After Disneyland’s Big Day, Parade of Visitors Diminishes

Attendance at Disneyland returned to normal Sunday, a day after the theme park was forced to shut its doors for more than four hours because of a crowd overflow.

Disneyland does not release attendance figures, but park publicist Casi Smith said crowds “were down significantly.”

“Nothing compared” to Saturday, she said.

On Sunday, visitors had to wait only a couple of minutes in traffic on roads around the park and no more than 10 minutes to enter the parking lot, she said.

It was a combination of word getting out about the crowds and Sunday just being a lower attendance day, Smith said.

Droves of people swamped the park Saturday to see one of the last performances of Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade, which ends next month after a 24-year run. The 15,000-space parking lot filled up, and traffic clogged roads to the park.

In response, park officials stopped selling tickets from 2:15 to 6:30 p.m. It was only the second time in the park’s 41-year history that admission booths stopped selling tickets because of overcrowding.

The Electrical Parade was scheduled to end Oct. 15. But because of the overwhelming response, park officials have granted a reprise run from Nov. 1 through Nov. 25.

The parade runs at 7:45 and 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8:30 and 10:45 p.m. on weekends.

“We still advise people to come during the week if at all possible instead of next weekend,” Smith said. “And the earlier the better during the day.”