It's kind of awful this week.

[DnA2010]

We also got stuck on Screamin for over an hour on that trip. It was during that perfect time period where it was still early enough in the morning to be overcast. That changed 15 minutes into it and we were stuck on the ride in full sun with our sweatshirts on. My husband was in a boot and kept insisting they let us off and he would just take his time hobbling down the stairs. I’m not sure how they planned to evacuate him or why it took so long, but he finally convinced them to let us off and they helped him slowly walk down the stairs.

I was stuck on Indi on my last trip for almost an hour, and the tight seatbelt was starting to make me super stressed and anxious, I can't imagine how an hour with the Screamin restraints would be!

 

[Aurora0427]

I’ve been stuck in a boat on IASW at DLR for close to an hour. That was 10 years ago and my husband refuses to step foot on that ride to this day.

We got stuck on pirates once at WDW, and I almost peed in my pants. We were stuck for so long. They tried to hand me fast passes on the way out, and i just screamed “give them to my husband!”

It’s been almost ten years and I never get on pirates without going to the bathroom first. Sorry if TMI

 

[Jrog92]

Summer right now, until school is back and all magic keys are unblocked..... Sundays are less crowded than Saturdays at least from a "big ride" wait time standpoint.
Crowds also leave earlier on Sundays so you can almost walk on to the big rides in the last 2 hours.
Friday is actually the best time to go for ride wait times during this July- early Aug season.
I've checked my experiences with "wait time data mining" sites... and they match up pretty well.
The Crowd Calendar sites are much less accurate.

How is it in January? Would you still recommend Friday over Saturday? What About Sunday?

 

[wassily]

How is it in January? Would you still recommend Friday over Saturday? What About Sunday?

Too early to tell. Don't know what is happening with Magic Key Renewals. Then whether or not Disney will do offers like SoCal offers again.
The latest earnings call shows that Disney is tracking this and sees Disneyland Magic Key holders as not "more profitable" guests. With the current CEO at the helm, this may not be good news for Magic Key holders.

 

[Jrog92]

Too early to tell. Don't know what is happening with Magic Key Renewals. Then whether or not Disney will do offers like SoCal offers again.
The latest earnings call shows that Disney is tracking this and sees Disneyland Magic Key holders as not "more profitable" guests. With the current CEO at the helm, this may not be good news for Magic Key holders.

Interesting. The Magic Key calendar goes all the way to August 2023? Are you saying that Magic Key passes expire at the end of the year?

 

[DLgal]

Interesting. The Magic Key calendar goes all the way to August 2023? Are you saying that Magic Key passes expire at the end of the year?

No, Magic Keys went on sale last August 25. TONS of people bought them between then and about mid October, when Disney stopped selling certain ones. Then they stopped selling all of them. So, little by little, come August 25, a huge number of passes will expire and up to this point, Disney has been quiet about whether we will be able to renew or not. But if they don't, by January, there will be VERY FEW passholders left.

 

[Jrog92]

No, Magic Keys went on sale last August 25. TONS of people bought them between then and about mid October, when Disney stopped selling certain ones. Then they stopped selling all of them. So, little by little, come August 25, a huge number of passes will expire and up to this point, Disney has been quiet about whether we will be able to renew or not. But if they don't, by January, there will be VERY FEW passholders left.

So, what would that mean exactly? That weekdays might not be as horrible? But then of course they do the SoCal resident ticket offers (can those be predicted at all or are they released in time to avoid them?) a lot of the time in January. All speculation of course... I imagine there will be an uproar if annual passes aren't upheld though.

 

[wassily]

So, what would that mean exactly? That weekdays might not be as horrible? But then of course they do the SoCal resident ticket offers (can those be predicted at all or are they released in time to avoid them?) a lot of the time in January. All speculation of course... I imagine there will be an uproar if annual passes aren't upheld though.

It's honestly hard to tell without getting more clarity on what is going on with Annual Passholders... as the bulk of who visits Disneyland are annual passholders.
If Disney decides to scrap the Magic Key program... then all bets are off.
If Disney decides to limit the number of Annual Pass holders, then the question will be... what are they going to do with general ticket sales?
They haven't been that successful getting So Cal residents to buy full priced tickets.

Nothing really can be predicted this far out.
However, typically the first week of January is generally busy regardless of weekday or weekend. Then on top of that, this year, the College Football Championship is at the Rose Bowl this year, so that will add to tourists visiting... carrying crowd levels to the second week. Can depend on teams playing at the Rose Bowl in Week 1 and then what teams are playing in the Championship game.
If get like a team from colder Northern states, might see some heavier crowds.

 

[Jrog92]

It's honestly hard to tell without getting more clarity on what is going on with Annual Passholders... as the bulk of who visits Disneyland are annual passholders.
If Disney decides to scrap the Magic Key program... then all bets are off.
If Disney decides to limit the number of Annual Pass holders, then the question will be... what are they going to do with general ticket sales?
They haven't been that successful getting So Cal residents to buy full priced tickets.

Nothing really can be predicted this far out.
However, typically the first week of January is generally busy regardless of weekday or weekend. Then on top of that, this year, the College Football Championship is at the Rose Bowl this year, so that will add to tourists visiting... carrying crowd levels to the second week. Can depend on teams playing at the Rose Bowl in Week 1 and then what teams are playing in the Championship game.
If get like a team from colder Northern states, might see some heavier crowds.

We're planning on going at the end of the month, probably the 19th or later, do you think that will help avoid some of the crowd-pulling events of the month (i.e. the holiday layover and football championship people)? Seems like the Lunar New Year in Jan/Feb might be the calmest (compared to 3-day weekends, spring break, summer break, Halloween, and Christmas). I know nothing can be guaranteed, but when would you go?

 

[wassily]

Yeah, 3rd/4th week of January should be lighter for now.

 

[Jrog92]

It's honestly hard to tell without getting more clarity on what is going on with Annual Passholders... as the bulk of who visits Disneyland are annual passholders.
If Disney decides to scrap the Magic Key program... then all bets are off.
If Disney decides to limit the number of Annual Pass holders, then the question will be... what are they going to do with general ticket sales?
They haven't been that successful getting So Cal residents to buy full priced tickets.

Nothing really can be predicted this far out.
However, typically the first week of January is generally busy regardless of weekday or weekend. Then on top of that, this year, the College Football Championship is at the Rose Bowl this year, so that will add to tourists visiting... carrying crowd levels to the second week. Can depend on teams playing at the Rose Bowl in Week 1 and then what teams are playing in the Championship game.
If get like a team from colder Northern states, might see some heavier crowds.

Since Magic Keys are getting renewed, do you have any advice on which days to go? Looks like the Friday we'll be there will be open to Magic Key holders (unfortunately).

 

[DLgal]

Since Magic Keys are getting renewed, do you have any advice on which days to go? Looks like the Friday we'll be there will be open to Magic Key holders (unfortunately).

We still can't really offer much guidance because we don't know if Disney will offer the SO CAL resident 3 day special pass or make it a full CA resident offer (which opens up the pool).

My guess, at this point, is that they will repeat the same offer they have currently (the CA resident 3 day offer with either M-F or 7 day options). In this case, you'll see similar crowd patterns as you did over the summer. Monday-Thursday busier than Fri-Sun.

I'd still advocate going over the weekend.