We decided to take the family to Disneyland from 1/19/17-1/21/17 because the crowd calendar said it would be dead (1 on 1/19 & 1/20 and 5 on 1/21). When searching for hotels I was having a hard time finding anything around Disney available. I was curious why but couldn’t find a reason. Now I just found out that’s the weekend of the premiere of the Main Street Electric Parade. The crowd calendar still shows the same low numbers. What do you guys think?
I think it will be packed that weekend. Do not trust the crowd calendars for DL, they have been off pretty significantly for at least 18 months. The locals will come in droves over the weekend to see the MSEP. I am pretty sure there hasn’t been a 1 on a Friday in years. There is a huge NAMM convention that weekend as well which is why the hotels are either booked or are very expensive, said my friend who just booked the special MSEP party on 1/19. It will still be a fun time to be there, but go expecting high crowd levels. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Like @Wahoohokie I also agree it will be pretty packed; however, if you aren’t interested in the parade, avoid the parade route /Main Street and you may just get some very quiet and short(er) waits, but definitely not as low as a 1. You would have to go midweek in mid-Jan or Feb to see a true 1. I expect that a 5 will be much more accurate for both days. Also, to remember, TouringPlans recently adjusted the numbers behind the 1-10 levels so that 1’s would still demonstrate the least busiest time to go and 10’s would be the most crowded/packed times.