We’re going to DL and DCA later this month and will be our first time since Guardians opened. I’m wondering how you think we should handle ourselves at rope drop? We will have to do a rider swap for both RSR and GOTG. Which should we ride first and which should we get a FP for first? We will have the Max Pass
my priority would be RR. It runs out of fp earlier than GotG. I have a trip planned in a few days and was checking fast pass return times midday yesterday. It showed radiator Springs racers return time at 7:30 PM and guardians of the galaxy return time for 4:30 PM. That gives you the idea that RR will run out of FP return times much sooner.
We went in August - our strategy was to grap a MaxPass FP for GoG upon entering the park and head straight to Radiator Springs to ride it first. We then hit a couple low level rides after depending on our GoG time slot. That strategy worked well for us - RSR was never too long a wait in the morning and we had checked off the 2 highest priority rides in DCA early which meant we were typically bouncing from Fast Pass to Fast Pass after that…
I do wonder with Rider Swap if the optimal strategy is to FP each for 1 of you and the other gets on immediately with Rider Swap after the FP ride? Switch rides with the order swapped. We never utilized Rider Swap so I’m not well versed in the system, but I think that’s “legal”.
Agree with what @carthy15 says. You’ll be in great shape to get both, since with MaxPass you can pull your first FastPass as soon as you enter the turnstiles, even if that is before official park open. Just be sure to plan to arrive around 40-60 min prior to rope drop so you are towards the front of the lines to get in & able to book your RSR FastPass while you wait for rope drop. Then set an alarm for when you can pull your next one & have that one be Guardians. With that plan in mind, I would rope drop Soarin, or if not interested in Soarin, Toy Story Midway Mania.
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So just to double check: You’re thinking our plan should be to get a RSR FP on Max Pass as soon as we get there, and then should we ride GoTG first? Or should we not even wait in line there and just do Soarin’ or Midway Mania first? Or should we not do any rides that actually have a FP and do non FP rides so we can get those done with a smaller line?
Yes first grab RSR FP on MaxPass as soon as you get to a stopping point inside the turnstiles. You could ride GotG first, but the app will tell you when you can get your next FP after pulling RSR & it won’t be too far out so you don’t have to rope drop rush it if you don’t want to. Soarin is a great option for your first ride since the queue is in the area where they allow people to wander pre-RD and I’ve heard it’s possible you get going in the queue before the park officially opens. But if Soarin isn’t a huge priority & TSMM is then that is another option.
There aren’t a whole lot of DCA rides now that don’t have a FP that bog down with the lines. TSMM was notorious for getting lines that built up, but it does now have a FP. The next biggest culprit of that is the Fun Wheel so that’s another reason to head up to TSMM & get that & the Fun Wheel done, but if you’re going after Jan 8th the Fun Wheel will be down for refurbishment until summertime. Luigi’s Roadster Racers is the next one I can think of that might get a wait that doesn’t have a FP but even then it’s never near as long as TSMM would get.