Need help deciding on date for DLR - 5/5 or 5/12

Need help deciding between two different weeks for Disneyland!

Option A: Sunday 5/5 arrival for 3 nights

Option B: Sunday 5/12 arrival for 3 nights

Ok, trying to decide…
Option A: Sunday 5/5 arrival for 3 nights (3.5 park days as we have late flight on departure night
Option B: Sunday 5/12 arrival for 3 nights (3.5 park days, same return flight)

Big difference is crowds on arrival day with 12th being higher, but park days are primarily going to be Mon-Wed (super late flight Wed night).

Overall, both look pretty comparable in crowds according to TP, some other sources flip flop back and forth on which should be less crowded and some articles reference “early-mid May” as low crowds, with “Mid-late” May moving to moderate. Hotel I’ve priced is same in either scenario…any thoughts?! Flights comparable too. Is 12th-15th still “early” and past 15th “mid” or is that already mid-May…lol. Either week works just as well for us…

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Locals can correct me if I am wrong, but I would aim for the earlier dates in the hope of avoiding the 8th grade “graduation” field trips. Having 20 of them cut in line in front of you at the Matterhorn is just not my cup of tea. Yes, their chaperones saved them a place in line. :unamused:

Oh do those take place as early as the week of the 12th? Good to know if so…

My disclaimer - I worked with 7 & 8 graders after raising 4 of my own. I have a really hard time when the adults in charge don’t make the students behave appropriately. So it’s best if I avoid times like these. :blush:
Or maybe they want me to tell them how to behave?

Anyway, I hope there are locals who can give an idea of when the field trips are most likely to happen.

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We’ve gone 2x early May & both times it’s had those 8th grade school groups that cfunkak speaks of (we haven’t had them cut before but they are plentiful in the walkways careless to anyone else trying to navigate through while they stand in a large group being teenagers). So I feel like either way it’s a toss-up for the weeks you are considering. The later dates probably have grad nights starting by then (maybe even the early dates too but I actually prefer the usually more mature grad crowd to 8th graders). Star Wars day on May 4th usually draws a lot of the local Star Wars crowd in as they will do special that day only photo ops in DL and so that can tend to be crowded.

So all this to say, they are such slight differences & will bring just about the same level of crowds so go with what works best for your life schedule!

We decided on the earlier of the two, 5/5! We’ve been the week before that and it was so not crowded, it was great, hoping one week doesn’t make a huge difference. Also, a friend in CA told me her kids have public school state testing that week; may not be the entire state but I’m sure they’re not the only ones, that should keep a lot of extra people out of the parks!

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Just came here to say me and my DS will be there 4th - 8th!

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Oh cool, you’ll be a day behind Star Wars day which is really the only impact I had figured for your dates. Happy planning for the rest of the trip details!

Editing to add: It might even be better for you going the week that you chose than the week earlier as the DCA Food & Wine Festival will wrap up at the end of April and the last day of anything as popular as the F&W seems to draw a large local audience.

Whee, woot! We’re heading down May 6-10 and at the parks 7th to 9th. We picked those dates to try to minimize crowds as much as possible.