Which Disneyland Rides Require the Longest Waits?
What’s the least happy thing to do at The Happiest Place on Earth?
Come on, we all know this one. It’s to stand in line at the various attractions.
Disneyland
Now, don’t get me wrong. Imagineers have turned these waits into potentially amazing experiences.
You can stand where Walt Disney once did and admire all he and his successors have built from nothing.
Sleeping Beauty Castle
The sights and sounds of Disneyland make standing in line tolerable and often even fun.
Still, in a perfect world, we’d all walk right onto every ride at Disneyland. Alas, that’s just not possible, though.
So, which Disneyland rides require the longest waits? Read on to find out!
About Disneyland Park
We could spend several hours debating what counts as an attraction at Disneyland Resort and especially Disneyland Park.
Like, I’m confident we’d all agree about It’s a Small World or Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
Photo: Disney Parks Blog
But should we consider the nighttime presentations like Fantasmic! and World of Color?
I’d argue no, but I understand you may feel differently.
Even if we exclude things like that, Disneyland Park alone hosts 52 attractions.
Wikipedia suggests that 49 of them are rides, with three others closer in nature to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
Photo: D23
Where am I going with all this? Well, with 49 rides and three other attractions readily available, the lines remain in check.
Based on current estimates, roughly 47,260 people visit Disneyland Park daily.
Disneyland Crowds
With 52 attractions in operation, each one needs to be capable of handling a few thousand of them daily.
Some are obviously more popular than others, but this modular approach reflects Disney’s crowd management philosophy.
Adding a new attraction reduces the burden on the other 52 because guests will flock to the new thing.
That’s why Disney adds new rides. Each one increases the maximum capacity at a theme park, thereby boosting revenue.
Photo by Brady MacDonald / Orange County Register
From your perspective, more attractions often mean shorter lines at other, older rides.
Still, many classics remain popular to this day because a Disneyland visit would feel incomplete.
Photo: Disney
That’s why attraction wait times at Disneyland don’t make much sense to outsiders.
A casual visitor wouldn’t expect something like Matterhorn Bobsleds, an ancient thrill ride, to require a long wait.
Disneyland locals wouldn’t expect anything else because they know this ride always has a long line.
That’s where we’re publishing these articles. It’s so that newer tourists can anticipate the average waits in standby lines.
Which Disneyland Park Lines Are Longest?
Disneyland
The other thing about Disneyland that matters in this conversation is that the park’s fresh out of space.
For decades now, Disney has struggled with a lack of extra land surrounding the park.
Once everyone in Anaheim realized that Disneyland was a draw, they gobbled up all the surrounding land.
At the time, Walt Disney was helpless to stop this since he couldn’t even afford to build Disneyland Hotel. Somebody else did.
So, some Disneyland attractions actually break the park boundaries by going underground to add more space.
Walt Disney World could never do that since the ground floor at Magic Kingdom is literal swamp land.
The end result is that Disneyland rarely adds entirely new attractions.
When the park does build something, it instantly becomes a huge hit with the locals, almost by default.
Thankfully, Imagineers maintain the highest quality standards for attractions. They deserve all the attention and traffic they get.
Even the most popular new stuff doesn’t require a prolonged wait, at least compared to Walt Disney World.
On most days, the average attraction wait time is 35 minutes or less, which beats all four parks at Disney World.
That’s the sheer volume of attractions doing their job to keep your line time manageable.
Still, some rides are exceptions, even at Disneyland.
For several years now, the longest average wait occurs at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Credit: Disney
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run typically isn’t as bad, but I’ll include it just to be safe.
Space Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Matterhorn Bobsleds are typically long waits as well.
Photo: DIsneyland
Then, we have others you’d expect like Haunted Mansion and ones you wouldn’t such as Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Peter Pan’s Flight vary, but they probably qualify as well.
About Disney California Adventure
Photo: Disney
Despite being the younger fraternal twin, Disney California Adventure (DCA) demonstrates much different behavior.
This park isn’t overflowing with attractions, which causes its top rides to experience bottlenecks.
Photo: Disney
Also, we should discuss a novelty at both parks. Some rides gain holiday overlays.
In the case of Haunted Mansion Holiday, the wait time doubles. Generally, DCA attractions don’t skew that much.
Guardians of the Galaxy – MISSION: Breakout!
But Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark typically requires an extra 20-30 minutes over Mission: BREAKOUT!
Similarly, Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters ordinarily doesn’t belong on this list, but its Halloween overlay is significantly more popular.
Photo: Disney
These are the quirks at Disneyland Resort that the locals know. Haunted Mansion Holiday is like a state holiday in California.
Anyway, at DCA, there is one alpha attraction. No matter when you visit, Radiator Springs Racers will require the longest wait.
Photo: Disney
Just plan for a 90-minute wait and be happy if it’s less. Mission: BREAKOUT! and Soarin’ Around the World are generally next.
However, DCA sometimes brings back Soarin’ Over California, which, as you might imagine, is MUCH more popular with the locals.
Photo: Disney
Please be aware of that possibility and plan accordingly. Here are the other rides that could require longer waits:
- Goofy’s Sky School
- The Incredicoaster
- Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
- Pixar Pal-A-Round
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
- WEBSLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
Everything else at DCA is totally manageable and, in fact, probably a substantially shorter wait.
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