Monorails to no longer operate during Evening Extra Magic Hours

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I think you're just making this up. There's no logical reason why they'd make an AP holder pay for parking just because it is after seven and the park is technically closed. Never heard of it.

This is not made up at all. In fact, they did charge us for parking for MNSSHP and we arrived at 6:30pm for the party. My husband was so angry, especially since it was still regular park hours.

I think if you are staying at a Disney resort they would wave the parking fee? We were driving from home.
 
I think you're just making this up. There's no logical reason why they'd make an AP holder pay for parking just because it is after seven and the park is technically closed. Never heard of it.

I concur. Unless that can be backed up with facts quoted from DISNEY, I don't believe it for one minute. I've had an AP forever and have NEVER been denied free parking. I can't rightfully say that I ever remember trying after 7 on a party night but I'm reasonably certain I could still park. What if I was parking at TTC to take the monorail (when it's running LOL) during normal park hours for Epcot? I'm quite certain I could park and go to Epcot with no problems.

Tangents, tangents, tangents...
 
I do have a question for those who think that this is a bad idea. By all accounts the monorail system desperately needs work. When should Disney do that work if not during longer evenings? I'm surprised that they're not taking out the individual lines completely to get the work done.

I don't think shutting down the system for maintenance for a defined period of time would elicit the same negative reaction. The monorail as a whole clearly needs some repairs and most Disney fans understand that. But this change doesn't seem to be geared at addressing that problem; rather it looks like a way of reducing operational load to enable the further deferment of the much-needed work. It is an open-ended change (permanent but subject to revision according to the more reliable sources) that inconveniences guests and doesn't appear to address the root problem.
 
A few months ago, they changed the boat going to MK from GF and combined it with the Poly boat.
If it's been just a few months since that change, that 'exclusive' service itself was merely a temporary experiment. For as long as I can remember, that was always a shared launch.
 


I concur. Unless that can be backed up with facts quoted from DISNEY, I don't believe it for one minute. I've had an AP forever and have NEVER been denied free parking. I can't rightfully say that I ever remember trying after 7 on a party night but I'm reasonably certain I could still park. What if I was parking at TTC to take the monorail (when it's running LOL) during normal park hours for Epcot? I'm quite certain I could park and go to Epcot with no problems.

Tangents, tangents, tangents...

It is true - the AP doesn't get you free parking for anything other than regular park visits. We went to a party last year and when the AP wasn't going to work we had a back up (CM ID) that would. The LOGIC is you are not using your AP to visit the park...you are using a hard ticket that doesn't include parking as part of its perks.

Liz
 
I've been mulling this over since last night and I just had a couple of thoughts to throw out there.

I'm all for upgrades and maintenance...goodness knows we've experienced our share of monorail mishaps or breakdowns (about missed a CRT reservations once due to a malfunction)....so, I'm keeping fingers crossed that this is in fact the reasoning behind this decision.

In terms of relative size, doesn't the monorail hold substantially more people at once than a bus? I was figuring that one bus would hold as many people as one monorail car...more or less. So, are there going to be 3 or 4 times as many buses running? I understand that EMH aren't as crowded...but we have left the park at closing time before and still waited nearly an hour (possibly more) before we were finally on a monorail (or other transportation) away from the park. I know that at MK the Express line (I believe) is closed after an hour, but the resort line has remained open.

In terms of safety, does it seem any safer to have bus or boat drivers hauling people around at 2 or 3 am than a monorail driver?

In terms of cost, I get that running the monorail is expensive...but again, I can't imagine what the true cost savings are versus increasing the number of boats or busses running (along with the corresponding increase in personnel to run them). And maybe the thinking is that they won't have to increase as much since fewer people are at the park during EMH, but I've seen the crowds during peak seasons and that first hour of EMH can still be pretty crowded. That is still a lot of people to try and accommodate.

I would think that for maintenance or otherwise, it would make more sense (for the MK part anyway), to keep one or the other line open while they worked on the opposite line and then vice versa. Of course, this could all be much ado about nothing...perhaps the change really will not have much of an impact at all.
 
OK, so I went on to the Passholder web site, and scoured the benefits section. You know what it says about parking? Absolutely nothing, actually. Not that the website is terribly accurate, but they do claim it is a "comprehensive" list.

However, other areas of the web site do mention that "Parking at Walt Disney World theme parks" is a perk. It does NOT say anything about only being able to park during regular park hours or anything like that.

I'd say there is definitely an argument to be made that parking during parties should be included, and if it was me I'd pay and then go to Guest Relations for a refund.
 


I think you're just making this up. There's no logical reason why they'd make an AP holder pay for parking just because it is after seven and the park is technically closed. Never heard of it.

I agree that this defies logic. However, you're wrong on the rest -- AP holders do have to pay for parking if they enter on a party night after official park hours.

This, however, is easily avoided -- just arrive before 7.
 
It is true - the AP doesn't get you free parking for anything other than regular park visits. We went to a party last year and when the AP wasn't going to work we had a back up (CM ID) that would. The LOGIC is you are not using your AP to visit the park...you are using a hard ticket that doesn't include parking as part of its perks.

Liz
:thumbsup2

This has always been the case with Passholder parking.

Here is the info from allears.


"Complimentary parking: AP/PAP holders are entitled to free parking at the MK, Epcot, DHS and AK parking lots. Florida Seasonal Passholders do not get this benefit. Free parking is not valid for special events requiring a separate admission charge or special events that are not open to the general public."
 
I think you're just making this up. There's no logical reason why they'd make an AP holder pay for parking just because it is after seven and the park is technically closed. Never heard of it.

I have never driven to a party so I have not experienced it personally.

I'm only going by what people have posted on their experiences. Maybe they are making it up too since you have never heard of it. :rolleyes:
 
I really feel like this is a non-issue, especially if the time is being used for maintenance to the monorails. If you're using EMH, you get on a bus or watercraft when leaving the parks... no big deal.

Now, let's all take a few deep breaths and be at peace.

:hippie:
 
I love this post, very well said and written.

if you don't mind I will add in my thoughts on points 1 and 2.

1) I don't believe it has anything to do with this decision for a few reasons. The new spur line on the Epcot beam has nothing to do with the Resort or Express beams, it's power is taken from a different source. If in the event you needed to move a work tractor between shop and Epcot, you could do so without any downtime of the resort line. Actually if they needed to move a tractor out of the way for whatever reason they could easily park between switch 8 and 9 and leave it there without even shutting express down.

2) I believe maintenance is the number one reason behind this whole thing. The trains are old, they are running far more than was ever originally planed and break down at an unacceptable level.

Speaking from experience and personal observations, shop only ever gets to take care of issues that cause major problems, usually its when a train breaks that it gets major work done, preventative maintenance is lacking.

Without getting too geeky and too into things, the trains are horrible to drive. There are constant alerts, popup messages and alarms that go off, trains will randomly stop, false ambers are common due to glitches in the mapo system and the front cabs have mold in them, sometimes you get lucky and have a working AC in the front cab.

Hopefully they will use this extra time to take care of these issues, the problems are not going away or getting better, they are actually getting worse. The trains need regular downtime and hopefully Disney can use this time to make sure that during their actual operating hours they actually operate.

Everything above shows that WDW is not spending the money to maintain the system. If the monorails are being use more and more, which I do not doubt, then there would be a need to have more trains which costs money. It does not seem that WDW is spending the money to properly operate the monorail otherwise they would not be shutting down EMH evening usage.

We have used the monorail only a few times this century. What was very apparent to me from all of the trips I had on the monorail last century, compared to the 21st century, is that the monorail was more problematic. The smell that everyone jokes about was not there when I was a kid. We never were stuck on a beam. The monorail got you from A to B without issue. Every trip we have had recently on the monorail, far fewer than last century, has had a delay. This just never happened to me before.

We constantly talk about staying at CR/BLT again or at an EPOCT resort. Even before this announcement, one of the negatives at staying at a monorail resort, has been the monorail. We have had too many delays in our limited number of rides over the last few years. The lack of evening EMH use adds to the negative.

Later,
Dan

Later,
Dan
 
It is what it is.

As a family we will adjust. My kids like the boat. We will use it as an excuse to ride the boat back.
 
We have always wanted to stay at Poly and finally are splurging in late Aug.


My 1st reaction was to switch to a less expensive, non-monorail resort. After all, why pay for the service if it's going to be limited?:headache:
Then I looked over the park hours for our visit. We are only staying 5 days (4 nts) and during that time, there is only 1 evening EMH, Fri night at Epcot. The rest are all AM EMHs. (Sadly, evening EMH at MK is happening the day we fly home & really need to be home that next day.)

So would I switch resorts and give up a monorail stay due to 1 night of slight inconvenience? Who knows if we would really stay the full 3 hours of EMH anyway? We might just be exhausted by 10pm anyway since dh is a morning person and likes to arrive at parks when they 1st open.
Also, we would still have the monorail every morning when we want to get to the parks quickly and if we want to take a pool break in the afternoons.
It's a downer but I think it would have a greater impact if we were staying a full week.
 
What the WDW monorail system needs is .......... NEW MONORAIL TRAINS.

The current trains have been running for over 20 years (longer than the first generation of trains ran before being replaced around 1990). Everything wears out, and the current trains are now so old and worn out that they cannot continue the same level of service as in the past. Add this to the one train that was taken out of service with the accident a few years back, and the answer is obvious.

Paying for it is another thing.

If I was staying at one of the two most expensive WDW resorts (the Poly and the GF), I would not be happy with this at all.
 
I think you're just making this up. There's no logical reason why they'd make an AP holder pay for parking just because it is after seven and the park is technically closed. Never heard of it.

my point exactly.. restaurants are open so if you have a ressie after 7pm youre in like flint. no charge for parking with your AP
 
I actually called Disney this morning and they said that this is temporary for mainteniance.
 
This is seriously the dumbest idea Disney has ever had if this is true. What sense does it make other than saving a few bucks. I stay on a monorail resort because of the convenience of it. This is a horrible way to save a few bucks. I completely do not agree with this idea and will make me think twice about paying the extra money to stay on a monorail resort going forward!

Having the monorail available at pretty much all hours (except when it was broken down, of course) is why I have chosen to stay at the Poly before. As for how this new policy will effect me, as I am in the dreaming stage of planning for our next trip I will now most likely plan to stay at WL or POR instead of the Poly. It would save us either a few bucks or a few hundred bucks.

I know myself well enough that the first time I wanted to take a monorail back to the Poly one night and it was not available I would be inwardly grumbling about it. No use to foul up my vacation with the possibility of such a thing. I have long wanted to stay at WL anyway.... I won't bother to mention my rationale to anyone at Disney. What's the point?
 
my point exactly.. restaurants are open so if you have a ressie after 7pm youre in like flint. no charge for parking with your AP

This is incorrect.

You need a party ticket to eat in a restaurant after 7 on a party night. And you need to pay for parking if you arrive after 7, unless you're staying on site. AP won't help you here.
 
my point exactly.. restaurants are open so if you have a ressie after 7pm youre in like flint. no charge for parking with your AP

You will not get into MK after 7:00 on a party night with just your AP even for a restaurant reservation. You have to buy the party ticket.

As posted earlier from allears.net:

"Complimentary parking: AP/PAP holders are entitled to free parking at the MK, Epcot, DHS and AK parking lots. Florida Seasonal Passholders do not get this benefit. Free parking is not valid for special events requiring a separate admission charge or special events that are not open to the general public."

We are talking specifically about after 7:00 on party nights. Two people on this thread have posted that they were charged, one person was at 6:30.
 
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