How much do you think local school in-service days affect Disneyland crowds?

[Mugglemama]

Hubby just surprised me last night with his, secret-that-couldn't-remain-a-secret-because-he-needs-my-help-with-it, plan to take me to Disneyland for my birthday in a few weeks (yay!).

I did a little bit of hunting around and found that many schools throughout California (Ventura, Irvine, Lincon, Taft, etc.) have staff development days planned for the Monday we are planning to be in the parks. We homeschool, so public school schedules don't affect when we can head into the parks.

Does anybody have any experience with whether or not school staff development days that leave a lot of California kids free from school for the day impact crowds much at DLR? I'm just curious.

TIA!

 

[juliamollymama]

I don't think it affects crowds that much. Most parents still get to go to work even if kids are off. I wouldn't let it stop me from going!

 

[skiingfast]

I don't think it affects crowds that much. Most parents still get to go to work even if kids are off.

This helps^^^, but it will have medium large crowds. The hours being 8-11 reflect that Disney expects some crowds on MLK day.

 

[Mugglemama]

I don't think it affects crowds that much. Most parents still get to go to work even if kids are off. I wouldn't let it stop me from going!

Nope, it won't stop us! And my first thought was just what you said...that parents would still have to be working in many cases.

This helps^^^, but it will have medium large crowds. The hours being 8-11 reflect that Disney expects some crowds on MLK day.

Thanks for that observation, SF! So, then...in your opinion...a Monday that only has hours of 10-8 (which are the hours listed for both parks on the Monday we are planning to be there), should be an indicator that they are not expecting large crowds?

It won't stop us from going...I just like to have an idea of what to expect.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Is it Monday feb 13?

 

[skiingfast]

Thanks for that observation, SF! So, then...in your opinion...a Monday that only has hours of 10-8 (which are the hours listed for both parks on the Monday we are planning to be there), should be an indicator that they are not expecting large crowds?

Yes if it's 10-8 not busy, but I though you were referring to MLK day Monday the 16th which will be busier.

 

[Mugglemama]

Is it Monday feb 13?

Nope, it's Monday, January 30th.

Yes if it's 10-8 not busy, but I though you were referring to MLK day Monday the 16th which will be busier.

Thanks, that's reassuring. I haven't been to DLR during "non-peak" times (do those even really exist anymore? ) in probably 9 years, so I'm just trying to identify anything that might impact our visit. Thanks again!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Just so you know. That's the weekend of the Tink Half Marathon.

 

[JeriLee]

I wish my daughter’s service day was January 30th – that is her birthday! But her service day (Ventura County) is the 23rd and we are going to be there. The park hours on the 23rd are 10-8 – which will be different for us…. We are belly to the rope at 8:00 a.m. people! I like the extra time to get FPs in DL before hoping to DCA for RD/TSMM! Not sure how we will work with this schedule yet…

 

[Mugglemama]

Just so you know. That's the weekend of the Tink Half Marathon.

Thank you for that info, Shannon. I had completely overlooked that. I'm going to hope that most of the extra park crowds from that marathon will occur beforehand, and up to, the event. I'm thinking that most of the runners are going to be pretty exhausted (an understatement?) afterwards and not doing a ton of hiking through the parks that night. Any thoughts?

That's for Sunday, the 29th. Then we'd also be there Monday and Tuesday...the 30th and 31st. I'm hoping those days are relatively slow.

Either way, we'll be fine. Like I said, we haven't gone in the non-peak season in a VERY long time. Our last trip was the week after 4th of July, 2010. But it would just be really *nice* to get to go when it feels a lot slower in the park. We used to have AP's and lived 30 minutes from the park, and we very much miss the atmosphere of a slower day.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

I honestly don't know. The races are usually labor day weekend so it's tough to compare possible crowds.