Our February 2023 Disneyland & Disney California Adventure information affords a free crowd calendar for selecting the most effective days to go to, plus data about climate, new sights & closures, seasonal occasions, reductions & pricing, and extra. (Updated January 31, 2023.)
The excellent news is that February is low season in the case of journey to Southern California as a complete. It’s a low-volume month for LAX and SNA airports, which ought to be mirrored on crowd calendars for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
The dangerous information is {that a} lot of individuals dwell inside Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and the winter “off-season” has more and more grow to be a well-liked time for them to go to. On prime of that, Magic Key Annual Passholders frequent the parks year-round, there’s new stuff for Disney100, and faculty breaks throughout February 2023. Accordingly, although vacationer quantity will likely be low many of the month, Disneyland will nonetheless have loads of moderately-crowded (and worse) days in February 2023.
We already coated this in our January 2023 Disneyland Crowd Calendar & Info submit, however we’ll shortly recap it right here once more in case you didn’t learn that. Basically, we’re anticipating February 2023 to be a repeat of one thing that occurred a few years in the past.
Back then, Disneyland was slammed with individuals the primary two months of the 12 months resulting from a confluence of circumstances: Main Street Electrical Parade’s return, SoCal resident ticket supply, and aggressive advertising campaigns in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
This was a major departure from current historical past. Normally, January and February are the slowest months of the 12 months at Disneyland. February can also be the vacation hangover, a stretch of nothing after the favored, back-to-back Halloween and Holiday Times at Disneyland. This is noteworthy as a result of many in Southern and Northern California make their annual pilgrimage to Disneyland Resort between September and December.
In February 2023, we’re anticipating an analogous confluence of circumstances “thanks” to pent-up reservation demand amongst Magic Key Passholders who’ve had a tough time reserving reservations since Halloween. On prime of that, Magic Keys simply went again on sale final month, so there’s additionally demand amongst new Passholders.
Additionally, there’s the 2023 Southern California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal. This one is nothing out of the odd, and solely affords weekday visits via May 25, 2023 which can be topic to theme park reservation availability. It’s important that this isn’t a greater deal than prior to now (if something, it’s barely worse), however many locals will nonetheless purchase it to expertise every thing new for Disney100.
Speaking of which, the large attracts at Disneyland Resort in 2023 are Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Toontown and the 100 Years of Wonder Celebration. This new trip is now open and the Disney100 occasion is now underway. We’ve been within the parks a number of days because it began, and crowds are positively up–we’ll proceed watching intently to see whether or not there’s a fall-off.
The celebration brings with it new nighttime spectaculars to every park, plus character costumes, new merchandise, meals & drinks, and every thing else locals love. Consult our Guide to Disney’s a hundredth Anniversary Celebration at Disneyland & DCA for every thing you must know concerning the festivities.
With that preface out of the way in which, right here’s what you possibly can anticipate in February at Disneyland & Disney California Adventure when it comes to the group calendar, climate, refurbishment, particular occasions, closures and new sights…
February WEATHER AT DISNEYLAND
If you don’t thoughts delicate to chilly climate, February is a superb time to go to Southern California from a climate perspective. Temperatures are normally within the 50s and 60s. The day by day excessive temperature is 68°F, and barely falls beneath 59°F or exceeds 80°F. Daily low temperatures are 50°F, hardly ever falling beneath 41°F or exceeding 56°F.
This may seem to be t-shirt and shorts climate to out of state vacationers, however most locals bundle up in coats…or parkas. This is particularly true within the night, when California’s crisp air makes it really feel even colder. In addition to these t-shirts, we’d advocate packing denims and sweatshirts, plus a light-weight jacket. Layers are key this time of 12 months.
February can also be within the coronary heart of Southern California’s wet season. On the uncommon events when it does rain, it’s sometimes not only a transient or remoted bathe. Nevertheless, the typical February rainfall complete for Anaheim, California is 3.1 inches, so days of downpours are unlikely.
It’s extra doubtless you’ll expertise near-constant sunshine, with the marine layer being much less of an issue throughout the winter months, and most days seeing loads of daylight. All issues thought of, February is an efficient time to go to California (and by extension, Disneyland), as long as you don’t plan on sunbathing on the seaside or swimming within the ocean!
SPECIAL EVENTS & WHAT’S NEW OR CLOSED
Over at Disney California Adventure, the Lunar New Year Celebration of Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese traditions runs via February 20, 2023. If you’re visiting earlier than it ends, we extremely advocate making a degree of checking the meals and leisure–particularly the Mulan processional.
At this level, it’s fairly protected to say Main Street Electrical Parade received’t make an encore this 12 months. It hasn’t but been introduced and February begins quickly. While we’ve no doubts that it’ll return once more sooner or later (Disney simply can’t resist trotting this parade out for “farewell” runs on occasion), but it surely’ll be too quickly for the reason that final “farewell” run for an additional.
On a constructive be aware, there may be one parade returning: the short-lived Magic Happens parade makes its extremely anticipated return to Disneyland on February 24, 2023. Led by Mickey Mouse and his buddies, the daytime spectacular celebrates Walt Disney Animation and Pixar Studios movies with grand floats, creative costumes and an brisk musical rating. Magic Happens first debuted on February 28, 2020. Anyone with even cursory information of world historical past is aware of what occurred subsequent, and why it ran for lower than two weeks.
The starting of the 12 months is “refurbishment season.” For February, refurbishment season has returned in full drive. Consult our 2023 Disneyland Refurbishment Calendar for opening and shutting dates. One factor that’s not on the calendar but is the closure of Splash Mountain, but it surely appears extremely more likely to happen in February 2023.
With all of that established, let’s check out the February Disneyland crowd calendar…
February Disneyland Crowd Calendar
Disneyland crowd calendars aren’t dependable for particular person dates resulting from shifting attendance, Magic Keys, and different components. Generalized traits are simpler to foretell, but it surely’s tough to say a selected day can have low, reasonable, or heavy crowds—which is why we’ve eradicated our color-coded Disneyland crowd calendars.
As such, our Disneyland crowd calendar factors out the most effective & worst date ranges. These ought to be used as an approximation for crowds relative to different dates in the identical month or season. While different websites supply numerical crowd calendars for particular dates months (or a 12 months!) prematurely, we’d be weary of placing an excessive amount of weight on these. Suffice to say, there are just too many inconsistencies for Disneyland crowd calendars to be dependable far prematurely.
With that mentioned, our crowd calendar methodology is predicated upon historic wait time data, anecdotal observations, particular occasions, college schedules, dynamic ticket costs, and extra. We don’t separate the 2, however anticipate Disney California Adventure crowds to nearly all the time monitor Disneyland crowds—with just a few exceptions—albeit with a proportionately decrease variety of friends.
Finally, we don’t advocate utilizing this crowd calendar as a proxy for wait occasions at different Los Angeles sights or theme parks, like Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott’s Berry Farm, or Six Flags Magic Mountain. Disneyland Resort crowds are distinctive; they’re typically artificially manipulated by Disney and in addition impacted by extraneous variables that don’t influence the aforementioned theme parks to just about the identical diploma.
Generally talking, the most effective days to go to Disneyland in February 2023 will likely be Mondays via Thursdays. The vacation that actually has a huge impact on the group calendar this month is Presidents’ Day. Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras has a negligible influence on Disneyland attendance.
With that in thoughts, our favourite week to go to will likely be February 6-9, 2023. We’d additionally advocate February 13-16, 2023 as dates that ought to characteristic extra reasonable crowds. If you’re solely trying to go a few days, February 1-2, 2023 can also be an important choice.
Weekends are more likely to be busier throughout the board resulting from Magic Key Passholders. Fridays ought to be particularly dangerous, because of the mixture of individuals taking lengthy weekends and the SoCal ticket deal not being blocked out. Sunday nights aren’t as dangerous as the remainder of the weekend–crowds are inclined to die down as vacationers from inside California begin heading house about noon, however the parks stay open later than on weekdays.
Without query, the worst dates of the month at Disneyland will likely be February 17-20, 2023. The complete week following Presidents’ Day (so stretch that to February 26, 2023) are dates we’d keep away from. Between the top of Lunar New Year and begin of Magic Happens Parade, that complete stretch will likely be fairly crowded.
The Saturday and Sunday of Presidents’ Day Weekend received’t be as dangerous because the Friday and Monday that bookend them. This has every thing to do with blockout dates for many Magic Key Passholders. All of lately ought to be prevented in the event you can, however we really feel the weekend itself is the higher choice ought to you must attend throughout that 4-day lengthy weekend.
If you additionally comply with our crowd forecasts for Walt Disney World in Florida, you may know that we not too long ago highlighted simply how dangerous this will likely be within the Worst Week of Winter is Coming at Walt Disney World. In the Florida parks, this would be the busiest week of the primary quarter and may very well be one of many 5 worst weeks of 2023–proper up there with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and the height of spring break.
Thankfully, it won’t be practically as dangerous at Disneyland. This is for a few causes. First, Los Angeles and Orange County colleges do not have the total week of Presidents’ Day off. Same goes for many West Coast college districts. Some do have longer breaks, however nothing just like the variety of districts within the Southeast, Gulf Coast, and Northeast which have all the week off for Mardi Gras or Presidents’ Day. There additionally aren’t colossal runDisney or youth sporting occasions at Disneyland to essentially spike crowds.
With that mentioned, the aforementioned opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and the 100 Years of Wonder Celebration might spike crowds throughout the board in February 2023. Consequently, anticipate crowd ranges of round 8/10 throughout the peak of Presidents’ Day, 6/10 or so on the encircling dates, and 5/10 or beneath throughout the remainder of the month.
Another consideration is that the 2023 California resident ticket deal will solely be legitimate for Mondays via Fridays, making it totally doable that crowd ranges will likely be extra constant all through every week in February 2023. We’ve seen this play out not too long ago, and which dates find yourself being higher or worse is sort of random–we doubt that’ll be the case this winter, although. Midday Friday via noon Sunday are more likely to be the worst home windows to go to Disneyland.
All of that is topic to alter relying on park reservation calendars. If Magic Key reservations run out for many days–together with weekdays–and reservations for normal ticket holders comply with swimsuit, there received’t be a lot variance in crowds in any respect. If every single day is totally booked, they’re all equally busy.
These February 2023 Disneyland crowd calendar predictions assume that Disney will be capable of improve capability and/or pent-up demand will begin to fizzle-out within the new 12 months. If both or each of these issues don’t happen, all bets are off. Even in the event that they do happen, it actually relies upon upon the diploma to which it occurs. If reservations are nonetheless filling as much as ~90% most days (and we’ve no manner of understanding whether or not that happens), there probably received’t be an considerable distinction in crowd ranges all through the month. Our expectation is that demand will lower and capability will improve, thus offering some aid to crowds, however that’s not a positive factor.
February Pricing & Discounts
This might be coming too late for many of you, however February is among the least expensive months of the 12 months when it comes to off-site lodge costs. At some places, you possibly can anticipate to pay about half the value of peak summer time season pricing. We booked a number of accommodations for ourselves this month to knock out extra evaluations, and seen many accommodations beneath $100/night time.
Speaking of which, we rank our favourite (and least favourite) accommodations within the space in our Disneyland Area Hotel Rankings & Reviews submit. Check out discounted lodge + ticket trip packages on Get Away Today to save cash on off-site accommodations.
Even if our low to reasonable crowd predictions for February change into correct, we nonetheless advocate an environment friendly itinerary for touring Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Another nice choice is the Park Hopper ticket, which lets you weave between the parks. Failing that, arrive at rope drop and attempt to get as a lot carried out as doable earlier than 4 p.m. Read our Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets submit for full ticket suggestions.
Ultimately, February doesn’t rank very extremely on our Best and Worst Months to Visit Disneyland however that’s because of the second half of the month. It’s doubtless going to be dangerous resulting from Presidents’ Day and Mardi Gras coinciding, plus the return of Magic Happens Parade and finish of Lunar New Year…on prime of every thing new that debuted for Disney100 in January. The first half of the month ought to be a special story, with solely the Disney100 spike contributing to a barely busier than regular winter low season stretch.
By and enormous, we’ve had an distinctive time throughout our visits in January and February, and that’s due largely to picking dates with decrease crowd ranges–plus comfy coat climate. As the month wears on, crowds will nearly actually improve, so goal the primary half of the month in the event you actually wish to take pleasure in extra manageable attendance ranges and wait occasions.
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site accommodations in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of different locations!
Your Thoughts
Have you visited Disneyland in February? Any ideas on the refurbishment initiatives happening in Disney California Adventure and Disneyland this 12 months? Did they influence your expertise negatively, or do you worry that they may? Any questions? Hearing suggestions about your experiences is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!