I took my twin daughters and several of their friends to
Disneyland yesterday. It was truly the Tale of Two Cities. We spent the morning over at California Adventure and it was NOT crowded. We were able to go on every ride that they wanted to, including California Screamin three times. I even had to WAIT for almost half an hour for the fast pass return time to move for Radiator Springs. There was an endless parade of people who would come up to the fast pass line, see that the return time was 3:00 or later, say "Oh darn, that's when the game is on" and leave.
After going on a ton of rides at DCA in the morning, we went over to DL at Noon for lunch reservations at Blue Bayou and I was STUNNED by the crowds. I've had an AP for years, so I am familiar with varying crowd levels and while I had anticipated it to FEEL crowded due to so many MAJOR attractions being closed (Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Small World and the Submarines), I didn't expect that it would actually BE so crowded. There was a steady hour long (or longer) line all day for Space Mountain, Star Tours, Indiana Jones and Matterhorn. Even attractions that usually have 5-10 minute waits (Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Cruise, Winnie the Pooh, etc.) were all AT LEAST 20-30 minutes. Autopia was 50 minutes. It felt like a Summer Saturday, which was odd because the threatening clouds that would eventually bring rain last night SHOULD have also kept the crowds away. I tried to convince myself that it would thin out once the Super Bowl started, but that was, sadly NOT the case. The lines were really long and it remained packed all day long.
We fled back over to DCA and it wasn't any better. The Stand By Line at Radiator Springs was 85 minutes when we (thankfully) used our fast passes at 5:00 pm. Soarin, Tower of Terror, Toy Story were all an hour wait (thankfully, we had knocked them all off in the morning) and even Monsters, Inc. was a 40 minute line.
So if the urban legend ever was true that Super Bowl Sunday was a GREAT day to go to Disneyland, yesterday convinced me that rumor is completely FALSE. By all means, AVOID Disneyland on Super Bowl Sunday.