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View Full Version : weird parking situation on Sunday, June 6



cstephens
06-06-2010, 09:38 PM
We arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure at about 11:45am today. The CM at the parking booth asked if we had a wheelchair or a stroller in the car. The husband said we did not. The CM then put a white slip of paper on my dashboard. The next CM then directed us to the far right lane, and at first, I thought they were parking us on the other side of Chip and Dale, which confused me. Nope, eventually, I figured out they were parking me outside, past Chip and Dale, in an unnamed lot that is normally used for parking by Downtown Disney employees.

I asked a CM there why I was being sent out this way. He said that they were expecting it to be an extremely busy day, so they were sending anyone without a wheelchair and without a stroller to that parking lot. Ummm, ok. So I found a space and parked. And the husband reminded me (since we'd actually had to park there as overflow parking before) that from there, you have to take a flight of stairs up to the second level (Daisy) of the structure and then walk to where the regular escalators are. They weren't sending cars with wheelchairs and strollers that way because of the stairs you have to use. Even though it's on the bottom floor, there is no way to get from there directly to the tram loading area without either taking the stairs or a seriously long detour through traffic.

OK. But they didn't ask if anyone in the car had mobility issues. There are times when stairs are difficult for me to navigate. Luckily, this wasn't an issue at that point in time. But what if someone was using a cane or had a leg brace or using crutches or was pregnant or had some other mobility issue that made stairs very difficult or even impossible but it wasn't someone who either needed or brought their own wheelchair with them? It would have been a serious problem to have ended up in that lot in that case. If Disney is going to send specific groups of people to that lot, it might be a good idea for them to take all situations into account, not just a stroller or a wheelchair.

Neither park seemed all that crowded to me today - busy, but not packed. I wonder if they're testing out the parking situation for the crowds that will undoubtedly arrive once World of Color starts. If so, perhaps they should find some way of being able to allow guests to get from that parking lot to the tram loading area without having to take a flight of stairs first or making sure that they're not sending someone to that lot who is going to have issues navigating the stairs.

bombardon3
06-06-2010, 11:03 PM
I parked in Toy Story today and there were an insane amount of buses. The Pumbaa lot was open and looked to be pretty busy. I think they either overestimated how busy it would be or were just testing logistics. I left around 3 and the Woody lot was mostly empty and Buzz wasn't even open.

olegc
06-07-2010, 07:20 AM
this has happened to me twice this year. I arrive at the park somewhere in the opening hours - and I am aske to park at a perimeter area. I have never asked for an explanation but I always speculated that what they were doing was filling the harder-to-manage areas (requiring more manipulation by CM staff) then when it gets really busy they can just fill the main lots. When I parked cars at the Hollywood Bowl during my college summers it was the same thing - set up your throughways and block points when the traffic was light so you can easily manage it - then when it gets busy you simply send the cars to the easy location.

CMHusband
06-07-2010, 09:52 AM
Last night was a cast preview of WOC so they knew the place was going to be a zoo. They had instructed CM's to park at Mickey and Friends so they were probably saving space for at least 4,000 cars (give or take a few) By the way, Toy Story parking lot is by far the best way to go now!!!

lovindisneyland
06-07-2010, 02:37 PM
I have had that happen too! With the wheelchair info etc.. But you are right, they never ask about mobility issues… I just tell them I can’t go up stairs because I have a hard time doing so. But I also tend to think that they do this to even out the excepted thousands of guests they think they might have to park. That’s my guess…I have seen this done many times. And then there are those times that I had a detour to toy story parking lot—first time I parked there didn’t even know where I was going, they don’t tell you! But in the end parking at TS lot was a snap.