First time in 25 years I’ve regretted coming on the first day of Christmas

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I wonder if the crowds were also due to Veteran's day. Not all schools have this day off but we were off of work today.

Definitely a big contributor. But I was also there today and the crowds swelled noticeably around 5:30-6pm so I think people who did work were coming to experience the first day of the holidays.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

We went today and it was a complete nightmare. Social media has absolutely ruined the park experience on these types of days. The lines for popcorn were unreal….. I’m talking 60 minutes to get a popcorn bucket. My six year old kept begging me for popcorn…. Not the bucket, just regular popcorn and I kept telling her no because the lines were crazy long. We rode 3 rides today. THREE. And we were literally standing at the rope by 7:35. I mobile ordered all of our food- lunch and snack- on the Toy Story bus at 7:15am…. And even at that time the return time for Jolly Holiday was 11:40!

The lines for food today were just ridiculous…. If you didn’t mobile order ahead of time, you were spending at minimum 30 minutes in line for food. People started lining up for the parade 2.5 hours in advance.

Now- we were completely expecting these crowds. I wasn’t expecting the popcorn bucket insanity…. I mean they aren’t even that cute, but we were expecting the other craziness, so we were prepared to not ride much, and i was prepared with mobile order. We tried to enjoy the decorations but honestly it was so crowded you couldn’t really even look at anything.

We’ve never been on day 1 of Christmas and my kids didn’t have school, so now we’ve checked that box and we’ll never do it again. There were some positives…. We took some great magic shot photos with friends, and had some great character interactions, and the gingerbread cookies and rice crispy treats were great. But I cannot imagine being a tourist and coming today…. What a terrible park experience.

We were also there and also wanted popcorn (not a bucket) and we went to three popcorn carts in DL and the lines were so long that I kid you not there were CMs holding those “the line starts here” signs and I could not believe my eyes. We finally hopped to DCA and checked the popcorn cart by Soarin’ and finally lucked out because they were only selling the Toy Story bucket and I guess no one wants those? I really wish Disney would keep some of the carts “popcorn bucket free” so people could just get some dang popcorn.

 

[Aurora0427]

We were also there and also wanted popcorn (not a bucket) and we went to three popcorn carts in DL and the lines were so long that I kid you not there were CMs holding those “the line starts here” signs and I could not believe my eyes. We finally hopped to DCA and checked the popcorn cart by Soarin’ and finally lucked out because they were only selling the Toy Story bucket and I guess no one wants those? I really wish Disney would keep some of the carts “popcorn bucket free” so people could just get some dang popcorn.

My daughter said the same thing…. She said Disneyland should keep some of the carts bucket free.

 

[Aurora0427]

I wonder if the crowds were also due to Veteran's day. Not all schools have this day off but we were off of work today.

Oh definitely. First day of the holidays combined with Veterans Day definitely contributed. There was a swell of crowds after 5 though of people who worked coming in.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What I think Disneyland is trying to do is get people in to buy the newest Christmas merchandise that they have released for the year. And every year when a holiday no matter if it's Halloween or Christmas Disneyland is always known for releasing items and special holiday foods that people go wild trying to get. When the holiday foods and exclusive merchandise debuts at Disneyland people get so excited about what merchandise or foods they want to buy and try but when people realize when they get there they find out that the certain merchandise or food is sold out and becomes like the movie Jingle All The Way when Turboman action figures were sold out and the character Howard tried to find one for his son. What I think Disneyland should do to stop this habit is put disclaimers saying "LIMIT ONE CHRISTMAS ITEM PER CUSTOMER" and if they have people that want to order holiday treats they should have a sign saying this "DUE TO DEMAND WE ADVISE CALLING TO RESERVE YOUR FOOD ORDER BEFORE PARK ARRIVAL" and that should help customers a lot. I also wondered if Disneyland also did anything for Veteran's Day too? Because I know that Disneyland rarely gets full on Veteran's Day and they probably did have a military show and offered special prices for military veterans as well

 

[deedubb]

I thought Disney was cracking down on personal shoppers in the past and even revoking their annual passes. Whatever happened to that?

Unfortunately, Disney caters to the vloggers with events just for them, free trips etc. Not sure how I would feel if I was in the park and everyone was vlogging, but I do enjoy watching some of them on Youtube. I actually learn a lot from them, and it gets me through the days in between trips.

 

[DizneyMommy]

What I think Disneyland is trying to do is get people in to buy the newest Christmas merchandise that they have released for the year. And every year when a holiday no matter if it's Halloween or Christmas Disneyland is always known for releasing items and special holiday foods that people go wild trying to get. When the holiday foods and exclusive merchandise debuts at Disneyland people get so excited about what merchandise or foods they want to buy and try but when people realize when they get there they find out that the certain merchandise or food is sold out and becomes like the movie Jingle All The Way when Turboman action figures were sold out and the character Howard tried to find one for his son. What I think Disneyland should do to stop this habit is put disclaimers saying "LIMIT ONE CHRISTMAS ITEM PER CUSTOMER" and if they have people that want to order holiday treats they should have a sign saying this "DUE TO DEMAND WE ADVISE CALLING TO RESERVE YOUR FOOD ORDER BEFORE PARK ARRIVAL" and that should help customers a lot. I also wondered if Disneyland also did anything for Veteran's Day too? Because I know that Disneyland rarely gets full on Veteran's Day and they probably did have a military show and offered special prices for military veterans as well

Just a flag retreat as they always do on Veteran’s Day. Veteran’s Day does in fact get full when it falls on or is observed by schools on a Monday or Friday. Last time it was a Friday was 2017. I was there and it was crowded.

 

[DizneyMommy]

Yeah I think Disney purposefully keeps holiday food items scarce to make it seem like this huge deal. They could easily have plentiful but they choose not to so it makes it more omg i got to go and get everything. Unfortunately you have to plan ahead now, and as crappy as it sounds you should have probably mobile ordered way earlier to get something. It sucks, I hate influencers but Disney will never ban vlogging in the parks (I know Tokyo Disney has, but I think that it's run by a different company right?) because its free advertisement and the influencers are encouraged to do it because they get invited to special events. I put the blame on Disney.

I should have mobile ordered way earlier?? I was on at 8am! That’s park opening. Many things were sold out prior to opening because mobile order opens at 7am which I did not realize. I have been on the first day of Christmas for 25 years minus COVID and have NEVER seen holiday treats sell out PRIOR to park opening. They should not allow mobile ordering until park opening and definitely not before you’re in the park. I found out that many people were ordering from home or on the road and weren’t even there. That’s a DUMB stupid policy on Disney’s part.

 

[DizneyMommy]

Ugh. I wish vloggers and Influ-stupiders would be limited to media previews only. I am there tomorrow with my youngest and thankfully he is not aware of any of the Christmas-specific things (other than Mickey gingerbread, which didn’t make his top 3), so I’m gonna zig when they zag and put my blinders on.

I didn’t realize how negatively all the content regurgitators were affecting me until I took an Instagram break. Everything is a hustle it feels like. I have unfollowed or muted almost all of them.

I’m truly a Pollyanna but lately I really want to do something horribly embarrassing the next time someone is doing a play by play commentary in my face. Guess my villain mode is engaging.

Mickey gingerbread was about the only thing we did get other than dole whip (which was super sad looking). The cookies were gross, underbaked, and really badly decorated. We had to wait in line at Starbucks for 30 freaking minutes for a dang cookie, and only did because I actually wanted coffee and the line at Jolly Holiday was legit longer and mobile order was full until late afternoon.
I’d go to Marceline’s and get their gingerbread cookie. It probably tastes better. So sad :-( I have many memories of grabbing a gingerbread and watching the parade and those days are so long gone. At least my kiddos have the memories.

 

[DizneyMommy]

Mickey gingerbread was about the only thing we did get other than dole whip (which was super sad looking). The cookies were gross, underbaked, and really badly decorated. We had to wait in line at Starbucks for 30 freaking minutes for a dang cookie, and only did because I actually wanted coffee and the line at Jolly Holiday was legit longer and mobile order was full until late afternoon.
I’d go to Marceline’s and get their gingerbread cookie. It probably tastes better. So sad :-( I have many memories of grabbing a gingerbread and watching the parade and those days are so long gone. At least my kiddos have the memories.

They looked like a kindergarten class drew them

 

[afan]

We did 16 rides yesterday and my friend added the canoes which I didn't want to do. We started at dlr and didn't go crazy. This includes a break back in the room and dinner at pizza press on our way back in and time spent queuing and doing the 1st WoC show. We did start at 8 and end at almost midnight and used LL but not for all.

It waa crowded and some stuff was insane, like the popcorn and chiro lines.

 

[Aurora0427]

I rode 2 rides - Matterhorn and It’s A Small World. My husband and daughter were able to do more but it was too overwhelming for the baby and I. My daughter wanted a regular popcorn too!! The lines for every single snack booth in DL were so insane. We bought the crappy pretzel and goldfish snack pages from a shop because I couldn’t deal with waiting that long for a snack. And I was there to eat all the things today!

On the plus side, DCA wasn’t too bad. This is the first time I’ve ever seen the festival booths not mobbed with people. It was surprising.

I can’t imagine being here as a tourist on vacation. Hopefully the madness doesn’t extend into the weekend.

We also rode Matterhorn and Small World! Then we randomly got in line and breezed through Indiana Jones. It showed a 50 minute wait, and we were on and off in 30 minutes. There were barely any people returning for LL, so the line just moved. I think we were off by 9:30, and by then the park was a complete mess!

 

[Aurora0427]

I should have mobile ordered way earlier?? I was on at 8am! That’s park opening. Many things were sold out prior to opening because mobile order opens at 7am which I did not realize. I have been on the first day of Christmas for 25 years minus COVID and have NEVER seen holiday treats sell out PRIOR to park opening. They should not allow mobile ordering until park opening and definitely not before you’re in the park. I found out that many people were ordering from home or on the road and weren’t even there. That’s a DUMB stupid policy on Disney’s part.

I was mobile ordering on the toy story bus at 7:15 and the window for jolly holiday was already 11:40. Craziness.

 

[DontSpamMe]

Ouch! I agree something has to be done with the influencers. They are definitely negatively impacting the park experience. My advice would be to unsubscribe and don't "smash" the like button, nor donate any money. Who donates money anyways?

According to a few sites that track wait times, last year's crowd for the first day of Christmas was 4 out of 10. Compare that to 8 out of 10 yesterday.

Last year's average wait time for all rides at Disneyland was 24 minutes and this year's was 37 minutes. So a 60% increase. And most of those social media people don't ride the rides.

DCA had an average wait last year of 24 minutes and 32 minutes this year. RSR averaged 60 minutes last year and 96 minutes this year.

 

[shh]

I don’t even have the words for what today has looked like at the park. Disheartened, disgusted, frustrated. The way that the blogger/vloggers and personals shoppers have affected the parks for families is just ugly. I have NEVER seen it this bad or to this extent. First day of Christmas and most of the holiday offerings were gone from the mobile order system in the first 30-60 minutes of park opening. Some locations held back some inventory for standby but the lines were excessive and no guarantee it would still be there by the time you got to the front.
Everywhere we looked were people sitting with a multitude of food dishes photographing them with phones on tripods, recording their vlog, taking up space and supply to make money off the parks at the expense of families there to enjoy their visit. The personal shoppers and eBay sellers carrying huge shopping bags full of popcorn buckets and sippers.
My kids look forward to sampling treats on the first day of Christmas and to not even be able to get anything for this reason is just super disappointing.
Aside from that, it’s like some bizarre dystopian world with all of the people walking around with phones or cameras on gimbals recording themselves talking. Seriously put the dang thing down while you walk! Some of us are really freaking tired of getting bumped into by you or having to watch a parade or fireworks through your camera screen.

While I place a hefty amount of the blame on people greedily reselling items or trying to make money off blogging about the parks, Disney could have mitigated some of the issues.

One item per admission. Period. Scan the ticket, no more for you.

Don’t put a large bulk of the popular treats in one location, spread it out already! Jolly Holiday was ridiculous. People used mobile order prior to the park even opening to order one of everything, thus completely wiping out the days inventory. Too easy for them to clean out the items if it’s all in one place.

Crack down on the dang selfie sticks, tripods, gimbals and extended microphones. It’s pretty obvious what they are doing.

I really hate to let these people alter the way I visit, but honesty this was not the enjoyable start of holiday tradition we’ve had for the past 25 years.

You should send this letter, as is, to disney directly. They'll never see it here. One letter may not move mountains, but if everyone did it....their diving stock price and recent negative press may have them listening a bit more closely.

 

[deejdigsdis]

You should send this letter, as is, to disney directly. They'll never see it here. One letter may not move mountains, but if everyone did it....their diving stock price and recent negative press may have them listening a bit more closely.

Do you know the best address to use?

 

[evilmommie]

Do you know the best address to use?

guest.services@disneyland.com

Every time something like this happens, I send feedback. If I see executives hanging around, I will stop and chat with them about the guest experience. They claim they are trying to find a balance. Haha. Nice try, Disney. Look at yesterday. *Disclaimer: I wasn’t there yesterday. I visited on Thursday and you could see the social media storm building.*

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

We did 16 rides yesterday and my friend added the canoes which I didn't want to do. We started at dlr and didn't go crazy. This includes a break back in the room and dinner at pizza press on our way back in and time spent queuing and doing the 1st WoC show. We did start at 8 and end at almost midnight and used LL but not for all.

It waa crowded and some stuff was insane, like the popcorn and chiro lines.

Sounds like starting in DL was much better yesterday. We started in DCA and at 8am park opening these were the rides that were down: Radiator Springs Racers, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Goofy’s Sky School, Ariel and the Golden Zypher. Additionally Monsters Inc was down for refurbishment.

By 8:15 LL return times for Toy Story and Web Slingers were already an 11am return. Two hours later when we could get another LL, the return times were 2:30. The main issue is we couldn’t ride things standby in the early morning hours because everything was down.

RSR opened first and standby was immediately 120 minutes. The others were down all morning. Ariel and Toy Story didn’t open until lunchtime. It was a really rough day for rides at DCA yesterday. And of course you can’t hop to the other park until 1pm, so you’re stuck.

We only got to do two LL rides in DCA before we hopped to DL at 4pm. This is in part because the return times were pushed so far out and partly because we had a few rides we wanted to do in DL (HMH, Big Thunder, Star Tours) and therefore had to get those for later then wait the two hours. At DL we got to do those three rides only due to the return times being pushed out so far and we had to leave for the night.

All in all, starting in DCA was horrible yesterday. Such a terrible value and Genie+ is a truly awful product. And I know the “tricks” and how to use it and even so I feel cheated out of $40 and only able to use it to ride five rides between both parks over 12 hours.

Edit: I forgot to add that we used one of our five LL on HMH. From the time we entered the LL line (which was wrapping around Splash Mountain), we waited 40 minutes until we were in a ride vehicle. We were trapped in the portrait hallway with what felt like 100 people and did not move for a very very long time. I was starting to feel nervous and uncomfortable as I was with my child alone and people were pressing so hard unto us from behind that we would be pushed into the people in front of us. Then, while riding, the ride stopped six times. From the time we entered the line until the time we excited was over an hour. It was just really crazy.

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

I should have mobile ordered way earlier?? I was on at 8am! That’s park opening. Many things were sold out prior to opening because mobile order opens at 7am which I did not realize. I have been on the first day of Christmas for 25 years minus COVID and have NEVER seen holiday treats sell out PRIOR to park opening. They should not allow mobile ordering until park opening and definitely not before you’re in the park. I found out that many people were ordering from home or on the road and weren’t even there. That’s a DUMB stupid policy on Disney’s part.

Okay? I used to go each year at this time too and I decided not to this year because I had a feeling it would be a nightmare and it was a holiday too. Disney shouldn’t allow people to mobile order but they do and people know to take advantage of that and I’m sorry you didn’t. Mobile ordering wasn’t a huge thing until recently.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

Okay? I used to go each year at this time too and I decided not to this year because I had a feeling it would be a nightmare and it was a holiday too. Disney shouldn’t allow people to mobile order but they do and people know to take advantage of that and I’m sorry you didn’t. Mobile ordering wasn’t a huge thing until recently.

The poster is saying they shouldn’t allow people to mobile order before park opening, not that they shouldn’t be able to mobile order at all. And I agree with this, especially on days when they are releasing special food items like this.

I honestly think people shouldn’t be able to order unless they’ve scanned into a park on days like this. It would make the “playing field” much more fair.

Sounds like starting in DL was much better yesterday. We started in DCA and at 8am park opening these were the rides that were down: Radiator Springs Racers, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Goofy’s Sky School, Ariel and the Golden Zypher. Additionally Monsters Inc was down for refurbishment.

By 8:15 LL return times for Toy Story and Web Slingers were already an 11am return. Two hours later when we could get another LL, the return times were 2:30. The main issue is we couldn’t ride things standby in the early morning hours because everything was down.

RSR opened first and standby was immediately 120 minutes. The others were down all morning. Ariel and Toy Story didn’t open until lunchtime. It was a really rough day for rides at DCA yesterday. And of course you can’t hop to the other park until 1pm, so you’re stuck.

We only got to do two LL rides in DCA before we hopped to DL at 4pm. This is in part because the return times were pushed so far out and partly because we had a few rides we wanted to do in DL (HMH, Big Thunder, Star Tours) and therefore had to get those for later then wait the two hours. At DL we got to do those three rides only due to the return times being pushed out so far and we had to leave for the night.

All in all, starting in DCA was horrible yesterday. Such a terrible value and Genie+ is a truly awful product. And I know the “tricks” and how to use it and even so I feel cheated out of $40 and only able to use it to ride five rides between both parks over 12 hours.

It wasn’t much better in DLR. I actually think 16 rides for being in the parks for rope-dropping and being in the park for 14 hours AND using Genie+ isn’t that great. They should’ve been able to do way more. Rise didn’t even open until at least after one. The evening for rides was actually much better than it usually is for a Friday night. I suspect it’s because locals were in the parks for merch, food, and ambiance and not so much for rides.

We also rode Matterhorn and Small World! Then we randomly got in line and breezed through Indiana Jones. It showed a 50 minute wait, and we were on and off in 30 minutes. There were barely any people returning for LL, so the line just moved. I think we were off by 9:30, and by then the park was a complete mess!

My husband and our daughter pretty much walked onto Indie at around 9:30 at night. They said they used their MEP from earlier when it was down but they should have saved it because there was no one in the Standby line. Meanwhile, Goofy’s flight school had a 230 minute wait after it came back up. What a weird day for rides.