2 days only - DL on an After Dark day?

[CanadaSCM]

Hi everyone, looking for advice on our upcoming trip. My wife and I are taking our 5 year old niece for her first trip next week (we’ve been to DL once and DW a few times).

We are planning on NOT hopping and using ILL for RSR and WS. Probably not riding ROTR since she’s not a Star Wars kid. Considering Genie + but still undecided. We used Genie+ at DW in November so are familiar with it. Our last trip to DL was January 2020 so right before COVID shut things down and we had hoppers and MaxPass.

I have us reserved for DL on Monday and DCA on Tuesday but I noticed there is an After Dark event on Monday and I’m wondering what the common logic is for crowd levels? I would guess DL will get super busy at 5 when ticket holders can enter and we lose an hour at the end of the day. But is it typically slower during the day? Or should I switch our DL/DCA days? Or would a park hopper make more sense?

Also, what have weekday crowds been like the last few weeks?

That turned into a lot more questions so thanks in advance for any help! With only 2 days and the likelihood of breaks needed I want to make sure we’re giving ourselves the best shot at being efficient.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

If you would otherwise stay through the evening I would not go to DL on a day that you’ll be kicked out early. Edit: Just reread and saw you only lose the hour that night. But even so, it will likely be extremely crowded once the mix-in starts, so you lose more than just the hour in my opinion.

I think crowds will be a crapshoot. It’s been really busy the last few weeks, even on weekdays. I wouldn’t bet on DL being slower because there is an after dark event, though you could get lucky.

 

[CanadaSCM]

Unfortunately I just pulled up the reservation calendar and there are no available reservations for single park or park hopper on Monday so we can’t switch days or upgrade to park hoppers.

Tuesday is open but that doesn’t help for switching days and it seems like a waste to upgrade to park hopper for just one of our days.

I guess I can ask at the ticket booth when we arrive Sunday but I’m assuming if the calendar shows no availability there’s nothing they can do.

Oh well, we’ll make the best of it