California Adventure Park:Tips and Tricks

Now that I have written about all the lands and their attractions in California Adventure I am going to talk about strategy. Before I go into some of the finer details I want to talk about the park. This park is not as efficient with space as is Disneyland. There are not as many rides to ride and they are spread out farther than Disneyland. For example California Screamin' is on the opposite side of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

So you have to think about what rides you want to ride and in what order to save time. This park is not one you want to use the zig zag approach to. You will hit long lines and get very tired quickly. The easiest and best way to ride everything you want is to make a game plan.

Another thing I want to mention is the low number of major rides. My personal count is four; there are four major big name attractions. These are The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, California Screamin', Soarin' Over California and Grizzly River Run. There are a couple other attractions that could count but their popularity and consistent crowd numbers fluxuate. Those other attractions would be Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue and "it's tough to be a bug".

Back to the main four, these attractions are on completely different sides of the park. Soarin' and Grizzly River Run are the closest to each other; however their line entrances are on completely opposite sides of each other. In other words it will take some time to get to any major attraction quickly.

All four of the main attractions offer the Fastpass service and you will want to make good use of them. Here is a listing of wait times and load times possible due to number of theaters, or ride vehicles.

Grizzly River Run: fastest load and lowest wait times. They run their boats constantly like a water omnimover so many people are getting on and off at the same time.

California Screamin': Although there can only be two coasters on the track at a time their coaster is only about five minutes at most. And they are running these coasters very efficiently. This makes long lines disappear very quickly.

Soarin' over California and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has the worst load and unload times. Even though they can handle somewhat large numbers of people the pace is very slow. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror had four elevators that hold around twenty or thirty people. The ride is about five to seven minutes, and then the people unload. Then the elevator gets set for the next group of people. So it takes some time to get on this attraction. Soarin' is the same idea.

I believe it has four theaters than can handle somewhere in the hundred and twenty area. I am not completely sure how many people exactly but it is not very large. Once the people are loaded the ride starts, ends. People get out and the next group is escorted into the attraction theater. These two attractions have the lowest speed and worst load times of the four main attractions; therefore you will want to use a Fastpass for both of these attractions.

Now using this information you will want to do something like this scenario. You enter the park with a friend. You two hightail over to Soarin' and grab some Fastpasses with a time window of 11-12:30. Now you two head over to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and get on with a fifteen minute wait time at most. You ride the ride and make your way over to Soarin'. It is only 11:30 and so the two of you head over to Grizzly River Run. By now some people have gotten over there and the wait time says a thirty minute wait.

Do it, thirty minutes is a very short wait for this attraction. So you tow get on and ride this attraction. The time is now 12:10. Your next trip is to Soarin'. You get there, use your Fastpasses and get on the ride in twenty minutes. By 12:45 you have ridden three of the four main attractions. You two make your way over to California Screamin' and get Fastpasses. The time window is from 3-4:30. Now you can do whatever you want until you Fastpass time comes up.

There are other ways to get to all the rides in the first couple hours of opening, you just have to plan. Another variation is Ride Soarin', then get Fastpasses for Grizzly and then go ride Screamin'. Go back and use Fastpasses for Grizzly and then go ride Tower of Terror, either using Fastpasses or waiting in line. Either way you have to remember how slow Tower and Soarin' are. Also another small tidbit, Tower of Terror and Soarin' eat up their supply of Fastpasses the fastest of the four attractions. So remember that, once the Fastpasses are gone they are gone for the day.