I’ll share some Disneyland observations between last week Wednesday, when closing time was 7pm, and yesterday when closing time was 9pm. Yesterday felt busier, so I think there were more people in Disneyland. I don’t know if it was due to the increase to 35% capacity that was allowed as of yesterday with Orange County hitting the yellow tier, or part of their gradual increase in attendance after the first couple of weeks. When they do open to more people, if queuing is not able to changed, it will be even busier. However, I know the parks are not close to pre-pandemic levels because there was never a line to get into the restrooms!
If your focus is Fantasyland, start there as it definitely gets very crowded starting around 11:00-11:30 with both people in general and the ride times. Early on wait times are less then 15 min for most everything. I saw lots of people at the tables by Red Rose Tavern throughout the just sitting or standing, not necessarily having a meal but also just resting or hanging out, it was very hard to find a “designated dining spot” to stop for a drink of water and made it hard to pass through that area, as
@tsumgirl noted.
Our strategy was start with HM first, then circle back to POC, then head to SWGE. While we were at the gates at 8:20 today & let in at 8:30, the HM & POC did not start running until almost 9am; I think they let people in early to help reduce congestion in the esplanade and the tram route. By hitting HM first ( second group through), we then went to POC & were in line there with a 10-15 min wait; shortly after we got in line it was twice as long. A CM at POC said by 30 min or so after opening POC is usually at 40 min & stays there or longer for most of the day until maybe the last hour.
We skipped hitting Indy at opening, when the line was 5-10 min, in favor of HM. I’ve been checking the app from home & the Indy virtual queue seems to open around 10 or a little earlier and stay open to Join until after 12.30. So we waited until after that virtual queue opened, joined & got group 66, and were called back around 2:00.
Our plan was to do RotR ( we had BG 16 yesterday which was called at 9:30) followed by MF as MF was 5 min, but then RoTR went down for an hour which dumped a lot of people over to MF so wait jumped to 45 min quickly & we skipped it.
We headed to fantasyland, did a couple of things with shorter lines, & had lunch at 11:30. Then we did the RR, toontown (saw lots of characters here at their houses), & by then It was after 1 & with the park hopper peeps so much busier. During the heavy afternoon queues we did Tiki room, Indy was called with a less than an hour wait but most of that wait would have been in shade, Mark Twain is running, and also hit the Main Street shops when it is much less crowded to do so. We could also see the characters at the Main Street Station much easier. We’d planned to also ride the Main Street vehicles (the fire truck, double decker bus, and horse drawn trolley are running) as no waits but ended up doing more shopping and chatting with CMs & also had pre-scheduled a mid-afternoon Dole Whip. This afternoon “break” from the extended ride lines was nice and we felt like we were accomplishing more things during that time.
Unlike
@tsumgirl, we did not see that many mask issues. I’d say maybe 10%, both kids and adults, and mostly exposed noses or drinks in lines which are not permitted, Only one full mask off on a ride & that was a girl on the RR. People seemed to be more respectful of the pavement spacing markings yesterday than last week. We were never turned away from joining a queue, but we also used the app to search out shorter wait times & postponed longer wait time rides for later. The ride times dropped significantly for most things around 7pm, with the app slow to catch up. I could tell visually that times were much shorter by where the CMs were with their Line starts Here signs. Fantasyland overall was much shorter after 7: we did most every ride and repeated some. We also hit HM again, posted time was 35 min but we waited 15 at 7:30pm
Meals - definitely keep an eye on the return times, once they start to go up, figure out when & where you want lunch & order ahead. If you want burgers, go to Galactic Grill rather than Red Rose. GG has shorter return times & there is a lot more seating over in Tomorrowland than in Fantasyland, Tomorrowland is also a lot quieter. They’ve also opened the upper level of Hungry Bear seating (not the restaurant) which is nice, quiet, and shaded. And definitely keep an eye on the Tropical Hideaway return lines. Once it starts to warm up or gets to lunch time , the returns get farther out. Checking from home I’ve seen Tropical Hideaway be fully booked more than four hours before park closing, and I thInk it will be worse with the summer temps. Yesterday returns were more than 2 hours all afternoon until it filled up; I’d prebooked a 3-3:30 window around noon & that Dole Whip was so refreshing! Had I waited, I wouldn’t have gotten it until after 5. Even with all of the mobile order signage, there were still people walking up to places expecting to be able to order food & were either unable to do so or were directed to a standby line.
Overall impressions - I’m glad I went, and it was SO wonderful to be back at Disneyland again! I don’t regret going at all. Yes, some experiences are missing, but I went knowing that so was not disappointed. I’d rather have Disneyland like this than no Disneyland at all. Being a former AP, probably the biggest adjustment was feeling I had to be more intentional in my approach to rides & food and in planning my day, to get the most out of my time. I felt I did better this week than last with my second visit; checking the app from home the week before going, especially on same day of the week (weekdays vs weekend) also helped a lot to see patterns in ride queue times and food return times. There’s no max pass and reduced ride capacity for a while, so need to approach the visits differently to get the most out of the day.
It’s great to have the Magic back at the Happiest Place on Earth!!
. The wait times kept climbing up. 
