In the park - Insane 12/10

[Darkbeer1]

What made things a little bit worse last night, was that since fireworks were at 7, the transition between day and night crowd control resulted in many of the ropes (at least around the castle) not being up, so the walkways were not well-defined, and many people were already camped out in places they shouldn't have been (castle front courtyard, the sidewalks, anywhere around the Mickey and Walt statue, etc.)

Disney better figure something out, as they have the 7 PM fireworks on the weekends during peak Christmas...... I know Disney doesn't like Overtime, but maybe this is the time to do it, or get the leads and managers out to help out!

 

[Ionan89]

The only thing that went awry (in a huge way) was the transition from Christmas Fantasy to Fireworks. If they were to have done the Firework setup immediately after the parade, a lot of the gridlock around the castle and statue area would've been less severe.

I'm pretty sure this was a test case since a lot of people usually leave after the fireworks, so this would make the next 2 parades (PTN) a little more manageable. We'll see how tonight goes, since it's the same entertainment schedule, I believe.

From what I saw last night, the Leads actually were doing their best to help out and figure out the new situation.

 

[Darkbeer1]

And of course, the weather folks are predicting a large storm on Thursday and Friday, just to add to the fun......

No Christmas Parade, no Snow effect, etc....

 

[minnieralyks]

Also, a very large dancing group (Dance the Magic) is here this weekend. They were just in the parade this afternoon. It had to have been at least 100 kids, plus all of their families, so that's also making the crowds worse.

 

[Jperiod]

We've been going this past week for years and have never seen crowds like this. Touring plans was way off in predictions too. Even tues-thurs wasn't lite like we're used to. What gives?? This makes me rethink all my dates for 2017! :O

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Seem like there is no slow time any more. We were there mid week in early November. Used to be very slow that week. This time was wall to wall people and 45 minute security lines to enter the park.

We've been going this past week for years and have never seen crowds like this. Touring plans was way off in predictions too. Even tues-thurs wasn't lite like we're used to. What gives?? This makes me rethink all my dates for 2017! :O

We went the week of Labor Day and it was pretty light FWIW if you can manage that week (arrived Labor Day and stayed until Friday). Labor Day was crazy of course, but Tues-Thurs were light. Indiana Jones wasn't even running a single rider line because the line was too short. I was able to go on Soarin, grab a fast pass, go to DLR and ride Indiana Jones standby . Come back to the hotel, give the FP to my wife. She rode on Soarin, then walked on California Screamin, then came back all while my kids were napping.

 

[ttig34]

We've been going this past week for years and have never seen crowds like this. Touring plans was way off in predictions too. Even tues-thurs wasn't lite like we're used to. What gives?? This makes me rethink all my dates for 2017! :O

I so agree. We have been going this week for the past several years, too and have NEVER seen crowds like this. We got back home today. Yesterday was insane. I have seen so many people saying that this is generally a lighter week, so think everybody may be trying to take advantage of that, thus the heavy crowds. Just hope it is not the new norm but probably is.

 

[PHXscuba]

We're here now and were saying how light the crowds were!! lol

I think after that week in October, anything less than that is going to feel like low-crowds. These crowds are probably only 65-75% of those crowds! I do have to admit, the lines for the Plaza Inn were pretty insane, though. I don't think I've ever seen it extend all the way down the walkway.

I was also there both that middle week in October, and this weekend. This weekend Disneyland was very busy on Friday but I didn't think it was worse than I expected, other than the parade gridlock we got caught in (twice) because of bad timing. DCA on Saturday (yesterday) was MUCH less busy than than a MHP Friday night in October when everyone crashed DCA.

Both days this weekend we commented how much we were able to experience even with larger crowds and lowered expectations going in. We even spent time in the GCH lobby last night listening to the live music by the fire before seeing WoC.

I think the only line both days that really gave me was the Small World Holiday line, which in the evening -- even with all the extended queue -- extended down under the Toontown bridge. But it kept moving, it was a beautiful night, and we were done with the ride in less than an hour total.

PHXscuba

 

[hsmamato2]

soooo.... if you're there at DL and it gets like this, the course of wisdom is to head to DCA? it's roomier over there?

 

[cruisehopeful]

soooo.... if you're there at DL and it gets like this, the course of wisdom is to head to DCA? it's roomier over there?

That's what we did on that Saturday. As soon as we got gridlocked at DL, we went to DCA. We had 2 1/2 hours to kill before our WOC dessert party and only rode a couple rides and just walked around and hung out for a while. We were going to go to DL again on Sunday, but decided to just forget it. It's the crowds that do me in. I don't enjoy DL when it is that crowded.

Saturday was really bad, but most of my visits this year have been like that and some quite a bit worse, actually. I think with part of the park closed for Star Wars Land and then they close some of the FL rides for the fireworks, just packs everyone in too tight of quarters. It should be better when Star Wars land opens. Rides kept breaking down on Friday and Saturday, too, which just makes even more crowds of people having to turn around and go somewhere else.

 

[hsmamato2]

ugh. Ah well first world problems that I will have to deal with..... thanks for the tips! I'm gonna do what I don't like to do on vacation, hit the parks as early as possible to get some stuff done.... possible afternoon rest somewhere, then try later on at night to finish out the day.

 

[Disn3yVision]

We were there 10/10 and it was INSANE! We actually bought our AP's that day because of the 13 for 12 deal going on. I think that has also added a number of people, like us, who are just buying annual passes and trying to get a visit in before the blackout dates start on the 18th for deluxe and signature passes.

 

[Cirlonde]

We've been going this past week for years and have never seen crowds like this. Touring plans was way off in predictions too. Even tues-thurs wasn't lite like we're used to. What gives?? This makes me rethink all my dates for 2017! :O

We went to DLR for the first time 12/4-12/9. I had expected it to be crazy-crowded on Sunday, due to the Candlelight Processional. But it seemed like the rest of the week was just as crowded as Sunday. I wasn't sure if my idea of "crowded" was just off or if it really was busier than expected. We've been to WDW several times and we can usually get in 6 or 7 rides in the first couple of hours (rope dropping). But even getting in line an hour before the park opened, we were lucky to get 3 or 4 rides done in two hours.

Don't get me wrong; we still had a GREAT time! But I was glad that we had 5 day tickets and stayed at Park Vue Inn. We were able to leave the parks around lunch time and not go back until after 9pm. But it was definitely a different experience for us compared to WDW!!

 

[LizzyS]

We went to DL 12-13-14 and even though we had a great time, I've never seen the crowds that bad. It kind of made me not want to visit around Christmastime, that's for sure. The bottleneck at Tomorrowland was wall to wall people. I later learned that the date was the last before certain APs were blocked, so that didn't help, lol.

 

[dshimel]

Saturday 12/10 we did Magic Morning for tomorrowland, then did east side until like 10am. Went to DCA and that park was packed too. At 10am got RSR FP for 6pm. Hour and 15 min wait for tower. Hour for tsmm all day. Noon got fp for Soarin for 5pm. Even Monsters and Mermaid had waits.

 

[egritz]

Ugh, this is making me dread our potential trip next December, but I already bid the week for vacation, so we are kinda stuck :/

 

[Darkbeer1]

Ugh, this is making me dread our potential trip next December, but I already bid the week for vacation, so we are kinda stuck :/

Maybe spread out your visit, so you don't do Disney every day, Knott's is busy, byt not crazy busy. There is also the Winter Fest at the OC Fairgrounds as an alternative day of fun.

https://winterfestoc.com/

And both are more budget friendly to your wallet.

So maybe a full day of Disneyland during the week, and opt for a day at Winter fest on the weekend.

 

[chaysmom]

we were there this day (12/10) and I agree, it was crazy.

We had an eventful day, but we used our early morning entry pass. We also worked the paper fast passes so that we could take a break from 2-5 and go back and had 2 FP for DCA and 2 for DL, and they were headliner rides. But we went back right after we used them. We worked the system and planned so we never waited longer then 15-20 min, but moving across the park or waiting for food/snacks was a mess.

 

[chaysmom]

Ugh, this is making me dread our potential trip next December, but I already bid the week for vacation, so we are kinda stuck :/

We were there 3 days last week, Thur-Sat. It was crazier then I anticipated, but we had a solid plan. We accomplished A LOT and never waited more then 15-20 minutes. Our longest waits were 45 min to meet Jack and Sally, and an hour for the Frozen show but we were in the 4th row.

 

[minnieralyks]

I'm really surprised by the reports of it being crowded. We were there this past Saturday through Wednesday (12/10-12-14) and thought it was perfect. We could actually walk without bumping into people and do as many rides as we wanted (within reason!). We probably crammed more stuff into those 4 days than we did in the whole week we were there last October (10/10-10/17). We did all of our favorites multiple times (Indy, Star Tours, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Jingle Cruise, Soarin', Grizzly River), saw the fireworks all 4 days, saw Paint the Night twice, saw the Christmas Fantasy Parade twice. We never even made rope drop either (got to the park 45 minutes - an hour after park opening). We took at least a 2 hour break at our hotel everyday from about 3-5 p.m.