Advice on when to go in October

[Pamela M]

So my friends (3 adults) and I are planning a trip to Disneyland for Halloween time.

Last year we went the last week of September during the week. My thoughts on that were never again!!! The hours were shortened drastically - 10am- 9pm for DL

These are the dates I'm playing with:
Thursday October 18 - 20th - Halloween Party on the 19th
Friday October 19th - 21st- Halloween Party on the 19th
But we could go as early as the 17th. I'm just worried about it being too crowded during the week.

Our plan will be to get either a 2 day park hopper(or 1 park per day )plus the Halloween party. So the day of the Halloween party we won't enter the park until 3-4pm.

 

[figment_jii]

HalloweenTime is very popular, so if you're trying to avoid crowds, then I would avoid the weekends if at all possible (especially on Sundays). I think you stand an chance of okay crowds on the weekdays (Tue to Thu). The overlap period, when both regular tickets and MHP tickets are valid, is usually pretty busy in both parks (especially now that the MHP tickets are good for either park). I would probably aim for either Wed or Thur as the start of your trip. The main drawback, is that without a non-MHP weekend day (so Sat or Sun), you might not get to see all of the nighttime entertainment (fireworks and F! are usually only presented on weekends during the non-peak periods and they haven't said what they're doing with PTN yet, but WoC is usually nightly).

 

[theluckyrabbit]

One thing to keep in mind for your dates is that UEA (Utah Educators Association) was scheduled for Oct. 18-19. The convention was cancelled, but many families still are planning to come to DLR at that time. The party on the 19th should be crowded, so buy your tickets early! The UEA party always sells out. Also, start looking for your hotel now. There was a thread here a few months ago about UEA getting cancelled and posters were saying that they weren't planning on cancelling their trips.

 

[Pamela M]

One thing to keep in mind for your dates is that UEA (Utah Educators Association) was scheduled for Oct. 18-19. The convention was cancelled, but many families still are planning to come to DLR at that time. The party on the 19th should be crowded, so buy your tickets early! The UEA party always sells out. Also, start looking for your hotel now. There was a thread here a few months ago about UEA getting cancelled and posters were saying that they weren't planning on cancelling their trips.

That is GOOD to know!!! I already started looking at hotels. My go to is is the RI Maingate. It's far enough away that it usually doesn't sell out or cost a lot but close enough to walk if you it's just adults. Now I'm wondering if we should move to earlier the following week. I can't buy my party tickets til next week so I have alittle bit of time.

 

[figment_jii]

It's to far out to really say how crowds will be, but for some reason, Mondays have been pretty busy lately. Some it might be due to the start of summer vacation for some, but it seemed like busy Mondays were happening before Memorial Day as well. So it's something to keep in mind if you move days.

As theluckyrabbit mentioned, a number of Utah school districts are out on the 18th and 19th, and some are also taking Monday, the 22nd has an in-service day as well, which could mean elevated crowds on that Monday.

 

[GenGen22]

I have gone the weekend you mentioned above the last 3 years and it's not horribly bad for crowds even though the Utah schools are out. It's less busy than Summer for sure. During the week will definitely be less busy than the weekend. But like Figment said if you want to see night shows you will probably have to attend the weekend.