So I’ll be heading to Disneyland and California Adventure the day after Christmas till that Sunday and have been creating some plans (some of my own, some optimized - I must say, the optimized plans are showing amazing minimal wait times for what is looking to be an incredibly crowded weekend!) I’m staying on-site, will be using the Early Entry and MaxPass.
My dilemma is this: I’m a huuuuge Star Wars fan, and on that first morning, I am torn between fast-walking (never running) to Smuggler’s Run or following the optimized plan.
If I walk at a somewhat exuberant pace, first thing, the Falcon is showing a 75 minute wait (so I assume everyone is doing the same thing).
If I let the Touring Plans god have their way, I will go later in the afternoon (just after our lunch at Olga’s) and wait half of that time.
This is because a majority of people rush to SWGE. If you wait for 2 hours the queue will go down. I know it feels counter intuitive. While you should definite get to the park at least 30 minutes early to minimize crowds, it’s better to where others aren’t going.
If you can, knock out as much of Fantasyland as possible. Those rides don’t have MaxPass and the queues grow as the day progresses
The queue of MFSR moves pretty steadily and it has a high capacity so it doesn’t ever get too insane
If you are among the first people in the park, you might have a very short wait for MFSR. But the pattern most days has been a big spike in the morning, followed by reasonable waits the rest of the day (CL 10 days notwithstanding). The TP app has all this programmed in, so I would follow that.
Note that this pattern is not the same as other big rides like Space Mountain, which builds a line slowly but never lets up the rest of the day. TP is trying to balance your total wait time, so may take you to one of those rides first.
Below is an example from 11/25 (a CL 9). The pink line is observed wait times. Between 8-8:30am, the wait was less than 50 minutes. So if it’s your top priority and you are quick, that is probably your best bet. But DON’t try to ride between 8:30am-noon. The next best time appears to be mid-afternoon or after 6pm. Check the app - if the wait is >60 min, come back another time. There will be lots of opportunities for 30-45 min waits even on a busy day.
