Record-Breaking Memorial Weekend 2013! ‘Fast & … 
Cannes: Un Certain Regard Winners Include ‘The … 
SAG-AFTRA Sued For Witholding Foreign Residuals And … 
Harvey Weinstein Closes Prolific Cannes With Deals For … 
Cannes: Competition Movies Divide Critics; How Much Do … 
Zach Braff Ends $3+M Kickstarter Campaign 
Fox Unscripted TV Czar Mike Darnell To Exit 
NBC Sets Oklahoma Tornado Benefit Concert For May 29 
Cannes: Directors’ Fortnight Honors ‘Les … 
SHOCKER: Tom Cruise Exits ‘Man From … 
A+E Rebuild: BBC’s Jana Bennett To Run Bio And LMN … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hannibal’ Hits Low, … 
‘Katie’ Shakeup: Rachel Miskowiec Replaces … 
Hammond On Cannes: French Hero Jerry Lewis On His Return To … 
Cannes: Another Jewelry Heist? $2.6M Necklace Missing After … 
Hammond On Cannes: Leo DiCaprio’s Moon Trip Tops … 
Specialty B.O. Preview: ‘Before Midnight’, … 
2012-2013 Season Network Rankings: CBS Sweeps In Final … 
Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings 
TOLDJA! Paramount Pocketing $190M From Disney For Marvel … 
‘Good Morning America’ Hits 19-Year Viewership … 
It’s a nice problem to have if you’re the Walt Disney Co — but not if you’re trying to visit the Anaheim theme parks. I’m told that both yesterday and today Disneyland began turning away would-be visitors within hours of opening and then redirected them to California Adventure until that park reached capacity, too. Sounds like The Happiest Place On Earth could be the grumpiest judging by this alert which the Disneyland Twitter site has been sending out regularly:
Disneyland Resort extremely popular today. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure access temporarily limited.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
They should do this BEFORE the park reaches capacity. It’s no fun paying 400-500 dollars with parking and a meal to take your family to Disneyland then pushing your way through crowds all day and waiting an hour in line for a two minute ride on Space Mountain.
They should black-out a specific number of days each year where you make a reservation, pay a premium ticket price, but they only admit half-capacity to the park. I’m sure that it would sell out years in advance.
And, by the way, the California Adventure park stinks.
They should stop the fastpass. It slows up the general line to a crawl as they let in all the fastpass holders. I have been going to Disney regularly for many years and there was a never a problem until they started the fastpass. You can see how quickly the line moves at Space Mountain once the two lines are integrated towards the end of the line. Same thing for Indiana Jones
Maybe you should start using Fastpass?
The problem here is that they’ve got all these visitors who CAN’T LEAVE THE STATE, due to the astronomical number of flights being canceled. They decided to go to Disney since they’ve got all this extra time on their hands.
That may be, but the park is regularly too crowded making it far less enjoyable for the visiting families who are the lifeblood of the company. A premium Disneyland experience is a great idea and would be — I suspect — a huge success.
I remember having zero fun due to standing in line for 98% of the time,and then walk back to the car to eat because the nasty food price too high and fight our way back in. I think the capacity regulations should be enforced and the quality of the food should be better for the price we pay!
There are plenty of offseason days where the parks are not crowded. If you are visiting Disneyland or Disney World between Christmas and New Years you need to know you are in for huge crowds.
there are signs outside the park when they reach capacity. i’ve been there when it happens. and you aren’t paying $400-$500 to be turned away. first if you bought a pass from outside the park it isn’t used until you walk through one of the gates and it’s scanned. it just means you use it on another day. you also have to figure that all school breaks and especially the holidays,disneyland is going to be jammed packed. use some common sense and plan for a different day during non holiday times.
Well Disneyanna:
Its a great concept except for one thing – People are to stupid to do it. This is a greedy me first country. People under 35 are not smart enough to understand this proposal or pull up their pants.
Disney has a big problem. They do not realize the long term impact of this greedy ” Us first ” attitude. Mr Disney would have never stood for this.
Every problem has a solution, but in this situation Im not sure this applies. Stupid people and greedy business people can wallow in their own man made problems as long as they feel they need to.
I was there yesterday, and there was only about 5 people walking around. Oh, wait- I was at Euro Disney…
Ugh – what a trite, outdated comment. Disneyland Paris has blossomed into quite an attraction. I was there a few years ago, and attendance looked quite healthy.
In fact, Gil Brooks, Euro Disney turned away guests too on new year’s eve. And maybe you should know top five theme parks attendance worldwide is :
1. MAGIC KINGDOM at Walt Disney World (17,233,000)
2. DISNEYLAND (15,900,000)
3. TOKYO DISNEYLAND (13,646,000)
4. DISNEYLAND PARK at Disneyland Paris (12,740,000)
5. TOKYO DISNEY SEA (12,004,000)
They cannot, however, turn away annual passholders. Not legally, anyway.
They are only allowed by law to allow a specific number of people into the park as a fire / emergency can happen. Its like saying if you want to go to a movie they have to let you in. If you look at the ticket booth you will see a capasity limit posted. Sorry season holder you are no more special to thte people that work there, you just paid in advance for a discount.
Hope they don’t send people to Wally World. That place is never open.
Not only were they turning people away, if you pre-purchased your tickets online, it didn’t matter. You still received no access to the park(s). That was AFTER spending an hour trying to get into the parking lot and find a space. The only consolation was that they didn’t charge me for parking before I spent two hours in traffic driving back to LA in the middle of traffic.
WOW! that many people out of work in LA. Wonder how many are actors?
joke
But nothing stopped them from charging you $15 for parking before turning you away from the park…
Deadline | Anaheim
I was at Disneyland on Christmas Day and I’d never seen so many people. I stood in line at the Hungry Bear Restaurant for one hour before I got food. And the line for Pirates of the Caribbean was almost to Splash Mountain. Really crazy.
I was there on Christmas day as well. It wasn’t too bad until that evening when the rain started to come down then everything got pretty chaotic. I agree though. There was way too many people for comfort on that day.
WOW i was there new years eve, it was crazy! we left before 10 but other people sat for hours waiting to see fire works that they actually could not see because it was to crowded and to foggy!
memo to Bob iger:
I’m a big Disney fan and have taken my little daughter to Disneyworld 3 times in the last 4 years. Why not build another Disneyland sized park in the middle of the USA? Maybe Texas, some place the weather is always hot?
Also, why does High School Musical have zero presence at Disney World? I’d love to see a short show with some of the songs.
High School Musical did have a presence at Disney Hollywood Studios for the past several years. It has been cut.
There IS a God.
“I’m a big Disney fan and have taken my little daughter to Disneyworld 3 times in the last 4 years. Why not build another Disneyland sized park in the middle of the USA? Maybe Texas, some place the weather is always hot?”
There was a proposal on the table to bring a Disney to Texas — until state officials requested that, instead of nightly fireworks, they have nightly KKK lynchings on Main Street USA.
So you may have to wait awhile for that.
what an idiotic remark, your obviously a closet racist with that backward comment. Stay in california, the midwest, new england, or wherever the hell your from. Your not welcome in the south, which, by the way, is where the jobs are. Real tired of backward thinking northerners putting down the south then moving here. What a douche!
I can understand indignation if you felt offended by the previous remark, Mr. Hicks, however your response makes you seem just as uneducated, moronic, and prejudiced as he did. Lumping the rest of America as “backward thinking northerners” shows your own racist and prejudiced leanings. It makes YOU, in your own words, a backward thinking southerner, doesn’t it? Oh, and the “douche” comment, clearly low class. Please stay in your little corner of the south. Real southerners would not want to know you either. You should be ashamed.
Because high school musical has no place at Disneyland. The world is grateful for that.
I was one of the first to crash thye gates at Disneyland. I was
5 years old on opening day. As a first grade student at Disney
Elementary School in Anaheim, I was one who went free of charge.
Ironically, I had just moved from Mattie Lou Maxwell Elementary when Walt Disney Elemenetary opened it’s doors. There my teacher
was Norma Nixon, mother of Richard M. I met the currentC E O and
President of A B C Disney 21 years ago. It trutly is a small world
but I am sure I was no influence on the “Samall World” attraction.
I am going next month. I remember childhood best at Disneyland.
Will Heitzman
Trust me it is not always hot in Texas. I live in West Texas and we have been in the 30′s for the past week. The Dallas-Ft. Worth area has also been cold and has had snow. The Houston area has been cold and rainy.
We did the LA Zoo today and cars were lined up for miles; we’ve never seen that before — seems to be more people in town than usual and they’re hitting all the sights.
Never in my life as a Southern Californian have I been so disappointed with Disney! My husband, two-yr. old daughter, & I were stuck on Disneyland Drive for an hour before we reached the parking garage! It was NOT UNTIL we were feet from the attendant booth that we saw a small sign that read “Disneyland Park tickets sold out!”. It’s extremely manipulative of Disney to force people to wait through such mayhem only to find out at the last moment
that they have wasted hours of their vacation that they’ll never get back! I called the park’s direct line and, after some more waiting, was told that the park status changes so frequently that there couldn’t be an official notice posted on any of their (zillions of) signs leading into the park. It seemed as though they were allowing people to go the distance in hopes that they would decide to go to California Adventure instead…lame! Unfortunately, none of our
Disney Apps notified us of the park closure either! I want my day of vacation back!!!
park!
At l east your not one of the idiots like me who drove 2 days, 1100 miles, spent $900 on hotels rooms, god knows how much on everything else, to spend 3 days at Disneyland–DEC 24th, yesterday (DEC27) and today…and now I get to drive 2 days back home after fighting that crap. I thought Christmas eve was bad. I never thought it would be the best day of the three. We lasted 4 hrs today and threw in the towel after 3 rides…what garbage…
Is this the mentality of most americans? You spend great wads of disposable income on fanciful things such as trips to Disneyland and then you bleat and moan when it doesn’t turn out exactly as you had wished. we have a saying around here: “Go hard or go home!” Seriously… you make such a big deal about not being able to hold Mickey Mouse’s hand for and extra five minutes. My god, is there nothing more important in your life to think about?
If only Disney’s movies packed in the movie houses like Disneyland packed in the crowds this week.
and how about those stars!
Miley Cyrus: bong hits and nude pics
Demi Lovato: rehab
Vanessa Hudgens: boozin’ it up in clubs
In your list of stars i’d like to make a few pointers,
Miley Cyrus: Yeah she’s an idiot, we all know.
Demi Lovato: She is in rehab for emotional and physical reasons, she’s not in there for drugs or alcohol and if you’d like to make a snide comment about it maybe you should consult someone who actually has suffered through the illness of depression or an eating disorder and you might find they’d be happy that Demi could find help in a very difficult and dark time.
Vanessa Hudgens: She’s over 21, she’s allowed to go drink in a club. You going to condemn every person who enters a club to consume alcohol or just her?
“They should black-out a specific number of days each year where you make a reservation, pay a premium ticket price, but they only admit half-capacity to the park. I’m sure that it would sell out years in advance.”
They do black out these days. From the 15th of December to January 2 only premium annual pass holders can get in. All others are blocked out. That doesn’t mean those that are just coming for a day can be blacked out. It’s first come, first served. That’s the level of popularity that the Disneyland park has. There are plans to add even more attractions and expand areas so that lines are shorter, but those start after the current California Adventure expansion ends in 2012.
they black out a date for Gradnight for seniors who are graduating. The only time it didn’t happen was June of 1990 cuz that was my graduating class and we had it and dumb old knotts it was lame
A rip-off anyway you slice it.
Disneyland resort regularly turns visitors away, or shuffles them over to California Adventure during Christmas Vacation week. It’s happened for YEARS. Do your homework, visit any number of Disneyland websites online and ask, subscribe to twitter (the article SAYS Disney was letting people know… so while your ‘apps’ may have failed, a simple follow on twitter wouldn’t have). But really the whole world is on vacation and travel weather (and those invasive pat downs and full body scans) stopped a LOT of people from traveling. SO DUH!
Why are you people A) blaming Disney for something that’s out of their control and b) complaining about something that’s out of Disney’s control? If a park reaches capacity, what do you expect THEM to do about it? Pack in yet MORE people? Build a bigger park “while-U-wait”? Seriously? What? Be logical for a minute.
As a matter of fact, packing in MORE people even when the park was clearly ALREADY stuffed was something they USED to do before. I remember visiting Disneyland on one of those days. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. Elbows, pits, asses and shoulders bumping into you everywhere, ceaselessly from every direction. There were so many people up, down and sideways, you couldn’t tell where the lines for the rides ended or began. Don’t even get me started about the restrooms…By the time you get your turn, the inside of every (unoccupied) stall looked thoroughly sprayed in piss, bowl full of turds and paper in every place BUT where it belongs! FORGET about the lines for the rides, there was literally no place to even sit down! ANYWHERE!! It was hard to find any pocket of fresh cool air to breathe because there was so much human mass, the air in any immediate area got hot, thick and stanky. I’m not joking at all. It would literally be enough to give a claustrophobe a full-blown panic attack, or if not, it was enough to CONVERT YOU into one! Seriously, it was THAT bad! Did I blame Disney? That time, yes. I thought to myself “there should be a limit to how many people they let in! I’m having a horrible time! And considering the MONEY BEING SPENT HERE today really adds insult to injury!” DOES THAT SOUND LIKE A GOOD TIME TO YOU? I think Disney is doing the RIGHT thing and ensuring the quality of visit to the existing paying customer. If you think they’re wrong to do this, then what bright idea have YOU got? What would you do? I swear to GOD, you freaking idiot customers, if you’re not complaining about how CROWDED it is, you’re complaining about how you’re not let IN because of the crowd. Like flies on a screen door. Can’t decide if you want out or in. Idiots.
I used to work at an amusement park myself and it’s always the same sh*t: more often than not, it’s the CUSTOMER who ruins amusement park experience for other customers, whether directly or inadvertently. And such is the case here. Think about it. That’s the very reason I quit that job and it’s one of the reasons I hate visiting amusement parks now. Whenever something goes wrong, it’s almost always another customer ruining the experience for everyone else. Amusement park, my butt.
Thank you! This is very true. It happens because most people, especially when on vacation, are inconsiderate. It’s not intentional, they just don’t think or pay attention to those around them.
@Benny F
High school musical has a parade in California Adventure. And a park in the middle of the country is a would be failure. Weather is a problem and it is illogical to spend all that money on a new park just to take shuffle around revenue. People will travel to California and Florida. That is why.
Side note, been to Disneyland several times this year and rarely wait in lines. Perhaps the alure of the holiday’s is the main problem.
OFF PEAK!!!
Don’t get me wrong, I went to theme parks when I was a kid. But why do so many people nowadays give in to the mass consumerism that is Disney? Is it really fun to wait in line hours to go on a 2 min. ride? Why not travel, take your kids to see this great country of ours?
Disney as a company sucks, their movies suck, and their overpriced theme parks and policies suck. Why buy into all of that by giving them your money, and for all these people your time?
Think outside the box. Don’t give into the Disney marketing machine.
Dude, their movies don’t suck.
Otherwise, I agree. I think we should go out when on vacation and get more culture, instead of more corporate culture.
the anchors on GMA today were joking when reporting this story Robin Roberts: “is this where we mention we’re owned by Disney?” and Chris Cuomo mentioned to Juju Chang “you’re earning your ears” (a reference to Iger?)
No not Iger….”earning your ears”
The Mickey Ears? The Mouseketeer club?
And not the fake one with Justin, Britney and Xtina, I mean the real one with Annette and Cubby. Do you not know your pop culture history?
For us younger folks, the Mickey Mouse Club with Justin and Britney and Christina *was* the real Mickey Mouse Club. Did I forget that there was one previous? No, not by any measure of the word. But don’t disparage a whole generation’s MMC simply because you are older.
there has to be a better way, for sure. it’s been over 20 years since I visited Disneyland, vowing that day to not return, as the crowds and the lines were completely miserable. you just felt completely manipulated and ripped off. we went on something like 5 rides the entire day because every line was a 30-60 minute “adventure.” I guess, honestly, the ONLY time to even attempt Disneyland is an odd Tuesday in October or February which doesn’t coincide with any holiday or 3-day weekend or school breaks you can think of!
The crowds have everything to do with the rain for 6 straight days last week which came during school breaks for the holiday. Families had to put their plans on hold until the rain abated.
We were at Disneyland yesterday and it was my 4 year old’s first time there, and it was MAGICAL!!! We knew going in that it was going to be crowded so we tried to prepare ourselves for it. When we got there we were routed immediately to the overflow parking and when we reached the attendants they smiled and said there was no charge for parking!! Then a worker showed us the express lane, since we were paying for one day, helping us avoid the long line to get in. While we were in the park, all the workers were friendly and so helpful. And after the fireworks show, which was freakin awesome of course, they made it snow!! I mean, that is the coolest thing ever. Disney is the best theme park out there and they didn’t let me down.
People who insist on showing up to Disneyland on Christmas and then are . .gasp. . surprised how many OTHER people did the same thing with their kids and their vacation days deserves what they get.
It’s very wrong of Disney not to notify people before they try and come into that dreadful maze of a parking lot– they should have used their light up signs outside of the park that they typically use when they’ve closed an entrance. But people would be wise to avoid all Southern California attractions within an hours drive from Pasadena 3 days before the Rose Parade. Every local knows you hunker down and wait out the traffic and chaos to pass while in the quiet and safety of your own home. Even if people get into the park, it’ll be completely miserable in there.