Magic Kingdom phase 4 closing

spodie · Post by **spodie** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 11:50 am

boilerbabe wrote:Does anyone know what the capacity is at MK?!

I heard that there were somewhere between 93,000 and 100,000 people there when it closed.

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 12:23 pm

WOW! That's crowded and at that point, how is that any fun?!?! I prefer going to the parks during the "value" season. But, I've always wanted to ring in the New Year at my most happy place!

Lion Sleeps Tonight · Post by **Lion Sleeps Tonight** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 2:10 pm

I could see why people would want to do it. It's NYE, and if you're on vacation at Disney at the time, might as well suffer the close quarters for a few hours, and enjoy the cool fireworks to usher in the new year. I'm sure people plan their vacation just for that event.

I heard the fireworks were really cool, even the preview ones the night before.

Future Guy · Post by **Future Guy** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 3:50 pm

aparadissis wrote:
JimB wrote:People were talking about 15-20 minute lines for the BATHROOMS!!!
Maybe they should put a fastpass in for them

Look kids, only a 20-minute wait for Mickey's Porcelain Whirlpool Adventure!

MadEye wrote: I heard that at Epcot, they were parking guests on the grass. And that park has the biggest parking lot of the 4 (if you haven't heard, you could fit Magic Kingdom in that lot!).

That's insane! I've never seen EPCOT's parking lot more than half full, even when the park is fairly crowded.

Esmeralda · Post by **Esmeralda** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 4:34 pm

I wonder if there were more crowds because Pleasure Island is no longer the hot spot for New Year's parties. With no clubs, they all surged on the Magic Kingdom! No thank you, I think I'll stick this one out at home.

figmentaholic · Post by **figmentaholic** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 8:04 pm

boilerbabe wrote:Does anyone know what the capacity is at MK?!

I like the Fast Pass idea for the bathrooms, LOL

This was posted in Yahoo! Answers... I dunno if it is right..

The Magic Kingdom has the capacity for 100000 guests, although Disney often will close the parking lots when 75000 guests have entered the park, ...
The 125-acre Magic Kingdom parking facilities can accommodate 12,213 vehicles, all of which will be full by 10:00 a.m. Christmas Day.

This site seems to confirm that.. http://www.disneybythenumbers.com/wdw/wdw.html

100,000 guests is the max capacity for the Magic Kingdom. The parking lot closes at 75,000 to allow room for Hotel resort guests arriving on buses, boats and monorail.

Post by **Len90** » Jan Fri 02, 2009 11:36 pm

MadEye wrote:
Len90 wrote:Does anyone know the status of the other parks?
I heard that at Epcot, they were parking guests on the grass. And that park has the biggest parking lot of the 4 (if you haven't heard, you could fit Magic Kingdom in that lot!).

Wow that is insane. I was in the parks on July 4th week when it is supposed to be in the midst of peak season and the parking lot at Epcot, as seen from the monorail, was not even close to being filled.

I don't want to even think about the traffic jam after all the festivities ended. It was horrendous on July 4th this past year when the Magic Kingdom hit I believe a phase 3.

tndeaton · Post by **tndeaton** » Jan Sat 03, 2009 2:20 pm

packwingfn wrote:Yeah I was in EPCOT Last year working on NYE...it was insane but at least World Showcase has a lot of more space than Magic Kingdom. I couldn't imagine being on Main Street trying to exit the park...even with the backstage areas open in order to help guest flow.

My sister was at MK NYE day, they left the park in the early afternoon to go back to the resort to eat. Food lines at MK were nuts! They were warned when they left that there was NO guarantee they would be allowed back in later and sure enough where they returned at 5pm they were turned away at the gates. They went to epcot which was open but just as crowded. She said people in the worldshow case were sitting in the middle of the walk ways to hold their space until midnight.

Lion Sleeps Tonight wrote:I could see why people would want to do it. It's NYE, and if you're on vacation at Disney at the time, might as well suffer the close quarters for a few hours, and enjoy the cool fireworks to usher in the new year. I'm sure people plan their vacation just for that event.

I heard the fireworks were really cool, even the preview ones the night before.

.

My sister did mention that the Fireworks at Epcot were AMAZING.

Post by **Len90** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 12:28 am

tndeaton wrote:
packwingfn wrote:Yeah I was in EPCOT Last year working on NYE...it was insane but at least World Showcase has a lot of more space than Magic Kingdom. I couldn't imagine being on Main Street trying to exit the park...even with the backstage areas open in order to help guest flow.
My sister was at MK NYE day, they left the park in the early afternoon to go back to the resort to eat. Food lines at MK were nuts! They were warned when they left that there was NO guarantee they would be allowed back in later and sure enough where they returned at 5pm they were turned away at the gates. They went to epcot which was open but just as crowded. She said people in the worldshow case were sitting in the middle of the walk ways to hold their space until midnight.

Absolutely crazy. I guess this might just rule out going to WDW next year for New Year's for me. I can barely handle a crowd in midtown Manhattan around the holidays, and I seriously doubt I could take that. It is just purely insane to sit for 6 hours to watch a 10 minute show.

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 1:16 am

I wonder if you wanted to just watch the fireworks on the beach at the Poly, is that as crazy crowded?!?!

Joe90 · Post by **Joe90** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 11:56 am

We were in MK NYE 1999-2000 and yes it was crazy.
The park gates were closed by 0900

and then it was a one out one in count at the gate with a warning that you wouldn't get into any of the other parks.

If you were driving in you were vetted to make sure you had a valid park ticket before you got to the pay booths. They were not selling tickets on the day. No ticket? just turn around and head home.

We still managed to get on to most of the rides and had a great location in front of the Castle for the fireworks.

Was it any good?? Of course it was

MadEye · Post by **MadEye** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 1:28 pm

Esmeralda wrote:I wonder if there were more crowds because Pleasure Island is no longer the hot spot for New Year's parties. With no clubs, they all surged on the Magic Kingdom! No thank you, I think I'll stick this one out at home.

It is always that busy around the holidays, whether PI is closed or not. Think of Winter break as Summer break with the crowds, but in a lot less time. The holidays always bring in the crowds.

kcarts · Post by **kcarts** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 4:52 pm

I wouldn't mind seeing an aerial shot of that but I definitely would not want to be there. I can only imagine the amount of cranky kids and impatient parents. You could probably hear the screaming for miles!

Cheshire Cat · Post by **Cheshire Cat** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 8:04 pm

I wonder if there were more crowds because Pleasure Island is no longer the hot spot for New Year's parties. With no clubs, they all surged on the Magic Kingdom! No thank you, I think I'll stick this one out at home.

We just got home from WDW for New Years (spent new years eve at epcot) and it did seem as if epcot was using a lot of lighting equipment left over from Pleasure Island for dance areas as well as having PLENTY of places to buy booze. I'm sure most of the people that would otherwise have gone to PI ended up going to epcot. epcot, along with the Boardwalk had a Pleasure Island feel on New Year's Eve.

As for MK, we saw the "New Year's Eve" fireworks on the 30th.

It was nice to see Fantasy in the Sky again. On the 31st we drove to epcot around noon and the roadsigns already said that MK was full.

Post by **Len90** » Jan Sun 04, 2009 8:41 pm

Very interesting cheshire cat. That is smart of Disney to recycle equipment and Epcot could use better lighting at night for when it is crowded. The world showcase always feels very dark to me.

As for the MK fireworks, I thought it was not going to be Fantasy in the Sky this year and instead was going to be a new show that would be played on Independence day and New Years.

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Magic Kingdom phase 4 closing

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