Our February 2023 Disneyland & Disney California Adventure information provides a free crowd calendar for selecting the perfect 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 an entire. 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 reside inside Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and the winter “off-season” has more and more grow to be a preferred time for them to go to. On high of that, Magic Key Annual Passholders frequent the parks year-round, there’s new stuff for Disney100, and college breaks throughout February 2023. Accordingly, regardless that vacationer quantity might be low a lot 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 put up, however we’ll rapidly 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 attributable to a confluence of circumstances: Main Street Electrical Parade’s return, SoCal resident ticket provide, 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 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 high 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 atypical, and solely provides weekday visits by means of May 25, 2023 which might be topic to theme park reservation availability. It’s vital 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 all the things new for Disney100.
Speaking of which, the massive attracts at Disneyland Resort in 2023 are Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Toontown and the 100 Years of Wonder Celebration. This new experience 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 all the things else locals love. Consult our Guide to Disney’s a hundredth Anniversary Celebration at Disneyland & DCA for all the things you might want to know in regards to 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 by way of the gang calendar, climate, refurbishment, particular occasions, closures and new sights…
February WEATHER AT DISNEYLAND
If you don’t thoughts gentle 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 each day excessive temperature is 68°F, and infrequently falls under 59°F or exceeds 80°F. Daily low temperatures are 50°F, not often falling under 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 suggest packing denims and sweatshirts, plus a lightweight jacket. Layers are key this time of 12 months.
February can 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 temporary or remoted bathe. Nevertheless, the typical February rainfall whole for Anaheim, California is 3.1 inches, so days of downpours are unlikely.
It’s extra probably 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-about, February is an efficient time to go to California (and by extension, Disneyland), as long as you don’t plan on sunbathing on the seashore 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 by means of February 20, 2023. If you’re visiting earlier than it ends, we extremely suggest making some extent of checking the meals and leisure–particularly the Mulan processional.
At this level, it’s fairly protected to say Main Street Electrical Parade gained’t make an encore this 12 months. It hasn’t but been introduced and February begins quickly. While now we have no doubts that it’ll return once more sooner or later (Disney simply can not resist trotting this parade out for “farewell” runs occasionally), however it’ll be too quickly for the reason that final “farewell” run for an additional.
On a constructive be aware, there’s 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 friends, the daytime spectacular celebrates Walt Disney Animation and Pixar Studios movies with grand floats, inventive 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 power. 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, however it 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 usually are not dependable for particular person dates attributable to shifting attendance, Magic Keys, and different components. Generalized tendencies are simpler to foretell, however it’s tough to say a selected day could have low, average, or heavy crowds—which is why we’ve eradicated our color-coded Disneyland crowd calendars.
As such, our Disneyland crowd calendar factors out the perfect & worst date ranges. These needs to be used as an approximation for crowds relative to different dates in the identical month or season. While different websites provide numerical crowd calendars for particular dates months (or a 12 months!) upfront, 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 upfront.
With that mentioned, our crowd calendar methodology relies upon historic wait time info, anecdotal observations, particular occasions, faculty schedules, dynamic ticket costs, and extra. We don’t separate the 2, however anticipate Disney California Adventure crowds to nearly at all times monitor Disneyland crowds—with just a few exceptions—albeit with a proportionately decrease variety of visitors.
Finally, we don’t suggest utilizing this crowd calendar as a proxy for wait instances 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 generally artificially manipulated by Disney and likewise impacted by extraneous variables that don’t impression the aforementioned theme parks to just about the identical diploma.
Generally talking, the perfect days to go to Disneyland in February 2023 might be Mondays by means of Thursdays. The vacation that basically has a huge impact on the gang calendar this month is Presidents’ Day. Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras has a negligible impression on Disneyland attendance.
With that in thoughts, our favourite week to go to might be February 6-9, 2023. We’d additionally suggest February 13-16, 2023 as dates that ought to function extra average crowds. Weekends, together with Fridays, are more likely to be busier throughout the board. The one exception to that is Sunday nights–crowds are inclined to die down as vacationers from inside California begin heading residence about noon, however the parks stay open later than on weekdays.
Without query, the worst dates of the month at Disneyland might be February 17-20, 2023. The whole week following Presidents’ Day (so stretch that to February 26, 2023) are dates we’d keep away from. Between the tip of Lunar New Year and begin of Magic Happens Parade, that whole stretch might be fairly crowded.
The Saturday and Sunday of Presidents’ Day Weekend gained’t be as dangerous because the Friday and Monday that bookend them. This has all the things to do with blockout dates for many Magic Key Passholders. All of today needs to be averted should you can, however we really feel the weekend itself is the higher possibility ought to you need to 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 just lately highlighted simply how dangerous this might 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 might 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 almost as dangerous at Disneyland. This is for a few causes. First, Los Angeles and Orange County faculties do not have the complete week of Presidents’ Day off. Same goes for many West Coast faculty districts. Some do have longer breaks, however nothing just like the variety of districts within the Southeast, Gulf Coast, and Northeast which have your entire week off for Mardi Gras or Presidents’ Day. There additionally usually are not 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 may 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 under throughout the remainder of the month.
Another consideration is that the 2023 California resident ticket deal will solely be legitimate for Mondays by means of Thursdays, making it solely doable that crowd ranges might be extra constant all through every week in February 2023. We’ve seen this play out just lately, and which dates find yourself being higher or worse is sort of random–like throwing darts at a board. Nevertheless, we’re providing these solutions because the dates which might be extra probably to be higher or worse.
Moreover, 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 gained’t be a lot variance in crowds in any respect. If each day is totally booked, they’re all equally busy.
These February 2023 Disneyland crowd calendar predictions assume that Disney will be capable of enhance 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 now we have no manner of understanding whether or not that happens), there probably gained’t be an considerable distinction in crowd ranges all through the month. Our expectation is that demand will lower and capability will enhance, 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 by way of 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 lodges for ourselves this month to knock out extra opinions, and seen many lodges under $100/evening.
Speaking of which, we rank our favourite (and least favourite) lodges within the space in our Disneyland Area Hotel Rankings & Reviews put up. Check out discounted lodge + ticket trip packages on Get Away Today to economize on off-site lodges.
Even if our low to average crowd predictions for February turn into correct, we nonetheless suggest an environment friendly itinerary for touring Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Another nice possibility 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 put up 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 probably going to be dangerous attributable to Presidents’ Day and Mardi Gras coinciding, plus the return of Magic Happens Parade and finish of Lunar New Year…on high of all the things new that debuted for Disney100 in January. The first half of the month needs to be a distinct 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 selecting dates with decrease crowd ranges–plus comfy coat climate. As the month wears on, crowds will nearly definitely enhance, so goal the primary half of the month should you actually wish to get pleasure from extra manageable attendance ranges and wait instances.
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site lodges in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For the place to eat, try our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, try What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides past Disney, try 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 tasks happening in Disney California Adventure and Disneyland this 12 months? Did they impression your expertise negatively, or do you concern 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 under within the feedback!