bats day in the park/advice!

[ness2010]

hi everyone,
we had been planning on spending the 7th may in the parks for my sons birthday when we are over there from 2-10th may but i'm wondering now whether to avoid it as i noticed there is something called Bats day in the park on 6-8th may and it says they are expecting 5000 people to attend. We have the city pass so could probably do another park and do the disney things during the week but i really wanted some advice if anyone can give me some?? thanks heaps i obviously want to get as much out of our time there as we can
xx

[samlil]

We too would like to know all about this Bats Day as we will be visiting the same time.

Mainly want to know approx crowd numbers and just how scary will these people be?

SOMEONE PLEASE ANSWER.......

[HoJo Elf]

HoJo Elf has been sleuthing!

It appears the Bats Day weekend is a three-day event with all activities being held at one hotel at the Anaheim/Garden Grove border, which is pretty far from the HoJo. They have one "official" day on their schedule to go into Disneyland which is Sunday, May 8th (although I'm sure they will trickle in on the Friday and Saturday a bit).

I wouldn't worry about this group being large or in any way scary. The size is fairly small in caparison to what the parks can handle. They are HUGE Disney fans who also like the spooky/Goth look so it should be rather fun trying to spot the Bats Day participants in the crowd! There are "Meets" like this all the time throughout the year. These Meets are composed of various groups of Disney fans with similar interests.

Traditionally the weekends are always busier at the parks because that's when all the locals and Annual Pass Holders add to the numbers of those from out of town. I would stick to the Friday to go into the parks and hit the busy attractions first thing, (as you will get a few local folks trickling in late in the day and in the evening).

Hope that helps! Have a magical day!

[ness2010]

thanks for the advice, i think the thing now is to wait for the calander to come out and tell me when world of coloour is on while we are ather and maybe fantasmic and work our days at the parks around those. I didnt think they would all be in the park at once but from what i had read they said they expected over 5000 people so after spending 18 hours in the plane to get there extra time in lines probably isn't high on the prority list.

[Darkbeer]

Here is a link to the Bats Day website, that describes the event in detail.

http://www.batsday.net/

Here are some photos I took a few years ago.

http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/Theme-Parks ... 5452_X5FHt

Interesting to note the history of Bats Day, it started with a group of Knott's Halloween Haunt employees as a chance to get together before the popular event has them working long days. They originally picked on of the last Sundays in August, but they moved it to May, mainly to have cooler weather and they picked early May as it is a slow time in the parks.

In the park, you will see them meet in front of the castle for a picture, and then do a group ride on the Haunted Mansion in the evening. They tend to not have too much impact on the park, as much of the time they are just sitting and chatting, and not going on too many rides. (Most of them are local and have Annual Passes, so they don't feel the need to stand in lines a lot.

As for World of Color, you should be able to see it nightly during your stay. It has been running 7 days a week, and I have heard of no plans to stop offering it, as it is still very popular, and doesn't require that much labor to operate. There are a few days, mainly Thursday, when World of Color won't be offered due to special Grad Nite parties. (May 12th, May 19th, May 26th, June 2nd, June 8th, June 9th and June 16th.)

Fantasmic! and fireworks should be offered on weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Of course, everything at Disney is always subject to change at any time.