Crowd levels

[Bruno33]

Friday evening was miserably crowded. Disneyland closed the gates (for the first time since Covid/reservations, I believe). We just wanted to watch fireworks but I guess 20,000 people had the same idea.

Sure ride wait times over the whole day were low enough to spit out a low Touring Plans crowd number. But seriously, if you were there Friday night and then you see that number, that is HILARIOUS. Wall to wall shuffling along level crowds for hours. Can’t move. Sea of humanity. Touring Plans says a 2. HAHAHAHA

 

[AquaDame]

The heat definitely impacted us worse than the wait times. Even the 20 min wait for Buzz was brutal - the waits felt far worse than usual due to how uncomfortable being in line with a bunch of hot folk on hot pavement was. Even the break of having meals barely moved the needle as so much seating is outside. We could've based our choices entirely on AC but I wanted what I wanted. We usually take a brief break in the afternoon for an hour or so, but it was 3-4 hours both Saturday and Sunday. We couldn't rouse ourselves back into the parks until the temp was swinging back down a couple degrees.

 

[AquaDame]

Friday evening was miserably crowded. Disneyland closed the gates (for the first time since Covid/reservations, I believe). We just wanted to watch fireworks but I guess 20,000 people had the same idea.

Sure ride wait times over the whole day were low enough to spit out a low Touring Plans crowd number. But seriously, if you were there Friday night and then you see that number, that is HILARIOUS. Wall to wall shuffling along level crowds for hours. Can’t move. Sea of humanity. Touring Plans says a 2. HAHAHAHA

...We were there on Friday night and it didn't seem that bad? We came back in around 5pm and met up with friends. HM closed on us when we were in the LL and we bailed but that line was just as bad Sunday night tbh. I wasn't paying attention to wait times as we just used LL on Big Thunder and a couple other ones without issue... we wandered into Galaxy's Edge 10 min before fireworks and easily had a great view. I never knew they closed the gates... where did you see that? It honestly felt just as crowded in the evening Saturday and Sunday - I assumed it was just a busy holiday weekend.

 

[Bruno33]

...We were there on Friday night and it didn't seem that bad? We came back in around 5pm and met up with friends. HM closed on us when we were in the LL and we bailed but that line was just as bad Sunday night tbh. I wasn't paying attention to wait times as we just used LL on Big Thunder and a couple other ones without issue... we wandered into Galaxy's Edge 10 min before fireworks and easily had a great view. I never knew they closed the gates... where did you see that? It honestly felt just as crowded in the evening Saturday and Sunday - I assumed it was just a busy holiday weekend.

It was the front of the park that was terrible. I don’t have a picture of the ticket screens saying the gates are closed, but you can find them all over online.

Everything was backed up - parking, security, trams, both entries. It was bad. I think one person mentioned lines at 10pm and I feel like those are people who got to parking at 8 and r didn’t get in yet.

It was definitely the hot weather making people come late combined with Friday evening and Halloween fireworks and parade traffic. Everyone was just getting in and stopping on Main Street.

 

[AquaDame]

It was the front of the park that was terrible. I don’t have a picture of the ticket screens saying the gates are closed, but you can find them all over online.

I tried googling for it and came up empty handed... I'll take your word for it!

 

[Bruno33]

I tried googling for it and came up empty handed... I'll take your word for it!

That’s so funny because from my Instagram you’d think the photos were everywhere! I guess the algorithm really felt like I needed to relive this over and over lol.

Anyway, I pulled this off an Instagram video (@ sometimescastles if you want to look it up).

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

The heat definitely impacted us worse than the wait times. Even the 20 min wait for Buzz was brutal - the waits felt far worse than usual due to how uncomfortable being in line with a bunch of hot folk on hot pavement was. Even the break of having meals barely moved the needle as so much seating is outside. We could've based our choices entirely on AC but I wanted what I wanted. We usually take a brief break in the afternoon for an hour or so, but it was 3-4 hours both Saturday and Sunday. We couldn't rouse ourselves back into the parks until the temp was swinging back down a couple degrees.

I was at DL with my older son on Labor Day 2022 when temps hit 112. It’s was also, crazily, unbearable crowded. I suffered something close to heat stroke trying to get back to our car to go home. We decided that day we could skip future Labor Day visits! Not worth it!

 

[LKing]

Disneyland closed the gates (for the first time since Covid/reservations, I believe).

Closing the gates for COVID is different than the park hitting capacity. They closed the gates when the MSEP returned in April 2022. There were so many people waiting for the first show that you couldn't move around. They held guests outside of the turnstile until guests who watched the first parade had time to disperse or exit. From what I've read, Friday night was similar. The park did not hit capacity but, as everyone has been discussing, it was too difficult to move/walk along the parade corridor. They had to let guests from the first PTN/Fantasmic/fireworks exit, so temporarily held guests from entering.

Another thing to consider is that Imagine & Enchant MK went on sale earlier in the week.