May 14-17 Trip: crowd expectations?

[Teddydogno1]

Coming up on one week until our family DL trip! We last visited in 2014 when our daughter was 7. She turns 16 on Wed while we are at DL. We have had to reschedule this trip 3 times. Originally we were going to go for Christmas in 2021, but had to cancel when it became too stressful with other things going on. Then we scheduled for October 2022 to see the Halloween decorations, but had to postpone due to daughter's medical issues. The January 2023 trip also had to be rescheduled due to those same issues and finally scheduled surgery. Now we are here with our re-re-re-scheduled trip!

When I planned this in December, I checked with several sites to pick a time that would not be packed and this week showed as a relatively low-crowd period (between Spring Break and Summer madness). I don't like crowds much and hate the thought of spending half the trip in line.

Anyway...I just checked several different crowd estimators and they don't seem to agree very well. Some show Sunday 5/14 as moderate crowds and some show heavy. Some show Monday and Tuesday as a little above average and Wednesday below average, and some show the opposite! So if YOU have viewed your crystal ball, what should we expect? Our reservations are for CA on Sun and Tue, DL on Mon and Wed (all park hopper). We are staying at the Grand Californian starting Sunday through Wednesday night, but we fly in on Saturday afternoon and are staying that first night at the Homewood Suites.

I opted NOT to buy Genie+ when I booked the trip because I didn't think we'd need/want it for all 4 days. But am open to doing that and individual LL if the crowds warrant it. Bummed about the dragon fire in Fantasmic...looks like that will still be off the schedule when we're there.

Thanks for any thoughts and predictions.

Rob

 

[DLgal]

Should be really nice. Nothing major going on to bring in crowds, and it's almost the end of the school year so not many people in the parks overall.

DL is worse on Mondays than DCA. DCA is busier on Sundays. Since you have hoppers, it's not a big deal, and I wouldn't risk changing park reservations at this point, but be prepared for morning crowds those 2 days.

 

[Federalist45]

Prepare yourself for crowds and perhaps you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Sunday and Wednesday will be Grad Nights and we don’t yet know how the new system will drive crowds and attendance.

If it’s in your budget, Genie+, regardless of crowds, is the best way to avoid long lines and add flexibility to your day. ILL for Rise and Racers are also big pressure release valves. With four days, you can certainly do everything without the up charges, but Genie+ is also just a huge QoL boost if wielded effectively.

 

[DLgal]

Prepare yourself for crowds and perhaps you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Sunday and Wednesday will be Grad Nights and we don’t yet know how the new system will drive crowds and attendance.

If it’s in your budget, Genie+, regardless of crowds, is the best way to avoid long lines and add flexibility to your day. ILL for Rise and Racers are also big pressure release valves. With four days, you can certainly do everything without the up charges, but Genie+ is also just a huge QoL boost if wielded effectively.

Ugh, Grad Nights. Forgot about those. They definitely make an impact.

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

Our days are the 17th to the 19th and I’m concerned a little as well but figured it can’t be worse than the week before Christmas as WDW so I’m just going to go with the flow. I did buy Genie+ at the time I bought tickets so hopefully I’ll figure that out easily enough to help.

 

[Federalist45]

Outside of Halloween, Christmas, and long weekends, the date is largely irrelevant. You really can’t beat the crowds by picking the correct date. You can make an educated decision, but you’re at the whim of the reservation system at this point.

If you encounter crowds that feel low to satisfactory/manageable, you got lucky!

There is a way to beat Disneyland crowds, but the date isn’t very important. It’s all about the time.

If you want to experience un-crowded Disneyland, then rope drop. Staying late is second best.

 

[Teddydogno1]

Thanks for the thoughts. I know there is no way to really KNOW what attendance will be like ahead of time and there's no going back now! We are getting excited for the trip!

Rob

 

[ottawamom]

Just got back from 5 days at Disneyland resort. If it's in your budget get Genie+ for a couple of the days. We found we could get a lot done if we were at rope drop and rode rides like crazy until 10-10:30. Lines started getting longer after that. We usually parkhopped at lunch and spent an hour or so in the other park before going back to the hotel to rest. We came back to the parks around 5 and spent the evening.

We were able to do all the rides we wanted without Genie+ by taking advantage of the first part of the day and evening. It is hard to stand in line and see all the Genie+ people go walking by. I remember being the ones with the Fastpasses walking down those lines. I only wished I had purchased Genie+ for our last day.

In hindsight if I had to do it over I think I would have gone to the parks for 3 days with Genie+ and park hoppers attached to the tickets as opposed to 5 days with just park hoppers. We would have been able to do everything we wanted within that timeframe with Genie+.

 

[Teddydogno1]

Just got back from our trip and can report on the crowds. As stated, we had 4 day park hopper passes Sunday May 14 through Wed May 17.

TLDR: crowds were pretty nutty

We expected Sunday to be the most crowded and that turned out NOT to be the case. We entered DCA on Sunday at about 9:30 (had to change hotels to the Grand Californian and get the scooter for my wife). We were able to walk on to Soaring with less than 5 minutes wait, then went over to Mike and Sully which changed from 10 min to 20 to 25 while we walked and then waited. Then had to return to the hotel for an 11 am brunch reservation.

After brunch and check in (our room was ready at 11 am), we went to DL for the afternoon around 4 pm. The crowds at DL were not too bad and our first DL ride was Pirates with a 10 minute wait. By the time we got back to Galaxy's Edge, it was fairly quiet! We did standby for Smuggler's Run at about 15 minutes wait and then bought ILL for Rise. Went back to shop a bit and got a table at Oga's in just 5 minutes. Smuggler's line was down to 5 minutes for much of that time, but went back up to 20 just as we went in for our second ride (actual wait was a bit under 20). Heading back to the heart of the park, we walked on to Pirates for another ride with 0 wait, then rode the Mark Twain. So we survived Sunday without Genie+ and little waiting in line (but LOTS of walking).

The 3 weekdays turned out to be quite busy! As mentioned, the mornings were great and we were able knock out a bunch of rides before the crowds got too heavy starting around 10:30-11 am. LL helped get some stuff done, but the heat, crowds and sore feet drove us back to the room for mid day. We returned in the late afternoon and evening but things did NOT slow down much after dinner time like they did on Sunday. Monday evening at DCA was not too bad, but Tuesday and Wednesday never slowed down after crowds built up late morning. Major rides were still hitting 60 to 90 minutes for standby (even say 180 for Radiator Springs once) all the way into the night. Frankly, it really sucked and the only way we got anything done at all after early morning was by throwing money at it! Wednesday morning was actually oddly quiet still at 9 am at DL (we decided to sleep in a little since it was kid's birthday and we had a 9:30 breakfast reservation)

Sunday: 9:30 am start at DCA; no Genie+; ILL for Rise
Monday: early start at DL, actual entry at 8 am; used Genie+
Tuesday: early start at DCA, actual entry 7:40 am; used Genie+, ILL for RSR
Wednesday: 9 am start via Monorail at DL; used Genie+, ILL for Rise again

Thanks for all of the thoughts before the trip!

Rob

 

[Sunclytie]

I was there the weekend before you with three-day park hoppers and Genie+. I totally agree with you - we rope dropped and rode rides like crazy from park open till noon. We got a ton done and almost didn't need Genie+. If we wanted to ride anything from 12-6, we had to use Genie. It was very interesting.

 

[Aspencreek]

Sounds exactly like our trip last October. Went for 4 days (Sun-Wed) and before we arrived assumed that it would be the most busy on Sunday and get better during the week. Instead Sun/Mon were the best days (busy but bearable with Genie+). But by Wednesday it was insane. Like you we could only get anything done for the first couple hours then by 11am it was so packed it was ridiculous. Between massive wait times and constant breakdowns we gave up that day and left at 4pm to call it a trip (even losing ILLs we bought for Rise because it was down so much.) Good thing we've had much better times in past trips because if that had been our only visit I'm not sure we'd ever want to go back.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I have found Sundays and even Saturdays to be nicer than weekdays post covid.

I was at DL today (Saturday) and it wasn’t overly crowded IMO. I was reminiscing with my mom today about what weekdays used to be like when I took my son five to six years ago. Midweek weekdays were so slow and nice. Post-covid, it’s almost always crowded on weekdays, school or no school. People come. It’s espiclaly worse the last few weeks likely because the SoCal three-day ticket offer ends soon.

I was at DCA on Sunday 5/14 (Mother’s Day) and it was quite nice crowd-wise!

Crowd calendars simply don’t work at DLR anymore now that the reservation system is in place. Disney will do whatever it takes to get the crowds to come if it’s looking low attendance.