We were at Disneyland Feb 2016 and had a fantastic trip. There was a handful of closures, but most we didn’t mind. We planned a trip for Feb 1-6 this year and I cannot believe how many things are closing in January!! My oldest child will be crushed when she learns that California Screaming will be gone. She was an inch too short last year. They are all princess lovers so Ariel’s grotto will be another big disappointment. I really have no question to pose in this post, just venting my frustrations. I hope some of the January closures will be back up by Feb 1!! I know a lot of paradise pier will not be back up, but how long are Dumbo, grizzly river, and splash mountain usually down for refurbishment, Does anyone have any encouraging information?!?!
We planned a late January trip. I’m right there with you. Pretty frustrating when you make plane reservations that you can’t cancel, then they announce some really big closures during the time you will be there. GRR is our favorite ride. I hope it is just a quick fix - especially since so much of Paradise Pier will be down. If you go look at the attractions on the Touringplans website, (open a specific attraction) down in the lower right there is a ‘refurbishments’ link. Click on that and it will show you the historic down times for that specific ride. I talked to a CM last week, when making the final payment on our trip (we can’t cancel the flights, so pretty much have to go) and she said the CM calendar goes through February and she didn’t see GRR open in Feb. I surely hope she is wrong and things change. Until then, I just keep stalking the Disneyland website for updated hours.
Last Feb GRR was closed our whole trip the first week of Feb. Hopefully its up and running for you!
The crowd levels are usually very nice and low that time of year but unfortunately, that means Disneyland uses that opportunity to close down lots & do most major refurbs. The last 4 years we have always seen Splash & GRR down from mid-Jan to mid-Feb at the very least. One year we even saw all of Grizzly Peak closed at the same time & another year all of Critter Country during that time. In 2015 when they were getting ready for the Diamond Celebration it seemed like so much of both parks was down at that time: castle was scaffold-ed, Matterhorn was down for a lengthy refurbishment in addition to Splash & all of Grizzly Peak with GRR & Soarin’ & Peter Pan was about to be down for a lengthy refurb. We went right before Peter Pan closed down fto make sure we saw it one last time before any drastic changes.
The best bit of encouragement I can give is that I feel like Feb 2016 had a quite a bit more closed down including Autopia, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, IASW for removal of the holiday overlay plus the Railroad & all Rivers of America attractions were still down. So a lot of ‘people-eater’ type attractions. So I know that for 2018 it might feel like more of your favorites will be down but overall there should be more capacity for attractions to be absorb people which will make your wait times more enjoyable. In my 4 years of avidly paying attention & pretty frequent visits to DLR, I’ve never seen Dumbo down so that one is new. My hunch is that because it has been some time it will be a longer one. But hopefully it just doesn’t require a ton of maintenance and they are able to have it back up by your early Feb dates.
I’m also super bummed about Screamin’ as my son is in the same boat being still too short (by less than an inch with shoes though) & we aren’t going back before Jan 8th to try for one last time to see if he is tall enough. Everyone keeps telling me that the ride will still be the same ride, just a new theme/new music etc. so maybe you can help her avoid being sad by encouraging her that next trip for sure she will be tall enough & it shouldn’t be down (I don’t think it’s ever been down for refurbishment since it opened, of if so very very short refurbs). She might even like the Incredibles theme better than its current theme (which I suspect most kids will).
Thanks! I know that we risk having a lot of stuff down in February, but I loved the crowd levels! Last year it didn’t seem to bother me that much since it was my first trip as an adult. I didn’t realize what I was missing. This year I know more and so it seems so much more disappointing. Thanks for the encouraging words!
I’m glad I read this post. I have a business trip to San Diego in January and was considering adding a weekend to the end for a DLR visit. I think I’ll pass…
Even with everything down, I would still choose to go at this time of year. We live in a very cold climate and so we LOVE the “warm” (the coldest months for disneyland around 67 degrees) and lower crowd numbers. We rarely stood in lines longer than 15 min.
I wholeheartedly agree with @mikeandcynthia22! In the times that we have been end of Jan/early Feb we have always still had an amazing time.There’s not many other times at midday that you can soak in the atmosphere of New Orleans Square, beignet & mint julep in hand with hardly any other people around than anyone else in your touring group. I just wouldn’t recommend it for first or once in a lifetime trip scenarios.
I’ve spent over 50 days at DLR over the years that I spent in San Diego, at all times of the year. I fully agree that the crowds and temps are ideal in Jan (which was one of the reasons I considered adding a day or two on to my upcoming trip). But I think I’ll save the $500-600 and put it toward a posible Spring WDW trip. And I live in northern FL, so the weather isn’t that much of a draw…
You have more willpower than I. If I were in that scenario I would be saying “Well, I’ll be saving myself some good cash by getting the Premier Annual Pass so that I can enjoy both coasts with the time I will have to devote to touring both the happiest & most magical places on earth.”
Samesies! Wait, I already do this and I live nowhere near either coast! 
Missed you guys in the parks this past weekend, it’s one of the few times I have been to DLR and haven’t seen you guys! Hopefully next spring.
I also don’t live all that close to either coast, but one day, one day I’m sure we’ll convince ourselves of the same.
We missed you guys too! We really are trying to be good & slow our roll, otherwise, we would have been there too. There was even a pin release in Hollywood over the weekend. Usually if that’s the case, the hubby is all too willing to make a trip work in our budget. So see, we have some restraint??? (But may already have countdown plans for January…)