How long should we expect to wait in line to get through security and ticket check at Disneyland on a Saturday morning in Jan at 8am?
There’s lots of discussion about DL on WDW Chat tool these days. I’d pop over there and ask-
Go to http://m.touringplans.com/
Then scroll down to WDW Planning Tools, then WDW Chat
Lots of frequent DL travelers.
Funny I was just trying to google that….
Hate googling anything to do with DLR almost all answers pertain to WDW
The ticket check a little past opening on a Saturday should be fairly clear and pretty much a walk-up. The security wait will depend on which security entrance you’ll be using.
We have the most experience with the Harbor Blvd pedestrian entrance (mainly used by guests staying at off-site hotels along Harbor Bvld) and our experience is that on weekends they are running full steam, fully staffed to prevent any major build-ups in lines. In case of a short line, I would plan for 5-10 min wait for security (before you breeze through to a 0-3 min wait at a ticket check).
If you’re driving & parking at either the Toy Story lot or one the parking garages I’m not at all familiar with the timeframes for their security. But at the Toy story lot you can catch a shuttle that takes you right up to the Esplanade where the park entrances are. Before you board the shuttle you’ll do security and completely bypass it near the parks. The shuttle ride will take up to 5 minutes (depending on the lights). You can also walk to from the Toy Story lot to the Harbor Blvd pedestrian entrance but would not do security at the lot, rather at the Harbor Blvd. It’s about a 10-15 min. walk depending on the lights you get. The last parking option is the parking garage (Mickey & Friends and the new Pixar one), you can do security before catching a tram or you can walk to Downtown Disney from the garage. I’m not sure where you’d do security if you walk or the timeframes to expect for security. I would budget 20-30 minutes in total for any of the above parking options starting from when you leave your vehicle. You can arrive at any of them earlier than 8am though (it’s either 60 or 30 minutes before park opening and I would recommend being on the earlier end if you can) so you can be ready for security.
If you’re staying onsite depending on which hotel you’re at and which park you’re going to there’s some different security entrances. In our one experience staying at the Grand Californian, their security lines were quite backed up with early entry guests starting from just after 7am until a little bit past normal park opening and was about 10-20 min wait for security. If you use the Grand Californian entrance direct into DCA the turnstile is just steps away after security so no wait.
If you use the other security entrance in the Grand then you’ll have a short walk to the main gates for either park and they should be little to no wait.
Paradise Pier guests also have a different direct entrance to DCA & will do security at that entrance and we’ve not ever used it but I would probably budget 10-15 minutes for it. Then the last security entrance is mostly used by Paradise Pier guests (that don’t opt to use the direct into DCA entrance), all Disneyland Hotel guests, and also the much less foot traffic that walks from that end of the resort. This entrance is the one we have the next most experience with & similar to the Harbor Blvd one is fully staffed to not be too back-up on the weekends. So if any wait at all it would be short, maybe 5-10 min wait for security, but then you do have a 5-10 min walk through Downtown Disney before reaching the park entrances. If you are a hotel guest you can catch the monorail that is to the left shortly after security. If you do ride the monorail it will be your ticket scan as well as the only other stop is inside Tomorrowland in the park. But unless you you catch a monorail loading just as you scan in, it doesn’t really save any time, just some steps if you were planning to start your day in Tomorrowland.
Sorry if it’s way more information than you needed, but if you have any questions, please ask!
Do they have the scanners where you just walk through bags and all?
Nope, still the old fashioned hand-search through your bags and then metal detectors. Unless anything’s changed since the couple of days before Christmas.
Thanks- that’s huge tip…I use a mobility aide so that’s a key detail for how we pack up for the day…Lol kids are carrying my bag