Is September a good time to visit SoCal?

[BigDisneyOE]

We are looking at two weeks in SoCal in 2012. Orginally we'd planned for the first two weeks of October post DCL cruise but now we are thinking we may do the two middle weeks of September as there is a great deal on flights at that time from our home country. Is September a great time to visit Disneyland and San Diego? We'd probably spend a week in each area starting with San Diego. What are the crowds like and is there anything we need to be aware of at that time of year?

 

[PHXscuba]

As long as you are here after Labor Day (first Monday in Sept) the crowds go way down. School starts before or the day after Labor Day, so all of the children are back in school.

The weather is gorgeous year-round, IMO. The ocean temp won't change much; the air temp will be a little warmer than your original plan for October. If you are coming out of winter, you may feel the difference. There is less rain in Sept than Oct but still very little overall.

For Disneyland, there will likely be several rides closed for much of September. Take a look at this list from this year:

Disneyland Monorail – opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Friday until further notice. This shortened schedule is due to the Buena Vista Street construction in DCA. The monorail operates on a normal schedule on weekends.
Matterhorn Bobsleds – closed through September 1 for refurbishment.
Haunted Mansion – closed August 29 to September 15 for installation of the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay.
Pirates of the Caribbean – closed September 7 to November 23 for refurbishment.
Blue Bayou – closed September 7 to November 23 for refurbishment.
Space Mountain – closed September 9–15 for installation of the Ghost Galaxy overlay.
Mark Twain – closed September 26–28 for deck oiling.
California Screamin' – closed September 6 to October 14 for refurbishment.

While the list will change next year (and the DCA construction will be mercifully done), September is a prime month to refurb after summer season and before the holidays. They also close the rides for their Halloween overlays during part of this time. If there are absolute must-rides, your likelihood of finding them under reno goes up during Sept. The plus side is that the crowds should be smaller in Sept than in Oct. The only possible problem would be if the DCA renovations get way off track and they are still opening things in late summer -- could spike crowds.

Read HydroGuy's High/Low Season tradeoffs thread if you haven't already. October has rapidly become much more "high season."

As for the San Diego attractions, the off-season may mean shorter hours and closures, but not much difference between Sept and Oct overall.

PHXscuba

 

[BigDisneyOE]

Thanks PHXScuba - you always give great answers to my questions! We thought we'd got everything sorted out with dates and then our national carrier suddenly made an offer of 30% off flights to LA over Sept next year. Well that's a saving of one adult fare for us - too good to pass up.

We'd be arriving around the 8th of November, so it sounds like the local children will have started a new school term already. It will be a weather change for us as August this year was our coldest month and September is warming up but into double digits at that time (getting to around 13C in the day where we live).

The kids will really just want to do the littlie rides and are dying to see the new Cars part of the parks. Oh and they could ride the monorail ALL day and go home happy that they'd done Disneyland. Hubby wants to do all the more extreme rides but I can't see the kids and I waiting around while he does that to be honest - they've got short attention spans if there's nothing in it for them. I'm off to check out the link you've put on your answer now too.

We are tossing up doing a three day trip out to the Grand Canyon on the way from San Diego to OC. It's a long way to come without seeing the Grand Canyon but we wonder what the nearly five year olds will get out of the trip. I showed them some pictures but I don't think they 'get' the scale of it - one child commented that 'that's a really big hole in the ground'.

Can't wait to get over there. Last time I was at Disneyland George Bush Snr was riding on a float down Main Street on his campaign to be elected to President.... so I guess things might have changed a bit.

 

[PHXscuba]

So funny, my sister did a last-minute trip to NZ (north island) the end of August because they got an amazing airfare deal ($400 RT w/ all taxes included) through BIL's airline job. She said it was beautiful.

I honestly don't think you'll see a big enough difference between Sept and Oct to justify NOT coming when airfare is low.

As for the Grand Canyon, it's a lot of driving for what you'll be able to do. Probably 9 hours from SD to GC, then 8 hours back to Anaheim. Would you do much hiking? Having been there with smaller kids, unless you are going for some good long walks they will be bored with the "big hole" very quickly (and I always worried about them falling off cliffs). If you were going to Phoenix or Las Vegas it might be worth a few extra hours of driving, but those are two long days in the car.

PHXscuba

 

[BigDisneyOE]

So funny, my sister did a last-minute trip to NZ (north island) the end of August because they got an amazing airfare deal ($400 RT w/ all taxes included) through BIL's airline job. She said it was beautiful.

Wow that's some deal! Next time she gets a deal like that and if she's going near Wellington PM me and I'd love to meet her and show her around. NZ is beautiful but everywhere is completely different to everywhere else. We just don't have the population to warrant anything like an amusement park (there's Rainbows End, but I don't count it). The nearest proper parks are in Queensland, Australia. I'm over them completely - I want Disneyland!!

Our flight savings will be something like $2000 USD. Which is a lot, but it's still around $5100 for the four of us to get the LAX from AKL. I've got to pick up some flights WGN to AKL too. Not cheap, so I want to do it right. I'm plugging for at least 8th to 30th there, it's too expensive to shortcut a day.

I'm thinking it's a lot of driving to look at the GC. Maybe I can do it with my mate when we go back on a 'ladies only' holiday in 2013. Bus down overnight or something.

I'm really looking forward to hitting the shops. I've found a left luggage place near LAX so I can drop in all the extra cases before we board the Wonder, that way I don't have to worry about space in the cabin and can 'forget' I've already bought a ton of stuff when I get off at each stop. In between all the small boy stuff I've got to get some outlet shopping in!