Disney World Theme Park Capacity | Info & Updates

Over the past couple of years, the theme park capacity at Walt Disney World has been severely limited, even as low as 25% to 35%. Now with the latest information from the company, that number has increased and will continue to go higher throughout the rest of the year.

(UPDATE 3/11/22) – During Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 7, 2022, Disney CFO, Christine McCarthy, shed some new light on the current capacity of the Disney theme parks, and that they WILL NOT be returning to pre-pandemic levels in the future.

McCarthy’s comments were the most insight we’ve received in quite a while from Disney executives about theme park capacity and what that might look like moving forward. She was specifically asked about experiences and park capacity and what she said was pretty interesting.

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Here are some of the latest comments from Disney…

McCarthy was asked: “What does full capacity mean looking forward?” The first thing we learned is that the Disney parks are NOT currently at 100% capacity.

“We are coming back towards full capacity, we’re not yet there,” McCarthy said. This is surprising given the tremendously long wait times on nearly all attractions and the wall-to-wall people present in the parks lately.

She continued: “but one of the things we were able to do when the parks were closed, was really look at some of the underlying technologies for how we could run the business better and give a better consumer experience.”

As you know, the Disney Park Pass Reservation system has been a huge part of the theme park experience since they reopened, and you can’t visit without one. As we already knew, this system has been extremely helpful for Disney to understand how many people to expect at the parks each day and deal with the capacity limitations.

We also know that Disney is planning on keeping the park pass reservations even after there are no more problems with capacity since they realized just how valuable this tool is for managing attendance. Looking at the park pass calendar, you can see reservations are available now into 2024. So even though they are a hassle, you can plan on having them around for the long haul.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of information McCarthy revealed is that the theme parks will NOT be returning to pre-pandemic capacity levels even when the current health crisis is over.

McCarthy said the reason for this is Disney doesn’t want the parks “bursting at the seams.” Again, Disney is “managing things differently now,” and she admitted that when the parks have a reasonable crowd level, guests are happier and likely to spend more money.

During the latest Walt Disney Company earnings call, CEO Bob Chapek commented about the current park capacity, explaining in more detail what is keeping it from returning to 100%.

Chapek mentioned a shortage of staffing in food & beverage and entertainment as the 2 areas of theme park operations that are limiting park capacity at the moment. Both these departments have been understaffed since the parks reopened in 2020, and Disney has had a hard time finding enough replacement cast members to fill those roles.

The shortage of staff in culinary roles has been the reason why some Disney World restaurants have still not reopened. Even the ones that are open are running slower than usual with fewer cast members to handle the influx of people, especially during busy dining hours.

Chapek also mentioned that live entertainment continues to be restricted “because we don’t want our guests to feel an excessive level of density.”

He went on to say: “The self-imposed capacity constraints are really a function of our food and beverage sort of mitigation if you will. But the second one is live entertainment. And we’re working towards restoring both of those so that we can get up to something that would be more similar to what we’ve seen in the past in terms of the number of people we put into our parks.”

“But I must tell you that our ability to increase our guest experience through a reservation system and a very carefully managed demand ticketing system has been something that we really like, and I think guaranteeing our guests that they have a great experience no matter when they come, whether it be the Christmas holiday or whether it be in the middle of the month of September, that’s really important to us.”

“And so we’re going to self-manage this to optimize the guest experience, but at the same time we know we have head room, whether do it international or expansion and reinstatement of things like live entertainment.”

Thankfully, more entertainment has returned to Disney World in recent weeks including the “Festival of Fantasy” parade, a re-worked “Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire,” and the brand new “Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade!”

Those old and new entertainment options should help relieve some of the congestion that guests are currently experiencing in the parks. It’s been a bizarro winter so far and the crowds at Disney World have been much higher than normal.

We also found out that while theme park demand is high domestically, the demand from international guests is still lacking. This is likely another reason why Disney is not where it wants to be.

From previous comments, Bob Chapek has said they have already increased theme park capacity in recent months, and are going to increase it “aggressively and measured.”

Chapek talked about staffing the parks through the end of last year and also talked about an increasing demand for the theme parks and how increasing capacity is part of the strategy.

Disney was expecting to fully re-staff the parks by the end of the calendar year 2021, but obviously, they were nowhere close to meeting that goal.

“We’re going to be increasing capacities as we have the demand and we’re also being able to thoroughly train our employees as they come back in. This is a never-changing landscape with COVID.“

“We’re going to be particularly careful and also going to bring our capacity online aggressively and measured. We’re not going to just open up the doors and fling them open. We’re doing this in the measured fashion for the health and safety of not only our guests but also our cast members in the parks.”

Disney already aggressively increased capacity in 2021 when it started out the year at only 35%. Since then it has increased dramatically with huge increases in crowds during the Spring and Summer seasons.

On a previous company earnings call, Bob Chapek said this:

“In terms of the parks, and when we’re going to sort of be able to raise our capacity limits, we’ve actually already started that. Given the guidance that just came today, from the CDC, and earlier guidance that we got from the governor of Florida, we’ve already started to increase our capacities.

So I think you’re going to see an immediate increase in the number of folks that we’re able to admit into our parks through our reservation systems that we recently implemented. So we’re very, very excited about that.“

Since then, Chapek has made more comments on increasing theme park capacity. During a conversation with the ‘J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference’ Chapek said that they expect to see “low double-digit increases” in attendance over the next couple of months.

What is Current Park Capacity in Walt Disney World?

Neither Christine McCarthy nor Bob Chapek has commented on what the exact park capacity is at this time or what they will be increasing it to in the short term or by the end of 2022. The only thing we know is that it is already much higher than 35%.

McCarthy’s latest comments reveal that we are not quite at 100%, but we are pretty close to it.

From our estimations after many visits recently, the current Disney World park capacity is probably somewhere between 75% and 90% from normal levels. It definitely is a lot higher than 35%. Besides that, the lack of sufficient staff shows.

The decision to increase capacity goes along with other changes to safety measures we’ve seen in the parks recently. When the health crisis was looking better for a while last year, the CDC loosened its guidelines and Disney followed by eliminating social distancing and allowing vaccinated guests to go mask-free.

After that, however, the current health crisis worsened and the CDC once again recommended people wear masks indoors. Disney has since revised its stance and is no longer requiring face masks for vaccinated guests in all indoor and outdoor locations.

Physical distancing is no longer enforced, however, and the saved space in the queues has allowed Disney to increase park capacity. With the theme parks now bringing in record profits thanks to the new Genie Plus and Lightning Lane system and the increased number of guests, you can bet it’s staying that way.

Will the Disney parks ever return to 100% capacity? At this time we don’t know. More guests will be allowed in from the current levels, but perhaps not many from where we are at right now, and that wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

Honestly, with how crowded the parks have been in recent months, they can’t afford to hold very many more guests, not until they get more of the staffing and entertainment problems sorted out. When that happens, we will have to see.

Ultimately, Disney will keep the parks at whatever capacity it thinks is best for the company. Whatever level is most profitable is what will determine the number of guests in the parks.

As soon as we hear more about park capacity increases, and what the exact capacity has been increased to we will let you know. In the meantime, you can read about all the latest Disney World safety changes here.

Also if you are planning a trip soon, make sure to read our Disney World Crowd Calendar which will help you find the least crowded times to go. You can get even more info in our Disney World Vacation Planning Guide.

Your Thoughts

I want to know what you think about the increase in theme park capacity…

• Do the Disney World parks feel too crowded?
• Are you ok with more guests in the parks?

Let us know in the comments section below!

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