Southern California Easter crowds and closures

[pennym]

Can any locals give me some intel on Easter weekend. We are likely to be in LA over Easter Weekend next year, arriving probably on Holy Thursday. We want to go to Universal, probably The Grove and maybe some of the museums like the one with the space exhibition. Does anything close during that weekend? (Pretty much everything in NZ is closed on Good Friday). What day would be best for Universal? Any other helpful hints you can give me? I will be travelling with a 12 year old and a 75 year old....3 generations of women! We will move down to Anaheim on Easter Monday (is that a public holiday like it is here?) Many thanks for any help!

 

[dieumeye]

I don’t believe any of these entertainment destinations close on Good Friday or Easter weekend. Some retail chains are closed on Easter Sunday but not all, and I would be surprised if any stores were closed on Thursday or Friday or any day other than Easter Sunday. But once you know a specific place you want to visit, you should inquire with them directly for hours.

In March/April many schools will have a “Spring Break” week that may or may not be near Easter. Every school district is different so it’s not uncommon to see families with kids take vacations throughout the weeks during these months.

As for Universal, I don’t think there’s a specific day that’s particularly better other than the general advice that mid-weekdays tend to be lighter crowds than weekends. So pick a Tuesday-Thursday if possible.

The Science Center (is this the space exhibit you are referring to?) web site says it is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. It’s free but requires timed tickets do get tickets in advance.

The Grove & Farmers Market should be open all weekend, but there may be individual retailers closed on Easter Sunday, but I wouldn’t expect any to be closed any other day that weekend.

 

[pennym]

Thank you, maybe we will avoid shopping on Easter Sunday.

 

[pennym]

I'm also seeing that Knotts has gone cashless it seems? Has Universal, or can we still use cash there?

 

[pennym]

I see that Undercover Tourist says that 21st to 28th April will be one of the lightest weeks of the year crowd wise next year....is there any reason for that? I'm thinking maybe we should do LA/ Universal at the end of our trip now, not the beginning.

 

[dieumeye]

I see that Undercover Tourist says that 21st to 28th April will be one of the lightest weeks of the year crowd wise next year....is there any reason for that? I'm thinking maybe we should do LA/ Universal at the end of our trip now, not the beginning.

Pre-covid, crowd calendars were not very reliable for Disneyland. Since reopening, with all the unfolding changes (including staffing changes), it still doesn’t seem like there’s enough consistency to accurately predict crowds by day in the long run. That is, I still wouldn’t rely on crowd prediction calendars for planning Disneyland trips.

I don’t know why they would suggest specifically that April 21-28, 2023 would be particularly light. Maybe that is based on some historical data? Maybe it’s based on Magic Key calendar? Who knows. But again, I would not plan my trip around that being a light crowd time.

In my anecdotal experience, any time in that mid March through April window is “Spring Break” time so you’ll see crowds due to that.

 

[pennym]

Sorry I was not clear, I'm talking about USH. We can either go over Easter weekend or late April. I'm just wondering why USH would be particularly light that week? Apart from Spring Break being over?

 

[dieumeye]

Sorry I was not clear, I'm talking about USH. We can either go over Easter weekend or late April. I'm just wondering why USH would be particularly light that week? Apart from Spring Break being over?

I wouldn’t put too much faith in crowd calendars at USH either. Weekdays at UHS are usually lighter than weekends. Actually you can sort of tell how crowded Universal thinks they’ll be by the price calendar.

 

[pennym]

Yeah, well that alone is cheaper on the last weekend, I mean Easter is the absolute top rate. So that could sway me.....