Disneyland certainly is a different beast right now!

[AndrewC]

Holy cow crowds. By 9am today almost all the big names in Disneyland had standby times of 45 minutes or longer and now many are out past 75 minutes.

Take my money Disney, give me Genie+ and individual lightning lanes!

If they offered it right now on my trip I would be all over it with the wallet open. I feel overwhelmed and just drifting a long. I’m so used to my last four or five years letting FastPass and MaxPass dictate what I do next. I would base my next ride on whatever had an immediate or close return time and then pick whatever short line to kill some time if I needed. Now I feel like if I jump on Pooh (walk on) I’m wasting time that I should be standing in line for Indy… because that line is unlikely to get better…

I’m glad to be back, even masked up all the time, but I do miss 2019 Disneyland and even then Halloween time was busy. This is a new level though, a level that is just “free for all.” I’ll have fun, and I think it’ll be worth my money, but boy a way to line jump can’t show up fast enough!

Halloween party on Sunday and Tuesday night, I wonder if I’ll feel any reduction in crowds during those…

 

[Dory92130]

I DO wonder if this is some sinister attempt to create buzz in favor for Genie+ by stuffing capacity ahead of staffing to create outsized lines.

The blowback though are the food lines. And if the sinister attempt is for lines only they would have staffed up quick service. For now it looks okay but only 11AM. Let's see how reports come in a 1pm.

 

[AndrewC]

Thankfully I have table service booked all week for meals… I know I’m one of the lucky ones, but I saw this coming and was worried about it.

 

[longboard55]

I think with the new system APs show up earlier instead of late afternoon. Early morning use to be pretty dead

 

[AndrewC]

Ya, I was never rope drop but it felt like things were noticeably less crowded up till about 11…. Not so much now

 

[AndrewC]

Wow, today so far seems rough for reliability. Jungle Cruise went down, then Indy went down at the same time, now Indy is still down and Pirates went down…

 

[Wesley815]

Wow, today so far seems rough for reliability. Jungle Cruise went down, then Indy went down at the same time, now Indy is still down and Pirates went down…

Same thing happened last Tuesday (10/12) for us. Many attractions were down, not just normal downtime- but over and over, entire sections of park were not running. Hope things improve.

 

[ktlm]

Now I feel like if I jump on Pooh (walk on) I’m wasting time that I should be standing in line for Indy… because that line is unlikely to get better…

Halloween party on Sunday and Tuesday night, I wonder if I’ll feel any reduction in crowds during those…

Well- count yourself lucky because last Saturday Pooh had a 20 minute wait most of the time-- sometimes 30 and I saw it up to 40 at one point. We rode it Wednesday October 6 with a 15 minute wait-- it was the shortest line in the park that day.

If your experience is like ours-- the Halloween party is a TON better. Not horribly crowded and very enjoyable! We didn't really do rides-- we were focused on all the characters and the parades-- but just walking around the park was WAY more pleasant and less crowded than the 5 days of regular hours we were there. We got to see all the characters and do the parade dessert party. The characters on the treat trails were really great! We hit every single one and all the other character spots too. Mickey and Minnie had a really long line, but we ran over and got in line quickly after the late parade and were very close to the front of the line. Donald and Goofy were the only other ones with a long slow line- we took pictures of them in between people on our own and skipped their line. The only thing we had any type of issue with was Villain's Grove-we got stuck in a bottleneck there not moving at all for about 15 minutes-- I'm not sure what happened ahead of us that caused everything to stop. I had high hopes for that area based on what I read about it and found it crowded and underwhelming (maybe because it was bottlenecked and crowded). I wish there had been 2 Halloween parties during our trip because I would liked to have gone twice and just done rides the 2nd time. Hope you have wonderful Halloween parties!!!

 

[Disney0010]

Nail on the head. IMHO Disney is not stupid. They’re going to do everything possible to create a need for people to buy Genie+ and LL. It will only get worse.

I DO wonder if this is some sinister attempt to create buzz in favor for Genie+ by stuffing capacity ahead of staffing to create outsized lines.

The blowback though are the food lines. And if the sinister attempt is for lines only they would have staffed up quick service. For now it looks okay but only 11AM. Let's see how reports come in a 1pm.

 

[Priory]

Yesterday, Friday the 15th was the most insanely packed, miserable experience I’ve ever had. It was never that bad before and I have been on multiple days where they closed for capacity. I won’t be back for a while. Maybe ever.

 

[Kuilima]

Yikes

 

[Kuilima]

I DO wonder if this is some sinister attempt to create buzz in favor for Genie+ by stuffing capacity ahead of staffing to create outsized lines.

Absolutely! No doubt about it.

 

[Kuilima]

I miss fast passes.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I was at the parks today from 1pm to 10pm. It was definitely busy and some ride lines were quite long but we still had a really fun day. We did six attractions (Star Tours, Astro Orbitors, Star Tours again, Buzz Light Year, Tiki Room and Smuggler’s Run) plus Animation Academy, dinner at Lamplight Lounge and watched the fireworks, and that was with a later afternoon arrival (I usually like to rope drop). We could have squeezed in another attraction or two but we were taking it easy since it was so hot and we had two little kids with us.

I think if you are wanting to “do Disneyland” (check off all the headliners and special foods and entertainment, albeit limited) it’s maybe not great right now. But if you can go with the flow and be flexible you can have a really nice day.

I will say that a 30 minute line for pretzels is honestly insane. The popcorn and churro lines were equally long. Why can they not have more snack carts?

Today I saw a lot of very confused/upset people who were trying to get food. It is definitely hard when some places only do mobile order and some places only do walk up. And the places that only do mobile order but the returns are hours into the future… that is just not a good system. I am surprised Disney can’t fix this.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Picture of Main Street today at 3pm.

 

[AndrewC]

So I’m over here spoiled at Universal Halloween Horror Nights (AFTER half a day at Disney) with an RIP pass (VIP tour + unlimited front of the line for everything after the guided tour) and it’s just so much more amazing. I had done six or seven miles walking already out in the hot sun at Disney, driven across LA traffic and then hit it hard again and was so enjoying every minute. Only now (12:25am) and I kinda feeling dead after hitting Disney at 9am.

I’m dreading Disney tomorrow. I know once I’m there I’ll have fun. I can go with the flow, I don’t have children that will be upset if we don’t do something specific, and I know I’m here all next week. Still, I’m not looking forward to it. I know not to expect VIP front for everything over there, my pockets don’t go that deep, but how I still wish for some system.

Universal ran me ~$460 but that included a nice buffet meal and parking. So maybe $400 when you factor that out. That could buy me a lot of individual lightning lanes and Genie+ across four or five days. I’m just surprised Disney had all pandemic to come up with a new system and months of ramping up to do it and is still taking so long when the demand has been so strong.

I guess when you’re that large you move slowly.

I’m already jealous of you guys in a few weeks that probably will get it rolled out. Here’s hoping weekdays aren’t better.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I'm here, too. I knew it would be crazy crowded. We had some dumb luck with food. My daughter wanted a corn dog and only had 3 people ahead of her. I wanted Rancho del Zocolo and that line was very fast. We only rode 2 rides because of wait times, but neither of us cared.

I was able to get Oogie boogie tickets for tonight. We're probably going to take it easy to and just plan to enjoy the party. I am thinking of cancelling my Dapper Day reservation.

 

[vacay77]

After reading this, I'm glad I booked dining reservations for all the days in the parks (River Belle Terrace and Blue Bayou). I did mobile order for Pym Test Kitchen but was not a fan of the food. I ended up getting a chicken wrap for Shawarma Palace which is basically a food cart and the chicken wrap was so much better than the meal from Pym Test Kitchen. Luckily there wasn't anyone in line in front of me.

 

[Disco Lemonade]

We were there for four days last week, Thur-Sunday and I am actually glad there was no Genie despite the lines. I think you have to appreciate the positives and accept the minuses either way. No Max Pass/Fast Pass/Genie made a more relaxing experience to me where we would just focus on the parks one area at a time and not be glued to phones trying to get fast passes and figure out when we should leave to make it to the opposite side of the park so as to not miss our fast pass. I sometimes missed not getting the possibility for fast passes and it meant only doing the headliners one time each for the trip, but I still accepted that. The fast passes really mess up lines and make wait time accuracy even worse. It is so annoying when you have waited an hour in line, have almost made it on a ride, and then a cm tells you wait and lets in 50 people with fast passes. If it were up to me, fast passes would never come back.

 

[vacay77]

We were there for four days last week, Thur-Sunday and I am actually glad there was no Genie despite the lines. I think you have to appreciate the positives and accept the minuses either way. No Max Pass/Fast Pass/Genie made a more relaxing experience to me where we would just focus on the parks one area at a time and not be glued to phones trying to get fast passes and figure out when we should leave to make it to the opposite side of the park so as to not miss our fast pass. I sometimes missed not getting the possibility for fast passes and it meant only doing the headliners one time each for the trip, but I still accepted that. The fast passes really mess up lines and make wait time accuracy even worse. It is so annoying when you have waited an hour in line, have almost made it on a ride, and then a cm tells you wait and lets in 50 people with fast passes. If it were up to me, fast passes would never come back.

I'm in favor of FastPasses, and the good news is that you'll have the option to opt out of purchasing Genie+ and Lightening Lanes. We waited in hour long lines where large parties still cut in front of us, so it happens even without the FastPasses. It was extremely frustrating to see 10 people joining 2 people in front of us in line, halfway through the line. Constantly.