Saturday, December 10 definitely crowded at DL
 

We were at the park very early today, already in line prior to park opening. When the gates opened at 8am, the lines to get into the park were well into the esplanade.

After doing some shopping, we went to do rides around 9am. We walked to Space, but the standby line was already 50 minutes, and the Fastpass machine wasn't on, which we thought was curious, so we skipped that ride. We went to the Matterhorn, which didn't have a very long line. First time I've been able to ride Matterhorn in about 3 years, so it was actually fun. We then went on Small World, which didn't have a very long line, and then Storybook, which had somewhat of a line, but the line moved fairly quickly, and we ended up on the gold boat, which was cool. Our CM decided to take a bit of a Jungle Cruise approach to this particular ride.

As we and a friend headed over to Main Street to do some browsing, another friend went to get Fastpasses for Haunted Mansion Holiday. The return time wasn't too bad on that, so after we were done on Main Street, it was 11:10 and time to use our Fastpasses. The standby queue was fairly long at that point. We decided to have an early lunch and headed to French Market, where the line was already considerably past the menu sign. After getting our food, we sat in the little area to the side of French Market, right outside the Sparkly Store. (How you know you've been going too much - I noticed that the tables were different. They've usually been round tables, which has always been a problem when we've got more than 2 or 3 people, but now, they're square tables, which work much better for a party of 4.) As we enjoyed our lunch, the line to get into the restaurant remained long. After we finished, we browsed around New Orleans Square for a while and then decided to head over to DCA.

We were on the bridge over the Pirates queue at about 12:40 when we noticed the huge crowds in that area. We had noticed that Pirates (both sides into the entrance were being used) was being queued and going considerably far down past River Belle and the adjoining seating. Here's a picture of the left side of the queue, using the additional queue space in the back. Here's a picture from the bridge looking out onto the Rivers of America. You can see the line of people waiting for Pirates. This picture is slightly further right, where you can see the queue extending even further. This is a picture from the bridge, looking at Adventureland. When we had earlier headed to Haunted Mansion Holiday, I'd noticed that the Jungle Cruise line was queued out the entrance, even though the upstairs queue seemed to be in use. As we tried to make our way out, we headed toward Adventureland, but when it barely seemed to move, we cut through River Belle Terrace, noticing along the way that the Rivers of America side of the queue was really long, almost meshing into the Pirates queue that extended even past that restaurant.

As we were walking down Main Street, many people were still streaming into Disneyland, and in the esplanade, the lines to get into Disneyland were still fairly long. The lines into DCA were long as well, so it took a while for us to get into that park. We headed for Soarin', but at 1:30, the standby wait time was 40 minutes and the Fastpass return time was 4:30, past the time when our friends would have to leave. We headed to Screamin' to get Fastpasses, and the return time was only about half an hour, but immediately after we got our Fastpasses, the ride broke down (we saw one train stopped on the track right before the launch and another train stopped on the track just after a back hill), so we then headed for Aladdin since one of our friends hadn't seen it before. It was pretty crowded, and we ended up at the mezzanine, which included a difficult hike up the stairs, but it was a good show. Another friend who was going to join us had called earlier and said that it had taken him half an hour to get into the parking structure.

After the show, we met up with the other friend but ended up deciding to call it a day as everyone had other plans for the evening.

When I came back in at 6pm, the line was almost to the California sign.

At 7pm when I left, the gates were shut.

I dunno 'bout Saturday, but on Friday night when I went to the Park to meet Nick and zapppop, I swore it would be the last time I went to Disneyland before the New Year. The crowds are getting worse and worse as the holiday season progresses, and I fear for what will become of the place as we approach Xmas and the Mad Insane Do-Not-Visit week from then till New Years Eve.

Even for a veteran like me who knows the ins and outs of the Park, getting up Main Street an hour before fireworks was an absolute nightmare of crowd unbelievableness that I have NEVER seen in the Park (and I've been there on some very crowded days). In fact, when I spoke to zapp on my cell from my eventual viewing destination near Dumbo as he entered the Park, I told him I'd give him a dollar if he made it up Main Street without getting into a fist fight.

Oooh, Disneyland is pretty during the holidays.


Um, but Stay Away.

Did Zappp get the money?


I'm looking at a trip next (sigh) Spring Break, because my sis is finally interested in going and her kid attends public school and.....well, you know the rest. On the one hand, I figure any day at DL is better than nothing, but on the other, I really don't want to go there again during such crowds. I also do not believe my sister could make it down Main Street without knocking someone out, even if I do offer her a dollar. (She doesn't handle rude, pushy people well).

considering there is not one single room available for the rest of the month, including two full weeks of no good neighbor availability, you better get your shopping done soon. a generous 40% discount will force me to choose at least one day to dive in and and shop. there is a "golden" riding crop i have my eye on for Sac.

My family was there Friday. We went early in the day, not exactly at opening, but early. Lines were long but we did get to ride a few rides. At least we'd been recently on a no line day and did everything. Except for a handful of rides, we basically enjoyed the decorations, checked out Santa and the Reindeer {never seen that before}, and the Boy piloted the Mark Twain. Never thought we'd get to do that on a Friday.

We went back to our hotel for a while and what a mess when we came back. We went into DCA and that wasn't too bad. But, the line into Disneyland was horrible. So,we had the idea to go ride the monorail into the park. Wrong move. It broke down after us waiting in line about 20 minutes. But, that was nothing after actually getting into the park. We barely made it past the tree. Then, we barely made it back out of the park.

I remember how bad it was last year but we were stuck going Friday. I tell people that it will be difficult but everyone is eager to go. I just tell them not to expect to do a heck of a lot.

I looked around for anyone familiar.

Anyways, it was nice to sit in front of the fire at the GC.

The thought of Zapp picking a fistfight on Main Street cracks me up. :D

The thought of Zap dashing up MS for a dollar cracks me up. Maybe there was a BJ involved. ;)

Heheh, Al's Update of today talks a whole lot about the Main Street crowding fiasco of Friday.


Oh, and I didn't give zapp the dollar. He never made it as far north as Dumbo. But he did pull off an even more amazing feat by finding visiting Nick in THE HUB.

:eek: Well deserving of Not Afraid's award suggestion.

I arrived at the entry gates to DL at 9:10PM. I called Nick & told him I'd meet up w/ him. Then I called Steve & he said the park was uber crowded. He wished me good luck getting through Main Street w/o getting into a fight & offered me not one, but FIVE dollars if I could make it to Dumbo by the time the show began. Then he scoffed at me for thinking I could find Nick and hung up.

Ten minutes later I called him from the front of the Hub, as I stood next to Nick & scoffed at him for scoffing at me earlier. He just laughed, told us to enjoy the fireworks, and said he'd meet up with us after fireworks.

It was unusually crowded. When Nick & I left the park for Downtown Disney, the CM's were sending guests through backstage areas to get out of the park.