Questioning which days of the week to go to Disneyland and Disney California Journey for the bottom crowds? This information covers which dates have the bottom and highest wait instances, plus commentary about weekdays vs. weekends, Halloween & Christmas seasons, how SoCal ticket offers influence day by day attendance, and extra. (Up to date April 5, 2025.)
In relation to selecting the very best and worst instances to go to Disneyland, there’s lots to think about. If you happen to’re planning a journey that can embody a number of days–together with weekdays and weekends, we suggest consulting our 2025 Disneyland Crowd Calendars to decide on journey dates as a substitute of this. That will get up to date pretty repeatedly, with every particular person month receiving a refresh proper earlier than it begins for optimum accuracy.
If you happen to’re searching for a useful resource to plan a weeklong trip to Southern California primarily based on crowds & congestion, climate, particular occasions, and extra, see our 10 Finest and 10 Worst Weeks to Do Disneyland in 2025 & 2026. That record emphasizes Disneyland, but in addition takes under consideration seashores, cities, Nationwide Parks, and different in style factors of curiosity in California. Truthfully, I like that extra than crowd calendars for selecting dates. If you happen to’re a Californian or are “solely” doing a number of days at Disneyland and wish to choose the optimum ones, this covers which days of the week to do every park…
For a lot of the final three years, standard day of the week knowledge for Disneyland has been irrelevant or flat out fallacious. Capability constraints and the introduction of park reservations have been large components. Though park reservations are longer wanted to restrict attendance for normal ticket holders more often than not, they’re nonetheless getting used to redistribute crowds and normalize numbers.
Even when completely nothing about Disneyland and have by no means visited in your life, you possibly can most likely guess which days native Annual Passholders would naturally gravitate to the parks: Saturdays and Sundays. These are the times folks have off work and college, so these are the times they have been proportionately extra more likely to do Disneyland, all else being equal.
A number of years in the past, Saturdays and Sundays (plus Friday nights) have been the busiest days of the week. Whereas that is nonetheless true to an extent, the issue is that each one else is not equal.
Even earlier than, Annual Passes had extra blockout dates that more and more tried to push locals away from weekends. That labored to an extent, and natural demand was manipulated and crowds have been unfold out all through the week. Emphasis on ‘to an extent.’ There was no excellent approach to handle attendance with surgical precision, and weekends nonetheless have been busier. That’s the pure finish consequence with theme parks which are extra reliant on locals than vacationers many of the yr. Visiting patterns may solely be shifted a lot by way of blockouts.
In the previous couple of years, park reservations have supplied far more surgical precision than up to now. These work in tandem with Magic Key Annual Passholder blockouts to additional restrict the times that many locals can go to. Sometimes, park reservations for weekends refill first for Magic Keyholders. And once more, that is on prime of blockout dates, throughout which they’re unable to go to completely.
These blockouts have gotten extra aggressive, with half of the tiers of Magic Keys being blocked out most (or all) weekends and one other tier having weekend blockouts in the course of the Halloween and Christmas seasons. Solely the highest tier doesn’t have weekend-specific blockouts, however it’s blocked your entire two weeks round Christmas and New Yr’s Eve.
These Magic Key blockouts and reservation limitations have really been too efficient and too aggressive. The tip result’s that, on common, the busiest days of the week have now flip-flopped. Saturdays and Sundays are actually much less busy on common, whereas Mondays and Tuesdays have turn into the 2 busiest days of the week.
So for those who’re planning a multi-day Disneyland trip and wish the quick and candy reply about when to go to that will likely be true most of the time, the reply is to go to Disneyland or Disney California Journey Thursday, Friday and Sunday; and keep away from Saturday, Mondays via Wednesdays.
Primarily based upon common wait instances over the course of your entire yr, Fridays and Sundays are objectively the very best days to do Disneyland and DCA, adopted carefully by Thursdays. Saturdays and Mondays are busiest, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays just about equally within the center.
If you need the comparatively fast reply with out complicated caveats, there you could have it. If you need easy recommendation with out studying additional, we suggest visiting Disneyland and Disney California Journey on Thursday and Fridays for those who solely have 2 days to go to. That’s a rule of thumb that’ll apply most of the time and prevent additional studying.
With that stated, there’s extra nuance to the suggestions than that, and these generalizations don’t at all times maintain true. That’s since you’re visiting on precise days and never an common of all days. On prime of that, we’ve a number of instances of the week that we actually love visiting Disneyland.
The subsequent largest predictor of whether or not the above is true is blockouts. In a nutshell, the extra blockouts, the extra seemingly it’s that the above will maintain true. When Saturdays and Sundays are aggressively blocked out to Annual Passholders, the weekends turn into much more enticing to everybody else. When they aren’t blocked out, the weekends turn into much less enticing.
We’re not going to run via your entire calendar to inform you when that is or isn’t the case. That may most likely find yourself being extra complicated and in the end counterproductive. As an alternative, discuss with Disneyland’s Magic Key Blockout Calendar. Particularly, it’s best to search for the blockouts on the Consider, Enchant, and Think about tiers.
When the Consider is blocked out on weekends, these will likely be good days so that you can go to; when the Think about tier is blocked out on Thursday or Fridays, these will likely be good days. Conversely, the Mondays via Wednesday will likely be even worse throughout those self same timeframes.
It’s not simply Magic Key APs, although. The opposite actually large issue is low cost tickets for Californians. These are usually supplied twice per yr, one within the winter and spring for Southern California residents and one other in the summertime and fall for all Californians.
These are sometimes blocked out on weekends–both Saturday and Sunday or Friday via Sunday. If the present ticket offers aren’t blocked out, then Saturday and Sunday would be the worst dates throughout your go to. You may see present ticket offers right here. If you happen to don’t wish to trouble present ticket offers and have flexibility as to when you possibly can go to, we’d suggest simply ruling out Saturdays and Sundays throughout the board.
The opposite main wrinkle right here is that crowds noticeably improve over the past couple weeks that these tickets are legitimate. Californians scramble to make use of these tickets earlier than they expire, leading to a surge of crowds within the final couple of weeks (often late Might and late September, as that’s when the ticket offers wrap up).
You may suppose that this wouldn’t occur as a result of Disneyland nonetheless makes use of reservations to manage park attendance and stop overcrowding. However you’d be fallacious. Whereas your logic can be sound, what we’ve really noticed in follow is that Disneyland “magically” finds extra capability and refills the reservations throughout these timeframes.
Different contributing components are whether or not faculty is in session and if it’s California’s vacationer season. To ensure that Mondays via Wednesdays to actually be dangerous, there must be an ample pool of individuals to go to the parks throughout these instances. If faculty is again in session for Southern California districts and out of state vacationers are much less more likely to go to, there won’t be a lot of a distinction between weekends and weekdays.
An excellent illustrative instance is late January via mid-February, after MLK Weekend however earlier than Presidents’ Day. College is in session in the course of the week for Los Angeles and Orange County and it’s the least in style time of the yr for vacationers to go to Southern California. Throughout this stretch, there’s far much less demand for weekdays and there are fewer weekend blockouts. Consequently, there’s minimal distinction between weekdays and weekends. In actual fact, weekends are sometimes busier, particularly with ticket offers that aren’t blocked out on weekends.
Conversely, if many faculties all through California, the West, or your entire nation are out of session, there are greater than sufficient vacationers to create a significant distinction between weekdays and weekends. These are additionally the instances of the yr when Mondays via Wednesday are absolutely the worst days to go to–vacationers usually arrive over the weekend and make their park days Mondays via Wednesdays.
Yet one more variable to think about is Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Celebration throughout August, September and October. On dates when this occasion happens, Disney California Journey closes early. In consequence, DCA affords much less worth to vacationers they usually are likely to flock to Disneyland on Halloween Celebration days.
The converse can also be true: on non-party days, vacationers disproportionately do DCA, and Disneyland is much less busy. We often suggest Park Hopper tickets at Disneyland Resort as a result of Park Hopping is very easy, however that’s doubly true throughout Oogie Boogie Bash season. The optimum strategy goes in opposition to the grain–doing DCA on occasion days till about 4 pm, after which Park Hopping over to Disneyland for the remainder of the night. Then begin at Disneyland on non-party days.
Talking of Halloween, the guts of each that and the vacation season could be a large exception. These instances of yr are tremendously in style with locals who will flock to the park on weekends. Conversely, exterior of the vacation weeks and college breaks (which incorporates fall breaks in October–don’t neglect that one), it’s not vacationer season in California. The tip result’s one other inversion of the new-normal, and busier weekends than weekdays in the course of the off-peak weeks.
Confused but?! An illustrative instance of instances when weekends are more likely to be worse can be mid-November or early December–home windows when there aren’t any adjoining holidays or faculty breaks. Against this, the Monday or Tuesday of Thanksgiving week will nearly definitely be busier than the Sunday instantly earlier than that Monday, or the Sunday after it. (Does that make a bit extra sense?)
Lastly, there’s another caveat we’ve so as to add. Disneyland usually solely has nighttime spectaculars with pyro on Friday via Sunday nights. This implies a few issues, with the plain being that it’s best to do considered one of as of late if you wish to see the nighttime spectacular ‘with fireworks’ as a substitute of ‘with projections.’
The opposite is that there’s a ton extra congestion round Major Road USA on these nights, as way more folks wish to see the ‘with fireworks’ model. So though weekends are usually much less busy, you’ll encounter the worst ‘looks like’ crowds of your entire week on and round Major Road across the fireworks. (Conversely, rides have decrease wait instances shortly earlier than, throughout, and after the fireworks on these nights as a result of numerous visitors are congregating in a number of areas for fireworks.)
We acknowledge that it is a lot to digest. That’s as a result of there are a ton of various variables that influence day of week suggestions, and no exhausting and quick rule all through your entire yr regardless of what may be gleaned from averages. So we figured we’d run via the components with some ‘train you to fish’ pointers slightly than doing the fishing for you.
With that stated, there are a pair extra issues we’re going to debate…
How A lot Does Day of the Week Matter?
Over the course of your entire yr, the common wait time distinction between the worst day (Monday) and finest day (Friday) is 5 minutes. That will not appear to be a lot, however a 5 minute distinction on each attraction provides up. Over the course of the day, it will probably quantity to an additional few rides–not less than, in concept.
Nevertheless, it’s not often a 5 minute distinction. As famous above, there are some weeks of the yr when the variations are nearly nonexistent, and others when the hole is far more pronounced. It largely relies upon upon the diploma of blockouts and whether or not weekdays have faculty breaks.
Past that, there are additionally time of day variations. For instance, the common Friday isn’t going to see constant crowd ranges all through the day. It’s going to begin gradual (particularly if faculty is in session!) and get progressively busier as locals get off work and head to the parks. So that you may encounter extremely low crowd ranges to begin the day, however reasonable to excessive ones by the top of the evening.
There’s additionally usually far more of a distinction in crowds between weeks slightly than inside them. Accordingly, selecting an excellent time to go to Disneyland is considerably extra vital than the way you allocate your days throughout the week.
Much more vital is arriving early, which is the best approach to beat crowds at Disneyland. Because of visitor demographics, wait instances improve over the course of the day–Disneyland crowds are usually far more late-arriving than Walt Disney World crowds. And as talked about above, that’s much more pronounced when faculty is in session and it isn’t California’s vacationer season.
Simply as essential is having savvy technique. Selecting a fantastic day or week to go to could make touring the parks considerably simpler, however so can also having an excellent itinerary that zigs when others zag. Then there’s the choice of shopping for your manner out of crowds with Lightning Lanes, which is one other good fail secure possibility.
Selecting the very best days of the week–and avoiding the worst ones–at Disneyland is low precedence within the grand scheme of planning and comes after all of these issues. Truthfully, if I have been doing a Southern California trip that included days on the finest seashores close to Disneyland or Common Studios Hollywood, I’d prioritize site visitors (typically decrease on weekends) or crowds at these locations (typically larger on weekends) over Disneyland day-of-week crowd developments. In different phrases, there are a variety of shifting components to think about!
With all of that stated, these finest & worst Disneyland day of week suggestions may be helpful for these boxed into lower than superb journey dates as a result of faculty or work schedules. Similar goes for anybody who realistically gained’t have the choice to reach early or keep late. There’s a motive these instances are most advantageous–as a result of it’s merely not possible for a lot of households with babies.
Ditto anybody who doesn’t wish to pay additional for Lightning Lanes on precept, or as a result of it’s not of their trip price range. For anybody this describes, rigorously selecting days of the week for every park can relieve some stress and lead to shorter wait instances. The underside line is that selecting the very best days of the week and avoiding the worst ones can matter, however often not that a lot.
Furthermore, day of the week suggestions are fairly straightforward to disrupt. We already coated a few of the causes for this above. Different components that can not be deliberate round embrace dangerous climate (Southern Californians are petrified of rain) or inordinate attraction downtime. Both of these issues may be sufficient to show a “dangerous” day right into a “good” one when it comes to wait instances, or vice-versa.
We understand that a variety of that is conditional to the purpose that it nearly is likely to be ineffective. (Sorry!) With that in thoughts, I’ll allow you to in on a number of of our favourite “secret” instances to go to Disneyland. (They aren’t actually secrets and techniques, however that sounds cooler, proper?!)
The primary is rope dropping the parks on Friday. As talked about above, that is usually the slowest day of the week and it’s disproportionately much less crowded early within the day. Do as many high-priority rides as potential very first thing, after which swap gears because the crowds begin to materialize. Do much less in style sights, a desk service dinner, or maybe a night exterior the parks.
Second, do Sunday nights. In a manner, that is the “reverse” of the Friday recommendation. As an alternative of locals arriving late to begin their weekend, they’re leaving early to wrap up their weekend and put together for the upcoming faculty or workweek. This actually solely “works” for those who’re capable of keep till the bitter finish, however these closing few hours between round 9 pm and midnight are pure bliss!
Lastly, our absolute favourite days to go to Disneyland are when it’s wet. If there’s any quantity of precipitation within the forecast, disregard all different day of week recommendation, drop all the things you’re doing and head to Disneyland. That line about Californians being petrified of rain may learn as a joke, but it surely very a lot isn’t.
We attempt to make some extent of visiting when it’s raining–that is one large manner that Disneyland could be very totally different from Walt Disney World. Floridians and vacationers are completely nonplussed by any climate wanting a hurricane. They continue to be undeterred, and proceed visiting in full drive. In the meantime, Californians will keep residence if there’s even a slight drizzle. Clearly, you possibly can’t actually plan for this–and it’s very rare–but when it’s even sprinkling a bit, it’s best to get to the parks!
Truthfully, these previous couple of random time of day ideas are most likely higher and extra reliably good recommendation than everything of the day of the week suggestions. However we’ve had lots of people ask about this, and the issue is that it’s not as easy because the averages suggest (and even as is the case at Walt Disney World) as a result of these pesky locals!
In the end, that’s our recommendation for selecting the very best days of the week to go to and avoiding the worst. So as to add yet one more complicating issue, the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration begins on Might 16, 2025 and runs via Summer season 2026. That leans closely on nighttime leisure, together with the return of Paint the Evening Parade. It’ll seemingly make evenings and weekends much more in style with locals!
To reiterate the quick and candy of our recommendation from the highest, we’d suggest visiting Disneyland on Thursday and Friday for those who’re nonetheless uncertain of what to do after studying all that. If you happen to’re including one other day, you possibly can both do Sunday (objectively higher on common) or Wednesday. Whereas we love Sunday nights when the locals begin clearing out, the center of the week might be much less “dangerous,” particularly when contemplating the unknown of the seventieth celebration crowd patterns.
It’s additionally value underscoring that this recommendation is fairly removed from make or break. You’re a lot better off utilizing the different assets on this weblog to decide on good months or weeks to go to. If that’s not an possibility (and even whether it is), keep in mind to reach early or keep late. Failing that, use our itineraries to prioritize sights in the very best order. Don’t wish to try this for some odd motive, spend the cash on Lightning Lanes and purchase your manner out of strains. If you happen to’d slightly not spend cash and drift throughout a midday-only go to…I suppose that is the very best recommendation for you!
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Ideas for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Study on-site and off-site inns in our Anaheim Lodge Evaluations & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Evaluations. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seaside, and plenty of different SoCal cities!
Your Ideas
Which days are your favorites for Disneyland and Disney California Journey? If you happen to’re a neighborhood, have you ever observed a shift from weekends being busier to weekdays being busier within the period of Magic Key (and different ticket) reservations? Do you agree or disagree with our recommendation? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
