Does no park reservation availability = at capacity?

[DestyTiger]

Ok, so example: We plan on park hopping on May 9th. Our AM/early PM is tied up in HS, but have a 4:00 reservation at LA Cava for the tequila experience that same day. Epcot currently says it is no longer taking reservations, but has anyone with a park hopper actually been turned away? I'm getting a little nervous (we haven't been since 2019 and the park reservation system has me in a tizzy).

Park hopping has no restrictions at all. We could only get reservations at EPCOT for the Easter weekend, but hopped to every park after 2pm. Actually found that EPCOT fest the most crowded to us every day. Don't worry about park hopping. You will be free to go wherever you want.

 

[DestyTiger]

Can someone explain this to me? If a given park has no park reservations available, does that mean the park is at capacity? Or does it mean that Disney has decided to cut off availability for some other reason? I'm just curious what that might mean for crowd levels. We had booked Magic Kingdom park reservations for a day that was expected to have low crowds due to MK closing early for a cast member event that night. I just looked and MK has no availability anymore. Does that mean they are actually maxed out and the crowds are going to be high?

No. The parks are still running well below actual capacities. We were there over Easter weekend and all parks were "sold out", but we found the crowds to be a lot smaller than we expected. Also found that almost all wait times were well below what was posted as the standby wait time. Most were half of the posted wait.

 

[gharter]

It's certainly true that "capacity" is whatever Disney sets it at.
We were there 2 weeks ago and MK and HS were packed and had to be close to "capacity". However, we had no issues park hopping.
One of the things that still makes the parks seem more crowded was the attractions that were still closed that suck up a lot of people. Instead those people are now visible walking around.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

While yes, they have filled all available park reservations spots for some categories for some parks at times. heck even all categories at all parks some days, they have not ever stopped hopping to a park, even on those totally full days. Full reservations are not the same thing as full parks.

 

[tpskult]

Looking at the availability calendar for the rest of may and early June and weekends are wide open? You would think weekends would be more crowded, no?

 

[tigger2002]

Looking at the availability calendar for the rest of may and early June and weekends are wide open? You would think weekends would be more crowded, no?

Florida annual pass holders can only go on weekdays.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

There is one pass for Florida residents that is only valid for weekdays (Pixie Pass I think) but if you have a Pirate or Sorcerer pass there were some weekends allotted.

 

[lanejudy]

Florida annual pass holders can only go on weekdays.

That supposedly wouldn't impact the Theme Park Ticket reservation calendar...

Looking at the availability calendar for the rest of may and early June and weekends are wide open? You would think weekends would be more crowded, no?

Maybe they ramp up staffing on weekends, therefore allowing more reservations...? Just a guess.

 

[tigger2002]

That supposedly wouldn't impact the Theme Park Ticket reservation calendar...

Pass holders still have to make a reservation, right?

 

[lanejudy]

Pass holders still have to make a reservation, right?

Yes, but they have a separate bucket with a separate calendar. So the full Theme Park Ticket or Resort calendar isn't booked up by APs.

 

[danceintherain]

Ok, so example: We plan on park hopping on May 9th. Our AM/early PM is tied up in HS, but have a 4:00 reservation at LA Cava for the tequila experience that same day. Epcot currently says it is no longer taking reservations, but has anyone with a park hopper actually been turned away? I'm getting a little nervous (we haven't been since 2019 and the park reservation system has me in a tizzy).

How did this work out for you?

Epcot has the largest capacity of any park. The chance of park hopping availability for there will always be higher than the other parks. It's the last to close based on actually capacity limitations. Magic Kingdom is the first, but even then there have been specific levels of closures. People with ADRs in a particular park have always been in one of the last groups to be denied entry. Resort guests are also given extra access.

 

[xipotec]

No. The parks are still running well below actual capacities. We were there over Easter weekend and all parks were "sold out", but we found the crowds to be a lot smaller than we expected. Also found that almost all wait times were well below what was posted as the standby wait time. Most were half of the posted wait.

This does not mean anything. Parks can be “at capacity” for any number of reasons.

More than likely they use the capacity as a measure of labor.

So being at capacity could mean, they have X amount of labor to manage Y amount of guests, with rides running at Z levels. And they understand that to be a number which wait time will not severely impact guest satifaction.

If they are full staffing levels, max capacity would look very different from a day where they only have 80% labor.

They do this with many rides, like Splash Mountain. They add more boats to increase guest throughput. But they cannot add those extra ride vehicles without staff to manage them. More importantly, without wait staff, they cannot increase restaurant capacity.

 

[lanejudy]

there have been specific levels of closures. People with ADRs in a particular park have always been in one of the last groups to be denied entry. Resort guests are also given extra access.

I don't think we really know if WDW will continue to follow the old phases of closure. Now with park reservations they no longer guarantee access to a park for resort guests, and ADRs aren't noted as receiving priority if hopping is "closed." But it's all speculation at this point because since hopping restarted there has only been 1 day that hopping was denied, at just 1 park for just a couple of hours.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

All together now, A sold out park reservation does not mean the park is at full capacity
Two completely different things