New Years Eve at DL...

[deej696]

My fiance and I will be making our first trip to DL during NYE. We are pro's at WDW but DL is a whole new experience. Can anyone fill us in on what the happenings are for New Years? I assume there are fireworks in typical disney fashion? We dont plan on leaving the resort while we are there, so I am hoping there will be some sort of celebration at DTD or something. Any tips would be great......

 

[Leofoenget]

My fiance and I will be making our first trip to DL during NYE. We are pro's at WDW but DL is a whole new experience. Can anyone fill us in on what the happenings are for New Years? I assume there are fireworks in typical disney fashion? We dont plan on leaving the resort while we are there, so I am hoping there will be some sort of celebration at DTD or something. Any tips would be great......

NYE at DL is usually at capacity. It is not uncommon for the park to shut the gates to new guests pretty early. Plan on arriving VERY EARLY, and IMO DO NOT LEAVE THE PARK. DCA isn't hiddious but it's pretty crowded.

Other than that, parade, FW the usual

 

[tinkerbelt]

Yes, definitely get there early and do not leave! This past new years, DD and I got there at 10am, and DL was already at capacity. Some of my family made it in, and they said that it was so crowded that you could barely move. They went on one ride - Pirates - and waited for two hours to get on.

If you are going, do it for the celebration, not the rides. There will be fireworks and a midnight showing of Fantasmic, and tons of other cool stuff.

Does anyone remember when NYE was a ticketed event? It was so much more fun back then.

 

[Albort]

i was there that night.

Pretty much whati heard, DLR closes around 1PM due to overcrowding, DCA closed at 6PM also for overcrowding. Both Parks have fireworks, DLR being in the regular fireworks spot, DCA by the lagoon.

some people were promised entry into DLR after 6PM.

DLR crowd control starts around 5PM(maybe earlier, main hub area completely filled and and reserved. to get from frontierland --> tomorrowland takes around like 30 min though the crowd controlled area.

 

[scooter15]

Been going to DL for NYE since 2000 except we didn't go this past year. Because we have kids we usually don't make it into the park until 5pm after we drop off our kids at my parents. This past year I heard was different though, as the park(s) have been extremely busy. Since we have APs we really don't care for the rides and just walk around and enjoy the shows. I think the only rides we've been able to go on was IASW, DL Railroad or the Monorail. At 9pm they usually have ABC's 'New Year's Rockin Eve' camera set up somewhere in the park and when the apple drops in NYC they link up DL and other various locations worldwide. Around 11pm it is packed no matter where you go so if you want to be by the castle at midnight, pick a spot early. It wouldn't surprise me if people started scouting for a spot at 5pm or earlier just because that's how nutty all the DL regulars are Fireworks follow after it hits midnight. Getting out of the park is also hard because they will not be running the trams at all. The only vehicles running are the handicap vans. After midnight, they make everyone walk the roadway that links DTD w/the parking structure.

If you want to stay in DTD, you can still see the fireworks from there. I know that the restaurants in the area have NYE dinners set up. The majority of them are run by the Patina Group and their website is www.patinagroup.com if you want to see what they may offer. DL is quite popular among the locals to go to for NYE because there aren't a lot of places in the LA/OC area where you can celebrate with the kids. And its probably cheaper for couples to go because everywhere else that offers a NYE party is really...I mean really expensive.

Lastly, they may close the park to new entries by a certain time but if you entered the park prior to the cut off, you will be able to enter and re-enter w/ your ticket and handstamp.

 

[tinkerbelt]

Lastly, they may close the park to new entries by a certain time but if you entered the park prior to the cut off, you will be able to enter and re-enter w/ your ticket and handstamp.

They will close off the park to re-entries if it reaches capacity. Last year at 10am, they closed off the park to new entries, and then at some point in the evening, they completely closed off the park, even for re-entries.

 

[scooter15]

Close off the park even to re-entries? What a guest relations mess. Last year, I know there was a "rumor" that people were not being allowed re-entry but we called and that was clarified to us by Disneyland Guest Relations. If you definitely had a regular ticket and had already come in earlier, you weren't denied reentry. Capacity totals are set by the fire dept. and that's calculated by the number of tickets scanned the first time.

 

[tinkerbelt]

We had friends who weren't allowed re-entry because they were at capacity. From what I heard, it was a total mess last year.

 

[scooter15]

I do know that there was a lot of miscommunication with CMs and some people were denied reentry. Once they figured things out, reentry was available for those that had already entered. If things go as they did for the last new years event, ticket sales will be restricted before noon and most likely tickets will only be offered for DCA only with an option to enter Disneyland if it looks like enough people have left and wouldn't return. That did happen last year after 6pm.

I just asked a friend of mine here at work as his mom is a supervisor there and she told him that people started camping out for the fireworks at 1pm!!!!