Crowds in October

[WalleGuy]

Last week it was crowded at Disneyland when most predicted low numbers. Most said this was "fall break" but today is showing large numbers again when it was predicted to be low crowds. Why have the crowds been high at Disneyland this week and last? What's going on?

 

[MacMama0930]

I still don't know. Our days at the park two weeks ago saw crowd levels of 10s! And it was predicted to be 3s or 4s. A lot of schools are apparently getting some kind of fall break. I don't know, it still doesn't make a ton of sense to me!

 

[SMD]

The crowd predictors are based on previous years, and crowds have been growing every year for the last few years. So you can try to explain it as either the predictions are based on old data, or a 3 crowd level 3-4 years ago was a 20 minute wait for a headline and a 3 crowd level now is a 40 minute wait. Either way, there are more people than there used to be at any time of the year.

 

[goooof1]

The crowds rose significantly with the 60th celebration. The construction of Star Wars Land has made more bottleneck areas. AND the predictions are guesses (yes based on previous years). AND October has been more crowded as Halloween Time has become more popular.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

Might sound weird, but last three or so years we have found October to be busier, particularly the weekends, than most of the summer. This is the first year in sometime we did not make a Halloween trip, we are pretty much done with the party crowds.

 

[minnieralyks]

When we were there two years ago right around now in October, it was busy. I remember sitting near Haunted Mansion thinking, "This is insane!" Granted, it wasn't as busy as the week before last when we were at Disneyland, but still very busy. I think Halloween at the Resort has become so popular that people are now planning trips during a historically off-peak time. Also, 2 whole land areas (Big Thunder Ranch and Critter Country) are under construction while other large capacity attractions (train, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Island, etc.) are down. It forces people into a smaller area which makes everything more congested.

 

[felice]

We noticed this when we were at DL on Saturday, mainly in the evening though when big queues built up at the ESPN Zone and other eating establishments. Although in DL itself while it was busy the rides / attractions queues were moving well, whether you had a Fastpass or not. Same also for DCA; there were long queues particularly for Soarin' and Radiator Springs (the latter was slower moving but still OK) but overall the queues were not too bad.

 

[VandVsmama]

Halloween at Disneyland is REALLY popular, especially among the local So Cal residents.

 

[meggles]

I read something in a thread on here (I think it was the October 2016 thread) that said many Arizona school districts and even some Southern Ca ones had "fall break" within the last couple of weeks. I think the Utah fall break was either last week or this week.

 

[VandVsmama]

I literally JUST chatted with a coworker a few minutes ago about her Disneyland trip which she went on last weekend (Thurs - Sun). She & her DH were there at DL park on a non-Halloween party day. She showed me pictures of the crowds in the evening and it. was. MOBBED. She said that at 3pm, they got FP's for Haunted Mansion and the return time was 10:30 pm. Tower of Terror had run out of FP earlier in the day. A lot of rides had waits of an hour all afternoon and into the evening.

So here's my theory:
The Halloween party at Disneyland basically shuts you out of AP park at 6pm on 13 days out of the month of October. If you're an AP-holder and you're feeling a bit frugal and you don't want to shell out ~$70 for a Halloween party ticket (since you're already paying a monthly fee, if you're a So Cal resident, for your AP), then you have a reduced # of days (18 days, to be exact) to go to Disneyland during October...reduced # of days to see all of the Halloween decorations and such.

Therefore, in a normal non-Halloween month, those same AP holders' attendance would be spread out across 30-31 days. But in October, they have 18 possible days to attend instead of 30-31.

On top of all that, a fair number of AP-holders, if they go to Disneyland during the week (Mon-Fri), their arrival time will be late afternoon...maybe they'll cut out of work early and arrive at the park at 3-4:30 pm-ish. Thus, you'd see the crowds actually grow as the late afternoon/evening goes on. However, if you are at Disneyland in the morning, you wouldn't see such huge crowds (we experienced this last October when we went).

So let's look at the blockout dates for AP's for October 2016 (I got this right from the Disneyland.com website):

• So Cal Select AP - all Saturdays & Sundays are blocked out. These APs are only good for Mon-Fri all of October.
• So Cal AP - all Saturdays are blocked out. This AP is good for entry all Sun-Fri during October.
• Deluxe AP - no block out dates
• Signature Plus AP - no block out dates.
• Signature AP - no block out dates.

So if you have a So Cal AP, then this means that you really only have 13 days in October to use your AP. Otherwise, you have to buy a Halloween party ticket.

It gets worse if you have a So Cal Select AP - you can only go on 9 days during October:
Tues 10/4
Thurs 10/6
Tues 10/11
Thurs 10/13
Tues 10/18
Thurs 10/20
Tues 10/25
Thurs 10/27
Fri 10/28

 

[mich311e]

Yes, many AZ schools have a full week fall break. My son's school did not. We were in the parks October 14, 15, & 16 and we found it just as crowded as August and last November.

I love fall, it is my favorite season. And I was super excited to experience Mickey's Halloween Party for the first time and all the fall decor. I'm not sure I'd go again in October. Maybe if I had an AP again. I think if I was paying for daily admission I'd be annoyed with the crowds. (Since we have currently APs we don't really get annoyed with the high crowds, but we aren't renewing.) We usually visit the weekend after Thanksgiving and I found October just as crowded.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

I live in Phoenix and the schools in the entire East Valley have Fall Break, our oldest DD just had one week off and our younger at another school district had a two week break. MANY of those families visit DL every October. Throw in some other states who also have Fall Breaks and it is busy busy busy. A few years ago when we went over Fall Break it was near 100 degrees, not fun when combined with heavy crowds.

A few people have posted that they asked CMs why it was so crowded and the CMs replied they had no idea. Not sure how that is possible....Fall Breaks are nothing new and October crowds have been heavy the last few years. How can they not know what is in store and the crusades headed their way?