Jan. 4-6 How busy?

[RKKUNK]

Do you think it will be busy and how booked do you think the DLH will be? TIA!

 

[tlovesdis]

Yes it will be busy! It's the end of the holiday season and several things go down Jan 10th either for a long period or forever. The DLH may already be booked solid for those days. I would check right away!

 

[figment_jii]

The holiday season AP blockouts end on Sun (Deluxe) and Mon (SoCal and SoCal Select), so I would anticipate high(ish) crowds as those AP holders return to the parks for the first time since mid-December and for one last look at the holiday offerings before the end on the 6th. I would also anticipate day guests because several school districts are also still out during those dates. All-in-all, given how the crowds have been this year since the start of the 60th Anniversary Celebration, I would expect to see high crowds during that time period.

 

[DLfan4]

what date in january would you expect the high crowds to slow? january 7th? or not until january 11? or??

 

[SMD]

what date in january would you expect the high crowds to slow? january 7th? or not until january 11? or??

The Wednesday after MLK weekend. Unless Season of the Force is very popular and they announce it will end that week.

 

[figment_jii]

I generally agree that there probably won't be much of a slow down in crowds until after MLK. I would expect crowds to remain high though at least the 10th as guests come in to see Fantasmic, the Rivers of America area, and the train one last time before they close for at least a year and come in to see Big Thunder Ranch, Big Thunder BBQ, and the Aladdin musical for the last time. There might be a slight reprieve in crowds from Mon to Wed (11th through 13th), but then crowds will ramp back up for the Star Wars Marathon weekend and MLK. After those crowds dissipate, there will probably be a drop in the weekday crowds unless they either announce an end date for Season of the Force/Hyperspace Mtn or some other special event/promotion.

 

[calilou]

We were there that time last year and it was extremely busy. I think a lot of schools are out that week still and a lot of locals visit. I would expect it to be even busier this year because it's been just busier this year. We stayed at the Grand and it seemed very full. I would expect similar with DLH. We still had a great trip and were very pleased to continue our Christmas celebrating at DL.

 

[lvdis]

We will be there for 4 full days Jan 4 - 7 (and a partial evening on 1/3) and I'm a little concerned about the crowds.

Sunday and Monday both have early entry days at both parks at 7am. We are staying offsite, so I will try to make my family get up for the 7am early entry at DL Monday. Then try to take advantage of non-early entry at DCA on Tues when others will hopefully be going to DL for early entry. Do you think that is a good plan?

Also, will the Disneyland hotels still be in full holiday mode through the 6th?

 

[starshine514]

W
Sunday and Monday both have early entry days at both parks at 7am.

Ugh! I hadn't realized that! We bought Deluxe APs and activated them on January 4th this last year, planning on visiting Jan 1-4 in 2016. Then, they released the blockout dates - first time I'd ever seen blockout dates in January (1-2 are blocked out). We finally decided to just go for the 2 days (January 3-4) and now both parks are going to be crowded before we're allowed in, both days. Boo!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I expect it to be extremely busy through the 10th, and again for MLK's weekend.

 

[lvdis]

Any thoughts to if it will be possible closed due to capacity type crowds (Jan 4 - 7)?

 

[figment_jii]

If this had been a "normal" year, I would say that it's probably unlikely because most of the capacity closures seem to happen in the week between Christmas and New Year. However, given how busy things have been this year since the start of the 60th Anniversary Celebration, it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at any point during the Holiday season (especially after the AP blockouts end and before the Holiday season concludes).

 

[lvdis]

If this had been a "normal" year, I would say that it's probably unlikely because most of the capacity closures seem to happen in the week between Christmas and New Year. However, given how busy things have been this year since the start of the 60th Anniversary Celebration, it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at any point during the Holiday season (especially after the AP blockouts end and before the Holiday season concludes).

Yikes! Not what I was hoping to hear! I wonder if we need to limit our park hopping the first couple of days? I was actually thinking about taking midday breaks back at the hotel (offsite across the street) this time too, but may have to rethink that.

Thanks for sharing your take on it, even if it isn't good news!

 

[figment_jii]

I would follow Disneyland Today on Twitter. While they don't always post information, they do occasional post information about whether there are restrictions on parking (usually the first sign that crowds are getting very large). For the most part, I wouldn't really change my touring plan and I would still park hop if that's what I had planned. I think we might get a sense of how busy things are next week and use that as a guide (both in terms of what kind of information is released and how long the closures last). While closures might happen the week after New Years, in general, I don't think you're going to see closures that spanned multiple hours, so it might not be something that most guests are even aware of as they happen.