Largest Parking Lot

It never ceases to amaze me how the folks at Disney move so many people around in what seems to be such seamless ease.  I know that there has to be a science to the whole process for it to work so well.  When we visited London, the traffic was a disaster.  Our bus tour may as well have been a walking tour.

But pulling off at one of the four interstate exchanges  that proclaim Disney World, I have never seen a traffic tie-up (not saying it doesn't happen, just haven't seen it). Even at night when the parks close, the exit is quicker and easier than any other large event parking I have attended.

Don't forget to throw on top of it that the folks driving cars here at the park are almost all not locals.  This means there are continuous ridiculous lane changes and slow drivers looking for signs.  It is the recipe for a disaster, but somehow Disney pulls it off.

I got to thinking about this when the tram driver at Epcot told us to make sure where we parked our car because this was the second largest parking lot in North America.  First, I was stunned and then I began to wonder just what the largest one was.  Is it I-75 during the World Equestrian Games?  Then I went to Google and determined that this claim is based either on area of the lot (the equivalent of 140 football fields) or parking facilities without garages (in which case Magic Kingdom is number one with over 12,000 spaces) or a tram operator spouting nonsense (there is a parking facility at a mall in Edmonton with 20,000 spots--and never one during Christmas I suspect--and several others over 13,000 spaces).

But whatever the case, there are a lot of cars there on any given day.  The ride in never seems all that crowded as the numerous attendants direct you to the particular row they are filling at the time.  This helps alleviate congestion as the trams line-up and wait there to pick up the newest arrivals.  The attendants all have communicators and some are even on Segways to coordinate the process.

Most interesting are the parking spots.  They are at an angle and designed for two vehicles with no line to separate them.  The attendants point you to the next available one, filling first the front of the spot and then starting again once the row is filled with the back of the spot.  This clears up two significant choke points.  First, even though the people in the car next to you are getting out at almost the same time, the angle of the parking means that doors on the adjacent vehicles can be opened simultaneously and you don't have to do the courtesy dance (You, No you, No you, thunk).  And because the car behind does not come until the next parking wave, the trunk of the car is clear to get out any needed items.

Further easing things, spotters later in the day find rows towards the front with open spaces and direct late arrivers to them.  We have found that when you get to Epcot at 6 in the evening you end up closer to the gate than at ten in the morning.

The more I've watched, something as simple as a parking lot isn't that simple when it handles 30,000 or more people everyday.  But, experience and strategy make the Disney parking lots run smoother than the much smaller one at Fayette Mall.