Park availability - is it really that crowded?

[nicksinger8]

I am going to WDW in the last 2 weeks of August. Much to my surprise, some days have MK and DHS as unavailable. I have already booked slots, but I did wonder what this meant for crowds. I chose that time of year because I know US schools have largely gone back. I understand it always get busy at WDW, but parks closing to capacity? I thought that was reserved for Christmas day or 4th July. Is this more a sign that they are reducing capacity and perhaps reduced staff? Unofficial guide has the parks at 3 or 4/10 which seems consistent for that time of year even with increased post covid demand. Some of the days have parties at MK which I was told was actually very slow from a crowd perspective, at least for the AM. Just wanted thoughts!

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

The availability is dynamically scaled to staffing. They are not all crowd level 10 days. They basically *always* sell out MK and HS now, but the capacity seems to be based on what the max is they want for that day based upon the staffing they've already allocated, if that makes sense. Plenty of crowd level 5, and even crowd level 4 days on touringplans have been "sold out."

Edit: By way of example, yesterday at MK was a 5 and at HS was a 7 per touringplans. Both were "sold out" for reservations.

 

[nicksinger8]

The availability is dynamically scaled to staffing. They are not all crowd level 10 days. They basically *always* sell out MK and HS now, but the capacity seems to be based on what the max is they want for that day based upon the staffing they've already allocated, if that makes sense. Plenty of crowd level 5, and even crowd level 4 days on touringplans have been "sold out."

Thanks. That makes sense. And the touring plan folks make clear that crowd levels are not that helpful, at least when it comes to attractions. The parks may feel less crowded - which is nice in summer - but in reality, if they have half the ride operators, you get half the ride capacity. So lines can still be long/slow and hence, still arrive early and use your touring plan.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Thanks. That makes sense. And the touring plan folks make clear that crowd levels are not that helpful, at least when it comes to attractions. The parks may feel less crowded - which is nice in summer - but in reality, if they have half the ride operators, you get half the ride capacity. So lines can still be long/slow and hence, still arrive early and use your touring plan.

Correct. Disney manages now such that lines will always be long, probably so that you will always have incentive to purchase genie+ and ILL$. If the lines aren't long for any particular attraction on a given day it's because somebody at Disney miscalculated for that day.

 

[nicksinger8]

Correct. Disney manages now such that lines will always be long, probably so that you will always have incentive to purchase genie+ and ILL$. If the lines aren't long for any particular attraction on a given day it's because somebody at Disney miscalculated for that day.

If there is a 10 minute wait on rise of the resistance, they'd probably fire someone on the spot

 

[RoseGold]

If there is a 10 minute wait on rise of the resistance, they'd probably fire someone on the spot

It's been 10 minutes, like at park close. It just doesn't say that on the sign.

 

[CalOilerGurl]

I am thinking (pure speculation) that they are re-allocating staff for the party so they have closed off day reservations for MK those days.