Extra Magic Hour/Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass

[novawildcat18]

How did you like, or dislike the ride?

It was amazing. One of the best I've ever been on and we rode it twice. In fact, I loved the entire California Adventure park but ill go into more detail when my vacation's over and then I can use my laptop instead of my iPad to write some sort of a trip report.

 

[Californian Elitist]

It was amazing. One of the best I've ever been on and we rode it twice. In fact, I loved the entire California Adventure park but ill go into more detail when my vacation's over and then I can use my laptop instead of my iPad to write some sort of a trip report.

Looking forward to it.

 

[fosse76]

So you can pick up fastpasses starting at 8:00 on EMH days for resort guests? We will be there in June, good to know you don't have to wait until 9:00 for them to start distributing them.

When you get back, I'd be curious to hear how the EMH line was. Good luck.

The FP line for RRS forms as soon as the gates open, regardless as to whether or not the park is officially open. However, the actual distribution of FPs does not occur until the park officially opens. Now, it has been three weeks since I was last there, but it is not likely to have changed.

As for single rider, they opened it once the first standby riders to get in line reached the loading area.

 

[shipley731]

As for single rider, they opened it once the first standby riders to get in line reached the loading area.

Thank you! Any time we go on test track at WDW, we always use single rider.

 

[007mickey]

The FP line for RRS forms as soon as the gates open, regardless as to whether or not the park is officially open. However, the actual distribution of FPs does not occur until the park officially opens. Now, it has been three weeks since I was last there, but it is not likely to have changed.

As for single rider, they opened it once the first standby riders to get in line reached the loading area.

Good info fosse76, sounds like your okay if your ride first thing during EMH but getting into the fastpass line after your ride could produce a lengthy wait. I'm anxious to hear how Blueliner's plan goes.

Another question, if the park gates typically open 25 minutes early for guests, what happens on EMH days? Do non-resort guests just hang out, shop or get in fastpass lines while the resort guests can ride attratctions? I'm assuming showing your resort ID card is what will seperate the resort from non-resort guests for riding?

 

[fosse76]

Good info fosse76, sounds like your okay if your ride first thing during EMH but getting into the fastpass line after your ride could produce a lengthy wait. I'm anxious to hear how Blueliner's plan goes.

Another question, if the park gates typically open 25 minutes early for guests, what happens on EMH days? Do non-resort guests just hang out, shop or get in fastpass lines while the resort guests can ride attratctions? I'm assuming showing your resort ID card is what will seperate the resort from non-resort guests for riding?

Every non-EMH guest is "penned" in a roped area next to Carthay Circle Restaurant. To the left is a roped-off queue for RSR FastPasses, and to the right is a roped-off queue for Magic Morning guests. It starts by the Red Car Trolley stop, and guests need to show their room card (or whatever they use) to get through.

 

[thomas998]

Hello all. We will be checking into the Villas at the Grand Californian on Sunday night, March 17, and plan to hit DCA bright and early on Monday morning with the Extra Magic Hour.

Might anybody be able to tell me whether they think the line to pick up Radiator Springs Racers Fastpasses will be crazy even at 8:00 on Monday morning?

It's not a big deal either way, but I was just curious as to what we might expect crowd-wise on a Monday morning in mid-March.

With our only other Disneyland experience, we were staying at the HoJo and used our early park admission at Disneyland Park on an early December Saturday morning. We were able to ride the Matterhorn and virtually everything in Fantasyland during the Extra Magic Hour.

Here's to hoping we have the same kind of luck during our three days in the parks (March 18-20).

March is when a lot of schools have spring breaks... So you might find that the crowds during the week are actually heavier than you might expect.

As for RSR, we last did it in the fall when we were there for 5 days, Wed - Sun... we tried to do the RSR fastpass Wed and Friday and on both days were not willing to stand in the extremely long line for the fastpass...If you are lucky some of the newness will have worn off by the time you get there, if not be prepared for a line... Also cross your fingers that the bugs have been worked out of RSR because when we were there it broke down quite a bit and that will make your wait much worse.... In the end if you miss it you haven't missed much, no one in my family was willing to go through the hassle to ride it a second time... a bit over hyped.

 

[TrolleyFollower91]

We did RSR during EMH this morning. We walked right to the ride from the Grand Californian entrance and had about a 15-20 minute wait. The Fastpass machines do not start operating until regular park hours, but we didn't check the line once the park opened. I do know that yesterday we arrived around 10:45 and got a Fastpass for 6:40 (there was no line). RSR is absolutely worth an hour wait. I wouldn't wait any longer than that, but single rider is a good option. Most of the people who ride single riders do end up in the same car (one in the front, one in the back). Unless you have really little kids or want to get the picture your party really doesn't have to be together.

Also, try to pay attention to all the details in the cue and throughout Cars Land. Many people simply run down the street and through the line, but Disney put incredible detail into the Land and it's beautiful!!

 

[007mickey]

We did RSR during EMH this morning. We walked right to the ride from the Grand Californian entrance and had about a 15-20 minute wait. The Fastpass machines do not start operating until regular park hours, but we didn't check the line once the park opened. I do know that yesterday we arrived around 10:45 and got a Fastpass for 6:40 (there was no line). RSR is absolutely worth an hour wait. I wouldn't wait any longer than that, but single rider is a good option. Most of the people who ride single riders do end up in the same car (one in the front, one in the back). Unless you have really little kids or want to get the picture your party really doesn't have to be together.

Also, try to pay attention to all the details in the cue and throughout Cars Land. Many people simply run down the street and through the line, but Disney put incredible detail into the Land and it's beautiful!!

Really great information (for a DLR newbie), thank you.

 

[Blueliner]

We did RSR during EMH this morning. We walked right to the ride from the Grand Californian entrance and had about a 15-20 minute wait. The Fastpass machines do not start operating until regular park hours, but we didn't check the line once the park opened. I do know that yesterday we arrived around 10:45 and got a Fastpass for 6:40 (there was no line). RSR is absolutely worth an hour wait. I wouldn't wait any longer than that, but single rider is a good option. Most of the people who ride single riders do end up in the same car (one in the front, one in the back). Unless you have really little kids or want to get the picture your party really doesn't have to be together.

Also, try to pay attention to all the details in the cue and throughout Cars Land. Many people simply run down the street and through the line, but Disney put incredible detail into the Land and it's beautiful!!

Great stuff. Thanks! We are now a little over a week away (We'll start with Sea World next Saturday, San Diego Zoo and Old Town San Diego next Sunday), and I am having a hard time focusing on work right now.

 

[TrolleyFollower91]

Great stuff. Thanks! We are now a little over a week away (We'll start with Sea World next Saturday, San Diego Zoo and Old Town San Diego next Sunday), and I am having a hard time focusing on work right now.

Awesome! You're going to have such a blast!! The San Diego Zoo is spectacular! We are WDW vets (2-3 times per year) and make it out West every 8 years or so. We ended up loving DCA more than Disneyland, but both are great. I'm excited for you to experience it all!!

 

[Brer Josh]

Just adding to the above, be sure you get to the GCH CAP entrance about 30 minutes before the park opens, otherwise you will face a lengthy wait to get in.

There is only 2/3 people doing a bag check and there are only 2 turnstiles to enter. Also, if you are using a multipass for the first time you have to have a photo taken and each time you enter either park they have to scan your ticket for the photo.

That doesn't sound timely but trust me, having been there in January, the delays at the GCH entrance will cost you if you want to get in at the start of EMH. We got there 15 minutes before the park opened and didn't get in until 10 minutes after it opened.

Also, another alternative is to go to TSM and CS, as these have no waits and you can ride multiple times. You can always go back for a RSR fastpass before it opens to the public as they aren't allowed to join the line until then.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Also, if you are using a multipass for the first time you have to have a photo taken and each time you enter either park they have to scan your ticket for the photo.

So they did switch multiday tickets over to the AP system where Photopass takes your picture and it's linked to your ticket? I was there when they first started checking everyone's ID with multiday tickets and it made the lines to get in the parks sloooooow. I would be really excited if they fixed it.

 

[TrolleyFollower91]

So they did switch multiday tickets over to the AP system where Photopass takes your picture and it's linked to your ticket? I was there when they first started checking everyone's ID with multiday tickets and it made the lines to get in the parks sloooooow. I would be really excited if they fixed it.

It's not Photopass, it's literally a cast member with an iPhone. I wouldn't get too excited, the process is still really slow, especially if you get behind a party where everyone needs a new picture. Plus, it takes several seconds for your picture to appear on the screen. After that, your ticket is handed to the cast member at the turnstile who scans it AGAIN and then you can walk through. It still seems like a really inefficient process to me, DLR should switch to the bio metric readers like WDW IMHO.

 

[Blueliner]

Awesome! You're going to have such a blast!! The San Diego Zoo is spectacular! We are WDW vets (2-3 times per year) and make it out West every 8 years or so. We ended up loving DCA more than Disneyland, but both are great. I'm excited for you to experience it all!!

Thank you much!

 

[Blueliner]

Just adding to the above, be sure you get to the GCH CAP entrance about 30 minutes before the park opens, otherwise you will face a lengthy wait to get in.

There is only 2/3 people doing a bag check and there are only 2 turnstiles to enter. Also, if you are using a multipass for the first time you have to have a photo taken and each time you enter either park they have to scan your ticket for the photo.

That doesn't sound timely but trust me, having been there in January, the delays at the GCH entrance will cost you if you want to get in at the start of EMH. We got there 15 minutes before the park opened and didn't get in until 10 minutes after it opened.

Also, another alternative is to go to TSM and CS, as these have no waits and you can ride multiple times. You can always go back for a RSR fastpass before it opens to the public as they aren't allowed to join the line until then.

Yikes! Thanks for the advice. We actually will be using Southern California Citypasses, so I will make sure I know the drill the night before our first day in the parks. I wonder whether we might be better off walking around to the main gate.

 

[Brer Josh]

We only did the GCH entrance twice and to be honest, I only really see the benefit of it as being a quick exit at the end of the day. It's great if you don't want to get into the park early - but that's kind of the whole point of staying there.

 

[lego606]

It's not Photopass, it's literally a cast member with an iPhone. I wouldn't get too excited, the process is still really slow, especially if you get behind a party where everyone needs a new picture. Plus, it takes several seconds for your picture to appear on the screen. After that, your ticket is handed to the cast member at the turnstile who scans it AGAIN and then you can walk through. It still seems like a really inefficient process to me, DLR should switch to the bio metric readers like WDW IMHO.

They really should just link the two ticket systems and be done with it.

 

[Brer Josh]

Yep, having been to WDW with the Plastic Card and bio print, it seemed very strange to have paper tickets at DLR.

I understand they have to take steps to combat second hand sales but really is at the expense of quick access to the parks for a lot of people with legitimate tickets.

I can't quite workout why it is being handled the way it is.

 

[Blueliner]

We are back from our family adventure in California. We had an absolute blast from San Diego to San Francisco over the course of the past nine days, but our favorite part by far was staying in a 2BR villa at the Grand Californian that overlooked Paradise Pier and visting the two Disneyland parks.

To close the loop on this thread, our strategy was to enter Disney Califronia Adventure for the extra magic hour last Monday and Wednesday through the main gate instead of the hotel entrance. Even the cast member at the front desk suggested that we do this. We were at the main gate turnstiles by about 7:40 and were in the park near Carthay Circle in time to be near the front of the parade to Radiator Springs Racers at rope drop.

On Monday, we had about a 15 minute wait for Radiator Springs Racers. (We absolutely loved the ride, by the way). After we rode, I got in line for fastpasses (I was the fourth in line, and the fastpass machines opened right at 9:00). My family rode Toy Story Midway Mania and California Screamin' while I waited for the fastpasses. Our fastpasses were for 9:40-10:40, and the line already was getting long as I exited the fastpass machines at about 9:02.

On Wednesday, we again went straight to Radiator Springs Racers at the EMH rope drop and had about a 10 minute wait. We then walked on to Luigi's Flying Tires (which I actually thought was a lot of fun, at least with no wait) and then moved over to Tower of Terror (foregoing more RSR fastpasses this time around). As were were exiting the Tower of Terror (probably about 9:15 or so), the fastpass line for Radiator Springs Racers stretched nearly to the Hyperion Theater. It was insane!

In hindsight, the only thing I might have done differently would have been to keep the family together after riding RSR, move to Luigi's Flying Tires and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and then get in line for fastpasses (at about 8:45 or so). We still would have avoided the crazy long fastpass line, but would have been able to visit the three Carsland attractions in short order before moving on to another section of the park.

I may end up writing my first ever trip report at some point after unpacking/recovering from the trip.
I can sum up our family's impression of the Disneyland Resort by saying that we already are looking into another trip within the next couple of years. Three days in the parks was just about perfect for us (a fourth day might have been ideal, but only to allow us to slow down a bit). The ability to walk everywhere around the resort was awesome, the nightime shows were incredible, and there was just a feeling that management making an effort to impress rather than going through the motions.