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.
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