Worried I picked dates with crowds too low

[ChanMom]

I've been reading too much about Disneyland this past week, especially as regards the high and low seasons. My trip dates are Monday November 2 to Friday November 6. I'm worried they'll be no parades or nighttime shows. I love fireworks shows. My family's favorite at WDW is Fantasmic and we are so looking forward to the superior version at DL. Looking at the historic information for that week, 2019 shows the shows running that week, but every other year I looked at it seems the shows aren't running. Is our trip so slow a time that there's minimal entertainment outside of rides? It's the most sensible time for us to go, as we live in NJ and that's NJEA convention week. The district I teach in has election day and Thursday and Friday, so I can take a 5 day trip and only take off 2 days. Since MANY people go to WDW during "Jersey Week" , it's less money for us to go to California then to Florida that week. However, if we'll be getting a lesser experience maybe I should cancel the trip. Any information on typical closures that week (looks like IASW is always closed at that time, but we're not fans of that ride anyway.

 

[azdisneylover]

I would switch my days to arrive either Friday, Oct. 30, or Saturday, Oct 31. If flying, I think I would catch the flight out early Saturday morning and go to the Oogie Boogie Bash (Party) in DCA. Then, see shows Sunday-Friday, leaving the following Saturday morning. I would take a day off mid week to relax, sleep in, etc.

 

[lcp9]

we are generally there around that time, and it's pretty awesome. most everything is open because it's right after Halloween (with the exception of space mountain on the 1st if there's an overlay, and small world.) tough call about entertainment - we have usually still had at least a nighttime parade, but you never know anymore. that week is still a really good time to go, maybe you can shift it a little to be there over a weekend (fri night should definitely have whatever they're offering at that point.)

 

[DLgal]

There will be fireworks on that Friday only. No one knows about parades right now, but during this week in 2019, there were showings of both Fantasmic and World of Color during the week.

 

[JohnneeO]

We are from NJ, and were flew out on Saturday November 3, 2018, and back home on Saturday November 10, 2018. Our DLR Park days were Sunday-Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On Sunday, we caught the last day of the Pixar Play parade in DL, and also watched Fantasmic!. The projections for the evening's fireworks were shown on the Fantasmic! water screens, so we stayed and watched those. On Tuesday we caught the second-to-last night of the Paint the Night Parade in DCA. We caught the first Christmas Parade on Friday, but the Christmas fireworks were canceled due to the winds. We saw Mickey and the Magical Map on Monday, but I don't think it ran every day that week.

Otherwise, crowds were manageable, made rope drop every day, and had a great time! We lucked out with the parades, getting to see three different ones, but not so much with the fire works.

 

[Pamela M]

I would switch my days to arrive either Friday, Oct. 30, or Saturday, Oct 31. If flying, I think I would catch the flight out early Saturday morning and go to the Oogie Boogie Bash (Party) in DCA. Then, see shows Sunday-Friday, leaving the following Saturday morning. I would take a day off mid week to relax, sleep in, etc.

I agree with this - I would definitely make sure you have a couple of weekend days. If DL does what they did last year you'll be able to see the Hallow Screams fireworks which are my personal favorite. Then after Halloween you'll get to see the park transform overnight to Christmas.
Also you didn't ask but if Fantasmic is a must I recommend doing a dining package (blue bayou if you can afford it and have never been). Just be prepared to sit on the ground.

 

[Grammy4Lizzy]

As a rule, during school time, fireworks are only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. DLR Is in the middle of the neighborhood so people need some sleep.
That is a good time to come. World of Color runs every night and you may have daytime parades.

 

[Raech]

I went Nov 4 to 8 last year. Mon to Fri. Friday launched Christmas and was amazing, plus It's a Small World Holiday opens.
This year my Nov trip, I am going around Nov 1 to 8th. I loved how slow the weekdays were. It is the perfect spot between Halloween and Christmas.
You don't have to do a Saturday, but that Christmas Friday is SERIOUSLY amazing. So I say your dates are great.

 

[AndrewC]

Last year Fantasmic ran nightly but you're right, the previous year during the "off season" it only ran Friday-Sunday. I would try to plan to arrive on Saturday at the latest just to be safe. If you can squeeze in one more day off, take off Friday and make that a travel day so you have Sat/Sun to be in the parks. Do the Halloween party one night and use the other night for Fantasmic and fireworks. Then Monday until whenever you can really focus on rides and mellow nights with catching entertainment if it's offered, or calling it quits so you can get up nice and early for the next day. Even during slow times some rides seem to have long wait times, RSR always seems to be an hour or longer and fastpasses go quick, so if it's something you want to try to do twice in a day it can be tricky or require an investment in time. (Unless you get there right at open and do it and then pull a fast pass which probably will quickly show a return of like noon or 1pm or something).

 

[DisKAH]

have to worry about too low also?

 

[Evita_W]

Generally speaking during the off season, fireworks, night shows and the such run only Fri-Sun (Fireworks Fri and Sat only) due to various legal requirements. That being said, Disney has been changing their fireworks shows to be more projection shows with fireworks added on select night as of late to address this issue.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

have to worry about too low also?

From the sticky threads at the top of the first page: "What You Should Know About Off-Season at DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=18462889
Low season/non-peak season at DLR ≠ low crowds! Sometimes low season/non-peak can feel more crowded because of shorter hours, lower staffing, fewer rides/more refurbs, fewer ride vehicles running (which means longer lines), less entertainment (which means nighttime entertainment on weekends only), etc. You may wait in longer lines for rides and food. There will be less going on in the parks to spread out the crowds. No such thing as "crowds too low" -- with such a large local crowd demographic and so many local passholdlers, DLR has no problem upping the numbers whenever they think the numbers are dropping.