Touring Disneyland Part 1

I will conclude my blog posts about Disneyland with thoughts about strategies for touring in Disneyland. In this post I will cover choosing tickets and using FastPass and Single Rider to save time in line.


Tickets

I went to Disneyland for 5 days because that is the longest ticket you can buy and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to do everything I wanted to do. In the end I probably could have got by with 4 days because I spent almost all of the last day re-riding my favourite attractions. According to TouringPlans.com the days I visited had about average crowds - during a high crowd period 5 days might have been more necessary (5 days might also be necessary during a low crowd period if it meant that opening hours were shorter).

I decided to get a park-hopper for a couple of reasons. Firstly, since it had been so long since I had been to Disneyland, I thought that I would want to go to both parks on my first day. Similarly, since I don't know how long it will be until I go back to Disneyland again, I wanted to be able to visit both parks on my last day as well. It also gave me more flexibility in how I split my days (I ended up spending a little over 3 days in Disneyland and a little under 2 days in California Adventure).

Some people like to have a park-hopper because the FastPass machines in the two parks are not connected to each other so having a park-hopper means you can get twice as many FastPasses. But because I was able to use Single Rider, I didn't need to use a lot of FastPasses, so I never took advantage of this. At some times of year, a park-hopper also lets you start at the park that opens first and finish at the park that opens last, but when I was there the opening hours for the 2 parks were mostly the same.

I bought my ticket online in order to be able to take advantage of Magic Morning (early entry). I discovered when I actually arrived that I also could have bought a ticket at my hotel that included Magic Morning, but tickets bought at the ticket booths don't include it. I printed off my ticket at home and exchanged it for a paper ticket at the park turnstiles (a very quick process).

FastPass

Disneyland still uses the old FastPass system - you go to a kiosk near the ride and get a paper ticket with a return time on it. Most rides with long wait times have FastPass available, but not all of them. Many (but again not all) rides with FastPass also offered Single Rider. The big downside to the FastPass system at Disneyland is that the extra walking time to get the FastPass and then return to the ride later in the day cuts into the time that you save in line. For many rides the FastPass and standby lines merge before you actually get to the ride vehicle, so you only reduce, not eliminate, the wait.

Because I was able to use Single Rider, there were not many cases where FastPasses were useful to me. In some cases the FastPass return time was not very far away and I was able to stay nearby in the meantime (touring a bug's land while waiting for my Tower of Terror return time, eating lunch while waiting for my Soarin' return time). The ride where I found FastPass most useful was Space Mountain.

Single Rider

Many rides at Disneyland (a lot more than at Disney World) have a single rider line. Basically people are pulled from the single rider line one at a time to fill in empty spots in ride vehicles. The single rider line is usually shorter than the regular standby line, sometimes by a lot. If you are in a group you probably won't get to sit together and everyone in the party must be at least 7, but for some rides the time saved is probably worth it. As a solo traveller, the Single Rider was pretty much a no-brainer in most cases.

The rides where I found Single Rider most useful were Matterhorn, California Screamin' and Grizzly River Run. All of these turned waits of over half an hour into less than 5 minutes. The Single Rider at Radiator Springs Racers did save a lot of time (because the regular line was so long) but there was still a bit of a wait. Indiana Jones had a very confusing Single Rider line that didn't save a lot of time. Soarin' Single Rider may not save any time at all.

In some cases (e.g., Radiator Springs Racers) the Single Rider line is very straightforward and clearly marked. However, the exact procedure differs from ride to ride. At Indiana Jones and Grizzly River Run you need to go to the regular entrance and get a Single Rider card then enter through the exit. There is a separate Single Rider entrance at Matterhorn (near the loading area) and California Screamin' (towards Pacific Wharf from the regular entrance). If in doubt, ask the CM at the regular/standby entrance.