Best Days to visit the Park first week of December

[mkdisney]

first time poster here,

I am going to be travelling to California the first week in December and am planning to visit Disneyland between Dec 2nd and the 5th. I have purchased a 3 day park hopper and will be driving to the park (my park hopper included parking) as we are staying just outside of Anaheim.

My friend who is travelling with me only wants to do one day in the park so we have decided to go on Tuesday the 2nd.

My question is that since I will be doing the other 2 days in the park alone as my friend is not so much into Disney (I don't get it) what days I should go to the park on my own.

My options are: Tues/Weds/Thurs, Tues/Weds/Fri or Tues/Thurs/Friday

as my friend will not have a MM, I was wondering if it is worth it to go to the Thursday MM so I can take advantage of it, my parking is in the Toy story lot and I have read that it does't open early for this? Or will I be fine just doing regular hours or visiting the park without the extra hour first

It doesn't look like the crowds will be too busy this week but I am not sure if I will want to skip the Friday or if there is any benefit of going on a day with longer hours? I don't really care if I see Fantasmic as I have seen it before but thats the only difference I can see

Any input would be helpful, I'm not sure if I will need a break in between days or to go three in a row. Excited to go, just unsure about my planning!

 

[Fantaluminishes]

We literally just got home from a day visit to DLR. I highly recommend making Wednesday one if your park days. We've been going about every other Wednesday since September. They are a great weekday to go. DCA has EE on Wed. This means only onsite guests get in early. We did the following at DCA today from noon to 3:30:
Soarin- 12min wait
Ca Screamin'-5 min
RSR- 6min (single rider)
ToT - 40min (only 1 elevator)
TSMM- 20min

Over at DL we did several rides and then saw the parade and fireworks with very small crowds. You will love DLR on Wednesday.

 

[mkdisney]

Thanks for the tip Fantaluminishes!! I think I will have to go on Wednesday!! Now i just need to decide between Thursday and Friday!

 

[Fantaluminishes]

Thanks for the tip Fantaluminishes!! I think I will have to go on Wednesday!! Now i just need to decide between Thursday and Friday!

You're welcome. Fridays are nice because of the late closing. But with Fantasmic and the fireworks, it gets VERY crowded at night. If you don't plan to see F!, you'd want to avoid that whole side of the park at night. However, DCA is open until 11pm that Friday, which doesn't happen very much. You might spend the day at DL, and hop over to DCA at night.

 

[mkdisney]

So would you say the MM isn't really worth doing on my trip and just go the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday if the parks won't be too crazy during the week? The only ride I would try to use it for is to get on Peter Pan in the morning

 

[gottalovepluto]

So would you say the MM isn't really worth doing on my trip and just go the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday if the parks won't be too crazy during the week? The only ride I would try to use it for is to get on Peter Pan in the morning

I love MM! It's the perfect way to hit Fantasyland rides. Do Pan first thing when the MM starts and then you can practically walk on anything else. Warning on Friday... It is the day before Candlelight Processional weekend so there might be an increase in crowds arriving for that upcoming weekend in comparison to the other week days, especially by nightfall.

 

[Sherry E]

I think that at least the second half of Friday, December 5th is going to be a madhouse, and not just because of Candlelight. Candlelight is not an advertised event, and it's also not the reason why the Disney hotels are booked up that weekend. I've gone to DLR over Candlelight days and weekends for the last 3 years and the Disney hotels were never booked up because of it. It attracts some crowds, sure, but it will not be the sole cause of the crowds on 12/5, I am fairly positive.


However, on Sat., 12/6 there is an event called RaverDay taking place at Disneyland (don't know if it's in both parks or just in Disneyland), and much like any other special "Days" (Gay Days, Dapper Days, Bats Day, etc.) at Disneyland, this will attract many people -- some of whom will arrive on Friday, 12/5, I'm sure, to enjoy some time in the parks before the actual RaverDay events begin on 12/6. A hotel CM said that RaverDay folks were booking the Disney hotels too.

And then there is a pharmaceutical-related convention in Anaheim (this is why all of the Disney hotels are booked around that time in early December, which is usually not the case) beginning on Sunday, 12/7. The convention itself is not taking place at DLR, and some of the convention attendees will stay offsite, of course, but many of them will stay onsite at the Disney hotels -- because they got special discounts to do so. Chances are, some of them will arrive in the days before the convention begins -- especially if they are bringing family with them -- and will go into the parks on Friday, 12/5 and Saturday, 12/6.

So, the combination of the early arrivals of RaverDay folks, pharmacists and Candlelight folks seems like a recipe for big crowds.

If I had the choice I would probably just avoid Friday, 12/5 altogether this year (although the longer hours are appealing), but if you decide to go on 12/5, just be aware that it will probably begin to get super crowded half-way through the day (if not the whole day).

 

[Happytotrip2]

i

 

[Sherry E]

Normally that I have seen in past years, the Convention being talked about is more of a business convention and not one that people are going to visit with families. There can be lots of Conventions that don't necessarily impact Disneyland much at all. With 20,000 projected visitors, that's not likely to make much of an impact on numbers either way. And its a long Convention going on from Nov 28th-Dec12, so not all of those people are likely to come in at once.
The Anaheim Convention Center is showing dates for that convention as being Dec 8-11, so thats more likely to be the busiest part of the Covention which would not affect people visiting the first week of Dec.
http://anaheimoc.org/convention-calendar/m/2014-12/confidential-group
http://anaheimconventioncenter.com/eventDetail1.aspx?eID=469

Dec 6th and 7th should be the Candlelight processional as it's usually on Sat and Sun that first weekend of Dec. So crowds should not be much different than regular ones for Dec 5th.

Its also the first I'm also hearing about "Raverday". So I'm not sure how much if really any its going to impact the Park much, since I don't know if anyone has numbers from past years who have visited.

Touring plans crowd predictor page is showing a 3 out of 10 for Tues Dec 2-4th, and Friday Dec 5th as a 4 out of 10, Saturday Dec 6th as a 6 out of 10 as well as Sunday.

I'm very familiar with when Candlelight takes place, but it is still not advertised to the public in advance. People either 'just know' about it and plan to attend or they don't know about it and discover it while they are at DL. It's something that draws in crowds -- but not enough crowds to book up the Disney hotels.

We can't predict what people attending a pharmacy convention will do. (I was looking solely at their "Midyear Clinical Meeting, from Dec 7-11".) A lot of the people attending the pharmacy convention have rooms at the DLR hotels booked that weekend and over the next several days -- they got great discounts to stay at the Disney hotels -- and it would be naïve to think that some of them won't bring their families and go into the parks in the couple of days before 12/7 when they are staying onsite.

I also would not discount RaverDay -- I had never heard about it either, but any special "Day" like that will bring in extra people, and some of them will arrive on 12/5.

I think it's a good thing for the OP to know about these events as they will likely contribute to crowds when combined, whether you think they will or not.

 

[mkdisney]

Thank you so much of all of your tips!!
I think I will do the parks Tues, Weds and Thursday to avoid the Friday and if I feel that if there is still more to see I will just extend my ticket days before Thursday evening but I think three days should (hopefully) be enough for this trip!

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm very familiar with when Candlelight takes place, but it is still not advertised to the public in advance. People either 'just know' about it and plan to attend or they don't know about it and discover it while they are at DL. It's something that draws in crowds -- but not enough crowds to book up the Disney hotels.

We can't predict what people attending a pharmacy convention will do. (I was looking solely at their "Midyear Clinical Meeting, from Dec 7-11".) A lot of the people attending the pharmacy convention have rooms at the DLR hotels booked that weekend and over the next several days -- they got great discounts to stay at the Disney hotels -- and it would be naïve to think that some of them won't bring their families and go into the parks in the couple of days before 12/7 when they are staying onsite.

I also would not discount RaverDay -- I had never heard about it either, but any special "Day" like that will bring in extra people, and some of them will arrive on 12/5.

I think it's a good thing for the OP to know about these events as they will likely contribute to crowds when combined, whether you think they will or not.

Well, one thing we know is that something caused those DLR hotel rooms to sell out far earlier than ever before. I even checked back in mid-November when the convention booking window was over, and couldn't find anything added back in.