Trapped in Timon

[shark_hugger]

Anybody else trapped in the Timon parking lot after the fireworks last night?

That was ridiculous. We sat in the parking lot for close to two hours. There were like two lot attendants for the entire lot. Thousands of people all trying to find their own way out. Traffic jams everywhere.

After sitting there that long, you can imagine, tensions were running high. Saw two fights almost break out. No security or APD anywhere in sight. People were setting off fireworks in the parking lot.

I think Disney needs to do something about this. Hopefully it was a one time thing.

I didn't get home till 12AM (we got to our car at 10PM) and I live 10 minutes away!

[Mickey's Friend]

Wow what a terrible thing to happen. I'm sorry you had to sit through that. You should also probably write a letter to Disney complaining about the incident.

[ttztotdca50]

That really sucks! Two hours?!?! That's just insane. That reminds me when I got stuck in the South Bay Galleria mall in Redondo Beach for an hour in the parking structure during Christmas season. But TWO HOURS?! That's just not right.

[shark_hugger]

Yes, quite ridiculous.

We were stoked when we first got there becuase despite being a holiday, we were allowed to park in Timon which usually indicates that the park is not that busy. Timon is is the best parking lot because it's the closest to the resort.

Little did we know that the "best" would turn out to be the "worst" last night.

I told my girlfriend that if we would have parked at Mickey and Friends, we would have been outta there in 10 minutes. That new parking structure is a better design in terms of traffic control...

[Robert951]

I got stuck there also, I parked over by 9A - thought I would be in a good spot, but it was the furthest from the exit! I also got back to my truck by 10:15 & didn't pull out until 11:45! I actually walked over to where the CM was (sort-of) directing the traffic by the cross-walk for Katella and saw the reason for the grid-lock - they were letting the vehicles from the parking lot behind the PP Hotel exit out that way. What a mess! Hope it's better by the time the 17th rolls around....

[shark_hugger]

Robert951,

Did you see people lighting fireworks in the parking lot? This struck me as strange. I mean, it was no big deal or an immediate threat to anyone's safety.

I just thought it was odd that people were doing this and their appeared to be no response from Security or APD.

Disneyland goes through all this effort to show us that they have good security. They check our bags before entering the park, etc. But as I mentioned previously, people were pretty much getting carried away with lighting fireworks, getting into potential brawls which leads me to believe that people were sensing that there was no control of the parking lot and many people were taking advantage of that fact to act like idiots.

Again, very strange. I wonder what happened?

[MSEPForever]

Geez thats terrible...it sounds like the wait to get out of the parking lot was as long or longer than the wait to get on a ride

[Robert951]

Yeah, I saw one guy lighting fireworks in an empty space. I also saw only 1 D/L security vehicle - they kept a low profile though - I guess they were afraid of making a fuss.
Yeah, I did see some awfully short fuses with some of the people trying to leave, but where I was, most people just waited patiently.
I thought it was odd that D/L just didn't seem to care as much about trying to get people to leave in as orderly a fashion as they were about getting all of the cars to park in an orderly fashion. Does that make sense? All that I could see, is that some bonehead decided that it would make more sense to have the vehicles leaving the parking area behind the PP Hotel, exit though the Timon lot, rather than have those vehicles turn right or left onto West Street.
I drive a full-size truck and have been known to leave parking lots through exits other than the marked ones (I've driven over parking stops, across planters, up & over curbs....). I did do a perimeter walk looking for any way out, but didn't see any way out that wouldn't get me into trouble. I did have one exit route partially mapped, but I would have had to time my exit in-between parking lot trams & I would have to knock down 1 fence. Didn't want to scratch my bumper that badly.

[Disnerd]

The reason it sucked was that on the surface streets and I-5 people park their cars and leave them blocking all streets and roads! They get out of their cars and walk to the fences to see the show. Everything is blocked! The streets, the freeway and the sholder of the roads. On Ball road cars are even parked on the sidewalks. God forbid someone needs an ambulance. There isn't even room to land an air ambulance. The CHP and APD are helpless to do anything. With nobody in a car there is no way to move it. And in order to tow it the towers would have to start at the back of the mess and start pulling out cars one by one. There simply isn't that many tow trucks in all of Orange county. Disney stops running the trams because the crowd of people waiting for a tram would totaly grid lock foot traffic leaving the park. It's better to keep people moving towards the parking structure. When they have tried to run trams during high density days people start crowding on trams and hanging off of them. It looks like the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. Too many people have got hurt that it is considered unsafe to run trams or shuttles. Then when you get to your car you still have the problem of driverless cars on the surrounding streets. I don't know why everyone is acting like this hasn't happened before. I have lived next to Disneyland for 5 years and this happens every 4th of July and NYE. I don't even drive to work on these days. I walk to the resort and make the extra money that Disney Commuter assistance gives us. I'll be walking into my location on July 17th. There is no way that I'm going to drive on that day. If your staying at any of the near by hotels hoof it cause I don't think ART is going to be able to handle the crush.

[shark_hugger]

I have lived next to Disneyland for 5 years and this happens every 4th of July and NYE. I don't even drive to work on these days. I walk to the resort and make the extra money that Disney Commuter assistance gives us. I'll be walking into my location on July 17th. There is no way that I'm going to drive on that day. If your staying at any of the near by hotels hoof it cause I don't think ART is going to be able to handle the crush.

Good Tip Disnerd. I don't remember it being it that bad during last year's 4th of July.

Now I'm debating whether I want to even take a crack at going to the park on the 17th. My girlfriend and I assume it will be crazy, but we want to at least say we where there.

[OCman]

I was actually driving home on the I-5 South during the fireworks and was amazed at how many cars were pulled off to the side of the freeway with people outside their vehicles watching the fireworks. The dangerous thing was going south on the freeway there was no traffic. Cars going 65 mph+. However on the other side of the freeway there was major traffic and more cars pulled over on the freeway. The over pass was also crazy.

On a side note, from the freeway the fireworks at Disneyland looked great. No wonder people were stopping to see them.

[EagleWings]

I feel your frustration of what you went through. I was blocked out of the Mickey and Friends structure for 3 hours without any knowledge of why. But I won't even go into the hassle I went through on here just for explaining my frustation. *bangs head on wall*

[neuhickman79]

There's no need to bring up that again EagleWings...and most people were on your side. It was just a misunderstanding. Just get over it. The other thing was an extenuating circumstance and most didn't hold it against you.

[NeverNeverland]

The reason it sucked was that on the surface streets and I-5 people park their cars and leave them blocking all streets and roads! They get out of their cars and walk to the fences to see the show. Everything is blocked! The streets, the freeway and the sholder of the roads. On Ball road cars are even parked on the sidewalks. God forbid someone needs an ambulance. There isn't even room to land an air ambulance. The CHP and APD are helpless to do anything. With nobody in a car there is no way to move it. And in order to tow it the towers would have to start at the back of the mess and start pulling out cars one by one. There simply isn't that many tow trucks in all of Orange county

Well, can't they ticket the cars? It might help allievtate the problem (as in, some people would rather drive on than get a ticket) or at least discourage more people from stopping, that night or in the future?

[Baloo]

Disney needs to do something about not just timon but also the parking structure. i hve written several times to make them aware of certain situations that could become liabilities but their response is that it will be investigated and corrected. The worst problem with the structure is the constant idea that it is ok to merge six ramps (one from each level into two. The parking structure was built for a reason with individual ramps from each level. Each ramp leads out to its own lanes and works great but for some reason they force everyone to merge left so that thousands of cars get thrown into two lanes then hundreds of them start merging themselves to the right as soon as the cones are gone right before the bridge and ut thru all the lanes to be able to turn right on ball. i ahve seen several fender benders and people outraged when they get cut off. Meanwhile the ramps start backing up.