park closing when crowded

[anna's mama]

I am probably overthinking this and unnecessarily worrying but I'm posting anyway.....

We are going to do 2 days at MK. Our second day, we are planning on getting there around 11am on 5/30. Is there any chance they would start limiting the number of people entering at that point? I keep reading how crowded the parks have been lately.

We usually get an early start in the park but since it's our last day, I was thinking we would want some time at the pool in the morning.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Absolutely not. There is a huge difference between "crowded" which happens almost every day in the magic kingdom and "park closing crowded" which maybe happens 10 days a year, between Christmas and New Years, Easter weekend, and July 4th.

 

[grimley1968]

You *should* be okay getting there at 11 that day. That is a Friday, and school is still in session for many school systems across the country. It's also not Memorial Day weekend. However, that would be a good day to use late-day FP+ as much as possible. Many school systems are also done by then.

 

[CaptainEO71]

I am probably overthinking this and unnecessarily worrying but I'm posting anyway.....

We are going to do 2 days at MK. Our second day, we are planning on getting there around 11am on 5/30. Is there any chance they would start limiting the number of people entering at that point? I keep reading how crowded the parks have been lately.

We usually get an early start in the park but since it's our last day, I was thinking we would want some time at the pool in the morning.

You're over-thinking for May 30th! Historically, I don't think a park has ever closed on May 30th. July 4th, Easter Day, Christmas Day, NY Eve & sporadically between those last 2, but never May 30th! No worries!

 

[anna's mama]

Thanks for the responses! We leave on Saturday so I've got a few more days of over-thinking to go

 

[annacali]

We have been Memorial day week several times. Comparing to mid-July, Columbus Day week and Thanksgiving week it was way, way, way less crowded!

 

[ferd]

What is everyone's thoughts about park closing for capacity on Friday for the 24 hour party? We plan to arrive in the late afternoon/early evening and were thinking of going ahead and parking at Epcot to monorail over. We have an ADR for MK and are also APs so that should help us get through some levels of closure, but I don't know. I know the villains event was HUGE and a mess for crowds and all, not sure what to expect for this Friday since some villains will be out as well.

 

[TheLittles]

I have been in November when although schools were still in session, it was during the Princess Half Marathon weekend, I have been in June when everyone was out of school, during Mardi Gras (when half of my state leaves to go to Disney haha) and never have they gotten close to the point of closing. Usually we eat and don't get to the parks until 11 atleast. I think you will be fine.

 

[KimK2006]

There is NO chance. You will be fine!

 

[VacaDream]

We are going to be in WDW over New Years and now I am worried the park will stop allowing people in? We were hoping to do MK on New Years Eve. Does anyone know what the chances are that they will stop letting people in? Does it happen often in the past?

 

[ferd]

We are going to be in WDW over New Years and now I am worried the park will stop allowing people in? We were hoping to do MK on New Years Eve. Does anyone know what the chances are that they will stop letting people in? Does it happen often in the past?

For New Year's Eve it can be very likely that MK will close at some point due to capacity, but usually will not stay that way all day. The parking lot does close a lot and many people have to park at Epcot which has a larger parking lot. If you want to be safe, your best bet is to arrive at MK early morning and stay there! There are phases of closure before absolutely no one can be let in, but if you want to be guaranteed entrance on a busy day like that, just arrive early and stay.

 

[johde]

The MK experiences some level of closer fairly regularly on NYE. I'm not sure if it's hit Stage 4 in recent years so if you're an onsite guest or have an ADR you will probably be OK. You may want to consider doing the MK on Dec.30 for the "dry run" of their NYE fireworks display and go to one of the other parks on Dec 31st.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Fyi, there ended up being a cheerleading competition or something the day we were at Hollywood Studios (May 4) and the place was INSANE. About mid way through the day, we found out that the hours had been extended from 8:30 to 9:30. We thought it was pretty cool. I guess they could tell based on their new fast past system that with so many reservations, it was going to be busy, so they extended the closing. That morning, they had already moved Fantasmic up to 9pm. So point being, they might actually extend the hours for you that day if its really busy, or at least they did the day we were there.

Be prepared for ridiculous, I mean ridiculous lines for Rockin' Rollercoaster and Midway Mania. We got the one (of course, since you get to choose one), but were forced to wait for Midway for 80 minutes, even as late as 8pm. We barely made it to our Fantasmic dinner voucher seats! But everything else worked, and we got good rides in thanks to the MDE app and booking about 10 days out. Be prepared that even if you go in later, the lines could still be really, really long. If we hadn't gotten the Fantasmic dining, we could have ridden Midway with our friends without a wait at 9pm.

This was school still in, but it was a weekend, (Sunday before our Magic cruise embarkation the next morning) and every single line was busy. Even Great Movie Ride etc. I never remember lines on those rides.

Definitely reserve early and check your wait times on the app often!

 

[ferd]

Fyi, there ended up being a cheerleading competition or something the day we were at Hollywood Studios (May 4) and the place was INSANE. About mid way through the day, we found out that the hours had been extended from 8:30 to 9:30. We thought it was pretty cool. I guess they could tell based on their new fast past system that with so many reservations, it was going to be busy, so they extended the closing. That morning, they had already moved Fantasmic up to 9pm. So point being, they might actually extend the hours for you that day if its really busy, or at least they did the day we were there.

Be prepared for ridiculous, I mean ridiculous lines for Rockin' Rollercoaster and Midway Mania. We got the one (of course, since you get to choose one), but were forced to wait for Midway for 80 minutes, even as late as 8pm. We barely made it to our Fantasmic dinner voucher seats! But everything else worked, and we got good rides in thanks to the MDE app and booking about 10 days out. Be prepared that even if you go in later, the lines could still be really, really long. If we hadn't gotten the Fantasmic dining, we could have ridden Midway with our friends without a wait at 9pm.

This was school still in, but it was a weekend, (Sunday before our Magic cruise embarkation the next morning) and every single line was busy. Even Great Movie Ride etc. I never remember lines on those rides.

Definitely reserve early and check your wait times on the app often!

Hollywood studios was busy on May 4th because of Star Wars day ('May the Fourth be with you') not because of the cheerleading competition.

And FWIW, TSMM ALWAYS has a long wait.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Hollywood studios was busy on May 4th because of Star Wars day ('May the Fourth be with you') not because of the cheerleading competition.

And FWIW, TSMM ALWAYS has a long wait.

Hey, unless you were personally there on May the Fourth, than you don't know what I'm talking about. There were cheerleaders EVERY WHERE. As for the May the Fourth, there was not really any substance to it (other than like a sign or something)? Star Wars weekends hadn't even started yet, and a few dudes had capes, but it was definitely understated compared to the many, many cheerleaders. (Admittedly, they were very perky and fun! They cheered constantly during the TSMM line!) Talk about a sea of bows...

Anyway I know TSMM ALWAYS has a crazy long line, but we used to be able to do the Single Rider Rockin' Coaster, and this time, they even closed the single rider line because 'it was too busy'.

Again, I have never seen lines for EVERYTHING including old stuff like 'Great' Movie Ride...

I did ask a CM at Epcot what was with the crazy line longs for everything (for things like Figment?!) and he said without a minute of hesitation "the new fast pass system."

We are going to give their system a few years to work out the bugs. It definitely was missing some of the magic we used to experience, although at least we did get everything in that we had to, but I have never seen lines like this for when school is still in...

In any case, the hours had been extended on that week from when I first started planning, thankfully! When I first looked into planning our days to go to MK, it was closing at 10pm (and was extended to 12am.) HS and MK were extended, but I don't think AK or EP were (unfortunately.)

 

[ferd]

Hey, unless you were personally there on May the Fourth, than you don't know what I'm talking about. There were cheerleaders EVERY WHERE. As for the May the Fourth, there was not really any substance to it (other than like a sign or something)? Star Wars weekends hadn't even started yet, and a few dudes had capes, but it was definitely understated compared to the many, many cheerleaders. (Admittedly, they were very perky and fun! They cheered constantly during the TSMM line!) Talk about a sea of bows...

Anyway I know TSMM ALWAYS has a crazy long line, but we used to be able to do the Single Rider Rockin' Coaster, and this time, they even closed the single rider line because 'it was too busy'.

Again, I have never seen lines for EVERYTHING including old stuff like 'Great' Movie Ride...

I did ask a CM at Epcot what was with the crazy line longs for everything (for things like Figment?!) and he said without a minute of hesitation "the new fast pass system."

We are going to give their system a few years to work out the bugs. It definitely was missing some of the magic we used to experience, although at least we did get everything in that we had to, but I have never seen lines like this for when school is still in...

In any case, the hours had been extended on that week from when I first started planning, thankfully! When I first looked into planning our days to go to MK, it was closing at 10pm (and was extended to 12am.) HS and MK were extended, but I don't think AK or EP were (unfortunately.)

Umm, I was there. I'm at the parks every weekend since I live in the area and have an annual pass. I'm very familiar with the crowds and lines both before and after FP+ (I've seen A & E 10 times now, so I'm quite well versed in popular attractions FWIW.)

You didn't mention Star Wars day at all, and so it seemed you were unaware that HS is *always* busy that day because of the special Star Wars themed characters and events going on in the park that day. It was more than a sign. Not sure why you feel the need to get defensive about someone sharing a bit of knowledge. The cheerleaders have been in all the parks for several days and really didn't contribute too much more to the crowd levels IMHO.

 

[disneytripper024]

What is everyone's thoughts about park closing for capacity on Friday for the 24 hour party? We plan to arrive in the late afternoon/early evening and were thinking of going ahead and parking at Epcot to monorail over. We have an ADR for MK and are also APs so that should help us get through some levels of closure, but I don't know. I know the villains event was HUGE and a mess for crowds and all, not sure what to expect for this Friday since some villains will be out as well.

Despite of the crowds I'd try parking at the Transportation and Ticket Center 1st since Epcot closes earlier unless your leaving the parks by 12 or 1am ( Epcot I believe closes at 12am that night, maybe 11pm). It would be a bit more of a hassle to monorail over to Epcot especially 2hrs after they close. You might have to walk to your car.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Umm, I was there. I'm at the parks every weekend since I live in the area and have an annual pass. I'm very familiar with the crowds and lines both before and after FP+ (I've seen A & E 10 times now, so I'm quite well versed in popular attractions FWIW.)

You didn't mention Star Wars day at all, and so it seemed you were unaware that HS is *always* busy that day because of the special Star Wars themed characters and events going on in the park that day. It was more than a sign. Not sure why you feel the need to get defensive about someone sharing a bit of knowledge. The cheerleaders have been in all the parks for several days and really didn't contribute too much more to the crowd levels IMHO.

Ahah! So you were also crowding my lines. I would have understood had it been more Star Wars related stuff. I think all the cheerleaders must have been in our lines then. How could they not contribute to the crowd levels? They all were representing their teams and I think they were all at HS that day. Lots of them!

In any case, it's not a mistake that will happen again. I used to think that 'every day was a weekend' at Disney. Last year, we were there at Daytona Weekend and on a Saturday and we still were able to hop all 4 parks and do TONS of stuff. This year, the weekends were insanity. Our cruise was Mon-Fri, we had only weekends to add on to it, but I wouldn't do that again. (FLRs like you lucky ducks and all the cheerleaders bogging down the lines...) Unfortunately we picked SeaWorld on that Friday and were literally KILLED with Senior and School Trips every where! The staff said they had never seen anything like it?! Boy did we know how to pick the days...

I'll do myself a favor and definitely skip the first 2 weekends in May from here on out for Orlando! Yikes! I can't imagine the summer!