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Our third and final trip to the Magical World (Trademark duly acknowledged) was on Christmas Day and began with a character breakfast in one of the Disney hotels. Chip and Dale were all that were left for us, as all of the A list celebrities (including Goofy) were booked well in advance. This was a good choice as these exceedingly loveable and friendly creatures gelled with Jordan immediately and helped allay some of his phobia surrounding cartoon and movie characters. We also came across Turk, the Rosie O'Donnell voiced gorilla from Tarzan, some raccoon and a very friendly bear (which must have had a small role in some Disney movie and was now doing the breakfast circuit). Jordan loved the bear, was OK with the raccoon but kept his distance from Turk.
Breakfast was delicious and we embarked on what we hoped would have been a nice quiet day at the Park with just ourselves, Mickey & Co and no queues as everyone else was supposed to be at home with their loved ones. Here we learned just how much the creations of Walt and his successors are more loved than actual blood relatives.
Apparently the gates were shut by late morning and no new tickets were issued for just one of the few times in the Park's operational history. There are no official figures released to acknowledge actual crowd numbers. I looked on a fan website which estimated that 80 000 or more was capacity but I'd probably double or triple that. In my experience of huge crowds which include the Sydney Olympics, the annual mass at Medjugore (to which half a million pilgrims arrive) and even my halcyon playing days for the mighty Queanbeyan Whites Fifth Grade rugby union side where the crowds were often eight deep (in the line outs) I would have to rate this crowds as officially massive. The crowd certainly outnumbered the staff by hundreds to one.
No matter, we still had a lovely time, we avoided the queues that were more than two hours in waiting and went back to the hotel for a rest then dinner before coming back in the evening for the much anticipated fireworks display. Unfortunately, for us, Disneyland is very stringent with setting off their fireworks in light of the recent devastating bushfires and some prevailing high winds were a slight dampener for an otherwise memorable Christmas Day 2007.
Breakfast was delicious and we embarked on what we hoped would have been a nice quiet day at the Park with just ourselves, Mickey & Co and no queues as everyone else was supposed to be at home with their loved ones. Here we learned just how much the creations of Walt and his successors are more loved than actual blood relatives.
Apparently the gates were shut by late morning and no new tickets were issued for just one of the few times in the Park's operational history. There are no official figures released to acknowledge actual crowd numbers. I looked on a fan website which estimated that 80 000 or more was capacity but I'd probably double or triple that. In my experience of huge crowds which include the Sydney Olympics, the annual mass at Medjugore (to which half a million pilgrims arrive) and even my halcyon playing days for the mighty Queanbeyan Whites Fifth Grade rugby union side where the crowds were often eight deep (in the line outs) I would have to rate this crowds as officially massive. The crowd certainly outnumbered the staff by hundreds to one.
No matter, we still had a lovely time, we avoided the queues that were more than two hours in waiting and went back to the hotel for a rest then dinner before coming back in the evening for the much anticipated fireworks display. Unfortunately, for us, Disneyland is very stringent with setting off their fireworks in light of the recent devastating bushfires and some prevailing high winds were a slight dampener for an otherwise memorable Christmas Day 2007.
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