Hi, I’m Hastin – and I admit it, I love to visit Disneyland after a long day at work. Especially this summer, when the park is open late every night. But, all those dazzling new parade and fireworks, have really put me in a jam – I’ve known the crowd flows at Disneyland for years, but now – they are different!

crazy
Disneyland can get just a little crazy after dark.

All this summer, I’ve been getting lost in the crowd, not quite knowing where to go when pathways get blocked. I usually just want dinner and to ride an attraction or two! So what’s a geek to do? Let’s map it out and break down the crowd flows, shall we?

1. Have a strategy!

When arriving at Disneyland night, it’s good to have a strategy. With the new offerings, you can’t really just ‘wander’ the park at night anymore. You need to have an idea in your head where you want to go, and then think of Disneyland as a carefully crafted maze. Hold on, I’ll be showing you the key to that maze in a bit, but as a core strategy, just know what you want to do – it will make walking the park less painful.

2. Arrive / navigate before the first Paint the Night.

8:50 P.M. is your target, and it’s best to arrive before that. As you’ll see in the flow maps below, many walkways and routes close DURING the parade. So, arrive late-early, or early-late. Just try not to move around DURING the parade.

Guest Flow Corridors whisk you from the front of the park to the hub.
Guest Flow Corridors whisk you from the front of the park to the hub via pathways behind Main Street.

3. Go with the flow…

Now that I’ve got a couple dozen trips under my belt, I decided to make some crowd flow maps. These are accurate as of 7/1/15. Guest Control is always looking for better options and paths, so expect change – but the general strategy should remain consistent. Let’s break it down:

BeforeFireworks

This map covers what happens before and during the first Paint the Night. Here’s some detailed notes:

  • Main Street is used generally for crowd flow, right up until parade time, this map covers the sidewalks that are open once the streets are closed.
  • The right sidewalk of Main Street (Market House/Starbucks side) is used for 2-way traffic, because there’s an escape though Town Square. If you enter the park, I highly suggest using the Flow Corridor if it’s open, unless your destination is specifically on that side of Main Street.
  • The left sidewalk of Main Street gets really quiet during the parade itself, because most guests are directed into the corridor, some nights this side of the street was ‘one way’.
  • There’s still a crossing at Center Street. Depending on the crowds, this may not be an option.
  • About 20 minutes before the parade starts, they’ll open up the Guest Flow Corridors (GFC) to enable easy bypass from the entrance to the hub area.
  • Merchandise hates when Operations needs to open the corridors (funneling guests backstage keeps them out of stores and decreases merchandise revenue), so they are really open for as little time as possible (just when the Main Street walkways are too busy for the crowds, and Main Street is closed). The corridors only stay open for about an hour during this whole process.
  • Once the parade steps off, all street access closes. The only way to get to Fantasyland is via Big Thunder Trail, or behind the Matterhorn.
  • Matterhorn becomes a mess once the parade starts, with the only sort of access behind it.
  • The Hub becomes one-way during the parade itself, including the parade crossing.

4. You can only cross Paint the Night behind the Pixar floats.

If you’re in the dreaded position of needing to cross the parade, it only has 2 crossing opportunities. Those are after two of the Pixar floats (Cars and Toy Story).

Pass through the parade after Slinky Dog.
Pass through the parade after Slinky Dog.

5. Move around again after Disneyland Forever fireworks.

Most of Main Street, Fantasyland, and Rivers of America are at a gridlock conditions until fireworks are over, once that happens, it becomes a giant exit area:

afterfireworks

After the fireworks a few things happen:

  • Streets basically become exit paths. Step into the street and walk for the quickest exit.
  • If you’re still arriving into the park, the right sidewalk and corridor should be open. Some days, the corridor doesn’t open.

6. Want to see the nightly entertainment? Watch Fireworks from Small World, step along the sidewalk for the 11:00pm Paint the Night.

If you’re a local like me, and you want to see the fireworks and parade as last-minute as possible, Small World Mall is your best bet. Most people cramp up to the fences or sidewalks to just watch the parade. Once the parade passes (at about 9:10), the street is generally wide open. You can get a great view of the 11:00pm Paint the Night parade from many locations along the parade route, with LOTS of easy spots on the terraced Small World Mall viewing platform!

get me outta here
Let’s get out of here!

That’s my strategy for navigating Disneyland at night! What tips or tricks do you have for getting around the park during the nightly spectaculars?

Hastin Zylstra
Hastin Zylstra, MiceChat Technical Administrator, has been involved with the technical aspects of MiceChat since it's launch in 2005. In addition to keeping MiceChat online, he works for a major software company in the Orange County, California area. Most weekends, he can be found at Disneyland geeking out with MiceChat friends and the latest technology.