Disney Room Capacity (Out of Boredom)

[jerseyduke]

There has been endless talk about how crowded WDW has become, so just out of curiosity I threw some numbers together.

When MK opened in 1971 there was 1911 Rooms (Poly, Contemporary, FW Cabins), so the room to park ration was 1911.
When Epcot opened in 1982 there was 2497 Rooms (add shades of green) making that room to park ratio 1249
When HS opened in 1989 there was 4990 Rooms (Add Caribbean beach and Grand Floridian) making the ratio 1663.
For the most part, all pretty constant.
AK opens in 1998 - 21,622 Rooms (added Beach and Yacht club, Swan and dolphin, Port Orleans, Old Key West, All Stars, Wilderness Lodge, Boardwalk, Coronado Springs) making the ratio jump to 5406 rooms per park.
as of today - 30136 Rooms - ratio 6027 rooms per park
Missing data on tower at Coronado Springs Tower
With Rivera - 30,436 Rooms - 7609 Rooms per park
Add Reflections 31,336 Rooms - 7,834 Rooms per park

Numbers might be a little off, different sites give different capacity numbers.

I know park capacity has increased with expansions, but it became clear how much rooms on property growth is outpacing park capacity.

 

[tjkraz]

But Disney hotel rooms aren't a draw. Nobody says "hey, let's go take a vacation to Disney's Art of Animation Resort, and maybe we'll visit the theme parks while we're at it."

Park attendance grows because more people choose to visit the theme parks. If Art of Animation didn't exist, people would stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

 

[DenLo]

The increase in room capacity at WDW is nothing compared to the increase in hotel rooms in Orlando. WDW guests not staying at Disney resorts outnumber onsite guests probably 10 to 1.

 

[Hjs33]

There has been endless talk about how crowded WDW has become, so just out of curiosity I threw some numbers together.

When MK opened in 1971 there was 1911 Rooms (Poly, Contemporary, FW Cabins), so the room to park ration was 1911.
When Epcot opened in 1982 there was 2497 Rooms (add shades of green) making that room to park ratio 1249
When HS opened in 1989 there was 4990 Rooms (Add Caribbean beach and Grand Floridian) making the ratio 1663.
For the most part, all pretty constant.
AK opens in 1998 - 21,622 Rooms (added Beach and Yacht club, Swan and dolphin, Port Orleans, Old Key West, All Stars, Wilderness Lodge, Boardwalk, Coronado Springs) making the ratio jump to 5406 rooms per park.
as of today - 30136 Rooms - ratio 6027 rooms per park
Missing data on tower at Coronado Springs Tower
With Rivera - 30,436 Rooms - 7609 Rooms per park
Add Reflections 31,336 Rooms - 7,834 Rooms per park

Numbers might be a little off, different sites give different capacity numbers.

I know park capacity has increased with expansions, but it became clear how much rooms on property growth is outpacing park capacity.

So what your saying is they are over due to open a new park!

 

[tjkraz]

So what your saying is they are over due to open a new park!

How often do Disney Parks close after reaching capacity?

There's your answer.

 

[kniquy]

I know park capacity has increased with expansions, but it became clear how much rooms on property growth is outpacing park capacity.

Interesting to think about. Definitely why the parks are always busy no matter what time of year. At some point they will need to build a new park.

How often do Disney Parks close after reaching capacity?

I wouldn't want them to wait until the parks are full to capacity everyday to then decide to open another park.

 

[tjkraz]

I wouldn't want them to wait until the parks are full to capacity everyday to then decide to open another park.

Magic Kingdom has capacity closure maybe 3-4 times per year. Epcot maybe 1x (NYE.)

We are a looooooooooong way from everyday closures. Unless Disney has some killer idea for another park, I just don't see a 5th park ever happening. Maybe they follow the Discovery Cove model and build some smallish niche park with high admission prices.

For a full blown park, they'd have to spend $2-4 billion on infrastructure alone...and commit to decades of maintaining that infrastructure. They haven't reached the limits of expansion on the current parks. New Fantasyland, Pandora, Toy Story Land, Galaxy's Edge, Tron Coaster...these are all adding real estate to the parks or making far better use of existing space. Epcot is next as they start repurposing the vast unused space in Future World.

 

[crisi]

Interesting to think about. Definitely why the parks are always busy no matter what time of year. At some point they will need to build a new park.

Why do you think that? Their goal in new hotels is to gain the market share of the offsite hotel business. If you look at the buildable area at WDW, Disney is running out of land that will support buildings - and they certainly don't have the land in any single area to support an entire park.

 

[Chuck S]

There's room to expand Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios outside their current boundaries. And if they want to build some foot bridges, there's still a little room by MK, but they'd have to relocate some backstage buildings and that wouldn't be convenient. But I don't think DIsney room capacity and Disney park capacity are all that intertwined. I'm guessing there may eventually be a fifth park, but it will be quite a while.

 

[jerseyduke]

The certainly will not build another park anytime soon, and they do need to maintain/expand what they have already.
However, the attendance can not just keep growing. People deal with capacity on certain days, Christmas, NYE, etc, but eventually people will give up if they get too crowded. Maybe that's not until 20 years from now, who knows. But it can not become such that no line is less than an hour during the "slower times", with prices constantly going up. Eventually people will want more.

I get that there is a lot involved in opening a 6th gate (yes, 6, Disney Springs is a 'gate' - it absorbs a lot of people), all that infrastructure cost. Card Walker took it on in Epcot. Eisner in Disney-MGM studios and Animal Kingdom. Seems like it worked out ok. Bob Iger is tackling the media issues that are pressing, and his vision in that realm has been spot on. He just isnt as much of a park guy as his predecessors . The next guy may be different.

Plus now they have a lot more IP to monetize.

Then again, Universal is slipping. If they start closing the gap again....

 

[tjkraz]

Why do you think that? Their goal in new hotels is to gain the market share of the offsite hotel business. If you look at the buildable area at WDW, Disney is running out of land that will support buildings - and they certainly don't have the land in any single area to support an entire park.

At one time, the Reedy Creek long term plan supposedly earmarked two sites for potential theme parks. One was the current TTC--basically using a small piece of land to build a multi-story parking garage while putting a theme park on the rest of the current lot.

That said, I agree it doesn't make a whole lot of financial sense. The parks aren't close to maxing-out attendance and they aren't going to build another park simply so guests have a little more elbow room while strolling down Main Street.

 

[The Jackal]

At one time, the Reedy Creek long term plan supposedly earmarked two sites for potential theme parks. One was the current TTC--basically using a small piece of land to build a multi-story parking garage while putting a theme park on the rest of the current lot.

That said, I agree it doesn't make a whole lot of financial sense. The parks aren't close to maxing-out attendance and they aren't going to build another park simply so guests have a little more elbow room while strolling down Main Street.

Were Epcot and MK at capacity when they built HS and Animal Kingdom? They have 4 parks and they are very busy. If the parks are at capacity all year round people will go over places that are not crazy busy. If the parks were busy like they are for Christmas we would not go. At some point f the things get busier they will have to plan on another park.

 

[zavandor]

Universal is going to open a new park soon. Nintendo Land and Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts are 99% in it. Rumors say Lord of the Rings could be there too. Maybe a 5th WDW park could be the reaction to the third Universal park.