Best day for Disneyland?

[Noah930]

My kids (they're grade school-aged) have been bugging Mrs. Noah and me to take them to Disneyland. For the past couple years. It's like we're delinquent parents for not fulfilling this basic American rite of passage. Doesn't help that a couple families with whom we go to school have season passes, so they go about once per month and through the beauty of modern social media my kids know it. Mrs. Noah abhors amusement parks; I'm of the take-in-or-leave-it camp, as there are other ways I'd rather spend several hundred dollars entertaining my kids. But we have a round of summer birthdays coming up, so the missus and I have decided to give in and go visit the House of the Mouse.

What's the best (least crowded?) day to go? 4th of July is a Friday, but I'd guess that would be a busy day. Midweek? Are Tuesdays the slowest day for Disney just like they are for restaurants and movie theaters?

[SilberUrS6]

I have heard that the very best weekend to go is Super Bowl weekend.

[Craig T]

Join the Mormon church and go on the LDS private day.

I don't know if they still do it, but I grew up on S. Heather Ln. at Katella and Walnut, literally 100 yards from the old Disneyland Hotel. We used to sneak into Disneyland every day via the Monorail stop at the hotel. BY FAR the least crowded day was the day the Mormon's booked the park. If they still do it, make a Mormon friend.

[LakeCleElum]

I researched this years ago when my daughter was little....Best day(s) are a weekday after Thanksgiving and B4 Mid-Dec......Worth taking the kids out of school for a few days....Never in the summer...

[Noah930]

Yes, a co-worker suggested the day of the Superbowl, but I was hoping for a date this summer, not next February.

May just have to chat up the Mormon family down the street... Or stop the missionaries next time I see them going door-to-door through our neighborhood. Would it be wrong to pretend to be interested in joining their team just to get into Disneyland?

[rusnak]

Have Hugh R leave a garden hose running. You can get work coveralls for the family (wife and kids too), and borrow a plumber's van. Show up and say, "Someone called about a water leak?".

[onewhippedpuppy]

Never I believe is the correct answer.

Worst vacation our family has taken was Orlando a few years ago, and Disney World was the straw that broke the camel's back. After spending about $500 to enter the park right when it opened on a week day, we spent the next 5 hours slowly shuffling about in the mob of other tourists and waiting in insanely long lines. By about 2 pm my kids were BEGGING to swim in the hotel pool. That was the point my wife and I decided - no more theme parks. The last three vacations have been to the beach, they don't even ask about theme parks anymore.

[Nostril Cheese]

Last time I went to Disneyland it was $85 per person plus $20 for parking. Spent close to $500 and spent most of the day standing in line.

[regency]

The 8th day of the week is best.

1973 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Steve

[chocolatelab]

Legoland

[JavaBrewer]

The LA house of mouse is part of my life. I don't like it but there it is. I had the most amazing date there...Tom Sawyers island... Many years later I took my then wife there for her first experience...she was raised back East and had never been. When our kids arrived we bought the SoCal season pass for a couple years...when they were still reasonable ($200/each). So I have spent some money there.

By far the best time to go is during the Christmas holidays right before everyone takes off. The park goes all out on decorations, the mood is really festive, and the weather is great. No lines or waiting is what you are looking for. As others have already stated it's worth it to take the kids out of school for the day or two, take a couple days off work, and go when others are busy.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by chocolatelab

Legoland

This.

[look 171]

Oour kids are the same age, and we've also been fighting it for a long time and finally, the past couple of years, we went to Disneyland. We decided to go on the days right before summer ended because LA school starts one week later then most smaller district. Oh, it was on a Wednesday. Lines were almost too short without any waiting until after lunch time. Even then, it was about 15 min. Space mt was the longest wait, over 30 minutes. Other then that, I don't think we step foot in Disneyland due to the excessive long wait. I hear the lines can be an hour long. I hated the idea of going there and stand all day.

[mikester]

We do legoland now occasionally.

In the past we could get the Socal Season passes for less than ~$200 which were good for every day except saturdays and the hottest parts of June/July/August. We used the heck out of those passes. I started buying them in like 2007 at ~$165 which at the time the lady who was at the counter in the park giving us our cards lamented that THEY didn't even get that good a deal. I was working for Mattel at the time. Over time the price climbed but we had them for a good three years when my youngest was born to when he was about 3 or 4 years old. By then we were paying regular price at around $300 per and that's when it stopped. It just got to be too much and though we went often and certainly got our money's worth we just couldn't spend $1000 for the passes for the 4 of us. I'm sure it's more than that now as regular price tickets are supposedly around $100. But for us we could go for the afternoon or the morning or if the boys had half a day at school she could take them for the rest of the day and have a good time on a couple of rides. It's better than trying to get it all done in a day and if that day is super crowded you're screwed with no recourse. Get the pass, go once a month on that pass get your money's worth. A day ticket unless you have been and only plan to do some of it is not a good way to spend your money. Go to legoland or knotts instead.

Disney IS fun but it can be terrible if all you have is a day pass and that day sucks.

There is also an iPhone app for the line waits. Not sure about android. Helps get to the short lines and plan a little bit during the trip. I wish we still had the passes, I really do enjoy the park. Maybe next year will be better...this year has been 'character building' from a sales perspective...

[aigel]

Best thing you can do is send your kids with friends who come to town to visit DL or have a season pass. One kid at a time. Butter them up with $$$. Invite the friends family over for dinner the next day for reciprocation. That's what we always did when we were living close to Anaheim. My kids are well behaved (much better when not with us), so never a problem. I have not set foot into DL. Only outside restaurant / strip mall area of Disneyworld once - no thanks.

G

[Dueller]

Surprisingly Easter sunday

[PorscheGAL]

I have only been to DisneyWorld but I assume that these work for both:

Get the DisneyLand App with wait times on your smartphone. It will let you check what current wait times are. Check a few days before. You will be able to see the rides that must be done first so you can avoid the long waits on the popular rides.

Make sure the kids know the stories. The Tom Sawyer Island was much more fun after my son knew the story.

If you don't mind the money: My son loved the pin swap. He had a lanyard with Disney Pins that he could go up to any Disney Cast member and swap one of his pins for one of theirs. You can get the pins cheap on ebay. It has the benefit of the kids knowing how to identify a person who can help them if they get separated from you.

My suggestion is to mentally relax. There are going to be people rushing through the park like maniacs trying to get to the next ride as quick as possible. That just adds unnecessary stress. There is plenty of time to see everything without all that.

Good luck.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Much as I like the place I think Matt has the right idea. The thought of paying a king's ransom to stand around crushed in claustrophobia-inducing crowds is pretty nuts. The last time I went there they were making a big deal about scanning peoples' fingerprints too. I was utterly aghast and almost turned on my heel and walked but they relented and actually let me buy my ticket without having to give up a fingerprint ID (how very kind of them...). I was really put off by it and have no plans to go back as a result. That crosses a line. Frankly I think the rides at Hershey Park or Six Flags are way better anyway (Hershey's coasters actually kick butt - I was pleasantly surprised last time).

I like Disney (and worked there many years ago) but they've gotten unabashedly abusive of the customers that are their life blood. Between the $100-a-ticket prices, the $20 burgers and $5 water bottles, hour+ long lines and all the rest I think I can do better: the fingerprint ID thing was the last straw; they're also REALLY pushing people to use RFID-encoded "bracelets" so they can profile you and your kids too, not to mention making it easier for them to sell overpriced stuff onto you without your thinking of it as an actual sale / transaction involving real cash (same reason casinos use "chips" - you're more likely to spend when it doesn't look / feel like real money). They require linking these things directly to your credit card "for your convenience" (*cough cough*) I'm sure all that data is perfectly secure in some third-party contractor's database in India or Pakistan too - at least until they decide to sell it all to Google or some other corporate data-miner who has your best interests at heart too, right? Sorry but enough is enough. It's bad enough they're using facial recognition cameras all over the place (there are some legit security reasons for this since Disney parks no doubt are a prime terrorist target) but again - I seriously doubt that's where it stops. Disney knows where the money is and isn't shy about going after it by whatever means necessary.

[dennis in se pa]

Take them on a cruise instead.

[biosurfer1]

"What day is the best to visit Disneyland in the summer?"

That has to be a joke. The LAST time we went to Disneyland in the summer was late July on a Tuesday (so it was a slow day) we had to push our way down Main Street, shoulder to shoulder, for the joy of waiting almost 2 hours for Indiana Jones. I think we got on maybe 4 rides that entire day. Space Mountain? Forget about it. Submarines? HA!

The best advice you'll get about going to Disney in the summer is to not do it, wait until November/December NOT during school vacations.