June 2010 Trip Advice

[Timchat2]

I am planning a trip to Southern California with my brothers for this June. They have never been and this will be my first visit since 1996. After reading about the fairly recent impact of APs on crowd dynamics, along with June events like Grad Nite, I thought I would ask for input on which days we should visit the Disneyland Resort. We would probably spend about three days at DLR with at least one day for other SoCal attractions like Knott's Berry Farm.

Between June 13th and June 25th, which three days would be the best to visit Disneyland and California Adventure? I realize that there will be at least three Grad Nites during this time, which unfortunately coincide with part of the AP blackout dates. I am also concerned about how close these weeks are to the final dates before the big summer-long AP blackout. We were thinking that we could put our one non-Disney day in between somewhere to cover either a non-blackout date or a Grad Nite date.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. These boards have been tremendously helpful already! We are so grateful to everyone who contributes with such great information. Thanks in advance!

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

We are going during the same time span. Our first DL trip.

According to Hydroguy's guide, grad night doesn't affect daytime crowd levels, just park hours.

We are seasoned WDW vets who take advantage of getting to the parks early and using fastpasses. I am sure we will hit high crowd level days, but we will try to our best with our plans and go with the flow.

 

[Timchat2]

We are preparing ourselves for the possibility of going on the busier days, using FastPass and getting to the parks early like we do at WDW.

I would rather not go on the Grad Nite dates mostly because of the earlier closing time and the chance that we'll miss some nighttime entertainment.

On a semi-related note, has there been any word on whether World of Color (assuming it is open by then, depending on who you listen to) would run on nights when Disneyland closes for Grad Nite?

 

[HydroGuy]

We are preparing ourselves for the possibility of going on the busier days, using FastPass and getting to the parks early like we do at WDW.

I would rather not go on the Grad Nite dates mostly because of the earlier closing time and the chance that we'll miss some nighttime entertainment.

On a semi-related note, has there been any word on whether World of Color (assuming it is open by then, depending on who you listen to) would run on nights when Disneyland closes for Grad Nite?

Glad to see you are up to speed already on the pros and cons of June visits.

In the past DLR has not ramped up to high season nightly entertainment until about the thrid week of June. See "Historical DLR Park Hours, Entertainment and Refurbs" - www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2291124. So you are more likely to get full entertainment towards the end of your time frame than the beginning.

If you want three consecutive days you will not be able to do all blockout days and no grad nights in June 13-25. So you will have to choose.

If it was me I would choose June 18-20 Fri-Sun. That will give you two blockout days on the 18th and 19th, and a partial blockout day on June 20th with the SoCal Select blocked. My second choice would be June 23-25 and just live with the June 24 grad night.

That weekend will still likely be pretty busy with regular non-AP holders because school will just be getting out. But still doable IMO.

Regarding your other question, in the past DCA has closed at 6PM on grad nights. Since WOC is a night time show, I would have a hard time seeing them showing in before 8:30 at that time of year with the daylight is longest. So I doubt there will be WOC on grad nights.

HTH

 

[Timchat2]

I'm thinking that June 18-20 might be the way to go, at least for the range of dates we have for the trip. After looking over the AP blackout calendars I had been thinking of these dates as a possibility, so I'm glad to see that I was on the right track with my selections.

While there is only so much you can do about the crowds it is good to do the homework and manage our expectations. Knowledge is indeed power!

Thanks again for your help!