Park capacity?

[Teach]

Does anyone know what the park capacity at Disneyworld is? It seems like a trivia question. I wonder if Walt's figures were different when he envisioned the parks than what is is today. I wonder if there's a book on the subject. Anyone know?

 

[Patch'sD]

From what I remember The MK would close at 100,000. I would say that EPCOT Could at least do the same. MGM and AK most likely could hold 50,000 each. So I would put WDW Theme parks at about 300,000. Include the water parks and DTD you would hit about 350,000 to 375,000 as capacity for all WDW.

 

[wdwguide]

Total capacity for the four major parks is about 260,000.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

I actually believe that MK closes at around 50000. We have different stages of closing though to allow resort guests to continue to enter the park after we close to day guests. I believe Epcot is between 60000 and 75000 and the Studios is around 35000-40000. DAK is probably similiar to the Studios. Both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon have capacities of no more than 7000.

 

[hopemax]

The funny thing, that at least at Disneyland but I think it might be the case in WDW too, is that "in park capacity" has dropped in the last decade. DL used to be around 80,000 but has dropped to around 60,000.

The main factors that determine park capacity are

A. attraction capacities
B. queue lines
C. shops, restaurants
D. corridors, walkways

Now take a look at a park like Epcot. World of Motion was replaced with Test Track. WoM had a ride capacity of 3,240 people per hour. Test Track's is 1200 people per hour. Horizons has a capacity of 2,784 people per hour, Mission Space most likely will be less than that.

Or take the Magic Kingdom where over the last decade 20K, Carousel of Progress, Skyway, Timekeeper have all been removed without a replacement attraction. That's a lot of lost capacity. If Park Capacity = A+B+C+D, and C,D remain constant, and (A + B) decreases [closure of an attraction] then PC decreases.

And then, Disney introduced FASTPASS. On one hand great benefits for guests, but look what it did for the capacity of the park. It dumped thousands of people out of queue lines and into the walkways. If the lenght of a Splash Mtn queue line for an hour wait previously would have been 1000 people, post-FASTPASS that same hour wait means only 300 people are in the queue line. B decreases. And since A, C, D all remained constant... PC decreases too.

 

[wdwguide]

I should explain how I got to the figure I posted - Disney published total capacity during the 25th anniversary celebration, and it was 225,000 between the three parks. The Animal Kingdom then opened with a capacity of about 22,000 and is now in the vicinity of 35,000.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Hope - I feel like I'm back in algebra class or taking the SAT's again .

 

[All Aboard]

Hopemax, are you sure about your WoM & Test Track numbers? Test Track vehicles have a capacity of 6 and a dispatch interval of 12 seconds. I get 1,800 guests per hour from that.

As for WoM, at a capacity of 2 guests per car, the dispatch interval would need to be 2.22 seconds in order to achieve the throughput you mentioned. At first that seemed a little fast, but perhaps it's correct.

Gosh, I hate numbers.

Speaking of throughput, anybody familiar with Pteranodon Flyers at IOA? Vehicle capacity of 2 and a dispatch interval of 30 seconds - that's 240 guests per hour!!

 

[hopemax]

Greg,

The World of Motion and Horizons numbers came from "Fact Sheets" that used to be distributed at the park. Intercot has them on their website. The WoM vehicles were 6 people per car, with a dispatch interval of 5 seconds.

Test Track's number, I pulled off of the Hidden Mickey's website. I guess Test Track's record is 1541 people in an hour.

You did catch that, yes the one set of numbers were true maximum capacities, assuming every seat was full. Test Track's number is an "in practice" number. But 1800 vs 3240 or 1200 vs 3240, doesn't really change the point that the older rides far and away had a higher capacity, and that capacity has yet to be replaced.

 

[Teach]

Thanks for the information.