What are crowds like in April at DL?

[Moonspinner]

We normally go in late May/early June. Just wondering how April compares?

 

[maleficent55]

It largely depends on when Easter falls

Spring breaks in CA/OR/NV/AZ schools all vary too, even just amongst California alone, so that is hard to predict too

Then there is Dapper Day, which is when I try to go in April. To me, crowds are manageable, not worse than October or November

 

[VGCgroupie]

We go in April usually. Around 04/15. I find it’s comparable in Feb presidents weekend.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Entirely dependent on Easter as April is still a Spring Break but many schools still gravitate towards Easter. We ended up doing April a couple years back the week before Easter and that was utter misery. Never freaking again.

 

[bakofarmgirl]

this year we went end of march-april 2 and it was more crowded with easter being april 20, last year we went in mid march with easter end of march and it wasnt bad, the year before mid march and because of rain it was empty

 

[LKing]

this year we went end of march-april 2 and it was more crowded with easter being april 20, last year we went in mid march with easter end of march and it wasnt bad, the year before mid march and because of rain it was empty

That describes Disneyland in a nutshell.

 

[evilmommie]

When you look at 2026 spring break calendars for LA & OC county school districts, they are going to be out the first week of April. Most private schools will be out mid April in OC. It's usually a very steady month.

 

[RockyMtnMouse]

We're thinking of April next year too (22-27). We'll run into Star Wars nights, but that's okay. Easter is earlier so I'm hoping we're missing Spring Break. The wild card is ticket specials. Last year we missed the kids special and crowds were fine, even with Spring Break. Went a week later this year (the kids special ran longer) and it was nuts. We're prepared for craziness and anything less will be a bonus.

 

[LKing]

Love Catalina compiles a list of spring breaks. They haven't published 2026 yet, but here is their 2025 list: https://www.lovecatalina.com/community-information/spring-break-calendar/

Believe MK are blocked March 29-April 5
Enchant & Imagine MK are blocked March 28-April 6

There are other events that can impact crowds in the parks. This thread shows April 2025 events and dates. I put the 2026 days (if announced) in parentheses.

Post in thread 'Disneyland Resort Calendar 2025'

Mar 6, 2025

April
April 1-21 Food & Wine
April 1-30 Season of the Force
April 2 Nurses Day at the Park (April 29, 2026)
April 4-6 Dance the Magic Event (March 27-29, 2026)
April 8, 10, 22, 24, 29 Star Wars Nite
April 11-13 Dance the Magic Event (April 10-12, 2026)
April 12-13 Dapper Days
April 20 Easter (April 5, 2026)
April 19 Dance the Dream Event (April 25, 2026)
April 26 Girl Scout Bridging
April 26-27 Filipino Weekend (April 17-19, 2026)
April 27 TikiLand Day
April 27 Bats Day (May 3, 2026)

May
May 1-11 Season of the Force
May 1, 4, 6 Star Wars Nite
May 9,12,18, 21, 22, 27, 28, 30...

• LKing

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[Moonspinner]

Thank you all for so much info. What is the Dance the Magic event? And probably a dumb question but Easter weekend is really busy, right?

 

[LKing]

Dance the Magic is an event where dance studios register their dancers to perform in a parade along the Disneyland parade route. The events are privately run but they bring in a lot of kids and their families to the parks. @Tinkaboo were you the one who was surprised by the crowds on a Dance the Magic day?

 

[Moonspinner]

Dance the Magic & Dance the Dream are events where dance studios register their dancers to perform in a parade along the Disneyland parade route. The events are privately run but they bring in a lot of kids and their families to the parks. @Tinkaboo were you the one who was surprised by the crowds on a Dance the Magic day?

Ok thanks

 

[MonocularVision]

You will often see lots of pushback to this question for several reasons

• Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Differences in Spring Breaks, park ticket deals, Magic Key availability, special events, butterflies flapping their wings in Thailand and all sorts of other things can result in wildly different crowds for any given time period from year to year.
• “Low crowd periods” often result in reduced hours, ride refurbishments, fewer entertainment options, lower staffing and other cutbacks that can make the actual experience worse, even if you happen to catch actual lower crowds.
• Things can change in the weeks leading up to your trip which can make you feel like the rug was pulled out from under you. Disney might suddenly offer a ticket deal for locals that ends up destroying the predictions.

This is why most of us recommend finding the time of year that works best for you and going in with a plan for dealing with crowds. It can be heartbreaking to plan an entire trip around avoiding crowds only to show up and find out the crowds are unusually high for whatever reason. You just never know.

As an aside: there still are time periods and random days where crowds seem particularly low. They are just 1. Fewer and farther between and 2. Seemingly impossible to predict.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Honestly, I’ve found all of spring and April in particular to be consistently busy due to how many different spring break periods there are, not just locally but throughout the country. Add in the Food & Wine Festival and Dapper Day weekend and the various ticket deals they tend to offer and if you’re going in spring (March/April) just expect it to be crowded.

It was much less crowded on Mother’s Day and the Sunday or Memorial Day weekend than most days we visited in March and April.