Park Closures
 

If you're in a park that begins phased closures due to crowds, how do you know this is happening and if you leave the park and plan on returning later how can you find out when it's letting people back in.

We're staying onsite at POR and doing MK EMH on Christmas day and don't know whether we'll make it all the way through to HEA without a break :cry: We've got an ADR booked for 1pm so could bail out after that. Or should we just suck it up and find a corner of MK to hide in for a few hours.

This is what Carousel of Progress is for. Ride that twice. Dark, air conditioned, comfortable seats. I took a nap on there once. It's great.

As well as COP , HOP is good for a power nap 😴

have a chill on the people mover too
we put our feet up on there :)
yup CofP is great for a chill
so is the bear jamboree
hall of president does send you to sleep too

:)

If you start to find that the park is so crowded that it's difficult to move then you'll know phased closures have begun. ;)

I guess if you want to know whether the park has begun to close to certain guests you could ask a CM at the gate before you leave. During phased closures, resort guests are allowed into the park at all stages other than the final one (phase 4). MK rarely gets to phase 4, even on Christmas day. So, as a resort guest you may be ok getting back in.

Note however that you may find that travelling to/from MK is difficult because of the sheer number of people visiting. Plus you may not want to get back into the park anyway if it gets that busy.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions re "Hideaways".

Nimbus - We're back at MK on the evening of the 28th so if we decide to stay away on the 25/12 we've still got a chance of HEA on the 28th.

Good luck watching HEA on Christmas day. We were there day before thanksgiving and after my parent in laws (one being in a wheelchair) waiting two hours, the Disney Cast Members then let people who had just turned up to not only block the walkway that they were behind but to also allow them to put kids on their shoulders.

As HEA is mainly a projector show (like everything in Disney now) my father in law in the wheel chair was unable to see anything.

It is terrible that Disney do not offer a Disability viewing area for HEA, they have it for HS, ROL (Or as i call it hose pipe and a flash light, terrible show) and Epcot.

We had the same experience. My DD uses a wheelchair. We had a decent spot along a walkway just off the hub where she could see. For ages cast members kept the walkway clear. Then a few minutes before the start the walkway suddenly filled up with people stopping. We got very lucky talking to the people who had stopped near us. They had a large pushchair which we asked them to park right in front of DD. It meant she actually managed to see. It is extremely frustrating that a calm crowd became a mob scene with no clear walkways. It actually seemed like a safety issue to me.

OP I personally can't imagine dealing with the crowds in MK for such a long day. Even the places mentioned above will be much busier than normal. We have left MK on a day between Christmas and NY when the Peoplemover had a 60+ min wait in the middle of the afternoon.