Looking ahead to the remainder of the year at Disneyland, there is a lot of variation in crowd levels during the holiday celebration. Both November and December include stretches of time that typically have very low crowds and some of the busiest days of the entire year.
If you’re planning a visit during the Disneyland Christmas celebration, which runs from November 14 through January 7, here’s a breakdown of crowd patterns and what we anticipate will be the best windows to visit. You can also see our separate article on Disneyland changes in November that you should be aware of, and new rides coming to Disney. Disneyland Haunted Mansion is closing for refurbishment.
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Disneyland Crowd Patterns Holidays
In our Mickey Visit Disneyland crowd calendar, we take several factors into account when making our predictions, like 1-day ticket prices, annual pass holder blockout dates, holidays, and school breaks. Using this information, together with our past experiences visiting the parks, we develop crowd-level projections for each day of the year.
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Looking ahead at the remainder of November, we expect to see some quieter days in the middle of the month, followed by a rush of crowds for Thanksgiving. We expect that November 16th through the 21st will have decently lower crowds. This is a good window of time to visit if you want to enjoy the holiday offerings.
After that, most schools will have Thanksgiving Break, so you can expect crowds to increase heading into the weekend. Crowds will remain very high during the following week. Thanksgiving Day on November 27 is one of the rare instances that we would categorize as “Massive” crowds.
As we head into the first week of December, we hit a period of time that is one of the best windows of the year to visit Disneyland. In addition to the first week of the month (December 1-4), which is one of the best times to visit for low crowds, this first weekend of the month is one of our secret favorite times to visit. So many don’t believe that these will be low crowds.
The Disneyland Candlelight Processional is happening during this time, and this is a good time to visit due to the side effects of the processional occurring. It may be that Disneyland limits reservations or the number of people allowed into the parks, or it may just be that the lines are shorter because many are more focused on seeing the Candlelight Processional than riding attractions. This year, the Disneyland Candlelight Processional weekend is December 6-7.
Park reservations are already sold out for these dates, the last time that we checked for Magic Key Annual Passes, but it is worth keeping an eye on for openings.
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After this point, crowds will gradually start increasing until they peak to “Massive” crowds around December 22 through January 1. This stretch of time, when schools are out on winter break and families are traveling, includes Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. You can expect that crowds will remain pretty high until the end of the holiday celebration, after January 7. This period following the holidays is one of the best times of the year to visit Disneyland for low crowds.
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