Crowd levels for Columbus weekend

[shooting4life]

heading down Oct 6 (sat) and leaving the following Wednesday. How busy do you guys think it is going to be? I see the hours are long sat/sun/mon with the park closing early Tuesday for the Halloween event.

I have never been this time of year so looking forward to seeing all the Halloween stuff. Not really interested in the characters so we r not doing the Halloween event due to cost. This will be our third trip this year and are returning the week before Veterans Day in novermber.

Is the water show at dca open yet?

 

[Geemo]

heading down Oct 6 (sat) and leaving the following Wednesday. How busy do you guys think it is going to be? I see the hours are long sat/sun/mon with the park closing early Tuesday for the Halloween event.

I have never been this time of year so looking forward to seeing all the Halloween stuff. Not really interested in the characters so we r not doing the Halloween event due to cost. This will be our third trip this year and are returning the week before Veterans Day in novermber.

Is the water show at dca open yet?

This is the Gay Day's Event Weekend Plus Columbus Day.
I've been during GayDay's and the parks were fine crowd wise.
I've been during Columbus Day and won't do it again.
Columbus Day is a Holiday it seems like everyone has off from work and school. So they go to DLR.

I'd expect Monday to be super busy.

DCA has NO WOC until the end of the year sometime.

 

[midnight star]

It was pretty packed last year for that time. Many schools don't have "Columbus Day", but have "Fall Break". I went to college in AZ and that's when our fall break was. I think this is also why that Halloween party on 10/12 sold out first.

 

[disneydreamer74]

Just to add on, We are from AZ and we have Fall Break in most of our schools starting Columbus Day. I avoided the party on the 12th for that reason and sure enough it sold out first. We opted to take the kiddo out of school a day early and attend the 5th (Friday) and stay the weekend. We will head home Sunday evening to avoid Columbus Day madness. I am glad to read that the weekend should not be too crowded. Although we have attended Thanksgiving crowds so we are ready for anything!!

 

[Malcon10t]

It can get busy that week. Just plan to get in early and enjoy the decor. And DCA at night durng Halloween is awesome.

 

[tarheelalum]

Holiday weekends tend to be very crowded.

 

[StarlitNight05]

I went last year during that exact timeframe. Gay Days were also going on. It was PACKED. Take advantage of early morning hours and definitely get Maxpass. Maxpass was a lifesaver for us. I was refreshing the app quite a bit and was able to keep a steady stream of return times lined up.

 

[maltdizzy]

We were there for Columbus Day Monday-Wedesday three years ago and it was three of the buisest days we had ever seen in the parks. Gay Days wasn't that weekend that year, but there were tons of people from out of state (especially AZ) who were on a Fall break; e-ticket lines were often 90-120 minutes. The Halloween parties and magic hours combined to steer everyone to DL on non-party days and DCA on party days (this was before they started decorating DCA as much for Halloween).

 

[IvyWinter]

We are unintentionally going for this weekend. just happens to be when we have a wedding and are extending into vacation. Hoping for the best but going in with realistic expectations (and maxpass!).

 

[whitneyebz]

Oh man, I am feeling really discouraged right now. Our kids are out of school for fall break, I had no idea that monday was columbus day I really don't want to go when it's so crowded! Hoping maxpass makes it worth going. I am now wishing we chose a different time, but oh well.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Oh man, I am feeling really discouraged right now. Our kids are out of school for fall break, I had no idea that monday was columbus day I really don't want to go when it's so crowded! Hoping maxpass makes it worth going. I am now wishing we chose a different time, but oh well.

Hey, even a crowded day in the parks is better than a crowded day somewhere else! Do your research, make your plans, make any reservations (if you were planning on making any), then get ready to relax and let the magic happen! Yes, it probably will be very crowded, but, yes, you can still have tons of fun!

 

[Carl4628]

Is it possible that the parks could reach capacity?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

It hasn't done so the past few years that the holiday weekend and the Gay Days convention have coincided. Anything is possible, but I wouldn't expect any gate closures. And remember: even a gate closure doesn't last all day. It usually only lasts a few hours, at most -- usually until the parade or fireworks show ends and enough people leave so that more people can enter.

 

[IvyWinter]

Oh man, I am feeling really discouraged right now. Our kids are out of school for fall break, I had no idea that monday was columbus day I really don't want to go when it's so crowded! Hoping maxpass makes it worth going. I am now wishing we chose a different time, but oh well.

Im with you. I did not mean at all to plan a trip for colombus day, it just happened to coincide with wedding travel and welp. Im trying to not get too sad about it, after all, we are still going to disneyland, right?! my plan is to make sure to break mid day, even if just an hour or two and sticking around downtown disney, so i can avoid max crowds, and utilize max pass. its even worse my first day, sunday, we wont be getting to the area until 12ish

 

[StarlitNight05]

Hey, even a crowded day in the parks is better than a crowded day somewhere else! Do your research, make your plans, make any reservations (if you were planning on making any), then get ready to relax and let the magic happen! Yes, it probably will be very crowded, but, yes, you can still have tons of fun!

I agree with this 100%.

OP and others going during that time -- don't be too discouraged. For what it's worth, Disneyland is always pretty packed. Even during our most crowded visits we still end up having a blast. Sometimes we even discover cool things that we wouldn't have done otherwise -- like the Animation Academy, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, shopping (which is usually not a priority for us), watching candy being made, etc.

 

[ishbit92]

I'll be there Sunday-Tuesday. I knew it would be busy, but now I'm thinking it may be busier than I thought? I booked Columbus day on purpose, because I have that day off and want to maximize my days without using too much PTO. I've been the weekend before Christmas, Thanksgiving day, and Labor day so I'm not too worried because I'm like how much worse can it be than those busy times? & Of course like many of you have mentioned in this thread, getting there early in the morning and using maxpass will make things better. Regardless of park crowds, I am so excited! 4 more days

 

[ishbit92]

Im with you. I did not mean at all to plan a trip for colombus day, it just happened to coincide with wedding travel and welp. Im trying to not get too sad about it, after all, we are still going to disneyland, right?! my plan is to make sure to break mid day, even if just an hour or two and sticking around downtown disney, so i can avoid max crowds, and utilize max pass. its even worse my first day, sunday, we wont be getting to the area until 12ish

Same with us, we won't get there until 11am-12pm on Sunday. I'm going to try and use mobile ordering so we can eat fast and then book a maxpass while we are eating!

 

[tarheelalum]

Is it possible that the parks could reach capacity?

It will be crowded but its not crazy crowded. If you want to eat at a sit down restaurant you should try to make reservations now but even with reservations you still may have a wait. Getting max pass would be helpful. And note, the last 30 minutes before closing disney will over estimate wait times to discourage you from getting in line

 

[midnight star]

I’m also going to chime in. Yes it may be crowded, but if you start early and Use maxpass it should be ok. I will guess that the evenings will get slammed because you will have the AP-after-work crowd coming in, on top of the day crowds. So just be prepared for things like that. If you have your heart set on a table service restaurant, try getting reservations to minimize your wait.

Don’t let crowds scare you from having fun. Disneyland is a popular place, so it’s common to have busy days rather than low crowd days now.

 

[shooting4life]

I think I’ll manage. We are pro’s at the maxpass game. I’ll also have my wife come to the park and scan in then go back to the hotel one morning and single ride and double maxpass all the things she doesn’t like. Last time I did this I did incredicoaster, gotg, and space mountain 4 times each, then star tours once before lunch when we meet up again.

We have lunch reservations for BB Sunday and that’s it for food. Tried to get dinner reservations for LLL but all booked. Will nab some drinks there one evening for sure. At least with passes and multi trips this year I don’t feel like I have to get everything in as much as possible like in the past.

The weather looks the be amazing as well.

Might even take an afternoon off on Monday and head over to the cigar lounge for a break then grab dinner before going back into the park.