The vacation of a lifetime - Day 6 (part one) - The dark side of Disney Magic

[sunfun]

i was there that very crowded night on may 10 too. thank god i made reservations for the liberty tree tavern for 7:00pm the wait was about 30 minutes...a lot of unhappy people around. we walked out of there to see the parade with a thick crowd in front of us. the parade was excellent. my daughter loves the little mermaieid. watched the fireworks nothing exciting. i saw many people waiting in the long lines with maps and how to do disney guide books...crazy! we did everything we wanted on wed. morning in about 1 and half hours. an experience like this really kills the disney feeling!

 

[friskylady]

It's always like that at the MK evening parade! I've been there during spring break time when kids are climbing on everything in sight to see the parade. It's packed from stem to stern on Main Street.
So, I just don't go to the parade! And NEVER go to MK on Sat nite!!!

Here's what I think Disney should do about this situation. They should be much more strict about capacity. Just because more people WANT to go to MK at a certain time of year or certain night doesn't mean that they HAVE to be allowed in.

I think that Disney should preserve the quality of the experience for the KIDS and big crowds create dangerous conditions as well as ruin the fun.

 

[DisneyFix]

I really appreciate all the detail you put into your trip report! It is so generous of you, because I know it must be very time-consuming! I hope I can do as good a job after our trip in November.
I'm so sorry to hear about your nightmare with the crowds for the parade/fireworks. On the other hand, you did reinforce to me that we should probably just skip the parade/fireworks (if they even have them in Late November) because of the terrible crowds. Part of me thinks we should try to see the parade for the sake of our young daughters, but it seems like we'd just be asking for a bad experience. Thank you so much for sharing your experience so that the rest of us can benefit from it!

 

[CarolA]

I had said in an earlier post that I would update you on the crowds this past Saturday night. I arrived at the park at 8 pm. The parades were at 9 and 11 and the fireworks were at 10. It was just as bad as I expected. People were packed everywhere for the parade! We walked to the end of main street and back and went back to the AKL. I figured that if you wanted to see the parade it was probably worth it, but we really did not care!

The park was not near capacity and there were probably places without a lot of people, they just weren't on the parade route. The thing that bothered me was that a lot of the kids looked exhausted and were crying! Why were they still there? It was very hot this weekend and I figure if your child is going to sleep through the parade, it is not worth sitting on the sidewalk yelling at him for an hour. (Please don't yell at me, I have no children. I just felt sorry for some of the kids that looked like they really needed to be in bed and I could not understand why screaming at them was going to help!)

 

[jrgutknecht]

Thanks for the update Carol. I hope you had a good time besides this one night.

There was another thread I was reading that suggested if you REALLY wanted to see it, you should go to the second parade. Frankly, I don't know how they would have the parade ground cleared out in time!

I've decided I'm just not going to do MK on parade nights anymore. I much prefer it on Sunday mornings.

 

[DisneyJedi]

My wife and I were also at Magic Kingdom the evening of May 10th. The crowds were a nightmare! Luckily, ignorantly I thought the parade started at 8pm and scrambled to find a place to sit on the curve at Liberty Square at 7:45pm. We found an open spot and spent the time talking about Disney and then started chatting to the people next to us (that were really nice and moved over a tad for us informing us of the mad rush closer to parade time and how we had prime realty and needed to guard it) It wasn't until 8:20 or so did I realize the parade started at 9pm. Glad I mixed up the times for everything that night. I wasn't happy that we had to wait for at least 5 ferry boats to cycle back and forth before we finally got back to the TTC. What a night! I fell asleep eating dinner back at the hotel that night.

 

[Dax]

I can feel your pain on this one. As PAP holders we go to Disney weekly(you can see my reports titled: A Day at WDW). The last few times we have gone to MK the crowds have been horrendous! Normally we won't leave the park until 45 mins AFTER closing to avoid the mad rush out. These last few times though we have run into unbearable crowds almost an HOUR AFTER park close. The Express monorail line is almost an hour wait and the boats, I don't want to even know. Even the resort monorail gets bad. My newest way of avoiding the wait..If parked at TTC, walk to CR and then hop monorail there and ride to Poly then walk from Poly to TTC and hopefully get a tram. If parked at DD, we walk to CR and take bus to DD from there. Yes it seems like a long walk especially after being in a park ALL DAY but it is better then standing in yet another line. I wish I knew why MK has gotten so popular recently.

 

[dbltrbl]

inkbounc

 

[Bouncy]

Sorry to hear you lost some of the "magic".We went to watch parade/fireworks and we found it to be the same in september.I had to stop older people pushing my 7 year old out of the way.They even tried to move my sons stroller which he was sitting in then he decided he could see better if he stood on the footrest and leaned on the railings(we were at the castle for parade) and these people even tried pulling the buggy from out under his feet!!!I could not believe it.Yes everyone likes to see but to treat children like this?I was horrified and I let them Know in no uncertain terms that my childen were moving for no-one.You couldn't even see the parade very well anyway!!They actually asked my 7 year old to stand down so they could see,I told her to stay were she was!!!Does that sound nasty?Would you tell your children to move and not see the parade to let some-one else in?Some people can be so rude.

 

[Beanie]

That is too bad that you had a bad time during the parade! I hope things look up on the next day!! Can't wait to read it! Thanks!

 

[Olaf]

Wanna see a parade? Get there 90 minutes early and park your behind on the curb. Be prepared to defend your terrority. The whole thing is really stupid if you think about it.