Amazed and Disappointed

[poppinspenguins]

That's fine if you think it is one but I really don't.

Technically speaking Cedar Point and Worlds of Fun are amusement parks not theme parks like WDW but that could be considered semantics for this context.

As far as your second comment...you sorta missed the whole point of my comment. The underlying part of your argument in that it's July=summer=longer hrs I agreed with. It was the whole seasonal/annual comparison that I didn't.

I didn't miss you point. I just disagree. We see things different no big deal.

To me it is Apple's to Apple's. Disney is seasonal in a way for people who can only come at certain point of the year. But, regardless, The parks operate similar in the peak seasons, and I would guess that even in the summer they are not as crowded. I know kings island doesn't get near as crowded as Disney and still manages long summer hours. I don't think the off season is relevant in this case.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I didn't miss you point. I just disagree.

Your response to me didn't make it sound like you understood but just didn't agree. It sounded like you didn't get my point at all really TBH.

But whatev agree to disagree I suppose

 

[MarBee]

We have been going to Disney on a regular basis now for over 10 years and I am totally staggered by the closing times of MK in July. I was certain they would change the hours and close at 12/1.00am or even 2.00am as they have in previous years, but I have never known such a consistent period of 10.00pm closing as is posted for this July. It just does not make sense, all the prices are sky high and they shut MK at 10.00pm in July!! And they compensate us by opening 2 rides at AK instead.

Very disappointed.

I am with you 100% on this. We went last year at the same week, and with EMH would stay at MK till 1:00 am. We were expecting to do the same this year and were highly disappointed to be done 3 hours earlier. (Park hours aren't out the months in advance when you make your reservations.)

Likewise, pretty much half of Epcot, though the park was scheduled to close at 9:00, would close at 7:00. We were even in Innoventions at 6:50 listening to one of the CM's introduction about the wonderful world of color. At 6:58, another CM told us we couldn't finish the rest of the presentation because they were closing at 7:00. I thought that was fairly ridiculous.

The only park that was open late was Animal Kingdom, and that was only the Pandora section of AK. Don't get me wrong, Pandora was beautiful, but there wasn't enough to do for three hours there besides wait in line for the rides.

We went in January of this year, during one of the lowest volume weeks, and the park hours were pretty much the same. It stinks that they kept those hours for a much busier time.

We actually decided not to renew our Annual Passes or buy DVC mostly because of the limited hours. To be honest, we will prob not be back for a long time because of it. Our kids are getting older, so we are limited to vacationing in the summer when school is out...but I don't do well in the sun. For those of us that still love Disney but don't function well in the sun, having low night time hours just makes it not worth it.

I haven't read the dozens of other posts on this thread but I completely agree with you on this.

 

[Praying Colonel]

The trip when I have to do rope drop every day to feel like I got my money's worth out of my park ticket will be the last Disney vacation I take.

I think back to past threads about going with an anti-RD strategy: sleep in and stay late. It'd be interesting to revisit those in light of current evening hours.

 

[MarBee]

I think back to past threads about going with an anti-RD strategy: sleep in and stay late. It'd be interesting to revisit those in light of current evening hours.

My touring style in the summer has always been to sleep in and go in the early evening then close out the parks. It really sucked this summer having to change it to adjust to the early closing hours. Both my son and I got physically ill from the heat. We are never going in the summer again (if at all).
ETA: we still had fun, but I definitely left feeling ripped off. The pixie dust just wasn't there this trip.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I think back to past threads about going with an anti-RD strategy: sleep in and stay late. It'd be interesting to revisit those in light of current evening hours.

That has always been my strategy!

Wake up early at 6:00 = Work.
Sleep till 8:00 = Vacation.

When and if WDW becomes too much work, count me out.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

We would never return in summer again because we would need those late hours to tour comfortably in the heat.

 

[skaarupjac]

The trade off there is that party days are less crowded. Also, in December the weather is typically fine. Summer weather is hot & humid, with regular thunderstorms mid-day that can shut down attractions & pools for hours. That's one reason why late nights were especially integral to effective summer touring.

Agreed! We just got back on Wednesday-there from 6/28-7/5. Our last trip we went in 2014: 12/15-22. We all felt we got to do so much more on that trip vs this one. When I got home, I looked back at the historical crows calendar. We actually prefer that timeframe. We stayed at the Poly this time around, and even the pool was so crowded during the afternoon!

 

[Shanti]

Agreed! We just got back on Wednesday-there from 6/28-7/5. Our last trip we went in 2014: 12/15-22. We all felt we got to do so much more on that trip vs this one. When I got home, I looked back at the historical crows calendar. We actually prefer that timeframe. We stayed at the Poly this time around, and even the pool was so crowded during the afternoon!

Are they scanning Magic Bands to get into the Poly pool now? We're staying there next month.

 

[ucfknight]

Are they scanning Magic Bands to get into the Poly pool now? We're staying there next month.

Yes

 

[MaryKatesMom]

This is exactly what has happened over the past several years during Easter Break. MK EMH used to be every morning at 7AM the entire time.

Crowds increased, prices went up but park hours came down so we skipped 2017 because 2016 was unmanageable and there was no fourth FP+ available.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Cutting the hours at night also hurts the rope droppers...more people will move to rope drop

The weather in Central Florida is just horrible during the hot months. Maybe they should close the park for a siesta midday

 

[disneybree]

As a Canadian visiting WDW for the first time ever I am so mad that I am paying over 5000$+ CAD$ just to have a 5 day vacation which 2 of those days are for MK finishing off at 10 p.m.

Why are they charging peak prices and not giving peak hours? We are NOT early birds. I can wake up at 10:00 a.m. and be awake until 3 am. 10 a.m. is WAY too early, and for the fact that Disney KNOWS that summer is the time where a lot of tourists around the world come visit them infuriates me that they close at 10 because "they think the crowds are less". My cousins visited MK, on the day which had 11 pm closings, where even at 10:55 the park was crowded with LONG wait times. More hours in the evening, less I have to be stuck with 6 hour showers and sunburns all around my body.

AND the fact that they want people to visit Animal Kingdom for 2 rides that no one asked for? We are NOT and will NEVER be Avatar fans, but Pandora is only really pretty at night.

I am so done. I hate checking every day the days of my vacation that we go to MK show 10 p.m. So done.

 

[Shanti]

I know from personal experience going back to the '80's, the park hours when we typically visit (last week in August) have always averaged 8:00 closings.

To compare, back when I started going to WDW over 20 years ago the MK was not open late.

We visited in the mid-80's, stayed offsite, and MK was open until midnight every night.

 

[jdisnut]

For what it's worth, the parks have been empty the last two days. Like, shockingly empty. I had always heard summer was peak season, but there are no lines anywhere except Pandora.

We walked onto Soarin' earlier today morning. Frozen Ever After had a short line at lunchtime. No surprise the hours are short.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

For what it's worth, the parks have been empty the last two days. Like, shockingly empty. I had always heard summer was peak season, but there are no lines anywhere except Pandora.

We walked onto Soarin' earlier today morning. Frozen Ever After had a short line at lunchtime. No surprise the hours are short.

We walked onto quite a few things this past week.

One hotel manager I spoke with said the industry was very perplexed this holiday week as the hotels were largely empty. He said he's never seen it like this before.

ETA: I think a lot of people aren't coming because of the lack of hours. JMO, of course, but I think people checked the calendar and when the hours didn't change, people bailed. We came home two days early because of the heat and not having late hours.

 

[maltdizzy]

We visited in the mid-80's, stayed offsite, and MK was open until midnight every night.

Oh, we would see the midnight closings on the schedules, but by the third week of August closing was was (and usually is) 9 or 10 and then it would be 8 PM at MK by the last week in August for us (with no weekday fireworks). It was always kind of a bummer. It's not that different these days, but there are now 4 parks instead of 1 or 2 usually one stays open later or has a EMH.

I'm not saying park hours aren't shorter than they have been in recent years, that seems obvious. We live in an age of data science, and Disney definitely has the data to run the parks as efficiency as needed for profit. With attendance down, so will be park hours, but that may be a self-fulfilling prophecy with poor attendance causing shorter hours and vice versa. Not sure how much of this is from Disney's efforts to spread out the crowds year round by adjusting the bang-for-the-buck factor for or against different seasons.

It is what is it is, we adapt and schedule around hours like we do anything else. We are there to have fun, not be appeased.

 

[Cindyd04]

Ok so I'm not the only one noticing the early closing hours. I miss the late night EMH because that's how I like to get the parks done or realistically get two parks in one day. I remember going in April of 2012 and while we arrived to our hotel at 3pm, we were able to get everything done in MK because it was open for EMH until 3am. I'm a night owl and early morning EMH is a wash for me. I keep checking the hours for my next trip and everything closes at 9pm, its really disappointing.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I was thinking that people within driving distance are seeing these stingy hours and going elsewhere.

I paid a lot more for my ticket for my upcoming trip than I did just a year ago. If attendance is down, I think that has a lot to do with it. Surely in February, Disney executives saw that current events would impact the number of foreign visitors.

Whacking Americans with such a big jump in price was just crazy. $75 just to park hop? I think that is nuts especially when one of the parks (Studios) is under construction.

 

[Jim Shuler]

We have been going to Disney on a regular basis now for over 10 years and I am totally staggered by the closing times of MK in July. I was certain they would change the hours and close at 12/1.00am or even 2.00am as they have in previous years, but I have never known such a consistent period of 10.00pm closing as is posted for this July. It just does not make sense, all the prices are sky high and they shut MK at 10.00pm in July!! And they compensate us by opening 2 rides at AK instead.

Very disappointed.

It seems rather cheap to close at 10:00 during the summer. It is just cooling off at that time. Maybe Disney losing revenue for decreased customers on ESPN and Disney channel, plus other questionable financial decisions are effecting the parks. Not sure Disney cares about the patrons as much as they did in the past.