Why is DLR So Busy Mid-April?

[Lothlórien]

There is almost no room availability mid-April.

Disneyland's website says that it should be a good time to visit with great weather and lower crowds, yet almost all of the rooms are booked up.

I was under the impression that most of the country has Spring Break in March and some the first week of April.

Is there another reason that may be impacting limited to no availability?

 

[OneThree]

What dates are you looking for? Who are you booking through? I just plugged in some random dates via Costco Travel and got options for both the Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian. Or are you looking off-site?

 

[sherilaine]

Here is a thread that contains a lot of info about what is going on throughout the year:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/20...l-breaks-and-dlr.3434866/page-4#post-55265991

I can't imagine Disney have not updated their website - there is no time now where you will see "very low crowds" - maybe if it started to hail or snow? But we just returned from the same week we have gone twice before in 2012 and 2014 and 2016 is WAY busier!!

 

[ImDMous]

April is also now Food & Wine in California Adventure. Judging by how fast the cooking and tasting seminars filled up, I think it's going to be pretty popular.

 

[lilsassymom]

We are going April 17-22 and it's not supposed to be too busy. According to the isitpacked and touringplans website. Hope it's fairly accurate

 

[sheetz]

We are going April 17-22 and it's not supposed to be too busy. According to the isitpacked and touringplans website. Hope it's fairly accurate

Eh, don't get your hopes up...

 

[lilsassymom]

Eh, don't get your hopes up...

I know. It would be nice if it was accurate lol

 

[Lothlórien]

April is also now Food & Wine in California Adventure. Judging by how fast the cooking and tasting seminars filled up, I think it's going to be pretty popular.

That makes perfect sense!!!

 

[sherilaine]

We are going April 17-22 and it's not supposed to be too busy. According to the isitpacked and touringplans website. Hope it's fairly accurate

Touring Plans were way off for the week we were there for the weekdays at least.

Monday, Feb 29th they predicted a 2 and saw a 5
Tuesday, Mar 1st they predicted a 3 and saw a 6
Wednesday, Mar 2nd they predicted a 2 and saw a 5
Thursday, Mar 3rd they predicted a 2 and saw a 7

I did not expect the twos and threes as I had read all the comments about how they are not reliable in their predictions and that Disneyland is just busier now regardless of when you go. It's manageable but it is not what is used to be the same time years ago. I would not base any planning on Touring Plans as they have completely lost touch with the new reality of the parks and they were never that great to begin with!

 

[Lothlórien]

What dates are you looking for? Who are you booking through? I just plugged in some random dates via Costco Travel and got options for both the Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian. Or are you looking off-site?

We have two rooms reserved at Disneyland Hotel that we booked direct. We are trying to get additional rooms. Paradise Pier is completely booked, with or without the promo. DLH has very limited availability and none in the same category. GCH does not have 3 rooms in the same category we are trying to book. The Good Neighbor Hotels do seem to have availability, but we are looking to stay on-site. I know it is just 32 days away and that makes sense, but we started calling before today.

Perhaps there is inventory available going through Costco that is not available going direct. We are Costco members as well, but we are not paying for the trip. My parents are paying and they do not want to use our membership nor are they members themselves.

 

[sharona]

I doubt it is the only reason that the rooms are booked up but 4/18 - 4/23 is public school vacation week for most towns in MA, RI, ME and CT I have seen quite a few posts on this board from East Coasters who are heading to DLR for the break (like me and DD13). If the DIS is just a small representation of the masses who visit WDW and DLR then I think we can expect it to be busy. Touring plans has the before and after weekends as busy (8's) and then 4's and 3's for the weekdays. I'm planning for crowds and will be pleasantly surprised if we find it not that bad.

 

[Angrose]

Have you tried Orbitz? I put in a few dates in mid-April and there was availability at all 3 DLR hotels. If you book through them, don't forget to put in the current promo code BEACHME for 15% off!

 

[GeneralTso]

Food & Wine Festival returning. It's been gone since 2010 so folks are excited. I booked at GC the moment it was announced and glad I did. I'm hearing from others that April got REAL busy all of a sudden. $$$$ on Disney's part. Smart. Bring in a big event during a slow month.

 

[courtneybeth]

You can thank the Southern California resident ticket offer.

 

[sharona]

I hope they expand the hours to match the crowds! Would love some more park time, especially in the morning.

 

[scrapquitler]

There is almost no room availability mid-April.

Disneyland's website says that it should be a good time to visit with great weather and lower crowds, yet almost all of the rooms are booked up.

I was under the impression that most of the country has Spring Break in March and some the first week of April.

Is there another reason that may be impacting limited to no availability?

Those of us in New England mostly have mid-April spring breaks.

 

[mom2rtk]

Those of us in New England mostly have mid-April spring breaks.

We're in the Midwest and our spring break varies based on when Easter falls.

And while I'm sure some New Englanders visit DLR, they probably aren't responsible for any big attendance trends at DLR. WDW for sure, but probably not DLR.

 

[cmph]

I'm in AZ, and while we have spring break the week before Easter, we also have a 4 day weekend in our district in April (22-25). We didn't want to wait until the summer to go, but we also thought (possibly stupidly!) that the crowds would be better then than around Easter. Of course that was before food and wine was announced. We're new to AZ, but maybe there is some weird southwest trend to have long weekends off in April in addition to spring break.

 

[coasternut22]

We're going starting April 20. We booked an offsite room back in December but I've been watching hotel rates since then. In December the room rates were definitely higher the week of April 11 than April 18, which is why we picked the later week. What I've noticed is that rates the week of April 18 have actual decreased or at least maintained their relatively low prices. I'm taking this as a good sign that crowd levels will be relatively low.

 

[Epek]

You can thank the Southern California resident ticket offer.

I highly doubt that. OP said it was onsite hotels that were booked. Locals who are going with the deal are probably not going to pay to stay onsite, if they'd stay at all! I'm local, am fortunate enough to be able to afford AP's, but have never stayed onsite. If I could only afford to go with a deal, there's no way I could throw down the money to stay at one of their hotels!