Which park is laid out the best and the worst?

[Figment632]

IMO The best laid out park is Epcot everything is easy to find and the only traffic flow issues I have ever have are in Mexico.

DHS imo is by far the worst laid out park. It has traffic flow issues in multiple areas and the layout is just generally confusing.

 

[RiversideBunny]

Animal Kingdom lacks a central open area.
Everything is just trails.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Magic Kingdom. Hub and spoke is the easiest to navigate.

EPCOT has a good layout, but it's huge. Going from park end to park end takes way too long.

The worst? DHS? It's just kinda a blob.

 

[Andrew54]

Best: MK
Worst: AK, just because its so big and you cant see across the park.

 

[RiversideBunny]

I actually like the layout of DHS.

At first it took a while to memorize where to go for what and how to get there but that, for me anyway, is what's nice.
It's not laid out in a corny manner. It has lots of nooks and crannies and gives a sense of exploring. Around every corner, down every street is something different.

Parks lose some of their luster when they become too familiar.

 

[Figment632]

Best: MK
Worst: AK, just because its so big and you cant see across the park.

Magic Kingdom. Hub and spoke is the easiest to navigate.

EPCOT has a good layout, but it's huge. Going from park end to park end takes way too long.

The worst? DHS? It's just kinda a blob.

The MK design is the best but there are major problems that MK has with guest flow in TL and Frontierland. Those are thae main reasons I picked Epcot.

 

[wolf359]

I like EPCOT's layout best. The right brain/left brain layout of Future World is easy to navigate, and the large open spaces mean the park rarely feels as full as the other parks because there's room for everyone to walk. World Showcase, being one large loop, also makes for easy navigation, even though it is usually feels more crowded.

Hollywood Studios is worst to me. It is very haphazardly laid out, a by-product of it's poorly planned expansions, but I constantly feel like I'm wandering through a maze, and I never quite come out when I was expecting to. Many of those narrow pathways connecting one major area to another become congested too easily, because they're just too small. The awkward layout is one of the reasons Hollywood Studios is my least favorite theme park.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

I actually like the layout of DHS.

At first it took a while to memorize where to go for what and how to get there but that, for me anyway, is what's nice.
It's not laid out in a corny manner. It has lots of nooks and crannies and gives a sense of exploring. Around every corner, down every street is something different.

Parks lose some of their luster when they become too familiar.

That's true, and it helps the nature of the park in that sense. Feels real.

The thing is...Real things are a pain to navigate! :lol:

 

[cblodg]

Best: probably MK

Worst: for me it's a tie between DHS and AK. DHS seems to have a total lack of layout design and AK is just too big and you end up having to go back to the middle of the park just to get to another designated area. About the only lands that are linked are Africa and Asia (unless my mind is failing me today).

 

[DizneyPryncess]

I like MK's layout the best because of the hub. I always know where to go and how to get there. AK is my least favorite set up. I agree that it lacks a central area, and I just find it to be the most confusing.

 

[Victoria]

In order of easiest to hardest...

Epcot- In Future World everything is open and easy to find. Large walk ways and informative signage point you in the right direction. World Showcase can be a challenge if it is crowded, but most times it is fine.

Magic Kingdom- It has the best overall plan (hub and spoke) but for me it loses points because the walkways aren't large enough. The park could benefit from some side walk widening and better traffic flow management.

Hollywood Studios- The walkways are large enough, but there isn't a very logical way to work this park. It is full of dead ends and roads that don't connect effectively. It is very easy to get lost in this park. The amount of back tracking one must do to get from place to place is tiring.

Animal Kingdom- Even though this park is based on the hub and spoke idea it lacks everything else needed to make it effective. The walkways are jagged, narrow, overly bumpy, and full of unnecessary inclines. There are few open areas and there is no way to get from one land to the next without walking all the way back to the center of the park. Even when the park is only minimally busy it still feels like chaos because people are running all over the place. I feel like in the case of this park they got carried away with the themeing and it overtook any sense of organization and efficiency there might have been.

 

[gatordoc]

EPCOT is my favorite park, but it's definitely the worst layout. It's the only park that has a major attraction (SSE) right at the entrance creating a bottleneck. All the other parks require some walking, decision making, and splitting up of the crowd to get to any major destination.

 

[WDW Vacationer]

MK is the best. All lands connect and hub and spoke is easy.

DHS is the worst. Back tracking and dead ends as others mentioned.

 

[cblodg]

EPCOT is my favorite park, but it's definitely the worst layout. It's the only park that has a major attraction (SSE) right at the entrance creating a bottleneck. All the other parks require some walking, decision making, and splitting up of the crowd to get to any major destination.

I have never experienced a bottleneck at the front of EPCOT due to SSE. If anything, that queue line is one of the better managed ones. there's plenty of lanes and doesn't really spill into the vast walking areas to either side.

 

[KaneMarko]

The best, MK. By far the hub and spoke layout makes it the easiest to navigate.

I always have the darndest times getting around DHS and Epcot. World Showcase is pretty easy to navigate because it's pretty linear. But I always have a hard time getting around Future World.

DHS is easy to navigate in regards to Sunset Boulevard. But the rest of the park seems kind of random.

But it's all good though. I'd still go to each park every day of the year if I had the money.

 

[Figment632]

I figured most people would pick MK and I think that that is the best style parks but don't you think that TL and Frontier Land have major flow issues that would disqualify it.

 

[KaneMarko]

I've never really had a problem with flow at Tomorrow Land and Frontier Land. TL can get a little hectic. But nothing unbearable. Least not in the times I've been. I have some issues with Fantasy Land at times with flow and excessive crowds.

 

[xdan0920]

The best layout is MK. The traffic flow issues in FL are mainly a result of the ridiculous stroller parking area. Also a lot of the walkways in some of the other lands that seem narrow, are a result of the strollers as well. Overall though, you can not be the layout of the MK, Walt nailed it.

The worst is probably DHS. It does not even have a layout. Things are just plopped all over the place. As if there is no overall plan. I still like it though, once you learn your way around, its easy enough to navigate, and fun.

 

[KaneMarko]

Agree wholeheartedly on the stroller issue in FL. Particularly over by Peter Pan's Flight and Mickey's Philharmagic.

Yeah, DHS, outside of the entrance and Sunset seems pretty random. I guess is cool with the idea of all the nooks and crannies and never knowing what you'll find, etc. But it just seems very random and without flow. Lots of dead ends and such. The only good thing about it is that it tends to be less crowded in most of the park outside of Sunset because everyone seems to flock over to Sunset for Fantasmic, RR and ToT.

 

[the-reason14]

This may be a bit OT, but the MK has a lot of wide open space throughout their walkways. Comparing it to DL, you can tell they wanted to boost capacity because DL is so small in its walkways, bathrooms, etc. MK probably has the best layout, but Epcot has the easiest one imo.