Question about full capacity days.

[By-Tor and Snow Pup]

If you have a reservation on a day where the park reaches full capacity (like at Christmas time), and you come later in the day, but you have a reservation, could you be denied entry because the park is at capacity?

 

[Pluto468]

I haven't read anything about people being turned away if they have reservations. I would think that since you have a reservation you're going to get in no matter what time you show up. Maybe someone else can confirm, but that's my best guess.

 

[StormyCA]

With the reservation system they wouldn't open more slots than capacity allows. At least I'd hope not.

In the "before times" they just let people keep coming in until the fire marshal said "HEY! No more!" when they got close to capacity. With reservations, capacity is 'pre-set' so I'd assume that wouldn't happen.

The only monkey wrench that might get thrown in is if 'capacity' is figured for both parks separately. Then they may stop park-hopping if there are too many people in one park. When we were at WDW the hopping 'rules' specified the hopping was only allowed IF your chosen park wasn't already at capacity.

 

[DLgal]

No. You'll get in guaranteed to your "starting park" at least.

 

[Malcon10t]

My understanding is you are guaranteed into your starting park prior to 1pm. After park hop time, you may only be guaranteed into one of the parks.

 

[NVDis]

I'm confused about capacity in general...
With the reservation system are they operating at actual full (normal times) capacity potential?
or they still on a smaller percentage allowed capacity at this time? (per CoVid)

 

[DLgal]

I'm confused about capacity in general...
With the reservation system are they operating at actual full (normal times) capacity potential?
or they still on a smaller percentage allowed capacity at this time? (per CoVid)

Definitely not full pre covid capacity.

The "capacity" HAS to be super variable because we are here right now and it, in comparison to a couple weeks ago, feels QUITE empty. Lines aren't too long and there just aren't that many people walking around and yet, the reservations were "full" for today.

They are using the reservation system to allow in exactly how many people they want on any given day, but that number appears be extremely variable.

 

[NVDis]

Thank you. Very interesting.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I just made reservations for Thanksgiving week. The confirmation says the name of the park I chose, as well as "entry time: all day." I assume this means we have guaranteed entry into that park for the entire day of the reservation. The ability to hop to the other park may be limited by capacity.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Theoretically, yes -- anyone can be denied entry for any operational reason, even with a valid ticket admission and reservation.

As my esteemed DIS colleagues stated above, in the Before Times™, Disneyland would start by suspending one-day park ticket sales, and proceed to outright blocking entry into the parks until those already inside start to exit (usually, folks would bide their time at DCA -- I don't ever remember DCA having to shut its gates).

With the reservation calendar in place, I really highly doubt that they would do something like allow the # of reservations to be greater than the actual, physical, legal, "fire marshal" capacity, so I would be confident in being able to get in.

Caveat being... stuff happens, keep an ear out on the forums for reports, plan on getting there early (if anything, because lines become unbearable in the afternoon), and be flexible. Disneyland between December 15-January 5 is a wild, wild place.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I just made reservations for Thanksgiving week. The confirmation says the name of the park I chose, as well as "entry time: all day." I assume this means we have guaranteed entry into that park for the entire day of the reservation. The ability to hop to the other park may be limited by capacity.

Yup. But there has never been any day so far where park hopping at Disneyland or California Adventure have been restricted. There was a day in WDW where park hopping into Magic Kingdom was blocked but people with reservations for Magic Kingdom could still get in.

In the pre-pandemic times, Disneyland would occasionally hit capacity between Christmas and New Years. In those days, they would sometimes do "re-entry only" which means only people who had scanned into Disneyland Park earlier in the day and left the park would be allowed in but people who had not entered Disneyland Park yet that day would not be allowed in. With the reservation system, WDW has changed so that when a park hits capacity, people with reservations to that specific park could get in but my understanding is that people with park hoppers or annual passes could not re-enter the park.