Cast Member Party on Monday & early closing ... crowd levels ?

[John316]

Hello all!

I hope December is bringing you some much needed rest and relaxation. Planning on heading to Disneyland this Tuesday with my brother. Normally we head to the parks around noon but fortunately (through DIS!) I noticed that the parks would be closing at 6pm for the Cast Member Party so we should be heading down a little earlier.

Just was wondering if crowd levels might be up due to the shortened hours in the evening? Its nice they're keeping California Adventure open till 9.

Hopeing that this date might be relatively crowd free as to have a more relaxing time at disney. Although with almost 1mil ap holders its hard to be sure. Guess I can't really complain though, its Disney at Christmas!

Hope all yours Christmases are wonderful and filled with love and peace.

Best regards,

John316

 

[Eeee-va]

The CM party days are traditionally lightly attended, and while some AP holders do visit during the day, a lot also come after work to see the nighttime entertainment. Obviously those people will be less likely to visit on Monday and Tuesday, since Disneyland will be closing about the time they'd reach the gates. (DCA just isn't a massive draw for locals, at least, not yet.)

Are you going on Monday or Tuesday? Unless it doesn't rain, I would guess Monday will be extremely light due to the predicted storms.

My only concern about Tuesday is that at this moment I am seeing no rain on Tuesday. As I alluded to, attendance tends to plummet on rainy days, so Tuesday you may get people who had planned to go Monday but decided on Tuesday instead due to the rain.

Even so, my best guess would be that Tuesday will be one of the lightest days in the next few weeks, and Monday will be fairly sparsely attended.

(On ANY day, the best way to avoid crowds is to hit the park at opening, as most people don't make it to the park at opening--like you and your brother normally like to come later! --so you'll have a lot fewer people in the park.)

Have a great time!

 

[jlmarr]

... I noticed that the parks would be closing at 6pm for the Cast Member Party so we should be heading down a little earlier.

Don't miss the 6pm fireworks! Always a treat for local commuters!

 

[Albort]

Its raining so bye bye guest!!! :|

 

[John316]

Thanks for the replies!

Just noticed the error in my title, I'm actually going tommorow (Tuesday!) forcast calls for Sun so we may get a few more people that didn't want to go today.

Hopefully I'll let you know how the day turns out in terms of crowds.

Any advice on how to get to disney if we end up taking the (gulp) I-5 during rush hour. I don't really know any alternative routes.

Merry Christmas!

John316

 

[leslie_537]

^^^Have fun with that!

 

[John316]

Well ended up going up later than planned on Tuesday so didn't get into the parks till around 2:30pm.

Even then the crowds were pretty light. Indiana Jones had the biggest wait that I can remember of around 25 min. Space was about 20 min. Matterhorn was practically a walk on. Roger Rabbit said 40 min but in reality was about 15 (don't know why it said 40, perhaps to shut it down early for fireworks??)

Hopped over to California Adventure at around 5 to beat the crowds from Disneyland before fireworks. Screamin was about 10-15 but they were only running one side of the track. Toy Story was about 15 min. Soarin and TOT were respectively aprox 10-20 min.

So all in all a pretty light day for both parks. Certainly not walk on for the main attractions on but I can hardly complain with 20-25 min max. Apparently earlier in the day was even less busy.

Only complaint was the car park on the way out. Cars all over the place, going down the wrong way, speeding, etc.!

 

[Dizneydaz]

We were there as well. The fireworks/snow in NOS were great!- No crowds. We were also caught in the parking nightmare. I posted a quick TR about our trip. We arrived at 3:30. Didn't ride anything but we were there for the fireworks and snow. DCA was definitely more crowded after DL closed. 50 min. wait for ToT. My DSis was at DCA earlier in the day as well. Said it was great-very little crowds.

If I go again next year on CM party day I will plan accordingly and NOT plan on leaving the parking structure until at least 2 hours after DL closes.