DLR trip the week of Halloween?

[JustLikeMe]

Hi all,

I'm currently planning my first trip to DLR in many, many years - mainly to check out Cars Land. Seeing as I live over in the UK this is a trip I'm unlikely to repeat for quite some time as WDW is an easier and cheaper destination from this part of the world, so I want to make sure I do it right. I've also never seen the Haunted Mansion Holiday so I want to time my trip for when the overlay is in place.

My biggest concern when booking any Disney trip is crowds - I can deal with shorter park hours and less shows. With this in mind I'm looking for a quiet week to go before the end of the year. Unfortunately I am unable to take any time from work in September, and it will be difficult in December, so I'm essentially limited to a week in Oct or Nov. Touring Plans has the week beginning the 29th October as very quiet, with a resort crowd level or 1/10 for Monday through Thursday, but my inner sceptic is worried about the effect that Halloween will have on crowds. I recently spoke to a friend who lives out in Ca and is an annual pass holder about my tentative plans for a trip that week and she mentioned that in her experience the crowds got heavier towards Halloween, which kinda makes sense. Then again, I'd be visiting exclusively on weekdays, so that may help things.

Has anyone here been the week of Halloween before? If so, how were the crowds? Or does anyone have another week to recommend? Although I have a fair amount of experience with WDW crowd patterns, I've never really looked into DLR crowds before so I'm not even sure where to begin. Any advise or opinion would be very much appreciated!

 

[Cinderpamela]

I think October would be a good time to visit for your situation. Yes, it will be busier than some of the slowest times of year, but it wont be as crowded as high season, yet its busy enough that the park will have longer hours. You will get to see the Halloween overlay of Haunted Mansion (not at WDW) and the Space Mountain Halloween overlay (again not at WDW) which is super cool.

On Hydroguys thread about DLR for WDW vets point #16 has a great explanation of when to visit the parks and what to expect.
Check it out here if you haven't already:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

 

[disneegrl4eva]

hey justlikeme and welcome...Oct. is a good time to visit because it is not so hot and the well crowds have decreased but Ive noticed an increasing number of people every year since about 2007...but there is one thing to take into consideration..the entire month of oct. on every tuesday and friday, we have the halloween party so DL will close at 6. You can go over to CA at that time but all the crowds from DL will head over there as well.....this year in particular, I think its going to be hard pressed to know how crowded its going to be due to the newly revamped CA and the new CL...I think it will be busy (not like summer busy or christmas/NY busy) but busy nonetheless...and although no one can predict the crowds this year i think either 2nd week of oct. or 1st or 2nd week in Nov.should be good since you're not going to be there during weekends you should be fine. The first weekend in nov. is usually when the film the Christmas Day Parade, following weekend is Vet. day weekend, and third week being Thanksgiving and those times it will be really crowded...btw, TP sux..I wouldnt use that at all!!...I think its much better suited towards wdw but its never right for DL...

Ive gone to every single halloween party with the exception of the first one...and Ive always gone the 3rd week of Oct. its still very warm in the day but cools down at night quite a bit...this year I am considering doing the halloween party the 19th because like i said originally, Ive noticed more crowd swell and that was before CL...

its hard for me to compare crowd patterns between wdw and DL...because DL is so much smaller than any of the 4 parks but I guess the easiest way to explain it is to use MK's Main St. on a MVMCP or MNSSHP night...that is probably what it is going to be like in certain parts of the park...I remember the first time I went to wdw and had expected really bad crowds because of all the fuss and it was never as bad as I thought it would be...the only time I felt crowds was down Main St at a party...and i commented that it felt more like DL to me then

 

[taaren]

The week you are looking at has been great for us the last several years. We usually go somewhere between late Sept-early November, and when there are Halloween parties, its pretty busy but otherwise calm on the weekdays.

The times I've been to Disneyland when rides were walk-on and it was pretty empty were the days immediately following Halloween (and right after New Years once). Apparently everybody gets back to their real lives after the holiday and leaves the parks. There was a thread on here last year, will see if I can find it that somebody posted pictures of it being a great day to go during the first week of November where even the Peter Pan ride which is usually 45+ min outside of Magic Mornings, had about half a dozen people in line.

 

[JustLikeMe]

Thanks for all your replies - sorry its taken me so long to get back to this thread but work has been crazy this past week! Cinderpamela, the link to the DLR for WDW Vets thread helped immensely, some great information in there.

Would the week before the week of Halloween (21/10 - 28/10) perhaps be slightly better for crowds? I have a bit of leeway and I'm planning on taking a two week trip to the States, split between the East and West Coast, and I could quite easily switch the weeks around if one would be a better time to visit DLR.

I know that this is all just conjecture at this point, and that the crowd patterns may be very different this year considering the DCA expansion, but I figure its better to try and work from previous patterns than just pure guess work! Thanks for recommending that I don't take TP too seriously for DL - are there any better sites out there for DL crowd predictions?

 

[skiingfast]

It's described well above, but to be clear the week containing Halloween the crowds will be the same and on Nov, 1st dead. So you could get 2 days that are about the slowest of the year. That could be a good trade for going on slightly busier Halloween day.


You may want to go on one weekend day. These are the only days the regular fireworks and F! show.

 

[JustLikeMe]

I'd be planning on staying a full seven nights (most likely Sunday - Sunday) so I'd both start and end my stay on a weekend day - and as you suggest I'd probably use these days primarily to catch Fantasmic and fireworks, and just kinda relax around the parks during the day, probably avoiding major rides unless I FP them. I'm also planning on staying 5 nights at a good neighbor hotel and 2 nights at a Disney hotel to take advantage of CA early entry on one of the mornings. But you are right, it may well be worth having a few slightly busier days in exchange for two very quiet days!

Do you think that the Halloween party on Monday 10/29 is likely to be much more crowded than Tuesday 10/23? And how busy are we talking? The only special ticketed event I've done at any Disney park before is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom, and as soon as the parades started most rides became pretty much 5 min waits. I'm guessing that this doesn't happen at DL?

Sorry for asking so many questions - it's just I'm unlikely to repeat this trip in a fair while so I want to time it as best as possible. I know that I'll have a great time whenever I go, but its always worth trying to make it that little bit better through planning.

 

[skiingfast]

On party crowds:

What happens is the later afternoon crowd shows up and it gets very busy in DL with the regular guests and party guests all there at once. Then the party starts and the regular guests are directed out and the party specific crowds begin.

During the party the hub and Mainstreet are very busy as people wait on the cavalade(shorter than the MK party parade), and fireworks. Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion with thier special ride overlays have giant waits, ride them on another day. The other ride have low waits. The Trick or Treat stations have bad lines, some are ok, but they do move well, it just a lot of people in those areas. There are some long lines at the character meet and greets, but some of these M&Gs are party exclusive.

On the dates:
In the end all parties sell out so you can not pick a better or worse one.

Knowing you have Sunday to Sunday a reason to go earlier is after Halloween Day the following weekend doesn't have fireworks because they switch the equipment to the Christmas Show. Also the Halloween decorations go down right after the 31st's party and Christmas is coming up a bit of a transition to witness.

A reason to go the later week is Space Mountain will close and reopen in its regular form. You can also catch full on Halloween and a little of Christmas decorations too.

Overall aside from the crowds in the parties, they are both nice weeks to vist for low crowds. You have a lot of days I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[isisisme]

We go every year for Halloween week. The last couple of years, the weekend before Halloween has grown in crowds to the point that last year on Sat before Halloween, you could not cross the walkway in front of HMH around Fantasmic time of night.
But it is much quieter than the summer crowds. And as skiingfast sad, Nov 1st it will be almost dead. The Halloween stuff will start coming down. Space closes for a day or two to take out the overlay.
This year, we are coming in on the 29th and staying until the evening of the 3rd. We will get to see F! on Friday hopefully. We don't usually worry about fireworks since the crowds in the hub drive us nuts.

I personally like going this time of year. There is the excitement of Halloween, and then calm. I like to enjoy both.