How boarded up with DCA be in March? Should I even bother?

[Dionnemay]

I'm putting off going back to WDW for a couple of years until most of the new editions and expansions are completed so DL has been our fix for spring break and summer. But there seems to have been so many closures since we were there last year that I'm worried it won't be worth going?
I work on the school districts schedule so we are off March 9-19 over spring break, so that is when I plan to go. Kids are 2 teenagers and one 4 year old.

With DCA doing the Pixar switch, how boarded up is the park? From what I can tell, one of my son's favorites (California Screaming) will be down as well as all the boardwalk rides around there. Does that include Toystory mania?

Also across the street on DL it looks like Splash Mountain will be down which is another of the kid's favorites.
And I dont see any parades listed on the calendar during that time in either park. Are there no parades at all anymore? Not even in the afternoon?
And I also saw that the "Mainstreet Vehicles" are down. Does that included the horse-drawn vehicles, and is mainstreet all boarded up too?

I was wanting to bring my mom on this trip since my dad passed away a week before Christmas and he's the one who introduced her to WDW (they went there for their honeymoon) and subsequetly turned all of us into disney fanatics. She hasn't been to DL or WDW since we were kids but since I'm not goong back to WDW for a whole I thought I would bring her to DL and she can see how much it's changed as well as ride my dad's favorite ride (POTC).

But I dont want her first trip back in over 20 years to be a bunch of ugly boarded up areas and closed rides so I'm wondering if I should just wait to take her with us until I head back to WDW?

And as far as the kids, I could still take them but I'd just like a heads up from anyone that's been there lately on what the experience is gonna be with all the renovations...

I know I COULD just wait until the Summer when I have another month off and hopefully the Pixar construction will be complete but...c'mon I don't want to wait any more than the kids do hahaha And its bad enough I can't go to WDW.
But if its going to be really bad and too many things are closed down so that it's not worth spending the money, I might do just that.

 

[dina444444]

There are walls up all over Disneyland right now as well. In California Adventure it’s all at the back of the park. In Disneyland they are replacing all of the trolley track so the hub, town square, and on the trolley track on Main Street are boarded up. During this time there are no parades or fireworks at Disneyland. Fantasmic is playing nightly. Also at Disneyland dumbo is moving it’s queue and being repainted so there are walls there as well. Small world also has walls near it as they are moving it’s queue and the parade gate to backstage. The ride is open while this is going on. DCA hasn’t had a daytime parade in months as they closed Pixar a while ago for the move over to Disneyland. PTN will be at DCA starting mid April.

 

[sherilaine]

DCA is going to be boarded up for awhile - as that construction is said to be finished this summer.

DLR though, while boarded up right now, appears to have the main street vehicles back in business as of March 15th - so if you are there during that time the end of your trip should see Main street and the hub back to normal.

This has been discussed quite a bit recently - this post contains many pictures from bad to progressively worse - so you might want to have a look:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/first-week-of-paradise-pier-and-main-street-closures.3657361/

 

[baozi]

All the following is regarding Toystory Mania
Yes it is open. I was at the park yesterday and the standby wait time was very reasonable. Fastpass was hard to get though. On 10:00am, I got fastpass for 11:00am; on 12:00pm, I got another one for 5:30pm, and that's it for the day. However, throughout the day, the standby wait time was between 10 and 45 minutes most of the time.
I somehow feel that due to the construction, the crowd becomes better for this attraction, and maybe for the entire park.

 

[dina444444]

All the following is regarding Toystory Mania
Yes it is open. I was at the park yesterday and the standby wait time was very reasonable. Fastpass was hard to get though. On 10:00am, I got fastpass for 11:00am; on 12:00pm, I got another one for 5:30pm, and that's it for the day. However, throughout the day, the standby wait time was between 10 and 45 minutes most of the time.
I somehow feel that due to the construction, the crowd becomes better for this attraction, and maybe for the entire park.

And for people that are doing paper FPs. The distrubution for TSM is next to the WOC distrubution on the side of Little Mermiad.

 

[azdisneylover]

I would suggest waiting until summer. This way, many rides and attractions that are down now, will be open. The parks will be open longer, and if you decide to stay onsite, MM/EE will make a big difference to your days. Park hopper tickets would be a good idea.

 

[Dionnemay]

Yikes! Saw the pics - ugh. Well, it won't be the first time I've had to walk through boarded up walkways - Did at WDW when they were building Pandora and at Disney Springs when they were expanding. But at least at WDW you could go to other parks and get away from it. I think I might trrryyyy to wait until Summer but ... So ready for a Disney vacay

 

[agamble]

We were just at DCA on a Thursday late January. It was a great day to be at the parks. The walls at DCA were much less annoying than the ones at DL and now the ones at DL stretch all of Main Street whereas when we visited it was just the two ends. The DCA closures are just Screamin (boo) and Mickey's Wheel (ehh) plus the shops and games. It isn't so bad and it wasn't crowded at that park compared to DL which had way more people every where even on midweek late January.

If it was me I'd force myself to wait until Summer. Crowds won't be so great in March with spring break season and there will still be so many rides closed. If you go in late June or sometime in July the rides will all be open and there will be parades and fireworks. Then you could take your mother too.

 

[sherilaine]

I know it looks bad but we were talking about how little time we actually spend on Main Street other than getting into/out of the park and maybe doing some shopping. Our dates can't change due to other reasons, so we either go beginning of March or we wait until next spring. So we are just going to try to make the most of it - it's not like this is our first trip and we want it to be all magical - it's our 5th time since our first visit in 2012. It'll be weird though I am sure. My only wish would be that a lot of people put off their trip or decide not to go when it's like this and we have a less crowded park - but I am dreaming as I am sure other than locals, most of the people visiting will find out about the walls when they see them and not ahead of time. This forum certainly helps one be prepared!!

 

[wingednike]

I say go anyway with your mom and kids. There's never a perfect time to go but spending time together might be nice. Or, go to the King Tut exhibit that opens in LA in March and get your Disney fix by going to the El Capitan Theater

 

[HuskyGal]

We are here now and other things have made up for it for me, although they cost more money, like paying for a better hotel, paying for maxpass and paying for one of the Fantasmic dining packages. So Disney kind of got me there. If we were using the old paper fp system, we would have been miserable for sure. I would go and fit maxpass into your budget. Your teenagers can double and triple their other favorite rides. Mom can still take a pics at the Mickey flower head and in front of the castle. Maybe you and your mom can do the Disneyland Hotel afternoon tea together (I haven’t done it but we have Res for Friday).

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I would wait until summer. At least in summer there will be longer hours, more staffing, new fireworks at DL, PTN at DCA, walls down for most of DL (SWL doesn't really count -- those walls don't really get in the way) and hopefully DCA. Maybe you could book the WOC Dessert Party with your mom -- that would be something special!