Aftermath of a Disneyland Premiere
While The Disney Blog and the other Disney related websites have been talking about yesterday’s premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest at Disneyland I decided to go to Disneyland and see the aftermath of yesterday’s festivities. The premiere might have been great yesterday, but today’s mess made the park unbearable.
The movie was shown on a screen erected in front on the Ol’ Mill on Tom Sawyer’s Island with bleachers across the Rivers of America right next to the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. Today, both the scaffolding for the screen and the bleachers were still in place, blocking the walkways for guests and making it a crowd control nightmare. In fact, today was the worst display of crowd control I’ve ever seen at Disneyland.
The walkway along the Rivers of America that go between Frontierland and New Orleans Square was closed down, if you wanted to get from Frontierland to New Orleans Square or Adventureland you had to backtrack all the way to Main Street. The problem was that they were not stopping people from walking down that walkway, so people were hitting a dead end and either walking through River Belle Terrace or were jumping the barricades.
All in all, I must say that having the movie premiere in Disneyland was a terrible idea for Disney. If they wanted to do it, they should have had everything cleaned up and back to normal by the time the park opened this morning. This is no way to treat park guests on the first weekend of summer just because Disney wants to throw a big party for a few select people.
(There are more photos after the jump.)
I must say I’m a little suprised about that. The night crew over at Disney are usually very quick when it comes to that! That’s too bad.
Dave,
I’ve got to agree. Although what was more surprising to me was the lack of good crowd control. I really do think that the Disneyland Resorts could start up a division that designed crowd control systems and processes for other companies and venues because they have gotten so good at it at Disneyland. This was one of their rare gaffs and it was very surprising to see. But I suppose they wouldn’t have had a problem with it if the bleachers had been taken down before the park opened.
The level of drama in your post was unbearable and a nightmare. Relax.
Can someone PLEASE tell me how people can go to these premieres? I wanted to go to this so badly and couldn’t figure out how to get information on the premiere. I am hoping that number 3 will be premiered next year there as well and would really like to attend!!! PLEASE HELP!
Amanda,
Keep your eye on The Disney Blog. They had all of the information for the premiere. I don’t think anybody from the public got to actually see the movie, they just got to stand along the red carpet and see the stars show up a few hours late.