Just came back from celebrating my birthday at Disneyland on Tuesday. Luckily, my 14-year old had the day off from school for a "staff development" day and I took the day off.
Wow! Was it ever quiet. The park hours were limited (10am-8pm at Disneyland, and 10-6 at California Adventure), but there were no lines at all. We could get off a ride and get right back on. We always make sure we are there standing right outside the gate at opening time, but this time it didn't even matter. We had ridden all our favorites at least 2 or 3 times (Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Buzz Lightyear, Indiana Jones, Spash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain) by noon. After that we just bummed around and did the rides we normally never do. The only lines we saw all day were at Pirates of the Caribbean and in the kiddie section, although Dumbo had no line (never seen that before!). There were long lines for the princesses and characters, however, seems like there are lots of folks with young kids there mid-week. Our longest line was Peter Pan (20 minute wait for a 1-minute ride) and we noticed that almost every group in line had 1-person also wearing their huge "Happy Birthday" button they give you when you get your tickets. So, I guess the park would have been even emptier without the birthday people!
I was chatting with one of the park employees and they said that January is always a quiet month -- good time to come on a weekday. I think we rode every ride that was open (Haunted Mansion & Its a Small World were closed to take down the Christmas decorations), and we were done with the park by about 5pm and headed home.
But the BEST NEWS of the day was this. My ticket was free, but I had to pay $69 for my daughter's admission. Well, when we went to the ticket booth, she got a two-fer because we are Southern California residents. What I didn't expect was that they gave me a two-fer ticket, as well. So, we can come back a 2nd time for FREE, but it has to be within 30-days, and the ticket can only be used for the other park. In our case, Disney California Adventure, but that's fine. Luckily for us, we've got a couple of holidays coming up, or we could use the tickets on the weekend, (although we'd have to endure the long weekend lines). I was just surprised they gave me a ticket that allows me to come back a 2nd time for free -- since obviously the 2nd trip won't be on my birthday. THAT was the nicest birthday surprise of all!
--- Rene McDaniel
