Don’t waste your time at Disneyland. Here’s how to avoid the lines. Visitors to Disneyland and California Adventure are experiencing more sore feet and sunburn while waiting to ride some of the parks’ increasingly popular attractions.
Wait times for nearly all of the resort’s most popular rides have risen, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of data from touringplans.com. They averaged 24.4 minutes for the first six months of 2017, a 28% increase over the same period in 2015 when the park posted record-high attendance numbers.
Average wait times for the busiest rides in both parks
Radiator Springs Space Mountain Soarin' Around Toy Story Mania! Matterhorn Indiana Jones Peter Pan’s Flight Star Tours Splash Mountain Grizzly River Run Racers the World Adventure +19% +35% +21% +26% +3% +9% +27% +23% -22% +56%
86 73 minutes 65
49 48 48 48 45 46 45 41 42 41 41 38 38 37 32 33 2015 2017 24 Visit the park on a weekday Get there early The best days of the week to visit the parks are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Avoid While wait times have increased at all times of the day over the last two years, they are still Saturdays and Mondays, the two busiest days of the week in 2017. shortest right when the park opens at 8 a.m. Visitors at nearby resort hotels also have the option to enter the park an hour early, beginning at 7 a.m. Average wait times for the busiest rides in both parks Average wait times for the busiest rides in both parks
Saturday Saturday Saturday 3 p.m. 29 min. 22 min. 25 min. 22 min. 25 min. 30 22 min. 30 10 p.m. 18 min. 19 21 7 a.m. 20 20 9 min. 9 10
10 10
0 0 S M T W Th. F S S M T W Th. F S S M T W Th. F S 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 2015 2016 2017 2015 2016 2017
Pick a good month The best months to visit are September and January, when the average wait time per ride is less than 15 minutes. Wait times are highest near major holidays.
Average wait time per ride at Disneyland and California Adventure
10 min. 20 30 40 2015
January February March April May June M T W T F S S
July August September October November December
2016
January February March April May June
M T W T F S S
July August September October November December
2017 January February March April May June M T W T F S S
Learn to love the single-rider line Guardians of the Galaxy: Go there first
Many of the most popular rides allow single riders to walk up a separate queue that When Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! opened on Memorial Day gets them on the ride faster (and helps fill seats). We tested out several of the weekend, its wait times soared past every other ride in either park. While the lines single-rider lines to see how their waits compared to the posted times. Here’s have come down from their peak of 5 hours, riders are still waiting about an hour what we found: and a half.
Posted wait time Single rider wait time Average wait time by hour at Guardians of The best way to ride (measured from when we got in line to when we were seated on the ride) the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy
10 a.m. If you really want to ride, be at Radiator Springs Racers Splash Mountain Grizzly River Run 1 hr., 45 min. 180 the park when the gates open 70 min. 55 50 8 a.m. and head to Hollywood Land 1 hr., 2 min. right away. If you miss the 8 4 min. 5 2 120 a.m. window, be prepared to stand in line for at least an hour Indiana Jones Adventure California Screamin’ — or try your luck with a Other attractions with 60 25 15 single rider lines Fastpass, but don’t count on it. Because the ride is so popular, Goofy’s Sky School 11 2 its Fastpass allotment can run Matterhorn Bobsleds 0 out by 10:30 a.m. 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10
When to ride each ride at both parks
We’ve calculated the wait time Radiator Springs Racers Splash Mountain Indiana Jones Adventure Peter Pan’s Flight per hour at every ride at 2 p.m. Disneyland and California 99 minutes 100 100 3 p.m. 100 100 Adventure. Here’s a sample of 62 minutes 5 p.m. 54 minutes Noon what we found, but for the rest, 43 minutes 60 60 60 60 head over to http://latimes.com/disneyland 20 20 20 20
8 a.m. noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m. 8 a.m. noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m. 8 a.m. noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m. 8 a.m. noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.
Source: touringplans.com, Times reporting Joe Fox, Priya Krishnakumar and Jon Schleuss Los Angeles Times