New Main Street U.S.A bypass to be built to address entry and exit congestion at the Magic Kingdom

[donsullivan]

It's still the same case on the other side. They'll occasionally make the call to open that side up and all cars, pargos, etc. would need to be cleared so a temporary walkway could be assembled.

Don't disagree but I'm not sure that side will be as necessary as it was during the construction phase. They now have a clear path to route guests from west to east across MSUSA to the defined route on the east side. When I saw the west side route used it was during the holiday season this past year when all of the construction was still blocking routes. They could certainly use the west path in the future but it seems it would only be necessary in the most extreme cases now that the permanent route on the east side is readily available for use.

 

[IMFearless]

My problem with the whole thing is the fact that management allowed the situation to get to the point where guests were routinely being marshalled through a backstage area on a regular basis.

Fair enough to allow this to happen in an emergency situation, "safety" should come before "show".

I think in this case it was "efficiency" being put before "show" however.

It was cheaper to continue to divert guests through an unthemed area for years than to take decisive action to maintain the show element of the experience. Before increasing the crowds to such levels, they should have made a plan to deal with the issues of safety while maintaining a show-ready experience for guests.

I would hate to think that the last memories of a child leaving Magic Kingdom following their once in a lifetime trip are to be ushered through a parking lot surrounded by garbage dumpsters, cast members on their breaks, air conditioning condensers, and disused equipment. What's more, I am horrified that Disney cannot see how damaging this is to their brand.

Disney have built up their brand over years to maintain an immaculate record of providing the best themed environments in the world, they set the standard so high which is why they are so successful.

The tiny details may not matter individually but collectively they ARE the experience.

I would argue that this is not a tiny detail however, a couple of lights out on Main Street may spoil the perfection, this situation should not have gone on for so long and if management aren't ashamed they should consider whether they are trustworthy guardians responsible for such a special brand.

 

[Figment2005]

My problem with the whole thing is the fact that management allowed the situation to get to the point where guests were routinely being marshalled through a backstage area on a regular basis.

Fair enough to allow this to happen in an emergency situation, "safety" should come before "show".

I think in this case it was "efficiency" being put before "show" however.

It was cheaper to continue to divert guests through an unthemed area for years than to take decisive action to maintain the show element of the experience. Before increasing the crowds to such levels, they should have made a plan to deal with the issues of safety while maintaining a show-ready experience for guests.

I would hate to think that the last memories of a child leaving Magic Kingdom following their once in a lifetime trip are to be ushered through a parking lot surrounded by garbage dumpsters, cast members on their breaks, air conditioning condensers, and disused equipment. What's more, I am horrified that Disney cannot see how damaging this is to their brand.

Disney have built up their brand over years to maintain an immaculate record of providing the best themed environments in the world, they set the standard so high which is why they are so successful.

The tiny details may not matter individually but collectively they ARE the experience.

I would argue that this is not a tiny detail however, a couple of lights out on Main Street may spoil the perfection, this situation should not have gone on for so long and if management aren't ashamed they should consider whether they are trustworthy guardians responsible for such a special brand.

Why am I getting the impression you made an account to simply stir up trouble?

 

[NormC]

I would hate to think that the last memories of a child leaving Magic Kingdom following their once in a lifetime trip are to be ushered through a parking lot surrounded by garbage dumpsters, cast members on their breaks, air conditioning condensers, and disused equipment.

This is why Disney has now upgraded the bypass.

 

[IMFearless]

It wasn't intended to stir up trouble, that certainly wasn't my intention.

Actually I have read these boards for many years and I only registered recently so that I could view photos.

It's true to say that I feel very strongly that this is something that should be seen as significant by management.

Any time I have been surveyed or stopped to talk to cast members I have pointed out my dissatisfaction with that particular issue.

Perhaps I should lower my expectations of Disney instead?

I'm really glad that the bypass is being completed, I hope that something like this is not allowed to happen again in future. Like everyone else here I am extremely fond of Disney World, and want to keep visiting.

That is my only motivation for posting, not to stir up a reaction or to cause trouble. Most of us have a tendency to try and protect what is important to us.

 

[donsullivan]

My problem with the whole thing is the fact that management allowed the situation to get to the point where guests were routinely being marshalled through a backstage area on a regular basis.

Fair enough to allow this to happen in an emergency situation, "safety" should come before "show".

I think in this case it was "efficiency" being put before "show" however.

It was cheaper to continue to divert guests through an unthemed area for years than to take decisive action to maintain the show element of the experience. Before increasing the crowds to such levels, they should have made a plan to deal with the issues of safety while maintaining a show-ready experience for guests.

I would hate to think that the last memories of a child leaving Magic Kingdom following their once in a lifetime trip are to be ushered through a parking lot surrounded by garbage dumpsters, cast members on their breaks, air conditioning condensers, and disused equipment. What's more, I am horrified that Disney cannot see how damaging this is to their brand.

Disney have built up their brand over years to maintain an immaculate record of providing the best themed environments in the world, they set the standard so high which is why they are so successful.

The tiny details may not matter individually but collectively they ARE the experience.

I would argue that this is not a tiny detail however, a couple of lights out on Main Street may spoil the perfection, this situation should not have gone on for so long and if management aren't ashamed they should consider whether they are trustworthy guardians responsible for such a special brand.

I believe you are seriously over-thinking this whole thing. It's not like the bypass was previously used on a daily or even weekly basis. It was only used on the busiest days, and even then for only a portion of the day to relieve the pressure on guest flow on Main Street. There are 10's (if not 100's) of millions of MK guests who have never seen this route and have absolutely no idea it was even there. The number of guests that actually passed thru it each year as a percentage of total guests was extremely low. That lower number likely didn't justify any investment beyond safety preparations for an occasional relief valve on a portion of maybe a dozen days a year.

Now, as the crowds continue to increase at MK, MSUSA is overloaded more often and the use of this route has become more frequent so the investment to prepare the route for quick use as well as the new hub became necessary due to the expected increased need to deal with crowd safety issues.

 

[DaBears81]

I am one of those that have never been on this bypass. I've been to MK well over a hundred times. I am really enjoying this bypass and what they are doing with it. Exiting Main Street with that mass of people after a parade or Wishes is horrendous and nothing worse then taking multiple strollers to the ankle! It's also unpleasant entering MK in the evening for EMH and getting there as the parade is ending and going in the opposite direction as everyone else, especially with younger kids or a group of people. I can't wait to use this bypass and see in person and not have to worry about some random person with a stroller trying to get two feet ahead of me in a sea people. As for the theming I think it's great for a bypass that is still in a working park. It shouldn't be Main Street 2.0, or else it would be just as bad as Main Street is. I look at is as a walk through the "alley" of Main Street. Which in a way adds a little more ambiance to it all. That's my opinion anyway.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

I believe you are seriously over-thinking this whole thing. It's not like the bypass was previously used on a daily or even weekly basis.

Having worked Parade Audience Control for an extended period of time I can tell you with absolute certainty that the bypass was used on a near nightly basis throughout the summer and holiday periods, and pretty much every Saturday throughout the year in 2011 and 2012.

 

[ShookieJones]

Sure wish it would have helped this past Saturday night. Did anyone else experience this?

We arrived at the MK around 11:00PM from SSR. This is was going on:

(1) We waited what seemed like an abnormally long time to turn off of World Way (or whatever the name of the road is that runs by the Contemporary) into the bus depot at MK. I notice both an ambulance and a fire truck.
(2) When circling the bus depot to our particular bay (which also took longer than normal - we were in a bus traffic jam), we noticed the line at one of the stops to snake all the way to the boat launch FOR THE GRAND FLORIDIAN (yikes!)
(3) When we finally stopped and got off our bus, I noticed that long line was for buses to the TTC. I've never seen BUSES at the MK bus depot going to the TTC. My first thought was that the ferries weren't running (horrors!), but it wasn't windy or rainy. And the ferries were running.
(4) It was a SEA of people from the bus depot to bag check. And by sea, I mean a mass of people not moving. Normally, it's a not too congested walk from the bus depot to the boat launches to bag check, etc. Not through this wall of people.
(5) We wanted to ride the boat back to our resort (staying at WL Villas). Wasn't going to happen. Couldn't get past the boat launch for the ferries. Half of the bag check area was being used to get people OUT OF THE PARK (left side); the other half was being used to get people INTO THE PARK. Like I said, this was 11:00 PM this past Saturday (Wishes for some reason was at 9:00 PM that night).

I've visited during busy times - 4th of July, Thanksgiving, 3 day holiday weekends, 24 hour event, everything but Hell Week. I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS. People trying to get into the park (EMH from 1-3 AM) as we were trying to get to our boat to WL were saying they'd been trying to get into the MK for over 30 minutes. We never did get to the boat - the CM told us to turn around and take the bus to our resort (long story - we wanted to get to DTD from DHS and I had the brilliant idea that since SSR is the closest to DTD, let's take bus from DHS to SSR then hop on bus from SSR to DTD. Long story short - no bus to DTD after 40 minutes, so we just decided to go back to our resort. So bus from SSR to MK and boat to WL sounded like a good idea at the time...now that they've constructed all the parking garages, can Disney just charge people to park at DTD [oops, sorry Disney Springs] and start running buses from DTD to the parks again? Please?).

I checked the next day to see if there'd been some type of emergency at MK that required a mass evacuation of the park, but didn't see anything (guest beaten to death with own selfie stick on POTC by people in seat behind for using strobe flash on ride) or sparks from the Wishes fireworks set the top of 7DMT on fire again, but nothing.

Anybody have any idea what was happening that night? Was it Grad Bash? My solo bus driver wouldn't tell me when I asked. He rambled on about religious conferences and such....

That sounds like what happened on Friday night\Saturday morning with the 24 hour event. A thunder\lightning storm came through and people where trying to exit, both main street and new bypass were at stand still.
We holed up in the Tomorrowland Terrace until it died down.

 

[IMFearless]

While I am really glad that the issue has been corrected, the reason I think of Disney as being better than the competition is that they deliberately designed the place to be that way.

Why bother building the Utilidors for instance? Surely that is over thinking things also?

It would be much easier and cheaper to just allow guests to see the park operations in the same way that it happens at any other theme park.

The reason that I love Disney so much is because the whole place has been "over-thought" in every sense of the word. The hidden mickeys, the music from the bushes, the smell of Rome burning on Spaceship Earth, the Mickey symbol on the drain covers, the leaf patterns in the paths at AK... These are all things that have been over-thought. The snow falling in Be Our Guest, hardly essential, but yet included into the design.

I'm just saying that it is this razor sharp attention to detail that makes the place what it is. If you start to erode little details, gradually it makes the experience quite different, if guests did not notice these changes, you would eventually end up with six flags type park.

While there's nothing wrong with that, it is obviously a different experience to what the Disney parks offer.

 

[IMFearless]

Having worked Parade Audience Control for an extended period of time I can tell you with absolute certainty that the bypass was used on a near nightly basis throughout the summer and holiday periods, and pretty much every Saturday throughout the year in 2011 and 2012.

I have spent approximately two months at Disney during the past twelve months. It was in use on the nights I was in MK during June, again in Sep/Oct and again during March.

I am not disputing the need for there to be a bypass, I think it is necessary with the parks being so busy these days, I'm just surprised that Disney allowed the situation to get to the point it did and then took such a long time to respond to it.

It is not the issue itself that is the problem, it's just that it is the tip of the iceberg of a much bigger problem which is lack of emphasis on the importance of "show" across the board. Disney know the importance of this, it wouldn't be listed as one of the "keys to the kingdom" if it wasn't important. I just think they should keep this at the forefront of what they offer.

 

[ChrisM]

Why not just go the whole hog and send people out through the Utilidors?

Trebuchet in the hub. What do you think they're clearing that land for?

 

[dstrawn9889]

so once the east bypass is complete, will they start of the West one?

 

[note2001]

Why not just go the whole hog and send people out through the Utilidors?

Even if there was and exit by the front from the utilidors, that's an up-charge tour.

"Pay us $60 and we'll get you out of here faster." won't fly with most guests.

 

[IMFearless]

I honestly think the answer to the crowd problems at Magic Kingdom is not at Magic Kingdom.

The obvious solution is to improve options at the other three parks. It looks as if the management are aware of this, because Rivers of Light is being designed with the intention of keeping people at Animal Kingdom longer.

The same is true with the Fireworks at HS during the summer time.

I honestly think, if they manage crowds at MK, both with Fastpass+ and the strategies they already use, but at the same time increase the offerings in the other three parks, particularly during the evenings it would be a smart move.

Why not extend Epcot's hours until 11pm during peak times when they know MK is going to be packed?
Even if they did this on a Fri, Sat & Sun night it would encourage more guests to head there instead, people would spend the day there if they thought they would get more time on those days, and would perhaps leave MK until mid-week instead.

Have a villains meet and greet in the studios each evening from 7pm onwards, stick them in the Animation Building, again it would give people a reason to not be in MK.

I would much rather see a carrot used to move crowds than a stick.

Hopefully management will choose options like this instead of ideas like the tiered ticket pricing that the survey is talking about. If they can pull crowds to other areas of the property it would be a good thing.

 

[Next Big Thing]

Don't disagree but I'm not sure that side will be as necessary as it was during the construction phase. They now have a clear path to route guests from west to east across MSUSA to the defined route on the east side. When I saw the west side route used it was during the holiday season this past year when all of the construction was still blocking routes. They could certainly use the west path in the future but it seems it would only be necessary in the most extreme cases now that the permanent route on the east side is readily available for use.

We opened it multiple times each month in the months of January, February, March and April this year. They still use it a lot. The standard protocol for it being open is anytime the park crosses 60K (we opened it multiple times when it was well short of that number too. I'd say we had it open when the park was in the 30's, but that's just poor management).

 

[marni1971]

so once the east bypass is complete, will they start of the West one?

Not in Orlando.

 

[Jeffxz]

Having worked Parade Audience Control for an extended period of time I can tell you with absolute certainty that the bypass was used on a near nightly basis throughout the summer and holiday periods, and pretty much every Saturday throughout the year in 2011 and 2012.

That sounds like what happened on Friday night\Saturday morning with the 24 hour event. A thunder\lightning storm came through and people where trying to exit, both main street and new bypass were at stand still.
We holed up in the Tomorrowland Terrace until it died down.

A question for @BigThunderMatt. I was stuck in the mess that @ShookieJones mentions here. Once they made the announcement that MESP was postponed, everyone jumped to their feet and tried going in opposite directions. This caused a complete standstill where no one on Main Street could move for a solid 20 minutes or so. I didn't see any crowd control CMs the entire time we were stuck, there was one PhotoPass CM that was doing his best to get people moving but he wasn't able to help much.

What is the standard procedure for Crowd Control CMs in the complete gridlock situation?

After things finally broke up, I made my way to the terrace where there were about 10-20 Main Street Costumed CMs standing there. I don't know if they were the assigned crowd control that gave up or if they were there for some other reason. Some had green wands, but not all of them did.

 

[IMFearless]

We opened it multiple times each month in the months of January, February, March and April this year. They still use it a lot. The standard protocol for it being open is anytime the park crosses 60K (we opened it multiple times when it was well short of that number too. I'd say we had it open when the park was in the 30's, but that's just poor management).

Are we talking about MK in Orlando or DLP?

Surely with the Emporium on the West it is easier to send people out that way?

 

[IMFearless]

What is the standard procedure for Crowd Control CMs in the complete gridlock situation?

...Ensure the retail cast members selling the snacks and glow in the dark Mickey ears get onto Main Street pronto!