So my trip went from 3/10 crowds to 9/10 crowds...

[thejen626]

I planned my trip to Disneyland strategically to miss the most popular spring break times. I used to work for Disney and I'm spoiled by only going during off-peak times. Crowds were supposed to be 3/10 the whole week, the last time I checked was 4 days ago. I just checked again and now it says my whole week will be 9/10, and the week *after* our trip is listed as 3/10 for crowds. We'll be in the parks for 5 days and luckily I have a lot of dining reservations already so we should at least get to eat.

Is it going to be insane? Am I going to be suffocated by crowds? Any tips for dealing with crazy crowd levels?

I'm scared

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

do the old WDW strategies work at DL for fast passes? IE: get there are park opening, dash for FP's, then ride standby while lines are still "manageable"?

[carrierroe]

We were just there this past week. Our first day shortly after arriving I kept thinking to myself what a schill - we will be lucky to do 3 rides today. Since it was our first trip, we didn't really get how the fast passes worked or understood what rides were popular. About mid-afternoon it all starting clicking even though we got late FPs for Splash Mtn and Hyperspace Mtn. I would say it was crazy busy last week. The weather was also really hot which spurred longer wait times for the water rides. Definitely get your first round of FPs as soon as you arrive. You can usually get in 1-2 rides standby by the time you can get another round of FP. have fun!

[alleinesein]

Mar 27, 2016 14:43:02 GMT -5 Mrs. ChanandlerBong said:

do the old WDW strategies work at DL for fast passes? IE: get there are park opening, dash for FP's, then ride standby while lines are still "manageable"?

Yes and no.  So much of DL is closed right now for construction or refurb.  If you run to grab a Space Mountain FP when the park opens you can probably hit up Buzz and Star Tours with a minimal wait (15-45 min).  But Space Mountain FP have been running out by 11am and you end up with ridiculous FP times (7pm or later) so they instituted the 1 FP every 2 hours if you end up getting one in the morning that is for the evening.  Fantasyland rides dont have FP so you have to wait in line.

It is all in the timing.  I was there last sunday night and by the time I got into DL all of the fast passes were gone for the day.  In the 5 hours I was at the resort I did Soarin, Paint The Night, Matterhorn, Tiki Room, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Pooh, Big Thunder, Star Tours and Space Mountain.  

[alleinesein]

Mar 27, 2016 13:57:21 GMT -5 thejen626 said:

I planned my trip to Disneyland strategically to miss the most popular spring break times. I used to work for Disney and I'm spoiled by only going during off-peak times. Crowds were supposed to be 3/10 the whole week, the last time I checked was 4 days ago. I just checked again and now it says my whole week will be 9/10, and the week *after* our trip is listed as 3/10 for crowds. We'll be in the parks for 5 days and luckily I have a lot of dining reservations already so we should at least get to eat.

Is it going to be insane? Am I going to be suffocated by crowds? Any tips for dealing with crazy crowd levels?

I'm scared

Avoid Tomorrowland and Adventureland if you cant handle crowds.  You will also want to avoid Main Street from 8pm-11pm because of the parade and fireworks.  Main Street gets so crowded that they open up a walkway to funnel people past all the shops during the fireworks.

They currently have the walkway between Fantasyland and Frontierland closed.  This has created a giant clusterf**k in Fantasyland at night since they close off the castle walkway for fireworks and the other main entrance/exit is part of the parade route.  Also be aware that stuff in Fantasyland and Toontown closes early because of fireworks.  You can get a nice view of the fireworks from the area in front of the Matterhorn; you will miss out on the main street projections but if you just want to see the fireworks it is a good area that is pretty crowd free.

Spring break is still going on down here.  San Diego Unified starts their spring break tomorrow and there are some districts in SoCal that dont have spring break until April 4th.

DCA will attract a decent amount of people for the Food and Wine Festival. I'm going up there this weekend to check it out and I will definitely report back with all the goodies they have.

If you are staying on property extra magic hours are great for hitting some of the big rides.  In Tomorrowland you can do Space Mountain, Star Tours and Buzz before the park opens to the public. One added bonus is that if any of your kiddos want to do the Jedi Training academy you can be at the registration kiosk when the park opens. Most of Fantasyland is also open so you can hit up Peter Pan before the crowds get there.  For DCA we use extra magic hour to ride Toy Story Mania and then head to Carsland.  The wait for RSR is usually around 20 minutes.  

If you have a Disney Visa card don't forget about your meet and greet photo ops.  DCA is usually Minnie and it is in the morning and DL is Kylo Ren in the afternoon. 

I will be so happy when Star Wars land is complete.  Not being able to use the train to get around the park is a pita!!!

[CheeringCharm]

Mar 27, 2016 14:43:02 GMT -5 Mrs. ChanandlerBong said:

do the old WDW strategies work at DL for fast passes? IE: get there are park opening, dash for FP's, then ride standby while lines are still "manageable"?

This is how we did it and we went at peak times (over President's Day one trip and Thanksgiving the other). It was fine. We like to take it slow anyway though. Get up early, do our FPs, do a few other things if the lines are short (we were able to hop on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain without FPs early in the morning), grab lunch, and then go back to the hotel to relax by the pool, then go back for dinner and the fireworks later. It probably wouldn't work that well if you want to be there all day. There were a couple of times that we tried to add a FP ride after our 3 were done and the MK was basically booked all day. The best we could get were hours later and we didn't feel like waiting around like that.

Main Street in the MK around noon is the most crowded place I've ever seen. It was crazy. Thanksgiving Day was the worst. It was almost unbelievable. But it wasn't bad because we were leaving. 

[thejen626]

Thanks all for joining in. We are heading to the beach for a few days and our first day in the park is Sunday April 3rd. So I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that it won't be too terribly busy that week!

[thejen626]

OMG I figured out why it's so busy now!! Dammit! Harry Potter World was supposed to open April 7th. It opened last week instead

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

But isn't that at Universal?

[Deleted]

Mar 28, 2016 12:44:24 GMT -5 thejen626 said:

Thanks all for joining in. We are heading to the beach for a few days and our first day in the park is Sunday April 3rd. So I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that it won't be too terribly busy that week!

I'll be there the 4/5! Well I go all the time because I'm a pas holder but we'll be there for DD's bday.. Oh yeah I think I talked to you about it? Does your DD have a birthday on the 5th too?
Anyway, next week will for sure be less crowded than last week but it will still be crowded. It's always crowded these days, I almost didn't renew because of it but I did anyway

[Deleted]

Mar 28, 2016 17:57:58 GMT -5 thejen626 said:

OMG I figured out why it's so busy now!! Dammit! Harry Potter World was supposed to open April 7th. It opened last week instead

No that's not why, it's been crowded in general this year, all the moms on my fb pass holder group are complaining haha but with 5 days you'll be fine!

[thejen626]

Mar 28, 2016 18:22:15 GMT -5 Mrs. ChanandlerBong said:

But isn't that at Universal?

My friend was there last week (our spring break) and tons of people were talking about planning last minute trips down for the opening. It was supposed to be April 7th (which I took into account when planning my trip for the 1st-8th!!).

[thejen626]

Mar 28, 2016 18:36:13 GMT -5 ladybug said:

Mar 28, 2016 12:44:24 GMT -5 thejen626 said:

Thanks all for joining in. We are heading to the beach for a few days and our first day in the park is Sunday April 3rd. So I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that it won't be too terribly busy that week!

I'll be there the 4/5! Well I go all the time because I'm a pas holder but we'll be there for DD's bday.. Oh yeah I think I talked to you about it? Does your DD have a birthday on the 5th too?
Anyway, next week will for sure be less crowded than last week but it will still be crowded. It's always crowded these days, I almost didn't renew because of it but I did anyway

Yes! We should meet up