OMG ... It was seriously packed today!

[disneyland_is_magic]

I had NO idea that weekdays would be busier than weekends at this time of year! I had booked us in for march 28th (Mon) and planned a day off on March 26 (Sat). Think it would be better to try and book the park for Saturday the 26th instead of the monday?

Looking at the pass holder calendars the Believe, Enchant, and Imagine Keys are blocked out on that Saturday. (I may be an idiot so confirm this with your own eyes.) Honestly, that alone makes me side to Saturday.

Isitpacked.com predicts the Saturday will be "Yep it's packed" and Monday as a "Forget about it" which I take to mean worse.

Don't make any decision based just on me, I don’t remotely know all the ins and outs, but hopefully a few others will chime in to give you some more insights to consider.

Do you have dining booked already you would have to cancel? That's another thing to consider.

 

[Steven G]

In general, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the least busy days, unless there is some event going on on those days (halloween, christmas, holidays, DCA events, late night parties, etc.)

But because Disney has ultimate control of reservations, etc., it is even harder to predict.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they allow guests to pay extra for guaranteed restaurant reservations. I recommended that guests of Disney resorts, should get first dibs but I could totally see them just charging an extra fee for guaranteed space.

People staying at a DLR used to have some “priority” for dining reservations. Not anymore.

 

[nicolispicoli]

I can concur that yesterday was awful and today is miserable. I am a person who can always have a good time in the parks and just make it work, but it’s bad today. So many people, navigating is just gahhhhh. We didn’t rope drop, but we were in by 8:20. By 11:00 it was so bad we already wanted to leave. We even had genie plus, but it’s hard to utilize when the times are far off and zigging and zagging is hard when it’s so crowded. Indy has been closed on and off almost constantly since opening and with no pirates, it’s putting pressure on other lines. For me, it’s bad when I look to the train for relief. Even that broke down on us. Came back at 1:00, going to give a try later and just stay at late as we can since we don’t have small kids. Sunday was pretty decent, not insane and genie worked wonders for us. Yesterday at DCA was bad but we managed to get all our genie rides in by 10 closing. Definitely trying to be positive but with paying more for genie and LLplus where we can for 4 people each day, it’s a hard expensive pill to swallow to not be annoyed with capacity.

 

[SGeisler]

Looking at the pass holder calendars the Believe, Enchant, and Imagine Keys are blocked out on that Saturday. (I may be an idiot so confirm this with your own eyes.) Honestly, that alone makes me side to Saturday.

Isitpacked.com predicts the Saturday will be "Yep it's packed" and Monday as a "Forget about it" which I take to mean worse.

Don't make any decision based just on me, I don’t remotely know all the ins and outs, but hopefully a few others will chime in to give you some more insights to consider.

Do you have dining booked already you would have to cancel? That's another thing to consider.

I do have a charachter breakfast booked for the Saturday that I would need to switch, but we wouldn't be devastated to miss that if we can't rebook. I'd rather have a less-insane park day!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I always tell people that weekdays can be more crowded than weekends, especially at certain times of the year. But no one ever believes me. I’m there enough to see that it absolutely happens. Mondays are notoriously bad for some reason.

PS, I was there this past Saturday and while busy, it really wasn’t too bad! Managed Peter Pan with a 23 minute wait around 10am. Did RotR (posted 60, actual wait 40) and Webslingers (posted 55, actual 60). Plus Pirates right before it closes and a few other rides. The biggest crowds were at DCA for the Food and Wine Festival.

 

[Chickinvic]

Not surprised, we've been many times in March, and the beginning of the 3rd week is always when full blown spring break crowds seem to desend on the parks. I've had the same experience, where the weekend is fine, and then Monday crowds just explode.

I've been during spring break in past years and never experienced anything close to what OP is describing. Must be more to it such as short staffing or something. Sounds bloody awful. I'm not sure if Disney is the place to go for a fun vacation these days. Yikes!

 

[StormyCA]

Monday March 14th... busier than it was on Saturday or Sunday. Slightly warmer weather.

LL averaged instant to just over a half hour return times on the weekend... today 2-3 hours for most of the popular rides. Lots of rides broke down. Even the single rider line at RSR was nearly two hours because it was down so long!!!

The mobile food orders were crazy - 3 hours... ughhh!

Wait a minute....are you saying that when your LL window opened up, you STILL waited 2-3 HOURS in the LL line??? That's horrendous.

 

[jordan13402]

Wait a minute....are you saying that when your LL window opened up, you STILL waited 2-3 HOURS in the LL line??? That's horrendous.

no i think she was saying the return time was 2 to 3 hours out

 

[Chickinvic]

Wait a minute....are you saying that when your LL window opened up, you STILL waited 2-3 HOURS in the LL line??? That's horrendous.

I assumed they meant the window was 2-3 hours out, not waiting 2-3 hrs in the LL line.

 

[DLgal]

On a per year rather than per day basis, many locals spend way more at Disneyland than someone from out of state. Frequent visitors are more likely to try new food or buy new merchandise just because it's new. When locals couldn't get in to Downtown Disney during the pandemic, pin sales at Disneyland collapsed because many in the local pin trading community go in every week to buy the new pins. Locals may spend a couple hundred dollars every few months even if on some visits, they spend nothing (but they already paid for a Magic Key). Tourists may blow a thousand dollars or more once every few years.

Additionally, people with Magic Keys are more likely to invite their friends and family who don't have Magic Keys into the park which sells day tickets. If locals don't have annual passes and don't care to go Disneyland, they are more likely to prefer going to someplace else.

Yep. We passed $10k awhile ago. We'll probably land somewhere between $15k and $20k in total Disneyland spend once our passes expire on Sept 2.

 

[DLgal]

We went to DCA today just for food and wine. We were there 11:30-2:30. It didn't feel that bad to me. Lines at the booths were low.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

Also, reading the tea leaves, weekdays in June gonna be sweeeeeeet.

Oh, that would be lovely as that is when my trip is planned! We went on a long weekend last July and Friday was the least crowded day with Saturday and Sunday being significantly more crowded, so I figured we'd try to do a weekday trip this time. But, as any good DisBoarder knows, I'm still counting on and planning for heavy crowds. Better to plan for them and have a good strategy in place!

 

[gottalovepluto]

I can concur that yesterday was awful and today is miserable. I am a person who can always have a good time in the parks and just make it work, but it’s bad today. So many people, navigating is just gahhhhh. We didn’t rope drop, but we were in by 8:20. By 11:00 it was so bad we already wanted to leave. We even had genie plus, but it’s hard to utilize when the times are far off and zigging and zagging is hard when it’s so crowded. Indy has been closed on and off almost constantly since opening and with no pirates, it’s putting pressure on other lines. For me, it’s bad when I look to the train for relief. Even that broke down on us. Came back at 1:00, going to give a try later and just stay at late as we can since we don’t have small kids. Sunday was pretty decent, not insane and genie worked wonders for us. Yesterday at DCA was bad but we managed to get all our genie rides in by 10 closing. Definitely trying to be positive but with paying more for genie and LLplus where we can for 4 people each day, it’s a hard expensive pill to swallow to not be annoyed with capacity.

POTC & Toontown are huge people sucks. What if Disney didn’t adjust capacity to account for those closures? Goodness gracious at least get Nemo open already, I may not be a fan but any ride will help ease pressure on the other rides at least a bit.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Oh, that would be lovely as that is when my trip is planned! We went on a long weekend last July and Friday was the least crowded day with Saturday and Sunday being significantly more crowded, so I figured we'd try to do a weekday trip this time. But, as any good DisBoarder knows, I'm still counting on and planning for heavy crowds. Better to plan for them and have a good strategy in place!

^LEGIT DIS VET RIGHT HERE^

 

[kristensideaoffun]

POTC & Toontown are huge people sucks. What if Disney didn’t adjust capacity to account for those closures? Goodness gracious at least get Nemo open already, I may not be a fan but any ride will help ease pressure on the other rides at least a bit.

For real. We’re managing our expectations knowing there is no entertainment and some pretty big closures while we are there. We are going Monday and Tuesday and our plan is to rope drop and then just go with the flow after we’ve hit as much as we can before the crowds show up at 10am.

 

[starry_solo]

There is the "SoCal discounted tickets", and those aren't usable on the weekends, so that is probably adding to the issues on the weekdays.
also, I have seen many times where Monday seems to be worse than the weekends.

oh, and touring plans agrees in the historical section, it was 5's during the weekend, and 9 on monday.

Fri, March 11, 2022​	3​	4​	3​	None
Sat, March 12, 2022​	5​	5​	6​	EN IM
Sun, March 13, 2022​	5​	4​	6​	IM
Mon, March 14, 2022​	9​	9​	9​	None

dang, we were there on Friday and it was ok..

 

[Iceman93]

The mobile food orders were crazy - 3 hours... ughhh!

And I guess this is why some people (like me) are not happy with the mobile order process while others, who have been very lucky so far, pooh-pooh any complaints by saying things like, "Mobile order worked great for me! Everything was available just when I wanted it to be. Maybe you need to figure out how to use the system." If all I ever had were wonderful experiences, I'd probably be a pooh-pooher as well. But eventually, if you go enough and use mobile order enough, I guarantee you're going to have one of those "nothing is available for three hours" moments, or one of those "I clicked I'm here now and have still been waiting 45 minutes for my food" experiences.

 

[StormyCA]

I assumed they meant the window was 2-3 hours out, not waiting 2-3 hrs in the LL line.

no i think she was saying the return time was 2 to 3 hours out

Whew!!

But I don't think that's much different than return times in the 'Before Times' though. I can remember getting MPs/pulling FPs and having return times that were much later than 2-3 hours. There were times you'd pull a pass for Indy or RSR in the mid morning and the return time wasn't until the early evening, or later. Of course you could pull a 2nd one after 90 minutes (with MP) so it was not that big a deal.

With G+LL can you not pull a second pass at all until the 1st one is used? I thought it was the 'old style' 2 hr wait to pull a second LL.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

And I guess this is why some people (like me) are not happy with the mobile order process while others, who have been very lucky so far, pooh-pooh any complaints by saying things like, "Mobile order worked great for me! Everything was available just when I wanted it to be. Maybe you need to figure out how to use the system." If all I ever had were wonderful experiences, I'd probably be a pooh-pooher as well. But eventually, if you go enough and use mobile order enough, I guarantee you're going to have one of those "nothing is available for three hours" moments, or one of those "I clicked I'm here now and have still been waiting 45 minutes for my food" experiences.

I totally agree, so far so I have been lucky. I am kinda apathetic about some of the sit down restaurants because of their lackluster menus. My last trip we did all quick service. BUT if by bad luck you ended up at DL on a super bad day as described above, this has me rethinking how valuable a sit down reservation would be.

A sit down reservation means an available table (and enough chairs) for your group and a predictable eating time. I feel like knowing I had that locked in, knowing in say two hours we would be sitting down to eat, it would help me push through a little in the stress of bad crowds.