In July we spent two weeks in Southern California and visited Disneyland, California Adventure and Universal Studios in Burbank. I was in Pasadena for classes at Fuller Theological Seminary, and took the opportunity to squeeze in some vacation time.
We did two days at the Disney parks, and enjoyed it a lot. Universal was offering a buy-a-day/get-a-second-day-free promo, so we bought those tickets and spent one day at Universal. On our last night in Pasadena, after classes were completed, we planned to celebrate with a big evening at Universal, using our second day tickets. Classes ended after 5 PM, I walked to the Fuller Guest House, joined the family for a quick bite, and then we drive to Burbank, arriving at about 7:00 PM. As we walked through City Walk on the way to the Universal Gates, we took our time, looked in the shops and enjoyed the experience. We got to the entrance of Universal about 7:40 and noticed that a lot of people were leaving. After we entered, we saw a sign that said the park closed at 8:00 PM nightly. Yes, you heard me right: eight o’clock on a July Friday evening, a major amusement park closes. Ridiculous. There were thousands of people there for an enjoyable night out at the park and they close at 8. NOWHERE on the 2 day pass were the hours posted. We wandered around for a few minutes and asked some employees about the closing time, and they said, “Yes, that was the time… but the shops and restaurants would remain open until 10.” In other words, the attractions covered in the ticket price were unavailable, but the additional-revenue-generating money-makers remained upon. We joined the massive crowds moving toward the exits and found ourselves packed into a huge mob of several thousand people bunched up at the gate area. No announcements, no smiling employees, and every gate we could see was locked. After 20 minutes of an increasingly agitated crowd pushing, shoving and getting vocal in several languages, the happy amusement park music was interrupted by an announcement. We were informed that a 10 year old boy, we’ll call him “Ernesto Hernandez,” had become separated from his family, and security precautions were in place. They had opened ONE (of perhaps 20) gates and were letting people exit the turnstiles one at a time, surrounded by about 12 alert employees. It took about another half hour to move the final 50 feet and exit the park. Note to Universal Studios Security department: Since you knew the missing child was a 10-year-old Hispanic male, let me gently suggest you might have opened a few gates to allow people with no young children, people who were with only females, and pretty much everyone who didn’t look like they had a 10-year-old Hispanic male in hand to exit. You could take some lessons on how to handle and move crowds from the good people of Disney. Or even the people of WalMart. (And how about keeping the park open at least past 10-year-old Ernesto Hernandez’s bedtime, would you?)