We spent last weekend and Monday at the parks. We had 6 day park hoppers, but I just couldn't take another day at the parks, so we left first thing Tuesday morning with three days still remaining on our park hoppers. It's my fault for trying to do a Disneyland trip over spring break, but I guess I just didn't realize how bad it would be. Many things went wrong for us, but the crowds were simply ridiculous. Please keep in mind, I am not blaming Disney for being popular!
It's been quite a few years since I have been to Disneyland and DCA, but my kids are now old enough where I thought they would enjoy the rides more than they did when they were younger. I was wrong...they are still scared of all the "good" rides, and bored with the "slow" rides. My kids (ages 10 and 13) were still terrified by a majority of the rides and refused to go on most of them. The few I forced them to go on (the Ferris wheel and Thunder Mountain) were not good and my 13 year old daughter even started crying out of fear on the ferris wheel. I learned a hard and expensive lesson...that my family is just not a theme park type of family. I am the only one who likes rides apparently. My wife gets sick on rides and gets freaked out by the animatronic characters in most of the rides.
On our first day (Saturday), we were waiting to board the monorail in Tomorrowland, and when the gate opened, my 10 year old son's finger was right near the hinge of the gate. There was a very sharp edge of layers of paint on the hinge and his finger got cut pretty badly when the crowd pushed on through the gate and opened it all the way...rotating his finger around the sharp edge of the paint layers. They stopped the monorail for about 10 minutes and called in one of the Disneyland nurses. They told us we needed to go have it checked out further, so we had to go drop $250 in the local ER and wait for four hours while he got a couple of stitches. After about $30 in cab fare back to the park my son was done for the day. So, that wasn't a good way to start the first day.
It was an expensive lesson learned that my family still doesn't like amusement rides or parks, and the crowd levels simply made it unbearable. I closed down the park each night when the lines lightened up around 10:30-Midnight. They even extended the closing time on Monday from 11pm to midnight due to the large crowds. Moving between the "hub" area and any of the "land" areas was a nightmare...especially around the fireworks or fantasia. Simply impossible to move at certain times!
We also stayed at a local RV park in our motorhome. The RV park was just far enough away to be difficult to walk back and forth from, and yet still too close to make waiting or paying for shuttles or buses a little much. If I ever come back to Disneyland, it will have to be at one of the hotels directly across the street from the main gate.
I think we will stick to other vacations from now on and I'll have to try Disney going solo on a Wednesday in mid January to avoid the crowds! I guess my kids didn't inherit my love for rides and Disneyland
It's been quite a few years since I have been to Disneyland and DCA, but my kids are now old enough where I thought they would enjoy the rides more than they did when they were younger. I was wrong...they are still scared of all the "good" rides, and bored with the "slow" rides. My kids (ages 10 and 13) were still terrified by a majority of the rides and refused to go on most of them. The few I forced them to go on (the Ferris wheel and Thunder Mountain) were not good and my 13 year old daughter even started crying out of fear on the ferris wheel. I learned a hard and expensive lesson...that my family is just not a theme park type of family. I am the only one who likes rides apparently. My wife gets sick on rides and gets freaked out by the animatronic characters in most of the rides.
On our first day (Saturday), we were waiting to board the monorail in Tomorrowland, and when the gate opened, my 10 year old son's finger was right near the hinge of the gate. There was a very sharp edge of layers of paint on the hinge and his finger got cut pretty badly when the crowd pushed on through the gate and opened it all the way...rotating his finger around the sharp edge of the paint layers. They stopped the monorail for about 10 minutes and called in one of the Disneyland nurses. They told us we needed to go have it checked out further, so we had to go drop $250 in the local ER and wait for four hours while he got a couple of stitches. After about $30 in cab fare back to the park my son was done for the day. So, that wasn't a good way to start the first day.
It was an expensive lesson learned that my family still doesn't like amusement rides or parks, and the crowd levels simply made it unbearable. I closed down the park each night when the lines lightened up around 10:30-Midnight. They even extended the closing time on Monday from 11pm to midnight due to the large crowds. Moving between the "hub" area and any of the "land" areas was a nightmare...especially around the fireworks or fantasia. Simply impossible to move at certain times!
We also stayed at a local RV park in our motorhome. The RV park was just far enough away to be difficult to walk back and forth from, and yet still too close to make waiting or paying for shuttles or buses a little much. If I ever come back to Disneyland, it will have to be at one of the hotels directly across the street from the main gate.
I think we will stick to other vacations from now on and I'll have to try Disney going solo on a Wednesday in mid January to avoid the crowds! I guess my kids didn't inherit my love for rides and Disneyland
So I totally understand the frustrations there!!
