Timing of Trip

[Jfsag123]

I'm in the process of trying to nail down dates for our first family trip to DL in 2016. I thought I had it figured out, then found out about Grad Nites. We will have to go in summer, so I was hoping to leave the day after the kids get out of school, which would put us in DL the first full week in June. Would Grad Nites totally screw this up? How far in advance do they publish the dates for this? And even if we were able to plan around it, do the parks end up being even more crowded on the non GN days during those weeks because of everyone else trying to avoid the parks on the GN days?

If the consensus turns out to be that this would ruin the trip, we could switch to later in the summer, anytime between June and the first week of August. What would be the next best time, knowing that I understand that it will all be hot and crowded, as it is summer?

 

[agamble]

If you go during early June it is not a question of if there will be grad nites, but how many grad nites there will be. That being said, the crowds aren't horrible and the grad nites don't really affect opening hours. I don't think it would ruin your trip. The last week of June probably won't have any grad nites though, and they're definitely over before July.

 

[figment_jii]

Grad Nite information tends to tickle out in the first quarter of the year, so I wouldn't expect to know the dates until sometimes in early 2016. This year, Grad Nites started in mid-May and run through mid-June.

I don't think Grad Nites really make that big of a difference in terms of the crowds in the park on those days or the non-Grad Nite days. The event doesn't start until DCA closes (usually at 10:00 pm, which is it's normal closing time in the summer anyway). You will see an uptick in teen-aged groups in the parks as the day progresses (as they arrive). Still, I didn't feel like there were huge crowds or major impacts. Some folks really dislike Grad Nite crowds, others are more ambivalent about them. I've been there when there was a Grad Nite before and it's not something that I would use as the deciding factor about going to Disneyland or not on a given day.

In terms of the summer in general, I would avoid the weekend the corresponds to July 4th and Disneyland's anniversary (July 17th). I would also keep an eye out on when the AP blockouts start and end (the last week before they go into effect and the first weekend after they end tend to be busy).

 

[Jfsag123]

Thanks for the responses! Would there be a significant difference in crowd levels overall if we were to go the week of June 20th vs. June 6th? I know for WDW, the earlier in June, the better. Wondering if the same may hold true for DL.