I have heard that crowd calendars for WDW parks were updated but have not heard anything about the DLR calendars. Is there an expected update for the DLR calendars since the SWGE opening announcements? I’ve been tracking days and there haven’t been any changes so I was wondering the status. Thanks!
Shortly after opening day was announced, June was adjusted especially for the days before the 20th or so when they had originally factored in SWGE to their calculations. They are holding off on adjusting July & beyond until they start to see how June (as they had mostly already figured in SWGE being open, but note that same as WDW, the CL is not meant to include the level at SWGE as they expect the land itself to be holiday level 10’s and beyond).
Thanks for the info. I do not particularly care to visit SWGE (it isn’t my thing). My main curiosity is for the CL’s for the rest of the DLR park areas. I know it is still far away but I am thinking more along the lines of crowds for the Oogie Boogie nights. So with that said, do they announce when the calendars are updated or should I just keep my eyes on them and track my days for changes???
There will be a blog post about any adjust CLs (the same blog that posts updates for WDW). I definitely recommend adding a trip for the dates you are looking at and then you’ll get email notifications of those days as you’ll be tracking them.
Thanks so much again. I have added a BUNCH of dates for tracking since not even Madame Leota could predict what will happen after SWGE opens up. I am hoping that some real data will come around for how SWGE affects the rest of the park areas since the crowds WITHIN that area is almost guaranteed to be jamming regardless of the day. While I’m at it, is there any projected time frame for the opening of Marvel in DCA besides just 2020? Maybe a season in 2020 even would be better than just hearing 2020…You seem to be a wealth of knowledge so I figured I’d ask the expert.
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Haha, so much of this!
Sadly, no word on any of this. My DS is eager for it to open too so we hope sooner rather than later. But since they didn’t start construction until late 2018 I doubt it will be open any earlier than late Summer/Fall 2020.
That is music to my ears! I am hoping to find a sweet spot in the CL’s between the opening of SWGE and the opening of Marvel-land (or whatever they decide to call it). So that gives me a year between the opening and hopefully the one crowd will die down before the next one opens up bringing in a whole-next-level crowd in DCA. As a frequent flyer, any time frame suggestions (open to any month, week, and days)???
The lowest CL’s are the ‘in-between’ times so if low is crowds is what you are after, very wise to be looking for a sweet spot between the 2 biggest draws for the next couple of years. And on a smaller scale there are tendencies for small lulls the weeks falling in-between events, for instance, in between Halloween & Christmas , in between Christmas and Lunar New Year, in between Lunar New Year and Food & Wine (done in the spring). And then spring after spring breaks/Easter but before the last couple weeks of any discount tickets they may offer at the very end of spring running until the week before Memorial Day (they’ve done this the last couple of years for just California residents and this year extended it to anyone with Californians getting slightly better deal but with the deal opened up to more than California it really attracted a unusually higher tourist crowd).
If you can luck into a week that isn’t likely to draw a large local crowd (one that is between events so they aren’t coming to see the decorations that just came up or try the food festival booths) and isn’t a typical vacation (ie over school breaks) those really tend to be among the lowest crowds.
One word of warning on chasing a low crowd season, more & more it tends to feel pretty crowded bc of the better pricing and less passholder blockouts. In addition to that, at low peak times, the parks are less staffed and more refurbishments are going on so not as much to absorb crowds when there aren’t the same amount of lines and running at the same pace as if they were fully staffed. And DLR has gotten very good at knowing how to draw their local base out with a new promotion, AP event, discount ticket pricing etc. so you can plan for a very typical low crowd time & get something like this added very close to your dates & it may throw it off.
So with that in mind, the days that have the most passes blocked, even if it is more usually peak season, tend to be really good medium days with fully operational parks. This is especially true in the summer and spring break as the pricing is at its highest for peak season and the annual pass blockouts at are their heaviest so it helps to balance out the crowds.
The weeks that I actually experienced the lowest crowds ever were when we had trips start on the last day of an event/holiday season but then continued on for 3-4 days after without any festival or holidays and were blissfully empty. One being Halloween and a few days after & the other being the last day of the Lunar New Year festival (which also happened to be Superbowl Sunday) and so the rest of the week in early Feb was bliss as far as crowds were concerned. Both trips had some headliners down for refurbs though so that was the trade-off and in the Feb trip the hours from 10am-8 or 9pm was just too short for us. We were ready to be at the parks another 3 hours with such early closes!
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Have you been at DL on Halloween day? I’ve looked at the historical calendars and it seems like the day of Halloween has unusually low crowds (except if it falls on a weekend), which seems sort of counter-intuitive to me as I would expect it to be very crowded that day. Would you expect that pattern to run true again this year even with SWGE opening and the party being shifted to DCA for Oogie Boogie???
Yes! We were at DL Halloween day on a Friday & the parks were very quiet most of the day (it was 2014 so 5 years ago now). And that weekend following it was also very quiet (we stayed until Monday), but there was also rain during the Halloween party and a little the next day so that might have really helped contribute.
But it does seem a lot of locals spend Halloween with their family/friends/neighborhoods. And any who want to do a Halloween party at DLR, come on party nights earlier than Halloween since Halloween is usually the most expensive party. We have yet to see exactly how DCA manages the party crowds since it’s changing, but my guess is that it will be about the same. And the party cost has gotten ridiculous. (It will literally be double the price we paid for a party 5 years in 2014).
You are literally such a wealth of knowledge it is amazing and SO helpful. I hope I am not taking advantage of your kindness but I still have questions…like, if we were to choose Halloween day for our party experience, it is enough to just purchase the party ticket and plan on entering at 2:00 when the park opens to party-goers? Or do you think a full-day ticket is necessary as well? If we were to do this we would also attend either a day before or after (maybe a couple days depending on work schedules) so it wouldn’t be necessary to try to do EVERYTHING in DCA on Halloween. And in your opinion, do you think the opening of SWGE will affect these holiday events and crowds? Or would you expect it be similar to previous years since the party is on the DCA side as well as the fact that SWGE will have been open for about 5 months at that point. Thanks so much!
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