April or June 2013?

[mom2aiden]

My family is planning a 2 week california trip next year, which will include a few days at Disneyland. We have 2 options for the time of year and I'm not sure which would be better for crowds.

Sometime during the week of April 8th (Easter is March 31st)
Sometime during the weeks of June 10th or June 17th.

We've been to WDW twice, but this will be our first trip to DLR. Also, are there any threads that may help me determine where to stay? We may rent an RV for the trip, but I don't think there are any close campgrounds, right?

 

[Eeee-va]

I'm not sure if April or June has fewer crowds, but if your dates in April aren't the peak of Spring Break (and I'm not sure how Disney determines that), you'll probably have shorter hours and fewer entertainment options. Even if it IS the peak of Spring Break, April usually has more refurbishments than June.

If you go in on your June dates, hours should (for the most part) be longer, there should be more entertainment, and few or no refurbishments. I THINK by June 10, summer hours will have started.

You can look at the blockout calendar at http://disneyland.disney.go.com/passes/blockout-dates/ For June, historically, days that are NOT blocked out to the two Southern California tiers of annual passes have been known to be very crowded, because local visitors try to squeeze in a last visit to see any new summer offerings before they're blocked for the summer. That said, 2013 could be different because the price of APs increased very drastically a few months back. Or it could be more of the same as people who used to have, say, a Deluxe AP downgraded to a Southern California AP. If you choose June my gut says pick the week of the 17th because there are more blockout days....but I'm not remotely certain of that; it's just a guess based on past crowd flow, and that data may no longer be valid.

Hopefully someone can better compare crowds from April and June!

 

[Butterfly123]

You may want to also pay attention to when grad nights are in June, in addition to looking at the AP blockout calendar. I like to avoid grad nights when possible.

 

[HydroGuy]

My family is planning a 2 week california trip next year, which will include a few days at Disneyland. We have 2 options for the time of year and I'm not sure which would be better for crowds.

Sometime during the week of April 8th (Easter is March 31st)
Sometime during the weeks of June 10th or June 17th.

We've been to WDW twice, but this will be our first trip to DLR. Also, are there any threads that may help me determine where to stay? We may rent an RV for the trip, but I don't think there are any close campgrounds, right?

Be careful about trying too hard to avoid crowds! DLR does not work the same as WDW. This thread might help:

"Choosing When To Visit DLR: Summary of High and Low Season and When Each Happens" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36509602

You also might want to read this and it discusses many things you may want to consider and gives some hotel guidance as well:

"A DLR Guide for WDW Vets" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

The sticky thread for newbies has info on hotels and camping. I think the camping info is a bit dated but is a good place to start:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32467200&postcount=2

CAMPING NEAR THE DISNEYLAND RESORT

Camping At Disneyland?? (thread by TWEEDLEDEE2)

 

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Im not too sure what the crowds are like in early April, but we went from around the 21st of April to the 3rd of May and walked on to EVERYTHING! The longest wait we saw was 20 munites for Buzz, which ended up being around 10. Indy was a 25 minute wait which was maybe 15 at the most. Our one day on the weekend was planned around seeing all of the shows as it was out only opportunity to see them. We saw aladdin the musical at DCA at around 11, the first showing of the parade in the afternoon, the first showing of the fireworls and then hurried over to see the second showing of Fantasmic! We didn't have a 'touring plan' for the rides that day as we knew it would most likley be busy. We went on rides with minimal wait times in between the shows, but did spend about an hour or so staking out spots before the parade and the fireworks. I've never been in June so can't give advice on what the crowds would be like then.