Was anyone at Disneyland on May 5?

[Bill Lumbergh]

I was wondering if anyone was at Disneyland on May 5. What was the day like? Other posts on other boards say it was very crowded.

 

[Mom2Joce]

If you shuffle through the posts on this board you will find LOTS of info from those that were at the park on the 5th! I was NOT but it sure was fun to read all the info from those that were there! If I had to sum up all that was mentioned: crowded? yes but was to be expected; crowds were more centered at main street and not as much on the attractions; awesome atmosphere and excitement; some spill over with the media from the day before made for some resturants to be closed which caused long food lines at carts and window resturants.

Again, if you go back to the 5th, 6th, and 7th you'll find lots of fun reading
Kelie

 

[iceskatejen]

I was. Yep, it was crowded, but it wasn't so much the ride lines that were bad as it was food and merchendise lines and Main Street was packed for the parades and fireworks. If you look for a thread entitled "Live update from DL" or something like that, I put my report of the day on it.

 

[Bete]

The Upside: Although crowds were massive everywhere at DL it was a special day. You could take a ride on the Columbia (used for the pirate fight in Fantasmic) which is not available all the time. The band was on the Steamboat ride. They had rock climbers on the Matterhorn ride. The daytime parade was longer on May 5 than on other days after the opening day of the celebration. There were more characters out than I've ever seen before. There was more live music throughout the park, too. I always wanted to be at the start of a celebration and now I accomplished that quest.

The Downside: If you planned on seeing opening events with Mr. Eisner, Julie Andrews, Art Linletter, etc. you were probably very dissappointed. The media was given front row seats and everyone else had to fight for positioning. I heard Julie Andrews refused to wear the golden ears because it would mess her hair. I'm a huge fan of hers and considering she gets paid for these events I thought it was not in good taste for her to refuse. Afterall, all of us have to pay to get into this park and we don't get front row seats; so, I was dissappointed at this gesture. Considering Mary Poppins, I think Julie Andrews owes Disney big time. The booths around the castle and the ropes blocking access to the castle was also dissappointing on May 5th. I feel like everyone else about this, the press had May 4th; so, this should have been our day. Also, certain restaurants, etc. were designated areas for the media; so, this limited the regular guests to very few choices for eats. Some rides which normally have fast pass did not on this day. We wanted to see the new parade most of all and waited 4 hours to secure a good viewing spot for it. There were booths still up at the time of the fireworks. I would think they could have had more cast members to take it all down before the big moment.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to this but once is enough for me.

 

[TeachSPED]

I stopped by on the 5th (after work). It was really crowded. It also drizzled a little bit. It was wonderful to see everything and just be there on such a big day. It was worth battling the crowds and media to walk around the park. I only stayed about an hour though. Then I went over to CA Adventure. It was pretty empty. I walked right on to Soarin' over CA, no line at all. Also I got to ride the Ferris Wheel twice in a row. That was really neat. I had never seen CA Adventure so empty before (and I go a lot with my season pass). All in all it was a fun time.