Crowd report for this week

[Melora]

We took a day trip yesterday to D-land and DCA and were pleasantly surprised to find the crowds were extremely low.

They stayed that way all day with peak times for the biggest rides around 30 minutes in the mid afternoon. Basically everything we rode was either a walk on or less than 10 minute wait. Once DCA closed at 6 PM, Disneyland started to get more crowded as people filed in from there.

The haunted mansion was probably the longest line we waited in (about 20-25 minutes) and I realized that we took the line on the left instead of the one on the right which went probably twice as fast as we did. So just as an FYI, if they are splitting up the lines which they do when you head into the courtyard to the left of the house, the line on the right has less switchbacks and feeds very quickly into the house, where as the line on the left winds around all over the place. I watched a man who entered the same time we did in the other line get to the house doors 10 minutes faster than we did.

Ghost Galaxy was great and there were still fast passes left at 3 in the afternoon.

We ate at the Cafe Orleans which took 5 of us as a walk up with a 5 minute wait. The Monte Crisco was great and so was the French Onion soup but my husband did not like the Ratatouille and the kids Mac & Cheese was very dry and neither ate even half of it. Also the service was horribly slow, with the waitress bringing us the wrong drinks, then not being available to fix that problem for at least 10 minutes. Meal took almost an hour.

There was less than no line for Pirates. When we walked in they were holding an empty boat until we got up there.

Weather was great...nice and mild with light overcast.

We got the kids each something from the Candy Emporium for the ride home and when we got to the car and I went to pass the stuff out, my daughters jelly beans weren't in the bag. The cashier must have weighed them and then forgot to bag them. I stopped at the AM/PM before we got on the freeway and got her a bag of gummy bears.

Overall I was ecstatic that there were so few people there and we rode everything we wanted to and had a great time!

 

[dizneedoll]

Thanks for the update! Sounds like overall you had a great time. We will be there midweek next week so I'm hoping for similar crowd levels. I've eaten at Cafe Orleans several times and the service is always slow with the server vanishing for long stretches. Don't know what's up with that but I love the Monte Cristo so I guess I put up with it.

Question about the Haunted Mansion line...do you think the shorter line could have been the FP line? I know they do FP for HMH. I'll remember your tip in case there are two standby lines to get in.

 

[Melora]

NO, the Haunted Mansion line was not he Fastpass line... the FP line goes straight up the stairs inot the door whereas the stand by line makes a turn to the left where it then will split into 2 separate lines. I had made note of this discrepancy of wait times in previous years but it had been a long time so I had forgotten.

 

[Grim_Grinning_Girl]

Yeah when they split ride lines into Left line and Right line, it's always hard to tell which to pick. My experience has been that I always pick the slow line . When Pirates gets busy they tend to do that too, I was there earlier in the month and I felt that the right side was traveling faster and had less turns.

We always used Fast Passes for the Haunted Mansion but the line split was present.

 

[DanT]

when we were there last week, the stand by line was on the left as you enter the court yard and the FP line was on the right as you enter the court yard....it even had signs above the entry on the arch above that stated standby on left and FP on right....
if it is very slow the FP line goes directly up to the stairs right past the hearse. If it is busy the FP line goes around thru part of the que just like the standby line....just not near as long

 

[DanT]

I have a pic of the entry area I took last Friday and/or Saturday I will post when I get home, since it is on my other computer...

 

[kelmac284]

We arrive tomorrow night with our first day being Friday. I am glad to hear that it has calmed down but I fear that the weekend will pick up again. I am used to busy touring but I am glad to hear that maybe it won't be QUITE as bad as it has been. Luckily we are staying through Monday and although we have to leave about 5 I am "hoping" that maybe whoever is there over the weekend WON'T be there on Monday and we can have a good day then. I just wish we didn't have to LEAVE that day cuz the park doesn't even open till 10. But we will use our FP's and do the best we can! Thanks for the report! Can't wait to get there!

 

[nunzia]

Nice to hear, and I think we will be there this same week next year. We'll be there on Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat, so hopefully get in a couple decent days before the crowds arrive.

 

[Leofoenget]

Mid week mid month pretty slow. Glad to hear

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Sounds like a great day! Had we not gone to WDW earlier this month we would've been at DLR this week ~ week days, probably 10/19-10/21 or 22 -maybe next year we'll visit around this time.

 

[dizneedoll]

NO, the Haunted Mansion line was not he Fastpass line... the FP line goes straight up the stairs inot the door whereas the stand by line makes a turn to the left where it then will split into 2 separate lines. I had made note of this discrepancy of wait times in previous years but it had been a long time so I had forgotten.

Cool! Thanks for clearing it up for me! Great Tip!