Empty Disneyland is your land.
Empty Disneyland is your land.
As much as I adore the craziness of Disneyland on any given day, I’ve been making it a project whenever I visit to take at least one or two pictures of the park that don’t have anyone else in them. Given the crowds that are usually absolutely everywhere in Disneyland, this certainly hasn’t been any easy task. But it’s been fun, which is more than enough reason to do absolutely anything. I’ve managed to gather a few hundred of these creepy yet somehow still warm and welcoming photos over the last few years, and it’s been fun finding the best times of day and the year to capture them. I've gotten more than a few weird looks from people while taking pictures of, well, nothing, but looking back, it was definitely worth it.
Much like Disneyland itself, this blog is very much a work in progress. I hope you enjoy it.
For the record, the first inspiration for this place came during an Annual Passholder event for the 20th anniversary of Indiana Jones & The Temple of the Forbidden Eye in March of 2015. We were allowed to ride the attraction until well after midnight that night, and on my way out of the park, I had a fellow Passholder take the first photo in this blog (yes, that’s me) right in the middle of Main Street. It was very surreal getting to walk right down the middle of Disneyland with next to one around, and it gave me an idea. Everyone has seen pictures of the Happiest Place On Earth jam packed with people, so why not a few while it’s empty?
Please keep in mind that this is a very homemade blog. I do not work for Disney in any regard, and I was never granted any special access to the parks or any Disney property in order to take these pictures. With the exception of a few annual CHOC Walks and the occasional after-hours Annual Passholder event, every single picture on this blog was taken during normal operating hours.
As you will undoubtedly notice, not every picture is of professional quality (all of them were taken on whatever cell phone I was using at the time), and yes, sometimes you will see someone standing off to the side or in the background of a picture. All I can really say about that is, hey, I did my best. I think the overall mood of these photos and this blog as a whole is far more important than any level of perfection anyone might want them to have, so please, just enjoy them for what they are. It is wildly more difficult to find a completely unpopulated place in Disneyland than you would ever imagine.
So here we are. Needless to say, I do not own Disneyland, and I’m just kinda keeping my fingers crossed that no one asks me to take this blog down for whatever reason. So please, feel free to share it with your friends, but not with anyone who might get me busted. No one wants to go to Disneyland jail. Except me, of course. I’m dying to see what it’s like. Especially if it’s empty.