MK 24 hour party 2015 - Coolest Summer Ever

[ford91exploder]

Beyond lame this year.

Their motto should have been "we don't care and it shows."

It didn't have the "party" vibe of past years. Felt like nothing more than EMH. A huge waste. Next year they shouldn't even bother.

I'd have to agree. This week (I am at WDW) they did not even bother to mention this event at the resorts or on WDW TV I'm puzzled as to why they scheduled it in conflict with SWW

 

[TP2000]

Nice !!

The 'Crystal Castle Float' LIVES!!!!

Just wow.
I will confess...i'm kind of excited to see it's still around.

I had the exact same reaction, and I had to laugh at myself.

As pathetic as that float is, and the failed leadership that it represents, I have to admit I was excited to see it too.

I thought "Yeah! They used the Castle Float! And they barely did anything to it! TDO is alive and well!"

 

[llrain]

That just before 6am thing they did with the characters above the entrance tunnel whrre they had everyone glow up their cell phones to make a wish as they sung the song was the lamest thing I think I have ever witnessed

 

[TP2000]

Sounds like DL cast members dropped the ball. Fights broke out at bag check and they didn't seem to care, apparently.

It was worse than that. That guy got off easy, and quite frankly comes off as a hipster whiner who has nothing but 1st World Problems.

Over 10,000 people camped out overnight Thursday to be let in at 6AM on Friday morning. That was the first sign things were going to get really ugly later on Friday. Here's sunrise at Disneyland on Friday morning at the event kickoff, with the first 5,000 in line getting free 60th Anniversary mouse ears to wear.

This is the (far less photogenic) back of the crowd at the 6AM kickoff, with thousands more still pouring in the turnstiles.

As a point of reference, here's the similar kickoff event at 6AM at Magic Kingdom Park, attended by a few dozen Lifestyle Bloggers and a gaggle of early-bird tourists. Quite a different vibe compared to Disneyland!

Later on Friday, Disneyland began phased closures at 2PM, and went "Phase 4" for the first time ever around 6PM where not even Hotel Concierge or Club 33 Guests were allowed in. There were thousands of people still waiting to get into Disneyland at Midnight as Friday became Saturday, and the massive crowds filled the Esplanade and the line to get in went out to Harbor Blvd. and all the way down to Katella Avenue. (That's about a half mile long, 18 hours into the event) By early Friday evening the surface streets around Disneyland were gridlocked, and the Santa Ana Freeway at the Disneyland Drive off-ramp backed up for five miles (to the Riverside Freeway) from about 6PM to almost Midnight. Local TV and radio covered the backup like it was the apocalypse.

It was pure pandemonium outside the park until they reopened the Disneyland gates at about 2AM on Saturday morning, after the 1AM performance of Paint The Night was completed. But at least those inside the gates appeared to have a good time.

1 Million Disneyland Annual Passholders can bring that property to its knees if they all try and visit on the same night. But I bet the three dozen Lifestyle Bloggers at WDW's Magic Kingdom Park had a good time too.

 

[asianway]

It was worse than that. That guy got off easy, and quite frankly comes off as kind of a hipster whiner who has nothing but 1st World Problems.

Over 10,000 people camped out overnight Thursday to be let in at 6AM on Friday morning. That was the first sign things were going to get really ugly later on Friday. Here's sunrise at Disneyland on Friday morning at the event kickoff, with the first 5,000 in line getting free 60th Anniversary mouse ears to wear.

This is the (far less photogenic) back of the crowd at the 6AM kickoff, with thousands more still pouring in the turnstiles.

As a point of reference, here's the similar kickoff event at 6AM at Magic Kingdom Park, attended by a few dozen Lifestyle Bloggers and a gaggle of early-bird tourists. Quite a different vibe compared to Disneyland!

Later on Friday, Disneyland began phased closures at 2PM, and went "Phase 4" for the first time ever around 6PM where not even Hotel Concierge or Club 33 Guests were allowed in. There were thousands of people still waiting to get into Disneyland at Midnight as Friday became Saturday, and the massive crowds filled the Esplanade and the line to get in went out to Harbor Blvd. and all the way down to Katella Avenue. (That's about a half mile long, 18 hours into the event) By early Friday evening the surface streets around Disneyland were gridlocked, and the Santa Ana Freeway at the Disneyland Drive off-ramp backed up for five miles (to the Riverside Freeway) from about 6PM to almost Midnight. Local TV and radio covered the backup like it was the apocalypse.

It was pure pandemonium outside the park until they reopened the Disneyland gates at about 2AM on Saturday morning, after the 1AM performance of Paint The Night was completed. But at least those inside the gates appeared to have a good time.

1 Million Disneyland Annual Passholders can bring that property to its knees if they all try and visit on the same night. But I bet the three dozen Lifestyle Bloggers at WDW's Magic Kingdom Park had a good time too.

Where do you think his normal parking spot is? Lifestyler parking at the IHOP?

 

[TP2000]

Where do you think his normal parking spot is? Lifestyler parking at the IHOP?

LOL! You're probably right.

 

[xstech25]

Looks like all those price hikes are really hurting Disneylands attendance

 

[Kman101]

There's going to be a point that they do raise it too high. They didn't exactly get positive attention with the last price hikes. They're eventually going to price many out.

 

[G00fyDad]

I will never, ever complain about the crowds of people at the gates of the WDW parks first thing in the mornings before the parks open. WOW! That is insane! Getting to the WDW parks before opening and dealing with the inconsiderate arrogant (insert expletive here) people that cut line, walk to the CM only entrance and wait, or go to an obviously out of service turnstile seems like nothing compared to that nightmare.

 

[xstech25]

There's going to be a point that they do raise it too high. They didn't exactly get positive attention with the last price hikes. They're eventually going to price many out.

LA has like 15 million people that live in the metro area and the western region of the USA has over 75 million. Disneyland and DCA are relatively small parks but have by far the highest attendance and tourist pull of anywhere in the country except for WDW.


They make $5,250,000 selling 35,000 tickets at $150, and they make $4,000,000 selling 40,000 tickets at $100. Now granted I don't have Disney's official history of how the pricing affects attendance and don't really have any way of knowing that (although attendance has gone up significantly even with price hikes, the price has gone up 300% since 1990 but attendance has gone up by over 3 million/year since then as well). Having lower prices is clearly not something Disneyland should do now or probably ever unless there is some epic recession. Even with higher prices and pricing people out, demand is clearly there.

Read a book pricing elasticity.

 

[Horizons1]

Sounds like DL cast members dropped the ball. Fights broke out at bag check and they didn't seem to care, apparently.

Oh, Jeff Heimbuch. Such a wanna be

 

[asianway]

There's going to be a point that they do raise it too high. They didn't exactly get positive attention with the last price hikes. They're eventually going to price many out.

This sort of thing should be a hard ticket. Regular guests through 5, then $125 ticket allows you to stay all night. Would cut down on the CMs(yes I know but a lot use comp tickets), lifestylers, and riffraff. Elbow room plus they could add the stuff that was cut out from last year, especially at WDW

 

[Horizons1]

This sort of thing should be a hard ticket. Regular guests through 5, then $125 ticket allows you to stay all night. Would cut down on the CMs(yes I know but a lot use comp tickets), lifestylers, and riffraff. Elbow room plus they could add the stuff that was cut out from last year, especially at WDW

Lifestylers would still get in. Inside the Disney offices the mantra is treat social media presence like first class VIP. Treat everyone else like lowly 3rd class peasants.

 

[Brad Bishop]

This sort of thing should be a hard ticket. Regular guests through 5, then $125 ticket allows you to stay all night. Would cut down on the CMs(yes I know but a lot use comp tickets), lifestylers, and riffraff. Elbow room plus they could add the stuff that was cut out from last year, especially at WDW

I'm not a huge fan of the hard ticket events because it sucks up September through December for Annual Passholders and even regular ticket purchasers.

In this case, I agree.

 

[Nmoody1]

Nice !!

The 'Crystal Castle Float' LIVES!!!!

And here i was thinking it had finally been laid to rest after 30+ years of service.
First time i saw it was for the 1985 '15 Years of WDW' Parade.
It may well have been used before then.

Just wow.
I will confess...i'm kind of excited to see it's still around.

I believe it was used in the tencennial - it lives!!!! Maybe it was on loan from the antique museum!

 

[Nmoody1]

OMG you took the words right out of mouth. I attended the 24 hour party May 2013 and it was amazing - I arrived around 7pm and the party felt like a party until it officially ended at 6am the next day. This year, I arrived at the party at 530am and was excited for "the party". I do not know what I really expected; but from 6am until about 9am - it felt like nothing more than morning extra magic hours. Frozen characters opened the park and if I recall - Elsa and Anna stood in a daze for about 10 minutes. Once inside - outside of myriads amounts of adults dressed in costume (I felt like I was on 15th street in NYC after the gay parade - which I love; however, this was just akward). I left around 1030am still trying to figure out where the party was. The head index reached 110 degrees by midday and I felt no need to return for the two showings of the parade with disney channel characters - and by this point, I have seen enough of Frozen. I returned to the MK last evening around midnight looking for the wee hours party - and I felt even more confused. By 4am I left as many of the major attractions were closing. And yet, I still question - where was the 24 hour party? Last night just felt like the old days when the MK would close 3am or 4am during evening EMHs. I had a lot of fun (as always) but there was no party feel this time around.

You should have stopped by to watch the Disney channel parade. The faces those kids were pulling... I have not seen boredom like that since... Well forever! they really looked like they would rather have been at DL where there was something going on!

 

[Kman101]

This sort of thing should be a hard ticket. Regular guests through 5, then $125 ticket allows you to stay all night. Would cut down on the CMs(yes I know but a lot use comp tickets), lifestylers, and riffraff. Elbow room plus they could add the stuff that was cut out from last year, especially at WDW

Agreed. It should become an upcharge event. I'm surprised they haven't but I'm sure there'd be a LOT of whining if they did. Last year was horrible for crowds, I'm glad I departed before the villains came out because I heard it only got worse. And maybe they'd put in a bit more effort because it is an upcharge event. Although they didn't seem to do a great job with crowds at DHS for the villains thing last year and I assumed selling a special ticket for it would lower the crowds.

I also say Disneyland definitely needs to do something about theirs. I'm now glad I didn't attend that one because there's no way I could deal with how crowded it was. No way.

 

[asianway]

Agreed. It should become an upcharge event. I'm surprised they haven't but I'm sure there'd be a LOT of whining if they did. Last year was horrible for crowds, I'm glad I departed before the villains came out because I heard it only got worse. And maybe they'd put in a bit more effort because it is an upcharge event. Although they didn't seem to do a great job with crowds at DHS for the villains thing last year and I assumed selling a special ticket for it would lower the crowds.

I also say Disneyland definitely needs to do something about theirs. I'm now glad I didn't attend that one because there's no way I could deal with how crowded it was. No way.

The DL event didn't do anything "special" except repeat the pajama characters from prior years, in fact there was no Soundsational Friday.

If you factor those in is call it a wash and say there is just as much going on today. And tomorrow, etc till the end of summer.

 

[TP2000]

Oh, Jeff Heimbuch. Such a wanna be and a tool.

Is he a thing? I thought maybe he was just some random narcissist that @Tigger1988 found on YouTube. But by your comment I take it he's a full time Disney blogger with the uniquely annoying personality to go with it?

I can't get myself to click on his YouTube channel to see his other videos, since I'm afraid I'll be stuck in a Sunday afternoon loop of watching horrific commentary about how much his opinion matters. It doesn't.

But from the three minutes of his linked video here that I watched, I'd like for him to either get some Rogaine on that patchy thin beard or shave it off and try to get the ladies some other way.

 

[AEfx]

It sounds like these events are victims of the "EMH" paradox.

Just for the virtue that EMH was offered, population at that park increases considerably - because folks are drawn to an event but still go at the same times as everyone else so it's a cluster at prime time. I mean, on morning EMH you see the busiest times at the park all week at 10:30 in the morning - folks who intended to come because it was EMH but didn't even take advantage of the EMH hours because they didn't come at the right time.

I'd still love to do one of these events - because I'd be smart enough to not arrive until like 11PM and then I'm guessing folks that actually took advantage of the additional hours that the parks were open versus normal had a grand old time running from empty ride to empty ride all night long until after sunrise the next morning.

I would have never gone earlier in the evening - what would be the point? But the folks that had the terrible time seem to have done just that. And I would have been just fine with no extra anything besides being open all night - just let me loose in the park to ride the rides in the dark, when everything is at it's most stunning and usually all closed up.

Unless you are going to be one of the Twit-twatters who actually stays in the park for the entire duration, I just don't see the point of going to the parks at what would be prime time on any regular day to begin with.