We were going to write about the best beignets in New Orleans Square today. We really were. And then we realized that New Orleans Square is currently a ghost town, Pirates of the Caribbean is closed, and Disneyland Paris is about to close their Pirates too, and suddenly the beignet post felt like it could wait.
Let us talk about what is happening at Disney parks right now because it is genuinely interesting.
Both Pirates Are Down
Starting tomorrow, June 15, Disneyland Paris is closing Pirates of the Caribbean for its annual rehabilitation. The closure runs through Friday, July 3. @Sami_Parks posted the reminder on X: “The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction will be closed starting tomorrow. From Monday, June 15 to Friday, July 3 for its annual rehabilitation.”
⚠️ Rappel l’attraction Pirates des Caraïbes sera fermée à partir de demain.
📅 Du lundi 15 juin au vendredi 3 Juillet pour sa réhabilitation annuelle 🚧 pic.twitter.com/dagGeTMsA4
— Sami_Parks 🎢 (@Sami_Parks) June 14, 2026
The Paris closure has a date on the other end, which is something. The Disneyland California Pirates of the Caribbean is also currently closed, and does not have a confirmed reopening date.
So as of tomorrow, both Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disney parks are simultaneously offline. The original 1967 Disneyland version. The Disneyland Paris version. Both down at the same time. We cannot think of the last time that happened and it is the kind of thing that deserves to be named plainly.
If you are heading to Disneyland California and Pirates is important to your trip, there is no timeline to plan around right now. If you are heading to Disneyland Paris, avoid June 15 through July 3 or make your peace with skipping it.
The Wild Part: Disneyland Is Also Kind of Empty Right Now
Here is where the story gets more interesting for anyone with a California trip on the calendar.
Summer is supposed to be Disneyland’s peak season. Schools are out, families travel, waits go up, the park gets packed. That is how June at Disneyland is supposed to work. Except guests who have been visiting recently are reporting something that sounds almost nothing like that.
On Reddit, someone posted a photo from the Toy Story Lot on a Saturday and described Disneyland as a “total ghost town.” Other visitors backed them up. Multiple guests reported weekend conditions that felt more like a quiet Tuesday in February than peak summer.
“Was there yesterday and crowds were surprisingly low for a Friday,” one guest wrote. “Wait times for Fantasyland rides were 5 to 10 minutes almost all day and there were noticeably less people than on Thursday.”
One guest who went on a Friday described a morning that honestly sounds like a dream: “Got there right at 8, by 11am, we rode Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Matterhorn, Alice in Wonderland, Indiana Jones, and the Mark Twain boat. We left by 4 since there wasn’t much to do and it got so hot.”
Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Matterhorn, Alice in Wonderland, Indiana Jones, and the Mark Twain in three hours. On a summer Friday. That is not a normal Disneyland experience and everyone who has stood in a 90-minute Indiana Jones queue knows it.
Why Is This Happening
The explanation is actually pretty straightforward and another guest on Reddit put it well: “Saturdays in summer have been this way for several years now. You mix a super expensive tier for tickets due to dynamic pricing plus block almost all the Magic Keys, means it’s delightful.”
Magic Key Passholders, who make up a significant portion of regular Disneyland weekend attendance, are largely blocked out during peak summer weekends. Dynamic pricing pushes single-day ticket costs up during the same periods. So the people who would normally fill those Saturday and Sunday slots either cannot come because they are blocked out, or are looking at ticket prices that price them out entirely.
The result is lighter crowds at peak times. Which is strange, and probably not exactly what Disney intended, but is genuinely great news if you are planning a visit right now.
New Orleans Square, which is usually one of the more congested sections of the park, has also been described as notably quiet. To be fair, Pirates of the Caribbean being closed does remove one of the biggest draws to that area, which helps explain some of the reduced foot traffic there specifically.
The FIFA World Cup Might Also Be Playing a Role
The World Cup is currently happening in the United States, with Los Angeles hosting matches at SoFi Stadium. In theory, a major international sporting event nearby should bring more visitors into the region and potentially into the parks. In practice, the effect seems to be the opposite.
Disneyland Paris saw something similar during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Instead of a tourism surge, some guests delayed or avoided trips out of concern about crowds and inflated prices tied to the Olympic period. A version of that same psychology may be keeping some potential visitors away from the Los Angeles area during World Cup match weeks rather than bringing them in.
What This Means For Your Trip
If you have a Disneyland California trip coming up and Pirates is not your top priority, right now is genuinely one of the better times in recent memory to visit. The combination of Passholder blockouts, dynamic pricing effects, and World Cup hesitancy is creating crowd conditions that are rare for summer. Guests who visit this window are getting a version of Disneyland that most people never experience in peak season.
The Pirates closure is the real caveat and it is not a small one. The attraction has been at the heart of Disneyland since 1967. New Orleans Square without it feels different, and there is no date on the calendar to tell you when it comes back. If Pirates is the reason you are going, patience is currently your only option.
For Disneyland Paris, the math is simpler. If your trip overlaps with June 15 through July 3 and you care about Pirates, either adjust your dates or set the expectation now. After July 3 it should be back.
We will keep covering both closures as updates come in. And if you are trying to figure out whether now is the right time to book a Disneyland trip given everything going on with crowds and closures, drop it in the comments. This is exactly the kind of thing we love helping people think through, and we will get back to you with something actually useful.
