Holiday Crowds - Any Phased Closings?

[amwildwood]

Just curious if any of the parks have experienced phased closings this week. Thanks.

 

[hiroMYhero]

So far, gates remained open to all. The parks never had to move to an initial phase closure.

Disney Springs was reported to be packed on Christmas Day with full parking lots and crowded buses.

 

[andyman8]

No closings as of now. We'll see how things get on NYE day.

Honestly, having been to WDW during this Xmas/New Year's period many times, I have to say this year has seemed relatively mild compared to those years. Not saying it doesn't feel crowded at all or that wait times aren't ridiculously high, but to me, it just seems slightly less packed than years in the past.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I worked at MK the past couple days and had roughly $10,000 in my cash deposit at the end of each shift, and one shift was only 6 hours. I'm eager to get back to a less busy park today.

Despite that, the crowd projections we heard in our morning meeting were only approaching the threshold where they won't predict any higher. Last year at this time, it was just that maximum projection all week for MK.

 

[amwildwood]

Thanks for the info. While I know it's super crowded, at least I'll get to park at TTC and get into the MK tomorrow.

 

[bumbershoot]

Disney Springs was reported to be packed on Christmas Day with full parking lots and crowded buses.

FWIW that wasn't my experience that day.

Took the bus from GF to DS, and didn't have much of a wait. Bus wasn't crowded going there, or at least no more than a typical bus experience for me. DS wasn't crowded for what we THOUGHT was going to be our Raglan Road brunch. Turned out they had the brunch hours and entertainment schedule, but without indicating it on their website they didn't have the brunch menu. GRR.

Our brunch time was noon and we got there 11:45 and the place was empty. It was filling up as we left, but it's a big space. Leaving there were no crowds (it was probably 2 by then...yes we sat for awhile since there were some gaps in service that were irritating and we wanted to enjoy the ambiance). The wait for the bus was a wait, BUT the bus was *right there*. They were having some issues with a family with *both* a big stroller that they had a hard time collapsing AND a scooter, and for some reason this all took absolute ages to work out. But it was a pleasant day, everyone was happy, the bus was *there*, and it all worked out.

Given how much I despise the bus system at WDW, and crowds, and shopping malls, for me to have had a perfectly pleasant day using the buses, on what should have been a crowded day, while going to and from a glorified shopping mall, that's saying something.


We didn't go to parks at all, but if we had, I would have taken transportation. Looking at the parking lot of a line outside of TTC made everyone in the bus just shudder!

 

[yulilin3]

And how day to night can change.
I also took the bus from Grand floridian to Disney springs on Sunday, around 7pm, took us 50 minutes to get there because we were stuck in traffic.
Going home from DS to my house is usually a 20 minute trip, it roll me 45 minutes

 

[CAS239]

Both parking garages were about completely full on dec 21st

 

[bumbershoot]

And how day to night can change.

Totally. I apologize for not making it obvious that I was only speaking for the timeframe I was traveling.

 

[yulilin3]

Totally. I apologize for not making it obvious that I was only speaking for the timeframe I was traveling.

no need to apologize, just pointing out how same day experiences can change in a heartbeat, or in this case day to night

 

[yulilin3]

Both parking garages were about completely full on dec 21st

No matter what time I get to DS, in the morning or afternoon, the Lime parking Garage always says full. The day in question (Dec. 25th) I arrived at DS around 2pm and both Lime and Orange said full but I went into Orange and found a spot no problem on level 2 and actually the last level had a lot of spaces. So even if you see them saying full there's always someone leaving.

 

[OKW Lover]

Disney Springs was reported to be packed on Christmas Day with full parking lots and crowded buses.

We were there that afternoon (arrived about 2 and left about 5) and yes, one of the garages (lime) was full but the other had plenty of spots. Walked around a little (we were there to eat, not shop) and yes it was busy but not unbearable.

 

[CAS239]

No matter what time I get to DS, in the morning or afternoon, the Lime parking Garage always says full. The day in question (Dec. 25th) I arrived at DS around 2pm and both Lime and Orange said full but I went into Orange and found a spot no problem on level 2 and actually the last level had a lot of spaces. So even if you see them saying full there's always someone leaving.

When I went on the 21st I wound up having to park on the top level of lime. However it was around about 5pm

 

[steph12]

We went to DS in the December 16 and it showed the garages were full, but we went ahead and went inside to see if anyone was leaving. The signs were showing available spots, but there were CMs working each level and blocked every one of them with orange cones and were saying that if there aren't 20+ spaces available then they have to close that level of the garage!! That makes no sense at all! Everyone trying to park was furious. The signs above each of the levels would show plenty of spaces and we could see cars pulling out of the spaces, but no luck at all getting a spot.

 

[Accident]

DS has been like that a lot, they seem to go full before it's really full or they don't come out of full as quick as you would think. My guess is there s a little tolerance that it missed something and it probably counts cars in the garage that might park there so enough cars coming in and cars who haven't actually left + some extra spaces it leaves for error and you got yourself a situation where ignoring it being full gets a nice spot