Was anyone at Disneyland this past week?

[Nermel9]

The week AFTER Thanksgiving? Just wondering how the crowds and weather have been, I'm considering going the week after Thanksgiving next year and was just wondering how it was this year, specifically later in the week. Thanks so much!

 

[teach1abc]

We are here right now. The crowds have been very light, especially Wed. and Thurs. We walked up to most rides and got on with maybe a 5 minute wait. We had maybe a 20 minute wait for Peter Pan, Autopia, and Small World.

As for weather, everyone said it was COLD so that is what I packed for. It ended up being warmer - high 60's - low 70's.

I would definitely come back again this week!!!

 

[ConnieB]

We've been here since the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it has been wonderfully UNcrowded. Wait times have been virtually non-existent, even for popular things like Soarin', POC, HM, etc. Most are 5 minutes or walk ons....can't tell you how often we've been on POC and come up to the part where you disembark and said "please, can we ride again" and we DO!

It was VERY cold Saturday, Sunday and Monday especially after the sun went down (ok, cold for MY family is in the 40s and 50s...those of you coming from snow covered front yards probably will consider that a heat wave, lol). But....it's turned beautiful now...70's during the day and high 50's and 60's in the evening. We were at Downtown Disney last night and I had to take off my jacket it was too warm in the stores and I then realized that I hadn't put it back on when we were standing around listening to the street folks playing music, lol.

I would however pack for both temps as California weather is unpredictable and shivering is not part of the fun, lol. Layer your clothes or bring a jacket (tacky, but we tie our on our waist when it's not needed....or the first day that it reached into the 70's we just went ahead and got a locker so we didn't have to carry them around and got them after dinner...putting our leftover dinner in the locker to take home later, lol). $7 for a locker for all day.

Having also been during Thanksgiving week.....it's night and day difference. If you have the chance to wait until after Thanksgiving I highly recommend it.....less crowds mean more rides and less frustration. I feel for those who have to go during school holidays and deal with the crowds. Reason 3,593,204,139 that I love homeschooling, lol.

Today and Sunday will likely be a bit less crowded.....the big World of Disney store sale today brought in TONS of locals and I'll guess they'll be in the parks in a short time....and of course tonight/Sunday is Candlelight Processional which will make the crowds swell....Main Street will be impassable and the refugees will be crowding up DCA....but we knew that coming in and planned for a light agenda this weekend and will resume our double dipping ride plan on Monday when all those other people are slaving away at work, lol.

It's back to bed for us for a little bit....we found some good bargains at the sale but the chaos factor made it not so fun. A quick nap, a short afternoon in the park enjoying the atmosphere more than the rides is our plan...and dinner off campus tonight.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Yay for no/low crowds! We went last year the week before Thanksgiving and loved the low crowd factor. But the week after is starting to sound appealing for when we go back in a couple years.

Reason 3,593,204,139 that I love homeschooling, lol.

Oh, this is sounding so appealing to me right now. My 5th grader was up 'til 11:30pm the other night, after doing 4 1/2 hours of homework. That is just so wrong. He's not one that struggles in school at all, either. As I was getting frustrated with the whole up-way-too-late thing, my husband kept whispering, "Home school... home school.... home school..."

 

[Miss Peach]

Hi!

A really good 'at a glance' way to estimate crowds is to look on the Official Disney website, at the calendar...If the Park closes at 8:00 pm, they are not expecting huge crowds, if it is closing at midnight, it is going to be a much busier day.

Good luck on your trip planning.

Cathy

OT: Another vote for homeschooling (our family is second generation hs!)

 

[ConnieB]

Yay for no/low crowds! We went last year the week before Thanksgiving and loved the low crowd factor. But the week after is starting to sound appealing for when we go back in a couple years.



Oh, this is sounding so appealing to me right now. My 5th grader was up 'til 11:30pm the other night, after doing 4 1/2 hours of homework. That is just so wrong. He's not one that struggles in school at all, either. As I was getting frustrated with the whole up-way-too-late thing, my husband kept whispering, "Home school... home school.... home school..."

If YOU are willing to put in the time and work it takes to homeschool well, then I say go for it. It's not for everyone because it's definitely parent intensive. My role has definitely changed over the years and I expect it to change even more as they get even older.....but it's a lifestyle for us, not just something we do a few hours each weekday....so at least our way of doing it is not for the faint of heart, lol.

And something I've told dozens of parents who were nervous....try it, if you find it's not working better than public school was, then return him to public school, no harm no foul. But so far....none of them have returned their kid to public school, lol.

 

[amamax2]

Reason 3,593,204,139 that I love homeschooling, lol.

If YOU are willing to put in the time and work it takes to homeschool well, then I say go for it. It's not for everyone because it's definitely parent intensive. My role has definitely changed over the years and I expect it to change even more as they get even older.....but it's a lifestyle for us, not just something we do a few hours each weekday....so at least our way of doing it is not for the faint of heart, lol.

And something I've told dozens of parents who were nervous....try it, if you find it's not working better than public school was, then return him to public school, no harm no foul. But so far....none of them have returned their kid to public school, lol.

Hey ConnieB!

We homeschool also and agree, one of the best perks is that we can go on vacation when everyone else is NOT. And so agree on your advice re: homeschooling. I think some have the impression that it is a walk in the park. It's definitely hard work and not for everyone, but for us, so worth it.

How old are your kids? We pulled my oldest (now 14) out of PS after 1st grade - we said at the time we were going to try it for a year...well, we never looked back. We ALL love it, especially my children.

 

[amamax2]

We are here right now. The crowds have been very light, especially Wed. and Thurs. We walked up to most rides and got on with maybe a 5 minute wait. We had maybe a 20 minute wait for Peter Pan, Autopia, and Small World.

As for weather, everyone said it was COLD so that is what I packed for. It ended up being warmer - high 60's - low 70's.

I would definitely come back again this week!!!

It's funny people's perceptions! We thought Tues and Wed were awesome - very low crowds, especially during the day. We felt it definitely picked up in the evening, but still good. I took some pictures I will post later.

Thurs we thought was a mad house! So much more crowded than we are used - in fact, we left early to go home because we couldn't handle all the people. There were a bunch of middle school band/choral groups at the park that day.

Hi!

A really good 'at a glance' way to estimate crowds is to look on the Official Disney website, at the calendar...If the Park closes at 8:00 pm, they are not expecting huge crowds, if it is closing at midnight, it is going to be a much busier day.

Good luck on your trip planning.

Cathy

OT: Another vote for homeschooling (our family is second generation hs!)

Cathy,

Excellent advice. That is always my first step in planning a trip because the shorter the hours, the less the crowds, which is our biggest priority.

 

[ConnieB]

It's funny people's perceptions! We thought Tues and Wed were awesome - very low crowds, especially during the day. We felt it definitely picked up in the evening, but still good. I took some pictures I will post later.

Thurs we thought was a mad house! So much more crowded than we are used - in fact, we left early to go home because we couldn't handle all the people. There were a bunch of middle school band/choral groups at the park that day.


.

We found the music kids annoying and they were travelling in packs so if you ended up on the same path as them it did seem like the parks were full and annoying, but we finally got smart enough to go in the opposite direction, lol....and never saw them again.

 

[ConnieB]

Hey ConnieB!

We homeschool also and agree, one of the best perks is that we can go on vacation when everyone else is NOT. And so agree on your advice re: homeschooling. I think some have the impression that it is a walk in the park. It's definitely hard work and not for everyone, but for us, so worth it.

How old are your kids? We pulled my oldest (now 14) out of PS after 1st grade - we said at the time we were going to try it for a year...well, we never looked back. We ALL love it, especially my children.

My girls are new teens...they've never attended public school.

 

[Jenlan]

We were there Mon.-Thurs.

Monday was a bit colder and windier - the other days and nights were great.

Crowds were light M-W - we had no waits at BTMRR, HM, PotC, JC in the morning. Walk-ons and very short waits were the norm. Things picked up a lot on Thursday. We've seen this in past years as well. People start to arrive for the Candlelight and there are usually alot of school groups there who are perhaps involved with the show. We saw a lot of them this year and a lot of school govt. kids. We've learned to do our 4 days M-Th. - crowds on Friday can be really tough.

 

[lb2000]

We were there Thursday and Friday... didn't get there until late Thursday. I thought it was very crowded Thursday night and extremely crowded last night. Daytime Friday was fine, we were able to get on rides with little wait, except really popular rides, like Toy Story Mania. We didn't even bother the line was so long. Last night the crowd for fireworks and Fantasmic may be the largest I've ever seen, but I avoid crowded times generally. We decided to do Friday so we could see Fantasmic, and we were able to do that, so it was worth fighting the crowds!

 

[ccb1212]

We were at the park this past week. We got to the park on Sun and left last night. Sunday was a little busy but not too bad. Mon-Wed was great crowd wise. Monday was a little cold but the rest of the trip was great weather wise. We also noticed on Thurs that there were a lot of band groups in the park but it still wasn't too bad. Yesterday afternoon the parks started to get really busy. By last night around 5:00, the park was very very crowded. From the sounds of it, it is even worse today crowd wise.

 

[kcchica]

We were there sunday to thursday, drove home yesterday. It sounds like yesterday was a good travel day! Seriously awesome time to go!! We always did weekend trips the 1st 2 weeks of december before kids and it worked, but during the week is way better!!
Plus the extended trip let us take things easy anyway.

 

[Jenlan]

kcchica...we're also from Tucson and drove home the same day as you! Did you get stuck in the "parking lot" on 10 just after Buckeye while driving to Disneyland? We hit it on Sunday, and it cost us 2 hrs. No problem coming back.

 

[ter-moo]

This is my FAVORITE time of year to go because of the light crowds. HOWEVER, this year was different! We got there Tuesday night and went to the parks Wed-Fri. Wednesday was great--very light crowds. It did seem like it was heavier than usual, though. Thursday, it started to pick up and got fairly crowded. Couldn't believe the early entry crowds!!!! However, wait times were still minimal. It just seemed liked there were more people in the parks than I'm used to at this normally quiet time of year.

And then there was Friday. I have NEVER seen DL so crowded and I've been there at all times of the year. It was worse than summer. You literally could barely move in parts of New Orleans Square and Adventureland was solid people. Rather than walking in to a relatively empty Main Street in the morning, it looked more like a summer crowd. I'm used to seeing the parks get a little more crowded in the late afternoons/evenings as the locals pour in, but this was ridiculous! I was figuring it was the Candlelight Processional crowds, but MAN!!!!

It sure wasn't the idyllic early December that has come to be my favorite time to go.

 

[Mexikolla]

We were there from Tues-Thurs last week, the week after Thanksgiving. This was our third year in a row going this week of the year. This year, while relatively light crowds, I could definitely tell it was more crowded than previous years.


Tuesday was light, with little to no wait on the rides they went on, we didn't use fast passes on anything. BTMR and Pirates were less than a 5 minute wait with most of it the walking up to the que. My husband was able to take the kids on the Teacups three times in a row without any wait AT ALL. They rode Pirates two more times that day and the longest they had to wait was for one boat. The crowds were heavier in the evening but, we were able to comfortably maneuver the crowds on Main Street for the Snow/Castle Lighting/Fireworks.

Wednesday was definitely more crowded. I watched the crowds for a while on Main Street (while I nursed my baby on the Palm Reader's porch) and it was constant and busy with people pouring in. I was finished nursing at 11:30 and it was still rolling in. We left the park around 2:00 for our afternoon break and when we came back around 4:30 it was considerably more crowded. But not so much that we had to fight for a spot to watch the holiday parade. (We watched the parade from in front of the bathrooms by the Matterhorn)After the parade, we got outta Dodge and went to New Orleans Square for a ride on Pirates, the Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with NO WAIT. On our way out of the Haunted Mansion the fireworks had started and we decided to leave the park before the finally and snow. As soon as we hit Main Street we realized that was NOT happening... it was PACKED! We ended up leaving with everyone else and walking back to the Mickey & Friends parking structure instead of waiting for and squeezing on the tram back.

Thursday, was or World of Color day with a little bit of both parks here and there. We got our FP for WoC and then DH and the kids rode on Soarin (no wait) and then headed over to Toy Story (45 min wait). Then we went back to Disneyland. I hung out on Main Street with the baby and DH and kiddos went to Fantasyland. Fantsyland was crowded (as always) so they rode the carousel, tea cups, and then headed over to IASW with a small wait (maybe 10 min) around 11:30 and then we took the train over to NOS. We went on Pirates with NO WAIT. Decided it was time for lunch at the Cafe Orleans, our 2nd longest wait of the week was for our table. I gave our name and party size to the host, the DH and kids when on Pirates again (still no wait) and less than 5 min after they were off the ride our table was ready. After lunch we went back to our camper for a little rest/recharge and headed over to California Adventure. While the Play Parade was going on, DH and the kids went on Soarin with no wait, then we all went over to ride Monsters Inc with no wait & mostly empty cars. After that we went over to Paradise Pier, the kids and DH all rode the rocket ships, jumping jellyfish and the silly symphony swings with NO WAIT. (the majority of the people in the park were lining up for World of Color). At 7:30 we went over to our que for the show (our passes were Yellow) and got a spot right in front of a gate between two benches. I highly recommend that spot as we had a great spot with no one in front of us and had no problem leaving when it was all done.

All in all the crowds were heavier than previous years but more tolerable than summer crowds. The fact that (1.) I have small children that generally don't ride the "big" rides, (2.) it is not HOT outside. We Love to go to DLR the week after Thanksgiving


HTH