Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TIMING
Your
VISIT
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You can't pick a less crowded time to visit Disneyland than the period following
Thanksgiving weekend and leading up to Christmas.
SELECTING THE TIME OF YEAR FOR YOUR VISIT
CROWDS ARE LARGEST
at Disneyland during the summer (Memorial Day-Labor Day)
and during specific holiday periods throughout the rest of the year. The busiest time
of all is Christmas Day-New Year's Day. Thanksgiving weekend, the week of Wash-
ington's birthday, spring break for schools and colleges, and the two weeks around
Easter are also extremely busy. To give you some idea of what
busy
means at Disney-
land, more than 88,000 people have toured Disneyland Park in one day! While this
level of attendance is far from typical, the possibility of its occurrence should prevent
all but the ignorant and the foolish from challenging this mega-attraction at its busiest
periods. Historically, attendance at Disney California Adventure had been about one-
third that of Disneyland Park, but since the debut of Cars Land, DCA's population has
actually edged out its older sibling's on several days.
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In our opinion, the risk of encountering colder weather and closed attractions during
an off-season visit to Disneyland is worth it.
The least-busy time of all is from after Thanksgiving weekend until the week be-
fore Christmas. The next slowest times are September through the weekend preced-
ing Thanksgiving, January 4 through the first week of March, and the week following
Easter up to Memorial Day weekend. At the risk of being blasphemous, our research
team was so impressed with the relative ease of touring in the fall and other off-sea-
son periods that we would rather take our children out of school for a few days than
do battle with the summer crowds. Though we strongly recommend going to Disney-
land in the fall or in the spring, it should be noted that there are certain trade-offs. The
parks often close earlier on fall, winter, and spring days, sometimes early enough to
eliminate evening parades, fireworks, and other live-entertainment offerings such as
Fantasmic!
Also, because these are slow times of the year at Disneyland, you can an-
ticipate that some rides and attractions may be closed for maintenance or renovation.
Finally, if the parks open late and close early, it's tough to see everything, even if the
crowds are light.
