Crowd ideas for days without any park reservation availability

[Porsche4]

So this question is for people who have visited of late. Has anyone visited the parks on days when there have been no park bookings available and if so what were the crowds like. For my upcoming trip (last week of April) there is no park availability for DCA at all for the whole week. I have my reservations already booked but I am worrying that with no availability left the crowds will be horrendous. I still have the option to cancel my trip to later in the year and I am really thinking that it might be the right thing to do as I do not want to come and be in wall to wall people all week. Could it be that DCA is booked out all week as it is the first week of WOC's return and the locals will be coming after work. If that is possibly the case could the parks still be relatively uncrowded throughout the day. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[austinelsa]

Just got home from a trip 3/10-13. Parks were sold out on all days for all passes except the hotel bucket.

We got to the parks all days for rope drop, did a mix of LL and standby until 11. Had lunch and a few more rides, home for a few hours of break, and then back for the evening which was basically all LLs and a few standbys on smaller rides. We never waited in line for more than 15 mins for the entirety of our trip despite the sell out. We ended up with a whole bunch of experiences passes after Midway Mania broke down for HOURS on Saturday - which we used for POTC and dumbo which saved us TONS of time.

Also, we either got lucky or chose to eat/drink outside of peak times, but mobile ordering was amazing for us. We ate at Galactic Grill, Red Rose, sit downs at River Belle and Carthay Al Fresco, and SO MANY churros.

That being said, the pathways in DL were insanity to walk thru without being super aware and defensive (esp NOS). At DCA it was far easier except near the festival booths where the lines looked torturous.

Overall, our trip was super successful and the crowds only bothered us slightly. So i think it will be ok as long as you plan around peak times.

 

[Porsche4]

Just got home from a trip 3/10-13. Parks were sold out on all days for all passes except the hotel bucket.

We got to the parks all days for rope drop, did a mix of LL and standby until 11. Had lunch and a few more rides, home for a few hours of break, and then back for the evening which was basically all LLs and a few standbys on smaller rides. We never waited in line for more than 15 mins for the entirety of our trip despite the sell out. We ended up with a whole bunch of experiences passes after Midway Mania broke down for HOURS on Saturday - which we used for POTC and dumbo which saved us TONS of time.

Also, we either got lucky or chose to eat/drink outside of peak times, but mobile ordering was amazing for us. We ate at Galactic Grill, Red Rose, sit downs at River Belle and Carthay Al Fresco, and SO MANY churros.

That being said, the pathways in DL were insanity to walk thru without being super aware and defensive (esp NOS). At DCA it was far easier except near the festival booths where the lines looked torturous.

Overall, our trip was super successful and the crowds only bothered us slightly. So i think it will be ok as long as you plan around peak times.

Thank you soooo much for your thoughts. The way you did the parks is exactly how we were planning on doing it so I feel much better now so thank you. I have read up on the trick of how to stack up on experience passes if rides are down so will give that a go too. We will also eat early meals as we will be in the park from rope drop so we are always ready for an early lunch which hopefully will help us with mobile ordering wait times. Thanks again and glad you had a great time.

 

[DLgal]

Just so you know, a lot of times when there is no park ticket availability, there is STILL Magic Key reservations available. A large portion of Disneyland guests have magic keys, so just seeing no more park ticket availability does no mean a sell out.

This week looks like that. We went yesterday. It wasn't that crowded. We got the reservation on Sunday for Tuesday. Dream keys.

 

[duckboyone]

Just got home from a trip 3/10-13. Parks were sold out on all days for all passes except the hotel bucket.

We got to the parks all days for rope drop, did a mix of LL and standby until 11. Had lunch and a few more rides, home for a few hours of break, and then back for the evening which was basically all LLs and a few standbys on smaller rides. We never waited in line for more than 15 mins for the entirety of our trip despite the sell out. We ended up with a whole bunch of experiences passes after Midway Mania broke down for HOURS on Saturday - which we used for POTC and dumbo which saved us TONS of time.

Also, we either got lucky or chose to eat/drink outside of peak times, but mobile ordering was amazing for us. We ate at Galactic Grill, Red Rose, sit downs at River Belle and Carthay Al Fresco, and SO MANY churros.

That being said, the pathways in DL were insanity to walk thru without being super aware and defensive (esp NOS). At DCA it was far easier except near the festival booths where the lines looked torturous.

Overall, our trip was super successful and the crowds only bothered us slightly. So i think it will be ok as long as you plan around peak times.

So jealous, you just missed the POTC closing down. I'm hoping for dear life it doesn't stay closed down the whole summer...