The Official 2014 - Disneyland Resort -June Thread! Let's Plan!

[Sorsha]

I saw that there was one of these for July, but couldn't find one for June. If one already exists, kindly point me to it and we shall carry on from there.

SO, who else is crazy enough to go in June?

 

[94bruin]

I'm hoping to go the first week of June since DD1's last day of school is May 30. I just got a new job, so I'm waiting for approval.

I haven't gone during the summer in a long time. I figure that since it's still before most kids are out of school, we'll be fine.

But honestly, we've been during the Christmas season, so I can't belive it would be worse than that.

 

[Sorsha]

Our plans right now are the second week of June - the kiddos aren't out of school until June 6th.

I am a WDW regular, last time I visited DLR was also in June - but that was 2005, so I am not remembering how crazy it was then.

My biggest concern right now is Grad Nights and the effects they have on things. We will only be able to squeeze three DLR days in, as we are also visiting family in San Diego and doing things there.

I need to try to figure out whether it would be better to do DLR when we first arrive (June 8,9,10) - no Grad night, weekdays (slower crowds), but no Friday or Saturday (effects on seeing the nightime shows?) or before we leave (June 12,13,14) - 2(!) Grad nights, weekends, higher crowds, more entertainment, etc.

Disneyland regulars, any advice? How much do Grad nights affect things, especially when they would happen 2 of the 3 nights we are there?

 

[Kristina4109]

We went in June for the first time this past summer - the 9th through the 11th. It was crowded but not unreasonable. We are rope drop people, and we used early entry two days. At that time, early entry was at 7:00 am.

For CA, we headed straight to RSR and there was hardly any wait at all. We were able to do all of Cars Land and TSM before regular opening time, and then got on Soarin' with hardly any wait.

For DL, we practically ruled Fantasyland. We could not believe how empty the park was that early in the morning. Keep in mind we did NOT go to SM or any thrill rides, we were all about hitting those dark rides that get super busy later in the day. In fact, we were the ONLY people in line for the Mad Tea Party and I joked to my daughter that I wasn't sure if we would be able to get the color tea cup she wanted.

One day of our trip June Gloom lasted all the way until about 1:00 pm. Of course this was the day we picked to swim in the DLH pool! All 3 days had hot afternoons but mornings and evenings were pleasant.

 

[chathaway]

We are heading to disneyland in June too, it's our first trip to California and plan to go to San Diego June 13-26th.
June 17th parks
June 19th (Thursday) parks - it is grad nite, but we will make the best with what we can do.
June 20th parks in afternoon unless I can bring myself to taking our boys without my husband. My husband will be in a conference until 2pm.
June 21st- parks in morning then beach for sunset and then fly out the next day heading back to NC.

Tanks for posting this thread. This will be fun to see what others post. I'm working on my spreadsheet. I have my map plotting my San Diego sights and restaurants we plan to eat at. We plan to order some groceries to be delivered to our hotel when we arrive in Anaheim.

Just bought our Disney tickets 3 adults and child. Our 10 year old is officially an adult to Disney. Haha got tickets from orbitz using ebates saving 200.

I am researching restaurant.com for places to eat near Disney. I have to have everything planned out! I have plotted lots of restaurants near the hotel already.
I am a penny pincher and interested in how others plan their trip and try to save money in the meantime.

 

[Scooby86]

We, too, are planning our first trip to DL in late June...we have made the mistake of going to Orlando in July...never again....June was very pleasant....is there an advantage of either going in June or July to DL?

 

[lisachrystine]

I'll be there the first week of June, too. We're staying at a condo nearby and will be doing three days in the park, two days off.

 

[Sorsha]

So I think I have about decided to do Disneyland first, then head down to San Diego so as to miss the Grad nights.

So our basic schedule so far (subject to change until tickets are bought/ressies are made):

June 7: Fly to San Diego, pick up car, drive to Anaheim
June 8 - 10: Disneyland/California Adventure
June 11: Drive back down to San Diego, check into hotel, evening with family
June 12 - 15: Visit family, go to Sea World, the Zoo, and maybe the Safari Park.
June 16: Return car, fly home.

 

[nannyz]

We always go to DL in the summer, this year will be the first week of June.
We never plan our days -- too nerve-wracking for me. We just go with the flow and never have a problem.
The only thing we will plan to do this time is to get FP's for RSR, for the sake of my grandkids.
Really looking forward to corn dogs, fried green tomato sandwiches, pommes frites, Monte Cristo, bumblebee cupcake, hot fudge sundaes at Clarebelle's.

 

[Sorsha]

We always go to DL in the summer, this year will be the first week of June.
We never plan our days -- too nerve-wracking for me. We just go with the flow and never have a problem.
The only thing we will plan to do this time is to get FP's for RSR, for the sake of my grandkids.
Really looking forward to corn dogs, fried green tomato sandwiches, pommes frites, Monte Cristo, bumblebee cupcake, hot fudge sundaes at Clarebelle's.

LOL I am the exact opposite. If I don't have a plan (heck, usually a spreadsheet!) THAT is what stresses me out. I am an OCD planner.

I think it comes of mostly going to WDW, where you have to have ADR's, know what day you are doing what park, etc.

 

[94bruin]

LOL I am the exact opposite. If I don't have a plan (heck, usually a spreadsheet!) THAT is what stresses me out. I am an OCD planner.

I think it comes of mostly going to WDW, where you have to have ADR's, know what day you are doing what park, etc.

That's why I will avoid going to WDW for as long as I can. The thought of having to know exactly what you'll want to do 6 months in advance is a scary prospect for me. Of course, I like to plan, but what I love about DL is that if your plans needs to change, it's easy to do so. It doesn't seem that way with WDW.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I'll join in, I think we will be at DL sometime in the first week of June.

I also want to avoid the grad nights, but I do want to see fireworks.

Does anyone know if they do fireworks nightly in early June? I thought I'd read that they do them nightly in the summer, but I'm not sure if early June counts as summer season yet.

 

[chathaway]

LOL I am the exact opposite. If I don't have a plan (heck, usually a spreadsheet!) THAT is what stresses me out. I am an OCD planner.

I think it comes of mostly going to WDW, where you have to have ADR's, know what day you are doing what park, etc.

I think I may be an OCD planner as well. This will be our first trip to California and I need to know in advance details of what we will do and where we will eat, etc I'm a vegetarian so I want to make sure I have options with foods.

Fried green tomatoes!! Yum I make them in the summer , but never had them in a sandwich.

Ill end up having a touring plan for the rides and hope with the plan we will get to ride our fav rides multiple times.
We have been to wdw 1xin oct & 2xin June and will never want to go back Injune. They have also started the fastpass plus that I'm not excited about either. I'm glad DL doesn't have that yet. I do like flexibility and my husband is our fastpass runner so we try to plan out the rides where we dont have to wait in line long. DL is so different - you can walk park to park, hold fast passes at both parks. Oh I'm getting excited just thinking about planning!

I am concerned about the fantastic and afraid that if we don't get there 2 hour or so before show then we won't get a spot and they don't have seating like wdw. I'm also needing to research the woc show too. I have lots to plan still!

 

[Sorsha]

I am concerned about the fantastic and afraid that if we don't get there 2 hour or so before show then we won't get a spot and they don't have seating like wdw. I'm also needing to research the woc show too. I have lots to plan still!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2671983&highlight=fantasmic+dessert Fantasmic thread

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=37986447 World of Color thread

 

[arichau]

Hi all - thanks for starting this thread.

This will be my 4th summer in a row in DL in June - so obviously we think it works out pretty well. As someone who only goes once a year (not local basically) here is my advice for people concerned about Grad Nights.

But first to the person who asked about fireworks I'm pretty sure after Memorial Day all of the night shows and the parade are on the "summer" schedule - so every day and some twice a day.

The important thing to note from my perspective is that I have young kids so I am not in the parks until closing but at least some of us do stay until at least 9pm. I think if you have young kids on your trip it is quite easy to avoid the grads.

-have park hoppers - one park gets crowded, just move over! Sometimes it did seem like a ton of grads came out of nowhere.

-going early is even more important! Grads don't show up until the afternoon usually so the mornings are free from grads and locals driving in. It's also overcast which is perfect park weather IMO. It can be chilly in the evenings in June for sure!!

-think like a Grad - do the thrill rides and rides everyone loves (Pirates, Haunted Mansion) early in the day - if you're worried about the crowds in the evening do a nice dinner or have some pool time - from what I could tell Fri and Sat Grad Nights are way more crowded than the others

I know the boards fill up every year with people complaining about Grad behavior - and of course I wasn't there so I don't doubt anyone's story - but in my experience Grad Nights are not a huge deal. Some people go in worrying so much about the grads I swear they are LOOKING for bad behavior from them. I think any time there are large groups of people in the parks together you can get annoying behavior, moving around in line a bit, loudness, one person starts whispering something, then everyone does, etc. but I've seen that with plenty of non-grad groups.

For me the worst behaved people I run into at DL have NOT been grads - they are adults who push and shove and treat CMs like their servants, and take photos with flash even when they are not supposed to in dark rides. I do my very best to just ignore these people and NOT let then affect my trip. But I was happy when my DH yelled "stop flashing!" at a person who was taking a flash photo of every.single.thing. in Pirates. Luckily they did stop - I am not a fan of confrontation but that really was ruining the ride.

On that note I have read several stories on this board of people who told a CM at the end of a ride that people close to them were super loud, used flash photography, or did something else that ruined their experience and they were allowed to ride again. I'm sure this totally depends on the CM but it's something to keep in mind - especially if you waited in line a long time.

I hope everyone has a great trip. I can't wait!

 

[chathaway]

Hi all - thanks for starting this thread.

This will be my 4th summer in a row in DL in June - so obviously we think it works out pretty well. As someone who only goes once a year (not local basically) here is my advice for people concerned about Grad Nights.

But first to the person who asked about fireworks I'm pretty sure after Memorial Day all of the night shows and the parade are on the "summer" schedule - so every day and some twice a day.

The important thing to note from my perspective is that I have young kids so I am not in the parks until closing but at least some of us do stay until at least 9pm. I think if you have young kids on your trip it is quite easy to avoid the grads.

-have park hoppers - one park gets crowded, just move over! Sometimes it did seem like a ton of grads came out of nowhere.

-going early is even more important! Grads don't show up until the afternoon usually so the mornings are free from grads and locals driving in. It's also overcast which is perfect park weather IMO. It can be chilly in the evenings in June for sure!!

-think like a Grad - do the thrill rides and rides everyone loves (Pirates, Haunted Mansion) early in the day - if you're worried about the crowds in the evening do a nice dinner or have some pool time - from what I could tell Fri and Sat Grad Nights are way more crowded than the others

I know the boards fill up every year with people complaining about Grad behavior - and of course I wasn't there so I don't doubt anyone's story - but in my experience Grad Nights are not a huge deal. Some people go in worrying so much about the grads I swear they are LOOKING for bad behavior from them. I think any time there are large groups of people in the parks together you can get annoying behavior, moving around in line a bit, loudness, one person starts whispering something, then everyone does, etc. but I've seen that with plenty of non-grad groups.

For me the worst behaved people I run into at DL have NOT been grads - they are adults who push and shove and treat CMs like their servants, and take photos with flash even when they are not supposed to in dark rides. I do my very best to just ignore these people and NOT let then affect my trip. But I was happy when my DH yelled "stop flashing!" at a person who was taking a flash photo of every.single.thing. in Pirates. Luckily they did stop - I am not a fan of confrontation but that really was ruining the ride.

On that note I have read several stories on this board of people who told a CM at the end of a ride that people close to them were super loud, used flash photography, or did something else that ruined their experience and they were allowed to ride again. I'm sure this totally depends on the CM but it's something to keep in mind - especially if you waited in line a long time.

I hope everyone has a great trip. I can't wait!

I'm so glad you pointed out the weather in June in CA. I had not thought it would be chilly in the evening. I"m so used to the hot weather in NC and when we went to WDW in June I was miserably hot!!

 

[love2go2disney2]

We are going the first week in June for 4 days at Disneyland and 1 day at Knotts. We have gone every June for the past 5 years . This year will be my Sister and her family first trip to Disneyland!! So glad this thread started!!!

 

[lexecutive]

Yay other June goers!!! We are gonna be there first week of June since our kids get out on may 30 & we're taking the red eye from hawaii straight to LA that night! Can't wait!!!

 

[Czardas]

Hubby & I will be there from May 28 - June 3rd. Grad nights initially had me worried but we are early risers and really in the parks late, so I can't see it be too bad for us. There's so much to do, so I know we can't try to avoid to rides that they prefer later in the day.
Quick question, what will the weather be like at that time? Will it be as hot as what I've experienced in September & October?

 

[nannyz]

We don't do Fantasmic or WOC anymore -- once was enough for us.

One thing I love to do in the evening is have a hot fudge sundae at Clarabelle's. Theirs are the best I've ever had, and much better than at Ghiardelli's.

As to the weather, the evenings do get chilly, and I have found that a cotton sweater or jacket will not keep you warm -- you need something polyester or light fleece.

I agree that the few times I have encountered rude people, it was almost always an adult, and it happened when we were waiting to take our picture with a character. I remember one time we waited and waited while others pushed in front of us. I finally said, "Wait a minute. It's our turn"! and got a bunch of nasty remarks.

I hope that all of us have a wonderful June vacation in DL!!