Saturdays In August,any advice?

[funshipm174]

Hello All,

On our upcoming trip, we were planning to go to DL during the week, but plans have changed and Sat & Sun August 13 & 14th only option.

My son is telling me the park is going to be very crowded from what he has read on some crowd calendars he googled and not that there is much of a choice.Would like to not have to wait more than 45-60 minutes if possible on things like Thunder and pirates.

Are the Saturdays THAT bad and any strategies?

Thanks!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Get there early, at rope drop if possible. You will be able to get a surprising amount of things done before 11am-noon-ish. Read up on FP and use it! Use single rider lines. And plan for rest times, shows, shopping or sit down dining (all things with a/c) during the peak heat hours of the afternoon. If you are interested in a dining package for PTN, that could save you time camping out for a spot.

 

[funshipm174]

Get there early, at rope drop if possible. You will be able to get a surprising amount of things done before 11am-noon-ish. Read up on FP and use it! Use single rider lines. And plan for rest times, shows, shopping or sit down dining (all things with a/c) during the peak heat hours of the afternoon. If you are interested in a dining package for PTN, that could save you time camping out for a spot.

Thank you!

 

[BriannaRuth]

The good thing is that DL will be open until midnight on those dates. (We'll also be there during that time.) Like theluckyrabbit said, get there as early as you can. Get the most popular rides done first (either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland) and get FPs early and as often as you can. Take breaks mid-day (maybe Frozen or other shows), and resume your schedule at night.

If you're not set on seeing fireworks or nighttime parades, those are often some of the best times to ride as some of the crowd is pulled out by watching. You should easily be able to do Pirates with a short wait (often under 15 minutes) during those times.

And keep in mind that any ride you get in line for by park closing, you get to go on. So getting in line at 11:59 works, even if there's a long wait!

Get the DL app or the Lines app to check wait times while you're in the park. I like Lines because it gives recommendations -- "go now" or "wait until xx." But I'm not sure if that's on the free version or not.

Are you only doing DL or are you doing DL and DCA?

 

[funshipm174]

The good thing is that DL will be open until midnight on those dates. (We'll also be there during that time.) Like theluckyrabbit said, get there as early as you can. Get the most popular rides done first (either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland) and get FPs early and as often as you can. Take breaks mid-day (maybe Frozen or other shows), and resume your schedule at night.

If you're not set on seeing fireworks or nighttime parades, those are often some of the best times to ride as some of the crowd is pulled out by watching. You should easily be able to do Pirates with a short wait (often under 15 minutes) during those times.

And keep in mind that any ride you get in line for by park closing, you get to go on. So getting in line at 11:59 works, even if there's a long wait!

Get the DL app or the Lines app to check wait times while you're in the park. I like Lines because it gives recommendations -- "go now" or "wait until xx." But I'm not sure if that's on the free version or not.

Are you only doing DL or are you doing DL and DCA?

We are purchasing Park Hoppers for both days. Thank you for the reply!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Remember that FPs are not connected between the parks, so you can hold FPs for rides in both parks simultaneously.

 

[BriannaRuth]

We are purchasing Park Hoppers for both days. Thank you for the reply!

So are you planning to do DCA first on Saturday and DL first on Sunday? Assuming you don't have Magic Morning/Early Entry.

 

[gottalovepluto]

August is hot, Splash & GRR have single rider lines. Use them!

 

[ktlm]

I don't know about August, but we have been in July for the last 3 years (we just got home late last Wednesday night) and in June for the 3 years before that. We arrive Saturday morning and leave Wednesday-- every single one of our trips, the parks have been LESS crowded on Saturday and Sunday then they have on the weekdays. Saturday and Sunday have not been that bad crowd wise on any trip. Normally, we have not found it that hot even in July, but last week the temperatures were close to 100 degrees and the afternoons were HOT. The mornings an evenings were still nice temperature wise. Make good use of FP, and find some indoor, or at least shaded, activities for the hottest part of the afternoon. We did the animation academy and Turtle Talk with Crush during the really hot part of one afternoon and that was great. If you want to ride Splash in the afternoon, be sure to time a FP for it, the line is crazy in hot afternoons. If you don't have the Disneyland official app, download it because the wait times on there are pretty accurate (the character times are hit and miss)- and it also has information of what time the fast passes are for if you were to pull them right then, so that was very useful in knowing when to run over there to get an afternoon fast pass.

 

[IBLarsen]

We will be there Starting the 13th, I've been watching wait times on the Disneyland app and the Lines app (read the same really). I was trying to get an idea of times, and have done a spreadsheet from last weekend. The crowd calendar has shown the past couple weekends a 9/10, and on the 13th and 14th, only showing a 6/10 and 7/10. So thinking we should be better off, but what I saw wasn't all that bad. For Saturday, I only looked from 4:30pm on, as we won't be there until about then.
Example wait times on Saturday at 4:30:
Big Thunder - 15 (FP 5:30)
Buzz - 20 (FP 5:20)
Haunted Mansion - 25 (FP 5:20)
Jungle Cruise - 15
Pirates - 20
Splash - 75 (FP 8:55)
Star Tours - 45 (FP 8:30
Peter Pan - 30
Matterhorn - 45

Sunday morning was minimal on almost everything until Noon, with Big Thunder at 5/10 minutes until noon it was at 15 min. Pirates was at 5/10 minutes all the way thru noon also moving to 15 min at noon., HM at noon was 15 (only 5/10 until then). At noon splash was 35 min, Star Tours 45.
At DCA at Noon was quite busy on Sunday and stayed about the same for the day with RSR growing higher.
RSR - 75 (FP 6:15)
Soarin - 60 (FP 3:40)
ToT - 40 (FP 12:30)
Grizzly River - 75 (FP 12:40)


May be worth keeping an eye out on the apps next weekend to compare to see if there is any consistency with crowds so you can have a game plan and be prepared

 

[BriannaRuth]

I've seen a couple of posts indicating that Sunday mornings in particular are not bad at all. And evidently Saturdays aren't as bad as they used to be due to the new pricing structure for single day tickets.

I know it's not always accurate, but Touring Plans is showing DL as a 6 out of 10 on Saturday and a 5 on Sunday; DCA as a 6 on Saturday and an 8 on Sunday. According to them, 6 means waits of 20-30 minutes on relatively popular rides at peak wait times but more like 45 on the more popular rides in DL. OP, your mentioned attractions of BTMM show 16-21 minute wait times during level 6 and Pirates shows slightly less. Splash shows the longest, with wait times up to 62 minutes at 6.