Disneyland Wait Times for Early December
MickeyBlog discusses Walt Disney World wait times every week. Conversely, we’ve only discussed Disneyland’s lines a few times.
Now that we’ve reached the holiday season, we should update this for guests, as the parks are about to swell in size.
Here are the Disneyland wait times so far in December, along with some other helpful information about your next visit.
Changes at Disneyland Resort
Disney Genie just opened at the parks, which changes the circumstances some. So, when you look at these wait times, please remember they’ll change some.
That’s okay, though! You’ll have a new or, more accurately, a returning option to mitigate the extended lines.
You can purchase Disney Genie+ for $20. It’ll allow you to enter the shorter Lightning Lane lines for several attractions.
Here’s the list of participants:
Disneyland
- Autopia
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Haunted Mansion
- Indiana JonesTM Adventure
- “it’s a small world”
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
Disney California Adventure
- Goofy’s Sky School
- Grizzly River Run
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Incredicoaster
- Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
Presuming that you purchase Park Hopper, you can even schedule some Disney Genie+ selections at both parks on the same day!
Also, Disneyland Resort has introduced another option. Lightning Lane allows you to skip most of the line on three attractions. They are:
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
For a $7-$20 fee, it varies based on the ride and the date of your visit – you can enter the Lightning Lane. It’ll save you plenty of time.
Given this information, you should contemplate how much time you’ll spend in line versus the cost of Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane.
Disney Genie+ works with the same calculus as the former MaxPass system for many of you. However, Lightning Lane is a newer scenario.
Honestly, that decision mainly applies to Radiator Springs Racers, though. The other two rides weren’t part of the MaxPass system for long, if at all.
Disneyland Wait Times
I’ll save the discussion for the Lightning Lane selections until the end. For now, let’s focus on the regular attractions at Disneyland.
For clarity, I’ll include the ones that participate in Disney Genie+, though. I think you’ll understand my rationale by the end.
At Disneyland, the holidays skew demand for the top three rides. It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion Holiday top the list at this time of year.
Over the past week, guests have waited roughly 40 minutes to experience the It’s a Small World holiday overlay. That’s a 25 percent increase from non-holidays.
Haunted Mansion Holiday has averaged a 47-minute wait over the past week. People are really in the holiday mood at the Happiest Place on Earth.
The other ride with a substantial wait time this past week was Space Mountain.
Guests waited an average of 42 minutes for it, which is actually a minute lower than its 2021 average.
Of course, when I say “2021,” I really mean the seven months since the park reopened at the end of April.
Here are the rest of Disneyland’s averages:
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 35 minutes
- Jungle Cruise – 33 minutes
- Indiana Jones Adventure – 31 minutes
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 30 minutes
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 29 minutes
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 28 minutes
- Alice in Wonderland – 27 minutes
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin – 24 minutes
- Astro Orbitor – 23 minutes
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 23 minutes
- Matterhorn Bobsleds – 21 minutes
- Snow White’s Enchanted Wish – 20 minutes
The other 15 attractions required a wait of 17 minutes or less. Overall, the average Disneyland attraction required a 20-minute wait.
Disney California Adventure
I’ve always been impressed by the way DCA manages its crowds. Wait times rarely grow excessive here, although we’ll find two exceptions.
Ignoring the Lightning Lane attractions, the longest line is usually Toy Story Midway Mania! or Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission – BREAKOUT!
Over the past week, Toy Story required a 45-minute wait while Guardians hovered around 43 minutes.
A distant third was Soarin’ Around the World. This ride averaged a 35-minute wait.
Everything else at DCA was perfectly manageable. Here’s the info:
- Luigi’s Joy to the Whirl (Rollickin’ Roadsters) – 27 minutes
- Goofy’s Ski School – 25 minutes
- Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! – 22 minutes
- Mater’s Jingle Jamboree – 20 minutes
- Pixar Pal-A-Round – 18 minutes
- Incredicoaster – 17 minutes
- Inside Out – Emotional Whirlwind – 16 minutes
Everything else required a wait of 12 minutes or less. Overall, the average DCA attraction came with a 21 minute wait. But I’m skewing the data a bit.
Let’s Talk Lightning Lane
I think you’ve figured out that Disney Genie+ isn’t a requisite on most days. Sure, it’ll lighten your load, but most Disney attractions come with reasonable waits.
Then, there are the three exceptions. Radiator Springs Racers at DCA has averaged a 67-minute wait thus far in December.
Only a handful of Walt Disney World attractions require that much line time, but it’s still acceptable.
I say that because virtually everything else at DCA doesn’t take much time. BUT…
WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure has averaged a 72-minute wait. That’s on good days, though.
On some dates, the ride has crossed 200 minutes. I would expect the park to split the difference as the holidays approach.
At that point, you must decide whether paying for Lightning makes sense. My belief is that you’re okay up until 90 minutes.
If the wait time suggests anything beyond that, I say spend the money. You’ll get it back by experiencing more stuff at the park(s) during those extra hours.
Then, there’s the most ridiculous one of all. You’ll find Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance’s lines vary wildly.
During the weeks in and around Thanksgiving, the average wait time was 293 minutes…and I WISH that was a typo.
This past week, the average dropped to 120 minutes. Still, the mere chance of a four-hour wait would be more than enough to scare me into buying Lightning Lane.
As you can see, most wait times at Disneyland Resort won’t bother a Disney fan at all. The Lightning Lane tier makes for a noteworthy exception, though.
You must decide your best option on a given date and whether you’re willing to pay a bit more to save yourself the additional aggravation.