A Couple of Planning Questions

[Twin Dad]

We're going to be in So Cal in May for DS to have surgery to reconstruct his ear. We'll be flying in on Friday May 13th and heading straight to Disneyland. We will be doing the City Pass and are planning on doing two days at DLR before surgery. We'll do the third day after surgery. We plan on using the first two days to knock out the eticket rides DS won't be able to do after surgery. After surgery the plan is to do the gentle rides, shows, parades and character meets. Touring Plans has the 14th and 15th at a 9 for crowd level while the 13th is only a 5. The 13th and 14th are Grad Nights. DW and I are torn. We were originally going to do the parks on the 14th and 15th. But now we're thinking of doing the 13th and 14th. Only problem is we would not be getting to the park until about 3.

So my questions are do we go half day Friday and Saturday or go all day Saturday and Sunday? How busy do the parks get on Grad Nights? Thanks for your help.

 

[Angrose]

If you are morning people and can get there for rope drop at 8am on the 14th and 15th then I would stick with those days. Mornings are wonderful and you can get so much done during that time. You can't put too much stock into Touring Plans crowd predictions, they have proven to be notorious wrong sometimes, especially this year it seems it has been more crowded in general due to the 60th celebrations. I also personally do not like arriving in the late afternoon to an already crowded park and the chance that a lot of the FPs for the E-ticket rides may already be gone.

 

[figment_jii]

I would personally opt for full days on Sat and Sun, despite there being Grad Nites. I don't think Grad Nites themselves really impact the crowds all that much; there is some effect, but I don't really think it's a huge impact. Mostly, the parks do seem busier these days, especially on weekends (Friday evening through Sunday). As Angrose mentioned, if you're morning people, usually the first few hours of the days (even on Sat and Sun) tend to be quieter and you can usually get a fair amount done (I think you'll probably get more done on Saturday/Sunday mornings than you would on Friday evening).

 

[pa. dad]

Hi- i have twins also and one of my guys had to get an ear surgery years back.
I didn't see anyone mention this yet so figured I should.
You may want to get out of Dodge before the fireworks hit. Really loud sounds like that can sometimes hurt right after an ear surgery so you may want to pass on those.

 

[Twin Dad]

If you are morning people and can get there for rope drop at 8am on the 14th and 15th then I would stick with those days. Mornings are wonderful and you can get so much done during that time. You can't put too much stock into Touring Plans crowd predictions, they have proven to be notorious wrong sometimes, especially this year it seems it has been more crowded in general due to the 60th celebrations. I also personally do not like arriving in the late afternoon to an already crowded park and the chance that a lot of the FPs for the E-ticket rides may already be gone.

We'll be coming from the Midwest so our body clocks should be a couple hours ahead anyways. And we're morning people for Disney.

Hi- i have twins also and one of my guys had to get an ear surgery years back.
I didn't see anyone mention this yet so figured I should.
You may want to get out of Dodge before the fireworks hit. Really loud sounds like that can sometimes hurt right after an ear surgery so you may want to pass on those.

Thanks. This surgery is just outer ear reconstruction. He did the inner ear last December and went to Mickey's party 5 days after. He did fine but we'll definitely wait a week or so before the fireworks visit.