Disneyland in July..

[mousy_in_canada]

We are thinking of going to Disneyland in July, unfortunately we seem to only be able to go on a Saturday and a Sunday. The crowd levels on Touring plans says it is a 9 out of 10.. I know that at Disney world is crazy when it says 9 out 10! How is Disneyland? Will we be waiting hours and hours in line? Will it not be worth it as it is our first trip? Should we try to go at another time, (years later) or just tough it out?

 

[cruisehopeful]

You could end up waiting in line for hours and hours, yes. The best thing to do is to get there right when it opens, go on as many rides as you can, get fastpasses for rides in both parks and plan on doing things in the busy afternoon that won't be as busy such as watch Mickey and Magical map, go have a drink in a lounge, etc. Don't plan on eating meals at normal eating times, unless you've made reservations. That will save a lot of time waiting in line for counter service.

I went on a busy Saturday this past summer. I set my expectations low and had an idea of what I wanted to do before I got there. I don't wait in long lines, so I did skip a couple rides that I wanted to go on. It was very easy to get food in DCA at Paradise Garden Grill. People seem to overlook the food over in that area.

If you won't have a chance to go again for several years, I would tough it out and just go. Prioritize what you want to do and I am sure you'll be fine.

 

[Nevada Jen]

You can also help make it more doable by staying in an onsite hotel to get the EMH. That will make a huge difference and make 2 days totally doable. Arriving so you are there in time for rope drop will also help if you don't have EMH. My experience has been EMH at DCA is 95 percent less crowded than 5 minutes after opening and I would say the crowds at both parks easily double from opening to two hours later. And three hours later they will double again and get you to the 9 to 10 level. So those early hours are really golden. As someone alluded to, make at least one sit down dining reservation a day. Perhaps Plaza Inn late breakfast one day to help you get character access if that is important to you. Get a dining reservation that gets you a reserved area for night time entertainment. Regardless of crowd levels, I think if you use fastpass, you can experience most rides with minimal waits if you are there first thing in the morning. I find the biggest problem with really high crows levels to be getting food from counter service places. THe next biggest issue is character access. You can work around both of those with a little planning.

 

[Butterfly123]

Honestly our last three trips have been in July, or June/July, and we haven't noticed that much difference between weekends and weekdays. It's all busy! I think most summer vacationers plan more than just a weekend visit, and many locals that may just go on a weekend day are blocked for the summer, so we just didn't notice a major crowd increases on the weekend days. We are going again this July, and are just trying to avoid being at the parks during the D23 convention.

 

[rentayenta]

I think it's just sort of always busy now but take advantage of rope drop, FPs, and stay at one of the 3 Disneyland Resort hotels if at all possible. We will be heading there in July as well.

 

[mousy_in_canada]

I was going to just go for it with planning, but I looked up the dates for the D23 expo and it is the only dates we can go. July 14-16 2017 is the dates of the expo so.. I guess Disneyland is out for us. I am not sure going there for the first time would be good on the date all the fans from across the country are there!

 

[ParkHopper1]

Peak season weekends can actually be better than weekdays now as many of the AP's are blocked and everyone else thinks weekdays are better and will avoid the weekend. I have seen mid week peaks summer crowds that were ridiculous. It will still be busy, but I would not be out off by a weekend trip.