Fiasco to Park at the Parks - What can be done?

[CastMember 02]

I really think the BULK of the parking problem lies with downtown disney it is very convienent to get 3 hours free parking and if you have thousands of guests doing this a day there goes your capacity/parking ratios, and if disney wanted to they could use Lilo as a regular lot like pinnochio and charge the 12 dollars, lots of things can be said but things take time. Until then maybe disney should offer free parking to cars with 4 or more guests in them?

[Radiobarry]

Are you saying I can't even go to DCA???? What kind of world is that?!

A much kinder and gentler one

I'm going to send the A&E network an e-mail, and suggest they sell the "Parking Wars" program to the Disney Channel.

Imagine the possibilities.

-- Barry

[aashee]

I don't think I can recall a single time DCA was at capacity.

Well to be fair, technically at DCA it's called "Crapacity".

[Coheteboy]

I really think the BULK of the parking problem lies with downtown disney it is very convienent to get 3 hours free parking and if you have thousands of guests doing this a day there goes your capacity/parking ratios, and if disney wanted to they could use Lilo as a regular lot like pinnochio and charge the 12 dollars, lots of things can be said but things take time. Until then maybe disney should offer free parking to cars with 4 or more guests in them?

I think the Downtown Disney lots are an entirely separate (but still related) issue. When I was shut out of Mickey & Friends parking structure at about 5pm, my next logical thought was to go to Downtown Disney. But they were both crapped out.

I have to wonder though.. maybe downtown disney parking isn't as effective as it should have been? I often think about similar entertainment outlets in Southern California. None of them have big open lots anymore. Irvine Spectrum has resurrected parking structures and it has helped enormously.

Universal City Walk uses several parking structures, but parking is for both city walk AND the theme parks. Should Disney adopt this method too? (i say no).

The Grove in Los Angeles is a very small shopping / dining / movie strip that also makes use of a large parking structure.

I think the future is with more of that, as unsightly as they are.. it's the only way to gauarantee that everyone who wants to be there can be there.



And this isn't just about disney visitors... this is also to find a solution to ease all the traffic problems that surround the area due to the lack of parking.. when cars are just backed up for miles on end without knowing where to go.

[MrLiver]

Student Annual passholders are driving individually to meet their friends. Young adults are going there from work to meet their other friends driving from their work.

You're absolutely right - things ARE different now. But that's more a liability than an asset.

The parking structure holds about 10,000 cars. If every guest came in only one car each, Disney would have to build 9 more Mickey and Friend's sized parking structures to handle the crowd.

I seriously doubt that you would advocate that they build up the parking to that kind of level - but the same thinking applies. As I said parking will ALWAYS be finite so where do you draw the level?

And then as a matter of reality - you have to analyze the amount of money that Disney would have to spend to build more parking versus the amount that they would get back. I doubt you would argue that they can get far more revenue building a 200 million dollar E-Ticket attraction than they could get building a 200 million dollar parking structure. And if you're building a parking structure JUST to house a group of people who are essentially parking for free - you are losing even more money.

Based on the laws of supply and demand the answer here is that if supply cannot meat demand, you raise your prices. The best solution that would be more guest friendly AND generate more revenue for Disney is to raise the prices and discourage AP holders from coming one to a car.

But then if you can't even admit turning people away from the park is bad business, how can you come to any other rational conclusions?

If it's a matter of spending money to park more AP holders who come in one per car - or spending that money to attract guests who would come in bigger groups and stay over night, I'm going to pick the option that would land me more revenue coming in - and that means spending the money attracting more hotel and multi-day guests.

That makes far more sense than just turning guests a way - which is a rather simplistic view of the situation.

[CAspace]

Disney had given use of many of it's auxillary parking lots to the NaMM convention to use. If we continue to see the lots filled and lack of any parking spaces when there is not a 85,000 person convention which was mentioned on local newsites, newspapers then let's talk.

If the AP monthly program and the birthday promotion turns out to be so successfull that DL can continue to bring in a packed park in one of the nations worst economic crisis in modern history, then dl mngmt will have succeeded on a enormous level and there will be many families of Cast members who will be grateful to know that their mom or dad still has a job.
In these desperate economic times I will gladly put up with a packed park or full parking lots to know that the happiest place on earth won't be shutting it's doors and laying off thousands of employees like so many other buisnesses across the nation.

As much as everyone here would like a off season empty park for our own selfish reasons (myself included ) it just is not fair for us to want a empty park which surely means a loss of money park. The park needs to be filled with bodies to be profitable which is why all these promotions are genius as much as I despise the extreme loss of "exclusivity of the premium pass) it is a sign of the desperate times and things could be so much worse at the park If they cannot keep it filled during these days. Here's to a great big brighter tommorow!

[Coheteboy]

You're absolutely right - things ARE different now. But that's more a liability than an asset.

The parking structure holds about 10,000 cars. If every guest came in only one car each, Disney would have to build 9 more Mickey and Friend's sized parking structures to handle the crowd.

I seriously doubt that you would advocate that they build up the parking to that kind of level - but the same thinking applies. As I said parking will ALWAYS be finite so where do you draw the level?

And then as a matter of reality - you have to analyze the amount of money that Disney would have to spend to build more parking versus the amount that they would get back. I doubt you would argue that they can get far more revenue building a 200 million dollar E-Ticket attraction than they could get building a 200 million dollar parking structure. And if you're building a parking structure JUST to house a group of people who are essentially parking for free - you are losing even more money.

Based on the laws of supply and demand the answer here is that if supply cannot meat demand, you raise your prices. The best solution that would be more guest friendly AND generate more revenue for Disney is to raise the prices and discourage AP holders from coming one to a car.

Hehehe.. meat.

Alright, fair enough question, where would I draw the line? Well, if this current climate of fewer persons per car were to keep on going, I think the only solution would be to build more parking structures. You can't just constantly argue that this is ONLY for annual passholders. This is a problem for the random visitor too.

If the parks are not at capacity and the structures AND parking lots are full, then that's a problem. That's a case in which the supply does meet demand, but those demanding aren't able to reach the supply.


And again, you keep bringing up the fact that APers are parking for "free" and that's really not the case. Premium APs cost money and the parking is included. It's 'practically' free in a comparitive stance but it certainly isn't free. Same goes to the APers who pay the additional sum to have the parking option added on. They're paying the price that Disney charged, so why are you so focused on not giving them what they paid for?

Would I rather have a $200 million E-Ticket than a to have enough parking for everyone? I'd rather have proper parking to be honest with you. A new ride is all well and good, but if I can't even park my car to see this attraction, what good is it?

[Bornieo Goes Bananas]

Parking has been an issue for a while at the DLR structure and it's very frustrating for a place that's been open for 50+ years has no idea how to park cars. First, whomever planed it and whomever manages it now needs to be chucked off the top level because they have no idea what they're doing. They don't staff postions. They don't move the flow of traffic very well. They close off the bridge at odd times or when traffic is heavy like today - had the bridge been open, the back up wouldn't have gone onto the 5frwy this afternoon. Some days they have cars out to the freeway and they only have a few booths open, then you get inside and there are dozens of CM's standing around pointing. "Really? I have to go left with the other 30 cars in front of me??? Thanks for pointing." You have hundreds of cars merging into one lane causeing a huge back up on the "Up ramps" and the dumbest, frankly, is the green booth "Open" X that is right above the booth, when it should be at the start of the structure so you know what booths are open. Meanwhile, cars are merging and changing lanes because they don't know where to go until the last second.

I thank the CM's in the booths every time I'm there because they're working 2 lanes at once sometimes. The "Joe's" in the upper offices need to get out of their offices and see that there is a big problem at the Mickey and Friends structure.

[DisneyIPresume]

Would I rather have a $200 million E-Ticket than a to have enough parking for everyone? I'd rather have proper parking to be honest with you. A new ride is all well and good, but if I can't even park my car to see this attraction, what good is it?

I was just going to say the same thing CB.

What good are any of the attractions if people can't park in order to enjoy them? Sure it costs a boatload of money to build additional parking, but is $200 millon on an attraction that no one is going to be able to see really worth the money if people are going to be turned away from seeing it?

And even worse, how many of those people who get turned away will promise themselves never to visit Disneyland again. And when they go to their friends and family they will tell them that parking at Disneyland is difficult.

It seems to me that spending $200 million to build additional parking is not an option. It's a necesseity vital to the long-term growth of the park.

[DisneyIPresume]

Parking has been an issue for a while at the DLR structure and it's very frustrating for a place that's been open for 50+ years has no idea how to park cars. First, whomever planed it and whomever manages it now needs to be chucked off the top level because they have no idea what they're doing. They don't staff postions. They don't move the flow of traffic very well. They close off the bridge at odd times or when traffic is heavy like today - had the bridge been open, the back up wouldn't have gone onto the 5frwy this afternoon. Some days they have cars out to the freeway and they only have a few booths open, then you get inside and there are dozens of CM's standing around pointing. "Really? I have to go left with the other 30 cars in front of me??? Thanks for pointing." You have hundreds of cars merging into one lane causeing a huge back up on the "Up ramps" and the dumbest, frankly, is the green booth "Open" X that is right above the booth, when it should be at the start of the structure so you know what booths are open. Meanwhile, cars are merging and changing lanes because they don't know where to go until the last second.

I thank the CM's in the booths every time I'm there because they're working 2 lanes at once sometimes. The "Joe's" in the upper offices need to get out of their offices and see that there is a big problem at the Mickey and Friends structure.

I don't come from the north. Seriously -- I5 gets backed up in cases like this?

Perhaps the CHP should start issuing Disney a whole bunch of fines each time this happens for obstructing the flow of traffic.

Only then might Disney management suddenly find the money to beef up their parking operations.

And I agree in general it's not the CMs. It's management who don't know what they're doing.

[vfire]

I'd take another parking structure over a new e-ticket. AP-ers do not park for free, they pay a premium on top of their pass to get parking included. They are expressly paying for that parking space. Disney could increase that premium or get rid of it. I would not suggest the latter as the parking privilege helps move the line at the counter much faster. Therefore Disney can increase the parking premium privilege or, even better IMO, just greatly increase the cost of APs (while keeping the cost of regular tickets down).

[LLCMC]

I think the issue is that Disneyland didn't appear to be prepared for the crowds. By comparison on the 4th Disney did the "rent a few traffic cops and borrow some CalTrans signs" strategy. I was a pretty comparable crowd, and while the circumstances were the same in both cases, they appeared to handle it a lot better on the 4th.

I attempted to go to the parks on the 4th and turned around after trying to attack parking from several different angles to no avail. It was terrible.

[disney55]

I think Disney should make a Discount for people that have 4 or more in a car. This is what carpool lanes are for on the freeway, and it has actually worked from the way I see it. If they could do that or make a priority parking area for "carpool" people, MAYBE the situation could be solved

[aashee]

I think Disney should make a Discount for people that have 4 or more in a car. This is what carpool lanes are for on the freeway, and it has actually worked from the way I see it. If they could do that or make a priority parking area for "carpool" people, MAYBE the situation could be solved

Until the car behind the carpool says "I'm with them". Good intentions, may create more ill will than help.

[IzzyInWonderland]

I've personally never had a parking problem other than waiting a half an hour to get into the parking garage. Granted I don't live super close so I come early in the morning, but still, when I wanted to meet up with Coheteboy yesterday and he couldn't even get parked because there was nothing left, I was more than annoyed that there wasn't another option for parking.
Besides the MLK holiday, there was a convention going on, it also must have been military day because we spotted a ton of them there who had all gotten free tickets, on top of that, The House of Blues had a show going on that night and was expecting 1,200 people. All of those things combined put the parking situation into absolute havoc. The crowds at BOTH parks were insane. I can honestly say I didn't really enjoy myself yesterday because of the crowds. We got onto six rides total for the whole day and that included the Mark Twain, Carousel and the train.
Not my ideal day and it's not like I go all the time so I really wanted to go on rides and let loose and have fun and that wasn't even possible. We even tried to go to things that would normally have a minimal line, and they had massive lines too. It's not just the parking that needs to be controlled, but the park capacity as well. I saw several people just walking aimlessly because truly there was nothing to do if you didn't want to wait an hour for it. In all my life, I have never seen the parks this bad, except for maybe the day after Christmas a couple years ago, and that only seemed to be Disneyland, DCA was completely empty.