Ascension Day - How Bad is it?

[BadgerGirl84]

Hi all,

I am planning my first (and perhaps, only) trip to Disneyland Paris in May of this year. My husband and I planned on visiting the parks on May 16 and May 17. I just found out that May 17 is Ascension Day. May 17 is a Thursday.

How bad will the parks be that day? Would it be worth it to do what we could to juggle our days around to visit May 15 and 16?

Our flight lands in Paris from the USA on May 13 and we had between that day and May 18 to do sightseeing in Paris and visiting Disneyland Paris before moving on to our next destination I was planning on doing 3 days sightseeing in Paris then 2 days in DLP. I could possibly shuffle around our sightseeing and DLP days but it would probably be a bit inconvenient because we'd have to split up our hotel stay a bit more.

What would you recommend? Do you think the parks will be crowded May 16? I'm hoping we can squeeze in our "must sees" that day and then use the busy following day to do more shows and high capacity rides.

Thoughts?

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Thursday will be very busy but doable and better than previous years

This is because you will have the late closings every night in May as part of the 20th celebrations instead of the normal hours and you will have done all the major rides you wanted to do the day before.

As you were thinking Thursday can be shows day (there is a fair few to be seen), eating a nice sit down lunch maybe in Walt's and watching the world go by on Main St and make good use of EMH and fast passes

If you had been going Thursday and Friday then I would have said change if you could

 

[tfc3rid]

My wife and I are visiting that Monday the 14th and taking the Eurostar to London on the 16th... I set my time up knowing the 17th was a holiday...

I still figure it won't be all that bad...

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Last year to give you an idea on the Thursday and the Friday you had 105 minutes for BTM, 70 minutes for Parachute drop and RC Racer, Crush was showing 100 mins at 10.00 am and never really went below that, 55 mins for Snow White, TOT 50 mins, POTC 45 mins going up to 60mins in the afternoon, Phantom Manor 35 mins

2 years ago the Friday (so the next day) was showing Crush Coaster at 120 mins, TOT 50 mins, RNRC 20 mins, Flying Carpets 50 mins, BTM 60 mins, IJ 50 mins, POTC 35 mins, Peter Pan 90 mins, SMM2 60 mins, Autopia 110 mins
Buzz lightyear Laser Blast 45 mins

The day before Ascension day so the Wednesday the times were way better (these are in the afternoon)

Crush's Coaster 45 mins, TOT 25 mins, RNRC 10 mins, Phantom Manor 5 mins, BTM 35 mins, POTC 5 mins, Snow White 5 mins, Autopia 45 mins, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast 40 mins

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Thanks for all the info everyone--you guys are the best!

Thanks especially for the specific weight times on the Wed vs. Thursday....very helpful to know what would likely be in store for us.

At this point, I think I'll keep our itinerary as-is. I'll make sure to get a park-to-park ticket so that we can see our "must sees" on Wednesday and take a more laid-back approach on Thursday when we know we won't be able to get on many attractions due to the increased crowds.

If I hear more horror stories, or that the Wed before the holiday is awful, I might change things, but for now I'm okay with one slow-ish day and one very busy day.

 

[MazdaUK]

Our first visit (in 2003) included Ascension day, and it was very crowded with locals. The days before were fine

 

[jothp]

We were there last year Mon-Fri with Ascension Day on Thursday. The crowds were fine Mon-Wed. On the Friday the queues in the main park were really bad and from reading on here I know that it was just as bad if not worse on the Thursday. We had planned ahead and decided to go to the studios on the Thursday to avoid the queues. We managed a couple of rides first thing after park opening and then spent the rest of the day watching shows and had a really enjoyable day. We also had the meet and greet in the disneyland hotel in reserve in case the studios got too busy and we booked ourselves a meal in cafe mickey for the evening.
Here is the link for our trip report so you can read for yourself.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2733981

 

[BadgerGirl84]

As luck would have it, I am actually going to be visiting DLP the Tuesday and Wednesday of Ascension Day week instead of the Wednesday and Thursday I had originally planned.

Not really by choice, but I think it will work out for the best! I had sworn that I had extended my stay one night at the Marriott Village and would do 3 days in Paris to start off my trip, then 2 days at Disney and then head to Switzerland. Due to the fact that I actually didn't extend my stay at the Marriott Village, I am now doing 2 days of Paris sightseeing, 2 Disney days, then one more day of Paris Sightseeing. When I realized my error, it was too late and the Marriott was booked.

It will mean another hotel switch, but now it means I have to bump up my Disney days. Hoping that the hassle of switching hotels again will make up for the fact that we will be swapping a very packed day to one lighter with crowds.