Tens of thousands of New Year's Eve celebrants packed Disneyland on Monday night, unfazed by heightened security that included front-gate purse searchers and uniformed police officers scattered throughout the Anaheim resort area.
A few miles away, many more welcomed 2002 at First Night Fullerton, a family-oriented street fair.
At the inaugural New Year's Eve festivities for Disney's California Adventure, some guests partook of beer or a bit of bubbly.
"I don't want to see any stumbling drunks running around Disneyland, but as long as people keep their cool, it's fine," said Nick Fernando, 21, of Torrance, as he sipped an $8 glass of champagne at the Golden Vine Winery in California Adventure.
Deron McCoy, 29, of Hermosa Beach said he and his friends had visited the theme park so they could have a couple of beers with dinner. "We got some tickets at the 11th hour," he said. "We decided to come to Disneyland because everything in the L.A. area was pretty calm. We thought this would be something different."
It did seem festive as park officials handed out party hats and noisemakers that sounded like quacking ducks. Countdowns to midnight were planned at several locations in both Disney parks.
Michelle Nachum, spokeswoman for Disneyland Resort, said New Year's Eve "is the busiest time of year for us. It's a well-known fact."
Though Disney does not release attendance figures, one supervisor said projections were the same as for 2000: about 65,000 at the Magic Kingdom, with 15,000 more arriving after midnight from Disney's California Adventure. The holiday is Disneyland's latest night of the year. It closes at 3 a.m., and California Adventure closes at 1 a.m.
Nobody was turned away from either park this year, officials said. Ticket sales were halted three times between Christmas and New Year's in 2000, because of heavy crowds, but that did not happen in 2001, officials said.
All three of the resort's hotels were sold out for the night, however, and other large hotels in Anaheim reported the same situation, including the 1,572-room Anaheim Hilton and Towers and the 489-room Sheraton Anaheim.
"I thought it would be quieter, to tell you the truth," said Al Lutz, editor of the MousePlanet.com Web site, which is devoted to unofficial Disney news and advice. Disney parks in Florida seem to have been hurt more by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he said.
