hi wendy. i havent been on the boards that much of late. We did SF, NY, Vegas, Palm Springs, West Hollywood, and Anaheim for the last 2 weeks.
Decided to spend NYE in Disney and be in front of the Castle for the fireworks. After doing Rope Drop at 7am, the day went well, getting rides in until lunch time when it got super busy. I think they recorded over 75,000 and closed the gates after lunch. But staking out a position for the parade and then the fireworks from around 4pm, meant a lot of waiting, some 8 hrs, and seeing the worst of people, who did not want to stake out a position, but still want a prime position right in front, next to you, or on top if necessary.
We have never experienced crowds of this nature, body to body. And I have been to 2 Olympics, AFL Grand Finals, etc etc. The worst part was, that after the last parade everyone rushes to the spots in front of the castle, which we were one of, and we got nice positions. So everyone is sitting nicely, when just before the first fireworks at 9pm, the CM's announce that everyone must stand up and push forward. Mind you we had been here for some 3 hrs, so the crush begins with no regard, people are cramming up forward, it was crazy.
Luckily we had by this stage befriended two groups on either side of us, one of 5 Japanese girls, and local Californian family of 10 on the other side, who had done this all before. They insisted we all hold our ground, keep seated, as we all had blankets, towels, bags etc as we had been seated for several hours in this position.
Because we were such a large group, the crowd released they were unable to crush or stomp on us, so whilst we were surrounded by people standing we did have our area clear for us to sit. Which was a godsend. It was still 3 hrs till New Years, and all the people standing, would be standing for another 3 hrs. We had a great time, they had music playing and Mickey coming out now and then. But i spent a good part of the time protecting
our turf, you constantly had people trying to push behind us which was a roped of VIP seating area, and CM's constantly telling people to move out.
We even had people send their children into the area, if there was a slight gap, with the idea that the whole family would then squeeze in. You actually had to tell the children to go back to their parents as there was no room where they were.
But just the nerve, with 30 mins to go, people were just aggressively trying move in, they would stand an inch away from you if you let them. At times it was very stressful, as generally you are in Disney spirit and not wanting any altercations. And then you have people in front, who decide to put up the helium balloons right in front of you blocking the castle, or hold their hands up with their IPADS and Iphones to take photos, oblivious about effecting anyone behind them.
You really see the best and the absolute worse of people.
I have to say though, that after than night, any other day at Disney was a breeze. Every crowd looked so small. Every bathroom was a breeze. Compared to NYE, where the bathroom queues were often 20 deep, as were lines for food.
We all needed a T-Shirt saying 'I survived NY at DL' !! Might sound more negative than positive, but it was a absolute highlight of the trip. Even though the NYE fireworks were cancelled due to wind. Having done this, we all feel that any other day is a walk in the park.
Please post the link if you are going to do a full trip reports, I'd love to hear more about Palm Springs etc.
