It's the "offseason"!

[lark]

Just got back. We had a great time, but I noticed something interesting. Apparently, the first Monday after New Years marks the beginning of the "offseason," when most of the holiday stuff is over, major renovations are scheduled, park hours are limited, as is the in park entertainment.

We knew this was happening. Indeed, it's one of the reasons we picked this time of year to go. And, for the most part, crowds on Monday and Tuesday were considerably less than they had been the prior days, some of which were completely and overwhelmingly claustrophobia inducing. But what we hadn't really heard before was the terms "offseason," at least as it was used by about a dozen or more cast members that we encountered on Monday and Tuesday (which, although reduced in crowd size, were still somewhat busy.) The word "offseason" almost invariably preceeded the cast member telling us something that would stink.

For example, Me: "Why are there no fastpasses today on any rides except Splash Mountain." CM: "It's the offseason, and standby lines are not expected to be long." Me: "But, it's 30 minutes right now for Big Thunder Railroad. With short park hours, fastpasses would be nice." CM: "But it's the offseason!"

Or, while waiting in a very long line to board the disney railroad. Me: "Seems like a very long time between trains." CM: "Yes, it's the offseason, so we only run two of them." Me: "But I just heard a guy say he's waited through 4 trains and they are very infrequent, and this line looks very long." CM: "It's the offseason!"

Or, after waiting in a line of about 10 people to get popcorn. Me: "Seems like many of the snack stands are closed down." CM: "Yup, it's the offseason!"

Just sort of trying to be funny, but it really was startling how many times the word "offseason" seemed to be uttered by CMs starting on Monday. I think maybe they look forward to it, or something, and so when it finally gets there, they talk about it alot, even if the evidence is to the contrary.

My hunch is that in the next couple of days or so, attendance really will dip down pretty low, but I think in those immediate days right after the holidays, it's almost a double whammy -- school is still out for some schools for a couple of days, or the Rose Bowl crowds are still around, and black out dates for APs have lifted, so while the park hours and attitudes are in the "offseason," the crowds are not quite there. To be frank, I actually enjoyed the massive crowd days just a few days earlier a bit more than this shoulder "offseason" period.

 

[goldies 5]

I just wanted to say I really enjoyed your post. I guess the off-season is the luck of the draw anymore.

 

[blackjackdelta]

Thanks, I find this an interesting observation.

Jack

 

[carebee21]

Thanks for posting that. We're leaving tomorrow and will be there thru Tuesday. I didn't realize that there would be no fast passes.

 

[lark]

Thanks for posting that. We're leaving tomorrow and will be there thru Tuesday. I didn't realize that there would be no fast passes.

Your mileage may vary. It's hard to get a sense of these things sometimes and why they do what they do. I'm sure there will be fastpasses on the weekend. As for the other days, if they don't have them, it probably will be because they don't need them. Maybe the national championship game will lead to some crowds, but I think you'll be fine. My post was a bit tounge in cheek -- the reality was that many rides had short waits. Not all, though. I think it was just this immediate post-holiday period where they were already in "offseason" mode mentally but weren't quite there yet in reality. The main tradeoff is the lack of entertainment like Alladin and fireworks and parades and stuff.

On Monday, we were at CA mostly. They were giving out fastpasses for Soarin, but they really weren't being utlitized that much. The standby line was 40 minutes at one point at about 3:10, but fastpasses with a return time of 3:50 were available. I wanted to shout, "hey, why don't you guys just get fastpasses and have a nice snack or something and come bact at 3:50!" No fastpasses on Mullholland, at least not when we were there, but the standby line was 30 minutes. Screamin' had fastpasses available all day that day, I think. Grizzly River Rapids is closed. It looked drained so it should be closed for a while. TSM was pretty easy to walk on at rope drop, and then we rode a second time at 10:10 with about a 20 minute wait. Looked like about a 40 minute wait or longer during other parts of the day, which was alot better than 120 minutes the weekend before.

Some of the MK rides had fastpasses on Tuesday. Splash definitely did all day, even though the standby lines were 40-60 minutes during the day. None for Buzz (we waited 20 mins in standby), Autopia (which had medium lines and ultimately broke down and was closed for much of the afternoon), or Big Thunder (which also was closed for much of the morning and had 30 minute lines much of the day despite no fastpasses). I can't say for sure about the other rides -- I think lines were decent all day for Space Mountain. Haunted Mansion is out of service. Peter Pan lines looked long all day. No line for small world most of the day even though it was still in holiday mode (they didn't advertise that and in fact the web site suggested the holiday small world will be over on Jan. 3; just to give you a sense, on Sunday the waits were as much as an hour just before and after the Christmas Parade, with the overflow line area that almost never gets used full to nearly capacity. We waited in the long line because we thought it was our only chance to see holiday small world).

The entire waterfront area is closed down and boarded up, which congests that area a bit because the fence extends out from the waterfront a way, but with no fantasmic or Princess and Frog riverboat show, that area was pretty manageable.

 

[MAH4546]

It's not really the "off season" this year because of the way that Christmas and New Year's bordered the weekend this year, combined with Three King's Day (a major celebration for Latinos in LA), so LA County public schools are still off this week. Combine that with Rose Bowl crowds.

The real off-season starts this coming Monday - Disneyland poorly prepared for this week.

 

[Eeee-va]

Your post made me laugh...it reminded me a little of the quote from Futurama, "No one in New York drove. There was too much traffic." Bit of a paradox, that the lines are so long because it's a time when no one visits.

I'd bet that Space Mountain had FPs--there's always a line!--but I know Big Thunder Mountain often doesn't. Sorry your trip was during the busy off-season. But at least you got your own running gag.

 

[Disney Dreams]

I realize you are addressing you experience with humor and for that I applaud you. It sounds like overall you had a good trip - YAY! I just thought for the benefit of others, I could offer a comment.

...For example, Me: "Why are there no fastpasses today on any rides except Splash Mountain." CM: "It's the offseason, and standby lines are not expected to be long." Me: "But, it's 30 minutes right now for Big Thunder Railroad. With short park hours, fastpasses would be nice."
From Disneyland's perspective, as I have had many CMs explain to me, 30 minutes is not seen as a long wait. While the desire for guests is to have no waits at all, the desire for Disney is to operate at a balance of cost vs. guest experience. There is a point that is viewed as an acceptable wait time to not add the cost of additional people working. Finding this balance is the key.

To be frank, I actually enjoyed the massive crowd days just a few days earlier a bit more than this shoulder "offseason" period.

Interesting observation. It is always a balance between, going when everything is runnning and the entire world is there with you to enjoy it vs. going when there are (in theory) less crowds, but less offering because of the - offseas.... well, you know.

- Dreams

 

[HydroGuy]

From Disneyland's perspective, as I have had many CMs explain to me, 30 minutes is not seen as a long wait. While the desire for guests is to have no waits at all, the desire for Disney is to operate at a balance of cost vs. guest experience. There is a point that is viewed as an acceptable wait time to not add the cost of additional people working. Finding this balance is the key.

And add to that that FPs do not mean "you get to get right on the ride". They often mean a 15 minute wait. So the time for a guest to go to the attraction, get a FP, go somewhere else, and then come back and use the FP, and still wait in line for awhile, can approach 30 minutes.

For example, using FP at Indy seems to still require a 15 minute wait in line where you have to watch the movie every time. The Space FP seems to be about 15 minutes too. Splash is usually a little closer to 10 and sometimes only five minutes. BTMRR is usually only 5 minutes with FP. Autopia is over 20 minutes. RR is just a couple minutes.

At DCA, Soarin is still a 15-20 minute wait with FP. GRR is usually only 5 minutes. Screamin is 5-10 minutes. ToT is 15-20 minutes.

So a 30 minute standby line, in the end, is not that much faster getting and using FP.

 

[MagicalMomAZ]

Ooooh...I'm going to use that from now on!

DH:Honey, why isn't dinner ready?

Me:It's the off season.

DC:Mom, did you wash my socks?

Me:It's the off season.

 

[imjen]

LOL MagicalMomAZ. I love that!

OP, great post. I didn't realize it was still fairly crowded this week. But you had a great attitude!

 

[DonaldDaisyDani]

I think it migth also stem from the fact that the way CMs are scheduled changes so much during the "off season".

 

[lark]

It sounds like overall you had a good trip - YAY!

It really was great. Beats work, that's for sure.

In some senses, it was a nice balance. On the new years' weekend, though crowds were large, we got to take advantage of the high season stuff, like the electrical parade and the Christmas parade, fireworks, frequent shows, and extended park hours. It was crazy clautrophobic at times and a bit overwhelming to get food and stuff. But then during the "offseason," we got to ride more. I was just sort of hoping for one of those, extremely rare and maybe even nonexistant days where you can just walk on rides. Didn't happen that way, but still it was a good balance.

Sunday Jan 3 was a very interesting day. It was the last day of the holiday stuff (although some of it wasn't taken down right away), but also the first day post-holiday that the deluxe AP blackout was lifted. Waiting at the turnstyles to get in, I was sort of keeping track around me of what kinds of tickets people have -- everyone had APs. I don't think I saw more than a couple of people with regular hoppers. Maybe my imagination, but the park felt a bit different that day too -- the crowd definitely had a lot of "regulars" in the sense that people were (looking for some nice ways to say it) determined to get where they were going in a somewhat aggressive fashion. (Whew, I avoided saying "pushy"!) That was probably the most unfun day -- if I had it to do over again, I think DCA would have been better that day.

But all in all, it was a really nice trip and a good time of year to go.

 

[DonaldDaisyDani]

You are right about lark about the crowds being a certian way at certain times. That is one things that fascinates me about Disneyland vs. WDW. It is a TOTALLY different park on the weekends vs. the weekdays. The guests are so different on the weekends at DL and how the hours and entertainment change on the weekends, it was a culture shock for me during my first trip there.

 

[LavenderPeach]

I thought about this thread this afternoon as DS and I waited for 30+ minutes for the monorail. Normally we don't bother with the monorail since it usually isn't the fastest way into the park but i thought it would be okay since it was thursday and not even noon yet. As we were waiting they kept announcing that only one monorail was running so it was going to take awhile and i thought to myself "yup, it's the offseason!".

 

[oscarkitty1]

I totally know what you mean! When we first start planning DLR trips - I did my research and chose to go in the off season. Our first year we went in October (it was completley dead then but those days are gone!) and then we went back a few months later in January. Both trips were very low crowds.

On that January trip, we had discovered the AP rate for GCH so we bought APs for the first time. Flash forward to August, when I had a business trip to LA so we decided to spend the weekend at DLR, knowing it was summer season and would be very crowded. Imagine our suprise when we found the standby times weren't much (or even at all) longer than they were in January! That's because they had all the boats going on pirates, and all the logs on Splash Mountain, and all the trains on Big Thunder!!! Now rides like Peter Pan and Finding Nemo obviously were harder to do, but that's where getting there at opening pays off.

So now we never shy away from going in the busy season, knowing we will get to ride almost as many rides as in the off-season. If I had a child in a stroller I would go in the off-season, just because I wouldn't want to navigate the crowds in high season with a stroller (and I feel for those of you who do!).

Glad you had a great trip! We missed Disneyland at Christmastime this year, can't wait to see it again in 2010!