Disney should never close Magic Kingdom at the same time as the fireworks

[Tom Morrow]

We all know that getting to and leaving Magic Kingdom is a hassle, and leaving after park close is often a headache. When they put the park a mile and a half from the parking lot and put a lagoon in between, they never imagined they'd be having to move the volume of guests that they see today.

However, when the fireworks are at least an hour before the park closing time, it is typically manageable. This is because many people in the park are waiting around just for the fireworks and leave right after. However, there are always many more in the park that will try to get as many experiences as they can in up until the park closes. So when there's at least an hour buffer between the fireworks closing and the park closing, there is far less of a mass exodus of the park.

When the fireworks happen at the same time the park closes, it is always absolute insanity trying to leave Magic Kingdom.

Last night it took me 90 minutes to get to my car. Park closed at 10:00. I got my last ride in at 10:05, got to the hub around 10:15, did not get back to my car until 11:45. But the kicker was that the park wasn't even busy - nearly everything was a walk-on for the last two hours!

Disney can try to keep adding more buses, more ferries, etc. The number one thing that would alleviate situations like this is to always have the park close at least an hour after the fireworks. I understand that for much of the year, the fireworks can't even happen until 9 PM because of when the sun sets. I get it, but whatever money they would lose by keeping the park open an extra hour or two on those days is worth it to avoid making everyone go through that. And let's face it, this is Magic Kingdom, let's not pretend like 11 PM closings are unreasonable.

I also understand that Disney Starlight also has to be factored in. Last night, sunset was at 8:08 PM. Starlight was at 9 PM, fireworks were at 10 PM, same as park close. Ideally, the park would have closed at 11:00, but also Starlight could have been at 8:30, fireworks at 9:30, park close at 10:30, etc.

I'm posting this because I want it to spread so more people are vocal about it, because it seems like the execs making these schedules don't have a clue. No matter how great your day at Magic Kingdom was, 90 minutes of waiting just to get back to your car will damper your day no matter what.

 

[Purduevian]

Just looked at my google timeline from Sunday April 26th which had 10pm fireworks and park close. It says I started driving at 11:27pm. I was far from the back of the Ferry line, but it seems like it was about 1 hour from the end of the fireworks to my car.

Just curious... did you take the monorail or ferry?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

You’re not wrong - the night parades and fireworks should be staggered to create multiple waves of departing guests.

During the 60th it was fun watching the absolute masterclass of coordinating large crowds with 2 Fantasmics, 2 paint the nights and DL Forever.

 

[mattpeto]

You’re not wrong - the night parades and fireworks should be staggered to create multiple waves of departing guests.

During the 60th it was fun watching the absolute masterclass of coordinating large crowds with 2 Fantasmics, 2 paint the nights and DL Forever.

This is a major reason why I think Disneyland is a much superior park than Magic Kingdom. Plenty of nighttime options, viewpoints, spread the crowds nicely. They just know how to manage crowds better.

Villains Land can be stunning and create two D/E-tickets we all love, but if it doesn't do something specific to help operations for the rest of the park, it's going to be wasted potential.

Crowding around to watch HEA around the hub is already a mess. They better get it right.

 

[Br0ckford]

I just stay till they hose me off Main Street

 

[Tom Morrow]

Just looked at my google timeline from Sunday April 26th which had 10pm fireworks and park close. It says I started driving at 11:27pm. I was far from the back of the Ferry line, but it seems like it was about 1 hour from the end of the fireworks to my car.

Just curious... did you take the monorail or ferry?

The crowd from the hub all the way to the park exit gate and beyond was so dense that I couldn’t even tell what I was lining up for. Eventually I started being shifted toward the ferry boat line and just went with it.

I know the monorail is typically faster, but I legitimately couldn’t tell where to even line up for it. It was horrible.

I would say I waited about an hour between stepping through the park exit gate and stepping off the ferry at TTC.

Reviewing my phone data from last night:

10:10 - exited BTMRR.
10:20 - finished watching HEA from Frontierland.
10:25 - arrived at hub to mass crowd that extended all the way down Main Street.
10:40 - exited through park gate and ended up in ferry line. The crowd was so dense that it took 15 minutes just to get from the hub
11:40 - stepped off ferry at TTC.
11:55 - got to car.

So just about 90 minutes from trying to leave the park to getting to my car.

Now, I want to emphasize that this was not a busy day by any means, and if this were peak season I would have anticipated this. But this was a light-medium day. This is a failure of crowd control by Disney.

 

[Purduevian]

The crowd from the hub all the way to the park exit gate and beyond was so dense that I couldn’t even tell what I was lining up for. Eventually I started being shifted toward the ferry boat line and just went with it.

I know the monorail is typically faster, but I legitimately couldn’t tell where to even line up for it. It was horrible.

I would say I waited about an hour between stepping through the park exit gate and stepping off the ferry at TTC.

Reviewing my phone data from last night:

10:10 - exited BTMRR.
10:20 - finished watching HEA from Frontierland.
10:25 - arrived at hub to mass crowd that extended all the way down Main Street.
10:40 - exited through park gate and ended up in ferry line. The crowd was so dense that it took 15 minutes just to get from the hub
11:40 - stepped off ferry at TTC.
11:55 - got to car.

So just about 90 minutes from trying to leave the park to getting to my car.

Now, I want to emphasize that this was not a busy day by any means, and if this were peak season I would have anticipated this. But this was a light-medium day. This is a failure of crowd control by Disney.

Oh yeah my hour trip started at the hub near the partner statue... someone in my party had to use the city hall restrooms and I watched thousands of people pass us and get in line for transportation... im guessing it would have been less than 45 without that pit stop

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I had a similar issue last night at Disneyland.

I am staying near the convention center, so I take the busses to Toy Story lot and walk across.

Paint the Night ended on Main Street around the time the park closed.

I think it took 30 minutes to get the bus. With buses continually running. Like back to back. Usually I wait maybe 5-10 minutes end of the night. And that was with them loading buses at three different points.

Toy Story is apparently one of the better lots for entry/exit...I don't wanna know what the garages were like. My thought while waiting was "boy this is like waiting for a bus at MK after fireworks."

Disney apparently can't figure this out on either coast, smh. Tonight was much better.

 

[dmc493]

I had a similar issue last night at Disneyland.

I am staying near the convention center, so I take the busses to Toy Story lot and walk across.

Paint the Night ended on Main Street around the time the park closed.

I think it took 30 minutes to get the bus. With buses continually running. Like back to back. Usually I wait maybe 5-10 minutes end of the night. And that was with them loading buses at three different points.

Toy Story is apparently one of the better lots for entry/exit...I don't wanna know what the garages were like. My thought while waiting was "boy this is like waiting for a bus at MK after fireworks."

Disney apparently can't figure this out on either coast, smh. Tonight was much better.

I'd very much agree, while I think MK wins out for worst distance and time, I've also had several brutal evenings in DL trying to escape main street and the esplanade

 

[Goofyernmost]

We all know that getting to and leaving Magic Kingdom is a hassle, and leaving after park close is often a headache. When they put the park a mile and a half from the parking lot and put a lagoon in between, they never imagined they'd be having to move the volume of guests that they see today.

However, when the fireworks are at least an hour before the park closing time, it is typically manageable. This is because many people in the park are waiting around just for the fireworks and leave right after. However, there are always many more in the park that will try to get as many experiences as they can in up until the park closes. So when there's at least an hour buffer between the fireworks closing and the park closing, there is far less of a mass exodus of the park.

When the fireworks happen at the same time the park closes, it is always absolute insanity trying to leave Magic Kingdom.

Last night it took me 90 minutes to get to my car. Park closed at 10:00. I got my last ride in at 10:05, got to the hub around 10:15, did not get back to my car until 11:45. But the kicker was that the park wasn't even busy - nearly everything was a walk-on for the last two hours!

Disney can try to keep adding more buses, more ferries, etc. The number one thing that would alleviate situations like this is to always have the park close at least an hour after the fireworks. I understand that for much of the year, the fireworks can't even happen until 9 PM because of when the sun sets. I get it, but whatever money they would lose by keeping the park open an extra hour or two on those days is worth it to avoid making everyone go through that. And let's face it, this is Magic Kingdom, let's not pretend like 11 PM closings are unreasonable.

I also understand that Disney Starlight also has to be factored in. Last night, sunset was at 8:08 PM. Starlight was at 9 PM, fireworks were at 10 PM, same as park close. Ideally, the park would have closed at 11:00, but also Starlight could have been at 8:30, fireworks at 9:30, park close at 10:30, etc.

I'm posting this because I want it to spread so more people are vocal about it, because it seems like the execs making these schedules don't have a clue. No matter how great your day at Magic Kingdom was, 90 minutes of waiting just to get back to your car will damper your day no matter what.

I doubt that there are more people needing to go across the lagoon then they once did. I do, however, know that in the last 20 years thousands of rooms have become available onsite and MK either uses the resort monorail or buses to get them out of MK. Going back on the monorail has never been a thing for me and often times I was out of WDW and into my offsite hotel room long before many people had even got on the bus to a non-MK resort. Up until 2019 I went to WDW 48 times and always took the ferry back. I never found it to be a hassle to get to my car and on my way. I might even add that I had been there at times when the crowd was quite big, but the huge crowds are still confined to certain times or special occasions.

Also closing the park is a relative term. They have always allowed an hour or more for people to leave after closing. If they didn't officially close the park earlier they might spend the whole night. Paying even minimum wage can add up to a whole lot of extra costs. Don't get me wrong I think Disney can afford it but I am more concerned about the CM's that don't live in the park and can't even afford to live near the park and have to drive home exhausted after a long day of listening the constant beaching and want to go home and get some sleep. We are on vacation, they are not. If people could look up the meaning of the word CLOSED they might not have had to take that action but getting that extra hour wandering through the gift shops have created a traffic jam of people just lagging behind. Also the sooner the guests get out the sooner overnight maintenance can begin in a sometimes futile effort to keep everything running smoothly.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Oh yeah my hour trip started at the hub near the partner statue... someone in my party had to use the city hall restrooms and I watched thousands of people pass us and get in line for transportation... im guessing it would have been less than 45 without that pit stop

One cannot start counting until the entire "party" actually starts to head for the exit or one takes into account whatever voluntary downtime that happens.

 

[castlecake2.0]

One July 4th they were doing $1 sodas, soft serves, and popcorns from fireworks-close to help keep people in the park longer and ease transportation demand. It would help if they brought back a final projection show/kiss goodnight etc to stagger crowds. I do think this week was not the norm with only one starlight, it’s usually parade/fireworks/parade to help with this problem.

 

[Br0ckford]

One July 4th they were doing $1 sodas, soft serves, and popcorns from fireworks-close to help keep people in the park longer and ease transportation demand. It would help if they brought back a final projection show/kiss goodnight etc to stagger crowds. I do think this week was not the norm with only one starlight, it’s usually parade/fireworks/parade to help with this problem.

Right..just hang back. It might take longer, but you're not in the crowd. It's like traffic.....sit in the jam or take the long way but keep moving.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

One July 4th they were doing $1 sodas, soft serves, and popcorns from fireworks-close to help keep people in the park longer and ease transportation demand.

They did “free snacks” at new years one year too. It was the leftover Christmas party snacks of course but hey…. It worked! Haha

 

[Ztonyg]

We all know that getting to and leaving Magic Kingdom is a hassle, and leaving after park close is often a headache. When they put the park a mile and a half from the parking lot and put a lagoon in between, they never imagined they'd be having to move the volume of guests that they see today.

However, when the fireworks are at least an hour before the park closing time, it is typically manageable. This is because many people in the park are waiting around just for the fireworks and leave right after. However, there are always many more in the park that will try to get as many experiences as they can in up until the park closes. So when there's at least an hour buffer between the fireworks closing and the park closing, there is far less of a mass exodus of the park.

When the fireworks happen at the same time the park closes, it is always absolute insanity trying to leave Magic Kingdom.

Last night it took me 90 minutes to get to my car. Park closed at 10:00. I got my last ride in at 10:05, got to the hub around 10:15, did not get back to my car until 11:45. But the kicker was that the park wasn't even busy - nearly everything was a walk-on for the last two hours!

Disney can try to keep adding more buses, more ferries, etc. The number one thing that would alleviate situations like this is to always have the park close at least an hour after the fireworks. I understand that for much of the year, the fireworks can't even happen until 9 PM because of when the sun sets. I get it, but whatever money they would lose by keeping the park open an extra hour or two on those days is worth it to avoid making everyone go through that. And let's face it, this is Magic Kingdom, let's not pretend like 11 PM closings are unreasonable.

I also understand that Disney Starlight also has to be factored in. Last night, sunset was at 8:08 PM. Starlight was at 9 PM, fireworks were at 10 PM, same as park close. Ideally, the park would have closed at 11:00, but also Starlight could have been at 8:30, fireworks at 9:30, park close at 10:30, etc.

I'm posting this because I want it to spread so more people are vocal about it, because it seems like the execs making these schedules don't have a clue. No matter how great your day at Magic Kingdom was, 90 minutes of waiting just to get back to your car will damper your day no matter what.

The MK Park closing hassle is by far my biggest complaint about that park.

It doesn't even matter when the fireworks are. It takes at least an hour if not more to get between the main gates and the Transportation and Ticket Center anywhere around park close. Plus, all of the modes of transit (monorail or ferry to parking lot tram). Unless you're staying at a monorail resort the bus situation (once you can get to the bus station) is also a hassle. I remember it taking at least 40 - 60 minutes just to get on a bus back to our resort.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

The reasons to walk back to the TTC! Typically only takes me 25-30 minutes if I don’t stop at the resorts (YMMV based on walking speed), but it’s a nice way to end the night. Might not always be faster than transportation, but it’s nice to not have to wait in a line just to get back to your car!

 

[Ztonyg]

The reasons to walk back to the TTC! Typically only takes me 25-30 minutes if I don’t stop at the resorts (YMMV based on walking speed), but it’s a nice way to end the night. Might not always be faster than transportation, but it’s nice to not have to wait in a line just to get back to your car!

After a day of walking around the parks the last thing I think about doing is walking back to the TTC.

That's not a bad suggestion that I might follow the next time I am there.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I doubt that there are more people needing to go across the lagoon then they once did. I do, however, know that in the last 20 years thousands of rooms have become available onsite and MK either uses the resort monorail or buses to get them out of MK. Going back on the monorail has never been a thing for me and often times I was out of WDW and into my offsite hotel room long before many people had even got on the bus to a non-MK resort. Up until 2019 I went to WDW 48 times and always took the ferry back. I never found it to be a hassle to get to my car and on my way. I might even add that I had been there at times when the crowd was quite big, but the huge crowds are still confined to certain times or special occasions.

Also closing the park is a relative term. They have always allowed an hour or more for people to leave after closing. If they didn't officially close the park earlier they might spend the whole night. Paying even minimum wage can add up to a whole lot of extra costs. Don't get me wrong I think Disney can afford it but I am more concerned about the CM's that don't live in the park and can't even afford to live near the park and have to drive home exhausted after a long day of listening the constant beaching and want to go home and get some sleep. We are on vacation, they are not. If people could look up the meaning of the word CLOSED they might not have had to take that action but getting that extra hour wandering through the gift shops have created a traffic jam of people just lagging behind. Also the sooner the guests get out the sooner overnight maintenance can begin in a sometimes futile effort to keep everything running smoothly.

Monorails are aging. They are not as fast as they used to be. It stresses out the Ferry System for sure.

Polynesian and Grand Floridian also have newer buildings and additional capacity (remember there's a DVC tower at Poly now opened subsequent to COVID). Stresses out the system, especially since you can go to TTC and walk back to Poly. Swolfin transportation is also at TTC when it used to share with Boardwalk (though a lot of people take the Boardwalk bus), as is anyone looking to get an Uber or Lyft.

I've encountered the same issue staying on the Monorail loop and trying to leave Epcot. I do not recall it ever being that much of a line when I was younger as it is now.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I doubt that there are more people needing to go across the lagoon then they once did. I do, however, know that in the last 20 years thousands of rooms have become available onsite and MK either uses the resort monorail or buses to get them out of MK.

The second sentence here directly contradicts the first. Yes, there are on average more people that need to get across the lagoon after park close than before for a multitude of factors:

- More people than ever using third party buses and shuttles that only bring them to the TTC. When the park was built, this basically wasn't a factor.
- More people than ever using ride-share programs, which happen at the TTC.
- Average park attendance has increased exponentially. What used to be a moderately busy day at MK is now a light day. An average day at MK today is what a "heavy", if not quite peak, day was in the past.
- Park hoppers and annual passes mean more people are arriving to the park later in the day and staying until close than the early days of the park.

They've tried tricks to increase monorail efficiency, they've added double ferry boat docks, they've added ramps so that the ferry boats can unload both floors simultaneously, and they're building a fourth ferry. A few years ago they finally made it possible to walk to the TTC. They wouldn't need to do all these things if the demand to get across the lagoon wasn't also increasing.

Going back on the monorail has never been a thing for me and often times I was out of WDW and into my offsite hotel room long before many people had even got on the bus to a non-MK resort. Up until 2019 I went to WDW 48 times and always took the ferry back. I never found it to be a hassle to get to my car and on my way. I might even add that I had been there at times when the crowd was quite big, but the huge crowds are still confined to certain times or special occasions.

Also closing the park is a relative term. They have always allowed an hour or more for people to leave after closing. If they didn't officially close the park earlier they might spend the whole night. Paying even minimum wage can add up to a whole lot of extra costs. Don't get me wrong I think Disney can afford it but I am more concerned about the CM's that don't live in the park and can't even afford to live near the park and have to drive home exhausted after a long day of listening the constant beaching and want to go home and get some sleep. We are on vacation, they are not. If people could look up the meaning of the word CLOSED they might not have had to take that action but getting that extra hour wandering through the gift shops have created a traffic jam of people just lagging behind. Also the sooner the guests get out the sooner overnight maintenance can begin in a sometimes futile effort to keep everything running smoothly.

You're all over the place here. Yes, they don't force everyone out right when the park closes, but most people just want to leave, if all the attractions and restaurants are closed, you can only meander so much. Shopping on Main Street is also awful during this time because everyone is pushed toward only those stores on the way out.

You're concerned about one extra hour, which in this case would mean the park was open until 11:00 instead of 10:00. But, Magic Kingdom is very frequently open until 11:00. Cast Member shift schedules are staggered throughout the day. It's not like the person closing at 11:00 started at 8 AM. This is a failure of scheduling and crowd control on Disney's part, it has nothing to do with them having consideration for their Cast Members wanting to go home and sleep.

 

[Chef Mickey]

They don't care about your time. Closing then is convenient and cost-effective for them, so they figure we can manage.

Disney experience would be improved with longer hours, but remember, they don't care.