Parks closing due to max attendance reached...

[ElizaB39]

Does anybody know if - when they close the parks due to high attendance and we parkhop over from another park - we get priority entrance over other day pass or non parkhopper ticket holders?

OR

Is everybody treated the same, parkhopper or not?

Thanks.

 

[kilee]

First the parks will close in stages. It's very rare it that parks get to full maximum capacity where nobody at all is let in. However, during the holidays it's common for MK (specifically) to be closed to offsite guests. If you are staying offsite-- you will have no priority over any guests by having a park hopper. Your ticket (w/ the exception of AP's) doesn't indicate if you are let in at different levels of closing. It is actually where you stay. By staying onsite-- they only guarantee you will be let into a park-- may not be the one you want but it will be whichever has room. It's not common for multiple parks to close in a given day.

 

[JoannaOhio]

Is there any way to find how often this has happened in recent years - and on what holidays?

 

[MKCP5]

It is generally only in very high season. Easter week, Christmas, etc. For example, MK was closed when I went on New Years eve at about 11 in the am. We went back to our hotel, had a swim, got lunch and went back about 4:00. As soon as the parade is over, all the people with very young kids seem to go home for a break. So the park was reopened. I've never been in Epcot center when it was closed

 

[beccasmom]

It's worth noting that this happens for the water parks too, especially in the summer and holiday seasons.

 

[AJKMOM]

I've heard of MK closing early on Thanksgiving Day. I think they may close for a while on July 4th, because of the fireworks.

 

[lovethattink]

This often happens during busy times at the waterparks. If you are driving, they place signs outside the waterparks. At Easter time, we got there at 11am and both TL and BB were filled to capacity. Both had signs placed outside that they would reopen at 2pm. We came back at 1:30 and had no problem getting into TL. We ended up parking in a grass lot FAR FAR FAR away from the TL entrance.

This happened to up Christmas day 2003. We arrived near MK parking lot only to find it was filled to capacity and we had to park at Epcot lot. got to Epcot lot and parked. Arrived at monorail to find out that MK had reached capacity. We took the monorail anyway and decided to wait at the park. As we arrived at the MK turnstiles, they just started to allow a certain number of guests to enter the park, so we got inside and made our PS for CP just in time!

Just an FYI...
For Christmas 2004 we decided to eat Christmas dinner at Cape May Cafe. At the security station before the parking lot, we were asked for ID. They actually had a list of everyone with PS. And they checked us off the list and gave us so much time alloted for parking at that resort.