Which days would be best late January?

[SFMommy]

We will be in SoCal for a week arriving very late on Wednesday Jan 24 and leaving on Wednesday Jan 31 midday. We have some other things to do...college visits, seeing friends. But we want to spend 3 consecutive days in the parks.

Which park days do you think would be best for lower crowds...
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Thanks!

 

[aymiewilson]

My vote would be the Sunday-Tuesday purely so that you get in 1 weekend night and have a chance of seeing the fireworks at Disneyland. Also, if you trust the crowd calendaring at Touring Plans, those are the 3 days when their crowd calendar predicts the lowest crowds.

 

[SpaceMan5]

I am interested to see the replies. We will be there Jan 21-27

 

[LKing]

Have you looked into what days the colleges are offering tours? In my opinion, it is better to visit colleges M-F when students are on campus.

 

[brightlined]

I'd probably choose Sunday-Tuesday as well, but only because I'm not a huge fan of Friday afternoon/evenings.

If all of the options were available, I might vote for Saturday-Monday.

But, honestly, it's probably not going to be vastly different between those three options. Anecdotally, Mondays and Tuesdays have been a lot busier than they used to be. But that's also a slightly "low" period, anyway - apart from Lunar New Year, there's not much going on.

 

[MillauFr]

Shocked that people are recommending going on Mondays. Avoid, avoid, avoid. Worst day of the week by far. Look at the annual pass calendar and go when most people are blocked out.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

We will be in SoCal for a week arriving very late on Wednesday Jan 24 and leaving on Wednesday Jan 31 midday. We have some other things to do...college visits, seeing friends. But we want to spend 3 consecutive days in the parks.

Which park days do you think would be best for lower crowds...
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Thanks!

I would do one of the first two options for later park hours and so you have multiple opportunities to see fireworks. The weekdays are often as busy as or busier than the weekends believe it or not (especially Mondays!).

 

[CoasterGT24]

This past January, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday had the lowest average wait times at Disneyland

Graph from https://www.thrill-data.com/waits/park/dlr/disneyland/

Edit: can't get the graph to attach

 

[chezcurrie]

I would do one of the first two options for later park hours and so you have multiple opportunities to see fireworks. The weekdays are often as busy as or busier than the weekends believe it or not (especially Mondays!).

This this this. Avoid Mondays like the plague. Saturdays have been lovely all year because the lower tier MK are blocked. I’d personally lean to Fri-sun as that gives you more than one day for fireworks, which are often cancelled. Give yourself multiple options and make sure not to leave it to your last night - ie watch it on friday and then you can do it agian on saturday or Sunday from a different locale, vs waiting until Sunday and risking them being cancelled.

 

[brightlined]

Actual crowd data for January 2023 (ThrillData):

 

[SpaceMan5]

Actual crowd data for January 2023 (ThrillData):

View attachment 797815

So I got some dumb, dumb questions for you brightlined -

The lower the number the better?
How does one quantify the difference between say a 25 and a 32
TIA

 

[brightlined]

So I got some dumb, dumb questions for you brightlined -

The lower the number the better?
How does one quantify the difference between say a 25 and a 32
TIA

Yes - that's an approximate average wait time for every ride in the park combined. 40 is high, 44 is peak, 17 is the low.

25 and 32 isn't going to be a huge difference - it's the really the bigger ranges that you'll feel it.

I've personally always liked the last couple of weeks of January as a time to visit. To be fair, I was not there this year at that time, but I was there last year during that timeframe (with an MK), and it was really lovely. Medium crowds, the weather was nicely cool (my kind of weather). (I was enjoying it so much, I actually added an extra day.) I think you've got a good set of dates.

(I was there on Jan 7 and 8 this year, both 25 there, and had a really nice visit - I thought it was going to be crazy, and it wasn't. I was there at the beginning of last week, too, and it was 25-27 during my days - I had a great time - it was busy-ish, but nothing out of bounds.)


Side note: I posted that mainly as a quiet way to contest some of the advice here:

1) Honestly, since OP is asking about the last week in January, they'll be fine with any of those choices. Late January is a bit of a dead season - post-holiday / pre-spring, - there's not much going on, and the weather can be on the cool side. For OP, it's really more about whether they want to see fireworks or not.

2) CoasterGT24 mentioned that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday had the lowest averages for the month, but that's not really a fair statistic to predict late January, since the monthly average includes the beginning of January. (Monday has an insanely busy Jan 2nd that throws its average.)

3) Mondays aren't bad in late January. MKs aren't blocked out on Sundays at the end of January, so there's not the same rush back to the park on Monday - people will have been there the day before. (Sundays in late January have often been pretty chill in general, too.)

4) I personally just don't like Fridays because of Friday nights, which isn't represented in the day average. Fridays can be mild through the afternoon - but it can get pretty busy at night. But, again, that's just my personal taste - and it's probably not enough to be really noticeable in late January.

To be fair, it's all guesswork, too. We're all relying on what we've seen and experienced, and it could always be totally different than anything that's happened before.

 

[SpaceMan5]

Yes - that's an approximate average wait time for every ride in the park combined. 40 is high, 44 is peak, 17 is the low.

25 and 32 isn't going to be a huge difference - it's the really the bigger ranges that you'll feel it.

I've personally always liked the last couple of weeks of January as a time to visit. To be fair, I was not there this year at that time, but I was there last year during that timeframe (with an MK), and it was really lovely. Medium crowds, the weather was nicely cool (my kind of weather). (I was enjoying it so much, I actually added an extra day.) I think you've got a good set of dates.

(I was there on Jan 7 and 8 this year, both 25 there, and had a really nice visit - I thought it was going to be crazy, and it wasn't. I was there at the beginning of last week, too, and it was 25-27 during my days - I had a great time - it was busy-ish, but nothing out of bounds.)


Side note: I posted that mainly as a quiet way to contest some of the advice here:

1) Honestly, since OP is asking about the last week in January, they'll be fine with any of those choices. Late January is a bit of a dead season - post-holiday / pre-spring, - there's not much going on, and the weather can be on the cool side. For OP, it's really more about whether they want to see fireworks or not.

2) CoasterGT24 mentioned that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday had the lowest averages for the month, but that's not really a fair statistic to predict late January, since the monthly average includes the beginning of January. (Monday has an insanely busy Jan 2nd that throws its average.)

3) Mondays aren't bad in late January. MKs aren't blocked out on Sundays at the end of January, so there's not the same rush back to the park on Monday - people will have been there the day before. (Sundays in late January have often been pretty chill in general, too.)

4) I personally just don't like Fridays because of Friday nights, which isn't represented in the day average. Fridays can be mild through the afternoon - but it can get pretty busy at night. But, again, that's just my personal taste - and it's probably not enough to be really noticeable in late January.

To be fair, it's all guesswork, too. We're all relying on what we've seen and experienced, and it could always be totally different than anything that's happened before.

Hey brightlined, I really appreciate you taking the time to break it down in a clear and concise way! Never would have guessed the numbers were wait times. I thought it had do with crowd levels or sorts. You are absolutely correct in saying it is all guesswork but in the end is an educated guess.

No matter the crowd levels, wait times, rain or sunshine we will have an awesome time when we visit in again in January

Cheers to you brightlined!

 

[aymiewilson]

I genuinely think that having a solid touring plan/strategy and being willing to rope drop (or at the very least to pay for Genie+) is going to make any of those date combinations work well for you. So from my POV the thing I'd consider the most is opportunities to see fireworks, which would only be happening on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights bc late Jan is the low season.