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disneydrmr
10-22-2007, 10:03 AM
Are the fires burning in Southern California affecting air quality at Disneyland? We'll be flying into John Wayne - will we be affected by them with our flight in? Hopefully they will be put out before we arrive on Nov. 1, but just want to know the possiblities...

tamquilts
10-24-2007, 04:02 PM
The fires are already coming under control. The air quality is poor right now, but it should be fine by Nov 1.

BrerGnat
10-24-2007, 10:45 PM
I am at DL right now. The air quality is pretty good here. We live in Irvine (site of one of the fires, and our place is downwind of the smoke, so it was BAD even inside our house on Monday and Tuesday). We were glad to escape for a few nights, even if it's just to breathe fresh air inside the hotel! We will be here 2 more nights, staying at GCH. The air INSIDE the hotel is great! The air outside has a faint smell of smoke, and there is a smoke haze obstructing what would be a clear blue sky, but it's not bad at all. It certainly doesn't burn your throat and nose like it was doing when we left home.

I would estimate that by Nov. 1, it should be pretty good, unless more fires break out.

What's bad right now is the HEAT and the smoke is sort of exacerbating the problem, so it feels a lot like Orlando in July here right now.

Also, the pools at the hotels are not open 100%, due to all the ash, they are closing them frequently to clean. The kiddie pool and both slides at the GCH pool were closed today. All the pools were closed yesterday.

tinkwest
10-25-2007, 10:43 AM
Thanks for the on the scene report Natalie.

disneydrmr
10-25-2007, 02:31 PM
Thanks Natalie! Have another 'fire' related question - I'm assuming they aren't having fireworks at night due to the dryness and conditions.. am I assuming correct? And would that include Fantasmic? And when you were talking about ash - is it really bad? Can you still eat outside? Or should we plan to do meals at places we can eat indoors? I agree with what you said about how thing could be (and hopefully will be for the sake of all in California) better by Nov. 1, but I like to have back up plans...

tamquilts
10-26-2007, 01:23 PM
I'm happy to hear the air is ok up there. Since school is cancelled all week in San Diego County, I'm going to bring my daugther up to the Happiest Place on Earth today.:thumbsup:

BklynChick
10-26-2007, 11:10 PM
Wow...on my last trip to DL in 2003, I left on a Friday and huge wildfires started that weekend. Fast forward to this year...we left Anaheim last Saturday, and again, I just escaped the wildfires. And to think, I was complaining earlier in the week about the cooler weather...

Sending prayers and pixie dust to those affected by the fires, and to the brave firefighters putting their own lives on the line.

BrerGnat
10-29-2007, 01:36 AM
Diane:
We were there on Tues-Thurs nights, and there were no fireworks/Fantasmic scheduled as usual for the slow months. They were going to resume fireworks on Friday night, though, as well as Fantasmic. The only thing that cancels the fireworks is heavy rain or sustained winds in excess of about 15mph. The winds have died down, and there isn't a major rainstorm predicted for this week, so the fireworks should go on as scheduled on Friday-Sunday nights.

There isn't ash blowing around at DLR. There was some back home in Irvine (about 15 miles south of Anaheim) when we got home 2 days ago, but it's tapered off. We didn't encounter any ash during our visit, but it was too HOT to eat outside. The warm temps are going to continue this week, although it won't be as bad as last week. Highs in Anaheim are forecast for the upper 70's-mid 80's. Just know that the weather forecast for Anaheim is usually off by about 5 degrees when it comes to Disneyland. Somehow, it's always about 5 degrees hotter at DLR than in the surrounding city. I'm sure that's due to the enclosed nature of the park and all the people/facilities operating in a small space.

If you eat outside, just try to sit in the shade. Some good "outdoor" eateries on warm days are the Hungry Bear Restaurant, French Market, Plaza Inn, Redd Rocket's Pizza Port, and Taste Pilot's Grill and Pizza Oom Mow Mow(DCA), as the outdoor seating at these is mainly shaded.

You should not encounter any problems landing at John Wayne airport. In the first day after the Santiago Canyon fire, SNA closed for a few hours to arriving flights because the flights come in from the east, and they need to have a 5 mile visibility to the runway, and the smoke obscured the visibility, but it's not bad anymore and I have not heard that the airport closed since last Monday, so it should be all good. In the event that they DO close the airport to arriving flights, you'd most likely be rerouted to either Long Beach, LAX, Burbank, or Ontario, and none of those is too far from DLR to be much of an inconvenience.

Disneyglamour
10-30-2007, 11:32 AM
Any more reports on the fires? Are they clearing out? I leave Sunday from SC to CA and I was just wondering.

BrerGnat
10-30-2007, 12:48 PM
All is pretty good in Orange County (in the Anaheim area, at least).

The winds began coming in from the sea (west to east) yesterday and so the smoke began blowing to the east for the first time yesterday. The clean air coming in from the west feels (and smells) good! :)

The Santiago/Silverado Canyon fire (the one causing the most problem for the Orange County area) is over 50% contained and the air quality has increased tenfold from this time last week.

If you are visiting So. Cal soon and are headed towards San Diego, you may find worse conditions down there as there are several fires still actively burning in San Diego county.

All of you headed into DLR in the next couple weeks should have a great visit and should not even notice any impact from the fires.

Temps have cooled down as well, so that's always good news for firefighting.