Beginning September

[GusGus77]

Is the week of Labor Day (minus the holiday itself) generally good? I know we risk closures for the Halloween overlay. Weather? Crowds? We were going to go later in the month, but we just had a timeshare room become available for that week.

Also, we will be driving in from Vegas. Obviously the wrong direction to drive that day! Do you think if we leave before noon we could avoid some of the traffic? Thanks!

 

[figment_jii]

The week of Labor Day (not including Labor Day, Sept 7, itself) should be fairly quiet because it's the "in-between" time. It's after the summer season has ended, but before HalloweenTime has started. Park hours will be short, with reduced entertainment (likely no weekday fireworks or F!, WoC should still be presented daily, we don't know what Paint the Night will be doing yet). Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, and the Big Thunder Carnival area will almost certainly be closed for installation of the Halloween overlays.

 

[agamble]

We used to live in Vegas and had an AP to Disneyland. If traffic is good the drive is only about 4 hours and easily pleasant. The worst congestion is usually at the Nevada/California border as the freeway drops from 3 lanes to 2 just after the last exit. It's a nightmare! If you're leaving town on the holiday Monday, I suggest you get up and go by 7 or 8 in the morning, or even 6 if you can. No kidding! Just saying before noon is not good enough. We had two different occasions where it took us 9 hours to get to Disneyland. The first was a Sunday around spring break time, the last was this Thanksgiving. We had been visiting family and left Sunday around 10:30am to head to Disneyland. Traffic was awful! We actually took some dirt road for a while somewhere in CA to avoid heavy traffic (smart phones can be good).

 

[JayhawkFans]

Glad I saw this post as we were considering a first ever trip to DL to arrive the Friday AFTER Labor Day ... Doesn't sound like that's a good time to go?

 

[GusGus77]

I didn't realize that thunder mountain railroad goes down for an overlay? It is ds's first trip where he is finally old enough to ride it. We can potentially stretch our trip a bit as will be getting five day park hoppers and plan to do two days at the beach. If we can do days between the 7th and 13th do you think we can find days that thunder mountain and space mountain are open? (Although it would be cool to see the overlay on haunted mansion and we enjoy it, it will not devastate us if it is closed.)

 

[pirate_smiles]

I have been the week after Labor day. Labor day weekend and Labor day was fairly busy, but not unbearable. Labor Day is also the weekend of Disneyland Half Marathon, so it starts getting busy the Thursday before Labor Day. The Tuesday through Thursday after Labor day are really quiet, with the crowds starting to build Friday for the next upcoming weekend.

 

[agamble]

I didn't realize that thunder mountain railroad goes down for an overlay? It is ds's first trip where he is finally old enough to ride it. We can potentially stretch our trip a bit as will be getting five day park hoppers and plan to do two days at the beach. If we can do days between the 7th and 13th do you think we can find days that thunder mountain and space mountain are open? (Although it would be cool to see the overlay on haunted mansion and we enjoy it, it will not devastate us if it is closed.)

Big Thunder Mountain is not scheduled to go down (that we know of). They meant the Ranch area that does special festivals for holidays. It won't be open yet. Space Mountain will probably reopen around September 11, but it's hard to say. Space with the overlay is scarier than regular space, which is much more intense than Big Thunder already. How old will your son be?

 

[GusGus77]

We definitely would not be there Labor Day weekend. That would be crazy since we can avoid it. How long is each ride down for the overlay? Would any of them be longer than 5 days?

And for travel, We have been playing with dates to avoid driving on Labor Day, but that puts us returning to Vegas on a Friday. Are there any sweet spots on that return drive or are we looking at lots of traffic there, too? (Not concerned about the congestion around the strip as we can avoid that.) I will have a 4 and 7 yr old. An hour longer I can handle. An eight or nine hour drive we cannot!

 

[joannjoe]

Is the week of Labor Day (minus the holiday itself) generally good? I know we risk closures for the Halloween overlay. Weather? Crowds? We were going to go later in the month, but we just had a timeshare room become available for that week.

Also, we will be driving in from Vegas. Obviously the wrong direction to drive that day! Do you think if we leave before noon we could avoid some of the traffic? Thanks!

allllll stay home I'm going that weekend. LOL I'm hoping for the best that's all we can do

 

[figment_jii]

I didn't realize that thunder mountain railroad goes down for an overlay?

As agamble said, it's not the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction that closes, but the Carnival/Jamboree area that closes for a Halloween overlay installation. The carnival area is located near BTMRR, but it's not physically connected to the attraction, so the carnival area's closure does not impact the ride at all.

 

[SMD]

There will be rides down for their annual maintenance after Labor Day. It may be BTMRR, but as far as we know right now, it's not scheduled. The ones that likely won't go down are Splash, Pooh, Peter Pan, Matterhorn and Soarin', because they've had extensive refurbs already this year. But yes, anything else is pretty much on the table for a refurb after Labor Day.

 

[GusGus77]

I guess then it is a crap shoot if rides will be down the week after Labor Day or mid-September then, right, if it is anytime after Labor Day? DS is really looking forward to riding everything he has been too short for in the past and I do t k ow when we will get back to DLR. I am very concerned about RSR as Carsland is the reason for our trip to DLR. What is likelihood that will be down? I was kinda hoping that less rides would be down since it was the 60th.

 

[GusGus77]

We are doing seven nights in the area and hoping to avoid as many closures as possible and lower crowds. (Which means probably not being in the parks the weekend of dapper days or after September 28.) We can go anytime after Labor Day. We will be getting 5 day hoppers. Any guesses on the ideal 7 days? (I won't hold anyone accountable!) The main choices now due to room availability are the 11th-18th or the 18th-25th. Which do you all think would be better? I am sure the dapper day rates will effect the crowds somewhat. Halloween is not important to us.

 

[agamble]

We definitely would not be there Labor Day weekend. That would be crazy since we can avoid it. How long is each ride down for the overlay? Would any of them be longer than 5 days?

And for travel, We have been playing with dates to avoid driving on Labor Day, but that puts us returning to Vegas on a Friday. Are there any sweet spots on that return drive or are we looking at lots of traffic there, too? (Not concerned about the congestion around the strip as we can avoid that.) I will have a 4 and 7 yr old. An hour longer I can handle. An eight or nine hour drive we cannot!

Sundays are always a busy day to drive to CA as people have been visiting Las Vegas for the weekend, but they're not all 9-hour backups. I imagine Labor Day would be. I say leave as early as possible if you need to go on a Sunday. We never had problems getting back to Las Vegas. We usually left after dinner and drove with lighter night traffic.

I wouldn't worry too much about closures. Looks like you're planning to go after Halloween sets in, so those rides will be open. Thunder Mountain just had a major refurb a few years ago. Something will likely be closed, but there is nothing you can do about that so need to stress about it.

Whichever days you choose make sure to include one weekend night (Fri-Sunday), so you can see the fireworks and/or Fantasmic as they often don't run during the weekdays in the non Summer/Holiday seasons.

 

[bigb83]

We just had to move our trip up a week to the 14th til the 17th...hoping Halloween will be up by then...that was one of the reasons we picked September

 

[agamble]

We just had to move our trip up a week to the 14th til the 17th...hoping Halloween will be up by then...that was one of the reasons we picked September

Historically it should be open around Friday the 11th of September, but who knows with everything going on this year. I hope for you it is as the parks are truly beautiful for both holiday seasons. Halloween is fun with jack-o-lanterns everywhere.

 

[bigb83]

Im a little worried with Labor Day being so late...wouldn't be surprised if it opened up the 18th

 

[OldPyrate]

So we're planning a trip FOR Labor Day weekend 4-6 Sep, traveling from AZ on 3 & 7 Sep. I've never been to DLR over LD weekend, but my DW has a four day weekend as do I; So we thought we'd give it a try. Crowd levels are "expected" to be low, at worst a 3 out of 10. HOWEVER, we went a couple years ago the first weekend in Oct, not realizing it was Anaheim gay pride days, and DLR was crazy busy. Expected levels for that weekend was a 6, but it felt like a 9 or 10. Anyway, does anyone have any personal experience with crowds during LD weekend? It seems many of the hotels are already booked for the DL half-marathon.