That is very strange about the traffic right in front of the castle. I imagine that it might have something to do with the increase in the amount of people watching the show. You are correct that before they used to have people cross Main Street to head to Adventure/Frontier/Critter County or Tomorrowland. The last couple of times I've noticed that they have each side of Main Street delegated one way, and have everyone continue moving up toward Tomorrowland and not cross anywhere until past the hub. I always assumed that they had people go around the back and not in front of the castle, as they now doing. It looks like they aren't able to let people cross Main Street anymore because the entire street is full of people all the way back to the Emporium. That is poor planning that they have the crossing right in front of the castle, and hopefully they can change that next time.
Once again, really sorry that you had a bad experience during the fireworks, and I really hope that you can go again sometime relatively soon and be sure to watch tinkbelle and not have to deal with people cutting across.
Also, just FYI I found one of the best places to view the fireworks and not have to deal with the crowds is over to the west side of the castle, near the side entrance to Frontierland with the covered performance area (they use to have an ice cream parlor here). You're able to see about 90% of the show, and only miss a couple of low lying fireworks that shoot off on the east side of the castle, or from the very back of the park. You have a perfect view of the Matterhorn (probably the best in the park) for those segments, and you're right in the middle of some great Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones pyros. You can still hear the music perfectly, and you don't miss a beat. But the best part is that you can usually grab a chair from the band performance area and have key seating about 10 minutes before start. Out of the 6 times I've watched from here, only once were there more than 15 people in this location, so you also got a nice sense of comrarderie with strangers which you can only get at Disneyland

. I'm not sure how the change in traffic direction impacts this area, but it might be designated as a foot traffic area now, so sorry if this suggestion is out of date.
Anyway, I hope you have a better experience next time! Thanks!
