Disney Leap Day Trip Ends Unhappily For Some
Comments (11)
The happiest place on earth was anything but for scores who were forced to wait in traffic to get into Disneyland for its 24-hour Leap Day celebration, only to find out the theme park had reached capacity. Large crowds are nothing new for Disneyland - the park has been forced to stop selling tickets before because the popular tourist destination reached its limit - but it is not typical for the park to reach capacity at this time of the year.
Then again, Wednesday was anything but typical, given that February 29, or Leap Day, comes only once every four years. In honor of the extra day, the Anaheim park and the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Florida were open 24-hours straight, from 6 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday in what was billed as "One More Disney Day." In Anaheim, thousands lined up - some as early as 10 p.m. the night before - to get into the park at 6 a.m., where the first 2,000 people who got into the park received a special commemorative mouse-ear hat.
Still, the crowds got progressively worse as the day wore on. Early in the afternoon, the crowd index on the MouseWait app was 80/100. But later in the evening, the MouseWait crowd index was 100/100, meaning the park was at capacity. Naturally, that presented problems outside Disneyland, where some "lucky" park goers braved hours worth of traffic to get in as the clock crept towards Thursday, while others left after the park reached capacity. Some waited outside Disneyland for the park to let more people in, which they eventually did.
Even those lucky enough to get into the park were forced to wait in mostly long lines. According to the MouseWait app, the wait time for Space Mountain was nearly 2 hours long around 1:30 a.m., while those wanting to ride Star Tours were looking at a 1 hour 15 minute wait around 2:15 a.m.
Twitter was abuzz with issues surrounding the 24-hour Disney celebration - particularly those that dealt with traffic. Here's a sampling of reaction:
Did you brave the traffic and the crowds for Disney's Leap Day celebration, and if so, what was your experience like? Leave your answer in the comments sections below!
Comments
I wonder.. How many people are puking and shitting their pants after yesterday.. 9 of my 11 friends and family members who went on the 28th got sick. Does Disney satirize anything??
I got to the parking structure at 8 p.m., parked at 9 p.m., was able to get past the turnstyles at 9:30 p.m., waited 20 minutes for food at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, waited 45 minutes for the Jungle Cruise, then waited an hour standing in one spot for the Fantasmic show and went home afterwards. I'm glad I went on the 57 south to get to DL as otherwise, I would've never made it into the park, if I went on the I-5. At least I was able to purchased a Leap Day t-shirt commemorating the chaos. I've never seen such insanity in my life. It was unbelievable. Plus the amount of young drunkards was disturbing.
It was obvious Disneyland was highly unprepared for what occurred. If they ever do a 24 hour thing again, the best thing to do is have them sell pre-tickets (like they do for the Halloween event) for such an event to limit down the number of problems, chaos, and temper tantrums. After today, I would not be surprised if this is offered again. And frankly, I don't blame them.
It was a nightmare. We had fun with our friends of course but after waiting for 2 hrs to get into a park it was very very disappointing to see such horrible rude intoxicated people about and the number of people smoking in non designated smoking areas and smoking pot all over the place was disgusting. Lines for food were ridiculous and they ran out at a lot of places... our food was completely inedible. Disneyland was definitely not prepared for the numbers and it showed ESPECIALLY in the lack of security for people acting out of control; we saw young teenagers literally climbing up fences and different parts of attractions where he could have been seriously injured with no one at all monitoring or reinforcing safety rules and park regulations. It was definitely a night to remember. Bananas.
I work at Disney and was an hour and a half late for my shift. It took me longer to get the last 2 miles than the rest of my commute from Pasadena. Could hear the chaotic honking in the parking structure, saw people come close to blows as we sat in traffic on Ball that didn't move AT ALL for TEN MINUTES. Felt like I was trying to drive though Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. Didn't see a single Anaheim PD helping direct traffic??????
Barely made it into the park before they were at capacity. And it was super worth it. Yea there were long lines but come on, it's Disneyland. I'm just glad I got to enjoy the park with virtually zero minors and strollers for most of the morning. The conga line stretching from the Castle all the way down Main St is probably the highlight of the night. And watching the sunrise over Tomorrow Land while being barely able to stand anymore was well, Magical.
"I'm just glad I got to enjoy the park with virtually zero minors and strollers" You act like strollers and minors are an inconvenience to your experience at Disneyland; it was built as a family park so people can take their children and still have a decent time. But it's idiots like you who think the damn thing was built for your own privilege. I bet your one of those douchers who stands in line and bitches about every aspect of your life. Grow up and get a life.
You need to relax... what's wrong with saying he doesn't like swerving through crowds of strollers? Jeez, you act like he/she said they wished death upon them...
Got there at six am, spent 175 dollars for two tickets and parking. The park was already packed so we did one ride and left to drive back later. Once we came back later the park was closed due to being too full. So I got a $175 ride on the tea cups.
Too bad you didn't stick around in the morning. The first half of the day was actually really pleasant, most of the crowds departed around 7:30 and from then until ~4pm it was a typical Wednesday crowd level.
We were in Disneyland way before the park was full, but left soon after Fantasmic because of the insanely long lines and rude, foul mouth people. Hope it's better tomorrow.