Park Hours and Crowd Levels

[cari12]

With all the stroies of the hotels filling up this fall to the point of dates being sold out at many hotels, wondering why there is still reduced hours and entertainment?

 

[Mary09]

I don't know if the hotels are that full or just not offering deep discounts. I've switched my res a few times for my Oct. trip, and actually gotten some good discounts, too.

 

[KalamityJane]

I know they are not accepting reservations through disneyland.com for a few dates in our trip at GCH and PPH. The other dates seem to have only view rooms available, so I am guessing if they are not full, they are pretty full.

 

[cari12]

I don't know if the hotels are that full or just not offering deep discounts. I've switched my res a few times for my Oct. trip, and actually gotten some good discounts, too.

People are posting that some hotels are sold out for their dates. Also, I tried to check prices for some Good Neighbour hotels for our dates just in case we decided to "go budget" (currently booked at DLH) and many of the ones popular with the Dis do not have availability for all our dates.

 

[KalamityJane]

I just checked expedia and lmt and the hotels they have left on there for Oct 5 through 7 are not usually recommended here or overpriced (best western raffles for 500 bucks??).

 

[cari12]

I just checked expedia and lmt and the hotels they have left on there for Oct 5 through 7 are not usually recommended here or overpriced (best western raffles for 500 bucks??).

That's what I'm getting at, hotels are pretty full and yet still reduced hours and entertainment. Perhaps Disney was not expecting the numbers they are about to receive in the next month or so?

 

[Mary09]

Oct. 5-7th is a holiday weekend and also Gay Days. Would they add hours to the park on a weekend? Or to the weekdays after a long weekend? People are willing to visit the parks with the limited hours. There are Halloween parties limiting what they can do with DL at night. They can't add fireworks on school nights, I don't think. People here are saying the lines on week days aren't that long.

I do wish they'd add some F! performances that week.

 

[scoker]

Hopefully if the Carsland bubble doesn't burst and attendance numbers stay significantly increased across the board Disney will respond with longer hours and more entertainment options. I have no idea how nimble Disney is able to be staffing and training. I know most major corporations move at a snails pace and it may take a significant amount of time for them to respond to new attendance patterns.

 

[IBLarsen]

A few years ago our trip spanned late sept/early oct, and the crowds were really high. They ended up extending park hours each day while we were there, but didn't announce it until about 5:00 pm each evening. When I asked on the first day, a cm said they are making the call based off of each days attendance.

I am glad that they can do this on an as needed basis, however, I too would think they could be more intuitive with their park attendance estimations and plan accordingly. Knowing the trend the Fall season has taken the past few years with the ramped up Halloween decorations and ride overlays as well as Halloween parties. Disney has done all this to bring in crowds, and it's working, yet they are not keeping up with it in terms of hours and entertainment.

 

[cari12]

I am glad that they can do this on an as needed basis, however, I too would think they could be more intuitive with their park attendance estimations and plan accordingly. Knowing the trend the Fall season has taken the past few years with the ramped up Halloween decorations and ride overlays as well as Halloween parties. Disney has done all this to bring in crowds, and it's working, yet they are not keeping up with it in terms of hours and entertainment.

Agreed

 

[cari12]

Oct. 5-7th is a holiday weekend and also Gay Days. Would they add hours to the park on a weekend? Or to the weekdays after a long weekend? People are willing to visit the parks with the limited hours. There are Halloween parties limiting what they can do with DL at night. They can't add fireworks on school nights, I don't think. People here are saying the lines on week days aren't that long.

I do wish they'd add some F! performances that week.

It is not just the long weekend that is filling up.

 

[laura&fam]

Yep. We're going mid October and had a really hard time finding a hotel available for all our nights.

 

[twinkletink]

A few years ago our trip spanned late sept/early oct, and the crowds were really high. They ended up extending park hours each day while we were there, but didn't announce it until about 5:00 pm each evening. When I asked on the first day, a cm said they are making the call based off of each days attendance.

I am glad that they can do this on an as needed basis, however, I too would think they could be more intuitive with their park attendance estimations and plan accordingly. Knowing the trend the Fall season has taken the past few years with the ramped up Halloween decorations and ride overlays as well as Halloween parties. Disney has done all this to bring in crowds, and it's working, yet they are not keeping up with it in terms of hours and entertainment.

That's good to know.

 

[Mary09]

Yep. We're going mid October and had a really hard time finding a hotel available for all our nights.

Did you try Expedia and LastMinuteTravel and such? The super-close ones on Harbor were booked but there were options from the shuttle-able ones and (many, many) drive-able ones.

 

[ExcitedSam]

We were in CA tonight waiting for the parade at 5pm and they announced and extra hour and an extra WOC show at 9:15. Not sure if they extended Disneyland.

 

[DisneyMomof2inSLC]

They extended both Disneyland and DCA 1 hour later due to crowds. The local schools were out for the day and attendence was much higher than they had anticipated.