The results of a recent survey have confirmed what many of us have already speculated: guests love parking garages.
Disney confirmed the survey results yesterday after an eight-month-long study asking guests to identify which part of visiting the Walt Disney World Resort was their favorite. The survey found that guests overwhelmingly chose “parking garages” over any other option.
“The survey results don’t lie,” said Mary Bloomberg, Vice President of Disney’s Guest Survey Division. “53% of our guests said that the parking garages were the best part about their vacation. It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that this is where Imagineers are going to focus their efforts for the next 10-20 years.”
Plans are already being drawn up to add parking garages to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom. Eventually, all four theme parks will get parking garages, according to Bloomberg.
“We’re also looking at other options for parking garages,” Bloomberg continued. “ECV’s, wheelchairs, strollers… we could potentially make parking garages for anything with wheels. I would love for guests to visit Fantasyland one day and see all the strollers inside a parking garage behind it’s a small world instead of cluttering the walkways.”
Disney’s first venture into the parking garage industry was when Disney’s California Adventure was built on top of the original Disneyland parking lot. Lack of space dictated that this was the only option available to allow thousands of people to park as close to the parks as possible. This solution was utilized again when Downtown Disney was completely revamped and expanded to make way for Disney Springs. Since then, guests can’t get enough of stackable parking.
“When I first heard Downtown Disney was adding a parking garage, my ears definitely perked up,” said Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III, an amateur parking garage enthusiast. “I have traveled the world taking in the natural beauty of parking garages and I can tell you that Disney’s are definitely a cut above the rest. I cannot wait until there is a parking ramp associated with every park, every resort, and every attraction.”
The data Disney gathers every day confirms that parking garages are the next big thing to dazzle the guests.
“We saw a 63% attendance spike when a rumor was leaked about adding a parking garage to our lot,” Brad Horowitz, Vice President of Hollywood Studios’ Guest Parking Initiative told us. “Our guests were excited at the prospect and were trying to determine where we were going to put [the parking garage].”
Over the last ten years, there has been a dramatic increase in fan sites online that track and chart the progress of transportation-related projects at Walt Disney World. John Hansen is owner of one such site.
“It’s fascinating to me, and to many others,” Hansen tells us. “I run a Disney fan site that tracks only transportation-related news. New parking lot entrances, new parking garages, highway expansion… people have told me they plan their vacations around the information I have gathered.”
Disney is banking on a massive increase in tourism dollars in the next decade as people from around the world make their way to Walt Disney World to take in the beauty of these parking garages. Although Disney has not officially disclosed any plans to add parking garages anywhere else, you can bet that they are working frantically behind the scenes to add them to their parks to keep pace with guests’ demands.
