Super worried that parks will be ridiculously crowded

[svfive]

WE don't want to see Seasons of the Force at all. No Star Wars love in this family. But we are in San Diego doing Seaworld and LegoLand Friday and Saturday. And then Sunday was just a rest day, with Monday the 16th our final day at the park before flying out on the 17th. I guess if we were feeling really ambitious and wanted more park time we could add a day to our park hoppers and go on Sunday too….

 

[Bud Ice]

Best thing to do is to enjoy the atmosphere. Parades are great, a lot of cool things to see and do. Don't let anything adversely affect that. It's a vacation and enjoy it.

P.S. Worry, overplanning just adds stress to what should be a fun time.

 

[Luckymommatoo]

I don't really have a plan for any of the days. Other than arrive early. Sunday the 8th will be Disneyland. The 9th I think we will do DCA. And then the remaining 3 days I was figuring on park hopping, depending on what we want to see. My plan was to kinda sit down the night before with the Touring plan App and put in our major attractions for the day, and then grab Fastpasses in order it says to, doing other rides in between. But maybe I need a better plan? I have never been, so it's all pretty foreign and unknown to me.

Hmmm. I would definitely have more of a plan than that, especially for your first two days. I think it'll make you feel better. Who are you traveling with (and ages)? We can help you figure it out. If you haven't already, I would look at the maps of DL and DCA so you really know where you're going. I can't agree more with people who say the first three hours are critical if you want to get on lots of rides, especially on a weekend day. There will be plenty of time to stop for photos on Main Street and look at the wonderful little details everywhere. Five days will give you plenty of time for that. But if you want to ride the headliners with little to no wait, use your morning hours well and you can absolutely do it! You'll have a wonderful time!

For instance, on Sunday, October 18th, we arrived later than we wanted -- through the gates at 8:30. Pulled FP for Space right away (return of 9:30), went and rode HM (5 minute wait, and this is at 8:45!), rode BTMM (five minute wait), wandered around a little, rode Space.

 

[svfive]

Thank you @Luckymommatoo. It will be me and my husband, and our three kids, ages 4,7, and 9. The 4 year old just made 42" so there are only a couple rides he cannot go on.

 

[svfive]

Here is my very basic plan so far:

7th - Sat - arrive
8th - Sun- DL
9th - Mon - DCA
10th- Tues - Park hop DCA/DL
11th - Wed - REST DAY - Character breakfast at PCH
12th - Thurs - Early Entry - Park hop DCA/DL (kids have Bibbidi Bobbidi Reservations at 12:40)
13th - Fri - San Diego - Seaworld
14th - Sat - San Diego - Legoland
15th - Sun- Rest Day - Beach?
16th - Mon- Park Hop - DCA/DL
17th - Fly home

I have no idea the best times to do Fireworks, etc. Want to for sure see Fireworks, Paint the Night and World of Color. If we make Fantasmic ok. If not, thats ok.

 

[SMD]

Be open to hopping on the first Sunday. DL is usually crowded on Sundays and that Sunday is the soft opening of Christmas and also the backup day for Christmas parade/show taping.

 

[ArchOwl]

I believe Fantasmic will only be showing your first day, so if you want to do that, be sure to pick up FPs that first day or schedule a dinner package.

WOC should be showing nightly, so that should be easy to plan on your DCA days. Are you getting FPs or thinking of a dinner package?

Fireworks are shown on some of your days, but not others, so keep that in mind. It is generally a good idea to see the fireworks earlier in your trip in case they are cancelled due to weather and you need to reschedule.

There is a great thread about PTN with tips and tricks, I would check that out.

I was looking at the calendar for your Magic Morning and it is strange but that Thursday is showing no Magic Morning for Disneyland. Weird. Anyone know what is up with that? Perhaps it has something to do with the holiday and race. In any case, double check me on that and rethink your Magic Morning.

As far as touring goes, with 5 days you should be good. I would come up with a loose plan for the first couple of hours. Like perhaps start a morning in Fantasyland and then go from there. It helps to have a general sense of where to go.

 

[svfive]

FP's for WOC.

It looks to me like the Fireworks are everyday while we are there? They are called Disney Forever, right?

If we do Fanatsmic at 9:00 and then Fireworks at 9:30 on our first day does this work? Or do they overlap? Can you watch both from the same place?

 

[4Siamese]

To be totally honest weather the parks are busy or not, YOU have the control weather you have a good time or not. If you go in thinking negatively you probably will have a crappy time, if you go in with a positive open attitude and are flexible you will still have a good time.

As has been said a day (busy or not) at Disney beats a day at work

You will have a great time.

 

[SMD]

You can watch Fireworks from ROA after F!. They will show the projections on the water screens, but you won't be able to see the castle or some of the lower ones very well. It's almost impossible to exit F! and get to Main St or anywhere else to see the fireworks after F! and I wouldn't even try it with a group because it will be hard to stay together and find any space for multiple people to watch together.

 

[ArchOwl]

FP's for WOC.

It looks to me like the Fireworks are everyday while we are there? They are called Disney Forever, right?

If we do Fanatsmic at 9:00 and then Fireworks at 9:30 on our first day does this work? Or do they overlap? Can you watch both from the same place?

Oops, you are right, the fireworks look to be there every night.

It is almost impossible to watch Fantasmic and then try to get to Main St for fireworks. They do show the projections for the fireworks on the ROA, but you miss the castle stuff. So you can watch the fireworks from your Fantasmic spot, but it is not the perfect view.

 

[svfive]

Anyone want to help me out with a bit of a touring plan for our days?

 

[Canuck16]

We were at DLR this past March with a 5 day pass during Spring Break with major rides down for refurb (Soarin, Splash and Matterhorn). The crowds were heavy compared to when we have been before and were being concentrated on fewer rides as well and we still had a great trip!

We made sure to take advantage of RD and the FP system and we were able to ride everything we wanted and we saw WoC, Fantasmic and Wishes.

If you go in with a bit of a plan and stay positive to go with the flow you will be fine and have a great time!

Have fun!

 

[2boysmom1998]

I have worried about every trip I've taken and the crowd levels. I even went the opening week of Carsland and let me tell you it was not as bad as I thought. I have always had a wonderful time. The week we went when Carsland opened was wonderful! No one was at Disneyland, we had the park to ourselves (I wasn't expecting that.) I have always worried and it hasn't done any good. Just go and have a great time. Take it from me, it doesn't do a bit of good to worry.

 

[ZoZo]

We recently went on a very crowded day BUT we got there right when the park opened. We did space mountain x 2, Matterhorn, haunted mansion, thunder mountain, and splash mountain in1.5 hours. if we had stayed the rest of the day I would have pulled a few fast passes, hit a show in the afternoon, maybe Tom Sawyers island if it got super crowded or hopped over to DCA.
My point is.....get there early, pull some fast passes and it doesn't matter how crowded it is.....you can still have a magical day!

This is excellent advice! I just got back yesterday from a four-day trip. The first two days (Thursday and Friday) were pretty good, crowd-wise. We rope-dropped and got tons of stuff done. Made sure to make non-FP rides (like Toy Story and Peter Pan) a priority first thing in the morning. In fact, I was able to ride Toy Story three times in less than 30 minutes by going at rope drop. While most people headed to RSR for FPs, we headed straight to TSM and walked on three times in a row!

We used single rider line to great advantage. We single-ridered Soarin', California Screaming, and RSR several times each and never waited more than five minutes! Most parkgoers are not aware of single rider lines, so there's almost no one using them!

We did end up with an extremely busy (and 95 degree!) day last Saturday, October 24th. We went at rope drop and got tons of stuff done in the morning when it was cool and uncrowded. By noon, the crowds were starting to get really heavy, so we went back to the hotel for a break (after lunch at DTD). Went back to DL for a dinner reservation at 6:00 pm, and it was wall to wall people! But luckily, that was our third day, and we had already gotten so much done over those three days, we didn't let it ruin our day.

So good strategies are:

• Rope drop! Get to the parks at least 30 minutes before they open. Most people won't get up early on vacation, so the parks will be pretty uncrowded for at least the first couple of hours, even on a day when the crowds will build later in the day. I went at rope drop last Saturday, and rode Toy Story three times in less than 30 minutes. Literally walked off, went through the queue, and right back on the ride!!
• Ride the non-FP rides (such as Toy Story and Peter Pan) at park opening. You can FP other rides later in the day.
• Use FP wisely. As soon as a window opens up, get another FP. And pay attention to the "return time" that's posted, before pulling your FP! I ended up with a 8:30 pm FP for RSR, because I wasn't paying attention to the return time before grabbing the FP. I couldn't pull another FP for two hours, so that ended up wasting my FP opportunity for a while. I would never have grabbed that late-in-the-evening FP if I'd been paying attention!
• Use single rider lines whenever possible. Soarin', California Screaming, and RSR all have single rider lines. I did this over and over last weekend, and never waited more than 5 minutes!
• Finally, pay attention to what days have early entry, especially if you're not eligible for early entry! Sounds weird, huh? But if they're letting some folks in an hour early, they'll flock to rides like Peter Pan. That happened to us last weekend. My friend went to Peter Pan right at 8:00 am, expecting a very short wait. But since it was an early entry day, there were already lots of people in line, and what should have been a 15 or 20 minute wait (in fact, that was the wait posted on the standby wait time) turned into 45 minutes. She was really frustrated!

 

[Butterfly123]

WE don't want to see Seasons of the Force at all. No Star Wars love in this family. But we are in San Diego doing Seaworld and LegoLand Friday and Saturday. And then Sunday was just a rest day, with Monday the 16th our final day at the park before flying out on the 17th. I guess if we were feeling really ambitious and wanted more park time we could add a day to our park hoppers and go on Sunday too….

If you have 5 day park hoppers you cannot add another day. Five days is the max on one ticket. If you want another day you'll have to buy a single day ticket. It didn't used to be this way, but they changed their policy a few years ago.

 

[mom2rtk]

This is excellent advice! I just got back yesterday from a four-day trip. The first two days (Thursday and Friday) were pretty good, crowd-wise. We rope-dropped and got tons of stuff done. Made sure to make non-FP rides (like Toy Story and Peter Pan) a priority first thing in the morning. In fact, I was able to ride Toy Story three times in less than 30 minutes by going at rope drop. While most people headed to RSR for FPs, we headed straight to TSM and walked on three times in a row!

We used single rider line to great advantage. We single-ridered Soarin', California Screaming, and RSR several times each and never waited more than five minutes! Most parkgoers are not aware of single rider lines, so there's almost no one using them!

We did end up with an extremely busy (and 95 degree!) day last Saturday, October 24th. We went at rope drop and got tons of stuff done in the morning when it was cool and uncrowded. By noon, the crowds were starting to get really heavy, so we went back to the hotel for a break (after lunch at DTD). Went back to DL for a dinner reservation at 6:00 pm, and it was wall to wall people! But luckily, that was our third day, and we had already gotten so much done over those three days, we didn't let it ruin our day.

So good strategies are:

• Rope drop! Get to the parks at least 30 minutes before they open. Most people won't get up early on vacation, so the parks will be pretty uncrowded for at least the first couple of hours, even on a day when the crowds will build later in the day. I went at rope drop last Saturday, and rode Toy Story three times in less than 30 minutes. Literally walked off, went through the queue, and right back on the ride!!
• Ride the non-FP rides (such as Toy Story and Peter Pan) at park opening. You can FP other rides later in the day.
• Use FP wisely. As soon as a window opens up, get another FP. And pay attention to the "return time" that's posted, before pulling your FP! I ended up with a 8:30 pm FP for RSR, because I wasn't paying attention to the return time before grabbing the FP. I couldn't pull another FP for two hours, so that ended up wasting my FP opportunity for a while. I would never have grabbed that late-in-the-evening FP if I'd been paying attention!
• Use single rider lines whenever possible. Soarin', California Screaming, and RSR all have single rider lines. I did this over and over last weekend, and never waited more than 5 minutes!
• Finally, pay attention to what days have early entry, especially if you're not eligible for early entry! Sounds weird, huh? But if they're letting some folks in an hour early, they'll flock to rides like Peter Pan. That happened to us last weekend. My friend went to Peter Pan right at 8:00 am, expecting a very short wait. But since it was an early entry day, there were already lots of people in line, and what should have been a 15 or 20 minute wait (in fact, that was the wait posted on the standby wait time) turned into 45 minutes. She was really frustrated!

Saturday the 24th was our first park day. Man, that park was packed! We coped by doing rope drop and getting as much done as possible, then left the park late morning for a couple hours before coming back to stake out a shady spot for the afternoon parade. We had the Fantasmic dinner booked that night, so had a nice spot for that. We left the park just as the fireworks were starting so we could watch WOC from our room. We didn't do many rides that afternoon, but it was by design since we knew going in that it would be very busy.

Crowds stayed pretty high Sunday and Monday but cleared out by Tuesday thankfully!

 

[texasgingerbread]

• Use FP wisely. As soon as a window opens up, get another FP. And pay attention to the "return time" that's posted, before pulling your FP! I ended up with a 8:30 pm FP for RSR, because I wasn't paying attention to the return time before grabbing the FP. I couldn't pull another FP for two hours, so that ended up wasting my FP opportunity for a while. I would never have grabbed that late-in-the-evening FP if I'd been paying attention!

Do you mind explaining this to me? I don't want to make the same mistake but am a bit lost. Thanks!

 

[bumbershoot]

We are avoiding the park on the 11 and the Avengers weekend.

Honestly, I wouldn't avoid it. I've been a participant in many rundisney events so far, and I haven't noticed huge crowds. And even if they are bigger b/c of the runners, the runners are slow and limping, and their families are forced to walk slowly with them.



I hope you're staying in the San Diego area for your 2 days there? While Legoland is in Carlsbad and therefore you don't hit the downtown snarl, the Seaworld day might not be fun commute-wise. I checked Petco Park's calendar and there doesn't seem to be anything going on on the day you're going to SW, so that's good. Man oh man can Petco mess up traffic.

if you go in with a positive open attitude and are flexible you will still have a good time.

I am proof positive that that is NOT a fact. I'm not saying it's wrong for all, but it's not right for all, either.

As has been said a day (busy or not) at Disney beats a day at work

Disagree. July-into-August made us want to just go HOME. I'm no spring chicken to the parks, but I have experienced Disney when it's just so miserable you don't want to be there. If we hadn't upgraded, before entering the parks, to APs we would have turned around and changed plans entirely. Would have gone to visit my brother in San Diego instead. But we felt the need to stay and keep trying....such a massive mistake. I'd been in July, we were there a little after the 50th, I thought I had a clear understanding of the 60th...yeah, no. Awful awful trip. I'm still working on processing it so I *want* to go again for our rundisney event in January.

If you have 5 day park hoppers you cannot add another day. Five days is the max on one ticket. If you want another day you'll have to buy a single day ticket. It didn't used to be this way, but they changed their policy a few years ago.

Glad you mentioned that.

Do you mind explaining this to me? I don't want to make the same mistake but am a bit lost. Thanks!

They said "I ended up with a 8:30 pm FP for RSR, because I wasn't paying attention to the return time before grabbing the FP. I couldn't pull another FP for two hours, so that ended up wasting my FP opportunity for a while." And I'm confused, too. You can pull a new FP at 2 hours out OR, sometimes, earlier, depending on what it says at the bottom of the FP ticket. So it's entirely possible they would have been at a 2 hour next-FP-pulling-time anyway, even if the RSR return time had been earlier.

 

[svfive]

@bumbershoot we are staying in San Diego Saturday night, so driving up there on Friday, doing Seaworld and then staying at the LegoLand hotel and doing LegoLand on Saturday…not sure if this is a good plan or not. But we rented a house in Anaheim for our entire trip. I am not willing to pay for a hotel for 2 nights in San Diego, while still paying for the house. We chose to do it one night so as only have to make the drive there and back, not there and back 2x.