Need Disneyland in Oct Tips

[calico]

After putting it off for 2 yrs for Covid, we are hoping to finally go for Fall break in mid-Oct. It will be my girls first time there and I want it to be special (I loved Disneyland as a kid as a west coaster). We will be in town for a week but only do 2-3 days there.

I am thinking of staying in a DL hotel to get extra time - does it matter which? Suggestions? Probably do a Costco package.

My girls would love the fireworks show - which day should we go for that? Not sure whether to go early in week or late.

Has anyone done the bibbity boutique?

They want to meet princesses and characters but I don’t think we need a character meal (one doesn’t eat normal meals) - do they interact more at that time? I don’t know if it’s worth it.

H plans to do the lightsaber thing - do you make rez for that or is it day of?

I’m also confused by the Genie+ thing but will probably get it if it saves wait time.

Any other tips or suggestions?

[jewel]

October is going to be pretty busy because of Halloween decor and Oogie Boogie. If you can, I’d aim to go mid week, for better crowds.

An on-site hotel won’t get you any more time. They don’t do magic mornings at all anymore. If you want to stay on site for ease or experience, The Grand is the closest. The other 2 hotels aren’t any shorter walking distance than the closest few blocks on South Harbor. I’ve heard that the pools at the DL hotel are the best, but we’re hard core park people, and don’t include any rest/swim time. Lol. IMO, your money is best spent on a decent hotel across S Harbor and genie+.

I think fireworks go every night during Oct, but you’ll want to check. Right now, they’re only going on Fri, Sat, Sunday. If you want the full fireworks experience, hang out on main street. You can also get a really good view from Star Wars land, but you won’t get the music and lights. A lot of the hotels on S Harbor have park view rooms and you can see the fireworks from your room. Ideally, we get back to the hotel by 8, shower and PJs, and watch the fireworks from outside our room right before bed.

The characters in the park aren’t really doing meet and greets now. They all stay behind some kind of barrier so you can’t get close enough to touch, and they do little character parades throughout the day. If you want to ensure you see a lot of princesses, I think the Plaza Inn breakfast is the place for that. Goofy’s Kitchen is the only character meal we’ve done, but my kids are scared of characters so it’s not a good use of time or money for us.

[calico]

Mar 21, 2022 16:00:52 GMT -5 jewel said:

October is going to be pretty busy because of Halloween decor and Oogie Boogie. If you can, I’d aim to go mid week, for better crowds.

An on-site hotel won’t get you any more time. They don’t do magic mornings at all anymore. If you want to stay on site for ease or experience, The Grand is the closest. The other 2 hotels aren’t any shorter walking distance than the closest few blocks on South Harbor. I’ve heard that the pools at the DL hotel are the best, but we’re hard core park people, and don’t include any rest/swim time. Lol. IMO, your money is best spent on a decent hotel across S Harbor and genie+.

I think fireworks go every night during Oct, but you’ll want to check. Right now, they’re only going on Fri, Sat, Sunday. If you want the full fireworks experience, hang out on main street. You can also get a really good view from Star Wars land, but you won’t get the music and lights. A lot of the hotels on S Harbor have park view rooms and you can see the fireworks from your room. Ideally, we get back to the hotel by 8, shower and PJs, and watch the fireworks from outside our room right before bed.

The characters in the park aren’t really doing meet and greets now. They all stay behind some kind of barrier so you can’t get close enough to touch, and they do little character parades throughout the day. If you want to ensure you see a lot of princesses, I think the Plaza Inn breakfast is the place for that. Goofy’s Kitchen is the only character meal we’ve done, but my kids are scared of characters so it’s not a good use of time or money for us.

Thank you! I appreciate the info and will keep an eye on the changes to see what they do later in the year. I don’t think we’ll book until mid summer at the earliest.

[jewel]

Mar 21, 2022 21:36:02 GMT -5 calico said:

Mar 21, 2022 16:00:52 GMT -5 jewel said:

October is going to be pretty busy because of Halloween decor and Oogie Boogie. If you can, I’d aim to go mid week, for better crowds.

An on-site hotel won’t get you any more time. They don’t do magic mornings at all anymore. If you want to stay on site for ease or experience, The Grand is the closest. The other 2 hotels aren’t any shorter walking distance than the closest few blocks on South Harbor. I’ve heard that the pools at the DL hotel are the best, but we’re hard core park people, and don’t include any rest/swim time. Lol. IMO, your money is best spent on a decent hotel across S Harbor and genie+.

I think fireworks go every night during Oct, but you’ll want to check. Right now, they’re only going on Fri, Sat, Sunday. If you want the full fireworks experience, hang out on main street. You can also get a really good view from Star Wars land, but you won’t get the music and lights. A lot of the hotels on S Harbor have park view rooms and you can see the fireworks from your room. Ideally, we get back to the hotel by 8, shower and PJs, and watch the fireworks from outside our room right before bed.

The characters in the park aren’t really doing meet and greets now. They all stay behind some kind of barrier so you can’t get close enough to touch, and they do little character parades throughout the day. If you want to ensure you see a lot of princesses, I think the Plaza Inn breakfast is the place for that. Goofy’s Kitchen is the only character meal we’ve done, but my kids are scared of characters so it’s not a good use of time or money for us.

Thank you! I appreciate the info and will keep an eye on the changes to see what they do later in the year. I don’t think we’ll book until mid summer at the earliest.

You may want to keep an eye on how the reservations are looking. It's been hit or miss with the more popular times of year. My friend wanted to come down for Spring Break, and looked at her dates about 2 months out and they were already completely booked that week. I believe (you'll want to confirm - I have an AP so my booking process is different) that you can buy your tix or package and reserve your days, and then change reservation days if you need to. When/if you decide that you definitely want to go, but aren't necessarily set on dates, I'd buy and book your most likely dates as early as you can, and then adjust if you need to.

Also - definitely a reservation for Savi's for the light sabers. They have a droid building factory that is really fun too, if he's into that, and they're about half the price of the light sabers :-)

[karinothing]

We went in February and Genie + worked really well for us (You can check out my full recap if you want). But we rope dropped each day and then used the Disney + to do rides a 2nd time in the afternoon. All rides were basically immediate return for us in Feb, not sure if it will be that way in October.

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, my kids did love the pools (we went the first day there which was not a park day for us). I like the dl hotel because you are basically 2 seconds from security and then it is an easy walk through downtown Disney to get through the park. I am not sure where security is set up if you come in through the other side. I also liked it because we would do park all day and then come back and order food at downtown Disney directly to our hotel room for a late dinner.

We didn't do character meals (and I think they aren't mingling now, but that may be changing soon). We saw a lot of characters just walking around the park, but this wasn't our main priority (or anywhere on our list). I don't think the bibbity boutique is currently open.

[Deleted]

This was pre-COVID but we went in early October and were shocked at how crowded the parks were even during the week. I'm not saying not to go but just to be prepared that like stated above, you probably don't want to wait too long to make your plans. Costco will let you put a deposit down and then the balance is due 45 days out. You can make your park reservations as well and book a good neighbor hotel.

[Doggy Mommy]

October is a busy time, but great weather and it's a fun time to go! I love the Halloween decorations and special food items.

We just got back, and it was also a busy time. Based on that trip I would recommend doing Rise of the Resistance first, then book it over to Indiana Jones. The genie+ line for Indy is almost worthless and that line is long for most of the day. Another one to get on when the line is low is Matterhorn. I was surprised how long that line could get. We did genie+ for the big rides like Space Mtn, Big Thunder Mtn etc. When the sun goes down, the line for Splash Mtn disappears, so if you don't mind getting wet when it's colder out, go then. The dark rides in Fantasyland rarely got above a 20 min wait. One other thing you might want to be aware of is that Haunted Mansion gets CRAZY busy that time of year because of the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay (which is awesome!). You can use Genie+ for it though so that will help, but the standby line will be long all day.

We found that even with the bigger crowds, the first couple hours were still pretty great, and evenings weren't bad either. Around 4:30 there was a mass exodus of families with hot, tired kids. Looked like some of those families and a lot of locals came back around 7pm. We're old and got tired around 9, and when we headed out lines weren't too bad and some (like Splash and Small World) were walk ons.

[calico]

Great information so far - thank you!

I checked the Disneyland site ticket reservations and the dates are only 4 months out. Does anyone know if those restrictions apply to Costco packages that include the tix? I’m so confused by the new systems they have. While not ideal, I expect it to be crowded in Oct but summer would be worse I imagine and I’d prefer not to take them out of school. Btw, are the new restrictions helping with crowd control ? I thought they implemented new processes and AP levels to improve the park experience - has it? Just curious

[Deleted]

Mar 22, 2022 23:11:04 GMT -5 calico said:

Great information so far - thank you!

I checked the Disneyland site ticket reservations and the dates are only 4 months out. Does anyone know if those restrictions apply to Costco packages that include the tix? I’m so confused by the new systems they have. While not ideal, I expect it to be crowded in Oct but summer would be worse I imagine and I’d prefer not to take them out of school. Btw, are the new restrictions helping with crowd control ? I thought they implemented new processes and AP levels to improve the park experience - has it? Just curious

I checked our package we booked through Costco for this October, and we can make our park reservations starting June 1st.