What are you thoughts?

[rklafuller]

Just curious to know what others think. Do you think early next year crowd levels will be lower as people will be “saving” their trips till Stars Wars land opens? Just a bit of a argument Hubby and I are currently having LOL

 

[Geemo]

Just curious to know what others think. Do you think early next year crowd levels will be lower as people will be “saving” their trips till Stars Wars land opens? Just a bit of a argument Hubby and I are currently having LOL

It's a toss up...
I know several that are going prior to the opening of SWL to beat that massive crowd of hysteria.

 

[momjeeps]

I think there are fewer and fewer times with low crowds. It’s probably safe to say that Disneyland as a park will likely see more traffic once the Star Wars area opens, but there really aren’t as many low crowd times as there used to be.

For me, with school age children, we just have to bite the bullet and deal with peak times due to our schedules. But with good use of time and planning the crowds even right on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have been fine. We are early to the parks, pre-rope drop. Hit rides for two or three hours. Then shows, FPS, eat, shop rest mid day to dark. Then we get back at the rides in the evening until park close.

 

[rklafuller]

Oh we aren’t worried either way. Crowds are what they are. We’ve been a few times now so have seen busy times and less busy times. It was more a discussion we were having last night about wether people would wait till it opens (especially those travelling long distances like us) or go before it opens.

 

[rklafuller]

It's a toss up...
I know several that are going prior to the opening of SWL to beat that massive crowd of hysteria.

Yeah I think people will go prior, as you say, but my husband believes people will hold off . It’s been a fierce debate at our place

 

[Geemo]

Yeah I think people will go prior, as you say, but my husband believes people will hold off . It’s been a fierce debate at our place

If you really need to know SWL's effect on crowds...
Looks like you need to schedule a couple of trip and see for yourselves.
I'd choose April or May for before and August when the most AP's are blocked for DL for after.

Geemo

 

[rklafuller]

We are going late March, and unfortunately coming from Australia another trip isn’t feasible in the same year. We are very keen to check SWL out though. Bring on 2021

 

[theluckyrabbit]

We've had posters here in all camps: doing everything they can to visit before they think SWGE will open, doing everything they can to be there when/after SWGE opens, and doing everything they can to visit both SWLs at DLR and WDW! And we also have posters in the camp that really want to visit DLR, but have limited dates, so they'll be there whenever they can manage to be there, SWGE or not!

 

[NannyBeBe]

We go to DLR every two years. Our next trip will be 2020. We are not interested in SWL so we will not have to fight the crowds there.

 

[midnight star]

I know people who are purposely going early 2019 to avoid SWGE. I also know people who are saving up for it now. I got my AP this year because I'm sort of indifferent to the whole Star Wars stuff. I wanted to have my year of AP before all of that came along. Me renewing depends on how crazy they adjust the annual pass program (I know they are slowly starting to do that now, but I'm sure they will do more).

 

[Cal-Pie]

I think the majority of people who go to DL won't even know anything about SWGE opening next year. There will be tons of people who planned their trip around opening day without knowing it, standing in the crowds thinking, "Wait, what? Star Wars?"

Edited to add: We are taking our next trip in March '19, then we plan to avoid until the end of '20.

 

[ktlm]

Looks like you are talking about March? I think Spring Break is going to be Spring Break regardless of Star Wars. I don't expect people will hold off until July instead of having a March Spring Break trip. In fact, we even toyed around with the idea of going for Spring Break next year to avoid any SWGE issues. We decided not to and we may skip DL entirely next year. Next summer, DD is booked all of July- and I would not want to go in July with Star Wars just having opened as I think it is going to be crazy. I don't really want to go in June as I don't want to hit right when it opens- or right before it opens as I do think there will be a bunch of people trying to get there before the crazy starts-- plus we were there right before Carsland opened and there were a bunch of previews for the press and other special groups. It was really irritating knowing it was finished and fully functioning and we couldn't see it.

 

[mich311e]

Planning our trip to Disneyland for the end of April 2019. It works out with my son's school schedule and we wanted to visit prior to SWGE opening.

 

[lalasmama]

I think the majority of people who go to DL won't even know anything about SWGE opening next year. There will be tons of people who planned their trip around opening day without knowing it, standing in the crowds thinking, "Wait, what? Star Wars?"

Edited to add: We are taking our next trip in March '19, then we plan to avoid until the end of '20.

Hubs had multiple coworkers at DCA on the opening of Cars Land. None of them had any idea it was being built (let alone opening!) on their trip. It was one of those "oh yeah, not everyone spends serious time planning the dates of their trips to coincide or avoid certain events" moments for me!

We're going mid-June, and keeping fingers crossed that it will open late June. And if it is earlier than that, well, thankfully, the 7yo will have no idea its a possibility!

 

[Hojoanaheim]

When a guest asks "when is a slow time for Disney?" I personally say that there isn't really a slow time anymore. Disney has gotten pretty good at keeping guest coming anytime of the year. September used to be "some what slower" but now Halloween Time starts September 7. January, February used to be slower too, but this past year they had the Electric Parade that kept the crowds busy. I haven't heard of anything planned for January and February 2019, so I can only guess that it won't be as busy as Summer or when Star Wars opens, but who knows.

Kriss

 

[tarheelalum]

Disney's goal is to have packed parks every day. I wouldn't expect low crowds prior to Star Wars. As others have already mentioned, many plan to go prior to all of that.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I believe there will be elevated crowds on both sides. You'll have more people go before SW opens to make sure they get their trips in before the "madness" starts, which will, of course, cause its own madness. Then you'll also have the big SW Land crowds themselves, which will be more madness when that opens. Much will depend on the actual opening date, when that date is advertised, and when that falls with AP blockouts and things like that. The AP-blockout-lift at the end of summer will probably be way crazier than normal. I also bet there will be a LOT more Signature passes by then, so maybe the blockouts will not matter quite as much because a smaller percentage of APs will even have blockouts.

I also suspect that parts of the summer will be less busy than people anticipate; however, there's really no way to predict when those times will be. With the new AP structure and the number of people too scared to come, though, there are bound to be some random low days here and there.