Disneyland didn't seem ready for the crowds

[MadfordaMouse]

We just got back from a 10 day trip to CA, 4 days were in Disneyland. Loved the decorations!! We knew from reading other posts prior to leaving that we were going to have a lot of company with us on our trip due to fall break and things (we are also from AZ) so we expected a few more people than your average fall day. Wow! It seemed as though the entire state of AZ emptied into the park the entire week! We saw people who went to the same schools, lived in same towns and who were customers at my husbands store everywhere we went ! The crowds seemed to me more like summer crowds and Disney tried to keep the peace by leaving the park open later each evening, until 11pm on columbus day and until 9pm on each week day, but the staff seemed very busy, although extremely friendly, but overworked. Some rides were open only on one side by early evening making lines 45 min. to 1 hour long, the hungry bear restaurant closed, the French Market restaurant on Thursday only opened one side and we waited for an hour for dinner (we are very patient people and knew that the wait would be just as bad anywhere else so we just stuck it out). The entrance to Frontierland was closed for repairs which bottle-necked Adventureland to the point where we walked single-file holding eachothers shirts to get through, it was literally shoulder to shoulder. I overheard cast members asking eachother why there were so many people there! Never had a bad experience with any employee though, all seemed very friendly, I actually felt bad for them a few times when dealing with the masses. Hopefully next year Disney will have a some more staff available that week, if not I may have to resort to going in the rain in the early spring and *gulp* pull the girls out of school for a few days! Is this pretty typical for this time of year?

 

[Dis Ohana]

I'm not sure if it would make any kind of difference in attendance, but Hawaii public schools went on a unified schedule this year and I know that they just had a one week fall break. I personally know a lot of families that headed for DL.

 

[hlbtimes2]

We were there last year at this time- and it was packed! I dont know that there is an Oct. off season any more.

 

[MadfordaMouse]

Well, if other states had fall break that same week, that would make sense. On the upside, the weather was awesome! Never once had to use a parka which is a plus for us, but it did get quite chilly in the evening. We all wore jeans all day and t-shirts and my husband even got into the spirit by wearing a giant red and yellow Mickey top hat all four days, and brought sweatshirts for night. The new Pirates is awesome! We were even fortunate enough to have Jack Sparrow himself walk through an extremely crowded NOS and wave his hand in front of them and say "follow me" as he set up in front of the river for autograpghs, they were 2nd in line! The line to see him was very long and was still going strong after we waited in line for and rode TMR, which was about 30-40 min. The HM ride was amazing! This was our first time seeing the layover and absolutely loved it, in fact we rode it at least 9 times over our stay and my 8 yr old started reciting with the narrator in the stretch room. It was crowded but it was Disney, so we had fun no matter what! We just miss the 10-15 min. waits like the spring time, I just kept thinking how lucky we were to catch what we missed the next day, we met a lot of families who were only going for one day and were having a tough time. For the most part though, the people visiting all seemed very polite and actually apologized after they bumped into eachother in line, and aside from some of the rugrats kicking Push in TL (why do they do that? He's like a magnet for little shoes or something) most of the kids were pretty well behaved outside of the typical toddler meltdown. I can't wait to go back!

 

[somerc]

It took us a few days to figure out what was going on with the crowds. CM informed us that the park was not ready for it and that is why the hours were extended last minute and lots of CM schedules were changed.

 

[minnietoo]

It took us a few days to figure out what was going on with the crowds. CM informed us that the park was not ready for it and that is why the hours were extended last minute and lots of CM schedules were changed.

Interesting that DL wasn't ready for crowds when they scheduled all the crowd bringing events (except for Gay Days which was a private crowd bringing event) - but the Halloween stuff, Gay Days, Choc walk and the holiday weekend should have given them a clue that there would be crowds.