at DL Aug 14-17; pleasantly surprised at crowds!!

[moonbill2002]

I have to say, we have only been to the park 1 day so far (Sunday) and I'm pleasantly surprised. We didn't get there until after 11am, left around 2pm and didn't return until 5:30 (after my 3 year old's nap break). We were able to ride 8 rides, see some sights, and take a spin on both the monorail and the train. The waits were about 10-15 minutes long (Splash Mountain was the longest, at 25 minutes around 1pm). We only used FP's for Space Mountain at 9:30. The crowds were a little worse around 8pm but overall, the day time was really nice. A very good first day at DL for my 3 year old (his first time). Very pleased it was such a good experience and I had forgotton how well DL is run. The CM's were all so nice and most of the park visitors were as well (no getting run over by strollers and angry people). We are heading to Magic Mountain today but will be back for the next 3 days at DL/DCA (we haven't even gone into DCA yet).

Just thought I would pass along a very positive experience. And I finally figured out which hotel we stayed at in 2004 (it has been driving me CRAZY). It was the HOJO, of all places! We are staying at the Holiday Inn Resort on Manchester and it's actually not too bad; it didn't take us long to get from the park to the hotel and I like the set up in the room at the hotel (we have a Kid's Suite). At 6 nights for $652, it's a pretty awesome deal (especially since kids eat free and a sit down breakfast is free for all of us).

ETA: and no, we haven't used the speed passes (they are called Attraction Readmission Passes, blue at the top, and clearly denote they can't be used on ST and WOC).

 

[blabbermouth]

Glad you're having a good time! I hope the reasonable crowds continue until I get there in two weeks

 

[JH87]

Wow sounds like you got lucky with the crowds! 25min for Splash at 1pm? That's really good! When I was there two weeks ago, Splash was well over 100min wait in the afternoon!
Hope the rest of your week is just as great

 

[Dobie]

The Dobies went this week last year and it was the best summer week for us crowd wise, for sure. Have a magical trip!

 

[patnkristin]

So nice to hear it is not super busy. We are heading down on Wednesday for our first DL trip!! Hoping we have the same light crowds on Thursday that you did on Sunday

 

[BayAreaMom]

So nice to hear it is not super busy. We are heading down on Wednesday for our first DL trip!! Hoping we have the same light crowds on Thursday that you did on Sunday

We are heading down on Wed too (MY BIRTHDAY!!) from NorCal.
We are going to arrive around 1 pm...so hoping that we can hit a few rides and have a pretty fun day. Thursday and Friday we'll be there all day. Leaving Fri night since our APs don't work Saturday.

Our schools start next week- I had thought this might be a busy vacation week because of that, but maybe not.

 

[moonbill2002]

We weren't sure of the crowds due to school starting next week but maybe that's why it isn't too crowded. Our school starts on Monday (we are from Northern Nevada) and with 3 kids, this wasn't the most convenient time for a trip. But we share custody with the 2 older ones so it was the only time we would have both them and the 3 year old, plus be able to get time off work. So the week before school it is! We will be back at the parks tomorrow through Thursday, then back to Magic Mountain Friday and heading home Saturday (husband has to be at work @ 5am Sunday ). So it will be a very busy couple of days before school starts for our 3 kids!

I remember it being much busier when we were there last but considering the economy was a lot better in 2004 and it was the first week of August...that may have something to do with it!

 

[Love Tink]

We were there last week, and based on our experience and anecdotal evidence from people we met, Saturday and Sunday are less crowded than the rest of the week, and Sunday morning in particular has been light.

Our busiest day by far was our Wednesday. Go figure.