How would they have stopped people walking from the Epcot resorts? Blocked the path with barriers? And then risk one almighty crush as people ran towards the entrance of the park!
Or stopped cars queueing up behind the barriers to the parking lot. Are there even barriers?
I'm still confused as to why so many people think Disney can't control crowds on their own private property where they can do whatever they want. You stop people from entering from the Epcot resorts by stationing a security guard on the path. Done.
How would they stop the massive early crowd buildup at the entrance gates?
- Strictly enforce a parking lot opening time about an hour and a half before official park open (which is typical I believe) and publish this information online. This would quickly be spread through all WDW fansites in addition to the official site/app. Despite what some say, Disney is more than capable of handling this by simply stationing a security vehicle at the dedicated
offramp exit into the DHS parking lot,
not by holding people at the parking lot toll booths. This forces any early arrivals to keep driving as there is no stopping allowed lest people want to deal with OPD, and after a few days it would be their own fault for not getting the memo and trying to show up early.
- Yes, the same amount of people would still be there at official opening. The difference would be that the parking lot booths and parking directors would create a natural filter to trickle people in. With less time between parking lot opening time and allowed park entrance, the crowd waiting at the touchstyles would not build up to such crazy extremes that they are forced to open early for safety reasons.
- This allows the earlier arrivals to still get the earlier boarding groups while not shifting the crowd demand earlier than necessary. This is better than what they have now where you still need to be inside the park before the official opening time but now may not get a boarding pass.
You can argue that these methods aren't sustainable, but neither is staffing your entire theme park three hours earlier than normal every single day for the foreseeable future. We're talking a handful of extra security guard positions vs. staffing the entire park earlier than necessary.
