DAPs Magic Disney News – by Mr. DAPs
On February 29th Disneyland celebrated Leap Year by remaining open for 24 hours. This One More Disney Day was hugely successful as thousands of guests streamed into the park, many of them late at night and into the early morning hours of March 1st. Jonathan Esquivel was one of those people who streamed into the park late at night. Here is his perspective on One More Disney Day.
1. When did you arrive at Disneyland for One More Day? How long did you stay?I arrived at the park at approximately 2:20am and stayed until about 6:40am2. What did you think of One More Day at Disneyland?I thought the whole idea of having a huge 24-hour party at Disneyland to celebrate the extra day was awesome and exciting but I think they overhyped it so much that it became super crowded, however I didn’t let the crowds bother me as much and I managed to really enjoy One More Disney Day. I think it was a huge success considering all the people that showed up, but I also think that since Disney over hyped it, it became way too crowded which many guests didn’t like.
3. Did you have any problems with crowds or getting into the park?
I got off the 57 freeway onto Ball rd at about 9:25 and didn’t expect the insane traffic in the streets surrounding Disneyland. There was so much heavy traffic that I didn’t arrive inside Disneyland until around 2:20am. It took about 4 hours to get to the Mickey and Friend’s parking structure even thought I was only a few blocks away and then about another hour was getting up to the parking level, going down to the trams, the long lines at bag check, and the long lines to get into the park. Some people’s cars even stopped working in the middle of the road which caused more delays. However, crowds inside the park didn’t bother as much. In fact, I think that when I finally got inside, there was a lot of people already leaving which brought down the crowd levels a bit. It was still very crowded but I just didn’t let it ruin my night at Disney because of course, I already expected it to be crowded.4. What was your favorite thing about One More Day at Disneyland?My favorite thing was the fact that we were able to stay all night at Disneyland. Finally seeing the sun come out in the morning felt really nice, especially since it is a very rare sight. Most people don’t get to see the sun rise while at Disneyland.5. Is there any one specific experience you had during One More Day at Disneyland that stands out to you?One More Disney Day was actually the first time I was able to meet some of my “twitter disney friends” in person and spending time with them at the parks was a pretty different experience for me. Meeting more people that share my interests is fun as oppose to just going with my regular friends who just go to the parks for the rides.Something else I really liked was that the characters came out in the end to wave goodbye to everyone leaving the park and they were wearing their pijamas. That’s something you don’t see everyday!
