DL today

[GatorChris]

It's truly remarkable how the state of Disneyland can upset you even when you aren't there. I applaud your commitment and dedication to being discontented with the park.

And it's truly remarkable that if I issue a complaint about massive DL crowds that you're always there to leave a critical remark. So glad to know you care so much.

All of this just makes me wonder: will there ever be any science to Disney crowds again? The "slow" times are busy and the "busy" times are slow, or slower at least. Is there any way to avoid massive over-crowding in the parks? Once upon a time, there was. I just wonder if the internet is so full of "off-season" advice that it's killed the off-season.

 

[DisBabe94]

What's Coachella?

Coachella is a music festival in the desert near Palm Springs, CA! It happened this past weekend and is also happening again this weekend. It is a HUGE event and tons of young adults/hipsters/cool people (read: locals/annual passholders) go.

I think the combination of Coachella, blackouts, and people wanting to spend time with their families on Easter created the perfect Sunday at Disneyland

(Too bad I couldn't convince DH to go with me... even with RSR at a 25 minute wait at noon!!! )

 

[Xenorye]

All of this just makes me wonder: will there ever be any science to Disney crowds again? The "slow" times are busy and the "busy" times are slow, or slower at least. Is there any way to avoid massive over-crowding in the parks? Once upon a time, there was. I just wonder if the internet is so full of "off-season" advice that it's killed the off-season.

I think we can expect Easter next year to be packed to capacity after reports about how slow it was this year spread.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

Coachella is a music festival in the desert near Palm Springs, CA! It happened this past weekend and is also happening again this weekend. It is a HUGE event and tons of young adults/hipsters/cool people (read: locals/annual passholders) go.

I think the combination of Coachella, blackouts, and people wanting to spend time with their families on Easter created the perfect Sunday at Disneyland

(Too bad I couldn't convince DH to go with me... even with RSR at a 25 minute wait at noon!!! )

I've never seen RSR have such a short wait time, especially on a weekend day. Crazy!

 

[GatorChris]

I think we can expect Easter next year to be packed to capacity after reports about how slow it was this year spread.

Exactly! Our own words of good trips and low crowds are used to fill up the parks when we go. It's like the old gold miners telling everyone where they found gold. We have brought this on ourselves.

 

[Whistlebee]

Do you know how frustrating it is to read this? Especially after the fiasco that was my last trip to DL. Wall-to-wall people in the middle of no-time. And Easter comes and it's empty.

I believe we were there the same time in February as you and experienced the same crazy crowds. Pulled my kids out of school for a week and brought extended family for what we thought would be a slow time at DL.

We had no intentions of coming back right now but just decided at the last minute to do a quick trip before our passes expire in a few days. This time it's just me and my 2 girls (they are actually on Spring Break). Had an amazing day yesterday and a great morning this morning! It's much busier now but we are way ahead of the crowds at this point. A little Disney magic for the end of our annual passes!!! Would've loved to seen the fireworks last night and we had an amazing spot but of course they were cancelled. WOC tonight, a few rides in the morning and then we won't be back for a while (not renewing).
I truly believe people avoiding crowds are creating crowds and it's nearly impossible to predict crowds at this point. I do think Coachella is contributing to the low crowd levels this past weekend. We came expecting massive crowds, hoping to hang out and ride a couple of our favs but instead we're getting an amazing quick trip to finish our our year of annual passes!

 

[Whistlebee]

We've avoided holidays like the plague so imagine our surprise when we came yesterday (first time on a holiday ever) and had the lowest crowd levels (for us) of the last year (5 trips).

 

[Susie63]

I had friends who flew in on Saturday for their first visit. They were going to rest on Sunday but I told them they should go to the park. I hope they took my advice.

 

[DLRExpert]

I would think the low crowd level is due to some APers being blocked out, but more about the "Peak" days, where the prices for a ticket is higher.

More people tend to go when the price of tickets are lower.

 

[Abbey1]

What's Coachella?

It's a huge music and arts festival held about 2 hours away. It draws around 100,000 people/day.

 

[Steven G]

I was there Friday and Saturday, and I was shocked how nice it was.

Using single rider, I was able to get two rides of radiator springs, with less than a minute wait. It took me longer to walk the line than the wait. It was early in morning.

I believe I was the only person on ariels ride.

In DL, everything was nice too for most of the day.

I think the longest wait I had was haunted mansion, and that's because I picked a bad time to ride it, but I had time to kill before a fastpass. I rode it again later at night and it was walkon.

It did get busier at 2pm, but not uncomfortable.

 

[mich311e]

I think we can expect Easter next year to be packed to capacity after reports about how slow it was this year spread.

After reading these reports I was seriously considering it for next Easter. But, it's on April 1st so it won't conflict with Coachella and it will coincide with more spring breaks at the end of March. Probably won't be as great.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

My daughter and I arrived on Thursday afternoon and, of the whole weekend, that was the busiest the parks were. Other than a 20 minute wait for RSR fastpasses on Friday morning and 45 mins for TSMM on Saturday afternoon, we spent no longer than 15 minutes in any line Fri-Sun, with many rides being walk-ons.

We went expecting insanity, and it turned out to be better than we could have hoped for - even CM's were telling us how quiet the parks were.