Tickets for Disneyland theme parks in California went on sale today, and fans are clearly eager to revisit the magic after more than a year.
Some may have to wait a little longer than expected, however.
Social media was flooded this afternoon by messages from would-be parkgoers who say they’ve been waiting hours to purchase tickets. Visitors to the landing page are greeted with a message asking them not to refresh the page or click the back button. Rather, they are asked to stay put and wait in a virtual queue.
“Due to high demand, this is taking longer than expected,” the message reads. “We have a lot of Guests accessing our system, so you are now in a waiting room to plan your park visit.”
Some frustrated Disney fans said on Twitter that they waited and waited in the queue only to be booted out. Apparently, the website has been so inundated with traffic that it’s unable to even approximate wait times in many cases—it just says “recalculating.”
Reached for comment, a Disney spokesperson reiterated that the site was seeing a flood of visitors. “Our website is experiencing high demand,” the spokesperson said. “We’re working through the queue as quickly as possible.”
Disney’s U.S. theme parks closed in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic began to spread. Disneyland and Disneyland California Adventure have announced that they will reopen to California residents on April 30 in accordance with current guidance from health officials. Capacity will be limited upon reopening.