Our free Disneyland crowd calendars cowl finest & worst dates to go to the remainder of this yr and in 2025. This helps you select when to go and days to keep away from for shorter traces & decrease wait occasions at Disney California Journey and Disneyland. These month-to-month guides provide data about journey closures & what’s new, occasions, climate, costs, and extra that can assist you save time…and your sanity! (Up to date September 14, 2024.)
These Disneyland and DCA crowd calendars will provide help to select when to go to the parks, based mostly on quite a lot of variables: college schedules, vacation breaks, typical journey occasions to Southern California, Anaheim Conference Middle occasions, and extra. Suffice to say, there are numerous little modifications have an effect on attendance at Disneyland all through 2025.
Let’s begin with the excellent news, which is that Disneyland crowds are beginning to normalize and reduce. Pent-up demand is exhausting itself, and with that, crowd ranges at the moment are down as in comparison with the identical dates final yr. There have been a number of spikes, however common crowd ranges and wait occasions have decreased yr over yr. The unhealthy information is that crowds had been actually unhealthy for the final two-plus years, that means that the parks are nonetheless busier than historic norms–simply not as horrible as the peak of “revenge journey.”
Disneyland anticipated this slowdown, particularly after Walt Disney World skilled its personal exhaustion of pent-up demand final yr. Slightly than being caught flat-footed, Disneyland has provided ticket offers and a full calendar of occasions and leisure geared toward attractive locals and vacationers to go to or return to the parks.
Whereas 2024 has principally been slower than final yr, there have been exceptions to that–together with throughout what has in any other case been the “low season.” There have been many dates that ought to have been gradual, however Disneyland was capable of increase attendance with offers, occasions, leisure, and so on. This included the return of runDisney occasions, revival of Pixar Fest and Season of the Power, extending ticket offers usually geared toward SoCal residents to all company, and beginning the Halloween season two weeks sooner than ever earlier than. All of this has made a distinction.
It’ll be fascinating to see what “levers” Disneyland pulls going ahead to aim to lure locals, diehard followers, and even vacationers again to the parks. We already know that the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration occur in 2025, however we don’t know when it’ll start. The fiftieth and sixtieth Anniversaries each started near Memorial Day. That looks like the chances on favourite begin date, however we may see it start in winter or shortly after spring break.
No matter what Disneyland does to spice up attendance going ahead, it’s vital to notice that each Disneyland and Disney California Journey are nonetheless busier now than pre-closure. Not solely that, however in-park congestion can really feel even worse than wait occasions recommend. A part of the rationale for that is that Disneyland has lowered leisure and closed extra points of interest for refurbishment, that means that even with the identical attendance ranges, crowds could be worse.
To that time, one crucial factor to bear in mind is that crowd ranges are relative. They’re based mostly on mixture posted wait occasions, as in comparison with the prior three hundred and sixty five days. Which means that the present comparability may be very robust, to a time when pent-up demand was off the charts. There have been numerous 5/10 days within the final yr, however they’re as in comparison with a really busy 2022. That context about what “slowdown” at Disneyland means is vital. The parks aren’t going to be lifeless or ghost cities, and even on par with Walt Disney World.
Suffice to say, Disneyland is much less busy by round 20%, which is a major drop from year-to-year, however crowd ranges are nonetheless very a lot elevated by historic requirements. Hopefully this makes some extent of sense, and places into context reviews concerning the parks being “gradual.” As a result of should you stroll into Disneyland for the primary time in a number of years or ever, you’re very a lot going to be scratching your head about that. They don’t really feel gradual in absolute phrases…simply much less busy than one yr in the past!
The opposite excellent news is that our Disneyland crowd calendars have gotten extra correct with every passing month. A few of the causes for this are attendance normalizing, extra slack within the reservations system, plus fewer capability constraints and staffing shortages. Going ahead, the monkeys may begin throwing new wrenches that might disrupt crowd dynamics–however that received’t in all probability occur till Winter 2025. The remainder of 2024 needs to be pretty predictable.
Visitor demographics are one factor that makes an enormous distinction. Vacationer habits is predictable, and it’s their attendance (or lack thereof) that makes crowd calendars helpful. By contract, locals and Magic Key Annual Passholders are an entire totally different ball sport. There’s additionally the truth that, as soon as once more, Magic Key gross sales have been very restricted in 2024–if that modifications later this yr or in 2025, there might be an entire new inflow of demand and park attendance.
Park reservations (or lack thereof), additionally introduce an enormous component of unpredictability. You may suppose that park reservations would act as a tough cap on crowds, and that the parks could be busier when reservations run out. That’s typically the case, however not all the time. Regardless of utilizing the reservations system for 3 years, Disneyland nonetheless doesn’t have fine-tuned management over crowds. Some days, the parks are absolutely booked and solely reasonably busy. Different days, the parks are slammed and reservations are nonetheless accessible.
Suffice to say, there are distinctive and evolving variables that affect attendance and crowds at Disneyland and Disney California Journey. We’ll be blunt with you: we can not completely predict crowds…and nobody can. Another Disneyland crowd calendar that claims clairvoyance is mendacity. A lot of them don’t even attempt–they’re merely automated calendars based mostly on college schedules and years-old historic information that isn’t even remotely related anymore.
What we will let you know is that we’re actual individuals (that’s us above!) on the bottom in Disneyland and Disney California Journey each single week. As quickly as we discover altering developments, we report on them right here. We pair our observations and data of surrounding circumstances with issues like Los Angeles and Orange County college schedules, holidays, airport journey stats, Disney’s reservation calendars, and extra. With that, we’ve a greater–however nonetheless incomplete–understanding of when Disneyland might be extra and fewer crowded.
Whereas we can not quantify ‘seems like’ crowd ranges, our suggestion for individuals who need to have a look at the overall ‘crowd contours’ or base their choice on “vibes” and different qualitative components, as an alternative seek the advice of our Greatest & Worst Months to Go to Disneyland. That may provide help to select the best time of yr to go to–and likewise comprises some particular suggestions. From there, it is best to nonetheless slender down your journey dates.
DATES TO AVOID DISNEYLAND IN LATE 2024 & 2025
On condition that I’ve subjected you to a protracted and rambling preface–I need to “reward” you with a number of quick-hit predictions for the near-term. In case you merely need a listing of dates this month by early 2025 which might be more likely to have the worst crowds, right here’s once we’d keep away from visiting Disneyland:
- September 20-26
- October 11-14
- October 18-21
- November 8-11
- November 18-29
- December 9-13
- December 16-17
- December 23-31
- January 1-6, 2025
Let’s work backwards from the tip of these dates in Winter 2025. Submit-holiday crowds will stay heavy by January 6, 2025 when native college districts return into session following winter break. On high of that, Magic Key Annual Move blockouts begin lifting, so there’s pent-up demand from these locals who haven’t been capable of go to for 2-3 weeks through the coronary heart of the vacation season.
The following couple of days beginning January 8, 2025 needs to be blissfully uncrowded. The superb information is that these low crowds ought to last more in 2025. There really needs to be an low season in Winter 2025, with main exceptions being the Disneyland Half Marathon, MLK Weekend, and different seasonal occasions. See our full January 2025 crowd calendar under.
Working backwards, the widespread ‘theme’ of the pink flag date ranges are vacation breaks blended with Magic Key blockouts. The previous are self-evident, as breaks for Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New 12 months’s are all pretty self-evident. Much less apparent is the impression of Magic Key blockouts, and the way the times earlier than these take impact are sometimes busy.
One notable factor is that a few of these date ranges are considerably at-odds with our Greatest & Worst Days of the Week to Go to Disneyland (that additionally covers 3 particular occasions of day which might be actually nice!). One factor we’ve noticed this yr is that Saturdays and (particularly) Sundays are the least-busy days of the week, whereas Mondays and Tuesdays are busiest. That’ll stay true to some extent for the house stretch of the yr, however vacation lengthy weekends are the exception to that (rising) rule. Fall Break, Veterans Day, and different breaks which might be sometimes Friday by Monday disrupt that.
We hesitate to make any concrete crowd calendar predictions past January 2025. Whereas there was consistency the final couple of winters, there’s no assure of that for the beginning of 2025. The most important drivers of crowds and the x-factors which might be as-yet unaccounted for are ticket offers and the beginning of the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary.
With that asterisk in thoughts, listed here are extra thorough Disneyland crowd calendars for the rest of this yr, in addition to preliminary 2025 Disneyland crowd calendars…
Month-to-month Crowd Calendars for Disneyland
As we’ve gained expertise visiting Disneyland and Disney California Journey all through the years as Annual Passholders–and now Magic Keyholders–together with a number of journeys per week now as locals, we’ve seen developments in crowds and analyzed patterns in wait time information.
Disneyland crowd calendars change frequently resulting from quite a lot of components, together with advertising and marketing, reductions, park hours, new attraction openings, particular occasions, Anaheim Conference Middle occasions, and even climate (good or unhealthy). We try to maintain our Disneyland crowd calendars up to date to mirror modifications in attendance developments.
Be aware that Disneyland crowd calendars are most correct inside 3 months. Past that, generalized predictions might be made on the idea of holidays, college breaks, particular occasions, and previous precedent. Nevertheless, Disneyland park hours are solely launched a number of months prematurely, park reservation availability is unknown additional out, and different variables like promotions, reductions, conventions, and so on. all aren’t (absolutely) identified far prematurely.
You’ll be able to entry our Disneyland crowd calendars and month-to-month guides through the hyperlinks under, every of which is able to open in a brand new browser tab:
Every month is up to date with closing forecasts roughly 30 to 60 days earlier than the beginning of that month. Predictions previous to then are much less correct, and don’t embrace present developments, park reservations, and up to date wait time information.
Under is extra recommendation about avoiding crowds at Disneyland, in addition to days to go to and keep away from. These basic attendance developments for Disneyland could make ‘at a look’ journey planning and selecting your dates to go to simpler…
Attendance Developments for Disneyland
Disneyland attendance and wait occasions are largely dependent upon vacationer vacationing habits (that are largely dependent upon college breaks and California journey developments), park hours (historic information exists for that), Anaheim Conference Middle occasions, Los Angeles & Orange County College District calendars, and some different variables.
With that mentioned, the most important issue of all is native customer habits. Traditionally, Disneyland and Disney California Journey crowds are often worse on weekends. Nevertheless, even that isn’t all the time the case for the explanations mentioned above–it wasn’t true for many of final summer season, however weekends did worsen over the Halloween and Christmas seasons. We’d count on the same pattern in late 2024.
There are positively different wildcards that make it tougher for Disneyland crowd calendars to foretell attendance or wait occasions on particular dates with accuracy far prematurely. Nevertheless, the variables above are knowable pretty far prematurely, and make forecasting basic seasonal developments a lot simpler. As such, that’s what we’re presenting right here:
Insanely Crowded
- Winter Break
- Ski Week
- Presidents’ Day weekend
- Orange County Spring Break
- Los Angeles Spring Break
- Easter Week
- Thanksgiving week
- Christmas and New 12 months’s weeks
Very Crowded
Reasonably Crowded
- Early March
- Mid to late Might
- Late July by mid-August
- Third week of November
- First week of December
Least Crowded
- January and February, minus holidays or college breaks
- Late April
- Early by mid-Might
- Late August by mid-September
- First week of November
College schedules, climate, particular occasions, park hours, and extra could all have an effect on while you need to go to Disneyland. Clearly, these variables will even affect crowds.
College Schedules
If college schedules are one thing round which you should plan, chances are high you’re going to go throughout one of many busier (or no less than not one of many least busy) occasions of the yr, as that’s the paramount consideration for a lot of different households planning journeys, too. It might appear to be a handy time to go to throughout one of many ‘holidays’ your youngsters have off from college, however it’s vital to contemplate whether or not different faculties have these identical occasions off, as nicely.
Particularly, listed here are the college districts which have the most important impression on Disneyland attendance:
- Los Angeles Unified (CA)
- Orange County – All Districts (CA)
- San Diego Unified (CA)
- Clark County (NV)
- Lengthy Seashore Unified (CA)
- Riverside Unified (CA)
- San Bernardino Metropolis Unified (CA)
- Alpine (UT)
- Fresno Unified (CA)
- Davis (UT)
- Elk Grove (CA)
- San Francisco Unified (CA)
- Phoenix Unified – All Districts (AZ)
- Mesa Unified (AZ)
- Washoe County (NV)
- Granite (UT)
- Tuscon Unified (AZ)
Our crowd calendars take all of those districts under consideration, as their educational breaks and college schedules can have a major impression on Disneyland attendance. There’s sometimes overlap among the many high 3 districts in Southern California, which suggests their breaks are very unhealthy, however confined to a small portion of the general calendar.
Main districts in Northern California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona all can have a noticeable impression on crowds, as nicely. (For instance, most districts in Utah share a standard fall break, and that lengthy weekend will get actually unhealthy.) In contrast, we’ve by no means noticed a lot of an impression from Oregon, Washington, or another states. Texas and something east of it are all just about Walt Disney World’s market.
Of the normal college holidays, summer season break might be the most effective time to go to, as it’s the longest college break so that you don’t have the focus of company all visiting throughout the identical week of different holidays. Since summer season break is basically blocked out to SoCal passholders, you’ll be able to count on to see extra vacationers within the parks this time of yr.
Most colleges have the week earlier than Christmas till the shortly after New 12 months’s off, making this week-plus an particularly busy time. The identical is true for President’s Day weekend, Easter week, Memorial Day weekend, the Fourth of July vacation, and Thanksgiving week. Though faculties do range their Spring Break schedules, don’t count on the parks to be any much less busy due to somewhat-staggered Spring Breaks. Mid-March by mid-April are busy occasions at Disneyland.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t go to throughout these occasions, as some individuals don’t have many different choices, however should you do go, no less than deliver your endurance with you, or no less than a great plan for touring the parks!
Climate
In contrast to Florida, Southern California has a fairly temperate local weather. The everyday sizzling seasons are sizzling, however humidity isn’t almost as unhealthy as it’s in Florida. It could possibly get colder at evening, and within the winter months, however the climate isn’t almost as a lot of a curler coaster journey like it’s in Florida. Blue skies and puffy clouds are extra uncommon in California, however total the climate is rather more favorable for vacationing than it’s in Walt Disney World.
Rain isn’t as widespread in Disneyland as it’s in Walt Disney World. It does rain within the fall months at Disneyland, however torrential downpours in SoCal aren’t too widespread. In reality, should you’re a Southern Californian making an attempt to plan the most effective time to schedule a 1-day go to to the park, the very best time to go is whereas it’s raining.
The parks typically filter out (there are often lengthy traces at Metropolis Corridor of individuals requesting refunds), and considerably shorter waits are widespread. So, in case you have a poncho or umbrella and wish decrease than regular crowds, a wet day is the right time to go. (In contrast, the day after it rains might be significantly worse than regular, as locals will postpone their visits.)
Be certain that to pack some denims, sweatshirts, and possibly even coats if touring through the months of October by March. It received’t essentially be chilly throughout your journey, however the climate can drop under 50 levels throughout these months. Think about your tolerance to chilly, and climate you’re prepared to buy numerous $70 Mickey Mouse sweatshirts throughout your journey when, inevitably, members of your loved ones get chilly!
Park Hours
Not contemplating park hours when planning your journey is a big mistake. Normally much less busy days have shorter park hours and busier days have longer park hours. Thus, many really feel they’ll principally get the identical quantity executed in a shorter day throughout a much less busy time of yr than they might throughout peak season. With good plans for touring the parks or strategic use of Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, this isn’t true. By strategizing nicely, you’ll be able to accomplish extra throughout a busy day with longer hours than throughout a shorter day with mild crowds.
Additionally vital to notice is that on days with longer hours, Disneyland can have extra leisure scheduled. Even throughout brief days and gradual occasions of the yr, Fantasmic and World of Coloration play to packed homes. Nevertheless, on days that provide a number of showings of those leisure choices, the later showings are nearly all the time much less crowded. If you wish to keep away from ready a number of hours for a great view of Fantasmic, go on an extended day with a number of showings!
Equally, your sleep habits make a distinction right here. In case you’re an evening owl, days with shorter hours could also be a nasty thought, as by the point you roll away from bed, you might discover that you simply solely have a number of hours to benefit from the parks. Conversely, should you rise early and usually need to go away the parks by 7 pm or so, the shorter/much less busy days are nice occasions so that you can go to. Be sure you verify Disneyland’s park hours calendar when planning your journey. Whereas this calendar is topic to vary, it doesn’t change almost as a lot as Walt Disney World’s calendar, which is nearly by no means correct when first posted.
Particular Occasions
Disneyland doesn’t have almost as many particular occasions as Walt Disney World, however there are some occasions price planning for or round. Mainly, these occasions are the D23 Expo (each different yr, in direction of the tip of summer season or early fall), Homosexual Days (fall), HalloweenTime at Disneyland (late summer season and fall), CHOC stroll (fall), Holidays at Disneyland (fall and winter), and Grad Nites (spring).
On a private observe, our absolute favourite time to go to is throughout Christmas-time at Disneyland. The parks look attractive, there are particular attraction-overlays, and many seasonal meals accessible. You’ll be able to learn extra about Christmas-time at Disneyland in our in-depth information.
Refurbishments
Throughout Disneyland’s slower seasons, count on numerous points of interest to be closed for refurbishments and different development to be occurring. Not solely is upkeep and maintenance higher at Disneyland than Walt Disney World, however Disneyland additionally has a number of seasonal attraction overlays, which result in widespread points of interest prefer it’s a small world, Haunted Mansion, and Area Mountain being closed for a number of weeks every within the fall (and late-winter within the case of it’s a small world and Haunted Mansion).
Historically, January and February have been the most important months for attraction downtime, as these are the low-season for crowds. Nevertheless, it’s all the time sensible to seek the advice of refurbishment calendars to ensure your favourite points of interest are operational irrespective of while you go to. See our 2024-2025 Disneyland Refurbishment Calendar for particular dates that points of interest might be closed.
In case you should go to Disneyland when it’s busy (as is the case for a lot of with youngsters in class), it’s vital to have a great plan of assault while you go to the parks. Decide which points of interest are finest and those to expertise, work out the place you need to eat prematurely and dine at hours when the parks are busiest, and most significantly, arrive on the park earlier than it opens and get as a lot executed as you’ll be able to within the first few hours of operation when traces are a lot shorter than they are going to be later within the day.
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Suggestions for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Study on-site and off-site lodges in our Anaheim Lodge Evaluations & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Evaluations. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seashore, and tons of different locations!
Your Ideas
Do you’ve any favourite occasions of yr to go to Disneyland? Which particular occasions do you suppose are finest? Do you agree or disagree with our recommendation about Disneyland crowd calendars, California climate, particular occasions, college schedules, or the rest right here? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
