Locals, is it just me or is DL WAY more crowded lately?

[bisous]

I'm trying to figure out if my issue is that now I have three kids or if DIsney is just way more crowded and difficult because of the opening of Carsland. Usually when I come home from DL I'm totally refreshed and excited. I love DL! But the past few times I've just been exhausted and haven't been able to do nearly as much as before. I've come during the summer, on weekends, and on school days and all three have been super busy lately. I'm hoping this phenom will die down. I don't want the Disney love to die!

[lalasmama]

I've heard that CL is the reason for the increased crowds... which will likely continue for quite a while, I am sure. Realistically, with the AP blackouts all summer, AP'ers weren't able to see CL until just 2-3 months ago. And when you stop to consider how many AP'ers there are, added with the generally increased crowds wanting to wait until things have "calmed down", it makes sense that it's crazy.

We're headed there in Feb. SO's so-so about DL, but is willing to go because DD and I love DL so much. I'm so scared the crowds are still going to be bad, and that he's going to swear off DL just because of the crowds the first year after a major land opens...

[bisous]

Mimi, that makes sense. We actually visited DL during the summer but didn't get to ride RSR because of the crazy lines! When we went in October the line was still at least 2 hours long. But it is ONE COOL RIDE!

[Twoboos]

Mimi, do you really think it will still be a zoo in Feb? We are just starting to think about a trip to DL - which may or may not happen - but Feb is one of the times we could go. Looking at crowd predictors Feb seems to not be bad.

Does CL totally push it over the edge?

(The last time we went was over Easter break, which I clearly didn't factor in when planning. And I think it was band weekend or something. Totally insane. We used East Coast time in our favor and managed, but I'd like to avoid that if possible!)

[lalasmama]

Mimi, do you really think it will still be a zoo in Feb? We are just starting to think about a trip to DL - which may or may not happen - but Feb is one of the times we could go. Looking at crowd predictors Feb seems to not be bad.

Does CL totally push it over the edge?

(The last time we went was over Easter break, which I clearly didn't factor in when planning. And I think it was band weekend or something. Totally insane. We used East Coast time in our favor and managed, but I'd like to avoid that if possible!)

I *hope* it won't still be a zoo...but I'm expecting it will be. I think the whole first year of CL will be busy. I know some of it's calming down--you can get fast passes for the Racers until like 9:30am now! LOL! But, overall, I expect it to be bad. Plenty of people made special trips to see CL, but I think more people just chilled out to see it when it was their "normal time" to go to DL. (That's what we did, too--we wanted to see CL soooo bad, but thought that waiting until our annual trip in Feb would be better than trying to go during the initial crunch.)

I do think, in my researching, that it's not going to be "bad bad bad" like Leap Day or New Years Eve, of course. But I do think it's going to be a bit more busy. I wouldn't trust the "crowd calculators" since there's never been a ------- (fill in an upcoming month/season) with CL, ya know? There's never been a Christmas season with CL, there's never been a New Years with CL, there's never been a Ski Week with CL, there's never been a Spring Break with CL, so they just can't base predictions on prior months/years experiences without CL. CL is, for now, a "game changer," I think.

But, we're still excited to go. We've made plans to go the week after Ski Week (Presidents' Day's long weekend ends Ski Week this year, I have been told). We'll only be there 1 weekend day, so I'm hoping that careful touring early on in the week will allow us to just relax and do whatever on Saturday. I've planned this whole thing with "military precision spontaneity" (ie, SO won't realize I've planned the ride plans!). We'll see how it goes.

And really... no matter how busy it is when you're at Disneyland, you are still at DISNEYLAND, and so nothing can really be "bad"... well, unless they run out of Dole Whip or something.

[Twoboos]

Oh Jeez. We'd go at the Pres weekend time, that's Feb 18. Seriously, how bad can my timing be?! ;) But you said that's the end of Ski Week, so that craziness would be reduced? Hmmmm.

And you're right, DL is DL!! We had a blast last time, even being exhausted and waking at 3am and the crowds and poor sick DD2 hurling 5 minutes before meeting Rapunzel, and me refusing to leave the coveted first spot in the meet & greet line we waited in for nearly 90mins! :rotflmao:

[Gracemom]

We went in October, and only the weekends were really crowded. Totally doable if you can go on a weekday. Sunday afternoon was the craziest. We left and went to rest at the hotel and came back at night, when the crowds died down. My best advice is to get there early, get fastpasses, and enjoy the first couple hours in the park where the crowds are the lightest. We were there for 4 days and got to do 90% of what we wanted to do. It was a great trip!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Wait up, so the 14th of Feb. would be worse than the 19th? Ugh. I'm still going with the 14th, I think.