DL in august- week or weekend, big diff crowd-wise?

pinktink83

DIS Veteran
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Jul 20, 2003
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652
Hey, any DL experts know what the crowd scene will be like in early/mid August? We're thinking of going either the 9th & 10th (sat & sun) or the 11th & 12th (mon & tues) Will school starting around then affect the crowds positively or negatively??

Its just my husband and I going, our first time together, yeah!! :bounce: (we're taking the kids, 2 years and 6 mo, next year when they're a bit older) so we won't need to worry about them getting cranky. Just us, hehe!! :rolleyes:

Anyway, it would be easier for us to find babysitters for the weekend, but if its going to be really, very crowded, we'll go during the week instead. Any thoughts or opinions?? TIA!
 
I would try and go during the week. School generally doesn't start is So. Cal. until after Labor Day. Remember if the crowds get to intense at DL head over to DCA for a break.
 
I can't answer your question, but we will be there the same time as you are 8/10-8/15. I have read that Monday is usually a crowded day at the parks, so we are planning to do Hollywood that day.

We were at DL last year over the 4th and found that we could go on every ride at least once as long as we got to the park early and rode the rides without FP first. We then used FP for everything else. We rode the major rides at least 5 times in 2 days.
 
The general "those in the loop" buzz about crowds at the DL resort so far this summer has generally been:

- flat at Disneyland

- down somewhat at California Adventure (even the X-games promotion is failing to bring in additional traffic).

In addition, the general rule of largest/smallest crowds still seems to apply, which is:

- most crowded: Saturdays, with Fridays (especially later on Friday) right behind (possibly due to many locals with annual passes coming on these days).

- Sundays and Mondays still crowded, a little but not much better than Fri/Sat.

- Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the least (in relative terms) crowded.

Thats why we are employing the following strategy for our visit between August 10th-16th (with a set of "5 days for the price of 3" Fastpass Plus tickets):

- Sunday 8/10 - arrive and go into parks to get an initial "fix," but doing that "late" (ergo, after 5pm)

- Monday 8/11 - avoid the parks completely (doing Hollywood and Beverly Hills by car that day)

- Tuesday 8/12 - big full day at Disneyland

- Wednesday 8/13 - focus on California Adventure (if we burn through it "early," we'll go distract ourselves at DL or DTD)

- Thursday 8/14 - full day of ad-hoc revisiting of favorite attractions at both parks.

- Friday 8/15 - doing Universal with front of the line passes (ergo, who cares about the crowds there?)

Saturday 8/16: check out and depart (going on to San Fran).

Careful observers will note that as described this plan utilizes only 4 of the 5 days we get in the parks with our tickets. Our plan is to hold that extra day in "reserve, " cashing it in on either Monday evening 8/11 or Friday evening 8/15; we'll make that call when we get there.

We also have restaurant reservations scattered across that whole week.
 

Hmmm, so basically we're going to get the crowds either way, huh? :rolleyes: I suppose Mon & Tues would be slightly better than Sat & Sun, as Tues would at least be less crowded. We'll have to weigh the adv. & disadv. of bbysitters & such.

Anyone else know about the school crowds around this time? It seems like I remember reading somewhere that its very busy right before school starts.

Oh well, DH is in the middle of college classes, so the only time we can go is sometime that week!! I just wanted a heads up if that was the case. We'll still have tons of fun either way!!! :) :)
 
We will be there too! We are arriving on 8-8 in the pm after work and leaving late on Monday night. My mom and DS are coming down on Thursday am.

My DS is 7 and wanted to see the X-games and this is the last weekend to do so-Sunday is the last day. We had so much other stuff going on this summer and thought okay we have to go then if he wants to see it.

This will be our fourth trip down this year so if we miss something it doesn't matter. We usually go off season so any sort of "crowds" will be a bummer for us. Be sure to fast pass whenever you can.

Kristina
 
>>I remember reading somewhere that its very busy right before school starts<<

That pattern holds true at WDW, and presumably at DL. Question is, which universe of schools are you thinking of?

At WDW, the parks are packed in the first two weeks in August by the "southern state" crowd (Virginia on down), because WDW is "close." When all the southern schools open in mid August, the crowds immediately shrink - I know, I've literally seen it, having been at WDW starting on August 13th several times.

From what I've read, the California and "southwest" crowd that makes up a huge segment of the DL market have school systems that don't start until after Labor Day (although I think I've heard that some systems in places like Arizona and New Mexico may open earlier, but those are smaller, secondary markets).

Therefore, I would expect the "get the last fix of the summer" rush to DL generally hits in the last two weeks of August, ergo, this year starting the weekend of the 16th.

Or stated differently, the day after we finish our visit, heh heh heh.
 
Oh ok, thats good to know! I know AZ schools all start like mid August now, so thats what I was worried about. That maybe all the schools in CA, and other nearby states start that early, too. So the "rush" would be the first two weeks of August. But hopefully you're right and most schools still don't start until the end of the month! Thanks for the info!
 
In the Bay Area most of the schools seem to start back the week of the 25th with a few holdouts for after Labor Day.

We were hoping people were spending money on back to school clothes and other items and not able to spend money on DL-Hey whatever works for you!
 


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