A Guide to Surviving the Queue Lines in Cars Land

If you’re a Disneyland Resort fan, you definitely know how long lines can get.  Unfortunately, Cars Land at Disney California Adventure is no exception to this rule.  I’ll bet you a cozy cone of churro bites that the Radiator Springs Racers and Luigi’s Flying Tires queues will never be void of guests, since these two attractions are fun and never quite the same experience with each ride.  Speaking of that, the line for those churro bites at the Cozy Cone Motel will also be a challenge for many.  So, what’s the strategy for coping with these queues?  How do you make the most of your Cars Land experience?   I’ll give you some insight and try to help you work your way through the desert of Radiator Springs!

Attraction Queues

Before I get started discussing strategy, let me make sure the most important piece of information is out there.

Use the restroom and have a resealable drink container handy BEFORE entering any of the ride queues!

This is THE most important planning strategy you can have, especially since there is only one set of restrooms in all of the area.  There are no drinking fountains and only a couple easy “escape exits” in any of the queues and being timid and waiting for a break in the queue will not make things any better.   My 5 year old had to go as we reached the last lap of a queue line.  We managed to politely make it out the correct path and were allowed back in at a meeting point, but it was touch and go for a few minutes.   Uttering the words “Excuse me!  Potty Emergency” may make you feel stupid, but boy do people quickly move out of the way and give you empathetic smiles that make you feel better about stepping on their toes…

Another thing for the captive queue audience to know is that , as of this writing, Disney is testing a new guest satisfaction technique – snack vendors wandering through the queue.  Besides being a “genius technique” from a merchandising standpoint, this gives the captive guest a chance to get that snack to keep them occupied.  Dressed as 1930’s deliverymen (think milkmen all dressed in white uniforms), these popcorn, ice cream, and drink vendors add a nice touch of era theming!

While we are talking about the similarities of the 3 queues, it should be noted that each of the Cars Land attraction has a minimum height restriction and child-swap capability.  Simply ask the cast members at the entrance for directions.

Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, let’s start with the ride that is on everyone’s mind.

Radiator Springs Racers

The good news is that this is the only attraction in Cars Land to have a FastPass, as well as a permanent Single Rider line.  The bad news is that this is the only attraction in Cars Land to have a FastPass, as well as a permanent Single Rider line.  Why?  Because that FastPass line on the left can increase the wait time of the Stand-By line by a reasonable margin.

Guests who need assistance in boarding (transferring from wheelchair or scooter) are directed through the exit queue and have their own special boarding area, where the race cars pull off into a separate “service bay” for them to take all the time they need.   This area has its own boarding queue line, as well, allowing guests to experience the atmosphere of the canyon.   This process is much like that of Toy Story Midway Mania.

My best guestimate is that the Stand-By queue was built to house about a 2 to 2.5 hour wait in the main line, with another hour worth if they open the extendable section.  That’s a capacity of about 3.5 hours!!!  Obviously, guests will be competing for FastPasses, Single Rider line, and early arrival.  And you Walt Disney Worlders thought the race for the coveted Toy Story Mania was controversial!

If you want a FastPass, you will have to join the masses at “rope drop” (the opening of Cars Land for the day) and fight your way to the FastPass machines. I think one can safely assume that if the Radiator Springs Racers FastPass “sell-out” patterns are the same as the popular attractions over in Disneyland, the entire day’s FastPasses will be gone by noon.  This leaves guests two options: break your group up into single riders (which doesn’t work for families with small children) or endure the Stand-By queue.

So, if you don’t get a FastPass, how do you handle that Stand-By queue?

There are several factors that affect your time in a queue, but the most critical are construction and distraction.  If it’s designed right, the time passes quickly.  If not, it feels like an eternity.  That’s where our two factors come in.  The construction of the queue and the scenery around it can help relieve boredom.  In this case, the queue weaves under the speed track, through the rock formations, into the canyon that is home to Stanley’s original radiator cap store, and through other buildings from Stanley’s original settlement – all the way up to the cave entrance of the Comfy Caverns Motor Court.  By winding the queue, it keeps first-time guests excited about what may be behind the bend (and not knowing how far it is that they really have left to go….)    It also allows room for more guests in a smaller space.

Besides being places of interest and landmarks to text your position in line to the rest of your party (that are elsewhere in the park), the also have great bits of distraction in them.  There are historical road markers, visuals, such as antiques radiator caps, store signage, western cactus plantings, and even the building made from bottles.   All of these things make great I-Spy games or even discussions with older kids about the history of Route 66.  Those old-fashioned snack vendors are on hand, here, in case you need some ice cream to while away your time.  If you can make it through the settlement buildings, you are footsteps away from the boarding area!

While I’m not completely decided, I do feel that this will actually be one of the easiest of all of the Cars Land queues to handle.  One of the things I enjoyed the most about this never-ending queue is that even though it is long and crowded, you really feel that you are deep inside a real desert canyon.  It’s serene (as much as it can be with a couple hundred people around you) and you honestly can’t hear the rest of California Adventure around you.  It really does buffer you from the real world.  That in itself may help you enjoy it more.

* By the way, the above potty incident actually happened in this queue.  Lesson learned.  The hard way.

Luigi’s Flying Tires

Luigi’s is the other attraction line that will drive you batty, if you don’t know what to expect.   This fact that this queue is so long for a limited capacity ride (where you have to wait for a set number of riders to get off and then new riders have to get back on) has caused much discussion and discontent from some die-hard fans, though I’m not sure what the expectations of these unhappy folks were.  We all knew this would be a really popular attraction, due to the nostalgic ancestry to Tomorrowland’s 1960’s Flying Saucers.