Did they increase park capacity yet?

[Simba's Mom]

Just out of curiosity, I checked park reservations today, and on my MDE, it shows no availability at DHS for the next two months. And reservations for the MK are few and far between for the next couple of months. It's been pretty much like that for the last week or so. Wasn't WDW going to increase park capacity? I'm going this summer, and fortunately have all park reservations already, but I'm surprised at what I see. Most of June is full, except for Annual Passholders. Think there'll be a capacity increase soon?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Unfortunately nobody officially knows the answer to this as Disney does not provide numbers. I know last week a number of reservations opened in May and June (possibly more?) but all of these were scooped up in a very short amount of time. Was this extra capacity? We'll never really know.

Wish I had a better answer but this question gets asked often and the answer is we just don't know.

 

[Nabas]

We do know that current park capacity has been increased beyond the 35% previously announced.

On Monday, CEO Bob Chapek said that additional "low double digits" increases will be coming.

 

[wdwobsessed]

Hmmm. I looked a few days ago and there was like full availability. They had just released a bunch.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

It seemed pack when I was just there so if that’s 35% then 100% must be insane

 

[gharter]

Considering that more park passes seem to be available on some dates that were full, I would guess they did. However, Disney doesn't reveal that information.

 

[kevgraub]

It seemed pack when I was just there so if that’s 35% then 100% must be insane

You are right, 100% would be absolutely insane. Disney has already said they have gone above the 35% mark, but no one is sure how much.

Part of what makes it feel so crowded at this point is that many of the attractions that gobble up huge chunks of the crowd remain closed. Take HS for example - once they open back up (or if they open back up) Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast, and Fantasmic (at night), you will have thousands of people at any one time inside theaters instead out walking around or in line for a ride.

 

[OB1]

My wife made a really good comment on this percentage. On a normal May day, what percent would be in the parks? We know it would not have been 100%, so 50-60% may have been a normal day at the parks. Now as pp stated, add in reduced attractions and this starts to feel like Christmas week. HOWEVER, it still does not seem as busy walking around the parks.

We visited at the end of April, and every park was totally booked. It really did not seem too bad to us. We also visited in early DEC when nothing was booked out, yet it seemed busier.

 

[gharter]

You are right, 100% would be absolutely insane. Disney has already said they have gone above the 35% mark, but no one is sure how much.

Part of what makes it feel so crowded at this point is that many of the attractions that gobble up huge chunks of the crowd remain closed. Take HS for example - once they open back up (or if they open back up) Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast, and Fantasmic (at night), you will have thousands of people at any one time inside theaters instead out walking around or in line for a ride.

We noticed the same thing in most of the parks. Not having the shows that normally take a lot of people out of just walking around made a big difference.
Along with the HS shows, we saw the same thing at AK, at the time Nemo and LoTLK were closed.
And all character M&Gs which normally had long lines of people.

 

[Nabas]

Hmmm. I looked a few days ago and there was like full availability. They had just released a bunch.

Considering that more park passes seem to be available on some dates that were full, I would guess they did. However, Disney doesn't reveal that information.

It does seem like Disney releases some Park Passes on the current day.

 

[carlyle688]

It does seem like Disney releases some Park Passes on the current day.

I have checked every day this week and at around 2:00 p.m. AP availability goes from no availability at any park to availability at all 4 parks.

 

[kevgraub]

I have checked every day this week and at around 2:00 p.m. AP availability goes from no availability at any park to availability at all 4 parks.

Just guessing here, but I wonder if Disney has figured out how many people are likely to show up in the afternoon, if they have not shown up in the morning, and use that to open up new slots.

In other words, if the limit on AP reservations is 100 per day, and 50 of those show up before noon, Disney knows that statistically another 25 are likely to show up afternoon, and 25 will not show up at all. At that point, they can go ahead and release the other 25 to new reservations without worrying about going over their self-imposed limits on people.

 

[TLSnell1981]

We noticed the same thing in most of the parks. Not having the shows that normally take a lot of people out of just walking around made a big difference.
Along with the HS shows, we saw the same thing at AK, at the time Nemo and LoTLK were closed.
And all character M&Gs which normally had long lines of people.

Lion King is open. Also Frozen in Hollywood Studios.

 

[gharter]

Lion King is open. Also Frozen in Hollywood Studios.

Frozen was open when we were there in April, but not Lion King. Even with decreased capacity, it would help.

 

[Pyxie]

You are right, 100% would be absolutely insane. Disney has already said they have gone above the 35% mark, but no one is sure how much.

Part of what makes it feel so crowded at this point is that many of the attractions that gobble up huge chunks of the crowd remain closed. Take HS for example - once they open back up (or if they open back up) Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast, and Fantasmic (at night), you will have thousands of people at any one time inside theaters instead out walking around or in line for a ride.

The thing to note is that even if they increased it to 100%, they would not be hitting 100%. They never did before except around Christmas and New Years. But yes, 100% IS insane when they reach it.