Crowds gather in front of Disney, police report incident

Photo credit: Patrick Nguyen on Unsplash

Guests at the Disneyland Resort reported huge crowds outside the Southern California theme park last night, with some claiming police were also on site.

Crowds are inevitable at Disney. While theme parks have tried to reduce long lines in recent years through measures like Genie+ (RIP) and its successor, Lightning Lane Multi Pass, the truth is that Disney will always be busy.

These lines can form even before you enter the park. For safety reasons, all guests must go through security before entering the Disneyland Resort (and the Walt Disney World Resort and every other Disney resort worldwide).

Last night, however, the crowds were reportedly overwhelming.

According to several Reddit users, the crowds at the Disney resort peaked around 6 p.m. This is not unusual for a Friday night, as many Disneyland locals stop by Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park and Downtown Disney at the end of the workday. What is unusual is the reported police presence.

Security check at 18:06
byu/CoasterCar in Disneyland

A Reddit user writes: “They closed the security checkpoint around 5:30pm due to an incident. Dozens [Anaheim] The police were called.”

Another confirmed this, adding: “I saw a post in a FB group (I know, not necessarily reliable) saying that there was some kind of security operation going on at the time involving the local police, which made the line extremely long.”

An hour later, the line was reportedly still pretty chaotic. One user said, “I was there tonight at 7:20pm (DTD reservation) and it took 23 minutes (from the building). It was crazy, all the way back to the white tent. I was there today at 9:30am and went right through, no wait.”

There is currently no confirmation of what happened outside of the resort's security facilities, but we will keep you updated with any updates.

In May, a new security checkpoint was installed at the Disneyland Resort near the Simba parking lot. This entrance replaced the previous one opposite the Disneyland Hotel.

We've seen queues at Disney spiral out of control several times. Earlier this year, security was called at Shanghai Disneyland after a line for new Duffy and Friends merchandise lasted a whopping eight hours. Some guests reportedly fainted in the chaos.

In recent years, both Disneyland and Disney World have increasingly relied on virtual queues to shorten lines as much as possible. These are used for new rides (such as TRON Lightcycle/Run, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the latter two of which still use them) and for occasional merchandise drops, such as on May 4 (also known as Star Wars Day).

Disneyland Park will also likely use a virtual queue for Tiana's Bayou Adventure when it premieres in November. Currently, guests must also secure a virtual queue to ride the Halloween and Christmas overlay of Haunted Mansion, known as Haunted Mansion Holiday.

What was the longest line you ever waited in at Disney?