I was having a general discusion of the parks with a friend. Does anyone know the capacity of each park. By this I mean at what number do they consider the parks full and close them to guests for the day?
Thanks!
Kelly
Thanks!
Kelly
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Park Capacity
- Thread starter Kellylynn322
- Start date
CAPTAIN HOOK
Well-Known Member
I don't know the numbers, but there's always room for resort guests even when the park is "full" (except the water parks) Non-resort guests will be turned away when the park is full.
Kelly,
The Magic Kingdom in Florida has a capacity of 100,000 before they close the gates. I found out because I was there during Christmas and they reached capacity. There were so many people in the park that we couldn't enjoy ourselves. I don't know the levels for the other parks, sorry. I noticed on your profile that you will be visiting Disneyland soon. You will absolutely love it with the exception of Tommorowland, half of it has been shut down. The weather is amazing in California, no humidity or flying insects. Make it a point to ride Indiana Jones, the Matterhorn, Roger Rabbit, and Alice in Wonderland. Also, make reservations to eat at the Blue Bayou restaurant located beside Pirates of the Carribean. These are all Disneyland originals that are not featured in any of the other parks. Have fun!
The Magic Kingdom in Florida has a capacity of 100,000 before they close the gates. I found out because I was there during Christmas and they reached capacity. There were so many people in the park that we couldn't enjoy ourselves. I don't know the levels for the other parks, sorry. I noticed on your profile that you will be visiting Disneyland soon. You will absolutely love it with the exception of Tommorowland, half of it has been shut down. The weather is amazing in California, no humidity or flying insects. Make it a point to ride Indiana Jones, the Matterhorn, Roger Rabbit, and Alice in Wonderland. Also, make reservations to eat at the Blue Bayou restaurant located beside Pirates of the Carribean. These are all Disneyland originals that are not featured in any of the other parks. Have fun!
mbro2002
Member
Animal Kingdom was capped at about 24,000 when it first opened. This number was slowly ramped up as the park got older and with the addition of Asia, I think it is up to around 32,000.
There are different levels of capacity used at all the parks. There is not a point where they are declared "full." Instead, as they fill up, more and more restrictions are made on who can get in. The types of restrictions used vary widely, depending on seasons, holidays, and other reasons.
I'm not familiar with all of the restrictions, but I do know how they handled things when Animal Kingdom first opened and heavy crowds were expected. This is the Phase system we used then:
Phase 1: Only guests who already had tickets were allowed through the auto plaza. (No tickets were sold at the gate)
Phase 2: Only guests with multi-day tickets were allowed in.
Phase 3: Only guests on the last day of a multi-day ticket. (Back then the DAK auto plaza was a prototype for a new system where we could read park tickets at the booths)
Phase 4: Disney Resort guests only.
Phase 5: Complete closure.
These were restrictions put in place for the grand opening phase of DAK and aren't necessarily typical of other situations. The one constant is the Disney Resort guests are always the last group of people closed out of a park.
From what I always heard, Magic Kindgom went into their Phase closures at 75,000 and Epcot at 90,000. I'm not positive about those numbers, though.
There are different levels of capacity used at all the parks. There is not a point where they are declared "full." Instead, as they fill up, more and more restrictions are made on who can get in. The types of restrictions used vary widely, depending on seasons, holidays, and other reasons.
I'm not familiar with all of the restrictions, but I do know how they handled things when Animal Kingdom first opened and heavy crowds were expected. This is the Phase system we used then:
Phase 1: Only guests who already had tickets were allowed through the auto plaza. (No tickets were sold at the gate)
Phase 2: Only guests with multi-day tickets were allowed in.
Phase 3: Only guests on the last day of a multi-day ticket. (Back then the DAK auto plaza was a prototype for a new system where we could read park tickets at the booths)
Phase 4: Disney Resort guests only.
Phase 5: Complete closure.
These were restrictions put in place for the grand opening phase of DAK and aren't necessarily typical of other situations. The one constant is the Disney Resort guests are always the last group of people closed out of a park.
From what I always heard, Magic Kindgom went into their Phase closures at 75,000 and Epcot at 90,000. I'm not positive about those numbers, though.
Worldphile
New Member
I don't know that you'll ever find a number documented anywhere. It seems that daily park attendance and park capacity are closely guarded secrets at WDW for some reason.
You could probably come close to figuring it out if you counted the number of parking spaces and multiplied by the average number of guests per car and then added the average number of resort guests who visit a park per day.
You could probably come close to figuring it out if you counted the number of parking spaces and multiplied by the average number of guests per car and then added the average number of resort guests who visit a park per day.
wahooskipper
New Member
I was in MK on New Year's Eve one year (I know...what an idiot!). A year later when I was a CM I was told that was the buisiest New Year's they had ever seen and it was around 95,000.
I think each one of the 94,999 others bumped into me at one point or another.
I think each one of the 94,999 others bumped into me at one point or another.
Sean23
Well-Known Member
I have been to NYE at Epcot the last 4 years. I have never seen crowds like NYE 1999 it was so crowded around world showcase you could hardly move. I did not arrive until around 10:30 pm and was suprised they let me in. I think I was the 100,000 person who arrived that day.
Now thats funny.
Thanks for all the info. I knew at least one person here would know!
stale32441
Member
The acutal capacity are one of the ever popular "closley-guarded secrets, belive me, I've asked and asked all around the front office . How ever they donot chage on high attendance days, they could only change if the size of the park changed: think of a restaurant: you can only seat more people on NYE if you add more tables, right? Same thing: If, say, MK were able to "expand" by about 150 feet in each land (150 x 7), then you could acutally increase capacity.
Mbro's "phase" theory, is correct. There are many defenitions of "closed to capacity"
Best solution: stay on property, or go in the back door!
Hope this helps!
. How ever they donot chage on high attendance days, they could only change if the size of the park changed: think of a restaurant: you can only seat more people on NYE if you add more tables, right? Same thing: If, say, MK were able to "expand" by about 150 feet in each land (150 x 7), then you could acutally increase capacity. Mbro's "phase" theory, is correct. There are many defenitions of "closed to capacity"
Best solution: stay on property, or go in the back door!
Hope this helps!
Florida Man
Active Member
Originally posted by stale32441
The acutal capacity are one of the ever popular "closley-guarded secrets, belive me, I've asked and asked all around the front office
Mbro's "phase" theory, is correct. There are many defenitions of "closed to capacity"
Best solution: stay on property, or go in the back door!
Hope this helps!
What is Mbro's "phase" theory???? :veryconfu :veryconfu
stale32441
Member
Here you go DISNEYRULES:
Well said
Well said
sillyspook13
Well-Known Member
Yeah...... I remember that night. El Rio de Tiempo was up to about 50 minutes wait in the evening! It was insane, really!
mickeyfanatics
New Member
Then you all would love the crowds now, there are none. We went to EPCOT 2 weeks ago and waited only 30 minutes for our Fastpass to become available (at 3:30 PM). Last week at AK, we walked onto almost everything except Kali because of the hot weather. We are going to MK this Saturday because they are open until 11 PM with 2 showings of Spectromagic. This is the latest I can remember them being open in a long time (not counting holidays).
mbro2002
Member
Stale,
Park capacities can and do change with holidays and events. I saw it many times working at the main entrance of Animal Kingdom.
For example, when Animal Kingdom opened, it was capped fairly low. This was because the park was new and they didn't want the added pressure of too many people. As the park matured through out that first year, the park capacity was increased with no increase in size.
Sure there is an absolute limit on how many people COULD fit into a park, but the caps are usually well below that. On most days, they would never cram as many people into a park as they do on New Year's. The caps are raised quite a bit on these days just because there are so many people around and they have to put them somewhere. In fact, the numbers that we used to use allowed for higher limits on New Years than on the 4th of July. Parks usually fill up on both days, but there are more people around on New Year's, so they pack more in.
Your analogy of tables in a restaurant doesn't quite hold up. There may always be the same number of tables, but instead of having 4 chairs at each table, they'll put six chairs at each table on holidays. Sure it will be more cramped and crowded, but they'll get more people in the door.
There are tons of things that go into determining caps. Rehabs, holidays, season, occupancy rates at the resorts, etc. There really aren't hard and fast limits - they are very dynamic numbers that are changed for each event.
Park capacities can and do change with holidays and events. I saw it many times working at the main entrance of Animal Kingdom.
For example, when Animal Kingdom opened, it was capped fairly low. This was because the park was new and they didn't want the added pressure of too many people. As the park matured through out that first year, the park capacity was increased with no increase in size.
Sure there is an absolute limit on how many people COULD fit into a park, but the caps are usually well below that. On most days, they would never cram as many people into a park as they do on New Year's. The caps are raised quite a bit on these days just because there are so many people around and they have to put them somewhere. In fact, the numbers that we used to use allowed for higher limits on New Years than on the 4th of July. Parks usually fill up on both days, but there are more people around on New Year's, so they pack more in.
Your analogy of tables in a restaurant doesn't quite hold up. There may always be the same number of tables, but instead of having 4 chairs at each table, they'll put six chairs at each table on holidays. Sure it will be more cramped and crowded, but they'll get more people in the door.
There are tons of things that go into determining caps. Rehabs, holidays, season, occupancy rates at the resorts, etc. There really aren't hard and fast limits - they are very dynamic numbers that are changed for each event.
kevlightyear
Well-Known Member
Can that be the official name of the method behind closing the parks? I think it sounds very scientific. All in favor: say "ay!"
Mbro's phase theory. . .I can see it now, years later, CM's earning their ears will read about it in the training manual.
"Hey, Jim, have you read the Mbro's Phase Theory chapter yet?"
"No, Mike, but I hear it's a thinker."
stale32441
Member
Ok, the cap theory makes sense, say in a park of say 65,000 capacity, the cap it on, for example, October 15, to 40,000. That makes sense. But to say that everyday it is capped at 40,000 and the they just inflate the number to 50, or 65,000, that just doesn't happen. The numbers do change if certain parts of the park are closed, but just an attraction or two doesn't affect the total capacity, because as we all know, they don't come anywhere near capacity most days.