I think everyone is missing the real reason behind these new systems going in place. Disney has a capacity problem with no easy solution and it won't be cheap. Here are their potential solutions in my eyes.
1. Build a new park.
Pros: Everyone wants one, when it opens we'll see an immediate capacity boost for 40-100k depending on size. We would get a ton of new rides, and experiences.
Cons:
Staffing, even before Covid, Disney and Universal had issues filling park staff roles. Disney Regularly relied on the College Program for a boost to it's labor force. A new park would require thousands of additional staff to run the park. In their size they employee close to 80,000 people. Even by low estimates that's close to 10,000 additional employees they would need to find to staff the new park correctly.
Even if Disney were to build at Universals pace it's likely 4 years before we would see the park open.
The average vacation at Disney is 5 days, and that number isn't likely to budge even if a new park is built. This park and the added staff/costs would spread out the crowds in WDW, but ultimately wouldn't generate a substantial increase vacation time at WDW and thus it would have a limited return on value. The biggest benefit is added capacity, however, since WDW doesn't currently have enough hotel space to hold all of their existing guests it's hard to believe they could create enough hotel rooms to compensate for the capacity increases needed to fill the park.
Increased Demand: A new park would drastically increase demand at WDW to the point that it would negate any potential capacity increases for several years.
2. Increase existing park capacity and build new lands
We've seen this as of late to varying success
Pros: less staff are needed for additional lands.
The existing infrastructure at the parks means much less construction time on new additions especially if no demolition work is required to take place before construction.
Existing parks can still be operational during renovations and capacity can be increased as new sections come online.
Cons: People get upset when their childhood favorites are taken away and replaced by something new. We've seen the backlash from Figment, Mr. Toad, The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, and Horizons to name a few.
Not everything new is an E ticket ride, and those E ticket rides are lower capacity high demand rides.
Initial decrease in capacity, renovations at Hollywood Studios left the park with few attractions while Toy Storyland and Galaxy's Edge were being built. Crowd eating attractions such as Lights Motors Action and the Studio Tour being removed left little for the crowds to do.
New lands and land renovations don't necessarily mean more rides. Galaxy's Edge, Pandora, and Toy Story are all new lands at WDW, each has 2 new rides. Unless they're building 4-6 new rides that cater to multiple age groups and can handle large crowds any new land is going to overwhelm system. Minor hiccups and down times will compound how busy the park feels.
3. Increased Prices/Decrease add-ons
This one everyone hates. Higher prices mean less people can afford to visit WDW, and those who do are paying more for it. It's seen as a negative and contradictory to Walt Disney's dreams of building DL. Eventually after a certain price point is reached demand will decrease. However, will the cost of alienating potential visitors be worth the demand decrease.
4. Institute Capacity limits to lower traffic
This combined with Increased prices is Disney's current model. They can anticipate traffic and can staff better (yes, it's not perfect, but Covid does have an affect on this as well). Disney can limit how many guests enter a park and manage crowds better. Think of it like legacy Fast-Pass. That system worked so well because not every ride and attraction had FP, and if people were unwilling to wait in line for FP lines they went to shorter wait time rides and filled unused capacity at rides. The same is being used now, but combined with the post Covid travel bubble and limited staffing we're seeing a jump in demand and many people getting left without.
