When Will it Be Busy at Disneyland - 2009 Edition

[venusgirl]

Originally Posted by MAH4546

If you are complaining about crowds, then by all means upgrade to Deluxe. The park is emptier on days when SoCal is blocked. Seriously - Easter and President's Day this year were two of the best, least crowded Sundays of the year.

but with the $99 park-hopper that has no blocks I'm thinking the park will be packed all summer long. Also, we still have about 5 free passes from when my BF worked at disney. So we might just use them instead of upgrading...decisions, decisions. On the other hand we could ebay them and use them to upgrade.

[sediment]

Originally Posted by venusgirl

yea...So. Cal is never really humid.

Any word on Father's Day crowds? We plan to get there early and then get the heck out if it gets too crowded!

That's what I'd do.
I've been on Father's Day before. Not a special-day crowd. Typical Sunday.

[sediment]

Update on crowd predictions: Al states that TDA is estimating lower crowds than in past summers. Not empty, for sure. But a lot lower, due likely to the economy. The 3 @ $99 tickets will help a little. Heck that's less per day than a blockout pass. Any SoCal/Select/Deluxe AP'er planning three days of visits should get one.

[mechurchlady]

Originally Posted by disneyfann121

I've got a question. How is the wait for the Toy Story Mania single ride line as compared to the regular standby line? For example if you have an hour wait for the regular line, how long can you expect to wait in the single rider line?

I have walked up and got on within a minute and other times almost half an hour. The last time the loaders were way off in efficiency. I boarded using the regular line and saw someone I had met earlier in the single line. In front of that pair was a young lady. I finally asked the loader if she could come with me. They were actually going to send my vehicle out with 2 open spaces. I saw a group of 3 and they sent them empty. At times the loaders are terrible about keeping cars full and other times they are sending mostly full cars.

normally 1 to 10 minutes depending on luck.

[disneyfann121]

Thanks for the replies, bassbone and churchlady. Does that apply only to weekdays? Are the single rider wait times much longer on weekends?

[monicaduy]

so i saw this week that no one is blocked out, I think or it seems likes its gonna be extremely busy esp. the parking.

[Darkbeer]

Originally Posted by sediment

Update on crowd predictions: Al states that TDA is estimating lower crowds than in past summers. Not empty, for sure. But a lot lower, due likely to the economy. The 3 @ $99 tickets will help a little. Heck that's less per day than a blockout pass. Any SoCal/Select/Deluxe AP'er planning three days of visits should get one.

If a SoCal AP holder is looking for 3 days in the Summer, I think the better investment is to upgrade to a Deluxe and avoid the Saturday blockout days.

But another option is to get an AP to another park, that is less than $99 (USH has a 6 month Pass for just $60 right now) and get some variety, and then come back after the blockout period.

[Darkbeer]

Originally Posted by monicaduy

so i saw this week that no one is blocked out, I think or it seems likes its gonna be extremely busy esp. the parking.

I mentioned this in yesterday's In the Parks article at Miceage.

Well, SoCal Select AP's are blocked out, the "Regular" SoCal Ap holders can enter Sunday through Friday this week (June 21st - 26th), and yes, that includes this Sunday, Father's Day. I would expect large crowds and parking issues for the entire week.

[DevilSaint]

Yea I'm heading there tonight hoping between most APs being blocked out and rainish weather that it will be fairly light on crowds. Next week, I'm getting no where close.

[Darkbeer]

Stopped by the parks for a bit this afternoon, fairly light for a summer Saturday... for example Pirates and Haunted Mansion had less than a 10 minute wait.

No Blankets spread out along the Rivers of America around 2 PM.

RadioBarry celebrating his Birthday. (Ran into him leaving his lunch at Club 33!)

Alas, need to head to Knott's tomorrow to catch the Wallenda High Wire act, but still thinking about driving by Disneyland just to check out the parking problems tomorrow....

(Today, they didn't park either Pumbaa or AGW. They did use Timon and Simba).

[Miss Marie]

I'm going to be there tomorrow, and I'm getting worried.
I'm bringing my grandmother who hasn't been in thirty years. :O!
I really hope its not too crowded...

[Darkbeer]

Let's see...

A summer Sunday (Heck, officially the first day of Summer)

Father's Day

The last Sunday until mid-August that SoCal AP holders can enter without buying a blockout ticket....

Disney is prepared for LARGE crowds tomorrow, and the rest of the week....

I recommend you be prepared too

[tinkerbell54]

I just returned from Disneyland last night. We were there from the 12th to the 19th. The crowds were horrendous. In the twenty years I have been going I have never seen anything like it. One cast member told us Sundays gate count was 60,000. Monday they closed admission for a period of time. Thursday we did early morning which was fine but later in the day it was scary crowded. The park closed at 9 for grad night and in all their wisdom, everyone was parked in Mickey and Friends parking structure which ended up with the estimated 40,000 people in attendance all being on Main Street for fireworks. I have never seen anything like it. They finally took a large group of us back stage on Main Street to try and get us out but then we came back into the on stage area by the firehall and the crowds were overwhelming. I have pictures...can it possibly be legal to have so many people in one place? Had there been an emergancy, a fire or an earthquake, lifes would have been lost. It was a nightmare in living color. We are seriously evaluating if we will ever return. Then when we finally got out of the park, everyone was gathered for the trams so Downtown Disney was a disaster area. The trams only ran for an hour after official closing which was not enough time to get everyone out. I don't know how to insert photos but I have several of Main Street where you could not get a toothpick between the hoards of people and also some of back stage where they tried to get us out and told us they hoped we enjoyed the back stage tour....it was really bad in the parks...really bad. I talked to a lot of tourists who will never return. Also, as a side note, in the past the bathrooms in the park were clean and impressive, this time they all reeked without exception, were dirty and run down and not a nice place to be and all had lines stretching out the doors the entire time we were there. Has Disney done away with air freshner or sanitizer in a cost cutting move? If so, it was a bad move...gross to the max... The hotel we were staying in said they were getting complaints by the dozens of unhappy guests who attempted to take their families to the parks. I felt really bad for the elderly and the very young. They were not faring well in the crowds and is it really fair to expect them to be in a situation like that with no way out of the park? Where was the fire marshall? Does Southern California not have laws regarding crowds of that large all being jammed into a single area? Very disappointed in Disney, their lack of crowd control, their lack of the foresight to park all these people in different areas so the exit could be orderly and safe. Also disappointed they ejected paying guests out for grad night so they could get yet another gate admission fee for the 20,000 grads who were contained in an area of the parking garage waiting to enter. The 20,000 figure was told to me by 2 cast members. Disney has gotten very greedy and there is no recession in that park that I noticed...and soon there will be no tourists either because they made a lot of people very unhappy during my week there and a lot voiced their intentions to never return.

[Kasey]

Tinkerbell54, I agree with you.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that TDA's stated estimate about smaller crowds was simply made to assuage the complaints about the larger than normal crowds.

I’m all for company profit, but there is a point at which too many promotions can become counter productive and Disney may be hitting that point.

[MAH4546]

Any reports on how the crowds are today? I might go in a few hours.