How bad is UEA?

[chickapin parterre]

will have to wait for event calendar and ticket sales, look at the 2016 calendar to see how your week measures with the other weeks. The problem is that regular visitors and knowledgeable visitors know not to visit during UEA and all the other weekends....so what week would they go....?

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

So this explains why my wife and i end up running into many lovely, talkative couples with or without children from Utah during October !

But in all seriousness though, even though the parks can be busy, the crowds do keep moving fairly well. People are usually relaxed as well, which helps a lot

Traveling from the UK though, I think they like our accent

Can confirm. Love me a good accent.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

Agreed with all the above, looks like Arizona is off the 9-13...I would honestly avoid October all together.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

I do have a suggestion for @twodogs that will get me three kinds of flamed.
Utah families are BIG families, they are not ever going to pay for maxipass nonesense.
If you DO go, get Max pass, AND do show/dining packages for seating privileges, you could actually fair okay.
If a certain # of FP are held for max, UEA would be the weekend to make out well on that system.

 

[twodogs]

I do have a suggestion for @twodogs that will get me three kinds of flamed.
Utah families are BIG families, they are not ever going to pay for maxipass nonesense.
If you DO go, get Max pass, AND do show/dining packages for seating privileges, you could actually be okay.

I'm not going to flame you for that very practical advice. If we do end up going during October, I will absolutely be doing exactly as you said above. That might make it somewhat manageable.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

lol I know YOU won't flame me but max pass is not a popular concept with most, myself included.
As I added to my earlier post, UEA would be probably the best time to use max pass, high crowds but few people willing to pay. You may make out like a bandit.
Have a great time!

 

[mom2rtk]

We were there the last week of October in 2015. Not sure how the school breaks are lining up with that this year, but we had a couple of nice low crowd days mid-week that last week. Weekends (including Monday) were ugly busy, but the week days more than made up for it. So my advice is to maximize weekday park time.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I do have a suggestion for @twodogs that will get me three kinds of flamed.
Utah families are BIG families, they are not ever going to pay for maxipass nonesense.
If you DO go, get Max pass, AND do show/dining packages for seating privileges, you could actually fair okay.
If a certain # of FP are held for max, UEA would be the weekend to make out well on that system.

No flaming from this Utahn. totally true LOL!

 

[onlyoneash]

I am from Utah and won't even go during UEA. It is as busy as everyone says! Every.Single.One of my friends and their aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, grandpa etc... go. I'm not kidding. Travel agencies send fliers and brochures home in the kids backpacks with deals for UEA the whole month of September (annoying)

Utah is one hour ahead of Cali and is use to early school start times, so a 7 am wake up time in Cali for EMH is like 8 in Utah. Piece of cake. Mornings will be crowded.
Then the evenings come and the locals flood in.

However, Utahns are notoriously frugal (no shame!) so if you make dinner reservations to see the shows and such, you won't have as much competition.

If you hit the Monday-Wednesday right before UEA then you should miss most the crowd. But as a lot of people have said, DL is just getting busier period. Good luck.

 

[tanyaegangibson]

Yeah, we'd never go during UEA again. We found Veteran's Day weekend (with the marathons going on!) less crowded in terms of lines, so even though we miss seeing the Halloween theming, the change was worth it.

To be clear: we're people who can deal with going during crowded times (summer at DLR and we just went to WDW during spring break right before Easter) because we usually go at rope drop, return to the hotel for pool time after lunch until 5 or 6, and then go back to the parks, but UEA even did us in!

 

[disneydadazut2]

We have gone to Disneyland twice during UEA during that time, and it was not as horribly packed as Spring Break (April). However, Mickey's Halloween Party in '14 compared to '12 felt like the crowd doubled in size. I swore never to go back during UEA after that trip.

However, what others say about rope drop is completely true.

 

[Winnowill]

Agreed with all the above, looks like Arizona is off the 9-13...I would honestly avoid October all together.

Arizona totally depends on the school district - fall breaks are all over the place. Some districts get two weeks off, some (like my DD's) get a four-day weekend. We went last year during that four-day weekend (15th-17th), and we didn't have any problems at all. If it was more than usually crowded, we did not notice. Maybe because we always wind up going during busy times because of school, but we did everything we wanted to do and never waited longer than 20 minutes for anything except one ride of CS (because that was the last thing we wanted to do at DCA that evening and it was less time to wait the 35 minutes than to get a FP).

 

[Doctor Who]

Being from Utah we've been that week plenty of times and it's not really that bad. We always go to the Halloween party so that helps with the crowds. Just be flexible. Last year we planned on Disneyland on the Sunday we were there but it was too crowded so just went to DCA and it was fine. We are making our plans again for this year.

 

[tarheelalum]

October is worse than spring break. The UEA may contribute to it but it is not the biggest factor in the crowds. The 22 million+ people who live in southern California want to go and see the Halloween decorations and go to the haunted mansion. Everybody loves Halloween.

 

[az4boys]

I think it gets really bad when UEA overlaps with a majority of the Arizona fall breaks. I think this year most of the Arizona fall breaks will be over by the time UEA starts, but there will probably be some overlap. The link on an earlier post for the school breaks is really useful.

 

[twodogs]

I really appreciate all of the replies. I think we are going to cancel. It's too expensive and too much time off work to go and be crazy. We are looking at maybe the second to last weekend in September, but not sure if there will be a party yet that weekend.

 

[DLorBust]

Many districts in N. CA also have that week off. In our town, people just call it Disneyland Week.

 

[WestMom2two]

We have Oct 18 through 22 planned, but have only booked the hotel (free cancellation). Would the following week be better?

Probably the beginning of that week. Like 13th to 18th

 

[WestMom2two]

We went last October on Columbus week (10th - 15th) and while it was busier then we like it was nowhere near spring break/summer crowds. Mornings to lunch time where very manageable. from about 1-4 we would leave to go swim at the hotel and get dinner and head back into the parks for the night. Night time was the busiest time and a bit chaotic for our large group but by no means did we feel like it was so crazy that we weren't having fun.

 

[twodogs]

Many districts in N. CA also have that week off. In our town, people just call it Disneyland Week.

Which week are you referring to? Thanks!