcing you to wait the full two hours before you can get your next FP ticket.

The other significant thing to note about the Disneyland FP tickets is that they can “sell out” by midday for some rides (depending on crowd levels), so arriving early helps you to not get “locked out” entirely from getting FPs for certain attractions.

Tip #2: Buy Your Tickets In Advance

If you’re visiting Walt Disney World especially, it’s critical that you buy your tickets well in advance of your trip.

Disney allows you to make your FP+ reservations 60 days in advance if you’re staying onsite in a Disney hotel, and 30 days in advance if you’re staying offsite. And FP+ reservations for popular attractions and time slots can sell out very early, so it’s important to secure those FP+ reservations as far in advance of your trip as you can.

The catch here is that you have to have your actual tickets in hand before you can make those FP+ reservations. Once you have your ticket numbers, you can create an account on Walt Disney World’s My Disney Experience website and “link” these tickets to your account. Once that’s done, you can make your actual FP+ reservations.

Note that if you’re using RideMax to create and optimize your itineraries, the RideMax plan will tell you when it thinks it’s best to actually use those FP+ tickets. So the idea is that once you have your RideMax plans created, you then go into My Disney Experience and adjust your FP+ reservations to match the times shown on your RideMax plans.

The point is that the earlier you make your FP+ reservations, the more likely it is that you can get the time slots you want (or which your RideMax plan specifies). So buying your tickets in advance is critical.

For Disneyland visitors, the same “buy tickets early” advice applies, but it’s not nearly as important as it is for WDW guests. If you buy your Disneyland tickets in advance, it can save you some hassle the first morning of your visit, since you won’t have to wait in line at one of the ticket counters. You can also get access to one of Disneyland’s Magic Morning hours if you’re purchasing a 3-day or higher ticket online. This in itself can be a huge advantage if you wish to take advantage of Magic Morning.

Tip #3: Have a Basic Game Plan

OK, you probably figured this was coming, since I earn my living from the RideMax planning tool. But even if the detailed planning that RideMax allows isn’t quite your thing, you’ll still benefit greatly by mapping out at least a partial game plan in advance of your trip. Give at least give some thought to which attractions you want to start your day with, and then go from there.

Visiting your attractions in an efficient order can literally make or break your day, especially when the park is crowded, so I’d advise spending at least a few minutes before your trip thinking this through. This will help keep you from wandering around the park with your head buried in the park map trying to figure this out on the fly later.

Tip #4: Choose the “Right” Park for Your Visit Date

Radiator Springs Racers

In addition to arriving early, you can save yourself a lot of grief if you choose the “right” park for your visit date.

The example photo above shows absolutely nobody in front of me as I made my way to Radiator Springs Racers. The catch is that for most guests, this is only possible on certain days of the week.

The reason for this is that both Disneyland and Walt Disney World host some an “early entry” program for their hotel guests, which gives these guests access to one of the parks one hour early on specific days of the week. For example, Disney hotel guests are normally allowed early entry to DCA on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and to Disneyland on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

If you’re not staying at a Disney-owned hotel and still want to get a jump on the crowds by arriving early, the best way to do this is to simply avoid the park hosting early entry on the day of you visit, and go to another park instead. For example, the picture above was taken on a Tuesday, when Disneyland, and NOT DCA, was hosting early entry. Had I gone straight to Radiator Springs Racers when the park opened to the public on a Monday instead, I would have found a large line for this attraction right at opening time. (And do yourself a favor and steer clear of Peter Pan on an early entry day at Disneyland, unless you have early access yourself!)

You’ll see a similar scene play out at Walt Disney World, which normally hosts “Extra Magic Hours” at one of its theme parks each morning as well. (Walt Disney World RideMax subscribers can find our “Which Day, Which Park?” recommendations in the RideMax “Tips & Hints” pages, or you can consult the Walt Disney World website for the early entry schedule also.)

So, do yourself a favor this spring break and avoid the crowds by arriving early, buying your tickets in advance, having a game plan, and choosing the right park for your visit date. I think you’ll be glad you did!

Are you planning a spring break visit to Disneyland or Walt Disney World? I’d love to hear your comments below!

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Three Tips to Reduce Your Wait at Radiator Springs Racers

Radiator Spring Racers at Disney California Adventure

Even though Cars Land opened almost two years ago, the crowds can still be pretty intense, especially for this new land’s centerpiece attraction, Radiator Springs Racers.

Here are three tips to reduce your wait.

Tip #1: Use FastPass (duh!)

This may seem obvious, but using the FastPass system is a good way to reduce your wait on this ride. The trick, however, is that because the attraction is still so popular, FastPass tickets can run out very early in the day. So in order to take advantage of this tip, you’ll need to get in line for the FastPass machines no later than about 40 or 50 minutes after the park opens. You might get away with later than this on days of very low attendance, but why push your luck?

Another less-obvious point here is that the lines can start out very long just to get a FastPass ticket, with the line forming near the Carthay Circle Theater even before the park has opened for the day. After about 30 or 40 minutes though, the line to get FastPasses will normally start to die down. As a result, if you’re using RideMax to plan your visit, you may find that the plan doesn’t have you get in line for the FastPass tickets until after you’ve already visited another attraction, while you wait for the FastPass line to die down a bit here.

Tip #2: Use the Single Rider Line

Radiator Springs Racers Single Rider Line Entrance

A perhaps less well-known fact is that Radiator Springs Racers offers a separate “single rider” line. For those unfamiliar with the single rider concept, you can use this line to avoid most of the wait, but the cost is that your party will most likely be split up, so that you ride in separate vehicles. The picture above shows the entrance to the single rider line, which is just to the left of the main attraction entrance.

The single rider line likely won’t be an option for you if you have very young children who would be uncomfortable riding with strangers. But for older children and adults, it offers a very viable alternative to standing in a very long standby line. We’ve sometimes found ourselves even lucky enough to either ride in the same vehicle with someone else in our party, or — and this is even more fun — racing against someone in our group who happened to be seated in the car we “competed” with as part of the ride experience.

Tip #3: Arrive Early on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday

Radiator Springs Racers - No Line

You may have read this tip and thought, “OK, I can see the logic in arriving early, but what is so special about Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday?

Disney offers “Extra Magic Hours” (EMH) to its hotel guests, where they are allowed to enter DCA one hour before the “official” park opening time. EMH for DCA takes place on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So even if you arrive early on one of these days of the week hoping to beat the rush to Radiator Springs Racers, you’ll find hotel guests already in the park, many (most?) of which will try to visit RSR during the EMH hour, making for a long line right at park opening time.

One common misconception here is that park-hopper “bonus” ticket holders sometimes think that their one-day “Magic Morning” privileges apply to DCA — they don’t. Magic Morning is ONLY available for use at Disneyland. If you want access to DCA’s EMH, you’ll need to stay at one of the Disney hotels.

You know I have to save something for subscribers, so if you’re a RideMax subscriber, please also be sure to check out our “Tips & Hints” pages within RideMax itself, where we give some very detailed advice — complete with pictures — regarding this particular tip, including where to position yourself once inside the park. That advice can help you further beat the crowds to Radiator Springs Racers right at opening time.

For those of you who have visited DCA since Cars Land opened, what did you think? Do you like the new attractions? What is your favorite?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

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