When Will it Be Busy at Disneyland - 2009 Edition

[Cuddles McHenry]

curious as well! Planning to go with my
nieces, and my whole family has dinner reservations @ 8pm in DCA

[Rex Dopey24]

have fun and good luck.

[Mommyto4]

Originally Posted by 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.

Wow, Im so sorry your time in the park was not a happy one. I have been there when it was uncrowded and it was wonderful, of course I have to go with the flow when I decide to go during busy seasons and with this years summer nightastic thing, the parks are way crazy. I am afraid of major crowds like you have described, thank god I will be close to the parks motel wise, and I plan to be out of the way crowd wise during fire works and fantasmic . ( collecting fast passes for tomorrow land all thru the day spending the night there. also taking my time leaving the park as to not get in any ones way or go thru major crowds. I also plan to leave the park for a nice meal in down town disney and then head to my room early to avoid the mess of people trying to get out as well. I think if you go planning it along the way, stay clear of places you know will get majorly crowded then you will have a better time. But some times no matter what your going to get in a mess and its best to ride it out.

[jcruise86]

We were planning on making it a full day tomorrow (Monday, June 22nd) ending in fireworks, but my revised plan is to get there RIGHT when the park opens at 8a.m. and hit some rides, take in the first Billy Hill show (waiting in line to get into that), and then run around TS Island, and get on the freeways before rush "hour" traffic starts building at 3p.m.

My daughter really wanted to see the fireworks, but was consoled by the promise of upcoming 4th of July fireworks, and at sometime in the fall the crowds will subside. Remember the huge lines when the Nemo subs opened?

And imagine the mess when DCA's fountain show opens! They should have at least two weeks of ticket only AP & D23 preview shows just to avoid a terrible mob scene on its opening night. Disney could even charge $10 a ticket and give all the money to charity for those preview shows.

[whamo]

Wow! Sardine-can tight Main Street doesn't sound too appealing. Maybe after the So Cal annual passes expire for summer the crowds may thin a bit.

[disneyfann121]

Originally Posted by 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.

This is ridiculous. Disney has to rethink their business plan. We all know APs are too cheap, and then they make it even more accessible by offering a monthly payment plan. Do they really want to scare away all the tourists, and have only locals flooding the park while paying pennies on the dollar per visit?

Look, I have nothing against you locals, I would get an AP too if I lived in Cali. But you get what you pay for; if APs are too cheap and that means horribly overcrowded conditions at DLR, wouldn't you be better off with a more expensive AP, and a less crowded park? That would translate to a much higher quality experience. And they have to do away with this free birthday promotion next year.

Bottom line: when everyone is in a theme park, it's fun for no one.

[Cuddles McHenry]

I was in both parks yesterday June 21. Had no problems either parking in Mickey and friends, or entering the parks. The two longest lines were Space Mtn and Indy, with wait times of bout an hour for Space and 75 min for Indy(@ around5pm)
Most everything else we went on had real short wait times. Wasn't the packed crazy nightmare I feared.

[venusgirl]

Yea we went Father's Day as well. The parks seemed Bi-polar to me. Some *super-short* waits and some fairly long. Tower of Terror and CS were both 15 min, MM and SoC were 40 min. Then in DL SM and Indie were in the 40-60 min most of the day but we hit them early. We left around 5 pm because the sun was getting to me.

[cromag]

I'm taking my Daughter tomorrow (23rd) for two days. This has me a little concerned. I cant stand large crowds like tinker wrote about. Its my daughters birthday so I guess I'll have to grin and bear it. Cant go back on a promise.

One question I have is are the grad nights over or do I have to worry about this?

[Darkwing]

Does anyone know of any major events the first full week in October (4-10)? I know Gay Days wraps up on the 4th but alot of hotels are full during that time and I can't figure out why.

Thanks.

[sir clinksalot]

Originally Posted by Darkwing

Does anyone know of any major events the first full week in October (4-10)? I know Gay Days wraps up on the 4th but alot of hotels are full during that time and I can't figure out why.

Thanks.

Columbus Day is the 12th, it's an increasingly busy holiday weekend. I think I remember hearing that last year many schools got the week before Columbus day off for some odd reason.

[Cuddles McHenry]

Originally Posted by cromag

I'm taking my Daughter tomorrow (23rd) for two days. This has me a little concerned. I cant stand large crowds like tinker wrote about. Its my daughters birthday so I guess I'll have to grin and bear it. Cant go back on a promise.

One question I have is are the grad nights over or do I have to worry about this?

Im pretty sure Grad Nites are over. Anyone else care to comment?

[tinkerbell54]

To Cromag:

If you already have a pass for your daughter, they will give her a gift card for her birthday, if not admission is free. Also make sure to take her ID and pick up pins saying Happy Birthday where a cast member will write her name and all through the day everyone will wish her a Happy Birthday! Have fun and hopefully there will be no crowd issues for you!! (The main ticket offices have the pins and so do most of the stores if you ask...they are free...there is also a nice green Celebrate one you can ask for)

[katy621]

Oh well, my DH & I are gluttons for punishment. This is our 2nd trip during the month of July.

[ERIN92345]

I'm trying to go tonight after work... any idea what the parking situation is looking like? I really don't want to park in Pongo again