Could use some help/opinions on an upcoming trip

[RichV03]

Hi All!

My family is taking a trip to Disneyland in January 2023. We have a stay at VGC booked checking in Saturday January 21 and checking out the 25th. We plan on doing 4 park days, 2 at each park. We will be driving in on the Saturday after visiting family and I am wondering if it would be better to do park days Saturday-Tuesday, I would time it so we can be to Disneyland close to park opening. Or would Sunday-Wednesday be better. We would still drive in on Saturday but take our time and see if there is a Disney outlet like there is in Florida, or maybe even Lego land for the kids or something. My main things I’m wondering is:

A) Crowds Sunday-Wednesday vs Saturday-Tuesday
B) Night time shows and if they will likely still be going during the week(world of color and fireworks). If fireworks likely won’t be Sunday-Wednesday that might be enough to push us to Saturday-Tuesday.

 

[DVChris]

I recommend Sat-Tues because the SoCal Imagine annual pass is blocked out for that Sat and Sun. My guess is there will be lower crowds on Sat-Sun than Mon-Wed.

 

[Cal-Pie]

Fireworks and Fantasmic are usually Fri-Sun in January, WOC is usually nightly.

 

[RichV03]

Fireworks and Fantasmic are usually Fri-Sun in January, WOC is usually nightly.

It’s been awhile since we’ve been to DL, can you see fantasmic and the fireworks on the same night typically?

 

[Cal-Pie]

You can watch the 1st showing of F!, then stay in that area for the fireworks (decent view, but obstructed somewhat by trees). Or, you could watch the fireworks from main street/castle, and then watch the 10:30pm 2nd showing of F!

 

[DLgal]

Sat to Tuesday would be my vote, but expect heavy crowds on Monday.

Fireworks will be Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting. Fantasmic may be dark then.

 

[RichV03]

Sat to Tuesday would be my vote, but expect heavy crowds on Monday.

Fireworks will be Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting. Fantasmic may be dark then.

What do you mean might be dark then? Didn’t it just reopen?

 

[DLgal]

What do you mean might be dark then? Didn’t it just reopen?

Yeah, but it is usually down for the season in January/February (I think. May be misremembering). It's a very technically advanced show and requires a lot of upkeep.

 

[sjmac42]

You could do Sat/Sun and Tue/Wed. You don’t have to use your tickets on consecutive days.

 

[foolish_mortals]

Night time entertainment is never daily in Jan/Feb due to city rules they are limited to Fri, Sat, and Sun from the week after New Years until early March with sometimes nightly entertainment during Presidents Week in Feb.

Jan/Feb is refurbishment time so Fantasmic and other rides sometimes go dark for a few weeks.

I think Sat-Tues is better if you want to see any nighttime shows especially fireworks. It gets decently windy and cancellations are fairly common. So if cancelled Sat you can at least hope for Sunday. Also just a heads up there is a non-zero chance that they will have an After Hours events on Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday meaning the park would close early for regular guests. They have done 80s nite before in January and they seem to be going all in on Disneyland After Dark this year.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Yeah, but it is usually down for the season in January/February (I think. May be misremembering). It's a very technically advanced show and requires a lot of upkeep.

Any time Mark Twain or Sailing Ship Columbia are down for maintenance I believe the show is also down, since those are both used, and Jan/Feb is historically when those will be down. Not for a long refurb, but it could hit on your dates.

 

[Aspencreek]

Hi All!

My family is taking a trip to Disneyland in January 2023. We have a stay at VGC booked checking in Saturday January 21 and checking out the 25th. We plan on doing 4 park days, 2 at each park.

Are you getting park-hopper tickets or one day at each park tickets? My family has done a bunch of DL/DCA trips and we have found that we can find so much more to do in DL and never get bored there, but DCA is only good for about 1 full day. So if park-hopping it doesn't matter much, but if not then we would plan for just 1 day at DCA and 3 at DL if you've got 4 days total.

 

[pharmama]

Night time entertainment is never daily in Jan/Feb due to city rules they are limited to Fri, Sat, and Sun from the week after New Years until early March with sometimes nightly entertainment during Presidents Week in Feb.

To be clear, this restriction is for fireworks- not all nighttime entertainment. World of Color generally runs nightly unless its down for refurb. They also now have Mickey's Mix Magic which can run in projection only mode on weekdays during this time (though obviously seeing fireworks would be preferable to that). F! would be weekends only but often is down at this time for various reasons as others have mentioned.

The parks will also be closing fairly early on weeknights this time of year so you will probably get a few more hours of park time on Sat/Sun as well if you go those days.

 

[DLgal]

To be clear, this restriction is for fireworks- not all nighttime entertainment. World of Color generally runs nightly unless its down for refurb. They also now have Mickey's Mix Magic which can run in projection only mode on weekdays during this time (though obviously seeing fireworks would be preferable to that). F! would be weekends only but often is down at this time for various reasons as others have mentioned.

The parks with also be closing fairly early on weeknights this time of year so you will probably get a few more hours of park time on Sat/Sun as well if you go those days.

I feel like Disneyland has had 8am-midnight hours daily all year so far, with the exception of early closures on special event nights. It's DCA that seems to have shorter hours in the off season.

 

[pharmama]

I feel like Disneyland has had 8am-midnight hours daily all year so far, with the exception of early closures on special event nights. It's DCA that seems to have shorter hours in the off season.

This site does show some pretty early DL weeknight closures in Jan 2022 but who knows what the future will bring.
Jan 2022 DLR Park Hours

 

[DLgal]

This site does show some pretty early DL weeknight closures in Jan 2022 but who knows what the future will bring.
Jan 2022 DLR Park Hours

Thanks for sharing! At least the weekends have the longer hours.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Any time Mark Twain or Sailing Ship Columbia are down for maintenance I believe the show is also down, since those are both used, and Jan/Feb is historically when those will be down. Not for a long refurb, but it could hit on your dates.

When Columbia is down, Fantasmic is down. When Mark Twain is down, the characters come out on the island instead of on the boat for that part of the show.

 

[RichV03]

Are you getting park-hopper tickets or one day at each park tickets? My family has done a bunch of DL/DCA trips and we have found that we can find so much more to do in DL and never get bored there, but DCA is only good for about 1 full day. So if park-hopping it doesn't matter much, but if not then we would plan for just 1 day at DCA and 3 at DL if you've got 4 days total.

Right now we were thinking of just doing one park a day with genie plus. Our boys are going to be 6 and 4 at the time of the trip and weve found since owning DVC trips are much more enjoyable for us at a slower pace. We don’t feel the need to cram everything in on one day now. Granted thats our take at WDW and we don’t know when we will be back to DL after this trip but our boys are really into marvel and cars so we figured two days there would be nice as well.

 

[RichV03]

Thank you everyone for your input so far. To be honest I was leaving towards Sunday-Wednesday for sake of travel. We will be driving in from mesa, az area and didn’t know if leaving super early on that Saturday morning and spending all day at the park would be worth it but it’s sounding like we should for the sake of maybe missing fireworks if Sunday gets canceled . Does anyone know if you can see the fireworks from the VGH?

 

[DLgal]

Thank you everyone for your input so far. To be honest I was leaving towards Sunday-Wednesday for sake of travel. We will be driving in from mesa, az area and didn’t know if leaving super early on that Saturday morning and spending all day at the park would be worth it but it’s sounding like we should for the sake of maybe missing fireworks if Sunday gets canceled . Does anyone know if you can see the fireworks from the VGH?

You mean VGC? No. You can watch them from a couple places outside the parks, though. The esplanade is popular, or you can watch them from the top level of the Mickey and Friends parking structure.

With the long weekend park hours, if you can leave super early, you can still have a bit of a chance to rest in the afternoon once your room is ready and then rally until midnight!