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New Main Street U.S.A bypass to be built to address entry and exit congestion at the Magic Kingdom
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
It's mainly used during holidays. It's not a regular basis thing.
Voice of Disney sanity
Well-Known Member
devoy1701
Well-Known Member
I mentioned this in the Avatar thread, but will mention it here as well. Everyone keeps talking about how the crowds are so much bigger at MK now, how this "mass exodus" wasn't an issue in the years past, and that's absolutely correct...but it's Disney's fault for the most part. TDO is the ones who made Magic Kingdom the sole operating park from 9pm-the end of the day more than 10 years ago. There's no where else for the crowds to go if they don't want to end their day by 9pm. Back in the 90s, you had 3 theme parks operating until 10, 11pm or midnight. Today, it's just the one. But a bypass to Main Street, while it seems like the solution to the problems we're now experience, is not the correct solution. More night time entertainment is the right solution. Find a way to disperse the crowds to the other parks. Give people other options besides just Magic Kingdom to spend the late hours of the day. The new night time show at Animal Kingdom is exactly the right kind of solution to these problems...and it's about 10 years overdue now.
Someone else mentioned that Disneyland doesn't have these same sorts of crowd issues at the end of the day because they successfully disperse their crowds, even within the same park. They schedule Fantasmic and Remember within just a few minutes of each other, making you chose which attraction you're going to go see, and sending half of the attendees to the back of the park instead of having EVERYONE in the hub for the ONLY option for nighttime entertainment. While I'm not suggesting that MK needs another nighttime activity (though I'm definitely not opposed to the idea), we do need other nighttime activities throughout the resort.
Correct planning of the resort would make these types of projects unnecessary.
Someone else mentioned that Disneyland doesn't have these same sorts of crowd issues at the end of the day because they successfully disperse their crowds, even within the same park. They schedule Fantasmic and Remember within just a few minutes of each other, making you chose which attraction you're going to go see, and sending half of the attendees to the back of the park instead of having EVERYONE in the hub for the ONLY option for nighttime entertainment. While I'm not suggesting that MK needs another nighttime activity (though I'm definitely not opposed to the idea), we do need other nighttime activities throughout the resort.
Correct planning of the resort would make these types of projects unnecessary.
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
Even crowd control CMs have their limits. I have been down behind the western side of Disneyland's MSUSA on a busy night. Not even New Year's or anything. Although, Disneyland does the "backstage give up" better than MK... I was like ten feet away from a Jungle Cruise boat in dry dock and I got to see the backside of Walt's apartment. 
COProgressFan
Well-Known Member
What argument has been invalidated?
I think folks admitted crowd control is a problem at both DL and WDW. However, some pointed out that in the time surrounding fireworks, DL seems to have a better grasp on crowd control in the hub and Main Street. Or at the very least, they are better at implementing their plan with more CM's, etc.
No one thinks going backstage is done any better at WDW or DL. They seem to resort to that option at WDW more often however. And it looks like both backstage areas will be getting some work done to make them more "Show ready" for guests when they are used.
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COProgressFan
Well-Known Member
Thank you for stating this. Your comments are right on target, and speak to the larger issues here (especially what I bolded, I think). It is more than simply figuring out how to get more bodies in spaces that were not designed for them, but figuring how to effectively handle crowds both within the MK and the resort as a whole.
When there are limited options for nighttime entertainment, what do you expect? Why not have live bands at night in Tomorrowland to spread some crowds there (DL does this on weekends). Or provide entertainment options in Frontierland (Diamond Horseshoe). Or god forbid keep another park open past 9pm?
Adding to this, WDW hardly ever promotes any other park than the MK. In Disney's dumbed down marketing over the last 10 years or so it's always castles, fireworks, princesses and pirates, etc. The other 3 parks seem like an afterthought in both their marketing campaigns and their actual operations.
When your only entertainment option past 9pm is a 10 year old firework show and a 40 year old nighttime parade starring Eliot the hippie dragon, I guess it really doesn't leave much of a choice in terms of what you can do.
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devoy1701
Well-Known Member
Exactly.
I must admit, my first response at the beginning of this thread was a very narrow-minded response. While I still believe that "skipping" MSUSA or giving guests the ability to skip it on crowded days is absurd, now that I've zoomed out and then zoomed back into the issue, I completely understand the current need for it.
But we all need to realize just how we got here. Why it is that MK is more crowded now than ever before. What was different in the past? Yes, overall, more people are visiting MK than they did in the 90s, but as @COProgressFan points out, it probably has something to do with how WDW in a whole is marketed nowadays...and was we both pointed out there isn't anything else to do after 9pm in WDW!
So instead of giving us a "solution" disguised as white-washed semi-perminent walls with lighting and "period specific" signage. I think some other real solutions would also help alleviate the problem!
How to we keep a certain percentage of the people in the park after the fireworks conclude so that 20,000 people aren't trying to exit the park at the same time? What if they had a live band on the castle stage, and a dance party kicking off in Tomorrowland (a real Dance Party, not Stitches Semisonic Celebration), and a wild west street interactive street show that got people into the Diamond Horseshoe, or some sort of mini-nighttime parade on the Rivers of America? Even if they were to get 15-25% of the daily guests to do something else instead of jetting down Main Street after the fireworks...the situation greatly approves.
And the other solution is how to get some of these guests to go to another park instead of MK? And I hope an answer to this question comes before 2017!
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
It's not that their ad campaigns are "dumbed-down," it's that they're often produced with a bias towards imagery that could be both from Disneyland or Walt Disney World. That way they can use the same ad for both coasts. Saves money.
COProgressFan
Well-Known Member
I think cost savings is one of the reasons. But I think "dumbed down" is also apropos.
As for keeping people in after wishes, I would think that the 2nd CTM and MSEP would keep some people in MK. Does any one know how many people leave after Wishes on a night when CTM and MSEP shows again after Wishes? Sometimes CTM shows again after Wishes on a non MSEP night. Would it help any if MK moved CTM to 40 min after Wishes and did a DAWM at 15 after Wishes? Back in the 80's , 90's and early 2000's, there was a 10:05 castle show after Fantasy In The Sky. Anyone remember the reason for that?
Another thing I thought of is, does MK want the bypass done by the time FOF opens? With MSEP down for referb, there won't be any reason to hang around an hour after Wishes. Unless they move CTM and maybe DAWM around. Another thought, would we have less people viewing Wishes during MSEP's referb?
wogwog
Well-Known Member
A large portion of a staff parking lot behind the east side of Main St USA is presently being jack hammered to accommodate the bypass. If you are in the park you can hear the noise if you go near any of the backstage entry points, especially back by the big gate on center street.
wogwog
Well-Known Member
But they may require a permit from the Ministry of Silly Walks to enter the maze. (no apologies)So WDW has not installed the whirling knives yet? (apologies to Monty Python)
CaptainJackNO
Well-Known Member
You're right, there is usually a log jam at the trainstation underpass, but much looser as a crowd than msusa. What thoroughly exacerbates msusa after wishes is 3/4 of the crowd is trying to exit, 1/4 is trying to get back into the park upstream, and you usually have quite a few new entrances trying to take advantage of an extra hour or so of mk fun. Either way, its not as crunched at the train station, and the bypass makes exiting mk safer.
prberk
Well-Known Member
This is exactly right, and especially now that the prices to tickets are so expensive. People wiil want to get everything out of it that they can. Downtown Disney's Pleasure Island, you will remember, used to offer another option that is now gone, for night-time entertainment. And don't forget how aggressively Disney has marketed staying on property with Magical Express: this means that now most people who fly in and stay on Disney property are stuck with Disney options for entertainment, unless they rent a car or take an expensive cab ride to places off property. So that leaves anyone up after 9:00 with the MK. And how many vacationers who have spend gobs of money to be there are ready to settle in at 9:00? Even families with small children usually also have a teenager or family member who wants to wander around at night.
The resorts have some night-time entertainment, like beach movies, but guess when they all occur: right at dusk. Done by about 9.
So, starting with Downtown Disney, and continuing with the other parks, there need to be other options for night-time entertainment, if Disney is going to continue to market themselves to hundreds of thousands of people as an all-inclusive resort, where they can stay and need not go anywhere else.. and charge an arm and a leg for the previlege of experiencing it!
