A time when DL was empty?

[heybets30]

With everyone talking about Grad nights (we were there in May, and it did get pretty crazy at night), and how upcoming Halloween time can be crazy too ... it got me thinking to the one and only time I have been at DL with maybe ONLY 100 other people in the park. Complete and total emptiness. Really, the only people there were the CMs working, and maybe 100 guests.

April 1992 ... the Rodney King riots. I flew in from Chicago to see my then boyfriend at Stanford. Unknowing to the events happening overnight in LA, we drove down from Palo Alto at the crack of dawn, listening to music (tapes of course) so we were unaware of the rioting and the shut-down of all of LA.

However, Disneyland was open. All of LA was shut-in, and no one from hotels were venturing out. We got there ~3pm, STILL HAD TO PAY FULL ADMISSION, of course, I think it was about $49.95/per person. However, it was the absolute best time I have had at DL. Want to ride Space Mountain a third time in a row, folks? How about POTC nonstop? There wasn't a single ride that the CMs made us exit. POTC we only saw 2 other people the second time around - empty boats ahead of us, empty boats behind us, Space Mountain, we maybe saw 4 people get on after our 3rd time in a row (a bit too jarring to keep riding nonstop, if I say so myself).

While I would never, ever want to see an event happen like that again, I would love to have the park almost all to myself (this time with my family) again. One can dream.

I was thinking about this as we plan a September trip instead of our usual October trip (hoping with earnest that maybe a Sep21-28 won't have attracted all the Halloween people yet), that I am very lucky to have had the park virtually all to myself once... and, I didn't have to pay the going rate for a private event! ;-)

Wondering if anyone else had an experience with a virtually empty DL like that?

 

[bcla]

It's still possible to rent out DL for "private parties". The first time I'd head of it was for Liz Taylor's birthday, but it seems to several times a year now.

It might only be for six hours. And whether or not they'll do it reasonably early in the evening might depend on how famous the renter is. For a billionaire who isn't a celebrity, I'm thinking they might not even do that until after regular closing hours.

And in 1992 the admission price was $27.50.

 

[heybets30]

Only $27.50?? Man, I'm getting old. All I remember is thinking "this is really expensive for a couple of college seniors!!". Thanks for the correction. Maybe it was $49 in 1999? The other time I was there in the 90s .... got lots of good pictures from the parking lot that is now DCA .. part of California Screamin was up, and I've got lots of partial pics wondering ... what are they doing??

 

[sherilaine]

Long gone are the days of being oblivious of what is going on in the world around us - but back then there were no cell phones and CNN was just making it's way into most living rooms. Most people did not even have access to the internet in '92.

I have to say though, did you not wonder if something eery was happening for it to be that empty or did you find out while you were in the park why it was so quiet? I know I would find it strange if it seemed like the world shut down.

 

[heybets30]

We found out pretty fast ... the national guard at one of the corners we stopped at (and that there were no other cars around ... in LA ...) told us what happened. We switched over to the radio, so we got filled in. We STUPIDLY, admittedly now I know it was really stupid - probably did then, but my then boyfriend thought it would be cool to just sort of drive around LA, looking at the deserted sites.

The hotel we stayed at told us they had heard Disneyland was open. So, after some albeit strange sightseeing, we headed over to Disneyland. Sure enough - OPEN!

 

[Caseheidi]

The closest we came to empty parks was at WDW less the 2 weeks after Katrina had hit. The gas prices had soared, resulting in lots of canceled trips from people in the South who would have driven. We arrived in Orlando the day before Labor Day. I remember hearing someone say that AK (where we spent Labor Day) had less the half the guests that they expected- don't remember the numbers. For the 9 days we were there, most rides were less the 5 minute waits. No need for ADR's, you walked in a restaurant, and they sat you almost immediately. It was the most relaxed trip we had ever had.

 

[Astylla]

I know this isn't the same but wanted to share our "empty park" experience.

Back in early April on our trip we just snuck into haunted Mansion as they closed the gates behind us for the night..which was very errie in itself. After getting off we were walking past the rivers of america and it was so quiet and peaceful. No crowds. No rides running. Just a handful of people walking out of the park. The moon was out and the stars and I remember the sounds of wildlife. It felt like DH and I had the park to ourselves. It was just lovely.

 

[Pinup Mommy]

Our empty park experience was right after the 9/11 attacks.


At that time I was a vendor for JPL/ NASA and was not allowed on lab for security reasons and my Downtown LA accounts were not taking appointments either... I was left with a lot of down time so I spent a day at the park, it was a ghost town. :-(

 

[Rhonna]

Ours was also after a disaster. A trip (already planned) to WDW right after 9/11. Very low crowds for everything, attractions, restaurants, extremely discounted resort rates (resulting in our only stay at GF), etc. When there are large areas open everywhere at the last minute along the MK parade route that's pretty low attendance.

 

[Iceman93]

I was lucky enough to win a contest to go the DCA grand re-opening media event last June 14th. There were a couple of thousand media people there and a handful of contest winners, and we had the park to ourselves. Most of the media were congregated in Cars Land (that kind of was the idea, after all), so after we had checked that out we did every other ride in the park as a walk-on. It was awesome. And I remember my wife looking at each other and saying, now that Buena Vista Street and Cars Land were complete, that DCA was finally a world-class Disney park and we'd never again have the kind of seclusion we did that day (and occasionally had in the mid-2000's, just because the place had such a bad reputation).

I wouldn't trade today's amazing but crowded park for yesterday's pretty good but often-empty one, but I would love to win a few more contests to get to experience today's DCA and feel like I owned the place!

 

[Disneyland1084]

My mom knows someone who was at Disneyland a week after 9-11. The park was a ghost town. I would LOVE to be there when no one else is, but would never wish for any disaster.

 

[todzwife]

Early December after sept 11th was very quiet.

 

[bcla]

Long gone are the days of being oblivious of what is going on in the world around us - but back then there were no cell phones and CNN was just making it's way into most living rooms. Most people did not even have access to the internet in '92.

I have to say though, did you not wonder if something eery was happening for it to be that empty or did you find out while you were in the park why it was so quiet? I know I would find it strange if it seemed like the world shut down.

I remember my Grad Nite experience back in the late 80s. Our tour organizer carried a cell phone. It was a big Panasonic phone that was about the size of a VCR and carried with a shoulder strap. It was larger than the Motorola brick phone, but I think it had a huge battery and had longer talk time. The handset had a cord and was secured to the body.

As for the ticket prices, it's in the Wikipedia article on Disneyland. I was thinking that $49 was way too high because I remember paying less than that back in 2003. I actually went with my relatives living in the area. Since I was a "guest of a So Cal resident" I got the special deal where I could pay the single park price and use it to access both parks - either same day or separate days.

 

[Priory]

I was watching old home movies of our summer vacations to DL when I was a kid in the 80's. It's July/August and the park is empty compared to now. I couldn't believe it. I guess the annual pass push worked!

 

[Priory]

I was watching old home movies of our summer vacations to DL when I was a kid in the 80's. It's July/August and the park is empty compared to now. I couldn't believe it. I guess the annual pass push worked!

 

[usnuzuloose]

I remember going to DL in the 70's, and if it rained allot of the park emptied out. That was so much fun. At that point and time the park was not over crowded.

 

[Congo Queen]

Back in the 1970s Disneyland used to have an annual event called Fireman's Night. My uncle was a fire chief for in LA, and so he was always able to go and bring as many family members as he wanted. It was my favorite night of the year. Starting at like 5pm Dland would close down for regular visitors and allow in only SoCal firemen with special tix for the event. It was heaven on earth because even with a couple thousand firemen and their families it still meant that every ride was a virtual walk-on. V V short waits if there was any wait at all. And you did not need ticket books - all rides were open and free for as many turns as you wanted. So it was a complete dream for a kid. My cousin and I would be let loose at Main St station (we were about 10 yrs old) to run and roam the parks until meet up time at 11pm. So we ran top speed from ride to ride, gorging ourselves on Dland fun. And since it was at night it seemed all the more magical. To this day, whenever I ride Matterhorn, I remember how my cousin and I would ride it over and over on Firemen's Night, screaming with joy until our voices were hoarse and our throats hurt and our tummy's ached from laughing so hard. It was awesome!

 

[bcla]

Well I do remember going to DL as a kid in the 80s.

One visit we were among the first visitors in the park and made a beeline for IASW. I swear we were on the first boat that morning and during our walk we didn't see another guest in front of us. Of course by the time we got off there was a decent sized line.

 

[Casey's Mommie]

Grad Night in '95. My friends and I had Fantasyland and Toon Town to ourselves. Everyone else was doing the big rides and Indiana Jones (which was pretty new).

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

I was there on July 4th one year in the 90s. The park was open until 2 a.m. Between 1-2 a.m. the place was deserted - rode Space Mountain, The Matterhorn, Big Thunder and Splash Mountain in the last hour although I probably didn't get off Spash until 2:15