Superbowl crowds at (not at) the park today

[WonkaKid]

OK -- park attendance wasn't especially heavy on Sunday. It seemed like a regular day until perhaps late morning or early afternoon. Then crowds seemed to drop off slightly. Mr. Toad was a ten-minute wait at around 5:00, which is rather unusual.

My mom was in town and I took her to the park. We still managed to be first on Peter Pan, which was fun. Fortunately, the rope drop was still towards the castle entry, which is far prefereable to all the way back by the main circle. Rode Mr. Toad immediately after PP and for the second week in a row many of the sounds seemed not to be working (at least for the first half or so).

POTC was virtually a walk-on around 9:30, which was great. Did Buzz many times but since DLH was there, it was a challenge to get on the board. All be does is BL from open till around noon or 1:00.

I almost always talk with cast members and ask them what their favorite stories are. Sometimes I hear nice ones, other times crazy ones (some guests seem to think they own the park and that they step outside of reality once they step through the gates). There was one really upsetting story about some guests abusing ducklings but it's better to leave that one un-posted. As many of us know, the majority of guests are kind and well-behaved.

We stayed till about 6:45, which is late for me these days. Typically I walk through the main gates no later than 3:30. But since my mom was in town, I thought it best to maximize her DL value, since she paid full price for her ticket.

Incidentally, I expected that the circles at the top and bottom of MS would be completed before the walls on MS went up. Hopefully they're down soon.







The castle as evening falls. I'm usually long gone by this time.





Mom accompanied me to the park today as part of her visit from Chicago.


Buzz's hand broke for reasons unknown (to me/us)!

 

[WonkaKid]

Hey, sorry folks. I wrote a long explanation of my post above but most of it got wiped out for some reason. I'll fix it tomorrow.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hey, sorry folks. I wrote a long explanation of my post above but most of it got wiped out for some reason. I'll fix it tomorrow.

Wasn't the Eagles winning the Super Bowl supposed to be a sign of the Apocalypse? This might just be the beginning...

 

[azdisneylover]

Always look forward to your posts. Love the pictures and seeing your scores!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Something tells me that after seeing the title of your post, next year there will be big crowds in the parks on Super Bowl Sunday!

 

[StormyCA]

SBS always meant low crowds back in the day. I'm talking 70s-early 80s. All the women and kids in my family went together while the men watched the game at home. The park was probably 70% women and kids. It was always a great day!

 

[sherilaine]

I still look at the pictures of those walls and think how on earth, from a safety standpoint, can they get away with that - I wonder if they have had to reduce the number of people allowed in the park before they would close the gates - I don't think that is a worry this time of year though.

Glad you had such a quiet day in the park!

 

[mamapenguin]

Super Bowl weekend last year was rainy at Disney, and we almost didn't make it due to freezing rain at PDX (the flight after us got cancelled). We had to be deiced and the truck ran out of deicer, and it took more than an hour to get another one...long story short we were stuck at the gate for over 2 hours, which should have been our flight time to SNA. I think last winter was bad in a lot of areas it isn't normally, so this year it wasn't worth the risk. JMO. The year before (2016) SB weekend was lovely, and a little crowded.

Your pictures are wonderful. I cannot wait to go back later this year.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I still look at the pictures of those walls and think how on earth, from a safety standpoint, can they get away with that - I wonder if they have had to reduce the number of people allowed in the park before they would close the gates - I don't think that is a worry this time of year though.

Glad you had such a quiet day in the park!

I doubt the Main Street walls affect park capacity allowances. Since they have the backstage thoroughfares that they can open up and do use occasionally during parades and other heavy traffic times, they have a way to quickly move large groups of people out of the park in case of an emergency.

 

[rowan1813]

Buzz's hand broke for reasons unknown (to me/us)!
View attachment 300380

Awww poor Buzz... DLR is not having good luck with their animatronics lately, are they? Between this and Ursula. It's sad but kinda funny at the same time.

 

[pharmama]

Awww poor Buzz... DLR is not having good luck with their animatronics lately, are they? Between this and Ursula. It's sad but kinda funny at the same time.

I wonder if this was guest interference... I think Ursula was probably just a random failure but all the press about it may very well have give more mischievous folks some ideas. Buzz is definitely reachable from the line.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I wonder if this was guest interference... I think Ursula was probably just a random failure but all the press about it may very well have give more mischievous folks some ideas. Buzz is definitely reachable from the line.

They have all sorts of sensors and cameras. If it was a guest, they'd know it. Last trip we got stuck on Snow White (transiting from wheelchair entry past the guest line) anyways- the car in front of us is about to go and the ride goes into shut down. The CMs were in shock. Snow White never goes down. Apparently a motion sensor went off but everything looked fine, they hypothesized a guest stuck their hand to far up/out of the ride and triggered a motion sensor. They had to shut it down, evacuate and have maintenance come before they could re-open. If it were a guest doing the limb breaking Disney would know it. (And I'm in the camp something has to be up here- 3?!)

 

[hootey]

G r e a t pictures!

 

[minnieralyks]

Ursula in CA, Auctioneer Pirate in DLP, now Buzz's hand too?! So strange! lol

I'm surprised, too about the wall. That's gotta be interesting trying to get from one side to the other.

Thanks for the weekly updates!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Glad you had a great day! It is interesting because I was talking to another guest in line today who said she was in the parks on Sunday and it was packed. She said morning was busy and it dwindled off as it got closer to kick off time. It is interesting how different people in the same park on the same day can have totally different experiences. I imagine has to do with what time you arrive and what order you do the things you want to do.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Glad you had a great day! It is interesting because I was talking to another guest in line today who said she was in the parks on Sunday and it was packed. She said morning was busy and it dwindled off as it got closer to kick off time. It is interesting how different people in the same park on the same day can have totally different experiences. I imagine has to do with what time you arrive and what order you do the things you want to do.

It also depends on people’s perception of “busy.” I spoke to some guests today who kept saying how busy the parks were (they weren’t). Come to find out they haven’t visited in 20 years and had read that it was going to be a “ghost town,” so... yeah. It was busy if that’s your expectation!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

It also depends on people’s perception of “busy.” I spoke to some guests today who kept saying how busy the parks were (they weren’t). Come to find out they haven’t visited in 20 years and had read that it was going to be a “ghost town,” so... yeah. It was busy if that’s your expectation!

Great point!