Last minute advice for this weekend?

Disneyland
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We went weekend before Thanksgiving with group of 6, 2 adults 4 kids ages 1 thru 10 so we have some recent on the ground experience to speak from. As with most trips, but especially now that there is no fastpass, either arrive early (be ready through security and lined up ready to be scanned into a turnstile by 30-45 min before opening) or stay late (all the way to closing and enjoy the last hour of each park) to have’ll have some periods of low(er) wait times.

Midday is hard, pack your patience. As much as you are are able to, plan ahead for food, especially if your family will want to eat at peak mealtimes. Use Mobile Order to make it quick and easy to order food too.

If you’re not trying to ride all the things, midday is a good time to work on enjoying shows (there is so much fun Christmas ambiance at DCA with many live music options), ambiance (stroll the festival of the holidays in DCA, check out Redwood Creek Challenge trail decked out, catch character sightings all over) or use that for any attractions that won’t be any longer at midday than early or late in the day (like Philharmagic, anything in the Animation Building, Tiki Room, Lincoln, etc.)

However, with the two days, you’ll probably want to still be doing some rides midday, so work to pick lines that you enjoy/don’t mind being in (Millennium Falcon is a very good suggestion given for that) and if you aren’t opposed to being on your phone in line the Disney Parks Play App (separate from the Disneyland App) has some games in the queues to help pass the time. It’s how we survived our two times of a over 35 min waits at TSMM (both times posted 35 minutes). I can’t remember what other queues have games, but I’m pretty sure Millenium Falcon and Space do. Oh and Peter Pan has (had?) a Play App game, it’s been a reallllly long time since we did the Play app in the Peter Pan queue, but when we last did, it was best done when it’s dark as there is lighting involved with the final effect.

If your kids have any nostalgia about current ToonTown and will be sentimental about the overhaul that start early next year and goes to 2023, then give them some time there. Either right when it opens (one hour after park opening) or the last 30 or so minutes before it closes (if fireworks are planned it closes at 8pm) are really great empty times to enjoy it (and get people free photos of your kids in it). It looks like ToonTown will be much improved, but my older kids have always asked for & enjoyed time in ToonTown so they wanted to be sure to see it one last time how they remember it (and the only house/attraction that is open to walkthrough is Chip & Dale’s which looks like is getting removed based on the concept art released). So my kids for sure wanted to make sure they saw that at least once.

Best of luck and hope it’s a great two days! And I will keep my everything crossed for you that small world starts up by Saturday for your kids!

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22

Thank you, all very helpful!

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23

Q:. Do I have to buy a photopass for everyone or just myself?

Everyone is linked to my account so I’m wondering how it works now.

Before it was included in fastpass+ so photos were all included.

Also regarding magic shots…do we just ask all photographers whether they do it or is there a way to know in advance? 2ould they take normal and special shots?

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If only 1 buys PhotoPass, that person will have to download and share the photos with the others. As far as magic shots, just ask the photographers if they have any. They will then do both regular and magic shots if they have them.

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So we are in line for WS and they have the lightning lanes up and people are going through. Did I miss something?

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26

Did they go to virtual queue? You’ll have to check the app. They don’t announce it or anything it’s just a decision they said they m ight make from time to time. Stupid, but true.

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It’s probably just DAS or rider swap people.

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28

The virtual queue for Webslingers has always used the regular old standby queue so even if they did move to BG that would be weird to be sending them through the LL (but they’ve done weirder and more frustrating things lately, so maybe??) But the way I interpret their “from time to time from to virtual queue” strategy is that, while they have the virtual queue live, they would only allow those with a BG into the “standby” line (so would have to cap a standby line and/or start the day with only a virtual queue) until all BG’s have been called back AND then if there was availability open it up to anyone to enter standby.

When we were there a couple of weeks ago we saw lots of groups using the labelled LL’s and I had to explain more than a handful of times to my older kids that it’s not just what we know as FP’s that use that queue but also RS and DAS use it too and those things haven’t gone away. We also overheard many groups talking about no FP and wondering why some people still had them and even a few asking CM’s who only responded that there are no FP’s at this time.

What also hasn’t gone away are recovery passes when you are stuck on a ride (or sometimes stay in the queue while it’s down). We’ve gotten them on Luigi’s at least once this year (we used it come back to Luigi’s later, but it could’ve been used anywhere but Racers, TSMM or Webslingers).

And lastly, Club 33 may get some sort of front of the line perks and we noticed VIP tour guides coming through with groups more than if it were just a full FP line. So it’s definitely a multi-faceted use line that the general masses know as FP’s.

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29

Actually we saw a ton of that too. And I had to remind my DH of that :joy:

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30

It was definitely the most used I have seen those lanes/queues in our 3 trips back and my older kids have missed the days of FPs so much (they were 6 & 8 on our last trip before Covid) and were so used to all our FP maximizing (and had even started doing a couple of FP runs where we were close by) AND because their little brother was 2 they were VERY accustomed to RS for at least 1-2 of their favorites each day. So this new no-FP, standby lines and limited RS Disneyland is definitely noticed by them (now 8 & 10).

ETA: I got a good chuckle that your DH felt the same as my kiddos. I need to go catch-up on your trip report there because I was so eager to see how it went for you two!

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