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Magic Kingdom closed to ALL guests due to reaching absolute capacity (phase 4)
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
how many guests do there have to be in the MK before they go to a Phase 4 closing? not including children under 3?
I think that's a pretty closely guarded secret.
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
how many guests do there have to be in the MK before they go to a Phase 4 closing? not including children under 3?
Somewhere around 100k is the prevailing thought. It varies depending on how many attractions are under refurbishment at the time. Taking a small ride down wouldn't be that bad, but when they take down Space I bet the max capacity drops a ton.
hokielutz
Well-Known Member
I think you missed the bottom of the stock pricing... about 3 weeks ago.
hokielutz
Well-Known Member
First off... there is a big sale running right now for resort stays...
Second, this is typically a very busy week because so many school systems across the country are on spring break.
Then the question is..... were there any other rides not running at capacity, excluding HoP.
After 11AM that day:
Were both loops in operation at SM?
Were both queues open at Pirates?
Were both queues open at BTMRR?
If the answer is no to any of the above 3 questions, then 74 has some merit. Otherwise, his argument does not make sense.
The rest of the MK rides and shows do not have separate loops or queing areas, so it is just a matter of loading and unloading passenters at a constant rate. I can't imagine that the other rides would be purposely putting in extra wait times at the loading platforms before starting the ride.
3girlswdwdreams
Member
Yep... that happened to us...
NYE 99... the ONLY place the buses would take us was Disney Studios....(maybe AK was an option)... we were dumb and naive and thought the same thing, as resort guests we'd get into EPCOT...
They weren't letting ANYONE in.... when we asked about it we were told only promised admission into A park... not park of choice.
we took the bus to the studios and waited a couple of hours. we were then able to take the boat to EPCOT and get in through the Int'l Gateway...but buses still weren't going there at that time.
from previous posts....I also believe EPCOT was a phase 4 for a bit on 1999 NYE, at least a phase 3......could be wrong... but I do know transportation wasn't going there and as resort guests we couldn't get in for a while....or had no way of getting there anyway.
the best part was the tractor trailer that they herded us into to get us back to the resorts at the end of the night!! no windows, pitch black... literally a trailer of smushed in people moo'ing. LOL
hokielutz
Well-Known Member
Just in case PA isn't already on that list - a few grade schools I know are on break all this week. As are some of the colleges & high schools.
So spring break + Easter + 4/3 deal = mass mayhem.
I love Disney, but I'm glad I'm not there today. I don't think I'd go for free on a phase 4, that would be absolutely miserable. I do not have the patience for it. However I am glad that Disney is doing well & making money in these troubled times. I'm hoping crowds are smaller in May
Me too.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
peter11435
Well-Known Member
For most of the day yes. The only exception was some time when one side was 101.
Yes, starting at 8am actually.
Yes
Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
^^ What he said.
I've thought from the beginning that the managers that were part of the six or seven hundred laid off were probably needed, but that the additional layoffs of regular cast members, leads etc., were probably "sacrificial lambs", as it were. Disney knew what their occupancies were going to be... They knew the crowds coming... But still made that cut for Wall Street's sake.
Then, the crowds come. "OH MY! WE BETTER ADD MORE HOURS AND ENTERTAINMENT BECAUSE WE'RE SO MUCH MORE CROWDED THAN WE THOUGHT WE WOULD BE!!"
Stretch the remaining cast members thin, to cover the shifts. Cast members are happy to do it, because they just survived layoffs and seeing huge crowds at their park make them feel like maybe they've turned the corner.
People notice. Stock goes up.
I think they knew all along what kind of crowds they were going to have, and purposely underplanned. It would be a smart move.
PhilharMagician
Well-Known Member
:roflol:
Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
That would be about accurate... I haven't felt too committed to reading about WDW these days! :lol:
In fact, I was going to do a Disneyland Paris vs. MK thing (like you suggested), but I gotta be honest... I just can't bring myself to care enough to mess with it right now.
Anyway. About merch...
I'm sure they're selling less stuff than usual. But I'm sure they're still selling quite a bit. And their costs to produce a lot of that stuff overseas is PENNIES. Trust me, I know. I own a plastics plant in mainland China. I know what production costs are on stuff like that. In fact, I probably could find the actual plant they produce the stuff in if I wanted to.
But let's take those spinning light things. Manufacturing costs for those is well under a dollar. They sell them for what... $12 I think? And they sell hundreds of them a night, between all the parks. And that's just one simple little item.
Take also, bottles of soda (or fountain drinks). Depending on who you believe, the margin on those is either insanely high, or close to 100%. And they sell a LOT of soda each day.
You're right, they're having sales and discounts on some items. But I promise you the sales and discounts aren't on the high movers that bring in fat margin. They're the items that aren't moving, or have a higher cost resulting in a lower margin anyway. They're the "loss leaders". Much like they consider the free dining... They'll give away the food to get your dollars on higher margin items.
They could spin it any number of ways... I agree with that. But it seems to me that the proof will be in the quarterly report. It'll have to shake out there somewhere. The headlines will read "Disney vastly out performs predictions", and I think they will have done it on purpose.
Park capacity is not based soley on physical capacity. Disney has to take into account how many resources they have available for the day. Do they have enough staff? Do they have enough security? Do they have enough food? Do they have enough drinks? And so on. Let's say the current physical capacity of the park is 75,000 when ALL attractions and shops and restaurants are open. However, if one attraction is closed and 10 shops are closed and they don't have that many staff, capacity can be substantially reduced. Let's say they can only accomodated 50,000. That's probably when they would start the phased closures.
Brian Noble
Well-Known Member
Fair enough. But, even so "not in a very long time" suggests that this year wouldn't be the year it would happen out of the last few...
That can't be it, because in normal times, the resorts are almost always full anyway, year around. In FY '07, occupancy was 89%, which is just astoundingly strong performance. What's more, there are only 30,000 WDW rooms, give or take. The real difference between "moderate" and "hell" is how many people are offsite, but coming to the parks anyway.
Uncle Lupe
Well-Known Member
Thank goodness they built a balloon attraction that can't operate in anything more then a stiff breeze. That should help eat the overflow out of MK.
kramden88
Member
:roflol:
havoc
Member
It was due to winds, trust me if they could have everything running at the same time, they would.
Someone yell if I'm wrong
Ferry shuts down at 25
Monorail at 35ish
Bus at 45