I read the above article this morning and it got me thinking, does Disney need to add capacity to its Parks? As a guest do you feel overcrowded, or like there are large areas that are being underutilized within the four gates? Do you feel like the WDW Parks are not running at peak efficiency? If so, what do you think are realistic steps that the company could take to help improve the guest experience?
First and foremost, I think this point is utter BS...
***"They could open a fifth gate. This is unlikely for many reasons, but chief among them is vacation habits in the USA. People just don't take long enough vacations to justify a 5th theme park in Orlando."***
If Disney builds it, people will come. We are already spending a week at a time revisiting the 4 parks while we are there. I would love a 5th park not only to disperse the guests but for the sheer excitement of something really new. It kills me when I see all the cool new stuff the parks overseas are getting. Even if the vacay isn't "long enough" the guests that have been going for years will have something new to do, people visiting for the first time will want to see all the parks, people will ADD days to their trips. I see it all the time. And what about all the foreigners? They are usually at least 2 weeks. Sure, they may be visiting other parks and doing other things but they will hit all 5 parks.
Heck, if not a 5th gate, add more lands to the existing. Pandora, Toy Story and soon to be Galaxy's Edge have been a hit. People love it. You can tell that by the 3+ hour wait times. Heck, they aren't even going to promote or advertise GE, now that is strong!!!
I do agree with more training and overnight maintenance. They are going to have to do something, pretty soon they will have more rooms than space to put people.
"I do not like the cone of shame."
"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell."
"It seems to me that we have a lot of story yet to tell."
Heck, if not a 5th gate, add more lands to the existing. Pandora, Toy Story and soon to be Galaxy's Edge have been a hit.
More lands is my preference to a 5th gate. Or even expansions in the existing lands such as what was done with Fantasyland. I would go crazy for an Adventureland expansion.
Look, I remember going to WDW in the 80's in the fall and basically walking from attraction to attraction with little or no waiting. WDW is one of the many things in my life that represents the love/hate dichotomy of life, I absolutely love WDW but I truly hate crowds and waiting. So I'm for a 5th gate, a 6th gate, opening old rides, parades whatever is needed to ease crowds. We go at the least busy times of year (late January) and it's still too crowded.
"leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy." " Walt Disney "
I agree with wdwizbest. And JMed. And Kristen! It's so crowded. We hit WDW every month since last April and think the crowd levels we're really busy, really really busy and really.really really busy.
I think population growth and tourism increases really add to it...... Some State stats:
Visit Florida, the state's official tourism marketing corporation, announced Wednesday that 126.1 million out-of-state visitors came to Florida in 2018. That's the eighth consecutive record year for Florida tourism, exceeding the 118.8 million visitors in 2017 by 6.2 percent.
Visit Florida estimates 111.8 million domestic visitors traveled to Florida in 2018, plus an estimated 10.8 million overseas visitors and 3.5 million Canadians.
And folks continue to move to Florida at a pretty high pace (including yours truly!!l):
The Sunshine state continues to be a popular place to call home. Florida is the third-most populous state in the country, behind only California and Texas, and it's widening its lead over fourth-place New York: From 2010 to 2017, Florida's population grew by 11.6% versus only 2.4% in New York. And recent U.S. Census population estimates show that Florida's growth is widespread, as cities throughout the state have grown since 2010.
Not that all these tourists and new residents all go to Disney, but it sure feels like they do. And right now there's only.so much physical space between the 4 parks.
We've tried resort hopping the last 3 visits and were turned away at more than 1 resort because of "capacity". Maybe there were other factors but were never had that happen before.
We've tried resort hopping the last 3 visits and were turned away at more than 1 resort because of "capacity". Maybe there were other factors but were never had that happen before.
I take it you were driving your car? Were these resorts Monorail resorts or the EPCOT resorts? They are seriously cracking down on people who want to/try to park at these resorts and go into the parks from there. People try to do this to get around the parking fee if they are not annual passholders or DVC members.
Yep, we had our car. One was the Yacht Club so I get it (though we weren't intending to go to Epcot, just walk around the Boardwalk and get a snack). One was the Wilderness Lodge..always wants to see but we got turned away without a resort or a dining reservation.
Wow, never been turned away from Wilderness Lodge... I know there are big crackdowns going on all around property.
"I do not like the cone of shame."
"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell."
"It seems to me that we have a lot of story yet to tell."
If Disney builds it, they will come 
. They definitely need to open a new park.......or two. Adding new attractions to existing parks only increase the crowds levels at those parks (i.e. Pandora at Animal Kingdom). Today's popular rides and over-the-counter dinning venues are overcrowded to a point of it being ridiculous. Hours in line 
or eating standing 
or sitting on the ground 
.
Just my 2 cents 
