With our update today, we’ve added some arrival tips for DCA to RideMax, as well as some specific advice for the Cars Land attractions in certain scenarios. (This advice can change or display depending on whether you’re visiting on a Magic Morning day or not, or the time of day you arrive at the park.) These new tips will appear automatically as you view a web-based plan, either with the desktop or mobile web versions of RideMax, or as you create new plans with the Windows version.
With the busy fall break season upon us, I’m hoping these new tips will help you get more from your visit to DCA.
Crowds streaming into the new Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. See our new tips for avoiding the wait!
We’ve just published advice for navigating the new Cars Land attractions at Disney California Adventure. If you’re a RideMax subscriber, be sure to check out this new page in the RideMax Tips & Hints!
For those of you who have patiently waiting, we’ve just published plans for June 15th-30th for Disneyland and DCA. Plans for DCA after June 15th include the new Cars Land attractions, and we expect to be in the park opening weekend looking at wait times and gathering data to help us refine our estimates further.
For those creating DCA plans for these new dates, please pay special attention to the “Arrival” tips at the top of these plans on specific dates, as well as the attractions-specific tips at the bottom of the plan, as we’ve added several new tips related to the Cars Land opening.
Hollywood Studios log-jam before the new opening procedure went into effect. These "rope-drop" crowds are a thing of the past, but you need to arrive early to take advantage of this!
We’ve now updated RideMax to show an 8:45am opening time for Disney’s Hollywood Studios on days when DHS isn’t hosting morning Extra Magic Hours.
Although the “official” park opening time remains 9:00am, for all practical purposes the “real” opening time is typically 8:45am now. By reflecting this more accurately in RideMax, I’m hoping it will help with the overall planning process.
Note that Toy Story Midway Mania may be the ONLY attraction that actually opens early, but this extra 15 minutes is huge, especially since the lines for TSMM can build so quickly.
With the new opening procedure guests are allowed all the way into the attraction areas of the park as soon as the turnstiles open at 8:45am, with no more pre-opening ceremony or “rope drop” to hold everyone back. The new procedure causes guests to gradually filter into the park through the turnstiles, rather than forcing everyone into a crazy, crowd-packed mobbed heading over to TSMM.
Although I much prefer the new opening procedure, in order to take full advantage of it you’ll still need to arrive early in order to help ensure a position near the front of the turnstiles.
For our Disney World RideMax subscribers, I hope you’ll find this update helpful.
Arriving early just to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster? Don't Bother. (Click for larger image)
Just a quick post today.
If you’re a RideMax subscriber, or if you read some of the great Disney-related blogs, you know that Disney’s Hollywood Studios normally allows guests through the turnstiles about 15 minutes before the “official” opening time.
When I visited the Studios yesterday, however, I noticed that the only attraction that was actually open for guests before 9:00am was Toy Story Midway Mania.
While you could get a FastPass for both Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster right away, the standby lines for both of these were held back until the “official” 9:00am opening time.
An early return time for Toy Story Midway Mania. The nicest benefit for arriving early!
So, if you’re arriving early thinking you’ll actually be able to visit Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster right away, you’re better advised to visit Toy Story Mania instead. By doing this, you can also get a VERY early return time for the Toy Story FastPass, as shown in the image above.
Still a question in my mind is how best to handle this early opening in RideMax. Would you like to see us actually move the “opening time” in the software to 8:45am? Any other suggestions?
