A good look at the budget cuts of Disneyland

[sherilaine]

In prior years: the "nighttime spectaculars" were quite limited on weeknights (monday - thursday), generally WOC was the only show.
This year: WOC and PTN and Fireworks are every night.

Yup - I agree, our last trip, we saw longer hours and more entertainment than the exact same time in years prior - so to us I saw no evidence whatsoever of budget cuts - if anything it was more bang for my buck!

 

[agamble]

Exactly! Longer hours and more entertainment.

 

[rteetz]

You may not be worried now but think of it this way. If Shanghai doesn't perform well that's only going to mean even more problems.

 

[wilkeliza]

I also take everything I read on the internet with a grain of salt. However, I have a Disneyland trip planned in April, and when I checked the hours today, I was far from thrilled to find the parks opening an hour later and closing an hour earlier than I had planned. I'm a WDW veteran, I know that hours change and rides close for refurbishment. But I've never experienced park hours being shortened to such a degree. Chop an hour off the morning and evening, that's 15+% reduction in hours the park is open. Also harder to stomach when it's due to a messed up project halfway around the globe.

I also purchased park hoppers specifically for one day, where we could get into DL an hour early with the Magic Morning entry and get 2 hours of rides in before hopping over to DCA for rope drop. If DL is only opening one hour earlier than DCA, it might not be worth it, and I might not have purchased park hoppers if I knew these would be the park hours. Also not thrilled about my ADRs if restaurants are cheaping out on ingredients with smaller portions.

Just as a heads up if you haven't been to DL but are a WDW vet. Magic Mornings at DL are open to hotel guest and those who buy tickets with Magic Mornings. Last time I went and did MM it took 45 minutes to get into the parks once they started scanning tickets. We also found out Indy wasn't open yet and Space Mountain was down so all there was to do was fantasyland. It was a bummer and since then we don't do MM at all.

The other big difference is parking hopping at DL and CA is so much easier than WDW. We often found ourselves popping between the two parks because it was as easy as walking across the entry plaza unlike WDW where you get on a bus to another park or bus to hotel then hotel to park. So you may end up using the park hopper more than you would think.

 

[mmmears]

I don't see this as a "conspiracy" article. The cuts are real. We were at WDW a few weeks ago and the CMs are NOT happy about the cutbacks. Not only are their hours cut, but guests are complaining that services that were there in the past are gone (in the hotels), and when they cut back park entertainment and CMs (as in running fewer boats per ride, etc.) it just makes the parks feel congested and the lines extra long. I'm sorry to see it coming to DL, since we are thinking about a summer trip. If the shortened hours and amenities continue into late summer, I guess we will skip DL on that trip.

 

[DLgal]

That article was... odd. Like something on a conspiracy website with a very negative and accusatory tone meant to rile people up, with no need to discuss sources or specifics.

I don't know that all of the changes can be definitively linked to 'cutbacks', especially the Pixar parade and Mad Tea Party being ousted for the duration of the DCA Food and Wine Festival event. It seems like F&W will be drawing a lot of guests into the park, and then to try to keep operating a daily parade and nightly event all around the festival locations could be a confusing crowd control issue.

We always experience super short hours of operation in May, and while the weekends may have extended hours (til midnight in DL), we've dealt with the standard 'off season' closing time of 8:00 long before anyone was scheming to downsize in CA in order to fund Shanghai.

And the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail?? I don't think you can blame the earlier closure on any grand scheme, it seems like it always closes before the rest of the park.

I'd be better prepared to believe in this conspiracy if I'd been given a few actual facts confirmed by a reliable source instead of just fear mongering.

Who else thinks that castle looks insane!?

You are spot on. Just about the only verifiable thing is the food price increases and smaller portion sizes/swap out for cheaper ingredients. I saw that first hand today at DCA.

As for the Pixar Play Parade being suspended, that is 100% due to the F&W Festival. The festival booths are literally set up along the parade route. I saw them today. There is no way they can run that parade during it.

Redwood Creek trail has always closed at "dusk" which is several hours before park closing.

And 10am-6pm/10am-8pm were typical midweek hours at DCA/DL during the off season before the 60th anniversary started. I think a lot of people forget that since the 60th kick off, hours and in park entertainment has been majorly extended.

 

[ej119]

In defense of this article: MiceAge is one of my favorite Disney-related columns, which publishes around once a quarter. The author has definitely taken on a more negative tone over the last 6 months or so, but it has been one of the most reliable sources of changes coming to DLR before they are announced.

Not saying everything the author says is correct; but I've found it to be fairly accurate when it comes to decisions coming out of Burbank.

 

[agamble]

In defense of this article: MiceAge is one of my favorite Disney-related columns, which publishes around once a quarter. The author has definitely taken on a more negative tone over the last 6 months or so, but it has been one of the most reliable sources of changes coming to DLR before they are announced.

Not saying everything the author says is correct; but I've found it to be fairly accurate when it comes to decisions coming out of Burbank.

It used to be that the Mice Age Updates were written by one man. He always started them off with a little joke about getting a danish and some coffee, etc. Last year he kind of retired and the updates are now written by some others. The original author could be negative, but the tone over the last year has gotten very negative as are the weekly updates on occassion. You almost wonder sometimes why they even bother going.

They do have friends in high places and sometimes the rumors they share do come true. But they share news before Disney makes final decisions so they’re wrong about half the time. I do like hearing the ideas that may be coming, like the rumored Marvel Land. But they also predicted that Star Wars Land would be built on Toon Town and they stood by that until Disney officially announced it’s new location and then even continued to say that half of Toon Town would be closed.

 

[Lucius Best]

Historically the hours are longer this year than in 2013. I picked that year because that is the last time Easter was in March, not April, like this year. Look at the week of April 15. Disneyland opened at 10AM and closed at 8PM. That is pretty typical for less busy times of the year. This year Disneyland is open 9 to 9. That is two more hours not two less hours.

I certainly cannot argue with that, I'm sure you are correct. But I wasn't talking about 2013, or comparing the hours and nighttime shows to previous years. Less than a month ago, when I purchased tickets, Disney web site was showing DL park opening 8am, with two scheduled WoC shows on the nights we were going to be there. I was pleasantly surprised because I figured late April was a less busy period. Now DL has 9am openings, and both DL and DCA have park closings at least an hour earlier than the previously posted schedule, and only one WoC.

I have no idea why the hours changed, be it Shanghai or maybe the previous schedule was incorrect and DL never opens at 8am, I'm a WDW guy so what do I know. But the bottom line is I would likely have purchased different (cheaper) tickets and had a different plan if I had known that these were going to be the hours. With 20+ trips to WDW and DL, many during slow periods, I've never noticed park hour reductions like this.

 

[Lucius Best]

Just as a heads up if you haven't been to DL but are a WDW vet. Magic Mornings at DL are open to hotel guest and those who buy tickets with Magic Mornings. Last time I went and did MM it took 45 minutes to get into the parks once they started scanning tickets. We also found out Indy wasn't open yet and Space Mountain was down so all there was to do was fantasyland. It was a bummer and since then we don't do MM at all.

The other big difference is parking hopping at DL and CA is so much easier than WDW. We often found ourselves popping between the two parks because it was as easy as walking across the entry plaza unlike WDW where you get on a bus to another park or bus to hotel then hotel to park. So you may end up using the park hopper more than you would think.

Thank you for the heads up. I am well versed on Magic Mornings after what happened our last trip, when I bought tickets at the gate and then was surprised/disappointed to learn that those tickets didn't include MM entry. I am also aware of how slow bag check has been at WDW recently, so I know I need to get there early. But with the current scheduled hours, we will need to re-visit our plan and might end up skipping MM.

We've been to DL a few times, on one trip we did a ton of hopping, hopping multiple times per day, last trip I don't think we hopped much at all. On that commando hopping trip, we would collect FP at one park, hop to the other park, and then back to the first park in the evening to use the saved up FP. But from what I understand, DL has become much more strict on using FP within the designated window.

 

[Minniekins]

Historically the hours are longer this year than in 2013. I picked that year because that is the last time Easter was in March, not April, like this year. Look at the week of April 15. Disneyland opened at 10AM and closed at 8PM. That is pretty typical for less busy times of the year. This year Disneyland is open 9 to 9. That is two more hours not two less hours.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/park-hours.cfm?month=4&year=2013

I was checking this calendar you provided a link for, (thx!), that another poster was referencing, but the hours are definitely different, and some less, than they are actually showing at Disney parks site. The linked site shows DL and DCA closing at 8 pm week nights. sat DL 12 , DCA 11, sun DL 12, DCA 10. At Disney parks site , weekends are DL sat 12, Sun 11, mon tue 10, fireworks at 9:30, ( farthest it goes right now), DCA 9 pm all the nights that are showing for my trip so far, woc at 9.

 

[Nonsuch]

It used to be that the Mice Age Updates were written by one man. He always started them off with a little joke about getting a danish and some coffee, etc. Last year he kind of retired and the updates are now written by some others. The original author could be negative, but the tone over the last year has gotten very negative as are the weekly updates on occassion. You almost wonder sometimes why they even bother going.

I wonder why I keep reading micechat, but their extremely negative blogs have become quite amusing.
Even more amusing is mainstream media (newspaper, TV) sometimes use micechat (or disboard, mouseplanet) as a source.

The micechat forums essential committed suicide late year, by going down for an extended period for a software update -- and some basic functions seem to be permanently broken.

 

[Indy #1 Fan]

In defense of this article: MiceAge is one of my favorite Disney-related columns, which publishes around once a quarter. The author has definitely taken on a more negative tone over the last 6 months or so, but it has been one of the most reliable sources of changes coming to DLR before they are announced.

Not saying everything the author says is correct; but I've found it to be fairly accurate when it comes to decisions coming out of Burbank.

I don't trust MiceAge at all. In fact I think they should be shut down and Disney should sue them for publishing unannounced information be it true or false. Remember WikiLeaks? It's almost like that, and now Julian Assange is in a lot of legal trouble. All of Disney's unannounced info needs to be kept as secret as Area 51.

 

[sherilaine]

Should this thread have rumor in the title - this website is opinion correct?

 

[mom2rtk]

Just as a heads up if you haven't been to DL but are a WDW vet. Magic Mornings at DL are open to hotel guest and those who buy tickets with Magic Mornings. Last time I went and did MM it took 45 minutes to get into the parks once they started scanning tickets. We also found out Indy wasn't open yet and Space Mountain was down so all there was to do was fantasyland. It was a bummer and since then we don't do MM at all.

The other big difference is parking hopping at DL and CA is so much easier than WDW. We often found ourselves popping between the two parks because it was as easy as walking across the entry plaza unlike WDW where you get on a bus to another park or bus to hotel then hotel to park. So you may end up using the park hopper more than you would think.

Indy wasn't open during Magic Mornings because it only includes Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

Space being down would be disappointing though.

 

[mom2rtk]

In prior years: the "nighttime spectaculars" were quite limited on weeknights (monday - thursday), generally WOC was the only show.
This year: WOC and PTN and Fireworks are every night.

Isn't that partly because Fantasmic isn't running?

 

[wilkeliza]

Indy wasn't open during Magic Mornings because it only includes Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

Space being down would be disappointing though.

Yeah we didn't know MM was only fantasyland and tomorrowland or we wouldn't have even woke up extra for it. Space was our okay let's turn a sucky situation around so when that was down it put a damper on the whole day. We didn't do a single MM after it and just the fact we got to the gates and threw security 30 minutes before MM start and then waited an additional 45 while they scannrd everyone's tickets and took photos for multiday so by the time we were actualy inside the parks my fiance and I said well thankfully we didn't pay for MM because if we had I'd be complaining about the entry situation. Now we purposefully plan for the non MM park.

 

[mom2rtk]

Yeah we didn't know MM was only fantasyland and tomorrowland or we wouldn't have even woke up extra for it. Space was our okay let's turn a sucky situation around so when that was down it put a damper on the whole day. We didn't do a single MM after it and just the fact we got to the gates and threw security 30 minutes before MM start and then waited an additional 45 while they scannrd everyone's tickets and took photos for multiday so by the time we were actualy inside the parks my fiance and I said well thankfully we didn't pay for MM because if we had I'd be complaining about the entry situation. Now we purposefully plan for the non MM park.

Yeah, early entry at DL is pretty much like WDW, just FL and TL.

The backup out front sounds quite awful. I hate that photo taking process at the gates, especially since it apparently solved their ticket fraud issue, but they never went back to selling longer tickets (which they discontinued ostensibly because of that fraud). So it seems to have benefitted Disney far more than it benefitted their guests (None at all).

We stay onsite when we go and try very hard to be at early entry about half an hour before early entry. Coming from the central time zone helps a lot with that. And of course, the EE days at DCA are much better since it's only for onsite guests.

 

[sherilaine]

Yeah we didn't know MM was only fantasyland and tomorrowland or we wouldn't have even woke up extra for it. Space was our okay let's turn a sucky situation around so when that was down it put a damper on the whole day. We didn't do a single MM after it and just the fact we got to the gates and threw security 30 minutes before MM start and then waited an additional 45 while they scannrd everyone's tickets and took photos for multiday so by the time we were actualy inside the parks my fiance and I said well thankfully we didn't pay for MM because if we had I'd be complaining about the entry situation. Now we purposefully plan for the non MM park.

During busier times or when MM is at say 9AM for a regular park opening of 10AM then it's nuts - security lines are long, lines at the gate are long and there is no rope drop so unless you are at the front of the line then you are using up some of that hour just getting into the park. We used a 7AM MM and we showed up at 6:15 to one person ahead of us at security - we had our pick of gates to be first at and we got a LOT done being there that early. We could have showed up at 6:30 and easily had a great situation but this was our 1st day and the kids were very anxious to get out the door for it to begin. I then watched the Tuesday and Thursday MM crowds which were at 9AM, as we went into DCA those days and man, it was very, very busy. So I'd recommend if you have a chance to pull at 7AM MM then get there early and you will have a completely different experience hopefully!

 

[Laz]

I would like to see a Disney response to this article so that I could put it in perspective. Sometimes silence is the worse response that a company can do. In any event, I am glad we went last summer. We were planning on waiting a couple of years before returning.

BTW, does anyone think that Disney parks has too many irons in the fire?