Does The Closing Of Mickey’s Toontown Fair Affect Other Wait Times?
Thanks for this great blog idea from a reader in Maryland.
We’re just wondering how the closure of Towntown Fair has impacted waits at the Magic Kingdom. I see that this weekend is all 9’s and 10’s. Did the closure impact Fantasyland or other lands?
Would love to see this addressed in a blog entry. Thanks!!
Doug
So we took a little peek at the wait times collected by our researchers and our fantastic Lines users in late January and February. We collect and analyse wait times and park conditions every single day so if the closure of Toontown has had an affect on the rest of the Magic Kingdom we should see something.
Comparing historical wait times to what we observed this year is a little tricky. We have to make sure to compare apples to apples, or Presidents Week to Presidents Week in this case. Here is a comparison of the average wait times we observed at the Magic Kingdom this year compared to the historical average if you look at each week separately.
With the closure of Toontown on February 12th, 2011 we can definitely see a bump in the wait times throughout the rest of the Magic Kingdom. Wait times at all other attractions are about 5% higher when compared to historical averages. That is a fairly high number to be sure but it is not clear how much of that is due to the closure of Toontown directly. Other factors like weather and the economy can be pushing crowds in a positive direction more than usual as well.
The interesting thing is that the trend leading up to the closure of Toontown was lower wait times than historical averages so the fact that wait times made up the difference (and then some) is more evidence that this is not just due to random fluctuations. It is certainly worth tracking whether or not this trend continues into the spring break season. Perhaps the affect of the Toontown closure will be increased by the larger than average crowds of March and April. An increase of 5% represents an average of 2 minutes more waiting in line per attraction. That might not seem like much but waiting an extra 2 minutes for each of 50-plus attractions can really add up.
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Thanks for the analysis!
Doug in Maryland
Do you think the Tiki Room closing factors in as part of this as well?
A friend and I were just debating this! Thanks for doing some real analysis. I too would like to see how this plays out, esp as they continue to close down some attractions and limit space.
We are local passholders and go every few weeks, frequenting the Magic Kingdom more than any other park. I watch ‘Lines’ to see the trends as well, and it helps us avoid a long wait, or a day with just too many people for our spoiled tendencies. I can’t help but think that throwing several hundred people who would otherwise be at the Toontown Fair attractions and train station are now compacted into the rest of the park. They have sectioned off a lot of space to do their work, so that is affecting the rest. My wife said she would be really upset if we weren’t local and were there on vacation, to find that much is closed off, but Disney can’t do all of their renovations at night!
Very interesting comparisons. I was curious how the Toontown closing would affect wait times and it does look like it has already started to make a difference. So far I do not think overall it’s closing has affected people putting off Disney World vacations until the new expansion is complete. So I guess it makes sense that the other areas of the park have to absorb the overflow. I wonder what it actually “feels like” in the park now that the same number of people are within a smaller area. Thanks for the great information!