Orlando Theme Parks Reach Capacity

The week between Christmas and New Years is always a busy one in Orlando. This year with both major holidays falling on weekends and twin bowl crowds in town, everyone was expecting it to be crazy. The first part of this week has actually been somewhat less busy than was predicted, but today the crowds materialized all over town.

As early as 11:50AM this morning LEGOLAND Florida announced on its twitter that it was nearing capacity. Then just 25 minutes later, it announced that it had reached capacity suggesting guests return at 9:30AM the next morning.

No capacity announcements were made on either of Walt Disney World’s twitter accounts, but just a few minutes later, others began reporting that Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom were in Phase 2, which means ticket sales were stopped and only resort guests, park hoppers and annual passholders are admitted.

Shortly after that, Islands of Adventure was reported to have shut its gates and then just 15 minutes later Universal Studios was at capacity too.

As of 2:20PM EPCOT, which has a capacity somewhere in the range of 110,000 guests has not yet been declared at capacity. No word of SeaWorld closing either. However, tweets from inside the parks report both to be packed.

This scene will likely be repeated all the way through January 1st. If you plan on visiting an Orlando area theme park, the best advice is to arrive early, don’t plan on seeing everything, and enjoy the extra entertainment they’ve added throughout the day. If the crowds are too crazy, take a break and tour some of the hotels. They all have their holiday decorations up still.

For those who absolutely must see a theme park today, may I suggest Gatorland?