Current Crowd Levels

[Version 6]

I think this depends on your tolerance for crowds and possible heat. If you give yourself plenty of time to research and plan (and you can be flexible), there's no reason why you couldn't have fun in the parks. Be aware, though, that fireworks at that time may be projections only on weekdays.

Heat wise, our tolerance is fine.

Crowds - not so much. We come from Australia, so really do try and plan our trips around crowds (since its a once every few years trip). We were last in the park January 2020 and it was incredibly quiet.

Was hoping end of September would be quiet.

Fireworks aren't important to us at all.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Heat wise, our tolerance is fine.

Crowds - not so much. We come from Australia, so really do try and plan our trips around crowds (since its a once every few years trip). We were last in the park January 2020 and it was incredibly quiet.

Was hoping end of September would be quiet.

Fireworks aren't important to us at all.

End of September won’t be quiet. It’s really crazy with Halloween and fall breaks.
Now, last week of August is usually pretty nice. Could be hot though. Early May can be nice too and the weather is often pretty nice.

 

[Version 6]

Thanks for that. That's what I get for relying on crowd calendars I suppose.

 

[dina444444]

Thanks for that. That's what I get for relying on crowd calendars I suppose.

It’s well known around here that the crowd calendars have never been accurate for Disneyland.

 

[ktlm]

What has it been so busy the last few weeks? Isn't the last week of September and first week of October normally relatively good crowd wise (particularly mid week)?

Is it just pent-up demand?

What we were hearing Wednesday when it was packed was that most of Arizona was on fall break.

 

[Dory92130]

Kind of hard to see the observations of burnt out CMs and in the same posts about responding curtly to these same CMs.

Having spent 10+ days since reopening, DL has made steady progress over the months in restarting and ramping up services, entertainment, and capacity.

There are certain rides that require masks and several that do not. Every one has their own level of personal comfort level during this pandemic. Please realize that the bar is set by local health and state level. Disney CMs do a pretty good job in reminding folk of the regulations where they apply and shouldn't be faulted for not asking to mask in places where it's not required -- like Jungle Cruise ride.

Yes, Sept has gotten a lot busier over the years with Oggie getting more popular each year. end August is now the sweet spot with quite a bit of heat risk with Santa Ana winds. The next lull will be between MLK and Presidents weekend.

 

[ktlm]

We have interacted with some really great CMs. A few not so great - but mostly fantastic. We feel like park management no longer cares about us- but a large part of the CMs still do.

What I have discovered over the last 3 days is that I am saving a bunch of money this trip. Without fast pass and with the crowds as big, or bigger, as they are in July when we usually go, we have not really had much time to shop. We are spending much longer in line and trying to get all the attractions done we want to do. We usually buy a ton of stuff and we really haven’t bought much at all this trip because we’re don’t have time for the stores.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

We have interacted with some really great CMs. A few not so great - but mostly fantastic. We feel like park management no longer cares about us- but a large part of the CMs still do.

What I have discovered over the last 3 days is that I am saving a bunch of money this trip. Without fast pass and with the crowds as big, or bigger, as they are in July when we usually go, we have not really had much time to shop. We are spending much longer in line and trying to get all the attractions done we want to do. We usually buy a ton of stuff and we really haven’t bought much at all this trip because we’re don’t have time for the stores.

Same for us!! I wonder what the magic equation is, for Disney - money made by letting ten billion people in at once vs. money lost bc nobody has time to shop/eat because they’re in line for one of the six or seven rides they’ll get to ride in a ten-hour park day

 

[ktlm]

My recollection is that is not how Maxpass worked (which this is purportedly modeled after). I wonder how the folks in CA feel about this. I think it's ridiculous. A lot of people try to get the rides they want as early as possible, because that opens the opportunity to potentially get the same ride later in the day. So basically, Disney is encouraging long afternoon lines. Everyone will have used their "one" ride early in the day. Seems like they are encouraging afternoon/evening massive lines.

Same for us!! I wonder what the magic equation is, for Disney - money made by letting ten billion people in at once vs. money lost bc nobody has time to shop/eat because they’re in line for one of the six or seven rides they’ll get to ride in a ten-hour park day

Exacrly. It is crazy busy like Wednesday again today- 45 minutes for monsters inc- 30 minutes for Mermaid. I don’t think we have ever waited more than 20 minutes for either of those and usually much less.,

 

[djmeredith]

As usual, perspective can be very different for people. We arrived yesterday and we were pleased with what we accomplished in a few hours. We got to DCA around 3:00. We did RSR single rider with 32 min wait, Incredicoaster about 20 mins. Mermaid 20 mins (5 min or more were due to the ride stopping when we were next to board). We break at Pym’s for a pretzel, Monsters took about 35 ( longer than posted). Then we did Guardians Monsters with a posted 60 min and it probably took right at 60. We left the parks about 7:30.

Goofy’s and the zephyrs were down in PP area when we got off IC so the wait times of the other rides in that area seemed to have been impacted because everything was 35+at that time.

 

[VandVsmama]

We were at DL yesterday and Friday. Saturday was definitely busier than Friday. DTD was super crazy packed with people on Sat afternoon. IN Disneyland itself actually felt less crowded than DTD did yesterday.

attempted to go on Space Mtn a couple of times yesterday but the line was too long for my family. We left about 8:45 pm last night and it was a solid 60-75 min line all day long.

 

[Disney0010]

We‘re going over next Tuesday for two nights. Expecting big crowds but will skip any rides with long lines. Now that we have AP’s we will take what the parks gives us concerning ride times. Taking plenty of masks to slip on in the crowded areas plus indoors.

 

[fit4life2]

Why are park hours closing an hour earlier at each park starting next week when park reservations are full?

makes no sense

 

[Dory92130]

Why are park hours closing an hour earlier at each park starting next week when park reservations are full?

makes no sense

Staffing. A lot of cleanup is done by regular crew now.

For those lamenting about the reservation system - image if Disney DIDN'T have one. You saw what happened at Universal without one, yes? We got spoiled a bit with the walkon/15minute waits during the post shutdown restart.

30-60 wait times are quite normal operating times over the years.

 

[gensym]

Here right now, and it’s as busy as I’ve seen. We’re enjoying ourselves, but with tempered expectations. Have been here 8 hours and have ridden 6 rides. Stopped a couple times for meals and snacks. Walking through NOS was pretty difficult with the massive crowds. Hoping for less crowding when we’re back in a couple weeks.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I read once that Disney considers it a successful day if park goers can ride 7 rides. When we had max pass dialed in we had 20 ride days in October. We have been in the parks for 3.5 days this week and I think we did really well without fast passes. We rode Rise and Falcon 3x each, webslingers 2x, Pirates 2x, and pretty much everything else once… minus space and Indy. Thanks to OBB we rode essentially everything in DCA that night and picked up some repeats the next few days. I did really miss max pass, but the first two park hours and the last two are critical if you want to ride headliners. I felt bad for newbies who weren’t prepared, but October has been consistently busy, especially Columbus Day weekend/week for a number of years.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I read once that Disney considers it a successful day if park goers can ride 7 rides.

That is just gross. We've done as many as 29 in a day, which included a 2-hour break after lunch. The pace this time was SO. EXCRUCIATINGLY. SLOW.

All I know is, as much as I love DL/DCA, I'm never going back without some sort of FastPass/MaxPass/whatever Genie/LL turns out to be, or EMH/MM, preferably both.

 

[DLRExpert]

Why are park hours closing an hour earlier at each park starting next week when park reservations are full?

makes no sense

Makes sense if they realize they are not making enough money.
Disney probably notices the drop off after the fireworks and not enough people eating or shopping after 9pm.

 

[ktlm]

Here right now, and it’s as busy as I’ve seen. We’re enjoying ourselves, but with tempered expectations. Have been here 8 hours and have ridden 6 rides. Stopped a couple times for meals and snacks. Walking through NOS was pretty difficult with the massive crowds. Hoping for less crowding when we’re back in a couple weeks.

We were there today until about 2:30 when we had to leave for the airport. It was a whole lot better today than yesterday. We didn’t want to leave today. We were having fun. Yesterday was miserable. We were there Wed-Sat. Wednesday and Saturday were the worst. We hated the park reservations, not having fast pass, and the virtual queques. If there had been fast pass it might not have been so miserable yesterday- we have been on a crowded day before and it felt nothing like yesterday. We really wanted to ride ROTR a 2nd time after finally getting it for the first time on Friday. I got it today but too late of a boarding group- called called 30 minutes after we had to leave. At least we got to ride it once because for a while it wasn’t looking like we would. The park reservations really stink because you can see the lines are shorter in the other park and can’t hop- can’t switch your park day to try for ROTR the next morning when you completely fail on a day - and for years we would start at DL and hop over to CA around 11:00 or 12:00 for lunch and we can’t do that which was a source of irritation and stress. Park reservations may work okay at WDW where hopping isn’t easy anyway and the parks are spread out- but we have always felt like DL/CA were more like one big park. . We had some fun moments this trip- but there was also a lot of stress and disappointment for the first time ever on a DL trip. I felt like from 6:50 am to 12:01- I was s ball of stress every day. I hated having to disappoint DD 4 out of 5 mornings telling her I failed to get a boarding group for either ride. We have gone to DL 11 of the last 12 years (no 2020) and this was the first time we have ever had a stress filled trip. I was taking to a CM who asked how our trip was when we were leaving and she said she is hearing the exact same thing from a lot of people.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

The stress and hassle of the dang virtual queues!!! And the inability to actually park hop! Ugggggghhhh.