Disneyland and California Adventure order April 7 & 8

[bryiank]

Hello DL/ DCA experts, We are going to be in the area and plan to go to Disneyland and California Adventure Monday and Tuesday 4/7 and 4/8. 4/8 is a Star Wars event at Disneyland. Looking at various Crowd forecasts there seems to be disagreement on whether we should do California Adventure Monday and then Disneyland on the shorter day (4/8). I think the thought is crowds will be lighter on Tuesday because of the event. I hate to lose the 2 hours at Disneyland and obviously if I flip them I get a full day at each. Please give me feedback and let me know what your thoughts are on which is the best order to maximize our trip. Thanks

 

[LKing]

Are you spending one day at each park without park hoppers?

Are you staying at one of the Disney owned hotels? If so, you will be entitled to 30 min early entry to DCA on Monday and 30 min early entry into DL on Tuesday.

 

[bryiank]

Sorry on lack of details... Not staying at a Disney Hotel, and I am not planning on Hopping

 

[LKing]

Sorry on lack of details... Not staying at a Disney Hotel, and I am not planning on Hopping

No problem. If you had the ability to hop, it wouldn't matter what park you started in. And the early entry would give you a little more time before the parks get crowded (usually after 10 am).

One other metric you might want to consider is that the hotel guests will enter early at DCA on Monday and DL on Tuesday. If you are planning on arriving at rope drop, you might want to choose the park that doesn't have EE (ie. DL on Monday and DCA on Tuesday).

 

[irlandaise]

Hello DL/ DCA experts, We are going to be in the area and plan to go to Disneyland and California Adventure Monday and Tuesday 4/7 and 4/8.

Is this your first visit to the Disneyland Resort? If so, I generally advise new visitors to do their first day at Disneyland to maximize the magical effect of being at Walt's own park! But of course you do need to consider other factors like early closure for parties and stuff like that.

 

[bryiank]

It's not our first time but it's been a while since we are East Coast based. I guess it comes down to whether the 8-8 Disneyland day on and Event day is better than the 8-10 Day on a normal Monday. I am leaning towards Disneyland on Monday and DCA on Tuesday even though one crowd calendar indicates Tuesday will be a great day for Disneyland because of the paid event that night.

 

[LKing]

Something else to consider is that DCA is open later on Tuesday. Granted, everyone else is looking at the same thing so you will find the DL more crowded on Monday and DCA more crowded on Tuesday.

Monday
DL 8 am - 10 pm
DCA 8 am - 9 pm

Tuesday
DL 8 am - 8 pm
DCA 8 am - 10 pm

 

[irlandaise]

It's not our first time but it's been a while since we are East Coast based. I guess it comes down to whether the 8-8 Disneyland day on and Event day is better than the 8-10 Day on a normal Monday. I am leaning towards Disneyland on Monday and DCA on Tuesday even though one crowd calendar indicates Tuesday will be a great day for Disneyland because of the paid event that night.

Everything I've read in this forum the past few years has been that crowd calendars have never caught up with new DL visitor patterns since the post-pandemic reopening. And of course, we don't know how Disney determines the number of reservations available each day.

I recommend that when planning which day to go to which park, you ignore commercial crowd calendars and go with advice from Disney regulars here about the effects of evening parties, Magic Key blackouts, and just plain everyday Southern California resident visitation patterns.