Security

There's much more going on "behind the scenes" then them simply checking bags or doing metal detectors.
Exactly as I stated earlier, the bag checks are theatrics and maybe a little hopeful that it will act as a deterrent to an angry kid, the real security keeping guest safe is much harder to spot.
 
My DH carries a pocket knife with him out of habit. He grew up on a large farm and he was taught to always carry one. On his first trip to Disneyland he forgot he had it with him, and it had the little clip sticking out of his pocket. He made it all the way into the park and into Tomorrowland before he was stopped by someone. He was so embaressed. He was escorted off property and he dropped it off in the hotel. This was just a year or two ago.
 
When we were there a few weeks ago, a guy a few people ahead of me went through with a vest that must've had about 30 pockets. For some reason, he got through the table screening but when we were directed to go through the metal detector arch thing, he set off the alarm. Then it took at least 20 minutes as he would empty a pocket, walk through, set off the alarm, and the process would repeat. It took all the security so two entire lines backed up while one guy was holding up the show. Why didn't they make him take off his vest? Why didn't they pull him aside? Why not call over another security person temporarily to deal with him? Instead, they made all of us already in the detector line wait while they used an extra security guy to redirect EVERYONE ELSE aside and through with no further security. It was ridiculous.
Only 30 pockets, this vest has 42 (the answer to the ultimate question)!
Screen Shot 2017-09-20 at 1.02.32 PM.png
This particular vest has long vertical exterior pockets, intended for concealed carry (I don't).

I have been wearing lightweight vests into the parks for the past several years, and have never been searched at the bag check. It is important to know what items need to be removed to pass through the metal detectors. Only a few items must be removed (phone, battery, sunglass case).
 


Only 30 pockets, this vest has 42 (the answer to the ultimate question)!
View attachment 271036
This particular vest has long vertical exterior pockets, intended for concealed carry (I don't).

I have been wearing lightweight vests into the parks for the past several years, and have never been searched at the bag check. It is important to know what items need to be removed to pass through the metal detectors. Only a few items must be removed (phone, battery, sunglass case).
It turned out he was carrying a lot of items that the metal detectors didn't care for, but the biggest problem turned out to be a pocket he had forgotten about on the lower back of the vest. He thought all the pockets were emptied but the wand finally found the culprit. I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't anything confiscated. However, there were any number of people a little peeved with him at that point.
 
Weird, I was there yesterday morning a bit after 8 am and had zero wait. In fact, I haven't really had to wait in line for security my whole trip. If you arrived for the 10am regular open, that may be why you had a huge wait. The DL early entry yesterday was nuts.
 
It turned out he was carrying a lot of items that the metal detectors didn't care for, but the biggest problem turned out to be a pocket he had forgotten about on the lower back of the vest. He thought all the pockets were emptied but the wand finally found the culprit. I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't anything confiscated. However, there were any number of people a little peeved with him at that point.
The key to using these type of vests is always placing items in consistent pockets. I've been wanded at DL, and discovered a button (the large free ones DL gives away) forgotten from the previous day.
 


Only 30 pockets, this vest has 42 (the answer to the ultimate question)!
View attachment 271036
This particular vest has long vertical exterior pockets, intended for concealed carry (I don't).

I have been wearing lightweight vests into the parks for the past several years, and have never been searched at the bag check. It is important to know what items need to be removed to pass through the metal detectors. Only a few items must be removed (phone, battery, sunglass case).
Sweet Hitchhiker's reference! If you can see my signature, you know I am a fan. Next two cats will be called BenjyMouse and FrankieMouse.
 
They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. No "threats," people will just see them as a nuisance. Something happens and everyone is happy they're there. I don't work for Dis nor do I work for any security detail so I don't know exactly all that goes into Disney security program but security is now a part of our lives whether we want it, need it, or like.

Keep in mind, it's not like Disney reports to you directly everytime they stop a threat nor do they share with you every memo they receive from law enforcement at the state and federal level about possible threats. Security doesn't also just stop terrorists threats. They're there to stop protests or homegrown "terrorist" threats. People seem to think that terrorist is only about a foreigner "attacking" our country. We've had some large scale attacks over the years from foreign regimes but we've also had mentally ill people that are "american" carry out attacks too. School shootings, church shooting, mall shootings, etc...

I'm not saying they're going to "catch" any and all situations such as the pocket knife example that some shared earlier nor do I know if that is their number 1 priority but having them there is better even if they stopped one instance.

When I go to disneyland, it's always with my family so I don't want to be in any situation where my family is enjoying a trip to Disneyland that is then compromised due to any kind of dangerous activity. It sucks to go through "security." It sucks to be treated like you're guilty or assumed that you're bringing something into Disneyland when you shouldn't but I'd rather have them TRY and discover and prevent any bad situations then do absolutely nothing at all. My family is worth that extra "hassle."

My point is that while the bag checks will stop that happen "inside" they are creating a huge bottle neck.
Frankly if I had had the desire to create mass causlities in any number of ways I would have been able to kill or injure hundreds possibly 1000+ (depending on what I used) from when I was standing in the pre security lines.
Now to be clear I have no such desire, the concern I am pointing out is the danger they created yesterday by under staffing the booths to create such a mass of people should to shoulder waiting to get it in
 
Now today, same entry point and only 1 minute later than we arrived yesterday, we walked straight through, now were the crowds lower because of the early closure for the part? Maybe but ride wait times were consistent with yestetday
 
You must have strolled up at a peak entrance time.
It never took me more than 2 minutes to get through security when I went for 4 days in late June/early July.
 
I think Disneyland still hasn't got the hint that this isn't the off season anymore. According to touring plans historical data, there have been more people here the past few weekends than most days in the summer!!!

When we went last week it was the busiest time we have ever been. The whole park was severely understaffed from security to ride operators to maintenance. When are they going to get a clue? Their Halloween offerings are bringing in the crowds like they wanted, but they aren't staffing appropriately. So frustrating!

You have to see it from an ecomonic and finance point of view, rather than from a customer's point of view.

If they hire more staff, that means they have to pay more (salary, benefits, insurance, etc) which leads to cutting into the profits of the executives and the shareholders.

If they hire more staff, ultimately to came profits the same, they would have to raise prices wherever they can to offset the costs of more employees.

Even temp or seasonal hires are becoming more expensive with new minimum wage laws, so much so that even Walmart is not hiring seasonal employees this year. To offset that, the regular employees are just scheduled to work more hours. Maybe DLR is doing that, but that can lead to exhausted CMs calling out sick and causing more shortages throughout.

Its a slippery slope but there's no way to avoid it.
 
What is the best time to get through security in relation to park opening? Like one hour before and one hour after or avoid the half hour each side of opening times?
 
What is the best time to get through security in relation to park opening? Like one hour before and one hour after or avoid the half hour each side of opening times?
I'd say 45 minutes before or after opening is generally fine.

Sometimes you'll still have long lines at 45 after if they were crazy backed up to begin with.
 
You have to see it from an ecomonic and finance point of view, rather than from a customer's point of view.

If they hire more staff, that means they have to pay more (salary, benefits, insurance, etc) which leads to cutting into the profits of the executives and the shareholders.

If they hire more staff, ultimately to came profits the same, they would have to raise prices wherever they can to offset the costs of more employees.

Even temp or seasonal hires are becoming more expensive with new minimum wage laws, so much so that even Walmart is not hiring seasonal employees this year. To offset that, the regular employees are just scheduled to work more hours. Maybe DLR is doing that, but that can lead to exhausted CMs calling out sick and causing more shortages throughout.

Its a slippery slope but there's no way to avoid it.

That is true if there were really less people coming in the off season or if tickets were cheaper in the off season (multi day park tickets are the same price year round). They aren't losing money right now. They are gaining ridiculous amounts compared to the summer by having greater attendance and yet cutting staff. This trend has been going on for the past couple years...it just got much worse this year.

Since there is more people as of late coming to DL than in the past summer, it would make more financial sense to cut staffing a bit next summer as the trends for attendance have been dropping and increase it during this Halloween season instead as the trends for attendance have been increasing. 2019 will just be a whole cluster with Star Wars land. I hope they aren't naive enough to think that after the summer they can cut staff down and no one will show up in the fall like they thought this year.

Having less employees work during times when they need more staffing causes just as many financial problems in the long run as having too many employees working during slower times.

And right now Disneyland is making both of those mistakes.
 
You have to see it from an ecomonic and finance point of view, rather than from a customer's point of view.

If they hire more staff, that means they have to pay more (salary, benefits, insurance, etc) which leads to cutting into the profits of the executives and the shareholders.

If they hire more staff, ultimately to came profits the same, they would have to raise prices wherever they can to offset the costs of more employees.

Even temp or seasonal hires are becoming more expensive with new minimum wage laws, so much so that even Walmart is not hiring seasonal employees this year. To offset that, the regular employees are just scheduled to work more hours. Maybe DLR is doing that, but that can lead to exhausted CMs calling out sick and causing more shortages throughout.

Its a slippery slope but there's no way to avoid it.

No more than the extra staff in summer do.
Disney needs to stop treating "off peak" guests like they are second class to the summer visitors, we pay them same ticket price
 
No more than the extra staff in summer do.
Disney needs to stop treating "off peak" guests like they are second class to the summer visitors, we pay them same ticket price

Exactly. They have less people visiting in many summer weeks (4th of July was dead), but more staff and more hours during that time. They don't seem to worry about their bottom line then.

They have just as many (if not more) people coming during Halloween and they feel it is ok to cut staff so they are stretched very thin and cut hours. I pay the exact same for my ticket and now with the crowds equalizing (no off season!) and Star Wars land coming, I'm a little worried what lies ahead.

The security lines last week were stupid long. They were rushing people through without checking as thoroughly as usual imho. Geez, at least don't skimp on the security guards.
 
They are inconsistent at best, I go quite often and the last time I went was my first time with a stroller...the whole trip they just looked at the stroller and never touched it, i actually ended up emptying my pockets and putting everything in the stroller to make it easier, I had a travel system where the car seat snaps on top of the stroller, there is so much room under the loose fitting foam/liner of the car seat I could easily fit 3 compact hand guns in there..just saying.
Except the dogs you walked past to get through security would have indicated on the guns. That's there job and I've witnessed them do it before.
 
Except the dogs you walked past to get through security would have indicated on the guns. That's there job and I've witnessed them do it before.
Inconsistency again..dogs aren't always there. Infact I will say that I've almost never seen the dogs at the bag checks (coming from the onsite hotels) and when I have seen the dogs I didn't see them checking the bags, if they were working then they are wake dogs that really only pick up on explosives in the crowd it would be VERY hard for a wake dog to pick up the scent of firearms in a crowd from far away, especially if an effort was made to mask the scent like placing them with diapers in a vacuum sealed bag.

The dogs however are the most effective part of any visible security, I say add more dogs ditch the bag check.
 
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