Phase closing and wait times - holidays 2012

TheAmazingBobbo

TheAmazingBobbo

Well-Known Member
I apologize if this has been answered before, but after all the phase closures this week, I was just curious -- how do they handle things once they have a phase closure. For instance, let's say MK is only open to resort guests/AP holders -- do they put a sign up near the entrance, or do they have people letting everyone know? How does that work -- I was thinking if I was someone staying off-resort and brought my family up to the gates without having an idea, I would hope the parking people would divert me away or something? How does that work?

Also, are the crowd levels at AK and HS tolerable then, since it seems like everyone is at MK or Epcot? I came down in 2010 at Christmas time and it didn't get out of hand until about the 23rd.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
Some of those waits sound well ... typical. ... When does TT ever have less than a 90-minute wait ... or Soarin? Or even the old relic Space Mtn?

I just don't get the insanity involved in seeing a wait over 30 minutes ... (I'll say 45-50 since it's Christmas week) and getting into that line. There's always things with lesser waits and even on the busiest of days (like today) waits will go down on the others during parades/fireworks etc.

I can't imagine waiting in those types of lines because I just never have and never would. That's not fun, that's torture.
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Torture is waiting 45 minutes for Journey into Imagination with Figment last New Year's Eve because your autistic brother insisted on riding it.
 
Hobnail Boot

Hobnail Boot

Well-Known Member
TheAmazingBobbo said:
I apologize if this has been answered before, but after all the phase closures this week, I was just curious -- how do they handle things once they have a phase closure. For instance, let's say MK is only open to resort guests/AP holders -- do they put a sign up near the entrance, or do they have people letting everyone know? How does that work -- I was thinking if I was someone staying off-resort and brought my family up to the gates without having an idea, I would hope the parking people would divert me away or something? How does that work?

Also, are the crowd levels at AK and HS tolerable then, since it seems like everyone is at MK or Epcot? I came down in 2010 at Christmas time and it didn't get out of hand until about the 23rd.
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The one time I was unable to get into MK due to capacity they shut down all transportation to the park (monorail and buses). I'm not sure about the toll plaza. Supposedly if you could get there and were an AP/resort guest you could get in. We were at Epcot and waited outside the monorail station for several hours. Eventually the friendly cast members fed us a free dinner, personally drove us over to MK, and snuck us in. :D
 
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Disney Dawg Fan said:
The one time I was unable to get into MK due to capacity they shut down all transportation to the park (monorail and buses). I'm not sure about the toll plaza. Supposedly if you could get there and were an AP/resort guest you could get in. We were at Epcot and waited outside the monorail station for several hours. Eventually the friendly cast members fed us a free dinner, personally drove us over to MK, and snuck us in. :D
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Why didnt you take a bus to Wildy Lodge and then the boat to the MK?
 
yeti

yeti

Well-Known Member
What's sad is that the wait time for Disney's newest, most hyped, busiest ride at DLR, not to mention on DLR's busiest two days of the year, was about 1.5 times shorter than old (well...kind of old)Test Track. Naysayers gonna naysay, but 240 minutes is a problem beyond the scope of nextgen. That's worse than Tokyo!
 
Rasvar

Rasvar

Well-Known Member
Disney Dawg Fan said:
The one time I was unable to get into MK due to capacity they shut down all transportation to the park (monorail and buses). I'm not sure about the toll plaza. Supposedly if you could get there and were an AP/resort guest you could get in. We were at Epcot and waited outside the monorail station for several hours. Eventually the friendly cast members fed us a free dinner, personally drove us over to MK, and snuck us in. :D
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Yeah, Epcot on December 31, 1999 they were diverting people away before you could get to the parking plaza if you didn't have a resort id or an AP at 1:00 pm on that day. Weirdest thing was the parking lot was only about a third full and more people were laying out having picnics on the grassy areas than riding the rides. Not your normal Epcot day.
 
Rasvar

Rasvar

Well-Known Member
Lee said:
Yes.
It's a problem called "Epcot needs more/better things to do and sticking FP+ on everything ain't gonna help."
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Is this where I play the "I hear they are talking about building a Mt Fuji in Japan" comment? I chuckle every time I overhear that comment in the park.
 
yeti

yeti

Well-Known Member
Lee said:
Yes.
It's a problem called "Epcot needs more/better things to do and sticking FP+ on everything ain't gonna help."
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Exactly.

It's both a shame and somewhat inspiring to see how a ghost town nobody cared about now overshadows *the* EPCOT in terms of quality attraction count. Not saying DCA is really better (or is it?), but that's the truth. Why wait for Soarin' 180 minutes when you can wait half as long in DLR? (*cough* with a clearer screen...allright I'm off the soapbox)

I'm heading to DLR next week expecting the worst. But in no way am I prepared to wait more than 30 min for anything, RSR not included. For that I'll take 35 (kidding).
 
Rasvar

Rasvar

Well-Known Member
yeti said:
Exactly.

It's both a shame and somewhat inspiring to see how a ghost town nobody cared about now overshadows *the* EPCOT in terms of quality attraction count. Not saying DCA is really better (or is it?), but that's the truth. Why wait for Soarin' 180 minutes when you can wait half as long in DLR? (*cough* with a clearer screen...allright I'm off the soapbox)

I'm heading to DLR next week expecting the worst. But in no way am I prepared to wait more than 30 min for anything, RSR not included. For that I'll take 35 (kidding).
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The other thing with the layout of DLR, DCA and DL are practically one park if you have park hopper ability. I've never spent a whole day in DCA that I didn't walk across to DL at some point. Don't forget, you can still hoard early day FP's for later in the day at DLR. No window enforcement yet.
 
yeti

yeti

Well-Known Member
Rasvar said:
The other thing with the layout of DLR, DCA and DL are practically one park if you have park hopper ability. I've never spent a whole day in DCA that I didn't walk across to DL at some point. Don't forget, you can still hoard early day FP's for later in the day at DLR. No window enforcement yet.
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Sure. Though I'll add that that's more of a circumstantial advantage and I actually really like how spread out the parks are at DW. I just wish there was more to do in them.
 
Z

zulemara

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
RyenDeckard said:
I know this is mostly a thread about WDW, but two days ago Universal Orlando was parking people on the ramp to the garage.

This week is absolute chaos.
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It was that way last year as well. I've never seen their garage so full. Absolute madness!

On a side note, I'm going to brave the madness for the CW Christmas Special. I just can't pass up the chance to relive old memories, although in a toned down version.
 
B

BigThunderMatt

Well-Known Member
TheAmazingBobbo said:
For instance, let's say MK is only open to resort guests/AP holders -- do they put a sign up near the entrance, or do they have people letting everyone know? How does that work -- I was thinking if I was someone staying off-resort and brought my family up to the gates without having an idea, I would hope the parking people would divert me away or something? How does that work?
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Once a phase happens, there is a crew that goes up and sets up road signage to alert guests that MK is full. Unfortunately the last sign is about half a mile away from the MK Auto Plaza so if you were past that point before they held traffic in preparation for a phase close, your choices are wait in the traffic until it starts moving again to get up to the Auto Plaza and be told you can/cannot come in depending on the phase or...or well that's pretty much it. Unless you're in the far left lane and can cut across the grass (I wouldn't recommend it though. Cars get stuck a lot doing that as it is actually quite soft ground).
 
HenryMystic

HenryMystic

Well-Known Member
jt04 said:
WDW has much more experience handling these situations. Much, much more.
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:yawn:

It has nothing to do with experience, just limited capacity. Really no different than parking DHS guests at Epcot and bussing them over.

UOR may need to expand their parking capacity....just like DHS needs garages
 

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