Disneyland Diamond Celebration: A look back to opening day of the 60th Anniversary

A year ago, Disneyland launched the Diamond Celebration which celebrated Disneyland's 60th Anniversary. Like the 50th anniversary before it, it was given a theme and several new offerings. The major ones were 3 new shows. To celebrate the launch, the Disneyland Resort had both theme parks open for 24 hours on May 22nd operating from 6am-6am the following day.

While I had a lot of fun, i can't say the same for the thousands that came late only to find out that Disneyland Park was closed due to being full. Mouseplanet detailed the event from beginning to end and it all started around lunchtime. Below is a timeline of what happened outside Disneyland's gates, mixed with my experiences.

Before May 22nd: The Resort says they're ready for a busy day and have everything prepared to deal with overcrowding. However, the statement would prove to be wrong.


Morning of May 22nd: Cast Members at the gates inform Annual Passholders that they don't need handstamps and they don't anticipate the park to hit capacity (They were dead wrong.). I arrive at Downtown Disney around 8-8:30am being dropped off. No trouble getting into the theme parks.

Lunchtime: Park-hopped to Disneyland park which was perfect timing as the gates to Disneyland closed to new admission roughly 2 hours after I enter the park. At the moment of closure it was only a "Level 3" Closure. Re-Entries were still allowed. This closure level is sometimes reached during Christmas Season.

Mid-Late Afternoon: Park reaches "Level 4" Closure which means that the gates are closed to everyone regardless of re-entry status. This is an extremely rare occurrence. Guests leaving Disneyland are warned that they might not be able to reenter Disneyland for the remainder of the evening and the warning continued until later.

Early Evening: Viewing for the first Paint the Night is long full as guests camped out since the park opened. Magical Map concludes performances of the day after its late performance time past 7pm causing guests (including myself) to pour into the already full parade route. First Paint and Disneyland Forever play without trouble.

Late Evening: Parkhopped to Disney California Adventure and upon entering DCA, encounter a horde of restless people wanting to get into Disneyland but because they're still Level 4, aren't allowing them to reenter.

2am (May 23rd): Keeping an eye on Twitter, learned the park reopened its gates to everyone. The park was mostly empty due to a big number leaving after fireworks. A sizable crowd reportedly waited for the 1am Paint the Night which justified Disney reopening the gates AFTER the 2nd Paint the Night was done as that parade started at Main Street USA.

3am: The after midnight World of Color Celebrate performs and upon conclusion, people either begin leaving or park hop to Disneyland.

4am: Re-entered Disneyland with no trouble.

To summarize this: I only saw the good parts of the entire day and not the bad ones. And looking back, I'm glad I didn't.