Credit: DLP Report (both photis)Guests were being denied entry into one popular Disney park, leaving hundreds piled up at the entrance waiting to gain entry.
At Disneyland Paris, things have been going awry as of late. Disneyland Paris, also known as Euro Disney, has been suffering from a few issues.
Recent audio announcements advising guests to delay their visit to Walt Disney Studios Park until later in the day are not isolated incidents. Last summer, the resort faced similar issues, leading to restricted guest access during peak hours. This recurring theme of capacity constraints highlights the need for proactive measures to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for all visitors.
The reopening of the extensively refurbished Disneyland Hotel has further exacerbated these capacity issues. An influx of visitors eager to explore the revamped hotel exceeded initial expectations, creating logistical hurdles. Even paying guests encountered difficulties gaining entry, underscoring the need for improved crowd control strategies within the hotel itself.
Additionally, the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Olympics adds another layer of complexity. With 326,000 tickets allocated for the opening ceremony, security concerns may limit opportunities for tourists to witness the event. This influx of visitors to the city further strains resources and necessitates effective crowd management across Paris, including Disneyland Paris.
The coming weeks may present ongoing challenges for Disneyland Paris. Enhanced communication with visitors is crucial, providing clear information about park capacity and alternative attractions or activities during peak periods. This could involve digital signage updates, mobile app notifications, and improved communication with guest services staff.
There has also been an uptick in COVID-19 cases, prompting the Tour de France to implement mandated mask policies. Some are wondering if other areas of France, including Disneyland Paris, will adopt similar safety measures.
Adding to the challenges, much of Disney Village is currently undergoing a major construction transformation, resulting in less-than-magical construction walls around the resort.
Additionally, a heat wave has also shut down the Princess Pavilion, which is the spot in Disneyland Paris where guests can go to meet their favorite princesses. The heat wave seems to have come from the building overheating without proper functioning air conditioning.
In order to not remove the princesses entirely, Disney has let them outside the Princess Pavilion, which still poses an issue as the heat cannot escape. The space is naturally small and poorly ventilated., which adds to the issue of overheating.
Disneyland Paris has also shut down Studio 1 for the next year as Walt Disney Studios Park changes over to Disney Adventure World, where the theming of the park will go from the making of a movie, to the stories and adventures that a move entails. Studio 1 serves as the main entrance into the park, but due to its year-long refurbishment, it has become unusable, including the shutdown of multiple dining and shopping locations.
Disney has even warned guests that if they are dealing with a more “economical” budget while at Walt Disney Studios Park, that they should actually think about leaving the park entirely due to the lack of quick service options with the closure.
DLP Report has recently shared that earlier this week, the turnstiles at the park were not working, forcing the entry machines to reject any and all guests. Cast members were then forced to manually enter all tickets, causing a massive delay for guests.
“🔧 A good ol’ turnstile system outage to start this Friday. Be nice to the ticketing Cast Members processing entry manually!”
🔧 A good ol’ turnstile system outage to start this Friday. Be nice to the ticketing Cast Members processing entry manually! pic.twitter.com/xmZqvGlsqj
— DLP Report (@DLPReport) July 19, 2024
In the early hours of Friday, companies in Australia running Microsoft’s Windows operating system started reporting devices showing Blue Screens of Death (BSODs).
Shortly after, reports of disruptions started flooding in from around the world, including from the UK, India, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US: TV station Sky News went offline, and US airlines United, Delta, and American Airlines issued a “global ground stop” on all flights.
The widespread Windows outages have been linked to a software update from cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike. It is believed the issues are not linked to a malicious cyberattack, cybersecurity officials say, but rather stem from a misconfigured/corrupted update that CrowdStrike pushed out to its customers.
“Earlier today, a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of IT systems globally,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement. “We are actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.”
This is what seemingly also triggered the issues at Disneyland Paris.
Engineers from CrowdStrike posted to the company’s Reddit forum that it has seen “widespread reports of BSODs on Windows hosts” occurring across its software, is working on the problem, and has advised a workaround for impacted systems. It also issued instructions to its customers in an advisory.
The incident has only impacted devices running Windows and not other operating systems. It’s unclear exactly how widespread the issues are and how long they will take to resolve.
Hours after the issues started to emerge, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued a statement about the outages, saying the company has found a “defect” in an update for Windows that it issued. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz said. “The issue has been identified and isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”
In the statement, Kurtz confirmed that Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted by the update and said that its customers should refer to its support portal. He later apologized for the incident during a television interview.
At the same time as the CrowdStrike issues emerged, Microsoft was also dealing with its own, apparently unrelated, outage of its Azure cloud services. The company says the two incidents are not linked.
Now, the turnstiles seem to thankfully be fully functioning again, reducing the once lengthy wait to enter the theme park.
What is one thing you would like to change about the Disney parks?