? about July 4 and DL parking

[eatntae]

I'm thinking about going to DL on July 4th. I've been meaning to go for a long time now, but the conflicting schedules of my school and my GF job keep us from going. Well, I'm on summer vacation now, and my GF has the day off, so we figured DL would be a nice place wo watch some fireworks. My first question is, how crowded does DL usually get on July 4th? Are we crazy for considering it? My second question is in regards to parking. How much is the parking fee? We are pretty sure that we're going to buy annual passes (not sure which ones yet), and getting the free parking upgrade with at least one of them. Even if we do decide to buy the free parking upgrade, am I correct in assuming that we're stuck paying the parking fee since we won't have the tickets yet? Is there anyway around this?

Thanks in advance, and I'm sure I'll have some follow up questions once these are answered.

 

[iceskatejen]

On the 4th of July, you need to get there early. It's usually one of the busiest days of the year. Parking is $10, but you can buy your APs in advance at the Disney Store and the voucher they give you will show that you have parking on it and if you show that to the CMs at the toll booth, they will not charge you for parking. If you choose to buy your APs at DL, they will refund (or take the $10 off the price) the parking price off with the parking receipt.

 

[eatntae]

On the 4th of July, you need to get there early. It's usually one of the busiest days of the year. Parking is $10, but you can buy your APs in advance at the Disney Store and the voucher they give you will show that you have parking on it and if you show that to the CMs at the toll booth, they will not charge you for parking. If you choose to buy your APs at DL, they will refund (or take the $10 off the price) the parking price off with the parking receipt.

Thanks for the quick reply iceskatejen. I didn't know they would refund the parking price if you show your parking receipt; that's cool. Does the park get so busy that they close the gates? Also, the calendar on disneyland's website says the park opens at 8. Does the park open before this? Or should I just go ahead and try to get the tickets before we actually go?

 

[YoHo]

Personally, I'd get the tickets before you go. It's just going to be less hassle.
Otherwise, you have to stand in line at the ticketbooth, then stand in line at the gate, then stand in line to get your picture taken/AP made.

Might as well skip one of those lines if you can.

 

[eatntae]

Well, just a quick update on my July 4th visit. Prior to yesterday, I hadn't been to Disneyland for the 50th celebration, but I assume that compared to weekends, the crowds were surprisingly light. We got there at 7:30 for the 8:00 opening, and the lines at the gates looked like they were pretty long, but they didn't reach the California sign for California Adventure. As soon as we got in, we headed straight for the bank to process our APs. I was glad to see that we were the first ones there. We spent a few minutes in there, and I made sure to ask the CM if she scanned our APs so that we could use them for the FP machines. After she said yes, we headed straight for Pirates. The wait was only about 15 minutes, and there was one particular new effect that I thought was amazing. After Pirates, we were going to get a FP for Indy, but the standby time was only 15 minutes, so we just waited. After that, we went to get a FP for Splash. The machine spit out invalid tickets, saying our APs were not used for admission. With no CM around to ask for help, we decided to take a stroll back to the Main St. bank to see if something was wrong with our APs.

The CM we spoke with apologized for the problem, looked at my AP and noticed there was a scratch on my picture, so she printed me a new one. I told her it wasn't necessary, but she insisted, and even gave us free mouse pads for our "troubles." The CM then said she scanned our passes multiple times to make sure they worked, gave us a FP voucher for Splash, and apologized that nobody was at the FP machine to help us. Needless to say, we were delighted with this CM and her kindness. We then decided to head over to Tomorrowland.

We went to Buzz and decided to get a FP. We went to the machine, and again got the invalid ticket problem. This time, there was a CM by the FP distributors, so we talked to him. He looked at our passes and realized that we had just activated them that day (yesterday). He explained to us that our APs wouldn't work for the FP machines the entire day because it takes a day for the AP to process, and that we can just ask a CM at each attraction to override the FP machine so we could get one. Throughout the rest of the day, though, we found that we actually didn't need to use FP. The longest standby line we saw was at Space Mountain, and that wait was only 25-30 minutes. The only FP we used the whole day was the Splash one we received.

The first real problem we encountered yesterday was when we ate lunch/dinner at the Plaza Inn. My girlfriend was getting ready to pay, and she had her AP and VISA card out at the same time. Insticintively, my GF handed the VISA card first, thinking she could show the CM the AP before having the card swiped. Unfortunately, the CM swiped the card immediately without giving us our AP discount. We asked her about it, and she said she couldn't reverse the transaction. Not understanding why this couldn't be done, we asked her to get the manager to do it, so she left and came back, saying the manager said it couldn't be done. I wanted to speak to the manager directly, but my GF wanted to avoid any confrontation, so I just let it go. The only other problem we encountered was with crowds. It seemed like everybody decided to show up to camp out fireworks spots. We were expecting this though, so we can't really complain about this problem. I just wish people had more courtesy than to trample, bump, and stand in front of us, especially when there isn't even room in front of us. Anyway, I'm not sure how bad Main St. gets for the fireworks show during summer weekends, but it was packed last night. We were standing in the circle right in front of Walt and Mickey, and when I turned around to look at Main St., all I could see was a sea of people. By the time the fireworks were about to start, it literally looked like you wouldn't be able to move down Main St., even if you tried to push people aside.

Overall, the 4th was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Throughout most of the day, the crowds were light, and the temperature wasn't as hot as it was over the weekend. Also, now that we are AP holders, it was great to feel like we didn't have to rush and get everything done in one day, since we knew we could always go back.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I was there yesterday, too, and we hit Pirates about 8:30 -- cool effect, huh.

We spent the morning at DL & the afternoon at DCA - we had a great time. We ended up watching the Electrical Light Parade & then going back to my cousins' hotel room -- DLH Sierra Tower 9th floor, with Downtown Disney view. Since they have two little ones 6 & 2, it was better to watch the fireworks from their room, and the Disneyland Hotel outdoor speakers played the music - very cool.

 

[iceskatejen]

I was there too. I didn't get on the tram until 1pm and was in the park less than 15 minutes later. One of my friends got to the seating area in front of the castle at 2:30 to hold fireworks spots. We met a couple of girls (college students) with working dogs and after the fireworks had a couple of 4-legged fastpasses, though the crowds were so light we really didn't need them. One of the dogs was hilarious on POTC.

 

[eatntae]

We wanted to head over to CA during the afternoon as well, but we were paranoid that we wouldn't be able to get back into DL. Sure, the crowds were low, but with my luck, everybody would've decided to enter DL as soon as we walked out of the gates

Quick question: I saw people walking around with the pin trading lanyards, but clipped to the bottom was this plastic pouch thing where you could put your tickets. I went to a couple stores and saw lanyards, but without the plastic pouch clipped to the bottom. A few of the ones I saw around people's necks said AAA and Walt Disney Travel Co. Am I correct in assuming these are only given to people staying on Disney property, or can other people get them also?

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Thanks for the report of your day! Got me excited for our trip next week! And how awesome that it wasn't that bad for the 4th! Those lines sounded really good, for any summer day, much less the 4th of July! The AP mess sounded a bit annoying though, it's a shame the CM's at the Bank didn't know that about the FP's. But it sounds like a great day after all!

Yes the fireworks are always that bad, as far the crowd of people goes. Last year we had people doing that to. I mean this one guy had a kid on his shoulder, cut in front of my 7 year old, when there was NO room in front of us to begin with. He couldn't see at all, neither could I! I told him there was no room, he had to move. He continued to push his way further up. We got kicked, and trampled quite a bit by people. People can be so rude!

 

[iceskatejen]

Anyone can get a lanyard with a pouch. I have one. You can add a pouch to a pin lanyard (the wider kind) or there's the skinny cord kind (which is what I have) with the pouch already there as it's intended to be a FP holder. There's also a clip on style. The shop at the exit of Buzz has probably the best selection of these (look on one of the rotating racks), but most stores that sell pins have some form.