Disneyland and California Adventure closed for second day with massive attendance

Maybe they should work faster on that third park idea? ;)

Or buy Knott's from CF and shoot the monorail over that way. ;)

In any case, I'd imagine the suits are watching the figures closely and the next move is probably to expand DCA further before going to the strawberry field. Heck, they still need to expand parking.

Also, I can see them "adjusting" pricing in response to the demand.

Hotels don't expand because they reach capacity a few times a year. While the news is having fun with these stories that fact of the matter is that the park reach capacity a few times a year (the Florida parks too for that matter).

Disneyland (and everybody else; I was at USH yesterday) got hit with a perfect storm.

o It rained continuously for more than a week in Southern California right up to Christmas, which means lots of pre-Christmas trips got put off.

o BOTH teams playing in the Rose Bowl are from considerable distance, meaning 100,000+ non-locals in the area descending on the various sightseeing destinations

o And of course it is the week between Christmas and New Year, which means no school and a lot of people off work.

The conditions that led to the overpopulation at Disneyland are not "normal". They are always busy at this time of year, but this year there are more tourists than usual in the area, and they are making up for poor performance a week ago.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(who is trying to figure out if there is a practical way to visit Disneyland before coming home)

adding to Dave's "Perfect Storm" comment, the entire SoCal area has been warned for days now that Wednesday would be rainy, thus forcing people who might have gone to those parks today (midddle of the week), to choose Mon-Tuesday.

Idiot right wing radio was all over the topic this morning, alternately accusing Disney of cramming the parks too full, and yet bashing them for turning people away. I was amused.

Stop with the Political Talk!!!!!!

;)

So, CreditWh0re (or anybody else), do you have any suggestions as to what day between now and Monday (inclusive) I might actually be able to visit Disneyland? I would not want to drive all the way out there (I'm about 70 miles away), pay to park, then discover that I can't go to Disneyland...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(vacationing in rainy Santa Susana, CA)

I suggest you stay away Rideman. I know that sucks...but they are not equipped to handle what they are taking on. If you do go...you know the rules. GO EARLY!

The week between Christmas is usually the biggest week for both the California and Florida Disney Parks. I used to remember going to the old Circus World Park and seeing it practically empty for the first couple of hours, then after lunch people started to "Come in like Flies". Listening to them, it was quite obvious what had happened, Disney had "Filled Up" and they were "Turned Away". so they came to Circus World to spend the day!

Dave, I'd suggest Monday as your best bet---I'm guessing most of the kids are back in school on the 3rd, and even if they go back on the 4th, that makes the 3rd a travel/get-ready day.

I was thinking Monday is post-Holiday enough that it shouldn't be THAT bad. Of course, there is the "pent-up demand" of locals who wanted to go, but didn't because of the crowds...but it should be WAY less crowded than any time thru Sunday.

Yup. Monday should be much better. Have fun on the Matterhorn! :)

The last time we were at Disneyland we purposely planned our visit for some random Tuesday and Wednesday toward the end of January thinking it would be nice and slow, but quite the contrary. We were shocked to find both parks busy both days (DL more so than CA), and just full of families and kids that i thought surely shoulda been in school somewhere!

The next day we were pleased to find ourselves one of about 25 cars in Knott's parking lot and expected a perfect day there, too. What we didnt see was the 150 school busses around the corner. They were hosting some school system's honor students or prize winners or something with a day at the park then a dance party in the evening. So once again it was kids, kids, kids, but this time unsupervised with no families attached. Yikes! Even Mrs. Knott's was jammin with a long line to get in.

So, I guess you never know. So good luck, Dave, and I hope you have fun!

Ah, note that some schools also have a "winter break" in late January.

...and it seems that at any time in Southern California (but especially in the summer) you can find your experience at ANY venue impacted by one of the Matching Shirt Brigades of inadequately accompanied minors. I do not recall experiencing this particular phenomenon elsewhere. On this trip I encountered one of the Brigades heading into a movie theater. Lucky for me, they were off to see Yogi Bear and I was not.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I'm so fortunate my 4-year-old has so far expressed no interest to see Yogi Bear. It looks atrocious.

I've seen the Shirt Brigade at DisneyQuest, but not the WDW parks. There, it is mostly the Brazilians.

I know that the University of Wisconsin is more than adequately represented in Southern California right now. Estimates I have heard have put the ratio between Wisconsin fans and TCU fans at 3-1. When a Wisconsin team makes a major bowl game fans come en masse whether they have tix for game or not. The various bowl committees love inviting Wisconsin to the minor bowl games in the years that they suck because of that fact.

Wisconsin-fan is well represented in San Diego too. I think they stayed all over SoCal...