How crowded do the onsite hotel pools get when it's busy?

Angrose

DIS Veteran
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Feb 12, 2014
Messages
2,152
Call me crazy, but not only are we going on Memorial Day weekend, but I'm now considering staying onsite, most likely at the DLH. I'm a sucker for the pools there, but I'm worried about them being super crowded during the busy holiday weekend. Would we need to worry about not being able to get into the pools if they are too busy? Do they ever reach capacity? Would it be impossible to find a lounge chair if we got there around 1-2pm each day?

We are already booked at Hojo for the weekend, but I keep dreaming about the tropical setting and magic of those DLH hotel pools! I think I'm ruined for life :)
 
So super busy that as a measure of security and for safety purposes, Trader Sam and some of his most loyal villagers patrol at high peak tourista times the pools on-site. So, if any one starts to act up or if the pools become so crowded that it looks like a sea of humanity has just flooded the water, they will go into action, by implementing their sharp head hunting techniques. When that happens, the pool will become like a ghost town real fast, leaving only the fastest and bravest swimmers in the pool, hiding momentarily. In the meantime, don't worry, only the slowest swimmers end up helping in the making of Sam's special stew. :)
 
Yes the pool at DLH can get busy busy midday during peak season. I've stayed at DLH maybe 6 or 7 times now and almost all of those visits were in July and August which means heavy midday pool usage. Large crowds at the pool result in looooong lines for the water slides and very few (if any) chairs or loungers open. Two ways to combat those obstacles....You can either get down to the pool earlier than midday and get the loungers you want and just hang out there most of the day (and slide the slides early). Or go down to the pools midday but don't expect to get a chair. I've done that a number of times with my kids and husband. We do not bring anything with us except our room key which I zip into a little pocket in my husband's bathing suit shorts. Then we just swim and have fun, and then get out, grab a towel and go back up to the room. No matter how crowded it is, I have never experienced them cutting off access to the pools themselves. There are several of pools at DLH and they seem to absorb a mob just fine.
 

If you can afford it, rent a cabana. It really makes a difference on those crowded days just to have a spot of your own to get away from it all for a while. And there's shade. :)
 
Crowded! We were at the Grand in September (when it was 100 every day) and we went to the pool on three different days and could never get a chair. So we just swam for a bit and left. It was packed.
 
Crowded! We were at the Grand in September (when it was 100 every day) and we went to the pool on three different days and could never get a chair. So we just swam for a bit and left. It was packed.

are there any cabanas for rent at GCH?
 
Thank you everyone for your replies! In order to soften the blow on the budget, we have decided to do a split stay between Hojo and DLH and this way we can get a cabana at DLH for the day we check-in....YAY!! This is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and I thought a cabana would be a longshot, but I just called and was able to get one for that afternoon! It was $171.73 with tax. I am soooooo excited!!
 
One may always do what my Auntie Betty did once during her stay at the Disneyland Hotel. The pool was super crowded when she really wanted to go swimming one afternoon and it was in the middle of July, so hot hot and well more heat. She couldn't catch a break. She even tried to pay many of the other guests at the pool bribe money so they would free up the pool. Wouldn't ya know it each guest said to her how do you think we got our little place in the pool? And seeing how she couldn't pay them more, a light bulb went off! In her head that is! Lol not an actual bulb you see. So anyway, she thought of how much she loves the jungle cruise and how much fun it would be to commune with Bertha the elephant and her friends in the packaderm's self made pool area. So off she went, wearing her vintage style 1940's swimsuit, a smile a mile wide and with a young girl stride (See she was pushing 78) and an occasional skip and a hop, while heading on down to hop aboard one of the jungle boats, all the while swingin' her towel and her singing Old Man River. Man what a sight. As soon as the Skip headed toward the bathing elephants, there she went SPLASH! My auntie dove into those not so clear waters, looking a heck of a lot like Esther Williams, (What? Don't know her? For shame on you) anyway, the Skip, which by the way interestingly enough his name is Skip, so yes, Skip the Skip, anyway, Skip began to say to my auntie to get back into the boat or else! She didn't care. She was a splashin and a playing with the elephants and best as anyone could tell they were all having a grand old time. Especially Bertha with her new found although be it, human friend my Auntie Betty. Touristas were smiling and Laughin' while taking pictures and doing snapchat and IG. What a hoot, I tell ya, just simply a real well doggie! Like Jedd Clampett would say. :)
So Betty told Skip the skip to just continue on with his 3 hour tour and that she will catch the next boat. Which will be perfect timing because dusk will just be over the horizon, waiting to move into darkness.
 
We've tried to hang out at the pool mid-day and it was impossible. Every single chair was taken, as were all the cabanas. We left. It's packed.
 












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