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Thread: December - Disneyland full, gates closed [merged]

  1. #51

    Thumbs up

    Quote Originally Posted by raych30
    Last May, right before school was out for the summer, I woke my kids up early in the morning, told them to get dressed, we're going to Disneyland! I knew they wouldn't be missing much at school (they don't do much on the last week of school) and my son still instists to this day, "Mom, that was the best day of my life!" I've only done it once, but I don't see any harm in it.

    Crowd wise, we're going to shoot for Jan 4th and hope for the best.

    Rachel
    Thank you Rachel! My point exactly is in your post. I'm sure you son thanks you as well for creating a great memory in his mind... rather then being steped on, yelled at, pushed over, trampled, all just trying to get into/around/out of Disneyland during busy times. Everyone else on this bored seems to enjoy all that though, so more power to them as I sit back and roll my eyes.

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  3. #52

    Thursday gates closed? 12-29 Attendance report anybody?

    I imagine the gates were closed again today,
    Anybody venture to the parks today, what was the attendance report like? How were the lines at DCA (Soarin', Screaming, Tzone, Monsters) What was the SpaceMountain que time at DL?


  4. #53
    Quote Originally Posted by Wesley815
    Thank you Rachel! My point exactly is in your post. I'm sure you son thanks you as well for creating a great memory in his mind... rather then being steped on, yelled at, pushed over, trampled, all just trying to get into/around/out of Disneyland during busy times. Everyone else on this bored seems to enjoy all that though, so more power to them as I sit back and roll my eyes.
    Well then what? Perhaps Disneyland should just close down over the holidays, after all, it's crowded and you don't seem to think anyone in their right mind should go there and we're all just here to give you something to roll your eyes about?

    I guess we're just bad parents. We've taken our kids to Disneyland on Christmas day for the last five or six years. We didn't just yank them out of school for a day at the park because it's not as crowded in March as it is over the holidays. And yes, we DID bring them with us on 5/5...AFTER clearing the schedules with them and the school calendar.

    Tell you one thing though. Both my kids know the difference between bored and a board.

    -TLMt

  5. #54
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  6. #55
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    I just prefer to go to Disneyland when the crowds aren't insane. I also don't think it makes me a bad parent for letting my kids miss school one day a year to go to DL. They still talk about how much fun they had, to this day.
    I also understand why people want to go at Christmas time/busy times of the year.
    Disneyland will always hold magic for my family, we just prefer it at a slower pace that most.

    Cheers,
    Rachel


  7. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wesley815
    Everyone else on this bored(sic) seems to enjoy all that though, so more power to them as I sit back and roll my eyes.
    Maybe if you weren't rolling your eyes so much you'd see the posts you're missing?

    Adrienne
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  8. #57

    Thumbs up

    I love all of this... keep fighting, it's so fun to read!

    I guess you don't see I post things on purpose like this, but yet the same members here fall for it everytime.


  9. #58

    Whoa!

    Quote Originally Posted by Wesley815
    I love all of this... keep fighting, it's so fun to read!

    I guess you don't see I post things on purpose like this, but yet the same members here fall for it everytime.

    Hello. May I reintroduce you to our Community Policies?

  10. #59

    There are several levels of park closure. The first level is stopping the selling of tickets. The ultimate level (not counting evacuation) is NOBODY else gets in. I don't know the order of what's in between, but it includes stopping non-re-entry park-hopping, stopping first-entry of non-hotel guests (including additional days of multi-day park-hoppers), stopping of passholders, and stopping of hotel guests.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wesley815
    I love all of this... keep fighting, it's so fun to read!

    I guess you don't see I post things on purpose like this, but yet the same members here fall for it everytime.

    Members aren't allowed to call other members trolls, but I'm thinking that announcing yourself to be a troll isn't the smartest move to make.
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  12. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by nursemelis374
    You all keep saying that they are stopping selling tickets at 9 am. I would just go somewhere else and get my ticket. I also am wondering, are they stopping for the ENTIRE day? Meaning they stop selling tickets at 9 and sell no more the rest of the day?
    Not necessarily. By 10:00 pm, at night, after the fireworks, they'll start selling; but, why by a ticket for the day at that point, when the day is ended, nearly. And, it won't matter where you buy your ticket. Once the Park closes down they won't let you in, if it's your first entry of the day.

    For the past three days, by 10:00, I think today it was 9:00 am, you needed to have a handstamp, or hotel ID to get it, once they cut it off.

    Actually some people are saying they are being a little to strict about cutting things off so early, but they do it precisely because they want to avoid a fire department situation, whereby the fire department comes along and cuts everyone (handstamps included) off. I'd rather see Disney cut things off on their own, than have the fire department cut is all out!
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  13. #62
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    I was just wondering if DCA has ever reached capacity? I'm not being sarcastic, my family loves the park, lol. I was just curious.


  14. #63

    Camping out for Entrance into Disneyland

    A matter of time until people start to camp out for admission into Disneyland mark my word. People use to laugh when I said the same thing about golf Tee times in the greater Los Angeles area and Pebble Beach, but people do it all the time. When demand out weighs the supply people go to all lengths to get in.


  15. #64
    Quote Originally Posted by raych30
    I was just wondering if DCA has ever reached capacity? I'm not being sarcastic, my family loves the park, lol. I was just curious.
    I'm almost positive it has.

  16. #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by pisces
    For the past three days, by 10:00, I think today it was 9:00 am, you needed to have a handstamp, or hotel ID to get it, once they cut it off.
    I was at the park this morning, and they did not start restricting admission until just before noon. And even then it was the "no more ticket sales" level, not "no more entry" level. Every CM I spoke to this morning said it was far less crowded today than any other day this week.

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  17. #66

    Disneyland on 12/28: frustration and thoughts

    So, I just wanted to offer a slightly different viewpoint on the whole "Why do people go this time of year, don't they know it's busy?"

    With regards to attending this time of year:
    I googled for Disney attendance figures--maybe my search parameters sucked, but I didn't get a single hot back that told me anything about how busy the park was this time of year.

    My husband and I are currently working 12-14 hours a day, 6 days a week, and were lucky to get time off between Christmas and New Year's. We'll continue working this schedule after the New Year. Going this time of year was pretty much our only option.

    With regards to Disney, and how they handle capacity:
    Strictly my observations--this is not meant to be whining, pouting, etc. Hindsight is 20-20.
    We pulled up to the parking area/tollbooth about 9:45am on 12/28 (Wednesday). I don't know if it's typical for things to be poorly communicated, but there was no signage anywhere, up until you got to the parking tollbooth, regarding the park being closed--and this was just a tiny sign covering DLR's operating hours. I realize what other people have posted is exactly true: Disney is trying to entice people to go to DCA is DLR is closed. However, I think this is, in short, nothing but a cheap, petty trick. Waiting in traffic for over an hour--let alone the fact we lost an entire day of our vacation--only to pull up and see, on the parking sign, that DLR is closed, is an absolutely horrible customer experience.

    Lack of respect on management's part for their CMs and customers:
    It's also a horrible task for their parking people to have to handle--irate customers pulling up only to find they can't go where they wanted to. The park very much needs to think about the messaging their folks should deliver IF customers get to them. When we verified the park was closed, our very tired CM just confirmed the closure. Post Sept. 11, the first thing this meant to me was there had been some sort of terrorist threat.

    I tried calling the park roughly every ten minutes for two hours after we left, to try and find out what the problem was, and could not get through to a real person. This only served to fuel my fear. I went to the Disneyland website, and continued to see the park was open, with regular hours.

    By the time we returned home, later that evening, my husband and I were just plain upset. Should we have researched further? Honestly, I thought we had done our due diligence, much to my chagrin. Does Disney exist to make money? Of course they do. But if they want to maintain the magic that makes them such a hallmark destination, I honestly believe they should consider some new approaches to handling their crowd capacity--seems like making reservations may not be too far in the future if their attendance continues to swell.


  18. #67

    ^^^Tough luck. Get there earlier next time.


  19. #68

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    One evening, when asked his opinion regarding whether their party shall go to a certain restaurant, Yogi offered this opinion:

    "NAH! IT IS SO CROWEDED, NO ONE GOES THERE ANYMORE."

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  20. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by ILovePoker
    ^^^Tough luck. Get there earlier next time.
    They got there at 9:45 a.m.

    But of course you knew that already.


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  21. #70

    (Sigh)

    Still wondering did they ever restart ticket sales today or any other day?

    Here is my dilemma:

    Shelley and I are both PAP so we are good at least for DCA no matter what. Our partner in crime, Christine, has a Deluxe and needs a blackout ticket. We are debating if we should take seperate cars in case she can not buy a ticket. We are not planning on going until later in the evening, like 7. What do you think?

    Edited to add: I just saw a post on another board that today when they arrived the park was closed at 1230 and they were selling hopper tickets that allowed DCA admittance and DL admission at 10 pm. The tickets actually said that!!!

    As long as we can get into DCA we will be happy.


  22. #71

    Ok I know this sounds stupid....but.....reading through the posts I'm a little confused. When they start restricting admittance are you saying that guests of the three on-site hotels are still allowed in? And if that is the case, is there a limit to how many of the guests are allowed in or are those numbers already figured in to the "max capacity" level even though they might not be in the park at the time. So do they figure 1000 hotel guests and 3000 (just a number used for example) tickets sold to arrive at their max number or do they use the counter on the turnstile and just cut entrance off when it hits max. We have been at some really busy times June, July, August and I have never seen this, can't imagine how crowded it must be.


  23. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by Minnie66
    Ok I know this sounds stupid....but.....reading through the posts I'm a little confused. When they start restricting admittance are you saying that guests of the three on-site hotels are still allowed in? And if that is the case, is there a limit to how many of the guests are allowed in or are those numbers already figured in to the "max capacity" level even though they might not be in the park at the time.
    They know about what their maximum capacity is, based on when the fire department has shut them down in the past. With those numbers in mind, they watch the turnstyle numbers and close the gates as they approach but before they hit maximum capacity so that hotel guests can still enter.

    I suppose, in theory, that if they underestimated how many hotel guests were going to the parks, then they could reach capacity and even restrict hotel guests. But I haven't heard of the parks restricting hotel guests for awhile.

    Adrienne
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  24. #73
    Quote Originally Posted by WyldFlamingo

    Lack of respect on management's part for their CMs and customers:
    It's also a horrible task for their parking people to have to handle--irate customers pulling up only to find they can't go where they wanted to. The park very much needs to think about the messaging their folks should deliver IF customers get to them. When we verified the park was closed, our very tired CM just confirmed the closure. Post Sept. 11, the first thing this meant to me was there had been some sort of terrorist threat.

    I tried calling the park roughly every ten minutes for two hours after we left, to try and find out what the problem was, and could not get through to a real person. This only served to fuel my fear. I went to the Disneyland website, and continued to see the park was open, with regular hours.

    By the time we returned home, later that evening, my husband and I were just plain upset. Should we have researched further? Honestly, I thought we had done our due diligence, much to my chagrin. Does Disney exist to make money? Of course they do. But if they want to maintain the magic that makes them such a hallmark destination, I honestly believe they should consider some new approaches to handling their crowd capacity--seems like making reservations may not be too far in the future if their attendance continues to swell.

    wow, see this post reminds me of that other thread.... some people will complain about anything.
    It is fair to be a little upset about not being able to get in... we went to go to the park a few sundays back and fount outside the VERY LARGE "DISNEYLAND WILL BE VERY BUSY TODAY" sign and saw the lines of people at the gates to both DL and DCA and said... well lets find something else to do.. its busy enough we dont need to add to it.
    However the above poster takes it and turns it into a larger source of drama... (paraphrased) "OMG, my first thought was terrrorism.. what kind of message is Disney sending..."
    what do you expect, Should Disneyland throw saftey out the window and allow the park to go well above capacity and make wait times outrageous, guests unhappy and cause a potential hazard. Then either a disater happens or the fire department shuts down and these people will be all over going "look how unsafe disneyland is"
    Truth be told, people like that and who hold that sort of attitude are usually people who make guests and CM's days miserable and with the park obviously not having attendance issues of any type... they wont be missed.
    sorry if i offend or come off harsh... just my honest opinion.

  25. #74
    Quote Originally Posted by RobGraves
    wow, see this post reminds me of that other thread.... some people will complain about anything.
    It is fair to be a little upset about not being able to get in... we went to go to the park a few sundays back and fount outside the VERY LARGE "DISNEYLAND WILL BE VERY BUSY TODAY" sign and saw the lines of people at the gates to both DL and DCA and said... well lets find something else to do.. its busy enough we dont need to add to it.
    However the above poster takes it and turns it into a larger source of drama... (paraphrased) "OMG, my first thought was terrrorism.. what kind of message is Disney sending..."
    what do you expect, Should Disneyland throw saftey out the window and allow the park to go well above capacity and make wait times outrageous, guests unhappy and cause a potential hazard. Then either a disater happens or the fire department shuts down and these people will be all over going "look how unsafe disneyland is"
    Truth be told, people like that and who hold that sort of attitude are usually people who make guests and CM's days miserable and with the park obviously not having attendance issues of any type... they wont be missed.
    sorry if i offend or come off harsh... just my honest opinion.
    Well, if you you were indeed sorry to offend you would not have posted what you did, and if sounding harsh causes you regret you wouldn't have used the wording you did, so let's pretend you didn't even say that.

    I, for one, am getting tired of the cavalier and condescending attitude towards guests, an attitude, I might add, that has come from at least one CM that I know of.

    I thought WyldFlamingo made a valid point...the signage about Disneyland being closed is NOT visible until one has actually entered the parking structure. Yes, I go in with a PAP. I usually get in to the park and, if it's just too crowded for words we can bail to DCA for a couple of hours and check back to see if DL is allowing entry again (a luxury, I imagine, that isn't afforded someone with a ticket that doesn't allow park entrance until 10pm.) We can go somewhere for lunch or breakfast or dinner then go home, we can come back up and hang at Universal, we can come home and catch up on the laundry, we're fairly local.

    Someone who comes from a distance and buys an admission ticket doesn't have that luxury. But heaven forbid they should mention it here! Disappointment becomes complaint, inference that the system may be less than perfect becomes callous disregard for saftey rules and the suggestion is made that they are impolite, agressively obnoxious and rude people and the Disneyland CM's are SO much better off without them.

    In the first place, CM's have a board where they can vent about guests, we all know about it. So why come here and insult your bread and butter to their faces?

    For those who aren't CM's yet feel the need to say that Disneyland is better off without people who DARE to post their disappointment at not getting in, well, let's just say maybe the park is better off without THAT attitude inside it as well.

    I think Wyld raises a good point about an advance warning system of sorts, maybe a recorded phone message about the park being at capacity that kicks in? Perhaps a warning type of note might be issued with an off site ticket purchase "please note, during holiday and vacation seasons there is a possibility that Disneyland Park may reach capacity and close to new admissions and early arrival is encouraged. Your ticket will still be valid at Disney's California Adventure and will be honored at Disneyland at such time as the gates can be re-opened to new visitors." (And yes, for all I know, they already DO issue a note like that...)

    And, as far as the stories about capacity crowds go, I think it's been WAY worse during this 50th year, I've personally noticed a marked increase in crowds and park closures since this advertising blitz began (not to mention that I personally miss the multi colored Christmas tree, there's just so much gold a person can take, ya know?)

    -TLMt

  26. #75
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