When it comes to your Disneyland Morning Schedule and when to arrive, you really must bring your A-Game. If you want to get ahead of the crowds, go on all the best rides and of course, snag a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance {ROTR} you need to get up early…
When to Arrive at Disneyland
We flew into Anaheim via John Wayne Airport super early Tuesday morning. Had I known how easy it would have been with the boys now being 5 and 6 we probably should have gone to Disneyland that same day. Tuesdays are the best and lowest day for Park occupancy. I’ll just add that to my notes for the future. We’ve been to Disneyland twice with the boys now, once arriving badly and this time nailing our Disneyland Morning. I’ll walk you through it and later I’ll write about some of the things we did really wrong on our first trip.
6:00am
We stayed at the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Waterpark. {Full review in progress} It is an 8-minute walk from the hotel with several restaurants along the way. Wednesday morning, everyone woke up at 6:00am, a little begrudged, not all on board with my super early game plan but ready to swing by McDonald’s for breakfast. They would soon find out why I wanted us all out the door so quickly.
We didn’t get into the McDonald’s for breakfast until 6:36am and I admit I was already a little panicked. Ordering at a McDonald’s right across the street from Disneyland took WAY longer than anyone thought it would, per crowds. We didn’t even leave McDonald’s until 6:54am and I am in full panic mode now, pacing back and forth. Billy grabs his food and they eat on the walk to Disneyland’s Guest Drop Off, Street Entrance and Security Lines.
Street Entrance Security Lines | When to Arrive
7:00am
We get to the Street Entrance Security Lines, a place I had never been since I’ve always parked in the Mickey & Friends Parking Garage. The lines were very short as there were many gates open. We get through security, just like at the airport where you go through a metal detector and show the inside of your backpacks. This whole process will be mentioned again in my Worst Mistakes We’ve Made at Disneyland post I’m writing from our previous trip. But THIS trip went smoothly. I had to go through twice for my jogging belt since they thought my roll of tums could have been a Vape Device. {More on that in progress}
7:13am
It took us 13 minutes but now we’ve all made it through security and then must get in line for the Park Entrance. Yep, TWO lines you must go through in the morning. SECURITY LINE & PARK ENTRANCE LINE.
To RECAP | When to Arrive
6:00am- Woke Up
6:30am- Left Hotel
6:36am- Got to McDonald’s
6:54am- Left McDonald’s
7:00am- Get in line for Security Entrance
7:13am- Through Security, get in line for Park Entrance
Park Entrance Lines | When to Arrive
And THIS IS THE LINE for the Park Entrance! ^^ Look at how MANY people are already in front of us, on a Wednesday! I am in full panic mode now because I know those ROTR Boarding Passes begin at 8:00am… It turns out okay though. Why am I nervous? You must be inside the park by 8:00am with your ticket scanned to activate your boarding pass. {More on that in the next post}
This Park Entrance line was probably the longest line we stood in all day. Below is a picture of Cash standing in line and HOW MANY people were already behind us by 7:26am. I know all these times because I’m referencing the time stamp on my pictures. 😉 Thank goodness we were there as early as we were! However, the scary thing was that some serious line cutting started to happen around 7:20am when they open the park gate. Yes, they start letting people into the park at 7:20am even though it doesn’t open until 8am! Now that I know that, I think we were actually LATE for when to arrive!
7:20am
Here is what kept happening which is exactly why I’m glad we were there *so early* according to my family. A person way up ahead of us would suddenly have 8 to 10 people join him once the line started moving. And it happened MULTIPLE times, in every line. I don’t even know where these people kept coming from. Now this is highly illegal inside the park, but they don’t police it on this side of the gates. So, looking at what seemed like 100 people ahead of us at 7:13am quickly turned into about 300 tickets being scanned before ours.
When We Got Inside Disneyland | When to Arrive
Fun fact, Disneyland has its own system for missing children. As your kids’ tickets are scanned, they take pictures of their faces and link it to their tickets. In the event they get lost all the cast members are sent his/her picture.
7:36am
We officially crossed the ticket counter with all our tickets scanned at 7:36am. So, it took us 23 minutes from the Security Lines to get into the Park Entrance. That’s on a Wednesday, the Park’s second-lowest capacity day after Tuesday. But had we arrived at the Security Lines later, we would have been that much further behind.
For example, if we’d arrived at the Security Lines at 7:30am they would have been exponentially longer, and we may not have even come through to get into the Park Entrance lines until 8am, not getting us into the park until 8:23am at best! I would have missed our Rise of Resistance passes for sure. They’re all gone by 8:07am…
In my Worst Mistakes Post I’ll tell you about what happens it you don’t even get into the Security Lines until 8am…
Get to the White Ropes | When to Arrive
The park is still not even open yet so what were we doing? Walking then Waiting… Disneyland opens the flood gates at 7:20am and then a herd of people flood into Main Street. Literally, elbow to elbow traffic of speed walkers all trying to get to the front of the ropes. Ropes you say… Yep, ROPES. All the lands are roped off until exactly 7:59am when an entourage of cast members curls it up and attempt to hold the line. People are foaming at the mouth by now!
7:42am
If you can work your way to the front and actually SEE the rope, which is ONLY possible if you were in the first entry wave, you’ll be able to snag a great Castle picture with nobody in the background.
7:55am
While everyone is going stir crazy like a pack of hungry animals and loudly mapping out their day’s game plan, a loudspeaker comes on across the ENTIRE park. “Boarding Passes for Rise of the Resistance will begin at 8:00am.” Deafening silence follows. Every single human in the park pulls out a cell phone and logs into the Disneyland App. An eerie feeling like that of The Hunger Games tribute ceremony looms over the entire campus. We are now head down zombies literally counting the seconds until 8am.
7:59am
Cast Members begin curling up the perfectly white, shiny rope {from our right to left, so be standing on the Tomorrowland side!} and a Black Friday level sprint breaks out. The ROTR dedicated app people are left in the dust to count the seconds until they can click JOIN BOARDING GROUP, while everyone else runs into a ride line. Think of lifeguards yelling at kids, “No Running!” every 10 seconds on a pool deck, but Cast Members yelling at full-grown adults…
We went straight to Peter Pan because we missed it last time and were on it by 8:04am. I did my Rise of Resistance click, with everyone else while wading through the line sanctions. My next blog begins with us at 8:00am sharp and what happened next. But that was our Disneyland Morning, the first 2 hours anyway. I hope this helps you plan out when to arrive 😉
I’m done Adulting… Let’s go to Disneyland!
-All Moms Everywhere
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