11 Things You Need to Know If You’re Visiting Disneyland During Spring 2025 in March, April, or May

This spring at Disneyland is one of the most exciting times to visit in 2025 with several exciting special events and holidays taking place!

While there are always certain things you can expect during a spring visit to Disneyland, there are circumstances unique to this year you'll want to be aware of. We'll cover everything from major ride and restaurant closures to overlapping festival dates, crowd patterns, early park closures, and more.

These are the top 11 things you'll need to be aware of if you're visiting Disneyland in March, April, or May this year.

1. Know the Best Windows to Visit With the Lowest Crowds

Spring can be one of the more crowded times of year to visit, so if you're looking to avoid peak crowds, you'll want to be strategic about when you plan your trip. Spring Break crowds start to pick up in mid-March this year and extend through most of April.

If you want to avoid the peak Spring Break crowds, we recommend visiting in early March or the last few days of April. May is typically less busy during the first couple of weeks of the month, and we anticipate crowd levels will pick up towards the middle of the month after the 70th-anniversary celebration begins. You can see our Mickey Visit Disneyland crowd calendar for projected crowd levels each day of the month in 2025.

An advantage of visiting in early March when crowds are lower is that it aligns with the spring kids' ticket offer which is valid through March 20. You can see more details on this kids' special ticket offer and how to get these tickets for an even lower price. If you're a SoCal resident, you can take advantage of the current SoCal discount ticket offer valid through mid-May, which is an especially good option if you're planning on visiting more than once during these spring months.

Even if you can't plan your visit during the less crowded times of spring this year, don't rule out a trip altogether. There's a really good reason why you should visit during a certain part of April, which we discuss in more detail further into this article!

Know How to Navigate the Crowds!

Even if you're visiting during peak Spring Break crowds, you can still enjoy a great trip if you come in with a solid plan. Make sure you're diligent about arriving at the parks at rope drop to experience popular attractions with shorter wait times and have a strategy for how to tackle your day. This is a good time to enjoy a 3-day trip so that you can get to all of the highlights—see our Disneyland 3-day itinerary with Lightning Lane Multi Pass for everything you need to know.

You'll want to make the most of Lightning Lane Multi Pass if you're visiting during an especially crowded time, especially during the morning/afternoon before return times are pushed out later in the day. You can see our guide to Disneyland Lightning Lane Multi Pass with our expert tips on how to make the most of the service.

If you get caught with an undesirable Lightning Lane return window, see our best strategy for to how to get the Lightning Lane you want almost every time here. You will often have success with this trick if you're persistent enough!

2. Major Ride Closures at Both Parks!

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We typically see Disneyland rides close for refurbishment during the slower months early in the year, but a few major rides will be closed around the time of peak Spring Break crowds.

Two particularly notable closures are Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! at Disney California Adventure, which will be closed for refurbishment during a stretch of time in mid-March, and Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland Park, which will be undergoing a longer refurbishment spanning from mid-March to late April. While closure dates are always subject to change, these two are currently expected to share a few days of overlap.

You can see the exact dates for both of these closures in our Disneyland refurbishments guide. These two attractions are extremely popular, so during their closures, you can anticipate that there will likely be longer lines for the other key thrill rides in each park (which we will discuss more).

“it's a small world” has also been closed for refurbishment and is expected to open this spring, though a reopening date has not yet been announced.

3. Two Major Special Events Will Share Some Overlap

If you're still in the process of planning your spring trip, you may want to consider this specific timeframe when two major events overlap! The Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival and Star Wars Season of the Force celebration are running at the same time for a little over half of April.

If you're looking to enjoy a jam-packed trip exploring special offerings, definitely make an effort to plan your visit during this period of overlap. These two events are lots of fun and truly have something for everyone. It really doesn't get much better than spending the morning at Disneyland riding Hyperspace Mountain and meeting Luke Skywalker and then park hopping over to the Food & Wine Festival at Disney California Adventure to sample all of the marketplace foods and ride Soarin' Over California! And that is just scratching the surface of the myriad fun offerings at each event.

You can read our separate article that discusses the overlap of these two events and the highlights of each!

4. One Particular Ride Will Likely Be In Extra High Demand This Spring

Speaking of the Disneyland ride closures and special events, we expect that one specific ride is going to be in extremely high demand for part of this spring.

Hyperspace Mountain is the Star Wars overlay of Space Mountain for Season of the Force that takes you into the middle of a thrilling space battle. The ride is already extra popular when it has this overlay with consistently long wait times and Lightning Lane spots booking up very quickly, but this year, we expect the demand to be even higher during the closure of Indiana Jones Adventure.

With Indiana Jones Adventure down, many will gravitate towards Hyperspace Mountain as the key thrill ride in the park. This will also affect the motion of the rope drop crowds as many prioritize Hyperspace Mountain as their first attraction of the day. You'll want to be extra diligent about arriving as early as possible for Disneyland rope drop if this ride is your priority, and if you want to get a second ride in—which, in my opinion, is completely worth it—make sure you book your Lightning Lane return time early on in the day. See some more of our tips on how to get around Lightning Lane restrictions to ride your favorites more than once.

5. Know These Tips to Make the Most of the Food & Wine Festival

If you're visiting during the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, keep these tips in mind to make the most of your experience!

1. If you're planning on trying a bunch of food from the various marketplaces at the festival, you can save time by ordering all of your items at one marketplace rather than going to each individual marketplace to order. Once you've noted all of the foods that look of interest to you—using our free printable in our Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival guide is the easiest way to do this—you'll find the booth with the shortest line and order all of your items from here. Then, hold onto your receipt, as you'll use it to redeem your items when you go to pick up at each booth.
2. If you want the best, unobstructed view during Soarin' Over California, ask for the front center row of Soarin' (Row 1 Section B). While this might not be necessary during the rest of the year if you're not super picky about where you sit, we think it's worth it to wait a cycle for this spot while the original Soarin' Over California is running. This view is perfectly centered with no dangling feet, so it's completely immersive. Keep in mind that if you request a specific Disneyland ride spot, Cast Members may not be able to accommodate your request, so make sure to always be kind and respectful if this is the case.
3. Make sure you use Sip and Savor coupons on the most expensive food items to get the most value out of the pass. You'll want to use it towards foods/non-alcoholic drinks in the $8-$9 per item price range. If you're not sure you want to commit to an 8-coupon pass, you can opt for the 4-coupon option instead. You can read more about how the Sip and Savor Pass works and how to make the best use of it.

6. Some Major Restaurants Will Be Closed for Refurbishment

In addition to the major ride closures we mentioned before, there will also be some notable restaurant closures during the spring that you'll want to be aware of.

One of the biggest ones is Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe, which is undergoing an extended refurbishment. This popular restaurant closed in early January and is currently scheduled to reopen on March 22. For those visiting in March, make sure you are aware of this closure, as it's one of the key restaurants at the park, especially for breakfast. You can see details on this restaurant closure's overall impact on the park and other nearby breakfast locations you can go to instead in our separate article.

Another upcoming closure is Storytellers Cafe, home to one of our favorite Disneyland character dining experiences, which will be closing for refurbishment for a few weeks in March. During this closure, Hearthstone Lounge will have expanded hours and offerings.

7. Temporary Location for Napa Rose Evening and Character Dining

Napa Rose, one of our top Mickey Visit Disneyland restaurants, will also be closing this spring for a multi-month renovation that will introduce new enhancements and menu offerings. The restaurant is expected to reopen this fall.

During this closure, we know that the evening dining and character dining Disney Princess Breakfast Adventures will still be offered in a temporary location at the Grand Californian. The start date of the closure has not yet officially been announced, but at the time of writing looking at the reservation availability for the restaurant, it appears there is no availability for reservations starting late March. We expect Disney will release an official start date for this closure soon.

8. Enjoy Spring Character Dining Experiences

There will be two different seasonal character dining experiences offered at Disneyland this spring!

The springtime buffet at Goofy's Kitchen, which starts April 3, will feature “cheery floral décor and music” and “Goofy and his pals dressed in their best garden-inspired garb.” This experience is available for breakfast, brunch, and dinner. The seasonal character dining experiences at Goofy's Kitchen have been popular (as evidenced by the stricter one-day cancellation policy to avoid a per-person fee), so we recommend booking these in advance to be safe. The booking window is currently open for this experience, and spots are not going very quickly yet, but we expect them to fill up closer to the time. Make sure you don't wait to book if you know this is a priority for you.

There will also be Easter Day dining at Storytellers Cafe on April 20. Because this is a one-day experience, we expect it will book up rapidly when reservations open on February 27. If you're visiting on Easter and reservations are booked up, you can always sign up for dining alerts to snag a cancellation if one pops up. See more of our top tips on how to get Disneyland dining reservations.

9. Don't Get Caught Off Guard By Early Closures

Make sure you're aware of early park closures throughout the spring that may impact your trip!

At Disneyland Park, after-hours Disneyland After Dark parties are happening for 90s Nite on March 4 and 6 and Star Wars Nite which takes place on select dates from April 8 through May 6 in 2025. These will close the park early at 8 pm on event nights. At Disney California Adventure, the park will close early at 9 pm for Grad Nite events on select dates in May starting May 9. You can see all of those specific dates in our guide to Disneyland early closures that may impact your trip.

Make sure you're not caught off guard by these early closures. On these early closure days, you may want to consider spending a 1 Park Per Day ticket at the opposite park or getting a Park Hopper ticket so that you can still continue your night after the early closure.

10. Disneyland's 70th Anniversary Starts

One of the biggest events happening at Disneyland this spring is the launch of the 70th anniversary celebration on May 16. As we mentioned before, you can expect a stretch of bigger crowds following this start date, but we anticipate crowds will die down a little bit during the last week of the month.

The Disneyland 70th-anniversary celebration will feature the return of fan-favorite entertainment like Paint the Night and Wondrous Journeys, as well as a new World of Color show and some other limited-time offerings including colorful decor, specialty foods and beverages, merchandise, and more. One of the key new attractions of this Disneyland 70th anniversary originally slated to debut with the celebration's start date in May was delayed to the summer.

If your trip is planned during these initial days of the 70th-anniversary celebration, make sure you're prepared to spend some time saving a spot if you want prime viewing for the popular Paint the Night parade (see our best Disneyland parade viewing tips here) or the new World of Color show. This might be a good time to get a Disneyland dining package for the parade or splurge on the World of Color Dessert Party when reservations open for these experiences.

11. Don't Miss the Smaller Holidays Special Offerings

In addition to the bigger special events taking place throughout the spring, there are also some smaller special offerings for various holidays. For holidays like St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day, Disney will release special foods that you can enjoy for a limited time as well as some special dining experiences on the holiday itself.

For Mother's Day at Disneyland, it is common that Disneyland will have special dining experiences like brunch at Plaza Inn or Storytellers Cafe. During Easter at Disneyland, you can enjoy special treats and the Easter Eggstravaganza egg hunt across the resort. During St. Patrick's Day at Disneyland, make sure to check out the themed foods and fun hidden Leprechaun house in Disneyland which is decorated for the holiday).

If you happen to be visiting while these special offerings are available, make sure you don't overlook them!

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