Brand newbie heading to DL for new years!

[schaeferpartyof5]

I won a trip to DL through my work. 2 out of 3 of my girls have never been, so I am so excited to surprise them Christmas morning with our 6 day park hopper tickets! We had planned on going christmas Day through Newyears day.. but looked and saw it's the busiest time of year. So instead, we plan to go Starting Dec 31st, so we can be there for the new years hullibuloo, but we can hopefully avoid the huge crowds most of the rest of our trip. Anyone ever gone the first week in Jan? What was it like? Were many of the rides closed down due to removing the holliday decorations? Any tips you might have?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Disneyland has announced that holiday time will go through January 8 this year, so I expect you will still see the full holiday decorations. This may also mean that you will still see significant crowds depending on when local school breaks fall. It should not be as crazy as the Christmas to New Year's week though.

New Year's Eve itself is reported to be really crazy. Once you enter Disneyland, you won't want to leave again after about noon if you don't want to risk not being let back in due to the park reaching maximum capacity.

We have only been for New Year's Eve once several years ago. We ended up spending a lot of our day in DCA. The crowds were pretty thick at both parks throughout the daytime hours. The weather was bad, so some of the usual festivities didn't happen that night. The kids were really young then though, so we never intended to stay up really late that night anyway. The next morning, January 1, was lovely. We are usually at the parks at peak times so had never seen Disneyland so empty. We walked onto everything all morning. Can't help you with the rest of the week since we went home on the 2nd.

 

[skiingfast]

Ride closures after the Holidays have been staggered. Last Year they waited about 10 days to remove the Small World Overlay but Holiday Haunted Mansion went down after the holiday week ended. So you should have a chance at everything. Just check the closure schedule before you leave and see if anything is closing after New Year's weekend.

While they extended the season, you have had made a good choice to shift the days. It will be packed when you arrive, but you will enjoy the relatively smaller crowds the next week.