Post #351065 by Cammo on Mon, Dec 24, 2007 7:54 AM

Overcrowding Part 1

The daily overcrowding at Disneyland has been going on for a long time. It’s not just annoying, it’s downright dangerous because – and think about this –

there’s only one exit door.

That’s right, there’s only one exit to Disneyland. It’s right beside the entrance door. It’s about 10 feet wide when they open it up all the way, but usually it’s only open half way.

Now don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t try this in real life, but if anybody was to scream “Bomb, RUN! It’s a BOMB!” or if anybody tried any creepy terrorist stuff there or if a nutball started shooting, or anything else that takes place everywhere else in America every single day, you can’t get out of the park. It’s simply impossible. No exits are marked because there aren’t any exits. Any kind of panic causing a crowd to rush in any direction would simply be fatal.

Nowadays on a busy day at DLand if you get in an accident and have to be rushed to the hospital, or if you have a heart attack and ditto, forget about getting to the emergency ward on time. This has actually happened, in the infamous Mel Yorba incident in 1981, which Disney wisely settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Yorba was stabbed at the park and was slowly taken to the hospital in a cute White Disneyland First Aid van, a van without emergency lights, siren, or much lifesaving equipment. He died.

Since the death of Yorba and two others a few days later who also used the Van, Disney’s policy is now to allow paramedics and ambulances into the park immediately. This would seem to be a good idea, except for those crowds. There’s no emergency lanes anywhere in the park, remember?

It would seem to violate every reasonable law on overcrowding, every national and local safety law ever created about exit doors and emergency vehicles, because – it’s Disneyland!

Walt designed it that way, as an enormous lobster trap (easy to enter, hard to exit) because Disneyland was designed to hold 15,000 people a day, maximum. That’s sort of a manageable amount.

Management is very aware of the problem. Believe it or not, that is exactly why California Adventure was created; to relieve overcrowding at Disneyland like a steam bleed valve.

California Adventure was never really constructed to make money, believe it or not. Hotels have huge upkeep and building costs. CA has basically the same entrance fee, meaning they're not actually making any more money on entrance, and a lot of expensive rides had to be built. It was simply supposed to keep people AWAY from Disneyland by making Disneyland bigger.

That’s how it was proposed, no kidding. We’ll keep more people away from Disneyland by making it bigger.

It’s the kind of logic that used to get the Three Stooges in a lot of trouble.

Cause if it’s bigger, more people will come. Especially if you build a big ol’ 455 room hotel right on the grounds, as planned from the outset.

And more parking spaces. A lot more.