3 Best Strategies For The Most Rides at Disneyland

A day in the happiest place on earth can be a magical experience, but if you spend your entire day waiting in lines to go on three or four rides, it makes the time much less enjoyable. Especially when it is hot outside or you are traveling with children, avoiding long waits can be a critical task.

Over the past few times at Disney’s California parks, including Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, I have used similar strategies to avoid long waits in line and maximized my days in the park.

These are my strategies to avoid long waits, which have helped me to go on more than 20 rides in one day multiple times.

Genie+

The most obvious solution t is to pay for Genie+, a service that operates similarly to Disney’s old fast pass program and allows users to shortcut some lines by utilizing lighting lanes (the new name for fast pass). This doesn’t mean no lines, but rather, a much shorter line.

During my time in the park with Genie+ I never had to wait more than 15 minutes to get on a ride when I used the lightning lanes. The majority of the time, waits were in the 5-10 minute ballpark, which is not bad compared to waits that were over an hour.

The cost of Genie+ starts at $25 a day but this changes based on the day of the year with busier days costing more. You can either pay for Genie+ when you buy your tickets for the entire duration of your pass, or you can pay for it upon entering the park if you only want to use on select days. Note, that this is different than Disney World where you can pay for it anytime on the day you will enter the park (such as after midnight). 

You can only make a new lightning lane selection once every two hours or after you have used your last selection. This means that you should set a timer for two hours after you first make each of your choices. Additionally, once you scan your pass into a ride, immediately pick a new lightning lane in order to maximize your time.

These are the rides at Disneyland and California Adventure for which you can use Genie+:

California Adventure

• Goofy’s Sky School
• Grizzly River Run
• Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
• Incredicoaster
• Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
• Soarin’ Over California
• Toy Story Midway Mania!
• WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

Disneyland

• Autopia
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
• Haunted Mansion
• Indiana Jones Adventure
• “it’s a small world”
• Matterhorn Bobsleds
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
• Space Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Star Tours – The Adventures Continue

Singles Lines

My favorite method of saving time in lines for both theme parks and ski resorts is singles lines. I personally do not have an issue with going on rides with complete strangers in exchange for saving time in lines.

However, this would be an issue for families traveling with small children as singles lines and going on the rides separately would not be possible. This option varies depending on one’s personal  situation and can work very well for some people.  

Personally, I feel as though singles’ lines are much faster than Genie+, and I have not had to wait long in most singles lines at Disneyland and California Adventure. This has allowed me to go on rides, such as the Matterhorn Bobsleds and the Incredicoaster three times back-to-back within a span of 30 minutes, despite wait times posted as being long .

These are the rides at Disneyland and California Adventure that have singles lines:

 Disneyland

• Matterhorn Bobsleds
• Splash Mountain
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

California Adventure

• Grizzly River Run
• Incredicoaster
• Goofy’s Sky School
• Radiator Springs Racers
• WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

Arriving Early and Staying Late

Arriving early and leaving the park late are strategies that come at the cost of a leisurely arrival to the park and possibly sleep. That said, my experience is that waking up earlier to make it into the parks for rope drop is worth it.

Typically, I have had around an hour to walk onto rides before lines start growing. Clearly, there are exceptions, such as Rise the Resistance, which had a 25-minute wait despite going straight to that ride from rope drop.

On most days, the parks open at 8am and close at midnight. This means that with early entry, the park is open for 16 hours. Without using singles lines or paying for Genie+, my best success has been right after the park opens and prior to closing.

Staying up late might be difficult with little ones and getting up early might be a challenge with teens, but if you can manage to go on rides at either end of the spectrum, your time spent in lines will significantly decrease and total ride count should be easy to increase.

The Last Point

All of the above strategies have their pros and cons and whether it is cost, waking up early, or not being able to divide up the group, at least one of the above will help to make your time in the park a much more enjoyable experience.

If you are able to pair Genie+ with an early arrival or singles’ lines with a late departure or another combination all together, your time in the park will be better spent going on rides and actually enjoying the park rather than waiting in lines.

One final piece of advice, go to the park with a strategy regarding which rides are most important to you. Pair this with any of the above strategies and you will be able to make the most of your day.