One day hopper plan for Disneyland and California Adventure
My first rule for doing any day plan at Disneyland is to get there before park opening. Morning is the best for short wait times, and many rides can be sold out of fast passes by afternoon. Some even by mid morning!
The second rule is to download the Disneyland app on your phone. This will come in handy when you need to check ride wait times, make dining reservations, mobile ordering, and book fast passes.
The third rule is to purchase Max Pass so you can reserve ride times right from your phone app, and make the most of your limited time.
My plan below is for those that intend to ride the most popular attractions. If you have little ones that can’t do the “big rides”, I recommend getting a rider switch pass so you won’t miss out on the best attractions.
This is the order priority you will want to do for booking fast passes:
- Radiator Springs (Cars Land)
- Incredicoaster
- Space Mountain (if stand by line longer than 30 min)
- Indiana Jones (if stand by line longer than 20 min)
- Splash Mountain (if stand by line longer than 30 min)
- Matterhorn
- Thunder Mountain (if stand by line longer than 20 min)
- Haunted Mansion
- Small World (usually the return time is the same as when you book it!)
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Toy Story Mania
- Goofy’s Sky School
It’s a bit tricky trying to plan your fast passes in a way that allows you to do Disneyland for half the day, and California Adventure the other half without going back and forth between parks. There are some rides like Radiator Springs that sell out of fast passes by 10am and your return time will most likely be in the afternoon. So I usually book that fast pass first, and then do Disneyland rides until then. Guardians of the Galaxy will usually book fast passes until mid afternoon but your return time will be in the evening…… so it makes the most sense for me to do Disneyland in the am and California Adventure in the pm.
Here’s an hour by hour typical day plan for me:
8:00am-9:00am: Enter Disneyland and head right to Space Mountain before park opening. Book a fast pass for Cars Land while in line. If I need to eat breakfast, I will also do the mobile ordering option from my Disneyland app for the Jolly Holiday Bakery and stop there after Space Mountain to pick up my order. The croissant egg sandwich, raspberry macaroon, and Matterhorn macaroon are my favorites. After grabbing my food to go, I will head right over to Indiana Jones. If the stand by line is less than 20 minutes, get in it.
9:00am-10:00am: After Indiana Jones, head to Splash Mountain. If the ride time is less than 20 minutes, go in the stand by line. It should be about time to book your second fast pass. If it is, book the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
10:00am-11:00am: Head over to Thunder Mountain Railroad