Is Saturday now the day to go to DLR?

[sheetz]

Conventional wisdom says that when weekdays are more crowded the attendance is comprised mostly of tourists (tourists generally travel over the weekends), whereas when weekends are more crowded attendance is primarily local (locals go to work on the weekdays).

 

[rtfelt]

Sundays are always more crowded than Saturdays. Except when the Sunday is followed by a Monday which is the 2nd or 3rd Monday of the month. In that case the Monday is even more crowded. Except when there are five Mondays in that month. Then it is Saturday which is more crowded. Except during months when there is a full moon during the first two weeks of the month. That would then have Thursdays and Fridays being more crowded. This goes for every month that has 31 days in it.

Now for the months with 30 days or less in them...

If I could just have every AP let me know when they are or are not going to be at DLR, that would be so helpful. I would then know when to go

Only half??? That's huge! Can you imagine taking an average, or busy, park day and removing half the crowd? That would make a gigantic impact. If these figures and estimates are anywhere close to accurate, then it's no wonder that Saturdays are looking really good.

I said "only" half because I had heard that 70-85% of guests on average were AP. 50% is much less.

 

[dnamertz]

ROTFLMAO!!!!!! Thank you! Some of these post get way too serious!

Disney planning is some serious business.

I love numbers, statistics, and all things Disney...so I could have gone on much longer with my analysis but I didn't want to bore everyone (but I probably did that anyway).

 

[pinksand]

rtfelt, you are absolutely right and I have noticed the exact same crowd levels. I've been trying to get my friends to join us for a Saturday, but they're holding to the conventional wisdom that the weekends are the busiest days of the week. I keep trying to convince them that on DAP blackout days, that's not at all true. It's actually quite pleasant.

The Annual Passholder program has really had a HUGE effect on attendance patterns, and it's very noticeable when large numbers are blocked or not blocked. It's become my go-to measure, the first thing I check when planning a weekend visit in particular.

Despite these numbers, weekdays can still have some very low crowds (in my limited experience). We were at DLR last November on Tues through Fri the week before Thanksgiving and other than waiting 40 minutes to see Mickey in TT, and 20 to 25 minutes for Peter Pan and TSMM, most rides were 5 to 10 minute waits...except for late Friday when the crowds started to pour in. I don't know how this compares to previous years, but it wasn't bad.

Yep, for your standard, non-summer, non-holiday or spring-breaktime weekdays, those are still (usually) light crowds. From my personal experience, the week before Thanksgiving is one of the lightest weeks of the year.

 

[sheetz]

I also believe locals have been trained to wait for the off-season discount tickets. There seems to be this widespread belief that locals have an undying need to hit the newest attractions the minute they're open, but the truth is that only applies to the APers. Casual visitors are more than willing to wait a few months if it could mean shorter lines and saving hundreds of dollars on admission.

 

[quantumottle]

Well, another Saturday has just passed. How was it? Were you there at DL or DCA yesterday? We know Carsland was insane, and probably will be for a while, but what about the rest of the DLR.

The title of this thread is: Is Saturday now the day to go to DLR?.

Has there been a paradigm shift in park planning? Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[rtfelt]

I also believe locals have been trained to wait for the off-season discount tickets. There seems to be this widespread belief that locals have an undying need to hit the newest attractions the minute they're open, but the truth is that only applies to the APers. Casual visitors are more than willing to wait a few months if it could mean shorter lines and saving hundreds of dollars on admission.

I think you are absolutely right. The rush to see the newest and greatest among locals is ONLY for APers. The rest of the non-Disney freak locals wait to get the local discounts--mid January through May.

I'd also like to get crowd reports for the weekends and weekdays now.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I totally agree with the OP. We went the first weekend in June. I made a mistake and didn't realize that DAP was blocked that Saturday. I bought blackout passes though. Saturday was wonderful! The only hiccup to a perfect day was the long lines at the entrance gates. There were many unhappy people that were turned away because their AP was blocked. This caused some delay through the turnsiles.

Sunday was busy, but Monday was insane! I would have thought it was going to be the opposite before experiencing it myself.

Saturday is the must-do day this summer.

 

[woody73]

Saturday is the must-do day this summer.

It looks like Saturday is the new Tuesday.

Woody

 

[2boysmom1998]

We went on Saturday, June 23rd. It was great! We were able to ride about 23 rides that day. My son rode RSR twice! There was only a 10 minute wait for Maters Jamboree. I have to say out of the five trips I have taken to DL & WDW that Saturday was the most pleasant I've had crowd wise. It was wonderful!

 

[Armadillo4]

Well, another Saturday has just passed. How was it? Were you there at DL or DCA yesterday? We know Carsland was insane, and probably will be for a while, but what about the rest of the DLR.

As a local with various out-of-town guests to entertain, I've been able to visit the parks for the past *three* Saturdays. The most recent Saturday, July 21, was the most crowded of the three--at least at DL. DCA felt the same. It still wasn't as bad as the Spring Break or Christmas-New Years crowds, but the previous two Saturdays (July 7 and 14) were more pleasant crowd-wise. Note: I rarely get to visit on a weekday due to my work schedule, so I can't compare how Saturday feels vs. the weekdays. But some of my subjective experiences from these Saturday trips:

• This most recent Saturday, crowds at DL were still fairly light in the morning. One could accomplish a lot before Noon. But by 1pm the walkways were notably more congested and wait times began to climb.
• I experienced slightly longer wait times at DL, this most recent Saturday, than the previous two Saturdays. Example: the Matterhorn had at least a 50 min. wait every time we checked this Saturday. In my previous two trips, I was able to ride the Matterhorn with 30 minute waits.
• To me, DCA has felt the same crowd-wise all three Saturdays that I've visited.
• As another posted wrote earlier, a sizable number of park goers, start their days at DCA and then parkhop to DL in the afternoon. When we were at DCA in the late afternoon/early evening, I was surprised by lower-than-expected wait times for some rides: e.g. both ToT and Soaring were at 30 minutes.

 

[sheetz]

I've been following the Touringplans Blog and according to their stats Tuesday was the busiest day and Friday the slowest this past week.
http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/22/last-week-at-disneyland-resort-7152012-7212012/#more-30053

The week before it was the same story, Tuesday was the busiest and Friday the slowest.
http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/16/last-week-at-disneyland-resort-772012-7142012/#more-29565

For the week of Independence Day Friday was busiest, but Wednesday July 4 was slowest.
http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/09/last-week-at-disneyland-resort-712012-772012/#more-29221

During the last week of June Tuesday was once again the busiest, with Saturday being the slowest.
http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/06/25/last-week-at-disneyland-resort-6172012-6232012/#more-28578

There seems to be a pattern emerging of Tuesday being the busiest and Friday or Saturday being the slowest, except for holiday weeks. But I'm not sure how TP assigns crowd values because Fridays are often more crowded in the evenings. Do they sample wait times at a particular time of day, say noon, and then figure the day's crowd based on that?

 

[jankat]

I was at DL last Thursday and Saturday, and our group felt that Saturday before noon was the least crowded. Thursday the park was packed with children from local day camps. We tried to eat lunch at Pizza Port, but the whole patio seating area by the walkway to SM was completely full, and they were eating in shifts! One group would leave, and another would come right in. Saturday morning was much more pleasant, although by mid-afternoon it felt busy again, and the evening was pretty packed.

 

[RaglanRoad]

you know I agree with the Saturdays. I went on Saturday 7/7 and there were minimal lines as far as I was concerned. It seemed hard to believe since it was Saturday after 4th of July holiday. I must admit I was really surprised and very happy I decided to go and use my ap. who knew!

 

[quantumottle]

Thank you very much for the information Armadillo4.

As a local with various out-of-town guests to entertain, I've been able to visit the parks for the past *three* Saturdays. The most recent Saturday, July 21, was the most crowded of the three--at least at DL. DCA felt the same. It still wasn't as bad as the Spring Break or Christmas-New Years crowds, but the previous two Saturdays (July 7 and 14) were more pleasant crowd-wise. Note: I rarely get to visit on a weekday due to my work schedule, so I can't compare how Saturday feels vs. the weekdays. But some of my subjective experiences from these Saturday trips:

• This most recent Saturday, crowds at DL were still fairly light in the morning. One could accomplish a lot before Noon. But by 1pm the walkways were notably more congested and wait times began to climb.
• I experienced slightly longer wait times at DL, this most recent Saturday, than the previous two Saturdays. Example: the Matterhorn had at least a 50 min. wait every time we checked this Saturday. In my previous two trips, I was able to ride the Matterhorn with 30 minute waits.
• To me, DCA has felt the same crowd-wise all three Saturdays that I've visited.
• As another posted wrote earlier, a sizable number of park goers, start their days at DCA and then parkhop to DL in the afternoon. When we were at DCA in the late afternoon/early evening, I was surprised by lower-than-expected wait times for some rides: e.g. both ToT and Soaring were at 30 minutes.

 

[sheetz]

Touringplans Blog weekly crowd update for the week of 7/22-7/28:
http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/07/30/last-week-at-disneyland-resort-7222012-7282012/

Slowest day of the week was Friday 7/27 and busiest was a tie between Tuesday and Thursday when DCA was at a 9.8 and DL a 9.7. Those numbers are the highest seen so far this summer.

 

[quantumottle]

Anyone want to report how the parks looked yesterday (Saturday the 4th)?

 

[NorthernCalMom]

We were there on August 4. Morning was very slow (it was also overcast at that time, so I'm not sure if that made a difference). Things kicked up later during the day, and by the early afternoon it was quite crowded.

 

[rtfelt]

Touringplans Blog weekly crowd update for the week of 7/29-8/4 shows Monday as quietest day and Sunday the busiest.

http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/08/06/last-week-at-disneyland-resort-7292012-842012/

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

Can we chat about this a little more now that we are into Halloween time? I am really curious for those who have been there recently, did you notice a difference between Saturday and Sunday crowds? Saturdays are generally always blockouts for aps, while Sundays are not, but I am wondering if it really matters in what is supposed to be the "slower" time of year?