Disneyland Preview — Week of January 20, 2018

A week of very low crowds, pleasant weather, and the kickoff to Disneyland’s Lunar New Year celebration!  Read on to find out more in this week’s Disneyland preview.

Special Events and Notes

While much of the week will be business as usual at Disneyland Resort, Friday the 26th kicks off the Lunar New Year celebration, as California Adventure welcomes the Year of the Dog. In addition to special food and drinks, and traditional ornamental lanterns and banners to set the celebratory mood, there will be several special events and opportunities to experience, including:

• Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession, a parade that will run several times a day in the Paradise Pier area;
• Hurry Home nighttime water show at Paradise Bay featuring Mulan and Mushu (temporarily taking the place of World of Color);
• Disney characters in special Lunar New Year attire;
• Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese foods at Paradise Garden Grill; and,
• The Lucky Wishing Well.

For more information about the Lunar New Year celebration, check out Rikki’s preview, or Disney’s event page for daily event schedules.

Crowds

Crowds will be very manageable this week, making it a fantastic time for a visit.  The highest crowds will be on Saturday when they are at a level 5, but most days this week you will see level 2 crowds.

Full details, including park-by-park crowd levels, are available on our Crowd Calendar.

Weather

Considering the cold most of the country has been enduring of late, the weather at Disneyland Resort this week seems balmy, but it’s actually pretty chilly by Anaheim standards.  Highs most days will be in the mid to upper 60s, but the lows will be in the 40s and even upper 30s on Saturday, so make sure you have something weather appropriate, particularly if you’re going to be there after dark.  No rain of any consequence in the forecast — slight chance on Wednesday, but that’s about it.

As always, it’s wise to double check the weather as the day of your visit approaches. Check out the most up-to-date forecast here.

Shows

Very light show schedule this week, with only Fantasmic! and World of Color running — no nightly fireworks at Disneyland Park at all. Detailed show schedules, including smaller diversions like the Disneyland Band, can be found here.

Admission and Hours

A couple of Passholder blockouts, only affecting the weekend, this week:  Southern California Select Passholders are blocked out Saturday and Sunday, while Southern California Passholders are blocked out Saturday only. All other passes are honored every day this week. For those of you buying tickets as day guests, single-day tickets are at Regular cost ($110/$104) on Saturday, Sunday, and Friday, and Value ($97/$91) the remainder of the week.

Regular park hours (excluding Extra Magic Hours/Magic Mornings) are as follows this week:

As per usual, the parks will open one hour early for eligible guests at Disneyland Park Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and at Disney’s California Adventure Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Resort guests can take advantage of these hours every day of their stay for Extra Magic Hours, while guests eligible for Magic Mornings can use that benefit one day at Disneyland Park only. Full park hours can be found by clicking on each date in the Crowd Calendar.

Refurbishments

There are a significant number of attraction closures in effect at the moment.  At Disneyland Park, Splash Mountain, Dumbo, and it’s a small world are being refurbished (with small world starting on Monday the 22nd).  Moreover, there is a mammoth project underway to replace the tracks for the Main Street Vehicles that renders Main Street U.S.A. a bit of a mess at the moment. Check out Guy’s recent post on the topic for more.

Over at California Adventure, much of Paradise Pier is closed for the conversion to Pixar Pier, with additional closures to Grizzly River Run and the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.  Check out our refurbishments page for details on exactly what will be down and for how long.

That should do it for this week’s preview. Check back next week and every week to find out what’s coming down the pike. Got questions? Aware of anything else that prospective guests should know about? Let us know in the comments.