The Best Day of the Week for Every Theme Park

In this week's episode, Jared highlights the best times of the year to go to the theme parks as well as the best day of the week to avoid crowds and long lines. 

Transcript

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In this week's episode of A Dryer Dose of Disney, Jared shares with us the best times of year and the best days of the week to visit each theme park. Welcome to this week's episode of a Dryer Dose of Disney. I'm your host, Jared Dryer, and today we are gonna be talking to you about the best day of the week to go to each of the parks nationally. So we're gonna go both West Coast and East Coast, and we're gonna be talking to you today about which is the best day for each of the parks. When are you gonna see the lowest crowds? That way you can maximize your day and the time in the parks and have the lowest wait times possible for each of those parks that you go to. Before we dive into that though, I do wanna ask wherever you're listening to this podcast, or if you're watching us on YouTube, go ahead and find that pause button and then click the subscribe button so that way you can get this content delivered into your inbox each and every single week. We've had a few episodes over the last few weeks. We've got some more coming, including our two episodes around Epic Universe. So one for Rope Drop and one for our review of Epic Universe. As well as we're gonna have another episode coming around Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, and you're definitely gonna want to tune into all of those. So by subscribing, you're gonna get this content delivered into your inbox each and every single week. And then we also in our links below, have a lot of different affiliates and programs down there, including our condo in Orlando that you can stay at, so you can stay where we stay as well as Patreon. So if you find any tips or tricks that are helping save you time or money, we do ask for your support over at Patreon, and you can find the link down there at the bottom. But let's dive right into it. Let's talk through what are the best days of the week to go to each of the parks and in fact, the best times of year to go to the parks as well. The question that I get asked a lot, and I get this both through Facebook and through some friends as well. Is, does it really matter what day of the week you go to the park? The answer is definitely yes, but keep in mind it's not as drastic as you think. But it can make a pretty good difference as well depending on the time of year that you're going, and again, the day of the week that you go. Because parks are definitely busier on certain days of the week, so I will say the time of the year makes a much larger impact than the day of the week, and we'll talk about that more later when we talk about our two. I can do this all day. Tips of the day at the end of this episode. But nonetheless, you can see a difference depending on what day of the week you go to each of the parks. So time of year, let's start there. The rule thumb obviously, is its best to avoid when schools are on break, so especially around the holidays. So if you're gonna go during the Christmas holiday, just know it is gonna be completely blitzed, it's gonna be very busy no matter what day you go. And so I want to put that out there so that you're not planning to go at that time of year, unless of course. You're doing it for Christmas. If you're giving it as a Christmas gift for your family or something like that, then that's awesome. Go ahead and do that. But I'm saying if you want to go and have the lowest wait times and see the least crowds, that is the time of year I would absolutely avoid. Now, however when you look through the rest of the year, there's a lot of different times that schools are on break. So I wanna call some of these out. In Colorado where we came from in some other states, they always have a fall break in October. So the month of October is usually gonna be a busier time than other times during the year. Of course, around Thanksgiving, that's gonna be busy in November. In Louisiana here, they always take off the week around Mardi Gras. So you're gonna find that to be a very busy time because people in Louisiana don't want to be in the city around Mardi Gras. So they're gonna leave and usually they go down to Orlando because it's so close. And so that's gonna be a busy time, of course, spring break. So anytime starting in, I'd say about mid-March through the end of April that's gonna be busy depending on when your schools take spring break, and know that nationally schools are taking spring break for about six to seven weeks during that time. So it could be any time during that period of time. And then of course anytime that people have holidays, so President's Day, Martin Luther King Day, veteran's Day indigenous People's Day or Columbus Day, those are all gonna be very busy times. Now, a lot of people say they think summers are gonna be busy 'cause obviously kids are out for two to three months and definitely in LA summer is a factor and it's gonna be very busy during the summer in la. However, down in Orlando, because it's so hot and so humid, a lot of people do try to avoid going to the parks during the summer because it's just, it's gonna wear 'em out. It's way too hot down there. So if you don't mind sweating. Summer's not a terrible time to go. In fact, we have done 4th of July weekend multiple times, and though yes, you're gonna see a huge crowd at Magic Kingdom for the fireworks on the 4th of July. Earlier in the day, there's nobody in the park and it just, it seems to creep up as the day goes on, but that's a great day to go to the parks as well. So a lot of great opportunity there during the summer. So the best times of year to go to the parks, this comes up a lot I like to say mid to late September. So you definitely wanna avoid Labor Day and anything around that week or those first two weekends, but later in the month of September, that's gonna be a great time to go. Early November before Veteran's Day or before Thanksgiving is a great time to go. Early December, surprisingly, is one of the best times annually to go mostly because so many people take vacation around Thanksgiving and so many people take vacation at the holidays that very few people take vacation during the first two weeks of December. So that in fact is one of the best times to go all year. And then January is a good time to go after Martin Luther King Day. So you wanna let the new Year holiday go through, you wanna let Martin Luther King go through? And then after that is a great time to go. And then early May, like I said earlier, so many people like to go during spring break. So in the month of March, going into April. But early May, usually schools are wrapping up towards the mid to later part of May. So early May. Usually everyone's in school for finals and stuff like that. So that is also a great time to go. But let's go ahead and dive into the best days of the week. So we're gonna start out in LA out on the West coast and at in Los Angeles. I will tell you, it is very easy to decide which days of the week to go to the parks, and that's because almost every single person that goes out there to go to the parks starts their weeks. So Mondays and Tuesdays at the Disneyland Park or California Adventure. And then they plan to go to things like Universal Studios, Legoland or SeaWorld later in the week. So if you want to go to Universal Studios Hollywood, I would tell you definitely you wanna go early in the week, usually on Mondays and Tuesdays. And the reason is everyone's over at Disney. And then for Disneyland and California Adventure, I'm gonna tell you later in the week, targeting Thursday is gonna be your best day for Magic Kingdom. Because so many people go Monday and Tuesday, and then if they get the third day, they're gonna go Wednesday, but Thursday's gonna be a great day. And then later in the week for California Adventure, like on Friday is a great day to go there. Now with all of our parks, I'm gonna say you're gonna see a lot more locals start to get into the parks and start to see those numbers drive up on the weekends, because locals will get their annual pass and then obviously are working Monday through Friday, and then they can go on the weekends. Now the nice thing about that though, at the same time is a lot of people traveling to the area travel on the weekends. Meaning that if you're a local and you can get there on the weekends, you're usually gonna see a lower crowd. Likewise, if you're traveling and you are traveling through a weekend the debate over the number of locals verse early in the week, I would definitely bet on the weekend and go on the weekend. Then Monday or Tuesday, especially out in la Now let's hop over to Orlando because you have so many more parks here and it's gonna be a lot more different over in Orlando. And we're gonna do it park by park. But I'm gonna go through and I'm gonna start again on the universal side and we're gonna start with Epic universe. So the newest park out there, I'm gonna say there's no good day of the week to go yet. And the reason is this park is completely sold out and at capacity every single day of the week, including the weekends right now. Now, fast forward maybe six to nine months, or once they allow it on the annual pass. And you're gonna see that drastically change. And then we would hopefully update this episode at that point in time. But for today, there's really no good days yet because it's at full Park capacity. Now, early since they opened in May, they opened on May 22nd early in their life cycle. So right now, at this time of year. Is a great time to go because obviously kids are getting back into school and not everybody's gonna be maxing it out. And then at the same time, they've only been running two thirds to three quarters capacity while they're working through some of the kinks. Now I will say when we were out there for the two days. The park worked almost flawlessly. We did see a couple of the rides go down for just a little bit of time, but they're working through that, so they are not running at their total 100% capacity yet. So it is still a good time to go knowing that they're having generally lower levels of crowds at the park. Now let's go over to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. And if you've listened to our other episodes, we like to talk about these in pairs, mostly because a lot of people try to conquer both parks in a single day. So my advice is go early in the week, so usually targeting a Monday or Tuesday, and this is for the same reason that we talked about in California. So most people on their trips to Orlando are going to start their week with the Disney parks. That's the Marquee Park. That's what they're going for, is for Disney. And the Universal parks are their follow up parks, meaning they're gonna usually spend Monday through Wednesday or Monday through Thursday at the Disney Parks. And then they're gonna go over to the Universal Parks later in the week. So I will say early in the week for Universal, always on Mondays and Tuesdays is gonna be your best bet. Now, recently they did just start changing their hours at Universal. So keep an eye out on that as well. And you're also gonna wanna watch out for Halloween Horror Nights'cause that can mess things up. But their hours have now changed where they're allowing early park entry into islands of adventure. And at that same time, everyone can get into Universal studio. I will say it's worth it if you have early park entry, you're gonna want to do Islands of Adventure. If you don't, you're gonna want to go to Universal Studios and get there early and go hit out that side over there. So that's our advice for you there. Now, let's go to Disney Park. So rule thumb. And this is if you think historically and your parents, you're talking whether it's your parents are boomers, gen X, gen Y, millennials, most people think through the Disney parks in the order that they were built. So they're thinking, I'm gonna do Magic Kingdom first, Epcot second, Hollywood Studios third, and Animal Kingdom fourth. The only trade offs I ever see in there is if people swap Hollywood Studios with Epcot just because they're such big fans of Star Wars or maybe Pixar, and they wanna get that a little bit earlier in the week. But what we see is the majority of people do. Mondays at Magic Kingdom Tuesdays at Epcot, Wednesdays, at Hollywood Studios and Thursdays at Animal Kingdom. So our advice for you is on Animal Kingdom. We're gonna recommend that you go there Tuesday or Wednesday. You're gonna want to get ahead of the crowd and you're gonna want to do it earlier in the week. So if I was planning my week, I would start my week at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure on Monday, and I would do Animal Kingdom on Tuesday. That's the way that I would start my week, and then I would work through the rest of this list just to get it in a reverse order. For Hollywood Studios, though, keep in mind they're usually gonna hit that on Wednesdays, right? So my best time of the week is to go Thursdays or Fridays. By doing it later in the week, you're gonna see much, much lower crowds over there, and you're gonna want to avoid that Wednesday at all costs. So this is gonna be my lineup towards the end of the week for Epcot. We have found later in the week. Works best, but you want to avoid the weekends at all costs. So this is something I would also do Thursday or Friday. So I'm gonna be trying to balance that out. So whether I do Epcot on Thursday, Hollywood Studios on Friday or flipping those you're probably gonna be in good shape, but you wanna avoid the weekends at Epcot. And back to the fact of the annual pass holders going into the parks on the weekend. Most annual pass holders in Orlando Target Epcot on the weekends because of all the cool festivals that they do. So you're definitely gonna want to try to avoid that one on the weekend. And I will say magic Kingdom's a great one to go to on the weekend because so many people travel that on Sundays, that one's available. So for Magic Kingdom, my recommendation is sometime in the middle of the week, probably Wednesday because we told you universal and islands of adventure do on Monday, Tuesday, do Animal Kingdom. I would do Wednesday at Magic Kingdom and then Thursday and Friday between Epcot and Hollywood Studios. But I will also say pretty much Tuesday through Thursday, you're pretty safe over there. And then surprisingly, we have found Sundays to be a great day to go to Magic Kingdom. If you're there and you have the full day available. So when we go on Sundays, we typically see lower crowds. This last time that we were there, we went on a Tuesday and it wasn't too bad, it was actually pretty low crowds on Tuesday as well. So targeting midweek at Magic Kingdom is gonna be best. So that's how we like to map out our week. Now, we have today for you two I can do this all day, tips of the day. And our first one we hinted at a little bit earlier in the episode, and that is that when you're going during the holiday time specifically like the week of Thanksgiving or the week of Christmas, or the week of New Year. It doesn't matter what day you go to the park that at that point all the parks are at full capacity every single day. So whether you go to a park on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday isn't gonna matter at all. So at that point of the year, just basically throw this whole episode out. This episode doesn't even matter at all, just because it's gonna be so busy and so slammed there. I will say that at the times of spring break, so to that mid-March through the end of April. You're gonna see a lot of the similar crowd levels, but the parks aren't necessarily sold out. So knowing that these days that we could provide some relief for you, if you do use this and follow this method that we like to use but at the same time, it's gonna still feel pretty busy. If you can get there, like we said at the beginning of the episode, late September, early December, early November, late January or early May, you're gonna see substantially less crowds anyway. So that's what we would say to Target if you have the availability to get outta school. And then our biggest tip for the, I can do this all day tip of the day, is you're gonna wanna look really closely at the calendar. To see if there are any parties at the park. So whether it's Universal or Disney especially around Halloween, they have Mickey's not So Scary Party or Halloween horror nights. And when you look at those parks, I want you to check what hours. That event is, and you need the, that you need the separate ticket for. And the reason I say that is with like Disney and Mickey's not so scary party, they may have that going, three or four days during the week, which means there's only one day during the normal Monday through Friday. That Magic Kingdom is not gonna have a party, which means that's the only day people can stay all the way till fireworks. And if you go on that day, know that it's a complete nightmare. It's an absolute chaos. I would say avoid it at all costs. And I know fireworks are really cool to see and you want to see that, but you want to avoid that day at all costs. So what I would recommend is you're gonna want to go to Disneyland or Magic Kingdom on the days the parks are actually gonna close early because the park attendance is absolutely at its lowest. But know that you're not gonna get to stay and watch fireworks, so they're gonna kick you out about three or four in the afternoon. But it's a trade off because being kicked out early though, you're gonna have fewer hours in the park and you're not gonna get to see fireworks. Your wait times are gonna be five to 10 minutes for almost every single ride throughout the entire park that day. And you're gonna be able to ride every single ride you want to do. So a little bit of a trade off. Again, if you wanna see the fireworks, then you're gonna go on that one day that they don't have the party and you're gonna be there at capacity where that park is an absolute madhouse. And every single ride is gonna have an hour plus wait. So we did it this last fall with my sister. We wanted to go on that one day so we could stay from the fireworks.

And I'll tell you by about 8: 16:06

00 PM we had only we'd ridden about two thirds of the rides that we wanted to do. It was complete chaos there. It was so busy that we decided to leave the park and get out of there before the fireworks. Just because it was an absolute madhouse and there were so many people there. So I will say you're gonna want to avoid the non-party days as much as you can because everyone else is doing the exact same thing. So with that, we wish you a magical week as you're planning your next vacation. Like I said, we've got some more episodes coming for you around Epic Universe, so you're gonna want to tune into those and we will talk to you guys next time. Bye-bye.