Disneyland Step 4: Learn the Lingo
Do you speak French? Chinese? Latin??? If you do, then you are probably good at learning a new language. Me… not so much! I lived in Italy for 5 months in college… Ciao! That’s all I’ve got.
Well hopefully you’ve got some skills at picking up new lingo, because you’re going to need it to make it through Disneyland. I tried to get my arms around this before our trip, but honestly, you really have to be in the parks to completely understand these concepts. Hopefully that will give you hope: don’t panic if you feel confused going in, you’ll figure it out quickly once you’re there!
But some of these things are really important to maximizing your visit, so try to at least sort of figure these out. For example, if you’re traveling to the parks with both big and small kids (or kids both over and under 40” tall) it would be A CRIME for you not to fully understand the Rider Switch system and miss out on it’s great advantages.
Here’s a quick rundown of:
Genie+
Lightning Lane
Individual Lightning Lane
Early Entry or Magic Morning
Rope Drop
Rider Switch
Park Hopper
Genie+:
Genie+ is an add-on to your ticket that you can purchase when you buy your tickets or using the Disneyland Mobile App each morning after you’ve entered the park. The cost is $25 per person, per day – but this extra expense is totally worth it!
At its core, this is the only way to utilize the Lightning Lane, which is crucial to avoiding long ride wait times. But Genie+ also gives you access to Disney PhotoPass, which means you can download for free any photos that the Disney Photographers take of you throughout the day. I’m not usually a person who lets the onsite camera guy take my picture – I usually quickly walk past them with my head down and eyes diverted! But this is such a good way to get full family shots, and also those priceless photos of you with Lightning McQueen or Mickey Mouse. It also gives you free access to any Attraction Photos (aka your beautiful face as you drop down Splash Mountain). On our first day in the park one of the Disney Photographers gave me the great tip of making the wallpaper on my phone a screenshot of our PhotoPass Code – this made scanning our code after photos super easy.
You don’t have to purchase Genie+ for everyone in your party. If you have a 4-year-old who just isn’t going to want to ride the various Lightning Lane rides (or is too short for most of them), you could skip the extra expense for their ticket. They still may be able to hit up some of the Lightning Lane rides using the Rider Switch feature. And you definitely only need to have 1 person in your group with PhotoPass access. Here’s my Ride Guide again to see which rides have the Lightning Lane (LL) option.
Lightning Lane:
Lightning Lane is basically the equivalent of a reservation system for some of the most popular rides in the parks. If you want to avoid the really long wait times you need to utilize this great feature. Of course, however, it’s not that simple.
In order to “pull Lightning Lanes” for rides (or to make reservations for the rides) you have to purchase Genie+ for each ticket/person you plan to do this for. This will cost you $25 per person, per day. I know… but it saves you SO MUCH time waiting in lines. I’d estimate this saves us 3-4 hours per day of line wait time, and it allows us to ride tons more rides each day.
There are 4 main things to know about Lightning Lanes:
You can’t start selecting your Lightning Lane reservations until you enter the park or your ticket has been scanned into the park that day.
You can only have 1 Lightning Lane reservation at a time (for the most part…)
You can only pull a Lightning Lane for each ride once per day
You have an hour and 20 minutes to use your Lightning Lane – so if your return window is 6:00 you can ride that ride from 5:55 (5 minutes before your return time) to 7:15 (1 hr and 15 minutes after your return time)
If you have Park Hopper tickets you can pull Lightning Lanes for the other park, even if you haven’t entered them yet
Here’s a digger dive into those points…
First thing to know about Lightning Lane is that you cannot start selecting your Lightning Lanes until you enter the park, that actual day. So unlike your dining reservations, these can’t be made before your trip. Lightning Lanes cannot be pulled during the Early Entry half hour. Also, (for the most part) you can only have one Lightning Lane assigned to your ticket at a time. Once you “cash in” your Lightning Lane for a particular ride, you can select your next one. OR if it’s been 2 hours since you pulled your last Lightning Lane you can grab another one.
Lightning Lanes can run out, early. If you want to ride Toy Story Midway Mania at 7pm, you probably need to grab your Lightning Lane for that ride by 3 in the afternoon. Maybe even earlier on a busy day. By midafternoon many rides don’t have Lightning Lanes available for the rest of the day. You have to develop a bit of strategy and skill for mastering this timing. When you pull that 7pm Lightning Lane for Toy Story at 3pm, you can’t get any more until 5pm… Getting the hang of this trickery is just something you’ll get better at as you work through your visit.
Finally, you can only ride each attraction once per day using a Lightning Lane. So if you ride Big Thunder Mountain with a Lightning Lane at 9:00 in the morning, you won’t be able to pull a Lightning Lane reservation for it again that day. Again, there’s strategy here: ride Big Thunder Mountain early and use the “stand by” line (or normal people/non-lightning lane line) in the first hour or 2 of the day when lines are short, then ride it again with a Lightning Lane in the afternoon when lines get up to 60 minutes long!
Once you’ve entered the park you can pull your first Lightning Lane. The easiest way to do this is by selecting the ride within the map itself on the Disneyland App. Right on the ride’s page you click the ‘LL’ Lightning Lane button - this takes you to your ‘Tip Board’ and you can select from there. Within the ‘Tip Board’ screen you can see all the rides and what their wait times currently look like and when you can book your Lightning Lane for.
Last note, you can use Lightning Lane with Rider Switch:
Parent 1 and big kid(s) ride the ride using their Lightning Lane – Parent 2 stays with kid(s) too small to ride
Next, Parent 2 rides using their Lightning Lane and big kid(s) can ride again using a Rider Switch (no 2nd Lightning Lanes for the kids needed!) – Parent 1 stays with small kid(s)
More on Rider Switch below.
Here’s an example of how we’ve used Lightning Lane during the day (these times will vary day-by-day):
Individual Lightning Lane:
Now here’s where Disneyland is really going to fleece you… 3 of the biggest ticket rides (and truly the best rides – they know what they’re doing…) are not on the Genie+ Lightning Lane program and they cost an additional fee to skip the lines. These rides are called Individual Lightning Lanes and they are:
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Radiator Springs Racers
Each of these rides can easily get to 60+ minutes of wait times. Sometimes 120 minutes… It is possible to ‘Rope Drop’ these rides, which means you run (I mean walk very fast… there’s no running in Disneyland…) to the ride the second the park opens (but you really have to be at the gates an hour before opening to be the first one in line…) and do these attractions first. But know that you’ll still have to wait 20 minutes+ in line so doing this will easily eat up 30-60 minutes of your morning. During which time you could have ridden on 3-5 other attractions.
Good news is these Individual Lightning Lane rides are in a separate reservation system and can be pulled in addition to your normal Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations. So you can have an Individual Lightning Lane reservation the same time as a regular Lightning Lane one.
These Individual Lightning Lanes typically range from $15-25 per person. Yep, we paid $100 to ride Rise of the Resistance… the line times were 2 hours… I’m not sorry.
Early Entry or Magic Morning:
Early Entry (also known as Magic Morning) is that magical time where certain guests get access to a specific portion of the parks 30 minutes before the gates open to the general public. If you choose to stay in one of the 3 Disneyland Resort Hotels you’ll be able to utilize this EVERY morning. In the past, you could also access Early Entry ONE time during your visit if you purchased a 3+ Day Ticket - however, this perk hasn’t returned since the COVID lockdowns. So for now, the only way to enjoy Eary Entry is to be staying on property.
Despite this early access and lack of large crowds, you’ll still want to get to the gates 20 minutes before Early Entry starts, (or 5 minutes after) to avoid wait times at the gates.
When you book your Disneyland vacation you’ll also make a reservation for one particular park each day. If you have “Park Hopper” tickets (see below), you can “hop” to the other park starting at 11:00. But you’ll have to experience Early Entry at the park you made a reservation for, as this is the park you’re beginning your day at.
Another thing to know is that the entire park isn’t open for this time. Just certain rides will be running during this time. Here’s a list of what they’re currently running. But we found for that half hour, and perhaps the next hour as well, we had very little wait times for rides, if not no wait times at all.
Once you enter the park you can start making Lightning Lane selections on the Disneyland App, but the soonest time they’ll give you is for when the park opens to the general public. You might have a quicker time getting on that ride if you just went during the Early Entry time. Or another strategy, we would schedule a Lightning Lane for Toy Story Midway Mania just as we were walking into the Park for Early Entry – our return time wouldn’t be for an hour, so we would hit up 3-5 other rides for the Early Entry time, then stroll right onto Midway Mania at 8am.
I cannot stress how important Early Entry mornings were to our trip. We got a ton of our rides in during these early minutes and it was sort of neat to be in the parks when they were so empty. In my opinion, this alone is worth the extra bucks to stay at a Disney Hotel.
Rope Drop:
If you aren’t able to utilize Early Entry you can instead ‘Rope Drop’ to be one of the first visitors into the park. This is also something veteran park-goers do to try and get on the most popular rides first thing that day. The ‘rope’ is a literal rope that ‘drops’ right as the park opens at 8:00 to allow you to move throughout the park. But the trick is you’re actually already in the park, in Disneyland you’ll already be to the center hub and waiting in front of the entrances to one of the lands. Here’s how you do it:
Be at the security gate (either outside the parks or in your hotel) at 6:30 am
Security opens at 7:00 – go through quickly and line up at the ticket gates on either side of the Esplanade (or the open space between Disneyland and DCA themselves)
Ticket gates open at 7:30 – if you’re one of the first 2-3 groups inline the ticket scanner cast member will actually scan your ticket a few minutes before that 7:30 time, which means you can start pulling Lightning Lanes
At 7:30 walk quickly to the ‘Rope’ you want to line-up for, or the rope closest to the ride you want to hop on first
8:00 the park officially opens and the ‘Rope Drops’ in front of you and you can walk quickly to the ride you want to hop on
Couple notes and tricks:
Once your ticket is scanned into the park you can start booking Lightning Lanes and placing food mobile orders
If you are truly the first 1-2 people in line and you are actually right up against the rope then by all means, go for one of the big rides: Rise, Radiator Springs Racers, Peter Pan. But if you’re back a bit then I’d suggest going for a secondary ride and do one of those later
There’s no running in the parks and I’ve heard the cast members threaten to pull people aside if they’re running. Just get that power walk on and you’ll still be one of the first in line for your ride
Rider Switch:
Think of Rider Switch as the Disneyland way of taking turns:
Let’s say you’re travelling with 2 adults (Mom & Dad) and 2 kids (Ben – 5 years old and 45” tall & Anna – 3 years old and 35” tall). As my imaginary family approaches Radiator Springs Racers, Ben is of course obsessed with Lightning McQueen and has been waiting for this his ENTIRE LIFE!!! and Anna is unfortunately too short to join. But both Mom & Dad want to experience the ride – because let’s be honest, it’s one of the best rides in the entire place.
The entire family checks in with the Cast Members at the ride entrance and informs them that they want to use a Rider Switch, with Dad & Ben riding first. Now technically the Cast Member is supposed to scan Mom’s ticket and she and Anna are supposed to wait in a designated spot, but this sometimes doesn’t happen.
When Dad & Ben hop off the ride, it’s Mom’s turn to ride and Dad’s turn to hang with Anna. And Ben can ride again, if he wants, which of course he will! Now if Dad & Ben hop off the ride and Ben really has to pee before he rides again, no problem. You have an hour of time after Dad & Ben exit the ride to redeem your Rider Switch.
Some other notes:
The Rider Switch system is entirely different than Lightning Lane – so holding a Rider Switch doesn’t interfere with your ability to grab Lightning Lanes
You can only have 1 Rider Switch at a time
Not all rides have Rider Switch – only rides with a height requirement utilize Rider Switch
You can use Rider Switch for any reason, not just because of a height limitation. If Anna just doesn’t want to ride Autopia (32” requirement) then you can still take advantage of the Switch
Finally, this feature is amazing! Many of the most popular rides offer Rider Switch and it can be a great way for Mom & Dad to take turns riding the Matterhorn when traveling to the parks with little kids. But it’s also a great way for your kids to ride their favorite rides 2 times, right in a row! Don’t be afraid to take a baby or toddler with you to Disneyland – this is a great silver lining!
Park Hopper:
A “Park Hopper” is an add-on to your ticket that allows you to “hop” between the 2 parks during your day. You must pick which park you want to start in (Disneyland or Disney California Adventure). After beginning your day in that park you can “hop” to the other after 11:00 am. Then you can go between the parks as much as you want until close.
The cost of this feature is $60 per person for your entire visit – so for our family of 5 this is a $300 cost to consider. If you’re visiting the parks for a quick visit – like 2 to 2.5 days I highly recommend adding this on. If you are going for 3+ days you can definitely plan your visit around just one park per day. But that’s just the thing – you have to plan around it, which is why my Blank General Itinerary is a helpful tool. When you’re limited to one park per day you can’t be quite as “go-with-the-flow” as you might like. When we were there in April 2022 we found out (very last minute) that they were doing a test of the upcoming nighttime parade in Disneyland, so we jumped off Radiator Springs Racers (in DCA) and walked over to Disneyland to check it out. If we’d hadn’t had Park Hoppers this wouldn’t have been an option. But there are things to do in DCA at night… we would have survived…
