Yes lower the capacity before it gets so miserable and people can actually get some value for their money! If I was turned away I would consider another park and a warning before you've paid for parking would a heads up to go somewhere else. Yes, I am not stupid,I know there is a fire code for capacity but why wait until it is forced and everyone is miserable to close the gate? I not talking about a huge lesser number, Disney knows the capacity for an enjoyable time and full capacity but they don't care. As I said Busch Gardens VA closes the gates before it is a 1/2 hr wait for the bathroom and they have said in the past they rather lose some revenue for that day and have a few unhappy guests than have a park full of pissed off guests. As for being too crowded to walk, I was stuck in a massive sea of people at the hub last spring when they still had the walls up and between the wall to wall people all trying to go in different directions, the stollers being used as badering rams and the EMV being use to plow thru I was literally stuck in one place for about five minutes (seemed much long)! It was so crowded no one could move everyone was at a standstill and not a CM in sight, it took me almost fifteen minutes to get accross the hub. I do asure you I am not embellishing,( I try to never lie and rarely embellish because to me it is the same thing) I almost had my first panic attack when this happened! Perhaps I just ran into a perfect storm that night but it scared me!
As for wanting wide open spaces, no I do not expect the park to myself nor do I want everyone else to stay home but I do expect to get my money's worth and that cannot happen with these types of crowds that they allow to build up. I do not go during any holiday time, I go during the week and never on weekends. This is not my first ride at the rodeo, but now for me it has begun to be a parti time job just planning a trip to WDW and too has taken a lot of the pixie dust out of my enjoyment of going. If so many people are "complaining about the crowds" that should tell you and Disney something needs to be adjusted. I only offered a few ideas that I said at the time Disney will not do, so shoot me. BTW I think not allowing people to camp out a save spots along Main Street is a great start for clearing up the congestion that happens there and near the hub but they will have to be consistent about it for it to work. Another way would be bring back non expiring tickets! So if you buy a 5 or 6 day ticket and the parks are horrible you are not forced to chose between keep going to the parks when it is miserable or just throwing away all the money for the tickets which most people are not going to do, I think that this could adding to the crowds on top of crowds. To me it is a win win for Disney because people are not forced to go when they really do not want to go and they may spend money elsewhere doing something else in the resort area plus Disney will practically have a garuntee of the guests returning in the future which could mean more hotel stays!
This is an issue with no easy answer, and no perfect answer because every solution has pros and cons. It's hard to draw apples to apples comparisons between what Busch Gardens VA does and what WDW does. It's been many years since I was at Busch VA, but I am a passholder at Six Flags. It's a very different market. The overwhelming majority of Busch or Six Flags visitors aren't flying in from all over the country and globe for a 7 day trip. They're typically day trippers, or maybe weekend. WDW has their share of those too, but a very large number plan entire family vacations around WDW. So to have a family make those kinds of plans, spend that kind of money only to be told they can't come into the park because they want to limit capacity to less than what is legally allowed simply would not go over well. The busiest times of years are the holidays, so those would be the days they'd have to do a closing. I can't even imagine the backlash of families saying they planned their entire magical Xmas at WDW and Mickey Mouse took his big finger and pointed them away from the park.
Or, the other side effect that would happen is this....guests now know the park only lets xx,xxx number of people in, first come first serve. Now you will have people camping outside the gates at 3am, literally. That will create its' own backlash. I understand the concept behind wanting to close the park to guests at below full capacity (and trust me, at times I've sort of wished for it), but in reality I don't think it's a solid plan for them.
Similar idea to keeping people from camping in the hub. Believe me, I don't disagree one bit in theory. But you know what will happen...wherever the closest place WDW will then allow people to wait for the hub to open will get mobbed with people camping there. Guaranteed. Unless WDW simply outlawed people stopping anywhere, the crowd will gather. There's just not a simple solution to that which won't have consequences.
Everyone has their own individual experiences in the crowds. Not saying yours didn't happen. I've certainly had times where we were in a sea of people. At that point, there's a lot of "excuse me", "coming through", "behind you", but we are able to keep moving...and get to an aisle designated by WDW for walking only. I think they do a great job with that part...they tape it out, put up rope barriers and line them with CMs.
To me, there has to be a bit of common sense on the part of the guest. As I've said many times, you're going to the busiest tourist place in the country. You have to expect that you're going to run into crowd issues, especially on a major holiday. People on this board complain about the crowds, but like I said, we're a very tiny fraction of 1% of all guests. I do believe that they get complaints from guests who aren't on this board, I've seen it happen at guest services. Though I will say that when I've seen it, I typically shake my head at the guest because their expectations were unrealistic. However, if people keep flocking in increasing numbers year over year, don't see them making a ton of changes to limit guests...whether we like it or not.
