Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Disneyland in 2026 to 2028

Choosing the best time to visit Disneyland & Disney California Adventure is tricky, especially as crowds are less predictable and vary widely between days or weeks. This guide is designed with that in mind, sharing our favorite weeks to target and worst ones to avoid in the rest of 2026, 2027, and part of 2028 based on wait times, attendance, seasonal events, weather & more.

These lists do things a little differently. As Disneyland locals, we often have family and friends asking us when they should take their trips to Southern California. During the course of answering these inquiries, we’ve found that crowd levels in Disneyland and DCA are one factor, but not the overriding one.

We’re instead addressing weather, special events, and overarching tourist trends. Not just at Disneyland Resort, but in Southern California as a whole. Because, at least in our experience, few people we know are taking Disneyland vacations–they’re visiting the beach cities, Los Angeles, maybe a National Park or two, and other popular cities and spots in California. Frankly, this balanced approach makes sense even when it comes to just Disneyland and being primarily concerned with crowds.

The reasons for that are two-fold. First, due to the limitations of traditional crowd calendars when it comes to vacation planning. It’s often the case that the worst and best individual days are dotted throughout the weeks and months. This can be helpful if you’re looking for a single day to visit and your schedule is wide open. Less so if you’re planning a 3-5 day visit that encompasses both good and bad days.

There’s also the unfortunate reality that crowd calendars are less reliable than they used to be. This is true across the board. It’s not that we’re casting aspersions on other sites you use our 2026 Disneyland Crowd Calendar. To the contrary, we trust all of them less, and even warn that you shouldn’t over rely on any of them–ours included!

The reality is that there are too many variables, especially in the era of park reservations, that give Disney granular control over attendance and staffing. (This is even worse with the automated crowd calendars that scrape last year’s wait times data and make future “predictions” on that basis.)

Not only that, but patterns change based on circumstances. This makes reliance on past wait times to predict future crowd levels for specific dates challenging. A few big outcome-determinative factors that change often are the end of ticket deals (last 7-10 days are always bad), Tier 0 ticket dates, and Magic Key Annual Pass blockouts.

The good news, thankfully, is that general trends still do apply. Even if it’s difficult to predict numerical crowd levels for specific days, there are certain weeks we know without a doubt will be better or worse than others. We also know when seasonal events will happen, what weather is generally like each month, and more.

On top of all that, we live fairly close to a few of the Best Beaches in Southern California (and in our opinion, the entire world) and take regular walks there. If there’s one thing we know better than Disneyland crowds, it’s Orange County beach city crowds! While we don’t spend nearly as much time in Los Angeles or the nearby National Parks, we’ve been to them all enough to know when to visit and avoid those, too.

When combined with our Best & Worst Days to Do Each Park at Disneyland, this should offer definitive advice for picking travel dates and when to prioritize the parks versus other things to do in Southern California. This narrows down the week, and then that provides what you need to know to choose when to visit each park. It’s still more of a “teach a person to fish” rather than the “give a person a fish” mentality of crowd calendars, but it also should prove more accurate and useful.

Beyond this, we regularly share big updates, discounts that are released by Disneyland, crowd levels change, etc., we send out email notifications. To receive these, subscribe to our free email newsletter. This will give you a good idea of what things are like ‘on the ground’ at Disneyland, as well as what to expect in the future.

With all of that said, let’s dig into the data and other variables to rank the 10 best weeks and 10 worst weeks to visit Southern California and Disneyland Resort in the next 2 years–meaning dates in the remainder of 2026, all of 2027, and some dates in 2028…

Worst Weeks to Visit Disneyland in 2026, 2027 & 2028

Winter Break (January 1-5, 2027; January 1-4, 2028) – There’s the perception that holiday crowds die down immediately after New Year’s Eve, that it’s like flipping a switch. That used to be the case, but no longer. These days, post-holiday crowds remain heavy through the first weekend in January, and don’t let up until local school districts go back into session following winter break.

After that, tourists are briefly supplanted by local Magic Key passholders who are no longer blocked out but are still on holiday break from work or school. Annual Passholder blockouts for January do not perfectly coincide with Los Angeles and Orange County School District winter breaks, and are much more staggered than in previous years.

Suffice to say, there’s a slight surge of pent-up demand among locals after multi-week blockouts lift in the New Year after some blockouts end but before schools go back into session. The good news is that it is like flipping a switch after that, with the days that follow being blissfully uncrowded until MLK Day Weekend.

Ski Week (February 12-22, 2027; February 18-28, 2028) – Without question, the worst dates of winter at Disneyland will be the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. The entire week following that is bad due to the dreaded “Ski Week” at Disneyland. (See Avoiding Ski Week at Disneyland for a full explanation as to why a theme park, of all places, is impacted by skiing crowds.)

In any case, the result is that crowds will likely remain elevated through the following Monday due to Ski Week. If at all possible, we’d avoid all of these dates. Expect crowd levels of around 8/10 during the peak of Presidents’ Day and 7/10 or higher on the surrounding dates.

With Lunar New Year ending before this and no entertainment or seasonal offerings to take its place, this timeframe becomes even less attractive. The lack of parades, nighttime spectaculars, and so forth will exacerbate the feels like crowds, as there will be little-to-no entertainment to ‘soak up’ crowds.

Early Spring Break (March 13-20, 2027; March 20-27, 2028) – March gets progressively busier in the second half of the month. The last two weeks also start seeing spring break crowds as non-local markets and some schools in surrounding states (namely Utah and Nevada) start having their spring breaks.

Additionally, some schools in Orange County–where Disneyland is located–have their spring breaks the last week of the month each year. Typically, local spring breaks cause crowds to spike, especially when overlapping with ticket deals that don’t have blockout dates, meaning this will be the worst week of the month.

Note that these two weeks are a bit different in 2027 and 2028. This all comes down to the timing of Easter, which goes from early to normal to late in the next few years.

Easter (March 21-31, 2027; April 7-17, 2028) – This is a fairly safe prediction year in and year out, regardless of what else happens. In fact, you could accurately predict today that the week leading up to Easter will be busy in 2027-2030 or 2055.

Easter week has been the busiest of spring break season for as long as we’ve been covering Disneyland, although late March when Orange County is out has come close a couple of times. However, this week is exacerbated by the Los Angeles Unified School District having a spring break that’s anchored to Easter.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter which of these spring break weeks has higher crowd levels. That’s almost entirely academic, an interesting thing to watch for those of us who obsess over crowd trends and attendance patterns. The bottom line for most planners looking at this from a practical perspective is that late March through the Wednesday after Easter will be very crowded.

End of Early Ticket Deal (TBD 2027 & 2028 Dates) – At the beginning of the year, we wrote that the 2026 Disneyland Park Hopper Ticket Deal was a game-changer that alone had the potential to upend crowd calendars.

Wowzers, was that prediction ever proven correct. The parks were slammed for most of the first few months of the year, and the ticket deal was such a smash success that Disneyland actually ended it early. Not only that, but it seemingly gave Disney cold feet about doing another resident discount (as is usually the case) for the summer and early fall.

Our expectation is that the deal returns for Winter & Spring 2027, but isn’t nearly as good as this year. That’ll mean lower levels than the 8/10 crowds that occurred throughout the first five months of 2026. Nevertheless, there will still be a spike towards the end of the deal. Based on past precedent, that should be in the lead-up to Memorial Day.

Summer’s Twin Peaks (June 21-28, 2027 and July 19-26, 2027; TBD 2028 Dates) – Summer crowd calendars are snake oil. There’s very little consistency in attendance patterns for June and July in the last several years. Conventional wisdom used to be that the weeks around Fourth of July were the peaks, but that hasn’t been the case for a full decade.

The lack of a California resident ticket deal all but eliminated these twin peaks in Summer 2026. The end of July was still busier than the weeks before it, but there was not such a spike in late June. And in fact, every single week from January through May 2026 (during which the ticket deal was valid) was busier than all of June and July. This is one of many reasons we expect the ticket deal to return in 2027, and accordingly, we’re continuing to flag these dates.

To the extent that there has been a trend, it’s that there are twin peaks in summer. One around the halfway point, and one that we’ve described as a “last hurrah” as travelers scramble to take trips before school going back into session. These peaks aren’t completely consistent, but have more or less been the end of June and end of July, with Mondays being especially bad (hence these dates being Monday to Monday).

Regardless of crowd trends at Disneyland, summer is California’s peak tourist season. It’s the busiest time at the beaches, cities, state and U.S. National Parks. It’s also the (subjectively) worst time at most of these places. Joshua Tree and Death Valley are miserable due to weather, whereas it’s the ugliest and most crowded time of year at Yosemite and the other parks to the north. Meanwhile, Malibu, Laguna, Huntington and every other beach in between is packed with people.

If you have no choice but to visit during summer, and are choosing dates from a holistic perspective, we’d recommend aiming for mid-June. Crowds elsewhere around Southern California are more like a bell curve, with the Fourth of July still being the high point. Our rough rule of thumb is that Father’s Day typically signals the arrival of peak summer crowds in the beach cities. Either visit right before then, or after mid-August as crowds start departing.

Conclusion of California Summer Ticket Deal (2027-2028 Dates TBD) – There’s almost always a huge spike in crowds during the last week of any ticket deal as locals scramble to use their remaining dates on these tickets. This dynamic occurs due to the ‘use it or lose it’ rush to take advantage of these tickets before they expire. The same thing always happens when the winter/spring offer ends, too.

“Almost” is emphasized above because such a ticket deal was not offered in Summer 2026. It was a baffling decision, and one that we believe was an overcorrection following the overly aggressive Winter/Spring 2026 deal. Regardless, the lack of this discount resulted in low crowd levels starting in early June and continuing through the latest update to this post (August 22, 2026). The lack of this discount also means that low to moderate (at worst) crowds are forecast for Disneyland from now through October 8, 2026. As discussed below, that’s the start of Fall Break.

Suffice to say, we expect this deal to return in Summer 2027. These ticket deals typically end in late September (26th two years ago, 28th three years ago). Last year, the deal ended unexpected early, in mid-August right before Halloween started.

Given the wide range of dates in the last couple of years, it’s impossible to predict when the worst of these dates will happen in 2027. It won’t be the entirety of early August through mid-September, but rather, a 7-10 day subset of those dates. We’ll try to update this accordingly once the next ticket deals are released, but failing that, just know to avoid the stretch before ticket deals end.

Fall Breaks (October 8-18, 2026; October 7-17, 2027) – October has become one of the worst months of the year at Disneyland. With the exception of the last few days of the month, the parks have been packed–for pretty much the entire month. However, the month as a whole isn’t as bad as it was a few years ago–when October was the #1 worst month of the year.

This was driven by a mixture of the Halloween season being incredibly popular with locals and a scattering of fall breaks for school districts throughout California and the West Coast. Disney’s solution has been to dramatically raise the price of single-day tickets throughout October (now the most expensive month of the year to visit, on average) and extend the Halloween season into August.

This has worked to some degree. Demand has been pulled forward into August and September, and locals with flexibility opt to visit when it’s cheaper. With the exception of Fall Breaks, October’s highs aren’t as high as they once were. The reason the last couple of years were arguably anomalies to an extent is because Disneyland has overcorrected, and it’s only a matter of time before things swing back in the other direction.

For now, just be aware that many districts in Utah and California have breaks that fall between these two weekends. There’s also Nevada Day at the end of the month, but even that plus Halloween aren’t enough for that to make the list.

Thanksgiving (November 21-27, 2026; November 20-26, 2027) – Just about any Disney fan is familiar with the crowds of the final three weeks on this list, which are almost identical for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

They’re hardly a secret or surprise, and are predictably busy year in and year out. These weeks still catch some casual visitors by surprise, as there are persistent urban legends that the holidays are quiet because “everyone is at home with their families.” Obviously, that’s hogwash.

Offering a bit more insight here, Thanksgiving week crowds tend to be worst the Sunday through Tuesday before Thanksgiving before a comparative lull on late Wednesday and early Thursday. Friday and Saturday are wildcards; usually both are very busy, but not always.

We’ve officially removed Saturday from the above dates to avoid because it was downright delightful last year. We’d recommend erring on the side of caution and avoiding it if at all possible, but that’s no longer essential. The Sunday after Thanksgiving has been uncrowded for years, making that a great first day in the parks.

Christmas (December 19-25, 2026; December 18-25, 2027) – Here’s where there’s deviation between Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Due to incredibly aggressive Magic Key Annual Passholder blockouts, there’s actually this odd ‘calm before the storm’ dynamic when blockouts have largely taken effect, but before tourists have arrived. Not enough to make that a recommended time to visit, but enough that it’s noticeable.

The arrival of Christmas week crowds are very dependent upon the day of the week of Christmas. Due to its timing last year and this year, the week after (between Christmas and New Year’s Eve) saw or will see the worst of the crowds.

Consequently, the true peak of Christmas crowds comes that Monday and Tuesday, similar to Thanksgiving. And this week is never as busy as the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Regardless, all second-half of December dates are well above-average and should be avoided if possible. But not all days are equally busy. Some are far worse. That’ll probably be the case with the week before December 25 in each of the next dozen years.

New Year’s Eve (December 26-31, 2026; December 26-31, 2027) – It’s the exact same story here. The week leading up to New Year’s Eve is usually 9/10 to 10/10 on the crowd calendar.

However, it once again is not nearly as bad as Walt Disney World (which has 10+/10 crowd levels) due to the aforementioned across-the-board Magic Key blockouts. This actually brings the week of New Year’s Eve more in line with Easter, with the latter notably not having as aggressive of AP blockouts and being eligible for the SoCal resident ticket deal.

Nevertheless, if you were to place a bet on the busiest weeks of 2026, 2027 or 2028, the smart money would be on this week. If I had to make the same bet for the year 2055, I’d still pick the week leading up to New Year’s Eve. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll have the worst wait times given the uncertainty of making predictions 1-2 years into the future, but it is the odds-on favorite of claiming the crown.

Best Weeks to Visit Disneyland in 2026, 2027 & 2028

Winter Doldrums (January 19-24, 2027; January 18-23, 2028) – After winter break ends, January is largely quiet with the exception of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend. This leaves three different weeks that are potentially good options for lower crowds in January.

All of those should be equally good, and if this were done exclusively on the objective basis of crowd levels, there’s a more than decent chance a couple of weeks would make the cut. These weeks gets you far enough outside the holiday season, with the post-blockout crowd wave having subsided, and local schools being back in session.

Our favorite of these are immediately after MLK Day. These dates are towards the start of the Lunar New Year festivities at DCA, which is always a fun time to visit. It also benefits from fewer refurbishments and usually better weather. Note that starting in 2027, there also won’t be any runDisney events at Disneyland.

Early to Mid-February (February 2-11, 2027; February 1-16, 2028) – As a general matter, winter crowds gradually increase after bottoming out in mid-to-late January. However, crowds also increase from low levels to more moderate ones by mid-February.

So you really need to optimize for what matters most to you–potential refurbishments and colder weather or crowds? It’s definitely a ‘fly too close to the sun and get burned’ kinda deal, with Ski Week coming immediately after these dates.

For all of these recommended January and February dates, it’s also worth noting that we are not averse to winter weather. We love wearing sweaters to Disneyland, and don’t mind the occasional rainy day that clears out crowds. We also love the extremely uncrowded beaches, but we’re also never getting in the water.

These are not good dates if you’re trying to escape the snow and cold of the Midwest or wherever and want a warm weather getaway. We mention this because it always trips up planners–but Southern California and Central Florida do not share climates.

Early Spring (March 2-7, 2027; March 1-5, 2028) – These dates aren’t set in stone, and you might have similar success the following or previous week. However, there are a few specific reasons why we’re recommending these dates. First, this provides sufficient clearance from both Mid-Winter Break or Ski Week and Spring Break. Go a week earlier or later and you might run into ever-so-slightly elevated crowds as a result.

Second, this is the week after the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival starts. That draws a lot of locals to the parks, especially DCA, for its opening weekend and those aren’t always picked up by traditional crowd calendars since they’re visiting for the event and not to ride attractions.

This is one of our absolute favorite weeks of the year at Disneyland, owing to a great combination of low-to-moderate crowds, lovely weather, and the DCA Food & Wine Festival. If you’re planning on a beach visit, it’s also a great time to beat the crowds there–without needing to wear a parka while you’re lounging. We highly recommend visiting Disneyland during these dates!

Post-Easter (April 11-18, 2027; April 18-25, 2028) – For this window, we’re essentially looking a week or two after Easter. Usually, crowds die down in the week immediately after the holiday, but there are still some schools with breaks then. The week following that is usually when the slower season arrives.

The added benefits here are (usually) spring weather and lower prices. That makes this a great option if you’re looking for the optimal dates between spring and summer school breaks.

This is likewise a fantastic time in the beach cities, Los Angeles, and Universal Studios Hollywood. Depending upon the weather conditions in the prior months, this can also be a fantastic time to see wildflowers at the inland state and U.S. National Parks. When they happen, superblooms are awesome and well worth the trek to Death Valley or Anza Borrego.

Shoulder Season (May 1-14, 2027; May 1-14, 2028) – In looking at the wait time data, the first full week of May is usually the slowest of the month. Not by a wide margin, and the following week is sometimes better. In fact, the entire month before the Memorial Day holiday weekend is usually pretty good, and reliably uncrowded since it’s the shoulder season between spring break and summer vacation.

The big exception to this is normally the week to 10 days before the expiration of the Southern California resident ticket deal, which usually ends before Memorial Day or in early June. Depending on how early it ends, the week immediately after the ticket deal can be the best week of all.

Admittedly, we don’t have a complete picture of what to expect in 2027 or 2028, so those dates are placeholders at this point. We’re nevertheless anticipating a return to normal, and the predictions reflect that. Depending on the details of that deal, we might also flip those dates to a later week.

Independence Day (July 1-6, 2027; July 3-7, 2028) – In each of the last 4 years, Independence Day has gotten progressively better at Disneyland. We’ve spent the long weekend in the parks for 2 of the last 3 years, and it’s downright blissful. The best stretch of low crowds we’ve experienced at Disneyland (not due to weather) since at least early last September or November.

That’s right, the Fourth of July is one of the best weeks to visit, not one of the worst. Due to aggressive Annual Pass blockouts, higher travel costs, higher-tier single-day tickets, and erroneous assumptions about crowds, this week has been the slowest of summer for the last 4 consecutive years. Note that the week immediately before this makes the ‘worst’ list, so if you arrive earlier, you’re likely to experience elevated wait times. But once the calendar rolls over to July, crowds should drop sharply.

This may be hard to believe if you remember the old days when Independence Day saw 10/10 crowds, but that hasn’t been true for a while. This week has gradually gotten better, and even the United States Semiquincentennial, bonus fireworks, and debut of Soarin’ Across America didn’t change that this year.

To the contrary, Sunday, July 5, 2026 was the slowest day of summer this year. Due to blockouts and day of week timing, our expectation is that same Sunday will be the least-busy day next year. That just so happens to be July 4, 2027.

Post-Summer (August 20-31, 2026; August 19-31, 2027) – Demand drops when Orange County and Los Angeles schools go back into session. Orange County schools usually resume around the second Tuesday in August and Los Angeles County resumes the Monday before that (August 9th through 12th the next couple of years).

This is partially offset by the summer Magic Key Annual Passholder blockouts for the lowest tiers of passes ending around roughly the same time. There will be a lot of pent-up demand for locals who have been blocked out for ~2 months, and they will return in droves that week.

However, ticket prices are astronomical for the first couple weekends of Halloween and there are AP blockouts, so we suspect that’s enough of an offset to keep things manageable. Weather is the biggest wildcard here, and as I type the latest update, we’re in the midst of a heat wave with highs in the mid-90s as far out as the extended forecast goes. That alone will keep locals at home and guarantee this prediction is accurate for late August 2026.

Around Labor Day (September 8-13, 2026; September 7-12, 2027) – The week starting the Tuesday after Labor Day has been the least busy of the entire year for 3 of the last 5 years.

This trend will almost certainly continue in September 2026. This should be a fantastic time to visit, with only weather being a wildcard. All of this is much more of a sure thing than the above dates, unless Disneyland adjusts blockout dates, single-day ticket tiers, or the end of the summer ticket deal in 2027.

Between Two Holidays (November 3-8, 2026; November 2-7, 2027) – For reasons beyond us, Christmas season now kicks off after Veterans Day weekend. This has happened for the last two years, so there’s every reason to believe it’ll continue in 2027, unfortunately.

Last year, this first week of November was one of the slowest of the year as a result. It did get busier around Veterans Day, but still nothing like in previous years when that holiday was part of the Christmas season–to the point that we wouldn’t be averse to visiting anytime between late October and November 18, 2026.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are typically a few slight spikes in here, usually on Mondays. (For example, November 3, 2025 was busier than all adjacent dates.) That’s why the date ranges above end on Sundays; in all likelihood, the following few days won’t be bad, either.

Whether this trend continues in 2026 is anyone’s guess. From a quantitative perspective, this timeframe is too good to ignore–especially with Haunted Mansion Holiday already underway, Christmas decorations starting to go up, and typically great weather. From a qualitative perspective, we would trade the lower crowds for a fully-fledged Christmas season. Accordingly, the next two weeks are much stronger recommendations.

Post-Thanksgiving (November 28 to December 6, 2026; November 27 to December 5, 2027) – The beginning is immediately after Thanksgiving, which may call this recommendation into question. But crowds fall fast after the holiday as people there for that week head home.

Everything about this week is great–the weather, post-holiday lull in crowds, pricing, and the full slate of Christmas season entertainment. We joke that this used to be Disney’s “second-best kept secret” after Disney Vacation Club, which is to say it was a secret in name only since so many people knew about it.

Second Week of December (December 7-13, 2026; December 6-12, 2027) – The following week is only slightly busier, so it’s not like you need to get out of town before the second week of December rolls around. Last year, both of the two weeks after Thanksgiving had an average wait time of 25 minutes, which is very low.

We’ve come to really like the weekend of Candlelight Processional, which artificially suppresses attendance and wait times at Disneyland that weekend. Many resources will suggest avoiding that weekend. They are wrong–that’s an outdated perspective in the era of park reservations. You just have to be smart about it, and use that special event to your strategic advantage.

This is precisely why the second week of December is our #1 favorite time to visit Disneyland. It’s not the objective best from a crowds perspective, but it does tend to be very low (average wait times in the ~25 minute range) and you can leverage savvy strategy to your advantage. Seeing Candlelight Processional, even if from a distance, is also an awesome experience that’s incredibly memorable.

Although it’s playing with fire, we should note that crowds were also low December 15-19, 2025 (Monday through Friday). This suggests you could do well with December 14-18, 2026 or December 13-17, 2027. We’re reluctant to make those recommendations, as those dates could end up being much busier the next couple of years. Just something to keep in mind, though.

Ultimately, that’s a rundown of the top 10 weeks of the year and the worst 10 weeks at Disneyland for all of 2026 and 2027. As you might’ve gathered by reading the entries, there are good and bad windows that stretch beyond what’s covered on this list–you should be able to deduce most of those based the rundown above.

Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and many other SoCal cities!

Your Thoughts

Do you agree or disagree with our Disneyland week rankings for now through 2027? Are there any months you think are better or worse than we have them ranked? Any specific ideal weeks that you’d recommend people visit California? Other dates to avoid the parks in 2026 or 2027? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!