Advice on Which Days? October 26th - 29th

Hello!

My gf and I are planning a trip from Friday Oct 26 through Monday Oct 29 with two days at DL/DCA.

We are for sure planning on going Monday the 29th (my birthday!) but undecided on the first day.

We are stuck between going on Friday the 26th or Sunday the 27th. Friday is predicted 5/10 crowd, but with a Halloween party that we don’t have admission to vs. Sunday with predicted 6/10 crowd, but with no Halloween party.

Any thoughts or advice on which of those two dates?

We are very crowd adverse, although not so much with crowds themselves, but wait times for rides.
We will get Maxpass.
We will be at rope drop each day.

Any input is appreciated :slight_smile:

Thank you!

Because of this my advice to you is to avoid the Halloween party night on Friday. DCA becomes a madhouse of humanity with rides that usually 10-15 min jumping to 30-45 min. We were there this last Friday & the lines for food were even 30-60 min. long so we just camped out for PtN & left just as soon as it ended to get a late dinner before retiring for the night. Someone else who was there that night described the crowds in DCA as being on par with the week between Christmas & New Year’s crowds (busiest week of the year) and I quite agreed with that sentiment!

Sunday will get busier as the day goes on because it’s a day a lot of APs can go (either living locally & don’t have to work OR who live close enough to make a quick weekend out of DLR with their AP like me & my family & what seems to be a growing number Disney fans in the western US). But even if it’s busy, the hours will allow you more time in the parks and if you have the stamina to go to the end of the day (I know you said you’ll be a rope drop which is very wise so not sure if you’ll be happy to burn both ends of the candle), the evening have potential to thin out as it gets later on Sunday (ie locals or weekend out of town APs having commitments to be getting home & get ready for on Monday morning).

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Do you think California adventure will be manageable on Halloween day. Crowd levels are only 2, so even if people come over late in the afternoon when the party starts it shouldn’t be too crowded. Or I am wrong?

I looked back at the crowd level for this last Friday (the night we were at DCA when the Halloween party was going on) and DCA was a 4 that day. CLs only measure the wait times until 5pm so that doesn’t consider the non-Halloween party guests with park hoppers that crowd once kicked out of DL.

When we arrived in DCA ~6pm Little Mermaid (typically only a 10-15 min maybe 25 min wait on the busiest of days) was 45 min posted. The Silly Symphony Swings (that I have never seen above 15 min) were 30 min posted wait. Every single food line was 30-60 min & mobile ordering was pushed out 20-30 min most places too. The very wide walkways in DCA were also completely flooded all the way from the entrance up the main path past & inside Carsland all the way to Paradise Gardens.

I have only ever seen the walkways that crowded one other time in DCA & that was on a Dapper Day that got crazy busy at night in both parks (DL closed to capacity for a bit right around when F! & FWs were starting cuz Main St was so crowded and so there were many people flooding into DCA instead). The CL was recorded as a 5 in DCA that day but again, that is only reflective of the wait times until 5pm. But the recent night where we did the Halloween party night felt even crazier than that Dapper Days night.

That being said, you can still manage your way in DCA on a Halloween party night, I would just recommend planning ahead of time to book your FPs for night, plan to eat early or have an ADR or have a late snack to keep you going until you leave for the hotel & set your expectation at a low level in terms of getting a lot done (ie enjoy more atmospheric, walk through attractions like Animation Building, enjoying Carsland neon lights & ambiance, Pixar Pier Preview at Blue Sky Cellar if open at night, not entirely sure on if it is).

Good advice - thank you! I am heading down to meet my daughter who is going to college in Redlands and now has a SoCal annual pass. We’re planning on going to the park October 26, and for once I’m buying a park hopper. LOL I was wondering how crazy it might be at DCA in the evening, so really appreciate your input. I think we will definitely invest in the max pass so that we can be sure to go on the rides we don’t want to miss. Maybe we’ll skip out of DL a little earlier too. Can’t wait! Have never been there for Fall/Halloween!

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