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Old 09-14-2012, 08:13 PM   #1
smoore424
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Advice for DCA and Carsland

Hello,

With the opening of Carsland does anyone have advice for tackling DCA? A normal DCA day for us is as follows:

1). Be at gate an hour before scheduled opening
2). Park unofficially opens 30 minutes before (is this still the case?)
3). Get World of Color tickets (if planning to see)
4). Get Soarin' FastPass and Ride Soarin'
5). Get inline for Toy Story/rest of the park opening

What suggestions do you have with the Carsland opening? Is Soarin' still the only attraction that is open? Is it worth taking the few minutes to ride Soarin' or should we go directly to the area they hold guests for Carsland and wait? I would think that I DO NOT want to get a FastPass for Soarin' as I want to grab a FP for Radiator Springs Racers and then get in line for the ride straight away. Also, how does Toy Story factor into all of this? Are the lines for that ride still long with Carsland opening?

Last time I was at Disneyland was just over a year ago. I have known 2 people who went over the summer, but neither of these people go to the parks first thing in the morning and take advantage of "lower" crowd levels . Even against my advice, so of course they complained about the crowds when they wandered into Carsland 2 hours after the park opening.

Any advice you could give me would be appreciated. I am considering another trip as early as this November!

Thanks
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Old 09-15-2012, 09:54 AM   #2
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They are now holding guests before the turnoff to Soarin'. So you will have to choose - do you want the Radiator Springs racers Fastpass first or do you want the WoC Fastpass and Soarin? If you can do Single Rider at Radiator Springs, I would worry less about that but if Single Rider is not an option for your group, go there first.
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Old 09-15-2012, 11:11 PM   #3
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Here's what worked for us in August. We arrived at 7:30 for an 8:00 opening. We were a party of four. Two of us waited in the Fastpass line for Radiator Springs Racers. That was about 30-40 min. The other two went ahead and explored Carsland. Then we rode Luigis together. Then single rider at RSR. That was about 30 min. The standby line family that we rode with had been in line for 2 1/2 hours which included the early entry time! Then we looked through all the shops, had lunch at Flo's, and rode Mater. At that point we went for WOC Fastpasses and then Soarin Fastpasses. Used the freebie Fastpass For Grizzly River Run that we got along with the RSR ones. We used our RSR Fastpasses for a ride at night after WOC. We waited that time less than 10 minutes. It was well worth riding at night. I was really glad we got to ride it twice. So awesome! We found the line for Toy Story to be around 40 minutes no matter what time of day we went.
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Old 09-17-2012, 01:59 PM   #4
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That sounds like a great plan!
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Old 09-18-2012, 12:24 PM   #5
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Great Plan
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Old 09-20-2012, 03:40 PM   #6
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Thanks Sara and Rebecca! We are flying into LAX at 9:30 am and going to CarsLand as soon as we get there, but obviously EME is out of the question. I think we'd be better off going to DL our first day and waiting on CarsLand, but DH hasn't been to Disney in 10 years, and he is beside himself to ride RSR. You give me hope that it will happen without a 4-hr. wait! Single rider line here we come!
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