Sleeping In and Staying Until Closing?

[StarSpeckledSky]

MaxPass is glorious. We slept in and I was panicking about arriving late but still got almost everything I wanted to do done in DL in one day.

 

[cdatkins]

We are night hawks too and have no issues arriving at the parks later in the day. If you have Maxpass you can refresh for cancelled fastpasses and that helps a lot. We do find the lines much shorter later at night too. (Not necessarily walk on but close to it for many attractions). We jump in the line for Raditor Springs 2 minutes before park close. Once all the fast passes are done the line moves really quickly and is usually only 20 minutes or so - so almost as fast as using fast pass earlier in the day. Our touring style may not be as efficient as rope dropping every day but Disneyland is our vacation so we choose to take it a little slower. We still get to go on everything we want to.

I will say, we haven't literally been rope dropping this past week and we are still doing everything with minimal wait times. We are arriving between 8 and 9 and it's still dead.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Not only am I naturally a night owl I also work straight overnights for my job (6pm to 6am) and usually don't go to bed until 8am each day... I get up at 05:30 on Disneyland trips and happily enjoy the morning hours. While we stay until close we still find those first few hours invaluable and wouldn't miss them for the world!

 

[Aurora0427]

How are the crowds in the last few hours operating hours at Disneyland and DCA this summer? Our trip is about a month away with DL closing at midnight/11 and DCA at 9 for our days (4 park days, Monday through Thursday August 12-15).

My kids have become quite the night-owls this summer, and I'm wondering if staying until closing is a reasonable strategy. I know I'll be sacrificing getting some good FPs by not rope dropping, but if the headliners are walk-on anyway after fireworks, who cares?

My late-night experience at WDW has been mixed...sometimes lots of walk-ons, other times lines everywhere.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

We were there two weeks ago and found the crowds really dissipated after the fireworks. My husband and older daughter stayed until 11:30 on Saturday night and got a ton of big rides done.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

the first couple of hours in the morning at DL/CA are usually wonderful even on busy days. We walk on a lot of rides, or have very short lines. They are significantly better than the first couple of hours at WDW, even on moderate or lower crowd WDW days. You can get a ton done in the first 2 hours the park is open.

Early morning hours really are great at DLR and much better than the WDW parks IMO.

We usually go in August and have found that, at that time of year, the lines are very low in the early morning, rise around 11am and stay (with the exception of little kiddie rides; here’s looking at you bug’s land—may you Rest In Peace...), with possible exceptions of parade/Fantasmic/fireworks related short dips, high (at least higher than my kids and I are willing to wait; especially consider the high temperatures and lack of shade in some lines).

It’s 2:26pm and I am writing this from my hotel room at the GCH. We are getting ready to go swimming. This morning we did every attraction in Tomorrowland, had lunch, and were done by 12pm. Then we did Splash Mountain, grabbed a treat at Pooh Corner, watched every single window diorama scene on Main Street, casually walked over to DCA, rode Grizzly River run, and now are back in our hotel.

Meanwhile the crowds and heat and the lines are growing. That’s how important it is to do stuff in the morning here.

Another crowd question: should I avoid or utilize EMHs? My experience at WDW has been to avoid morning EMHs, because it builds the crowds faster. Is that the case at Disneyland as well?

P.S. We're staying in a DVC studio at the GCH.

 

[cdatkins]

@GrnMtnMan we did not really plan around EMHs when we were there. Some mornings we took advantage, other mornings not.

 

[ktlm]

Another crowd question: should I avoid or utilize EMHs? My experience at WDW has been to avoid morning EMHs, because it builds the crowds faster. Is that the case at Disneyland as well?

P.S. We're staying in a DVC studio at the GCH.

It isn't like WDW. There might be some impact on lines, but not enough that you need to avoid the EMH park. We don't even pay attention to them. We just go where we want to go. We don't use them because we aren't morning people and getting to a park by 8 is hard enough. No way we are getting there at 7:00 a.m. unless there is a special reason. If you want to get up that early, they are great. You can hit rides with low lines. We have used them here and there for a new really popular rides etc. but in general at DLR we see no need to get up that early as in our experience the first couple of hours after the official park opening are pretty much always great.

 

[j9isawesome]

We are NOT morning people. We usually roll up between 10am & 2pm. Lines do get better later at night & you can often swoop up abandoned fastpasses pretty easy with the app/maxpass. I like Disney at night more anyways: less heat, no evil sun giving me a migraine & sunburn, everything lit up beautifully, less screaming babies & strollers everywhere.