There's nothing quite like a morning at California Adventure Park with the waterfall rushing, the dramatic sounds of Avengers Campus and the beautiful Pixar Pal-A-Round sparkling in the sun. The mornings are cooler, with much fewer people and significantly shorter lines. Doing Disney California Adventure is the best way to start a day. Early birds, listen up! Let's talk rope drop at Disney California Adventure.
How to Rope Drop Disney California Adventure
First of all, what is "rope drop?" The Disney theme parks open about 30 to 40 minutes before park opening. All guests can enter the parks up until a certain point. At Disney California Adventure, you can head one of three ways from the main entrance. You can head left into Hollywood Land, go straight ahead toward Avengers Campus and Cars Land or turn right to Soarin' and Grizzly Peak. You can walk until you are stopped by ropes. From there, you will stay until the park officially opens. (If you enter from the hotel entrances, you'll encounter some different ropes.) You'll hear the opening announcement, and the cast members pull back the ropes, releasing you into the park. At that point, you should already have a pretty good idea of where you want to go first.
Here are our strategies to rope drop Disney California Adventure. But keep in mind, these suggestions vary based on the day of the week and if you are using Lightning Lanes. They also are affected by whether you are staying on-site and have Early Entry or not. We even jump into park hopping strategies in case you plan to hop to Disneyland.
What's Early Entry?
Disney hotel guests gain access to select attractions during Early Entry 30 minutes before park opening. That creates a trickier situation for rope droppers. Many of the popular rides are open during Early Entry, so those can form a line before the park even opens. Early Entry rotates parks, one designated park a day. At California Adventure, hotel guests enter early on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. This is something to be mindful of if you plan on rope dropping DCA one of these days. Disneyland hosts Early Entry on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The park hosting Early Entry can change for special events such as runDisney races (Feb. 1-2, 2025) or some holidays.
Rides open during Early Entry:
- Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Incredicoaster
- The Little Mermaid — Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
- Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
- Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
- Soarin' Around the World
- WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
Arrive Early
Arrive at security or parking over an hour before park opening. Getting there before rope drop guarantees that you can punch out a bunch of popular rides in the first couple of hours. We suggest you arrive 30 to 45 minutes before the park opening. So, if the park opens at 8 a.m., you should arrive at parking or security at about 7 a.m. Account for parking and walking, strollers or trams.
The ticket turnstiles start letting people enter the park about 30 to 40 minutes before opening. This is when you walk down Buena Vista Street and literally walk up to the ropes closing off the lands and rides. This sets you up with a distinct advantage to fit more into your day. Don’t be bothered by the waiting crowds that form behind the ropes. It’s a lot of people in a small space and the crowd disperses quickly to so many different places.
Pick Priorities
Pick priorities for each party member to make sure everyone hits their favorite choice. So let’s strategize.
The most popular attractions at this park include Guardians of the Galaxy — Misson: BREAKOUT!, Soarin', WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure and Toy Story Midway Mania! So where should you go first? And are you using Lightning Lane Multi Pass? Because that comes into play as well.
California Adventure Rope Drop Strategies on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday
If you are not staying at a Disney hotel and do not have Early Entry, the best days of the week to rope drop Disney California Adventure are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It's not a deal breaker, if you must visit another day, however, on the non-Early Entry days, you'll be the first to ride attractions. Whereas, on Early Entry days, other people will be in the park and lines may have formed lines for some of the more popular attractions.
Head to Pixar Pier First
Believe it or not, our favorite land to rope drop is Pixar Pier. When everyone else heads to Cars Land, you make a beeline for Pixar Pier. We once did an experiment where some of our party went to Radiator Springs Racers and some went to Pixar Pier. It was amazing how many rides the Pixar Pier party completed in the first hour of the day versus one ride in Cars Land. Because so many people go to Cars Land, a lot of the other areas of the park are quieter at opening.
In the first hour, the Pixar Pier crew was able to complete Incredicoaster, Toy Story Midway Mania, Pixar Pal-A-Round and Goofy’s Sky School. The Cars Land crew completed Radiator Springs Racers. Those Pixar Pier rides load quickly so they allow you to get more done in a short period of time. Plus, there are several rides without Lightning Lane in that zone, so it's nice to knock them out early, especially if you'll be using Lightning Lane for some of the big rides later.
Rope Dropping Avengers Campus and Hollywood Land
Another popular direction to go at rope drop is toward Guardians of the Galaxy. That ride forms a line quickly and stays pretty long all day, so it's a great choice to rope drop if you are not using Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Even if you are using a Lightning Lane, you might want to rope drop it once and then use a Lightning Lane to ride again later in hopes of getting a different song and drop sequence.
Head as far as you can in Hollywood Land to get as close as possible to the ride entrance rather than going through the main Avengers Campus entrance. If you head to Guardians first, you can also hit WEB SLINGERS, followed by the Single Rider line for Radiator Springs Racers. (Or make your way to Monsters Inc., but you can also ask for a Buddy Pass for that one when the line is longer later.)
Radiator Springs Racers Strategies
What’s your favorite ride at DCA? A fan favorite, of course, is Radiator Springs Racers. This incredible ride brings the movie "Cars" to life. There are several ways to approach this ride. Remember when we mentioned different strategies for the day of the week? That comes into play here as well.
Rope Drop the Standby Line
Most of the crowd is heading to this ride at rope drop. Traffic piles up pretty quickly in Cars Land for this one attraction. But here is some hopful information.
The best way to rope drop this ride if you do not have Early Entry is to rope drop this ride on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Why? You can get to the front faster because the Early Entry people are not ahead of you.
Get to the park as soon as possible. That means being at security or parking an hour and 15 minutes before the park opens. Head to the park gates and try to be one of the first people in the park. Once in, head straight to the ropes. Once the ropes drop, speed walk — don't run — to Cars Land and stay on the right side of the road all the way to the ride. Cast members will be directing traffic to stay right.
If you are staying on-site at a Disneyland Resort hotel and have Early Entry, enter the park 30 minutes before it opens. Toward the end of the Early Entry window, just before the park officially opens, line up at Radiator Springs Racers inside Cars Land. This ride does not open before rope drop. However, you will be ahead of all the rope droppers. You can do this on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
And finally, the best-laid plans often go astray. Many days, Radiator Springs Racers does not in fact open right at rope drop. Croak! Now, you need a new plan and quickly. Keep an eye on the ride by walking by or looking in the Disneyland app to see if it opens. A 60-minute wait is considered a shorter wait for this ride. It often hits 90 to 120 minutes.
Buy Your Way In
Unfortunately, this ride is not on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, but you can buy a Lightning Lane Single Pass for a per-person fee, but it does add up. If you want no stress and to spend your morning on other rides before skipping this line, buy a Lightning Lane Single Pass. (It's more worth the expense if this is a trip of a lifetime compared to someone who has a pass and will be back again soon.) If you want the shortest line of the day for no extra cost, here is the best way to do that.
Single Riders Line
Our favorite strategy is to use the Single Riders line. The Singler Riders line is especially short in the morning and does grow as the day goes on. We tend to hit a few other popular favorites first while the lines are short before heading here and merging into the Single Riders line. However, if you have children under 7 or you want to ride together (there is a photo on this ride), then you'll need to work on a rope drop strategy for the standby line.
Lightning Lane Strategies
If you choose to buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass, book that first ride as soon as you enter the park. Here are a few rides we like to book ASAP and why:
- Guardians — This ride gets a long standby line and is one of the first rides to run out of Lightning Lanes. You have two ways to look at this. You can rope drop this ride and then use your Lightning Lane to ride twice. Or you can hit four other rides and then use this Lightning Lane near the end of your one-hour window.
- WEB SLINGERS — Being on the newish side, this ride still runs through its Lightning Lanes pretty quickly. It has an outdoor queue that can get hot later in the day. We say skip this queue if you can.
- Toy Story Midway Mania! — The line is short for this ride at rope drop but gets longer later and moves slowly. But here's a little tip! Let's say you have an 8 a.m. Lightning Lane and are busy hitting the other Pixar Pier rides and this ride has a delayed opening. You just might collect a Multiple Experiences pass. You can immediately book a new ride and save the pass for later when lines are long. You can even use it at Disneyland later when hopping.
- Soarin' — This one can sell out quickly but not usually as fast as the other three.
- Book any ride at all and if you don't need it because the line is short when you arrive, MODIFY it to any other Lightning Lane ride in the park. You know how you have to wait two hours (or redeem the Lightning Lane) before booking a new ride? Modifying does not reset the clock! That's why you do not want to wait to book your first Lightning Lane. Book anything and modify it if needed. You want to get your clock ticking.
Then as soon as you redeem a Lightning Lane, book the next one. If you are park hopping, choose a ride in the other park before you hop.
Park Hopping Strategies
When park hopping, you can accomplish the most by starting your day at Disney California Adventure and then hopping to Disneyland. The California Adventure lines are short in the morning but long in the afternoon. Also, there are fewer Lightning Lanes in this park, so they can disappear quickly, so you'll want to prioritize the Disney California Adventure Lightning Lanes (and short morning queues) early in the day. You'll encounter more Lightning Lane availability in Disneyland Park as the day goes on and a lot more rides with shorter wait times midday.
We offer park plans to help you plan your day. You can really maximize time if you rope drop Disney California Adventure, purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass, book some rides for Disneyland before you hop and do all your must-do rides before heading to Disneyland. You get the best value from Lightning Lane Multi Pass this way because you can access the Lightning Lane for over 20 rides instead of just nine in one park.
Another thing to think about is if you buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass for this day, you can book your first Lightning Lane as soon as you enter the park. (Guardians is a good choice, as is Toy Story Midway Mania! or WEB SLINGERS.) Use the first hour for walking on rides in the standby line. Then use your first Lightning Lane and book another for Disneyland for when you hop. Set an alarm if the ride is over two hours away and then book another.
There are so many fun things for your family to enjoy at California Adventure that are unique just to this park. Be sure to maximize your time by being at rope drop and filling your time with attractions. This way you’ll be able to slow down for lunch and entertainment after your successful morning.
You can save some green with discount Disneyland tickets, including tickets with Lightning Lane Multi Pass, when you purchase through your froggy friends at Undercover Tourist.
Related: Our Top Tips and Strategies for Early Entry at Disneyland Resort
Related: The Yummiest Places to Fill Up on Breakfast at Disneyland
Keep hopping!
