Who is going to the Friday the 13th celebration?

[Paris Fan]

Don Karnage was out in May for Disney Dreamers Everywhere event.

Hopefully he'll appear again soon!

 

[AZlady]

I am here now.... And it's super unorganized !!! I have been in line for villains for 90 minutes.... I'm not even 1/2 way. People are cutting in line people are getting upset. Cast members are few!!!

 

[sonnyjane]

We were in the parks but left after fireworks. Line to enter DL extended to entrance of DCA!

 

[SingWithFlowers]

I'm eager to see updates and TRs on this.

 

[edna mode]

Yesterday morning wasn't horribly crowded, Jack and Sally were outside Haunted Mansion - wait was only 30 minutes and very organized. Pumpkin beignets were great at the Mint Julep bar. The park looked great. At 10:30 am the ranch opened with crafts, special food, characters, and games. It was very pretty and fun for the kids. The animals had Halloween scarfs on their necks. Very cute.

We left and came back for unleash the villains at 7:30 and couldn't get anywhere near the parking from any direction. There was one police man directing traffic for a million cars. So we left and returned at 9:00 - parking was better, got into DTD. The lines to get into DL were backed up to the entrance of DCA. When we got in the crowds were overwhelming. The dance party was up in the train station area with only 2 character stations down in the main square - Queen of Hearts and Worthington Wolf - 30 min later it was Captain Hook & Gov. Ratcliffe. The CM told us the line was about 3 hours to meet the characters.

We went to New Orleans square - it took about 35 minutes to get there - very crowded. When we arrived the CM's were turning everyone around telling people that there were no characters there and to go back to Main Street - it was about an hour wait to get to the train station party.

When we returned to Main Street the same 2 characters were returning - Queen and the Wolf. We could see them coming and going at the entrance, but the line was still way too long. The dance party entrance was on the left facing the stage, but the CM told us to go under the bridge to the right. We worked our way over with 3 adults and 3 kids (10 yrs) to dance, but when we got there it was the exit and the CM told us to go back to the other side. FRUSTRATING
The DJ, music, lights, and dancers were fantastic! So hanging around the big pumpkin you could sort of see everything and was more fun for the kids and they could dance. The kids were disappointed because they were excited to be out late at a special event, but we tried to encourage them with the excitement of being there.

Every CM told us they were overwhelmed with the amount of people and didn't realize it would be so insane. We felt bad for them, but they were doing a great job with what they had

I felt worse for the lady stuck in line who kept asking what was going on - had no idea it was a special event.

Wish I would have spotted the dismeet before going last night!

 

[AZlady]

I am here now.... And it's super unorganized !!! I have been in line for villains for 90 minutes.... I'm not even 1/2 way. People are cutting in line people are getting upset. Cast members are few!!!

After a two hour wait, I choose to get out of line. I was so upset, pissed & sad...but I had to leave the area. Others had hot tempers and the cast members were so out numbered(and truely doing nothing to help). I came to this trip, just for this villain event.
Today is my last day. I hope those rude people are not here today. I have a hard time sitting quietly while they cut in line. I speak up for what is right ( even though others will not).

Vent over!!

 

[Spirit Mage]

Oh, my. I'm so glad I decided to skip this. I am going to go and enjoy the treats and decorations next week/mid-week so I can see everything at my own pace.

 

[Sherry E]

I posted my recap of the day in the Halloween Superthread last night (including my review of the delicious but un-zombielike zombie gingerbread cookie!). I said that the crowds in the Villains area were terrible -- on par with New Year's Eve crowds; worse than Candlelight Processional crowds and certainly worse than Mickey's Halloween Party crowds, for sure. We did not stay in DL to see the fireworks. We (Liza/funatdisney and I) left after the actual dance party began, but as we tried to escape Main Street we were stuck in a mob of people who would not budge. It was elbow to elbow.

We headed over to DCA, which was much, much more tolerable. When we finally left DLR, there was a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking structure! The crowds weer already really bad and yet more people were arriving to cling to those last several hours of Disneyland being open!

The worst part is that it seemed as though quite a few folks did not know what they were waiting for. As AZlady said, it was not organized well. It was hard to tell that there was a line of any kind. The people knew there was something going on that was supposedly big, but when the Villains came out it appeared as though everyone had just clogged up Main Street to watch other people get their photos taken with Villains (who will be at the much less congested Mickey's Halloween Party in a couple of weeks). The whole event was not really promoted or explained well, in my opinion.

Otherwise, Villains fiasco aside, it was a hot Halloween Time day at DL. I spent a lot of time at the Halloween Carnival. I spent a lot of time looking over merchandise. I loved the massive gingerbread house in HMH.

I have begun to post photos in the Halloween Superthread -- I've already posted photos of Halloween treats, and now I am going to assemble a post with Halloween merchandise. I am doing the treats and merchandise first, as those items are prone to selling out or changing as the season goes along, whereas the overall decorations will not change. If someone from this board is, for example, heading out to the parks next week for Halloween Time they may want to know what kinds of souvenirs to look out for in case some of the shops sell out of them and they need to hunt them down.

 

[pudinhd]

I posted my recap of the day in the Halloween Superthread last night (including my review of the delicious but un-zombielike zombie gingerbread cookie!). I said that the crowds in the Villains area were terrible -- on par with New Year's Eve crowds; worse than Candlelight Processional crowds and certainly worse than Mickey's Halloween Party crowds, for sure. We did not stay in DL to see the fireworks. We (Liza/funatdisney and I) left after the actual dance party began, but as we tried to escape Main Street we were stuck in a mob of people who would not budge. It was elbow to elbow.

We headed over to DCA, which was much, much more tolerable. When we finally left DLR, there was a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking structure! The crowds weer already really bad and yet more people were arriving to cling to those last several hours of Disneyland being open!

The worst part is that it seemed as though quite a few folks did not know what they were waiting for. As AZlady said, it was not organized well. It was hard to tell that there was a line of any kind. The people knew there was something going on that was supposedly big, but when the Villains came out it appeared as though everyone had just clogged up Main Street to watch other people get their photos taken with Villains (who will be at the much less congested Mickey's Halloween Party in a couple of weeks). The whole event was not really promoted or explained well, in my opinion.

Otherwise, Villains fiasco aside, it was a hot Halloween Time day at DL. I spent a lot of time at the Halloween Carnival. I spent a lot of time looking over merchandise. I loved the massive gingerbread house in HMH.

I have begun to post photos in the Halloween Superthread -- I've already posted photos of Halloween treats, and now I am going to assemble a post with Halloween merchandise. I am doing the treats and merchandise first, as those items are prone to selling out or changing as the season goes along, whereas the overall decorations will not change. If someone from this board is, for example, heading out to the parks next week for Halloween Time they may want to know what kinds of souvenirs to look out for in case some of the shops sell out of them and they need to hunt them down.

I just posted my review of last night on the Halloween Superthread. I agree that a lot of guests didn't know what was going on and many, many people were asking the CMs when I was speaking with them. However, the CMs weren't given much information, either!!! I know Disney likes surprises, but sometimes a little knowledge will make things run much smoother. I think another part of the issue is that the lines for the characters were in tape on the ground, so you couldn't figure out who was in line, where the line was, etc. I had plans of staying for the whole party and being at both dance party locations, but !!!! I am still dreading finding out that Maleficent (or the character that hasn't been out in 5 years???) came out after we left!

 

[Priory]

I just posted my review of last night on the Halloween Superthread. I agree that a lot of guests didn't know what was going on and many, many people were asking the CMs when I was speaking with them. However, the CMs weren't given much information, either!!! I know Disney likes surprises, but sometimes a little knowledge will make things run much smoother. I think another part of the issue is that the lines for the characters were in tape on the ground, so you couldn't figure out who was in line, where the line was, etc. I had plans of staying for the whole party and being at both dance party locations, but !!!! I am still dreading finding out that Maleficent (or the character that hasn't been out in 5 years???) came out after we left!

Malificent was in NOS, as was the villain from Milan (who I believe is the character who hasn't been seen in 5 years).

I think I may be the only person who had fun last night. I lucked into being in the front of the line for the (very) limited T-shirt over at TOT. Then over at DL we accidentally got stuck in the NOS dance party line and went with it. We got in during a break and ended up on the train tracks at the front. There was fun club and Halloween music and tons of villains dancing on stage right in front of us. I just stayed there for nearly 2 hours and had a blast. I also walked on Pirates and Jungle Cruise. I could tell no-one at Disney was prepared for the event, and it was a mess, but I sorta ended up having fun despite the chaos.

 

[funatdisney]

I went to the TOT to buy the Villains T-shirt, but went too late. The shirts were sold out. Good thing I asked a CM about the shirts. The CM told me the shirts were available for a limited time on Disneystore.com/parkevents site. I just checked and they are still available.

You can go here to order: ''Unleash the Villains'' Tee for Adults - Disneyland

There is a Walt Disney World one, too.

 

[cel_disney]

I am a HUGE villians fan and was hdrove past DL as big serious remorse that I was going to be soooo close but not going...

Well, we drove past DL at around 8:30 and the lines to get off the highway into traffic were insane! I immediately felt better thinking it would be a congested mess and that we could keep driving by! Sorry for those of you that were stuck and didn't have a magical experience!

 

[LisaT91403]

So were the huge crowds due to the Friday the 13th festivities, or is this coming weekend (9/21 & 9/22) going to be the same way?

 

[pharmama]

So were the huge crowds due to the Friday the 13th festivities, or is this coming weekend (9/21 & 9/22) going to be the same way?

The crowds were specifically for the Unleash the Villains party on Friday the 13th. You should be fine next weekend.

I considered flying down for the party since I've always been a big villains fan but those crowds sound pretty crazy. Still... Would have loved to have seen them! Hopefully I'll still get to see some when we go to MHP for the first time next month

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[mom2rtk]

I guess I really don't get all this mayhem associated with special Disney events. I heard the first Leap Day event was a mess, but then they said they learned from that and promised the second one would be better. Not sure if that happened, but seriously...... didn't they think there was a chance this would be just as bad?

 

[pudinhd]

Malificent was in NOS, as was the villain from Milan (who I believe is the character who hasn't been seen in 5 years).

I think I may be the only person who had fun last night. I lucked into being in the front of the line for the (very) limited T-shirt over at TOT. Then over at DL we accidentally got stuck in the NOS dance party line and went with it. We got in during a break and ended up on the train tracks at the front. There was fun club and Halloween music and tons of villains dancing on stage right in front of us. I just stayed there for nearly 2 hours and had a blast. I also walked on Pirates and Jungle Cruise. I could tell no-one at Disney was prepared for the event, and it was a mess, but I sorta ended up having fun despite the chaos.

I am sad to have missed Maleficent and Shan Yu, but I don't think there would have been any way to make it close enough to see. I am really glad you had a great time!!!!

I guess I really don't get all this mayhem associated with special Disney events. I heard the first Leap Day event was a mess, but then they said they learned from that and promised the second one would be better. Not sure if that happened, but seriously...... didn't they think there was a chance this would be just as bad?

I really do think a big part of the issue is the "surprise" factor Disney wants. But the challenge of not giving guests the information is just as bad as not giving the Cast Members information. They were literally being told information less than 2 hours before. I just don't see how that is helpful for anyone!

 

[ludari]

I arrived at Disneyland when the park opened and I only waited 20-minutes for Haunted Mansion. I then rode several other rides with only 15 minute wait for each. I was lucky to purchase two of the special Friday the 13th pins and two of the Friday the 13th shirts.