Is July trip worth it?

[ahill004]

We were all ready to book and then we spoke to my brother-in-law who lives in LA. When he heard we were going to spend part of our CA trip at disneyland he recommended we skip it and do something else bc of the huge crowds in July. (He likes disneyland bt not the summer crowds - he has friends who work there and they say avoid those summer months). I'd researched on here about crowd level and I know it is going to be less than June because of AP blocks but still busy bc it is high season. I read a few trip reports from last July and people said by noon through closing DL was wall to wall with people.

We are used to traveling to DW in low season (sept) bc DH cannot stand crowds (and isn't a big disney fan - only way we can get him to tag along). The girls and I LOVE disney but maybe we should skip DL if the crowds are ridiculous? I don't want my DH miserable bc of the crowds and long waits when he has already agreed to a Disney World trip. We do have a disneyworld trip planned in September this year so we will get our disney fix. However, the girls (4 and 6) and I were soooo excited to see DL! Suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

If choosing an alternate time of year is a possibility and DH is that averse to crowds, then you could do some more research and pick a less busy time accepting that the trade-offs for lower crowds might be less entertainment and shorter park hours. If DH can cope with the crowds and you can come up with a plan together to balance park time with breaks (maybe for DH's comfort longer breaks than you might otherwise have planned for), high season can be manageable. The pay-off is the later park hours, the full entertainment schedule, and the likelihood that the fewest rides will be closed for refurbishment.

If you opt for high season, stay at a hotel close to the park. Get up early in the morning and be in line outside the gates by 7:30. Follow the advice on these boards or get RideMax to devise a couple of touring plans for your family. After three or four hours, crowds will start to pick up and temperatures will start to rise. Use that as break time to do whatever best refreshes your family (napping, swimming, enjoying a long meal in a restaurant, driving somewhere else entirely to get away from all that Disney for a while, whatever). If you and DH talk ahead and are comfortable with the following suggestion, then you might also want to try: If DH is ready for his break "too soon", suggest to him that he get a little downtime somewhere quieter, perhaps by the water at DL or in the GCH lounge, or even back in your hotel room; then meet up with him when you and the girls are ready for that break too. Once everyone's had some recharge time, return to the parks in the evening for shows and more rides (it's a good idea to collect and hold some fastpasses from earlier in the day for this).

 

[HydroGuy]

Look, most of the people who complain about summer crowds do all the wrong things. Want to have non-magical trip to DLR in the summer? Here is how:

o Stay at a hotel that is not close to DLR - that way you can waste time traveling back and forth

o Arrive late to the parks every day - that way you can show up when all the crowds and lines are getting worse

o Stay all afternoon when it is hottest and lines are longest - that will really drain your energy and make you irritable - no afternoon breaks!

o Don't bone up on how to tour - that way you can get in lines like Peter Pan mid-day and wait for 60 minutes for a 2 minutes ride

o Always eat your meals during peak times so that wait times for meals will be maximum

o Leave early evening because you are so tired and miss the nice, cool evenings with short lines for many of the rides

Do the above and you can indeed have a non-magical trip which seems way overcrowded.

However...

If you do smart things like get to the gates early, use Magic Mornings, Parkhop effectively, take afternoon breaks to nap and swim, etc., the crowds IMO are really not that bad. Very manageable. See "Getting The Most Out of a Summer Visit To DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1345319 Summer is our favorite time to visit DLR!

 

[Mugglemama]

Look, most of the people who complain about summer crowds do all the wrong things. Want to have non-magical trip to DLR in the summer? Here is how:

o Stay at a hotel that is not close to DLR - that way you can waste time traveling back and forth

o Arrive late to the parks every day - that way you can show up when all the crowds and lines are getting worse

o Stay all afternoon when it is hottest and lines are longest - that will really drain your energy and make you irritable - no afternoon breaks!

o Don't bone up on how to tour - that way you can get in lines like Peter Pan mid-day and wait for 60 minutes for a 2 minutes ride

o Always eat your meals during peak times so that wait times for meals will be maximum

o Leave early evening because you are so tired and miss the nice, cool evenings with short lines for many of the rides

Do the above and you can indeed have a non-magical trip which seems way overcrowded.

However...

If you do smart things like get to the gates early, use Magic Mornings, Parkhop effectively, take afternoon breaks to nap and swim, etc., the crowds IMO are really not that bad. Very manageable. See "Getting The Most Out of a Summer Visit To DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1345319 Summer is our favorite time to visit DLR!

I completely agree with HG! OP, when's the last time your BIL was actually at DLR in the Summer?

The last 2 trips we've taken to DLR, one was a 5 day trip in mid August '07, and the other was the last 2 days of September '08. The August trip was BY FAR a much better experience! Even though we had to take afternoon breaks and stick to our RideMax schedule, we had SO much more fun than the following year when we went in September. In September, the crowds were not light at all, and the hours were shorter, which meant that even though we'd gotten to the gates half an hour before opening, we couldn't leave for an afternoon break because the hours were so much shorter. I really felt like I'd wasted $ on that September trip, and was sorry we had done it.

This year we were planning a trip in May, but had to reschedule for July. I'm actually REALLY looking forward to it, crowds and all.

However, if you get to go to WDW in september anyway, and your DH hates crowds, then yes, you'd probably be better off just doing your WDW trip.

 

[S. S. Columbia]

I visited DL last year, in early July, and the crowds were not ridiculous.

I remember Splash Mtn having a 90 minute wait (in the standby line), but we used FastPass and only waited 5 or 10 minutes. I think Space Mtn had a 60 minute or 75 minute wait (in standby), but using FastPass our wait was about 15 minutes.

If you're staying on-site, then you can take advantage of the Magic Mornings. I really like Magic Mornings, but I'll admit the 7:00am start time is just-plain early. And the general advice is to arrive 30 minutes early, so we're talking about 6:30am.

IMO if you're willing to arrive early at the main entrance (30 minutes early is a good rule of thumb), and you know that FastPasses can be used after the one-hour return time, then I think that you'll be fine. My advice would be to have lunch no later than 11:30am, when there's still plenty of seats available. (You will have done so much in the morning, that you'll be ready for a relaxing lunch.)

The summer has long hours (8:00am to midnight), so it's a good idea to take a break in the afternoon, and then come back with FPs in your pocket -- a Pocket Full of Fun™.

Your 4- and 6-year-olds will really enjoy Fantasyland, and they will probably be able to ride Space Mtn, BTMRR, Star Tours, Matterhorn, Splash, etc.

HTH

 

[DizMe]

I went in July twice last summer--2 days for dd's birthday (July 13-14) and a couple of days the last week in July. I had a wonderful time in both cases and it was not uncomfortably crowded at all. In fact, the crowds were not as big as in Oct, when I make an annual trip around the middle-3rd week.

 

[Dobie]

The Dobies have only ever gone in the summer and it is a BLAST!!!!

Just be sure that you are there when the gates open, collect a lot of fastpasses for evening, do Fantasyland FIRST, and make dinner reservations and you will have a great time!!!!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

DD & I will be there for her B~day - 4th of July weekend!

 

[Mom2micayla]

I went in July twice last summer--2 days for dd's birthday (July 13-14) and a couple of days the last week in July. I had a wonderful time in both cases and it was not uncomfortably crowded at all.

We were there at the same time. My DD's birthday is July 13th. That was the first time I had done DLR in the summer with kids and I was surprised how totally doable it was. Obviously low crowd season is my preference, but I'd not skip the opportunity to do DLR in the summer if it came up. Just use the basic rules (stay close, FASTPASSES!!!, eat earlier/later, etc like Hydroguy says) and you'll have a great time!

 

[heatherleigh]

I'd go and use RideMax along w/ some of the other tips that were already mentioned.

 

[kkmcan]

Even if it's shorter hours we still take an afternoon break. If we don't by 5:30 or 6:00 we are plain worn out and done. So we break by 2:00 and come back to the park 4:30-5:ish and stay until 8pm closing.

I can't make it open to close even with short hours. Getting old, I guess.

 

[PHXscuba]

We're only going to have a day trip this summer, staying with family 45 minutes away. I still plan an afternoon break, but probably just at an air-conditioned restaurant in DL or DTD where we can relax for awhile. Is most everywhere open straight through between lunch and dinner?

Anyone with any good restaurants that will fill the bill for a family with 4 kids, 5-14?

PHXscuba

 

[ahill004]

Ok - I think have him convinced. I promised we would leave if gets too crowded. And my BIL has never been in the summer as far as I know. He told us his friends who work at DLR told him not to go during the summer!

Does anyone know if the crowds lighten up at night? I was thinking we would hit the parks early, then head back to the pools in the afternoon on a few days and on a few days we might head to some orange county beaches and then hit the parks after dinner a couple nights?

 

[tholczer]

The term "manageable crowds" is very subjective. Most people on the boards seem to use this in terms of wait times on rides (including me, mostly). So although you can manage the ride situation with fast pass and getting there early, skipping the afternoons and heading back in the evening, the crowds can still be crushing. Our family is crowd phobic (even though we're going in August the week the blockouts lift! Lord help me.) and so we generally go when it's slow, gladly giving up the extra hours and entertainment. So as one crowd phobic person to another (your DH), I understand.

I think the people here will always encourage you to go, because we love Disney! But honestly, if he's not even a Disney fan, I'm not sure I'd do that to him (since you already have a trip planned in Sept. especially). I guess it depends on how much of a roll-with-the-punches sort of guy he is.

Tracy

 

[HydroGuy]

The term "manageable crowds" is very subjective. Most people on the boards seem to use this in terms of wait times on rides (including me, mostly). So although you can manage the ride situation with fast pass and getting there early, skipping the afternoons and heading back in the evening, the crowds can still be crushing. Our family is crowd phobic (even though we're going in August the week the blockouts lift! Lord help me.) and so we generally go when it's slow, gladly giving up the extra hours and entertainment. So as one crowd phobic person to another (your DH), I understand.

I think the people here will always encourage you to go, because we love Disney! But honestly, if he's not even a Disney fan, I'm not sure I'd do that to him (since you already have a trip planned in Sept. especially). I guess it depends on how much of a roll-with-the-punches sort of guy he is.

Tracy

I agree. Mostly. It is subjective to some degree. And there is a big difference between "crowded" and "long lines". For me I do not mind crowds. But I do mind waiting in long lines. With the strategies we all have discussed one can work around crowds and not wait in long lines. We rarely wait for more than 20 minutes for anything in the summer.

Some people are really bothered by the crowds themselves. Even if they never wait in lines, the crowds are bothersome to them. That is not me.

The only time I have been in the summer and crowds have been what I would call "crushing" was in August 2005 during the DL 50th celebration and right after Space Mtn re-opened. It was pretty darn crowded then. In the several times we have been since then it has not been nearly as crowded. FWIW we had a blast in August 2005 despite the crowds.

HTH

 

[DizMe]

I'm not a crowd person. I put up with it to some extent when it's Disney, but I won't even stay at DL if the crowds are too heavy. In my experience last year, the July crowds were not oppressive at all. I didn't even think they were heavy. You could get around, shop in stores, buy things, eat, etc pretty easily. The crowds were much heavier when I went in Oct and Nov. I don't know whether or not last July was atypical, though, because I've skipped summer for the past several years because I'd heard it was so crowded!

 

[smiley_face2]

This year will be our 3rd July trip, one trip in August. We live in a very small town and my hubby is also very crowd intolerant. Following the tips here, get there early, eat about 11:30, get as many fast passes as u can for later ( you can use them anytime till park closing after the return time on them, u just can't use them before the time on them) then leave for a while, go swim in the pool, go to the beach, shop, then return later. And it seemed to me mon.-wed. were less crowded especially than the weekends! It's just amazing the change in the park right around 11 am. Typically we get on a ride, having been easily wandering around with plenty of room, and when we get off the ride, it's like where did all these people come from?? That's our cue to go eat (all those people are heading for rides not food cause they just got there!) and either leave or go to a show like alladin or the bugs or muppets movie etc. then get out of there for a while.