Star Wars Land Disneyland Crowd Predictions
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is now open at Disneyland, and the debut of this land will upend crowd calendars. In this post, we’ll offer revised predictions for the best and worst months to visit following Star Wars Land in terms of crowds and wait times. We’ll also pick three weeks we’d visit with a bit of explanation as to why.
In so doing, the goal is to offer month by month ranks that strive towards objectivity, meaning they consider only anticipated wait times and attendance. In the past, we’ve avoided such an approach in favor of more holistic advice tailored around crowds, as well as weather, special events, entertainment, and more.
Knowing that the subjective “best” times to visit with seasonal festivities, weather, and more taken into account matters to at least some of you, the three weeks we recommend at the end of the post will be predicated upon a blend of crowds and special events. (Our favorite times of year at Disneyland are the holidays, and we couldn’t in good conscience recommend skipping that in favor of ‘refurbishment season.’)
While this is a calendar of the year to come at Disneyland that discusses crowds, it should not be construed as a crowd calendar, at least in the strict sense of the term. As we cautioned in our Disneyland Crowd Calendar: When To Visit guide, “due to the significant changes that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will bring in crowd patterns, it’s impossible to predict how that will impact attendance and congestion. We would caution against relying on any specific prognostications when planning a Disneyland trip, as this new land is something totally unprecedented.”
That assessment remains true, as we remain skeptical of granular day-by-day predictions at this point. While we hope to resume our day by day Disneyland crowd calendars at some point in the future, that simply cannot happen until Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has been open for a while and we have a chance to observe how new crowd trends compare to prior ones.
Instead, we’ve offering more generalized predictions here. Our rationale is that certain overarching trends coupled with seasonal tourism numbers to Southern California, Los Angeles and Orange County school schedules, and Annual Pass blockout dates can form the basis for reasonable–but not completely accurate–predictions about relative crowd levels.
Along those lines, the same caveats apply here as were enumerated in the introduction to our Revised Walt Disney World Crowd Predictions. Basically, these are our best guesses and no one–not even Disney–has perfect foresight as to what Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will bring with it in terms of crowds and wait times.
With that in mind, here are our predications for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge crowds for every remaining month of the year, plus the first half of next year. These monthly rankings are in order of worst to best…
10. August – Midway through the month of August, local schools start going back into session. That should help with crowds, but unfortunately, it’s offset by a lifting of Annual Pass blockouts.
Los Angeles County schools go back into session August 20. Orange County schools go back into session on August 12, granting a temporary reprieve from crowds then. Unfortunately, Deluxe Annual Pass blockouts are lifted a before both dates, on August 20. No rest for the weary.
9. December – Even the beginning of December is pretty crowded at Disneyland. And for good reason–everything else about December at Disneyland is great, from the cool weather to all things Christmas. (Consult our Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Disneyland for more on why this is the greatest time of year at the parks.)
Unfortunately, locals recognize this, and prioritize visiting in December. Add to that tourists, who are drawn to the parks for the holidays, and it’s a recipe for heavy attendance. We expect Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to see no reprieve from the crowds even in December–it could very well be just as busy as the summer.
8. October – Even before Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the ‘situation’ in October has been deteriorating for the last several years. An increase in popularity of the seasonal attraction overlays in both parks plus more Mickey’s Halloween Party (consult our Ultimate Guide to Halloween at Disneyland for more info) dates adding to crowd levels on non-party dates has really mucked up crowds.
Additionally, Utah and Nevada each have their own holidays that coincide with October, and Disneyland is a popular travel destination. There’s also Columbus Day and Rosh Hashanah to compound matters. Consequently, Disneyland has already had parking ‘issues’ on random weeknights in October, and we’d only expect that to be worse this year with Star Wars Land thrown into the mix.
7. November – Christmas kicks off at Disneyland Resort in early November, and there are typically two big surges in the month: first for Veterans Day weekend and then again for Thanksgiving week. In between should be a decent sweet spot of nice weather, lower crowds, and Christmas decorations.
Unlike the Florida parks, Christmas starts all at once in Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and the resorts, so there’s no downside to visiting before Thanksgiving. This makes mid-November is an unbeatable time to visit.
6. September – While the entirety of September is off-season (with hotel prices reflecting that), one thing to keep in mind here is that Southern California Select Annual Passes have their summer blockout lifted after Labor Day. They will swarm to Disneyland for what is likely their first chance to experience Rise of the Resistance (even if it’s not yet open for some inexplicable reason, they’ll still arrive in droves).
Additionally, Halloween Time is likely to start on September 6, and that will cause a first-weekend spike in attendance from locals. Accordingly, it’d be a smart move to avoid the first couple weeks of the month. Otherwise, we love the month of September, particularly the second half.
5. April 2020 – Easter will occur April 12, 2020, and the week before the holiday is a proxy for Spring Break dates for Los Angeles County school districts. Orange County has its Spring Break the week prior. This means that the first half of April will be pure anarchy with a mix of locals and tourists from other western states who also have the holiday week off.
For many of these visitors, it’ll be the first chance they have to experience Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and they will prioritize it accordingly. The good news is that after that first couple weeks, crowds should die-down significantly, and the second half of the month could offer a temporary respite from the crowds.
4. March 2020 – March is typically Spring Break season for school districts that don’t base their dates around the Easter holiday. While this does not include either of the counties that heavily feed the AP population in Southern California, it does include many in Utah and Nevada.
Other Spring Breaks for out of state schools will be scattered throughout the month, but they shouldn’t be too bad. The first week of March is the best bet of the month, with low, pre-break crowd levels and mild temperatures.
3. May 2020 – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t open until the last day of May, so we’re not even counting it. (But in case you’re wondering, that one day would rank as #13 on this list.) Ultimately, May ranks highly because it’s a month that has reliably moderate crowds, and by the time May 2020 rolls around, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be almost one year old.
This doesn’t mean it’s popularity will be fading, but it does mean that most locals will have made their first visit. It also means Disneyland Operations will have a year of experience, and should be more adept at handling the crowds. While it wouldn’t be our first choice, May isn’t a poor choice.
2. February 2020 – The beginning of the year marks “refurbishment season” at Disneyland, which is exactly what the name suggests. In addition to a surplus of attractions down for maintenance keeping guests away, the fact that it’s winter in Southern California also makes it a slow month for local tourism. In the past, this has been partially offset with aggressive ticket deals for residents, but we’d expect Disneyland to cool these a bit for 2020.
All things considered, January and February are pretty much a tie, with each having their own holidays (avoid the late month holiday weeks in each) downsides. If forced to choose, we are inclined to give January a slight edge, primarily because of the holiday spikes in crowds that fall in February.
1. January 2020 – While the week after New Year’s is still out of session for local schools (and is still technically Christmas season in terms of decor and entertainment), crowds drop off a cliff after that.
You also have the absolute lowest weekday crowds of the year in mid-January, and these low crowds coupled with jacket weather make for a perfect time to visit Disneyland. There also tends to be some rain in Anaheim during January, and those rainy days are the absolute best options for visiting. Californians hate rain!
Best Times to Visit
Want to cut past all of those rankings and simply looking for a point-blank recommendation as to when you should visit Disneyland? Here are our 3 favorite date ranges of the year (we assume most of you aren’t spending a full week at Disneyland, but if you are, simply extend those dates before and/or after–what’s listed is the true sweet spot), followed by some explanation:
- Before Thanksgiving Week (November 18-22)
- Third week of September (September 16-20)
- Post-Holidays (January 13-17, 2020 or February 3-7, 2020)
If you’ve read our previous Disneyland crowd guides, you’ll notice these weeks are nearly identical to what we have listed there, and for good reason. Our first (and favorite) week to visit is the week before Thanksgiving week. Christmas season at Disneyland starts the weekend before this and Veterans Day is over, meaning you have a week gap between the start of Disneyland’s holiday season and the start of actual holiday travel. This is a ‘sweet spot’ for lower crowds, perfect weather, and seasonal entertainment.
The third week of September ranks highly because it’s after school is back in session, offers a bit of a buffer between the end of summer AP blockout dates being lifted, and also coincides with Halloween Time at Disneyland, which we love. The following week might be as good or better, but we’re worried that Halloween crowds will start showing up then. We’re also concerned about more Mickey’s Halloween Party dates that week, which really throws a monkey wrench into crowd predictions.
Finally, the doldrums of January and February. If you don’t care about seasonal offerings or mind a few refurbishments, these two weeks are unquestionably your best option. We anticipate the January dates to have lower crowds, but the February set of dates should have slightly fewer refurbishments, and also Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure, if that matters to you.
Note that this is all relative. Crowds at Disneyland have been swelling since the Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration a few years ago, and have not abated. Even now, the parking structure regularly hits capacity, bag check lines back up, and there’s serious congestion in Disneyland. This will only get worse with Star Wars Land, and we expect things to be varying degrees of bad for the entirety of the year. However, by choosing wisely, you can have a “less bad” experience with crowds, or perhaps a downright good one if you wait until January or February 2020!
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
What do you think will be the best and worst months to visit Disneyland post-Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? Will there even be a “good” time, or do you expect it to be an awful experience for the foreseeable future? Any specific ideal months/weeks of your own that you’d recommend people visit Disneyland? Any questions? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your thoughts in the comments below!
We’ve got a previously booked trip that falls in mid-June. We picked the dates crossing our fingers that it would be just before Star Wars opened. Even without Star Wars I was already expecting crazy crowds on June 19 and 20 since those are the last days before summer blockouts for the deluxe AP at DL. But I was hoping the 21st, the first blockout day, would be slightly less insane.
This is simply FYI for those trying to squeeze in a visit before the Star Wars Opening Chaos… We stayed at DL Resort Sunday night 4/14 through this morning, Wednesday, 4/17. We purchased 3-day park hopper tickets and added on Maxpass for our stay. There are 4 people in our party: 2 adults, 2 children (a teen and a tween). Monday and Tuesday were AWESOME. If you want to visit before Star Wars opens, GO!!! Utilizing maxpass, we were able to knock out all of DCA before lunchtime Monday morning (Racers, GoG x 2, Toy Story x3, Incredicoaster x 3, Soarin, Jellyfish, a game, and lunch at Corn Dog Castle) and most of DL that evening. We had to visit during our children’s Spring Break, otherwise we would have chosen a different set of dates. For us, Maxpass was worth every penny. We had an unfortunate incident with Photopass at Mickey’s House in Toontown. After a visit to City Hall, the issue was resolved and we were offered Fastpasses tagged to our electronic tickets for any ride. These worked flawlessly and while they did not fix the problem, they at least attempted to give us back time that was wasted. A cast member we spoke with during this incident commented it was an anomaly the park was not crowded that day. He said, “Never come during Spring Break!” Well, it was a great trip for us. My point: do not overlook the ease of staying on property for Extra Magic Hour (EMH), adding on Maxpass if you can, and visiting the parks on Weekday mornings. We came in with very low expectations, but it wasn’t so bad. DL/DCA have changed so much since we started bringing our kids eleven years ago. Some changes have been wonderful, some disasters (at least for us), but overall it is getting harder to visit the park and feel like you have accomplished everything you hoped for. I think with the upcoming opening of Star Wars, Maxpass, digital changes with park tickets, paper fastpasses, and physical changes within the park, it will only get harder to do “everything in a day.” We will definitely need to lower our expectations in the coming months (years?!).
Thank you Tom for this info, so helpful! We thought to visit early May, before the Star Wars Land opening, so I wondered about crowds at that time…we usually go mid-November, but thought to try visiting before it’s really bananas!
Hi Tom. Thanks so much for the awesome info. My wife and I were planning a one day trip on may 30th of 2019 (The day before Swl opening) what are your thoughts on the crowds that day? Thank again!
Sadly, we planned a trip with the grandkids a year ago based on school schedules and other commitments. Had only heard the nebulous “summer opening” projection for Star Wars when we booked flights and bought tickets. We arrive June 23 for 5 days. May need medication!
Any predictions for Disney World?
I always think of the ZZ Top tune HAVE MERCY, insert the word Park for Bus in the lyric, There you have it!
Thank you so much for this Tom. I was hoping originally to go the 2nd week of May before Galaxy’s Edge opened, but it didn’t work out. (Plus it turns out my husband desperately wanted to see SWL)
So we resurrected my original plan to spend my 40th birthday at Disney, but switched coasts due to costs. That means braving the 2nd week of December. The plan currently is to do 4 park days, (Mon-Thur) staying across the street to make rope drop easier and hopping to DCA around 5ish most days to avoid (or minimize) the locals influx. I know it will be busy, but the only other time I ever saw DL decorated for Christmas was back in the late 80’s when we mistakenly went the day after Thanksgiving. That was insanity.
Crossed fingers it isn’t too horrible that week. Maybe I will get lucky and it will rain a day or two and cut down lines.
Hi Tom.
We are thinking of planning a June 2020 visit and spending a few days at Disney and then hitting several other spots (mostly picked from your travelcaffeine blog. 🙂 In your best time to visit Disneyland post you had said that the second half of June isn’t horrible b/c annual passholders are blocked. Do you think that might hold true next year? It is our first trip to Disneyland (we typcially do Disney World) and I want to make sure we can do a lot (hence avoiding refurbishment time) and also have good weather/plenty of time to do other things in Southern California.
Yeah, it should be better by next year, but is still likely to be busy.
One thing to keep in mind with regard to summer is that it’s tourist season for all of California. Meaning all the other popular spots in LA and beyond will be busier. Weather is good most of the year, so I wouldn’t really worry about that!
That is good to know… we are from Iowa where weather is not good most of the year. 😉 We will definately take that into our planning… maybe we will either go earlier (like Jan-Feb) or push to September. Thanks!
Thanks for another great post, Tom! I will be sure to hit one of your sweet spots once the initial rush has died down.
Another potential 300 pound gorilla on the horizon is the fact that Star Wars Celebration is due to return to Anaheim in 2020. They haven’t released the exact dates but if it holds true to form it should be sometime in April like the past 2 have been.
You can include Arizona with the UT/NV impact on March and October. AZ schools have at least a week off in mid-October and many head to DL. Same with mid-March spring break. Being less than 7 hours away with many CA transplants, there is a passionate fan base here too.
Hey Tom,
Love your posts. Thanks for all the great info. You’ve said before most people dont plan to visit Disneyland for a week or more like people tend to do in WDW but I’m thinking of doing Disneyland mid September, we found a good deal on a hotel & a flight from Canada to SNA, and thinking of getting a 5 day park hopper hoping that spreading time out over 5 days with a Max pass might help to make it easier to get into Galaxys Edge attractions and also see all the other attractions we would like to see over that time period. Maybe we could even get on Galaxys Edge rides twice!!?? 0 Do you think that spreading out our days/time at the parks out for 5 or 6 days instead of for example 2 or 3 days might help? Only been to Disneyland twice before and the last time was many many years ago and only for 2 days. Usually go to WDW but thinking of holding off on WDW until May 2020, or maybe even Sept 2020.
More time will definitely help, and you can certainly do 5 days at Disneyland Resort, especially if you’re a Disney fan. That’s what we did quite frequently before we moved to California. (And will do again now!)
You can mix things up with dinners in the hotels, ice cream at Downtown Disney, etc. There’s plenty to do over the course of 5 days. It’s just a bit too much time for most casual tourists (many of whom are not Disney fans).
Thank you for this timely and helpful post! Wondering, however, if your August 2019 ranking takes into account the D23 convention?
I forgot to include that in the text, but D23 Expo weekend (August 23-25) should also be avoided. August is still “only” the 3rd worst month, though. June and July will be worse!
NO doubt!!!
I totally agree with your crowd predictions – Disneyland is going to be insane for the next several months/probably years. Disneyland just posted the blockout dates for cast members, and it looks like they are unable to self admit starting May 18th, so maybe they are planning soft opens between then and May 31? I’ m curious to see when cast will be allowed back into Disneyland, so far they are blocked out as far as the end of August, which is as far as blockout date calendars typically go.
They have to (or should?) do trial operations/soft opening somehow, but I think there’s still a scramble among management to figure out how and when that can occur. The May 18 date is probably to err on the side of caution.
Our annual passes expire in the middle of August, and we won’t be renewing them for at least 2 years, so our only chance to see it is June-August. We live about an hour and a half away, so can make multiple trips. If we can get into Galaxy’s Edge even once and ride the ride, I’ll be happy.
Do you have an opinion on best days to visit specific parks? For example Magic Kingdom?
This is Disneyland. Generally, if you have a park hopper, there is no reason to not visit both parks on the same day since they’re just a quick..uh.. hop from each other.
Thanks for the information Tom.
Unfortunately for us we booked our airfare back in January to go to CA and don’t plan on seeing the Star Wars Galaxy Edge our daughter is excited to see the main characters
Chip N Dale, Pluto, Mickey. We are going to book a character breakfast at the Plaza Inn for the morning of the 23 June I hope because this is the last day of the reservation system that people stay away until the next day…I know it will be crowed because it is Summer and busy season, But last time we were there it was during New Years and wow was that chaos. So I am going in to it with knowing it will probably be the same and make the best of it.
This may be on an older post but how will Star Wars Land compare between Disneyland and WDW? Doing a WDW trip in a few weeks so it’ll probably be a few years before I’m able to head back there. The benefit will be that hopefully visiting WDW with Star Wars Land will be somewhat figured out a few years from now though things are always changing to impact crowds so who knows. With that said I’m hopeful to be able to get to Disneyland next year and see Star Wars Land there but also unsure what I’ll “miss” at one park vs the other.
From what I understand, they’re functionally identical. The layouts might be slightly different, but they’ll have the same attractions, shops, restaurants and decor.
We are going the first week of November (3-9). Thinking it may (hopefully) be a sweet spot since it’s after Halloween and before the Christmas decorations are up so hopefully not a huge crowd time. Sad to miss the all the decorations but hoping for shorter lines. Also want to say thank you for your blog, I look forward to all of your posts!
That should be a solid week to visit–I just didn’t include it because it’s before Christmas season will officially start.
Going 2nd week of March 2020 come heck or high water… from moval but live in texas and am tired of waiting to go DLR due to Star Wars construction which forced to go to WDW 3 yrs straight…
… ready to go H°o°ME no matter what!
Here we go!!!! (In my best Peter Pan voice!)
Thank you Tom! Planning a mid February 2020 trip with my high school age daughter during her mid-winter break. She does not want to miss school. Our 4th trip together. She is not as crazy about Disneyland as I am We will be including a day to explore LA via a bus tour. She wants to see LA beyond Disneyland Just got an idea, I’ll check if you have any LA recommendations
Here’s my guide to LA: https://www.travelcaffeine.com/los-angeles-guide-vacation-tips/
A bunch of 1-day SoCal itineraries, including one for “walking in Walt Disney’s footsteps” (although that one is far from my favorite): https://www.travelcaffeine.com/los-angeles-southern-california-itineraries/
This post is great. Will you be doing a similar post for Disney World? I am deciding on a November 2019 trip and want to have it booked 180 days in advance to be able to grab the restaurants i want at the 180 day mark. Thanks again for all of you very helpful information.