Is there a quiet time to visit anymore?

[VandVsmama]

This year, I bet the month before Star Wars Land opens will be a good time to go.

In years past, we've often gone the week of Memorial Day. Skip Memorial Day in the parks but check into the hotel instead. And go to the parks Tues - Thurs or Tues - Fri of that week. We take advantage of EMH @ DL on that Tuesday and we always stay w/in walking distance of the park entrance, so that makes it super easy for us to be at the park entrance for rope drop.

It's pretty magical and very manageable all morning. The crowds start to show up around 11-11:30 am.

Somebody posted a great mini-trip report of their morning this past week @ DL. That person got an amazing amount of rides in before lunch time and that was even with Christmas week crowds. So it is doable!

 

[midnight star]

Did you go Halloween 2018?
For me, it was tough to get fastpasses for any of the rides because they were gone a little bit before evening. I was lucky to get any fastpasses at all. I never encountered this before when I went in January. However, it was great crowd-wise early in the day in the Halloweentime but got crowded by noon.

I'm a local AP. I had planned to go a lot more than I did, but seeing the crowds, and how parking was always a mess, I just didn't bother. I didn't go on actual Halloween day though.

Halloween Time gets more popular and more crowded every year as Disney gets better at decorating the parks and advertising the fun. We've visited during Halloween Time every year since it started and have been amazed at the increase in crowds during that time. This is why we have the Halloween Time Superthread on this forum every year to help DISers do their best planning, ask their questions, and get the most out of their Halloween Time trips. The experience and wisdom on that thread can really help make a Halloween Time/MHP trip better!

Very true! Halloween is a fun time. The hard part I found were the weekends. I can only go then, as I work during the weekdays. I think since there were parties throughout the week, and no nighttime entertainment because it is "off season", it pushed everyone to the weekends.

And yes those threads were very helpful. I went to a party in 2017 and 2018, and it helped be plan my time at the parties accordingly.Always read those super threads for special events and merchandise.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

We were just discussing on another thread that crowd levels are all about trade-offs.

My family travels to DLR in January or February. There are fewer visitors and cool weather, which is nice. (Though some would find the weather too cold.) However, park hours tend to be shorter, and the weather can tend toward rainy. There is less entertainment, especially parades and fireworks during the week. Rides are often down for scheduled refurbishments. And, if crowd predictions are low, staffing is lower and rides run at lower capacity.

At other times - such as school breaks and holidays - there are LOTS of visitors. But, park hours are nice and long, so you can go early and late to avoid the worst. There is a lot of entertainment, with parades and fireworks running nightly in many cases. Rides are running at full capacity, few scheduled refurbishments are taking place, and the parks are fully staffed.

All this to say: while there is a bit of an art to choosing a time that works for you, there are pros and cons to any time of year!

 

[DLgal]

Yes, there are still slow times. The two weeks before Christmas this year were very slow. September after labor day for 2 weeks is slow. The last three weeks in January (excluding holiday weekends) is slow. Right after Easter until memorial day is slow. July is slow, comparitively speaking, though this year all bets are off due to SWGE.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

No such thing anymore. Have a plan, have a backup plan, have a backup plan for that. have fun!

 

[Lauren in NC]

We visited the week before Thanksgiving this year - the Christmas stuff was already in full swing and it felt pretty manageable to us. Your best bet, no matter when you go, is to get there at rope drop and use FP/MP wisely. There's a few posts from folks who went between Christmas and NY's (one of the BUSIEST times of the year) and still got tons of things done because they got there early and had a plan.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Yes, there are still slow times. The two weeks before Christmas this year were very slow. September after labor day for 2 weeks is slow. The last three weeks in January (excluding holiday weekends) is slow. Right after Easter until memorial day is slow. July is slow, comparitively speaking, though this year all bets are off due to SWGE.

Eh, even the times you mentioned aren’t totally reliable. The end of January in 2017 (or maybe 2016?) had some of the absolute worst crowds I’ve ever seen (largely because of how they’d arranged CM sign-ins, which were all about to expire). My sister actually didn’t renew her pass for awhile because she was so burned by that day, which was a January 20-something date. It was pretty miserable, and as mentioned by others here, worse because of how unexpected it was.

 

[skippytx]

Go whenever the annual passholders on the lower tier passes are blocked out. We went last year for MLK weekend and had a great time, and it wasn't insanely busy. With MaxPass we rode something ridiculous like 32 rides one day. The Tuesday though the local passholders were no longer blocked out and the crowds went nuts. Big difference in crowd levels.

 

[lildreamer101]

What are the park hours normally in January? I remember them closing at 11pm, as opposed to 6pm or 8pm in late October.

 

[lildreamer101]

I'm a local AP. I had planned to go a lot more than I did, but seeing the crowds, and how parking was always a mess, I just didn't bother. I didn't go on actual Halloween day though.


Very true! Halloween is a fun time. The hard part I found were the weekends. I can only go then, as I work during the weekdays. I think since there were parties throughout the week, and no nighttime entertainment because it is "off season", it pushed everyone to the weekends.

And yes those threads were very helpful. I went to a party in 2017 and 2018, and it helped be plan my time at the parties accordingly.Always read those super threads for special events and merchandise.

I was going to go to DLR on Halloween Day but, I didn't have a special event park ticket for that day. I also figured it would be super crowded over there as well. Instead, I opted to go to DCA which was okay crowd-wise, I got to do whatever I wanted somewhat. I think a lot of people moved over there to avoid the crowded party. It was crazy crowded at the party on the Monday of that week. I don't know if people planned out what to do that evening because I saw a lot of people wandering around. I thought they were zombies, lol.

 

[Geemo]

I’m sure this has been covered somewhere but I can’t find what I’m looking for so thought I would ask . I know a quiet time is all relevant but we can visit anytime we choose so was hoping some might have input into quieter times. We would love to visit while decorations are up as well...is there a quiet time during the holidays? Thanks for your help

You can review the information in this thread below. It might help you pick a time you feel would be best.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/2019-calendar-of-events-school-breaks-and-dlr.3708938/

 

[MonocularVision]

We went around a week before Christmas 2017 and the park was supposed to be closing at 10pm. Well, it was so incredibly packed that they extended it to 11pm for that day and then in the following days bumped the rest of the week from 10pm to midnight. Could not believe how crowded it was.

This year, same days (with extended hours 8a-midnight) and it was some of the least busy days we felt all year of our APs.

Really hard to predict what is going to happen at DL now.

 

[Mama_Cass]

Thanks for the replies. Lots of good info here. Unfortunately I thought the answer would be there are no more quiet times lol. We started going 2-3 times a year ten years ago (from Toronto) and it used to be so so quiet...quite different now