Shortly after sharing our record of the Finest & Worst Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026, I began engaged on the identical factor for Disneyland and Disney California Journey. Not since the newest replace–because it was first printed. That was roughly 18 months in the past and I’m nonetheless not even near completed.
It’s a useful resource we actually like and, to be trustworthy, assume is healthier than typical crowd calendars. It’s the kind of factor we share with household and mates once they ask questions on selecting dates. We’ve been attempting to do extra like that, akin to our record of the Finest 24 Eating places at Disneyland. I’ve additionally been toying with one for resorts in Anaheim that simply shares the place we keep most frequently for enjoyable now that we’ve got a child. However I digress.
The explanation such an inventory of the Finest & Worst Weeks to Go to Disneyland in 2025 & 2026 has not but come to fruition is as a result of California crowds haven’t but “settled down” to the identical extent as Florida patterns. Properly, they did briefly this yr. To not pre-closure norms, however shut sufficient that I used to be comfy with qualitative week suggestions, and was on observe to lastly publish the record final week. However now, it’s again to the drafting board…
For those who’ve already learn the newest replace to our 2025 Disneyland Crowd Calendar, you already know the place that is going. In case not, Disneyland crowds are in all probability going to develop into unpredictable over the course of the following 18 months, to the purpose that we’d warning towards over-reliance on any crowd calendars, ours included.
The aim of this put up is to stroll you thru my fascinated with how Disneyland crowds may play out in 2025, discussing the distinctive circumstances for this yr, and attempting to attract some semblance of conclusions. Truthful warning: this can be a thinking-out-loud train, providing my perception and rationales, however not definitive conclusions. With that, let’s dig into the components.
First, the 2025 Southern California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal is a lot higher than final yr, seeing a really uncommon worth lower–and an enormous one. In a traditional yr, the superior financial savings would entice locals who haven’t visited shortly or received priced out of Annual Passes to make a return.
On prime of that, there’s additionally the recently-announced Disneyland children ticket supply for 2025, which is on the market for all households–vacationers and residents of Southern California alike. This affords children admission for $50 per day between January 7 and March 20, 2025.
These offers would usually be a powerful sign for increased crowds. The identical children ticket deal was supplied final yr, and it was tremendously well-liked. The stretch beginning with President’s Day and Ski Week had 8/10 and seven/10 crowd ranges, and the ultimate week of the promotion had a 9/10 crowd degree and is the #3 worst week of the yr (for now). Anecdotally, we noticed a noticeable enhance in strollers and households across the parks through the closing few weeks of the promotion.
Second, there’s the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration, which runs Could 16, 2025 by Summer time 2026. Right here’s a rundown of what’s debuting or returning in 2025 for this 18-month occasion:
- World of Colour: Happiness
- Paint the Evening Parade
- Wondrous Journeys Fireworks
- Higher Collectively: A Pixar Buddies Celebration!
Head over to our Information to the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration to learn much more element about what’s to return for the enormous celebration. Now we have full particulars about all of that, plus the brand new Walt Disney – A Magical Life stage present that’ll debut for Summer time 2025, and extra!
Disneyland’s seventieth Anniversary additionally must be a powerful sign for considerably increased crowds beginning that date. In a traditional yr, vacationers and locals who go to sometimes would postpone their park days till the celebration began.
Nevertheless, these two “robust alerts” of upper crowds are in direct battle with each other. Need to guess when the SoCal resident deal ends? Could 15, 2025. Actually the day earlier than the seventieth kicks off. It’s a extremely savvy transfer by Disneyland, however one which wrecks crowd calendars.
So on the one hand, there’s an aggressive ticket deal to begin the yr that might induce visits. However, there’s a cause why this deal is rather more aggressive than regular. Disneyland followers and even informal Southern California guests (and definitely out-of-state vacationers) would possibly wish to delay visits till Could 16, 2025 and later, even when it’s costlier to take action.
The underside line is that there are countervailing components, and so they’re two enormous ones that might usually have outsized impacts and be bullish indicators for bigger crowds. It’s attainable that’s true this yr, too, and that the ticket offers draw cut price hunters and the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary attracts a separate viewers of Annual Passholders (who already paid for his or her admission) together with celebration fanatics.
Frankly, that is what I’d usually predict–that Disneyland would merely see heavier crowds because it attracts from two distinct swimming pools of visitors. In 2025, I’m much less inclined to consider that would be the case. That will require a year-over-year enhance in attendance, and that’s a daring guess as pent-up demand has burning out.
When fascinated with the vary of outcomes, I’m reminded of early 2015, which not-so-coincidentally was a decade in the past. Within the lead-up to Disneyland’s sixtieth Anniversary, the corporate principally threw the towel in on the primary a number of months of the yr.
Sleeping Magnificence Citadel was behind scrims for a lot of the winter and the moat was drained. As Disney did infrastructure work to organize for the brand new Disneyland Ceaselessly fireworks, the park offered the a lot shorter and old skool “Fantasy within the Sky” fireworks.
There have been simply a half-dozen “vital” sights in every park that had been down, from the traditional winter closures of water rides to uninstalling seasonal overlays to doing different plussing at Fantasyland darkish rides, as that was one of many advertising factors of the Diamond Celebration.
There have been additionally a bunch of placemaking initiatives, together with the conversion of Condor Flats to Grizzly Peak Airfield (closing off a big part of the entrance of DCA). If I recall accurately, there have been no nighttime spectaculars (other than “Fantasy within the Sky”) offered in both park.
What I do keep in mind had been the complaints on social media. Individuals would put up pictures of the scrims or record of ‘quickly unavailable’ sights posted exterior ticket cubicles, and bemoan the truth that Disney was charging full worth for admission. Nearly all of whom had been locals with Annual Passes, however they however had some extent.
What I additionally keep in mind is how superb this was. The parks had been completely useless. Not simply mild crowds, however useless useless, with attendance extra just like the post-reopening interval at Walt Disney World in 2020, lengthy earlier than “revenge journey” was a factor.
We had been newly-minted Disneyland locals, and we took full benefit of being inside driving distance of Disney for the primary time. We additionally didn’t actually care about rides being down or development partitions. We wished the locals’ expertise of hanging round, and we positive received it. Our #1 attraction throughout that interval was the “Operating of the Goats” and we in all probability spent extra time sitting round Rancho del Zocalo and Flo’s V8 Cafe than we did using something.
To not get too far off-topic, however it was only a totally different period. We attended one thing referred to as “Wednesdays with Walt” each week, and received to partake in free AP events celebrating Indiana Jones Journey, Dixieland at Disneyland, Disney Parks Blogs Meetups, and extra. Consider this stuff just like the Disneyland After Darkish events now, besides free and higher.
There’s the temptation to foretell that the lead-up to Disneyland’s seventieth Anniversary will likely be similar to the lead-up to Disneyland’s sixtieth Anniversary. The circumstances will not be fairly the identical, however they’re comparable.
Nevertheless, it is a completely totally different period. The explanation I went on that tangent above is to underscore simply how a lot has modified with Disneyland. These occasions that had been free then would price $150 as we speak. Go forward and search for Annual Go costs–or don’t, except you wish to be depressed. Ditto SoCal ticket offers. FastPass was free. There was no Galaxy’s Edge, and the goats had been operating freely.
Clearly, Disneyland is and all the time has been a enterprise. But when there’s one distinction between then and now, it’s that the revenue motive is now entrance and heart, the primary and arguably solely precedence. Every part has been optimized to squeeze visitors for as a lot cash is feasible.
One other method this period is totally different is that we’re more and more see visitors be extra attentive to pricing and planning their visits round reductions or dates when tickets are cheaper. This didn’t exist within the lead-up to the sixtieth Anniversary. Fairly actually, as Disneyland didn’t introduce seasonal (worth, common, peak) ticket pricing till the next yr.
Extra to the purpose, we haven’t actually seen date-based ticket pricing (now with way more tiers) having a major redistributive impact on crowds at Disneyland till the final couple of years. That’s in all probability as a result of the associated fee distinction is not pretty insignificant–the vary is presently $104 to $206. That’s proper, the most costly day is sort of double the price of the most affordable!
Throughout these final two years or so, the affect of cheaper dates on crowd ranges has been rather more pronounced. Whether or not that be by way of precise ticket reductions, dates with tiers at cheaper costs, and even decrease tiers of Annual Passes being unblocked.
We’ve actually observed that this yr, particularly because the begin of Halloween season. Within the closing 5 months of the yr, the perfect predictor of year-over-year crowd ranges has been costs. For instance, it had been the case that October was extremely busy regardless of increased costs over the course of the final a number of years.
With Halloween beginning in August for the primary time ever this yr, we noticed demand pulled ahead to dates with cheaper costs and ticket offers. October nonetheless had loads of average to excessive crowd dates, to make certain, however parts of August and September had been comparatively busier, exceeding expectations.
To make certain, peak season dates round Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Yr’s Eve, Ski Week, and Easter are nonetheless each busy and costly. There’s a lot demand for these transient faculty breaks that even sky excessive costs isn’t sufficient to dissuade sufficient individuals from visiting. These are the exception, somewhat than the rule, although.
These developments are actually extra in regards to the comparatively random days which are considerably kind of costly than adjoining dates. There are days in early November, for instance, which have worth season costs proper earlier than days with peak season costs. This could quantity to an in a single day swing of $65 per ticket! And this isn’t simply taking place round vacation vs. non-holiday weeks.
It’s an identical story with late October, when even random weekdays are among the many costliest dates to do Disneyland. November arrives, and costs plummet. That in all probability explains why October 27-31 was amongst one of many least crowded stretches of this whole yr at Disneyland, with 1/10 crowd ranges every single day. Friends with flexibility waited a number of days for November 1 to roll round, which introduced with it considerably cheaper tickets…and heavier crowds.
Cobbling all of those classes collectively as greatest as attainable, listed below are some issues I’d count on to see of 2025 Disneyland crowds…
First, winter will likely be busier than Disneyland followers count on. That is low-hanging fruit, admittedly, as a result of there’s nonetheless this ingrained perception that winter is the ‘sleepy season’ at Disneyland. It’s a time when refurbishments are achieved. Climate will get chilly and wet, inflicting vacationers to not make journeys to Southern California and locals to remain dwelling. There simply isn’t a lot taking place at Disneyland. Crowds ought to be decrease.
That’s the notion, at the very least. A few of that’s definitely true, however the half about it being a gradual and sleepy low season time at Disneyland is antiquated. It’s additionally Lunar New Yr, Disneyland Half Marathon, a number of winter breaks, when Magic Key APs are unblocked after a number of weeks away, and the season of reductions. Winter hasn’t been low season for a number of years, which is a development that ought to proceed in January by March 2025.
These months are additionally when there are overlapping ticket reductions (see above) for each most people and Southern California residents. That’ll carry a whole lot of deal-hunters to the park, simply because it did final yr.
After that comes Spring Break. That is a type of peak season home windows that’s resistant to overarching developments. It’ll in all probability be much less busy than 2024, however it doesn’t actually matter. Most visitors who go to throughout weeks that Orange County, Los Angeles County, and different West Coast faculty districts are on break will understand crowds as being pretty heavy. The higher query is what occurs after Spring Break.
Right here’s the place issues get attention-grabbing, and my intestine says it’s when Disneyland begins seeing a noticeable pullback in year-over-year crowd ranges. My considering right here is that the associated fee delicate visitors usually tend to go to earlier within the ticket promotion durations, and the nearer the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration will get, the extra probably persons are to postpone visits till that begins.
The seventieth will nonetheless be months away initially of the yr, and fewer front-of-mind for guests. (There can even be dueling offers and decrease base costs for different journey parts past tickets, making January by March extra engaging for value-seeking vacationers.)
As soon as the seventieth attracts nearer, it’ll enter the equation for visitors, extra of whom will likely be prepared to attend and pay extra for a greater expertise. This isn’t to say all visitors or perhaps a majority will do that–only a bigger quantity than at the start of the yr, and sufficient to maneuver the needle on crowd dynamics.
Not solely that, however many budget-conscious locals and longtime followers will likely be prepared to guess (in all probability accurately!) that there will likely be one other ticket deal through the summer season. So why reap the benefits of the winter and spring deal when there’s a bunch of nice leisure and one other particular supply proper across the nook?
My expectation is that it will create a unusual dynamic the place crowds drop precipitously following Easter. I might additionally count on decrease crowds in March earlier than Easter, since Spring Break season is later this yr, and never all of these weeks from mid-March by late April will likely be really busy. Weekly crowd ranges will probably be up and down earlier than Easter, relying upon what number of main West Coast districts are on break.
Crowds will fall off a cliff round April 21, 2025 and keep low till at the very least the tip of the month. Perhaps even for the primary full week of Could 2025. After that, there would be the regular final hurrah as SoCal ticket holders scramble to “use it or lose it” earlier than remaining unused dates on the discounted tickets expire. That final week of the deal will likely be busy (despite the fact that it’s throughout shoulder season and earlier than the seventieth begins), which is one other secure prediction as a result of it all the time occurs.
The beginning of the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration is the place issues get difficult.
My guess is that first two weeks received’t mirror increased crowd ranges, that are based mostly totally on attraction wait occasions. That’s as a result of a disproportionate variety of visitors will likely be Annual Passholders and different locals who’re there primarily for brand spanking new leisure, meals & drinks and merchandise–not rides. There will likely be an enormous disconnect between attendance or “appears like” crowds and wait occasions.
After that, I’d count on summer season to warmth up progressively, with the majority of the vacationer crowds to reach beginning in mid-June and persevering with till late July. One development over the past couple of years has been for summer season crowds to be backloaded, with there normally being a rush earlier than faculties return into session. That is at the very least partially pushed by offers, which regularly aren’t introduced till summer season begins (or is underway), resulting in a lag earlier than vacationers can journey to reap the benefits of them. Regardless, a repeat of that is in all probability a secure guess.
Finally, my expectation is that Summer time 2025 sees increased year-over-year attendance and wait occasions. I’d additional forecast that the majority dates earlier than which are down year-over-year, together with Winter 2025 however particularly March by mid-Could 2025. Although there’s an growing variety of Disneyland visitors who’re cost-sensitive, the celebration and leisure will likely be considered as sufficient of a value-add to win out over decrease costs.
All of those are my greatest bets as to what’ll occur in 2025 with Disneyland attendance, wait occasions, congestion, and many others. It must be confused, as might be apparent from the foregoing, that these are guesses I’m making based mostly on quite a lot of current (Fall 2024) and not-so-recent developments (Disneyland’s sixtieth Anniversary). All of this could possibly be utterly and completely improper, therefore the caveat at the start that we’d warning towards over-reliance in crowd calendars.
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Ideas for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Study on-site and off-site resorts in our Anaheim Lodge Opinions & Rankings. For the place to eat, try our Disneyland Restaurant Opinions. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, try What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, try our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seashore, and tons of different locations!
Your Ideas
Do you might have any predictions for 2025 Disneyland crowds? Anticipate year-over-year will increase or decreases? Assume reductions or the seventieth Anniversary could have the larger affect on attendance? Do you agree or disagree with our recommendation about Disneyland crowd calendars, California climate, particular occasions, faculty schedules, or the rest right here? Any questions we may also help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
