March Crowds, SoCal City Pass and San Diego About This Page:

[A & J's Dad]

We're seriously considering a spring break, which is March 10-18 for us, trip next year. What are the crowds like? What are your opinions on the Southern California City Pass? If you could only do the San Diego zoo or San Diego zoo Safari Park which would you do?

Cheers
Craig

[DebiDebiDebi]

Sring break can be VERY crowded! However, your spring break is relatively early, and you may miss the Southern California Spring break dates. Best rule of thumb is to remember when kids are out of school, the parks are always more crowded. As for the Southern Cali City Pass; we have used them in the past with success and even tho we didn't go to all the available Theme Parks offered with the pass, we found it to be a deal for us. Do a bit of research and see if it will save you, and if it does, go for it!

[Colexis Mom]

We've only been in July, so can't help you with crowds, but we much preferred the Wild Animal Park over the Zoo!

[PixieMichele]

Map out which destinations and sights you want to see and compare pricing before you buy the San Diego pass, some people find it doesn't offer the attractions they are interested in and you don't realize it until it's too late. So weigh your options and do some price comparisons and you'll find something that will work for you.
DL will seem more crowded to native WDW'ers because of the size. You just have to accept it for what it is and if that's what you want to experience you can't rely on what everyone else is doing! I would use the weekdays at the beginning of your trip to do DL/CA and weekends to do the other San Diego attractions if you're worried about crowds.

[Papa Mouse]

Crowd Level for the month of March is

Disneyland Attendance Tips & Chart

If you use the 3 day hopper and two of the other attractions the So. CA Pass should pay for itself.

The Zoo or the Safari Park is a matter of preference depending upon what you would like to see.

Mainly the Zoo is mostly animals, birds, etc., in their own confinement of pens or cages.

The Safari Park has a few of the above but many of the animals are loose and roam together like they do in the wild of Africa over many acres.

San Diego Zoo

San Diego Safari Park

Remember the CA City Pass also includes Hollywood Studios and Sea World.

[DopeyGirl]

We've been in early March and found it to be just fine, crowd wise. It will seem more crowded due to the size of the parks (DL park will, anyways) but the weekdays will be less crowded than the weekends for sure.

If you are planning on using all of the options on the SoCal CityPass, it really does save a bit of money. You get 3 days at the DLR, one day at either the San Diego Zoo or SD Zoo Safari Park and a day at Sea World (the day at Universal Studios wasn't part of the CityPass for quite some time but has just recently been added back in!). I'd do DL during the week and then head to San Diego for the weekend, if it were me.

I grew up going to the Zoo and the Safari Park (though it will always be the Wild Animal Park to me! ) and honestly love both. The Zoo is fantastic but a lot of walking and the Safari Park is just an awesome experience altogether. I honestly would have a horribly tough time choosing one over the other (but many say they prefer the Safari Park over the Zoo)! If you have time, you might think about going to both!

[Mares75]

We went the end of March/beginning of April this year over spring break. Now that DS is getting older, taking him out of school really isn't an option anymore. The weekdays weren't bad at all but there was a big difference in crowds on Saturday. We did the 'big' rides during the week so by time Sat came around, we were hitting up mostly the smaller things like the canoes, Tom Sawyer Island, Moments with Mr Lincoln, etc. The lines for things like Space Mountain and the submarines were well over an hour most of the day Sat.

We figure we're in the same boat as a lot of other families being limited to school breaks for vacations, so we go into it with the mindset it's going to be more crowded. On the plus side, you get longer park hours and more show times. If you prepare yourself for longer lines and use those fastpasses to your advantage, you'll be fine.