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Review - Feb 29 "an extra Disney Day"

Review - Feb 29 "an extra Disney Day"

Old Mar 9, 2012, 2:34 pm
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Review - Feb 29 "an extra Disney Day"

We just happened to decide to go to Disney last week when they had this first time ever event- Leap Day -and were staying open from 6am until 6am.

We didn't give it much thought. The place was relatively empty all week, as expected for this time of year. We were walking on to rides that normally have hour-long waits.

Wed came and we didn't do anything special, we went to Epcot in the morning and planned to get to the Magic Kingdom later in the evening to see if anything special was happening.

Well, apparently this was a huge event. We had trouble getting the boat from our resort to the park, so we took a different boat to a hotel and walked. That should have been our first clue

It took nearly an hour to get there (normal commute - 20 minutes) and once we walked in people were lined up to see the fireworks. We just stood at the end of main street and watched, again, figuring it was just normal fireworks crowds that would be leaving as soon as they were over.

We were wrong. The place was packed - as in so packed you couldn't fall over if you wanted to. They had special events starting after midnight and people were streaming into the park. We tried walking toward the castle, and when we reached the end of Main Street, we could barely move. A cast member told me it was worse than Christmas.

We decided we go too often to deal with the madness and just turned around and left. We hit the outlets instead

The next night we were talking to another cast member who said it was maddeningly busy ALL NIGHT LONG and that there simply wasn't enough staff at the end of Feb to handle those kinds of crowds. Many people who worked all night called in sick the next day. This poor girl could barely stand she was so tired.

Anyone here brave the crowds and stayed in the Magic Kindom all night?
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Old Mar 9, 2012, 7:11 pm
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I've read reports that said it was even worse at Disneyland. I'm regularly amazed at how badly Disney sometimes botches things like this. I guess it's because in so many ways they just NAIL customer service, corporate synergy, etc. that the slip-ups seem so egregious.

They marketed the heck out of this thing. It was a really unique idea. And there is a huge market of Disney geeks who will glom onto anything out of the ordinary that Disney does (not saying this is a bad thing). So why would they not have predicted capacity crowds and staffed accordingly? I'm just puzzled by it...
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Old Mar 10, 2012, 7:41 am
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How true. I just couldn't believe how many people were streaming INTO the park at nearly 9pm. All the resort boats were full with lines at the docks.

We went the next night, and service was not up to it's usual standards - people were exhausted.

One cast member said they should have kept another park open as well to split the crowds between the two.
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Old Mar 11, 2012, 5:30 pm
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Originally Posted by DJ_Iceman
I've read reports that said it was even worse at Disneyland.
Yes it was.

I sent my 21 yr old son and 17 yr old daughter from JFK-SNA on Feb 28th just so they could experience a full 24 hours in Disneyland. Got them a SuperShuttle ride to the Fairfield Inn, directly across the street so they'd be within walking distance of the park.

Disneyland said they'd open a line at 10pm for those looking to wait for the 6a opening the next day.

At 10p, my son looked at the line (which was growing to 800 strong), called his sister at the hotel and said 'pack up, we're waiting on line NOW'. When they got on line by about 1030p, estimates were they were ~800. Within the next half hour, there were over 2000 people on line. Bracelets were issued, color coded to identify your place in line.

I had equipped them with thin airline 'type' blankets and those heat warmers in foil packs that you buy at the sporting goods store. Others were more prepared and had blow up mattresses and tents. The night was cold but the crowd was friendly and orderly. Neighbors in line went for coffee and hot chocolate and asked my kids if they wanted any. One woman let me daughter have her much heavier blanket when the lady went out for a beverage (the night air was COOOLD).

At 420a Disneyland folks told everyone they had 30 mins to get rid of anything that would not be allowed in the parks, so people went back to their cars to get rid of air mattresses, pillows, suitcases and folding chairs.

At 6a, they entered the park, got special commemorative Mouse Ears (only 2000 issued), a free Leap Day button, and off they went. Huge lines formed for the special Leap Day t shirts and sweatshirts that were being sold. But my kids were here for the rides.

And ride they did. All day. All night. All morning again.

The crowds weren't too bad in the morning. 20 minute wait tops. The kids said the day was great until about dinnertime. Then the locals arrived.

Apparently all the roads leading to Disneyland were totally backed up with locals, annual pass holders who were coming to make a night of it. By 8p, the gates were completely shut to any new entries. The park was over capacity at 88,000 guests. At one point, there apparently was total park gridlock and no one could move, anywhere. My kids were OK but others have said they felt panicked and literally could not move. They envisioned a stampede, or one of those awful 'soccer match' tragedies where people get trampled under their own weight.

Fortunately, that did not happen. But my daughter did remark that, while she was waiting for the 1a showing of Fantasmic, that she felt that if a firework had gone rogue, she'd be a 'dead man' as there was just no sure or safe way to escape the crowd.

Many of the rides had waits of two and three hours.

The nighttime crowd was filled with locals in their 20s and apparently many were drinking and smoking pot.

Disneyland execs were nowhere to be found, apparently having left their posts at 5p for home, under the impression that the day had been a success.
Employees coming in to relieve other cast members from their shifts were stuck in traffic and unable to report. Current employees could not go home and the general consensus was that the staff was completely unprepared for the way they event had evolved.

The nighttime crowd never really let up. It did lessen, but my kids said the park was still very crowded at 4a and there were 50+ minute rides for all of the E ticket attractions up til closing time at 6a.

Their last ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at 555a. They left the park around 630a and were completely exhausted. They had done 24.5 hours in the park and another 7.5 hours waiting on line to get in.

My kids loved it. They are Disney nuts, of course, and are so thrilled to be able to say that they were there for the day that broke ALL the records. But they said it was completely underestimated by the folks in Disneyland and will probably never happen this way in that park again. (Apparently, Disney World had less issues with crowd controls and the event went smoother there. More AP holders in SoCal seemed to be the real problem in Anaheim.)

Would my kids do it again? I'm sure they would Would the folks in charge of Disneyland do it again? Hopefully not, unless they sell special event tickets like they do for the Halloween event and such, or open California Adventure as well. This park could not hold all those who came out.

Hope that gives you a little idea of what the day was like

Last edited by flyerwife; Mar 11, 2012 at 5:38 pm
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Old Mar 12, 2012, 6:54 am
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Wow. That does sound considerably worse. But then again, we left WDW had more internal space to handle the croweds, so off property it really wasn't that noticeable. We didn't have problems getting to the outlets at around 9:30pm

Curious though, why did they go to Disneyland vs. WDW?
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Old Mar 12, 2012, 9:18 am
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Originally Posted by Mary2e
Curious though, why did they go to Disneyland vs. WDW?
We were in WDW not that long ago, and my daughter is going there with friends after graduation in June, so my son felt that Disneyland would be a more unique experience for her (they've only been there 2x before).
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Old Mar 12, 2012, 12:32 pm
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That makes sense.
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Old Mar 13, 2012, 7:28 pm
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Sounds like a horrible experience. We LOVE Disney - go 2,3 times a year. The only thing we don't like about Disney are the crowds. So whenever there's a 'special event', we head in the exact opposite direction. I would have spent the 29th by the swimming pool if I had been at WDW that day. Our next 10 day visit is next month - AFTER Easter lol!

Cheers,
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Old Mar 14, 2012, 6:32 am
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Originally Posted by Flews
. Our next 10 day visit is next month - AFTER Easter lol!
Can't blame you

My kids always complain that they've never been to the parks over Easter or Christmas. My answer is always the same...'I'm not crazy!'.

They loved their Leap Day experience. I'm sure you can appreciate it more when you are 21 and 17 than when you are 52
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Old Mar 15, 2012, 9:12 pm
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Originally Posted by flyerwife
The park was over capacity at 88,000 guests.
Disneyland is 85 acres in size according to a Google search. So that's about 1000 people per acre if the numbers are right. An acre is a bit more than a square of 200 feet on a side. So each person had about 7x6 feet to stand in.

Of course, that 85 acres includes the buildings, closed areas, etc., which is a huge percentage.

Some interesting videos on Youtube.
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