Thanks for the detailed analysis. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in any other way associated with The Walt Disney Company. Theme park attendance fluctuates significantly throughout the year, so choose the optimal dates for your next magical vacation by avoiding crowds during peak season. 85,000+ Disneyland Park estimated capacity, An average day is 51,000 atDisneyland Park, 50,000 California Adventure Park estimated capacity, An average day is 27,000 at California Adventure Park. Grad Nite. Simply put, we dont know. As such, thats what were presenting here: Overall, we are expecting Disneyland feels like crowds to be heavier throughout at least the first quarter of 2023. I dont recall any of you speaking up to defend our honor when we were faced with these same trials and tribulations, so turnabout is fair play, or something like that. Disneyland often reaches capacity between Christmas and New Year's Day Like clockwork, the Disneyland Resort hits capacity around the holiday season. Lightning Lane actually doubled their wait time. Although, when I would go to Disneland, I could chose to stay at a local hotel or just drive an hour and half home. Our guide to January 2023 at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure offers a free crowd calendar, days to visit & avoid, SoCal weather, seasonal events, new attraction openings, refurbishments, and more. With that in mind, our recommendation would be to look at the general crowd contours for busy and less-busy weeks or months (or even refer instead to our Best & Worst Months to Visit Disneyland in 2023 instead of this post) and not day-by-day crowd predictions. Lake Mead water levels as of Thursday, March 2, 2023 . We recently reported that during one week in March when many students are out of school, Disney is nearly already at full capacity which eliminates the option to visit pretty quickly. As announced, Disneyland park and Disney California Adventure park plan to reopen on April 30, with limited capacity! There were many times when they would close the ride to standby guests and only accept the people who paid for Genie passes. Our updated crowd calendar predicts Disneyland crowds one year in advance. So, not returning to that would be a good thing. The same is true for Presidents Day weekend, Easter week, Memorial Day weekend, the Fourth of July holiday, and Thanksgiving week. L.A. Times puts it at around 80,000 and that was before Galaxys Edge. Sorry. Reservations open 120 days in advance for most ticket types. New Child Policy. Interesting. The shocking thing is, Disney has recently confirmed that the despite the current crowd levels at the Parks, they are still not operating at full capacity, and it seems that they never will again. Unlike Florida, Southern California has a pretty temperate climate. Multiple times throughout the day the rides we selected would be temporarily down. Toy Story Mania was down all day. Planning a Southern California vacation? Trying to decide on best week to go Sunday-Thursday from late September through late January. Ready to book a trip for 2023? Weve also been at WDW at Christmas/NewYears and Easter Break. First, its impossible to overstate how bad crowds have been at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure as compared to pre-closure. Guests 14 years of age or older. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, should you decide to make a purchase. If thats more work than you want to do, we also have plenty of recommendationswith the asterisk that Disneyland crowds are subject to change! The glowing party allows guests to enjoy their favorite attractions under the stars for three hours (8-11 p.m.) after the water park closes to daytime guests, giving everyone easier access to their favorite Typhoon Lagoon thrills. But it looks like disneyland hotel and many surrounding hotels are booked when we want rooms (Sept 18-21) Do you know why? One didnt work, so we had to go through 5 different people in 3 different locations to get a new one. Next time Ill pick nothing. Usually less busy days have shorter park hours and busier days have longer park hours. The information included in our best time to go to Disneyland calendar is basic Disneyland crowd levels, park hours, and weather. Are you planning a trip to Disneyland and Universal Hollywood and worried about crowds and ticket prices? Most noticeable will be the smaller crowds Disneyland Resort theme parks are currently limited to 25% capacity, but that will increase once the county moves to the least-restrictive tier of. Our Disneyland Crowd Calendar will help you avoid the crowds and long lines at Disneyland. Very simply guests can use our 2023 Disneyland crowd calendar to pick the slowest times of year at the parks. I knew this was going to be a rough week for crowds at DL but with my kids schedules, it was this week or nothing. As we said in our initial Park Hopping guide, you can call a Park Hopping hotline to check on the status of the current theme park capacity restrictions. March 8 Theme park ticket sales for . The glowing guest-favorite party allows guests to enjoy their favorite attractions under the stars for three hours (8-11 p.m.) after the water park closes to daytime guests, giving everyone easier access to their favorite Typhoon Lagoon thrills. The Ultimate One Day In Magic Kingdom Itinerary (Without Lines! I called Disney to book a room at DGC using the military salute rate, however, they didnt have any availability for that week at the discounted rate which I thought was kind of surprising. Just like our. Guests can view a calendar on the Disneyland Parks site showing available reservation dates. Please check the Park Hours calendar and the Disneyland app for the most up-to-date Park Hopper hours, as they could change, depending on the day and park. General rules may be picked up at 6160 Cornerstone Court East, Suite 150, San Diego, CA 92121, Monday - Friday during normal business hours. Theres typically overlap among the top 3 districts in Southern California, which means their breaks are very bad, but confined to a small portion of the overall calendar. Make sure you check Disneylands park hours calendar when planning your trip. One of the busiest days of the year, and we never waited longer than 20 minutes!". In a normal year, without capacity capped, the former peak season dates would be far busier. It may seem like a convenient time to visit during one of the holidays your kids have off from school, but its important to consider whether other schools have these same times off, as well. What To Do if Disneyland Reservation are Full, What To Do if Disneyland Reaches Capacity, Disneyland is operating at full reservation capacity, You can see the Disneyland availability calendar here. SAVE TIME AND MONEY: watch the replay of my Facebook live talking Disneyland capacity issues here. This allows us to bring you the most interesting, entertaining, and unique entertainment experiences, covering theme parks, movies, TV, video games, and special events. Hi, we want to go to Disneyland September 19 & 20. June calendar is missing as wellcan it be added please? With the guest distribution skewed towards locals, a common scenario is that congestion is worse but wait times are lower. Can you add this, pretty please? The event tends to make Disney California Adventure more crowded, so avoid going on these dates if you can. We are planning a SoCal trip in July of 2022. Universal will get my money. When will you be discussing this years crowds? Hi Annie, I think it will still be ok for you to go back after lunch. If school schedules are something around which you must plan, chances are youre going to go during one of the busier (or at least not one of the least busy) times of the year, as thats the paramount consideration for many other families planning trips, too. limit the number of reservations that a pass holder can have at one time. These 2023 Disneyland and DCA crowd calendars will help you choose when to go to the parks, based on a variety of variables: school schedules, holiday breaks, typical travel times to Southern California, and more. Universal Hollywood park tickets do not fluctuate as much as Disney tickets which is a big plus. In fact, many are saying that Walt Disney World is operating its attendance on apre-pandemic level, but we now have confirmation that is not true. But theres a few things you can do in advance to plan for capacity issues. However, its always smart to consult refurbishment calendars to make sure your favorite attractions are operational no matter when you visit. Over at Disneyland, things have also changed in terms of capacity. Suffice to say, there are a lot of wildcards that make 2023 Disneyland crowd calendars less reliable than in normal years. Although the Parks are crowded, the Parks are still operating under a reduced capacity. Required fields are marked *. Disneyland tends to be the most crowded during major holiday weekends and breaks. Wed get out of bed early to use the early 1/2 hr for staying at the Grand Californian and all the good rides were either closed or temporarily down. So, maybe we should go sit in the hot tub for a bit, oh wait, thats closed too. Do you think that means the park will be absolutely packed every day? Im going to Disneyland over Presidents Day weekend. With good plans for touring the parks or strategic use of Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, this isnt true. With this exciting news, we know you are eager to get back to the magic, and likely have questions about your next visit. If youre looking for concise explanations as to why those will be the busiest dates at Disneyland in the first half of 2023, the key culprits are holiday breaks for school districts on the West Coast (Presidents Day, Mardi Gras, Spring Break, and Easter), new things debuting or returning (Toontown and Magic Happens), and the end of the SoCal ticket deal. That entire stretch is Spring Break season, and will be busier than dates in early March or mid-April through late May 2023. The Crowd Calendar Is Based On Wait Times Our researchers have collected wait times in Disneyland for over a decade. If you need parking before Disney lots open, try various hotels along Harbor Blvd. Although these events are typically held during off-peak times, we can see crowd levels spike during the fall. We update our Universal California Crowd Calendar using the latest park events, national holidays, universities & k-12 school year plus our own personal wait time data and vacation planning experience. Purchase tickets in advanceto make full use of the new reservation system. Any questions we can help you answer? Again, this doesnt happen often but its best to prepare. However, last year it was announced thatFastPass+ would be retiredand, instead,Lightning Lanewould be implemented throughDisney Genie.. The last official capacity given was 35% capacity, but that has certainly increased to near 50%. How Does Our Los Angeles Crowd Calendar Work? . Disney is publishing the calendar three days before opening reservations so fans have some time to plan which days they would like to visit. It's about 20 minutes from both Long Beach Airport and Disneyland Resort. Disney100 Celebration at Disneyland Resort begins. Since theyve reached their limited capacity today, do you think watching todays wait times will give me a decent idea or my day? Once the crowds become unbearable, the park will shut its gates to new visitors. Heres the rundown of what happened and when: Remember, now that Star Wars: Galaxys Edge has opened, theres a lot more room in the park. In terms of whats happening right now, the 100 Years of Wonder Celebration just kicked off with the World of Color ONE and Wondrous Journeys nighttime spectaculars. Our 2023 Disneyland Crowd Calendar includes the following theme parks: We have found that the most accurate Disneyland crowd calendar depends on a few factors, including crowds, weather, park hours, and park ticket prices. How often does Disneyland reach capacity? March is not listed on the crowd calendar. For what I paid, I needed a little more magic. Guests with 1-5 day tickets can make reservations 120 days in advance of their visit and guests with Disneyland Magic Key Annual Passes can make park reservations 90 days before the day they hope to visit. Costumes may not be worn by . Basically, these events are the D23 Expo (every other year, towards the end of summer or early fall), Gay Days (fall), HalloweenTime at Disneyland (late summer and fall), CHOC walk (fall), Holidays at Disneyland (fall and winter), and Grad Nites (spring). Takes the fun out of it. These evenings will have certain sections of the theme parks shut down specifically for recent high school graduates. Hearing your feedbackeven when you disagree with usis both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments! They go that fast, theres no time to buy. I wouldnt have taken my kids to any parks this summer, but once theyre fully vaccinated I will feel pretty comfortable. Yes, guests still have to use Disney's new Park Pass system to make reservations for the parks and the number is limited each day, but even that is no longer an issue unless you wait until the last minute or are trying to go on the day of a special event. If youre hoping to snag reservations for a sold out day, keep reading. However, if you dont have any other options, the gaps between the date ranges above should be better options. If youre a night owl, days with shorter hours may be a bad idea, as by the time you roll out of bed, you may find that you only have a few hours to enjoy the parks. Fridays are especially bad due to the combination of people taking long weekends and the SoCal ticket deal not being blocked out. Anecdotally, weve noticed far lower utilization of stroller parking areas, and wait time data shows lower numbers for Fantasyland dark rides. Can you please publish the calendar for March? Waiting in lines for two hours with a five year old is nuts. Its also worth noting that Disneyland typically does not release park hours more than a few months in advance, which means the reliability of crowd calendars is lower further out from any given month. For unique ideas of things thatll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. Rain isnt as common in Disneyland as it is in Walt Disney World. Disney doesnt release those numbers to the public, but the L.A. Times puts it at around 80,000 and that was before Galaxys Edge. Most schools are out of session on the weeks before and of Easter Sunday (April 9). The two most popular dates on the Disneyland calendar will be April 30 when the parks reopen and June 4 when Avengers Campus debuts at Disney California Adventure. April 16 Utilize Disney Genie Plus to get on multiple popular rides earlier in the day. San Diego and Orange County appear to be the last week in March, whereas LA is the second week in April, when we will be there. Mostly cloudy and drier, but a few scattered rain showers linger early, and perhaps a few snow showers at any point in the Poconos. Of the traditional school holidays, summer break is probably the best time to visit, as it is the longest school break so you dont have the concentration of guests all visiting during the same week of other holidays. None available. Guests and their experience is not their priority anymore. This in return might allow guests to not have to upgrade their ticket to buy the Genie+ all together. Thank good or hotel was great we had a good time there. Save time and money on your next Walt Disney World vacation with The Park Prodigy. Guests with a Park Hopper ticket will select the first theme park they wish to visit to begin their day; then they can visit the other park later that day after 11:00 AM and go between the parks (based on availability). So you can see that they do their best to keep park gates open, but thats not to say it will be comfortable once you do get inside. We had planned to go back to Paradise Pier after lunch but may rethink that since you suggested we dont leave the park since we might not get back in (we do have dining reservations in DL at 6:30). Here are the days we expect to be the busiest at Disneyland Resort in 2023: Jan. 1-8, 13-16, 27-30 Feb. 2-6, 9-26 March 11 - April 30 Weekends and Grad Nite dates in May, plus Memorial Day June 16 - July 5 Sept. 1-4; Sept. 22-25 Oct. 2-23 Nov. 17-26 Dec. 17-31 Expected Busiest Days at Disneyland in 2024 I need to dig into all your west coast content. Your email address will not be published. This was new, Ive never seen this happen and cant imagine the park would lighten up very much to allow new people in. Sunday nights arenot as bad as the rest of the weekendcrowds tend to die down as tourists from within California start heading home about midday, but the parks remain open later than on weekdays. Disney World crowd calendars can include weather, crowd levels, ticket prices, hours, and seasonal event information. 12/27/17 Disneyland Park closed for new guests at 1:00 pm due to large crowds and a massive power outage affecting many attractions. Disney recently introduced the newest addition to the Disneyland App and that is the Disney Genie+. Related: Guest Calls Disney World an Absolute Zoo Due to Overly Packed Crowds. Predictions prior to then are less accurate, and dont include current trends, park reservations, and recent wait time data. Plus, watch the replay of my Facebook live talking Disneyland capacity issues here. Right now it redirects to the interwebs page where you have to reenter your login every time. October 1-31 - Mondays-Thursdays less busy all month, Fridays-Sundays see some fall break crowds. Love the newsletter btw. Our Crowd Calendar will then pick the cheapest Disneyland tickets and discounted Universal Hollywood tickets! You can read more about Christmas-time at Disneyland in our in-depth guide. Jeff Reitz has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for the most consecutive days visiting the southern California theme park, a streak that ended at 2,995 visits, or more precisely 8 years, 3 months, and 13 days. We dont know this number. January Finally, theres the extent to which pent-up demand among tourists is actually declining. We might as well start our February 2023 update, as the high wait times, congestion throughout the parks, and long linesincludingLightning Lane return queues will likely continue through Spring Break and beyond. Maybe Genie will fix this. Real-Time Crowd Tracking IsItPacked.com. Most schools have the week before Christmas until the shortly after New Years off, making this week-plus an especially busy time. Lightning Laneis basicallypaid FastPass+ system, whichmany are not happy with.In fact, some claimLightning Lane actually doubled their wait time. Or do you think reaching capacity means different things on different days? The Walt Disney World Park Hopping capacity hotline phone number is (407) 560-5000. We have been most months of the year and found the week after Thanks giving was fantastic everyones gone home no lines to wait in straight on every ride GREAT. Do you have any favorite times of year to visit Disneyland? January 27 show, starting May 28; Watch in wonder as the original World of Color returns at Disney California Adventure . Another main issue is that with the number of people in the Parks right now, it seems more crowded than it may be simply because not all of the offerings at Walt Disney World have returned yet. Our updated Universal crowd calendar predicts theme park attendance one year in advance and is updated frequently. All of this makes it exceedingly forecast the crowd levels on specific dates far in advance. Same goes for theme park reservations, both for Magic Keyholders and regular guests. Multi-Day Tickets Multi-day tickets require a theme park reservation for each valid day of your ticket. 20052023 JAK Schmidt, Inc. All rights reserved. If avoiding large crowds is most important to your family use our Save Time button. I am now hoping to go twice a year and stay 10-12 days. Our Universal Hollywood Crowd Calendar 2023is best used to simply avoid the busy days at the park, and visit during the slow days instead. Let me help! 2023 Crowd Calendar. Itll be interesting to see how all of this actually plays out. document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a000eacd374a2c3fdc4c98208274e07f" );document.getElementById("fe7f78b4f3").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. That and more part is the biggest key, as there are a lot of little things that have changed just in the last few weeks that will have a huge impact on attendance at Disneyland throughout 2023. I had to laugh when I read your comment-All of you Keymasters are now seeing what we Walt Disney World Passholders have been dealing with for the last year in terms of blockouts and managing reservations. Dont care so much about decorations, just concerned about lines (6 year old twins), prices and weather. Cast Members) to weekends, while also releasing more park reservations for those dates. As this continues to happen, the balance of attendance in the parks will shift way from tourists and towards locals. It wont necessarily be cold during your trip, but the weather can drop below 50 degrees during these months. Peak Spring Break season. This is 6.26 higher than last year's record low level. On Monday after 8 a.m. PT, the reservation system will launch for people who had purchased tickets. Disneyland. However, not nearly to the degree as normal. Disneyland attendance and wait times are largely dependent upon tourist vacationing habits (which are largely dependent upon school breaks and California travel trends), park hours (historical data exists for that), Anaheim Convention Center events, Los Angeles & Orange County School District calendars, and a few other variables. You still want a ticket attached to your account. Created in 2005, what started as a tiny central Florida-based website and short weekly podcast that allowed our audience to visit Walt Disney World virtually has grown into the publishing company it is today. Major districts in Northern California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona all can have a noticeable impact on crowds, as well. Due to high demand, Shanghai Disney Resort parking lots will be at or near full capacity during the weekends and holidays. . This dump of new reservations shows that this number continues to increase as the weeks pass. During busier times of year Disneyland may halt park hopping options for Magic Key Holders and/or ticket holders. This allows you to narrow down the months, weeks, and days of your next magical vacation. I bet there will be a huge surge around the time kids vaccines are announced, and maybe again when theyre fully FDA approved. Two, I needed to rent A ECV. Here are our predictions: January 2023. Captain Marvel Star Likely Replaced In Future MCU Following Leak. Disneyland Resort has not reached capacity in terms of no longer letting guests with tickets and reservations inside since reopening. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Inside the Magic. (In theorysee the above note about staffing which illustrates why this is not always true.). Speaking of which, school schedules, weather, special events, park hours, and more may all affect when you want to visit Disneyland. Park Calendar. Back in 2022 September 23rd ish, hope Disney has dining plans back on, if not what will we do for food? Disneyland Resort in California reopened on April 30, 2021 with limited capacity at Disneyland park and Disney California Adventure park. On a personal note, our absolute favorite time to visit is during Christmas-time at Disneyland. You'll have several airports to choose from when you book your tickets. We put together a calendar that shows the best time to go to Disneyland during the whole year, including peak travel times. Compare the crowds from your previous trip to your next one in the. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Another Inside the Magic reader, Josylin, recently visited Disney World and felt the amount of people inside the Parks was too much to handle and ruined the magic: Well I was just there last week and in my opinion it was difficult to have a great time in this magical place because of the amount of people. January 9 May 25 In the past we have always gone during traditionally off-peak weekdays (late January or early September) specifically to avoid all the chaos so I understand that Holiday time will be busier but just curios how much more so the last week in November. Shanghai Disney Resort parking lots will be at or near full capacity during the weekends and holidays. During these times of the year, hotels and tickets are moderately priced and you will also find moderate crowds. Simply put, we dont know exactly. Presumably, Genie will fix that, too, given its reputation as a panacea beloved by all. In fact, Disneyland crowds have been a veritable roller coaster since reopening, and it doesnt appear thats going to change in the foreseeable future. I really want to enjoy our time as we havent been to DL since 2018 but I am also not excited to deal with big crowds, congestion, and crazy wait times. For these reasons, we make sure to include all special events on our crowd calendar for Disneyland. As to Disney artwork, logos and properties: Copyright - Disney, The Park Prodigy 2023 Disneyland Crowd Calendar. Finally, for guidesbeyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places! Even if you can get back in, you may not want to. When it comes to Disneyland's operating schedule, the first two weeks of the month they operate on their summer schedule with gates opening at 8am everyday and staying open late. On top of that, our subjective assessment is that congestion is far, far worse. Above all, keep calm and if your nerves or patience gets the best of you, you might want to call it a day. It also reached capacity on those same exact dates in 2017. Disneyland's theoretical maximum capacity is about 85,000, according to Touring Plans, which uses big data and statistical analysis to calculate daily theme park crowd sizes. We will automatically pick the best days for your family to travel for that given month, and exclude the Disneyland busy days. We focus on bringing you all things fun so you can plan your theme park vacation, enjoy Disney at home, and more. 12/27/19 Disneyland Park stopped selling tickets at 9:42 am, but California Adventure tickets remained available. Read up on things to do when its super crowded so you can do those once the crowds become too much. Additionally, Gustin replied to his own Tweet with a screenshot from Disneyland, explaining more about the shift in the Park Hopping policy. This article has some spots for advance parking reservations off site but close enough to walk. Determine which attractions are best and the ones to experience, figure out where you want to eat in advance and dine at hours when the parks are busiest, and most importantly, arrive at the park before it opens and get as much done as you can in the first few hours of operation when lines are much shorter than they will be later in the day. Copyright IsItPacked.com 2023. O.C. Its a rare thing, but its trueDisneyland can reach capacity and in 2022, capacity does not mean 100% full. Especially considering they have reservations to avoid this. With that said, the biggest factor of all is local visitor habits. April. Yup, the first day I walked even though I needed to ride. I wonder how availability will look once its at 100%. In a normal year, January and February are the slowest months of the year at Disneyland. Thanks and I LOVE this blog! This is one Disney fan they have lost. While weekends (Saturdays, especially) tend to be busier, its hit or miss. Nevertheless, there still are better and worse days/weeks/months to visit Disneyland, all of which are covered in our monthly guides. Need help planning your day at Disneyland Resort? Disneyland Hacks: Planning a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. Ive gotta imagine capacity is still being capped to some degree given the lack of entertainment, dining, etc. If you can make reservations at one of the Disney owned hotels, their reservations are from a different pool and might have some available.