First time at Disneyland in October questions! Which days?!

[md1982]

Hi all! Planning a trip with the family the first week of October. Trying to book flights and hotels soon but it's incredibly hard since they haven't released hours and showtimes yet! Doing a 3 day hopper ticket and trying to figure out which days to go. The 2nd and the 5th are Halloween parties which we aren't attending. The 6th is Gay Days. Also concerned about the lack of nighttime entertainment on the weekdays. Really want to see Fantasmic, but worried that Disneyland doesn't do nighttime shows on weekdays in October. Any advice?! Thanks!!!

 

[chickapin parterre]

Hey....welcome to Dis Boards......so with the park hoppers you are fine....make sure you have Wednesday in the plan......and never plan on having any attraction or show in you scheduling plans, just ask the folks who made plans to ride the Matterhorn. It is sad that folks three months out can't make plans to visit Disneyland with a guarantee. , but if you watch the news today, four major vacation spots where closed this week....some of them took years to plan a visit.

 

[md1982]

Hey....welcome to Dis Boards......so with the park hoppers you are fine....make sure you have Wednesday in the plan......and never plan on having any attraction or show in you scheduling plans, just ask the folks who made plans to ride the Matterhorn. It is sad that folks three months out can't make plans to visit Disneyland with a guarantee. , but if you watch the news today, four major vacation spots where closed this week....some of them took years to plan a visit.

Why do you recommend Wednesday? Does Saturday for Gay Days make a huge difference in crowd size? I'm guessing the hours would be longer and all the nighttime entertainment would likely happen on Sat. Thanks!

 

[figment_jii]

If you really want to see Fantasmic!, you'll need to plan for a Saturday or Sunday. Historically, DL has only presented F! on weekend days (Fri, Sat, and Sun) during the non-peak season. The 5th is a MHP night, which means no F!, so you're pretty much left with Sat or Sun. They might surprise us and schedule F! for non-weekend nights in October, but I would not count on it.

Most likely, on Saturday and Sunday, the parks will be operating on full hours and entertainment (regardless of Gay Days or not). That being said, Gay Days is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, unofficial events at DLR. That, coupled with HalloweenTime in general, will mean crowds in the parks. I do think that if you're looking for the lowest crowds, you'll need to think of going Tue, Wed, or Thu, but the hours are likely to be fairly short and there will be limited nighttime entertainment.

 

[md1982]

If you really want to see Fantasmic!, you'll need to plan for a Saturday or Sunday. Historically, DL has only presented F! on weekend days (Fri, Sat, and Sun) during the non-peak season. The 5th is a MHP night, which means no F!, so you're pretty much left with Sat or Sun. They might surprise us and schedule F! for non-weekend nights in October, but I would not count on it.

Most likely, on Saturday and Sunday, the parks will be operating on full hours and entertainment (regardless of Gay Days or not). That being said, Gay Days is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, unofficial events at DLR. That, coupled with HalloweenTime in general, will mean crowds in the parks. I do think that if you're looking for the lowest crowds, you'll need to think of going Tue, Wed, or Thu, but the hours are likely to be fairly short and there will be limited nighttime entertainment.

Will Paint The Night be similarly scheduled?

 

[figment_jii]

They hadn't made any announcements about PtN yet. It's still officially slated to end on Labor Day with the end of Pixar Fest. However, with WoC being down indefinitely, there is hopes that PtN will be presented nightly instead.

 

[md1982]

They hadn't made any announcements about PtN yet. It's still officially slated to end on Labor Day with the end of Pixar Fest. However, with WoC being down indefinitely, there is hopes that PtN will be presented nightly instead.

Thank you for all your help! I'm looking at last years schedules and they really cut back on weekdays huh? No Mickey and the Magical Map, no newsboys. Makes it tough to see everything when most of the entertainment only happens on weekends.

 

[figment_jii]

I think Mickey and the Magic Map is offered Friday through Monday (dark on Tues, Wed, and Thu). I think the Newsboys, like much of the streetmosphere entertainment, are daily.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Why do you recommend Wednesday? Does Saturday for Gay Days make a huge difference in crowd size? I'm guessing the hours would be longer and all the nighttime entertainment would likely happen on Sat. Thanks!

Wednesday doe not fit into any touring plans, folks fly out on Tuesdays, fly in on Thursdays. There is no "T" in Wednesday, so not a Disneyland early morning entry, so folks will sleep in to rest who have been there or plan for five days. This only applies to Wednesday morning, by noon it levels out to normal flows. I have ridden three times in a row on Chickapin, in the same log, on wednesday mornings, could have done more, but those logs have no cushions and boarding onto other ROA attractions was available without any waiting of Disney length .