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26 June, 2007

Get Me OUT of Here!

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Get a picture of a crowd or crowded event. Conventions, weddings, parties in cramped spaces -- you know, anywhere there's lots of folks doing something.

Nothing I could possibly go and take a picture of right now could top these two pictures from my photo album. I thought they had been taken on Thanksgiving, but the back clearly notes the date as December 27, 1996.

The place: Magic Kingdom (intersection of Main Street U.S.A. and Town Square)

The time: Around 3:30 (just after the 3:00 parade)

My mental state: Crazed! (Jamie no likey crowds)

This crowd was so amazing to me that I actually took two pictures - which in the days before the digital camera says something! The first picture was taken up Main Street (you can make out Cinderella Castle all decked out "pepto palace" style for the WDW 25th Anniversary celebration), and the second was taken into Town Square.

This was taken two years before the opening of Animal Kingdom, so I would guess there were over 60,000 people in the park that day. And I would also guess that most of them had stopped somewhere along the parade route to see the Christmas Parade. Now that I live down here, I avoid the parks when they get this crowded. My litmus test: if the line for Haunted Mansion is more than 30 minutes, I'm not staying.

Still, that was quite an experience. And I'm glad to have a) been there to take these pictures, and b) lived to tell the tale!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a too small world after all!

Janette said...

The most crowded I've ever seen the park was September 14, 1991. I just checked the commemorative poster and park tickets in the scrapbook and that was the date of the "last" Mainstreet Electrical Parade. What misery!

Janette no likey crowds either.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

The worst crowd we ever had to deal with at DL was December 31, 1999 for obvious reasons. I think John honestly thought at one point he was going to be crushed to death! (Nah, he lived.) The second worst was last year, when a charity walkathon in the Park and Gay Days were the same day. I don't actually mind crowds all that much, but for John it's torture, and when John is unhappy, I'm unhappy!