Disneyland certainly is a different beast right now!

[GatorChris]

I'm right there with you on the crowds. We were there Monday - Friday of last week. At no point did it feel easy or quiet. Which is weird in the middle of October. It was really frustrating at first, having big crowds and no FP. But by the third day, we had figured out how to navigate from ride to ride. It's weird not having a FP waiting for us after waiting in one of those hour long lines. I was like you, mad that there was no Genie+ (which makes me think this is a Disney strategy). But once we got into the groove, it worked really well. We ended up doing all the mid-level rides when we first came in. The major rides would have 30-60 minute lines immediately. So we would do the non-majors first that would later have huge lines.

Did I miss FP? Oh, yeah. Did I have a good time anyway? Oh, yeah. Do I wish I were back there this week with my family? OOOOOOHHHHHH YEAH!

 

[Gypsybear]

My good friends who live in Cali and are APs (or I guess Keyholders now)....told us to temper our expectations. We've been to DL several years....so they told us that it's definitely not the same park experience. So they told us to temper expectations, and just go with the flow.

I'm hoping the weather isn't hot....we normally go first week of October....this time, it'll be Halloween weekend and first week of November. It's been 20 years since I lived in Cali, so not sure what to expect anymore. But, we'll be at DL!! So, I'll take it, whatever IT is.

 

[lcp9]

I'm right there with you on the crowds. We were there Monday - Friday of last week. At no point did it feel easy or quiet. Which is weird in the middle of October. It was really frustrating at first, having big crowds and no FP. But by the third day, we had figured out how to navigate from ride to ride. It's weird not having a FP waiting for us after waiting in one of those hour long lines. I was like you, mad that there was no Genie+ (which makes me think this is a Disney strategy). But once we got into the groove, it worked really well. We ended up doing all the mid-level rides when we first came in. The major rides would have 30-60 minute lines immediately. So we would do the non-majors first that would later have huge lines.

Did I miss FP? Oh, yeah. Did I have a good time anyway? Oh, yeah. Do I wish I were back there this week with my family? OOOOOOHHHHHH YEAH!

Tell me more about this, because we're going with 4 little kids the first week of November and I am THISCLOSE to paying $3500 for a vip tour because I'm so afraid of not having maxpass. ETA 4 little kids but all are 40", and 3 are boys so RSR is a must.

 

[tlovesdis]

I was just there Friday-Monday and it was a you know what show! I couldn't believe the crowds and the food situation was a mess. I've been to DL hundreds of times and Saturday was the absolute worse i've seen. I could go on and on, but I will save you all! LOL! We still had a good time, but I am done with DL for a while. I was going to upgrade to a key but decided no way! Maybe things will change with Genie+, we shall see. But honestly after this weekend, I don't want to go back for a while.

 

[AndrewC]

Well, this comment just made me feel ancient

Hey, I’m in my mid 30s, I knew that comment would get noticed by someone!

I just mean I’m used to seeing a bunch of “kids” (but really hard working ones!) at Disney. Loads of 20-25 year olds I feel like… now I’m seeing a lot more “older” cast members. Certainly still seem like staffing issues and some maybe dumped into a position like this because of their life being turned upside down after this last year. I’m seeing a lot that don’t have answers right away and have to chat with a lead first… a lot that aren’t terribly sure with specific things in the park (like where I can get a churro at close, towards the front gate, the cast member instead said everywhere was closed, including Downtown Disney…).

I also have never seen on the job training before and on this trip at least four different times clearly observed a cast member explaining and training a newbie on the job. Lots going on behind the curtain still…

 

[cruisehopeful]

I was just there Friday-Monday and it was a you know what show! I couldn't believe the crowds and the food situation was a mess. I've been to DL hundreds of times and Saturday was the absolute worse i've seen. I could go on and on, but I will save you all! LOL! We still had a good time, but I am done with DL for a while. I was going to upgrade to a key but decided no way! Maybe things will change with Genie+, we shall see. But honestly after this weekend, I don't want to go back for a while.

I think Genie + will make a small difference, but the big difference will be when they have parades and shows again. For example, Monster After Dark had a 30 min wait during the Oogie Boogie Bash, but when the first parade started, it was a 10 minute wait. Right after the parade, it was back to 30 minutes. A few minutes before the second parade, it was 15 minutes. During the second parade, it was essentially walk on. So, people sitting on curbs for parades makes all the other lines shorter.

 

[AndrewC]

I think Genie + will make a small difference, but the big difference will be when they have parades and shows again. For example, Monster After Dark had a 30 min wait during the Oogie Boogie Bash, but when the first parade started, it was a 10 minute wait. Right after the parade, it was back to 30 minutes. A few minutes before the second parade, it was 15 minutes. During the second parade, it was essentially walk on. So, people sitting on curbs for parades makes all the other lines shorter.

Very true, World of Color, Fantasmic, all of those soak up a HUGE amount of people and pull them out of the lines. Ironically also the virtual boarding passes might be pushing more people out into the parks rather than in 90-120 minute lines.

 

[Disney0010]

Arrived here today. Took about two minutes to go through security and five to seven minutes to get through DL park admission. Had one group of three in front turned away. I assume no park reservation. Arrived in park at 8:55 AM.

Went directly to HM. Posted wait time went from forty-five minutes to one hour shortly after getting in line. In reality it was maybe a forty minute wait. Not bad. Next was Pooh. Walk on. Jumped on the railroad and then the monorail. Both were short waits.

Lunch at Carnation Cafe. Service and food very good. They were turning those away with no reservation. Can’t imagine having to deal with the busy parks right now with no lunch or dinner reservations. IMHO it takes the stress level way down knowing that we have places to dine without having to deal with crowds and wait times.

Just checked into our hotel. Have a BG for ROR at around 4:00 so we will be heading back over for the evening after getting showered and reenergized. Expecting DL to be very busy tonight due to OBB at DCA.

 

[eMoneyBug]

We were at DL Sun 9/19, could have park hopped but having not been there in 18months, we stayed at DL all day, it didn't feel super crazy crowded, certainly was a good amount of people, especially around fireworks time, but everything had a 15-45min wait, which was no big deal, had a great day! It's fine when others complain and vow to not go back for awhile, etc. Just creates less crowding, so yeah.

 

[GatorChris]

Tell me more about this, because we're going with 4 little kids the first week of November and I am THISCLOSE to paying $3500 for a vip tour because I'm so afraid of not having maxpass. ETA 4 little kids but all are 40", and 3 are boys so RSR is a must.

For RSR, you're just going to have to wait. We got to DCA at 7:45 to do rope drop. There was already a big crowd. Mind you that because of the Oogie Boogie parties, Mondays and Wednesdays were a bit busier. We headed straight for RSR...and got on at 9am. When we came back Wednesday, we decided not to waste that precious first hour on RSR. We hit Guardians instead and rode it 3 time before 9am, and we arrived at 8:20 that day. Don't burn money on a VIP tour. Such a waste. Just learn to deal with the lines. Understand that each ride will have a good sized wait. You'll get into the groove of it quickly. And if you have boys, spend plenty of time hunting down Avengers. They'll love it.

 

[AndrewC]

I kind of agree on not spending the money on VIP with kids. Ironically, they might not be able to wait in line, but I don’t think they would maximize a tour either. Any time using restrooms, stopping for food, and arguing over which attraction to do is wasted tour time. If each kid decides they need the restroom at a different time, plus they want some snacks or something, and adding in walking time, I could see a couple hours of the tour wasted just from that.

If you’ve just got more money than time, do the tour, but I would suggest staying at the Grand and doing an extra day or two over the tour.

 

[MonocularVision]

I kind of agree on not spending the money on VIP with kids. Ironically, they might not be able to wait in line, but I don’t think they would maximize a tour either. Any time using restrooms, stopping for food, and arguing over which attraction to do is wasted tour time. If each kid decides they need the restroom at a different time, plus they want some snacks or something, and adding in walking time, I could see a couple hours of the tour wasted just from that.

Kids are always ruining Disneyland trips.

 

[AndrewC]

Kids are always ruining Disneyland trips.

True… I don’t even have them and they ruin mine by having to dodge them and the strollers

But $3000+ for one day… they would have to be some hardcore kids that wanna bang out so many rides and be organized on restroom/food stops, lol

 

[MonocularVision]

True… I don’t even have them and they ruin mine by having to dodge them and the strollers

But $3000+ for one day… they would have to be some hardcore kids that wanna bang out so many rides and be organized on restroom/food stops, lol

Ha! No disagreement from this father of four.

 

[fly girl]

(oops, wrong thread)

 

[Disney0010]

Just arrived back at the hotel. Overall DL was not too bad from our experience. Was it busy? Yes but I felt it was much worse four weeks ago. We were able to get a BG for ROR at lunch today. Groups moved quickly. DTD was nowhere near as busy as expected.

 

[lcp9]

True… I don’t even have them and they ruin mine by having to dodge them and the strollers

But $3000+ for one day… they would have to be some hardcore kids that wanna bang out so many rides and be organized on restroom/food stops, lol

hahaha I don't give my kids a lot of credit, but one thing they know a lot about is getting their money's worth out of something. Also my husband takes them backpacking a lot so they're well versed in endless walking

 

[twodogs]

A key metric Disney can follow is close-in cancellations my MK holders 1-2 days before -- that's an indication of hoarding and not good overall for optics and access.

Disney has always been the top theme park destination year-in year-out despite significant ticket premiums. Most folk travel to Orlando for Disney and add-on visits to other parks, not that other way around. And Disneyland gets 1-2 day carveouts while visiting SoCal for out-of-towner.

I believe the pure # of reservations was too generous and causing the hoarding phenomena, which is fine for locals to troll the weekends while real late comers simply just book a disney hotel to get access.

I prefer WDW's way - lower reservation#s, but if booked via Disney hotel, doesn't count against your reservation count -- this minimizes hoarding by locals (us included), opens up reservations in general, while enticing incentive to have a Disney hotel stay for both locals and non-local MK holders -- all the while preserving good optics of decent availability and less closein cancelations.

The problem with reducing the reservations that a MK can have would be for out of town folks with MK who have to fly in. We live in Texas and had the Flex Pass which was very stressful, allowing only 2 reservations at a time (but it was also VERY cheap compared to current MK and had almost no block out dates). So we would have to gamble that we could get the third and fourth park day reservations when we had entered the parks for the other two days. Reservations then were fairly easy to come by, and it always worked out for us thankfully. Would not even be possible right now with how tight the reservations are (especially for weekends). We stay at GCH most of the time, so that might mitigate the risk somewhat, but for those out of state who stay offsite, a MK with only 2 reservations would be very limited, if not prohibitive.

 

[Chickinvic]

But $3000+ for one day… they would have to be some hardcore kids that wanna bang out so many rides and be organized on restroom/food stops, lol

It is more like twice that now. Somebody else posted it was $850/hr (7 hour minimum) in October.

 

[AndrewC]

Another day another trek into Disney/DCA. I’m at Carthay Circle (Alfresco) for the second time this trip. The drinks are better than I remembered and the food is great even for a vegetarian (spring rolls can be made vegetarian and the cheese plate is awesome!)

Halloween party last night was perfect!! This is how I remembered it in 2018/2019. Lines were not an issue at all. Villains Grove was the worst (though we did it early and it was 15-20 min wait) and RSR was next and still probably less than 30 min. Everything else was 10 to 20 min, including web slingers which closed out our night. We were able to do Soaring, Villains, Incredicoaster, Little Mermaid, RSR, Monsters After Dark, Monsters Inc, and Web Slingers AND had a relaxed 45+ minute dinner at Wine Country and 45+ minutes during the dessert party and parade. Sunday’s party was manageable, but last nights was perfect and felt limited and exclusive.

My friends that I surprised with tickets absolutely loved joining me for this and felt like they did absolutely everything they wanted to do and that we never got worn out standing in line. Last night was an A+ for Disney.