Aargh! Disney Changes Park Hours and Messes up My Plans!

[hvanes]

Thank you - I just checked both places (Josh's site and Disney's), and both still have 9:00 openings for all of our trip days (the week following the 4th). It seems weird though because it appears to be the only week that they haven't changed. I guess I'll just keep checking...?

 

[cakebaker]

You will still get in before everybody else. We had an 8:05 res at the castle on what turned out to be an 8:00 open and we had plenty of time to get there.

It wasn't much time if I recall before everybody else, but we did get to linger and take pics on Main Street. It might have been 10 minutes earlier, maybe 15.

I can tell you yesterday with an 8am opening, they only allowed adrs to enter moments before rope drop. We were at the rope and they held adrs right in front of us and allowed them to go 10 minutes before us, at most.

We had the same thing happen to us this trip and rescheduled for a reg opening day. Based on what I saw, I'd never keep an 8am adr with an 8 am park opening- if my goal was to
beat the rope drop crowd to rides.

 

[supersnoop]

What is the most reliable source for checking park hours updates? We are also visiting in July, and according to my MDE itinerary, there are no AM changes yet. I have a BOG early ADR that I definitely want to cancel if MK opens at 8.

This would be the most official:
http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_july.pdf

 

[georgina]

This has been happening a lot lately. I find the Disney website is more reliable this close to a trip, while the travel agent calendar is more useful for long range planning. Disney changed a couple of things for my trip last year, a few weeks before the trip, and it took the travel agent calendar a few days to catch up with the changes. People were telling us the changes weren't true because it was not what the TA calendar said, but it was wrong.

 

[kcpinwdw]

This happened to us on our May trip, we had an 8:05 CRT reservation. We kept it because I had a pre-park BOG breakfast on our other day, and I knew we would have plenty of time to get everything we wanted done even missing the first hour. We were let in about 20 minutes before 8am. Plenty of time. The benefit of this opening over a true pre-park ADR was that the photopass photographers were all out and we got empty pictures from them. Very nice. Plenty of time to check in to CRT. We met Cinderella and were seated before 8, and were out the door before 8:45. Crowds on the ground were still very light.

 

[erij11]

Thank you - I just checked both places (Josh's site and Disney's), and both still have 9:00 openings for all of our trip days (the week following the 4th). It seems weird though because it appears to be the only week that they haven't changed. I guess I'll just keep checking...?

I am going the same week and agree that this seems weird. There must be a reason why they didn't change the hours for this week but from what I understand this week is one of the busiest of the year so I'm not sure why it wouldn't be changed as well. I have an 8:05am breakfast at BOG on one of our MK days but I'd gladly cancel it for an extra hour of morning touring time so that we will have more time with less heat. On the plus side, if the park hours remain as they are we won't have to be up as early and will get to keep our BOG reservation.

 

[Stlhawkeye]

I can tell you yesterday with an 8am opening, they only allowed adrs to enter moments before rope drop. We were at the rope and they held adrs right in front of us and allowed them to go 10 minutes before us, at most.

We had the same thing happen to us this trip and rescheduled for a reg opening day. Based on what I saw, I'd never keep an 8am adr with an 7 am park opening- if my goal was to
Beat the rope drop crowd to rides.

Yeah if rides are your goal, then don't keep the adr. Our priority was the quiet walk down Main Street and the magic that surrounds being one of the first folks into the park.

 

[Carnator]

Got an Early ADR at CP in August, keeping fingers crossed

 

[Fam of 4]

Thank you so much for posting this. It prompted me to go check our situation and sure enough, I am in the boat with you for our trip in July. Now we are trying to figure out if we want to keep it, get a later one, or to cancel all together.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Happened to us on our December trip. Had a 7:30 'Ohana and an 8am CP. All days got moved back to 8. We dropped the 'Ohana and were miserable watching the crowds flock in while we were eating. I'll keep shooting for 8am ADRs in the MK moving forward, but the second the schedule changes, I'll drop them.

 

[MainMom]

Thank you - I just checked both places (Josh's site and Disney's), and both still have 9:00 openings for all of our trip days (the week following the 4th). It seems weird though because it appears to be the only week that they haven't changed. I guess I'll just keep checking...?

We arrive mid-week the same week and I keep waiting for the hours to change. Seems a bit strange with the holiday.

 

[Ariel Wanna-be]

 

[Live4theMagic]

I gave up my 8am BOG reservation in May because MK hours changed- super frustrating! I'm planning for my next trip now and trying to avoid this. Does anyone know which days of the week they are most likely to switch to an 8am opening? (Not close to any holidays)

 

[sharona]

Happened to us on our December trip. Had a 7:30 'Ohana and an 8am CP. All days got moved back to 8. We dropped the 'Ohana and were miserable watching the crowds flock in while we were eating. I'll keep shooting for 8am ADRs in the MK moving forward, but the second the schedule changes, I'll drop them.

What week in December was this? We're going 12/10 - 12/15 and are considering an 8am on our MK day... tia

 

[whitney250]

I'm just waiting for them to do this on our park days... I think we will likely keep our reservations, but I won't be too excited to miss out on an hour or so of park time

 

[Capang]

I snagged two 8am ADRs for BOG breakfast for our trip earlier this month and sure enough the hours changed to an 8 opening for the first day. We kept it only because it was easier since DD, 4, knew we would eat at Beasts Castle before we did anything else and we didn't want to have to explain why we couldn't eat there that day. We were in at 7:45 or so and out in the park by 8:30. The only lines that were already long were 7dmt, A&E, and Peter Pan. Most all other attractions had a very minimal wait.
Our second ADR was great because when we were finished eating we found the cm that was heading the line to 7dmt and were led through the FP line and right on to the second train. By the time we got off the line was at 30+ minutes. I hope you have a wonderful vacation!

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

What week in December was this? We're going 12/10 - 12/15 and are considering an 8am on our MK day... tia

Identical trip. 12/10-12/15. We thought we were early enough in December to avoid the 8am openings, but last year it was pretty much the whole month.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

I can totally relate to this problem. My son was desperate to do jedi training, we woke up early to get to the Studios before it opened only to find a "surprise" early morning entry had happened just moments before we arrived. Surprise indeed!

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I gave up my 8am BOG reservation in May because MK hours changed- super frustrating! I'm planning for my next trip now and trying to avoid this. Does anyone know which days of the week they are most likely to switch to an 8am opening? (Not close to any holidays)

For some reason, they seem to change Mon- Wed hours to 8 am. For our trip Fri, Sat, and Sun were left at 9 am, and Thursday had always been set as morning EMH. You would think it would be the opposite. I keep wondering what the point is of doing this. It costs the park money to open an hour early, and the park is already open until midnight. Why add a morning hour? To distribute crowds more evenly, maybe?

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I can totally relate to this problem. My son was desperate to do jedi training, we woke up early to get to the Studios before it opened only to find a "surprise" early morning entry had happened just moments before we arrived. Surprise indeed!

I'm sorry! Some surprises aren't so great. Did he get to do the Jedi training?