Last month, Nic and I made one of our frequent trips to Disneyland. This was a special occasion, seeing it was Princess D’s 5th birthday. We spent the day doing appropriate Princess type activities and one thing on her birthday wish list was going to see Aladdin. So after spending half the day at Disneyland, we headed over to California Adventure.

Now don’t get me wrong, Disneyland is one of my favorite places in the world. I rarely have qualms with it and I am constantly defending it. However, our experience at California Adventure that night left a lot to be desired.

When I was there briefly at the beginning of July, I had caught a glimpse of an event Disney was holding there called Glow Fest. I didn’t know what it was then, because they only start it at dusk so I got a chance to observe it when I was there with Nic and D.

I was not impressed.

Our plan consisted of seeing the Pixar Parade then heading to Aladdin, and then back to Paradise Pier to finally see World of Color.

The Pixar Parade is a LOT of fun, but only if you have a decent seat. People are rude assholes, so the grown ups sit right in the front and usually end up standing too, blocking the view of any kids behind them. Jerks. Anyways, after that, we thought we would cut through Bug’s Land because of the convenient walkway they opened up there, connecting Bugs Land to The Hollywood Backlot. We killed almost an hour between the end of the parade and Aladdin letting D play in the water area, thinking we would be able to use that walk way.

It was closed. No signage, nothing indicating such. If you’ve ever been to this park, you know its incredibly spread out and poorly designed. It’s unfortunate how much wasted space there is but they are working to change all that. In the mean time, when you go to CA Adventure, you know you’re going to be walking a LOT. To get from Bugs Land to The Hollywood Backlot with that walkway closed, you have to go alllll the way around the park.

Needless to say, we had to hustle to make it to the show. And we had to pass through Glow Fest to do it.

If you can see the arrow, that’s where the closed walkway is located.

Ever been to a rave? Ever seen one in a movie or on TV? That’s basically what Glow Fest is. Much, much to my dismay, Disney has set up stand alone bars throughout the entire Hollywood Backlot.

In case you don’t know this, only one place in Disneyland has an permit to sell alcohol, Club 33 which includes the Blue Bayou restaurant. This is because Walt never wanted any permits with Disneyland’s address to be for a liquor license. He felt it wasn’t the place for that type of thing. Club 33 can serve because it does not share Disneyland’s address, which is why all the tiny stores in New Orleans square have address numbers and street names. Keep an eye out next time you pass through.

When the powers that be built CA Adventure, they did not honor this old fashioned wish of Walt Disney. CA Adventure not only sells alcohol in designated areas, they also have a winery. I’ve never come across people acting out because of this.

Until Glow Fest.

I was very unimpressed. People were conga dancing in the street. Grown people. Not kids. The 21-30 crowd. The teenagers. The lines to the stand alone bars that were temporarily built for this had very long lines. It was crowded and people were drunk.

That is not why I go to Disneyland. I never would have imagined seeing that kind of behavior at Disney. But I did. And I was disappointed. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Yesterday, I noticed some news coming through the Disney twitter list that Nic created for us. (You should follow it for all things Disney and park related). There had been an accident at the Tower of Terror. A young man had fallen 25 feet, over a railing in the queue, waiting to board the ride. It’s suspected that he had been drinking. One article even reported that he had said to his friends, “wouldn’t it be funny if I fell?”

Yeah, real funny asshole. His fall landed him in the hospital, he’s ok.

If it does in fact come out that he had alcohol in his system, Disney could be in a world of trouble. The kid was only 20 years old.

I hold on to the opinion that Glow Fest is a terrible idea. Adding alcohol to it just makes it even more stupid. This goes against the vision that Walt Disney had. If you know me, you know I’m not against drinking, hell I’m one half of 2 Hot Bloggers, a website dedicated to wine. But I firmly believe there is a time and a place. I’m not against CA Adventure having designated areas to drink but I am against holding watered down raves every single night.

Glow Fest has been extended too, in case you wanted to check it out.