Yesterday’s post outlined the values of Disneyland single rider lines. Below is a semi-detailed guide to each ride on which I have exploited the single rider pass.

Note: most single rider passes entail entering through the attraction exit and walking all the way to the front of the line. If you have any questions or additional tips, please share them!

Disneyland Rides:

Splash Mountain
An overrated ride in my opinion, Splash Mountain is hardly worth the average hour-long wait. The first part of the ride is a little boring and the single drop is no Tower of Terror. That said, single riding this baby is a great way to mix up your afternoon and cool off. At best, you’ll ride with one other member of your party in the canoe – but it should not really matter to you unless you need a quality family portrait of the drop. For those who do not want to get soaked, the single rider line always feeds you to the back of a canoe where very little water splashes on your plunge. Quicker, dryer, and a pleasant casual walk-on experience.

Indiana Jones
One of the more popular rides, the wait times can be terrible. With this single rider pass, odds are very high that you will get to stick with your group. Even better, you will probably end up in back where the ride is more bumpy and exciting anyway! The only annoying aspects to single riding here are the safety speeches the staff must deliver to you every time and the ungodly slow handicap elevators that land you onto the loading platform. Well worth these petty hassles though.

California Adventure rides:

Grizzly River Run
One of my favorites and perfect for a hot day. With single rider, it’s really easy to walk on and on again. You rarely ever get to ride with other members of your party (even if there’s room enough on a raft for two or three more, staff is pretty strict here with singles), but it’s always fun to meet the other people aboard. Make sure to dress accordingly (soaked jeans and socked shoes make for an unpleasant afternoon). Added bonus if you are staying in the Grand Californian Resort – the line starts just beyond the hotel’s park entrance. Put on your swimming suit, walk onto the ride, and enjoy four or five round trips within the hour! Certainly beats the kiddie pool slide.

Soarin’ Over California
I almost felt dirty single-riding this bad boy. They send you directly inside, straight to the front, and past absolutely everyone else standing in line. Without question, you will be in the same auditorium as other members of your party (there are 87 seats to fill). You most likely will be in the same side of the theatre, and you may even be seated in the same pod. Do not count on sitting next to each other, but this is not the kind of movie you want to make out in anyway. Enjoy your flight (you dirty cheater)!

California Screamin’
My favorite ride in the park, California Screamin’ is a simple and relatively efficient single-riding experience. You probably will not be on the same ride as your party and you will definitely be seated next to a stranger, but I think you will be more concerned with the twists than your neighbor. There is usually a greater number of single riders here, and it is annoying to take the elevator over and down to queue each time, but it’s totally worth it. You can easily ride this bad boy three times in one hour.

The most-obvious and least-exploited trick to bypassing many of the terrible Disneyland waits are single rider lines. While not all rides are organized to support this feature, the ones that do are happy to fill the seats and move more people through. The idea is simple: most people want to ride with their family and friends, but some parties have odd numbers that leave a few seats empty. So why not let loners (or those willing to ride without their party) a pass through the line to help fill those seats?

As a single rider, you literally walk to the front of the line. You cannot beat that. But it gets better: more often than not, single riders get to ride together if the Disney staff calls for parties of two or three to fill seats and cannot find groups of that size nearby in the line. Depending on the attraction, odds are great that you will ride with the rest of your group. When three of us went to Disneyland today, we saved at least five hours total standby line time by “single riding” and never once road apart.

Of course, there is no guarantee that you will get to ride together. That’s the risk you’re taking by cutting to the front of the line. Behave, do what you’re told by the staff, be willing to ride alone if you have to, and do not abuse the system more than you already are.

For a detailed guide of each ride where we took advantage of the single rider, click here.