Hello,
We are looking for advice for what we can squeeze into a single day at California Adventure (CA) when we only have Oogie Boogei Tickets (so 3-11pm). This is a Thursday in late October 2023.
This would be our only day at CA, we do have another day at DL that is NOT a park hopper.
There are 4 of us. Husband, Wife and 2 daughters ages 6 and 8.
We would like to attempt to ride all the major rides (listed in order of priority for us: 1. Radiator Racers, 2. Incredicoaster, 3. Soarin, 4. Toy Story Mania, 5. Web Slingers, 6. Goofy Flight School, 7. Guardians Break Out, 8. Grizzly River Run.
We do want to do the following other Halloween items: 1. Watch 7:50pm parade. 2. Villan’s Grove trick or treating. 3. Bruno character meet.
My question is… Is doing 8 rides and attempting to do some of the Halloween items realistic for the 8 hours (3pm to 11pm) that we are allowed into CA?
Any insights would be appreciated!
Thank you,
Scott
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It’s possible and will depend on how much you can manage going from thing to thing quickly and potentially not taking a real sit-down meal break (but while you are in line for Bruno or waiting for the parade could send a runner to get food & eat while in line/waiting for the parade).
I do want to call out that Villain’s Grove is NOT a trick or treat trail. It’s an immersive walkthrough experience with lights, music, even some fragrances and is really well done & cool, but no treats. If you want the trick-or-treating you will need to do the Treat Trails. The confusion with Villain’s Grove may be that a lot of the treat trails do have a villain that does a mini-performance as you wind past their mini-stage while in line & collecting treats from several stations in the line. Some villains will have super long lines, some will be walk-through. If you just want the treats then you’ll be able to go to the villains with shorter lines to quickly be on your way. If there is one (or several) particular popular villain you do want to meet you’ll possibly need to bump some of the rides off your list.
Based on how long things took for us last year, you’ll want to budget 45 min for the parade, 30-45 min for Villain’s Grove, 1 hr for Bruno. You will need to use 3-6pm (the mix-in time with regular guests before the party) strategically to get 3 of the rides done that makes your ride list shorter. Then the rest of the rides you can fit in around the party things and everything except Guardians and Racers on your list will be manageable with 5-15 min waits during the party.
I would definitely start watching wait times for all must-do rides on the upcoming party nights that are from 6pm-11pm (some of the parties might be 7pm-12am) and make notes about what the wait times are from 3-6pm and what the wait times are once the party starts, just to give you an idea about what the best time savings might be to do the ones that give you the least time savings in that 3-6pm timeframe.
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Maybe. Are you planning on buying an ILL for RSR? Are you planning standby lines or Genie/LLs? The mix in time from 3-6pm on party days is crazy crowded. We were just there a little over a week ago. The lines for all the rides and food places went up so much between 2pm and 3:30pm.
Definitely watch the parade. We watched the 7:50 parade this year, from the corner near the little mermaid ride. As soon as the parade passes, quickly head to the Villains Grove and get in line. It will look long, but is really quite short compared to most of the night. It was only maybe 10 minutes at most despite how long it looked. There is no trick or treating there though, those trails are separate. The trick or treat trails provide double the entertainment though, as they all have characters in them who are fun to see and interact with.
Bruno’s line didn’t seem to long when we walked past.
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That’s good news! He was a MUST for us last year and we spent an hour in line for him. We did Villain’s Grove at the very end of the night and the line looked SOOO long, but it moved quickly and I think was just a 10-15 min wait. We had enough time to run over and see if Cruella (the one villain treat trail we hadn’t seen) was still around the last 8 minutes of the party (she wasn’t).
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This will help A LOT for getting through all 8 of the rides and allow you to spend more time doing Halloween party things. But you’ll only be able to use bokings from 3-6pm and it’s extra costs for the whole family so it might not make budget sense to do this. And if you were more planning to use your party time to do the shorter line waits, then it might just make sense to either only get the RSR ILL or even not get any paid extra ILL/LL’s and just maybe not get through everything on your list.
lolabear and wahoohokie. Thank you very much for your replies and sorry it took me so long to thank you. Life gets busy sometimes. Thanks again for your insight!
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