Anyone One Else Sad that Extra Magic Hours for Little Ones is Discontinued?

[KandiB47]

I just read that the extra magic hours for Littles Ones at Magic Kingdom has been discontinued My DS had such a good time last December with it. We played duck, duck, goose with Mickey. The characters were walking around and riding rides with all the little kids in Fantasyland. I thought this was such a great idea. The characters didn't sign autographs for that hour, which was great. I have to admit I enjoyed the characters as must as DS I was looking forward to this on our next trip. Anybody else disappointed?

 

[MousekaMaddi]

sooooooooooo saaaaad

 

[Camden'smom]

I am very disappointed they are not continuing this for the little ones. I thought it was great!! We already have our trip planned for September and now I am bumbed this is not going to happen. We had a great time last year with Imagination Movers and playing games with the characters in FantasyLand. My little guy will be so disappointed when he finds out they stopped this. Does anyone know why they discontinued this??

 

[Miz Diz]

I am sad, too.

 

[JoiseyMom]

It was a marketing tool. It worked, it got more people in the parks. If they need attendance to go up again, they will bring it back. The bottom line is profit. Sad but true.

 

[disneymotherof3]

So does this mean that there won't be the concert series with the Playhouse Disney music groups?

 

[twinspluscade]

Nope, no concert series either.

I gotta say--the cancelling of Magical Beginings makes me wonder if they'll even offer free dining to the general public this year. Maybe so many people booked with bounce-back/Uk free dining that the special promotions during Sept are no longer needed?

 

[Lady V]

Nope, no concert series either.

I gotta say--the cancelling of Magical Beginings makes me wonder if they'll even offer free dining to the general public this year. Maybe so many people booked with bounce-back/Uk free dining that the special promotions during Sept are no longer needed?

so true. It is sad they cancelled it-I never got to use it but it looked neat. It seems like they aren't having trouble with bookings so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of free stuff is gone soon. then-they can bring it back when it is actually needed to fill the parks.

 

[eliza61]

I am very disappointed they are not continuing this for the little ones. I thought it was great!! We already have our trip planned for September and now I am bumbed this is not going to happen. We had a great time last year with Imagination Movers and playing games with the characters in FantasyLand. My little guy will be so disappointed when he finds out they stopped this. Does anyone know why they discontinued this??

I don't think it got the numbers that they really wanted. I think people enjoyed it ifthey were already there but unlike free dining or the food & wine festival I don't think it caused people to rearrange their vacations just to enjoy the emh for little ones. I thought it was cool but not enough to plan a return trip around.

 

[SmallWorld71]

My kids thought this was great - it was one of the highlights of our trip! They got so much individual attention from the characters that has not even come close to being equaled by the character meals.

 

[girlsmom]

I just called Disney World and was told by three different people that there had NOT been an announcement made about whether or not there would be little ones travel time, and each of them also said they fully expected there to be little ones travel time AND free dining offered for Sept 2008. Each also advised me that disboards are NOT run by disney. ANY idea who is the source of this "NEWS"??? is whoever put that announcement on this site a reliable source??? We already booked for Sept 2008 after LOVING little ones travel time in Sept 2007; i am PRAYING this is a FALSE "announcement"!

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

I am more dissappointed that they are no longer having the shows at MGM/DHS.

 

[CheriePenguin]

I was VERY bummed to see the notice
The recent posting about it maybe being a false rumor gives me a smidgen of hope though.

My little guys don't know most of the shows or groups to enjoy the DHS concerts (unless they bring back the Wiggles), but I was really looking forward to them getting to play with and maybe ride with the characters at Fantasyland during the LOEMH. We specifically booked during fall because of this - though I had my worries since I had trouble finding ANYTHING about it on the official Disney site.

I was originally leaning toward the last week of Sept to first week of Oct, but moved it back hoping for the possibility of free dining.

I hope it gets settled soon. We're meeting with my parents this weekend to go over park days and ADR's before our 180-day mark (March 20th).

Does anyone know or remember WHEN the Little Ones thing was announced in prior years? Was it close to now with the calendar, or just a month or two prior to it starting?

 

[twins4mimi]

I was VERY bummed to see the notice
The recent posting about it maybe being a false rumor gives me a smidgen of hope though.

My little guys don't know most of the shows or groups to enjoy the DHS concerts (unless they bring back the Wiggles), but I was really looking forward to them getting to play with and maybe ride with the characters at Fantasyland during the LOEMH. We specifically booked during fall because of this - though I had my worries since I had trouble finding ANYTHING about it on the official Disney site.

I was originally leaning toward the last week of Sept to first week of Oct, but moved it back hoping for the possibility of free dining.

I hope it gets settled soon. We're meeting with my parents this weekend to go over park days and ADR's before our 180-day mark (March 20th).

Does anyone know or remember WHEN the Little Ones thing was announced in prior years? Was it close to now with the calendar, or just a month or two prior to it starting?

Last year they announced it the first week of April.

 

[jnsma]

I've got to say the little ones magical hour was really great and I'm really disappointed it is going away (assuming it is). I agree it is probably all about the $$ but things like this is what makes Disney Disney.

We stumbled on it last year. We had breakfast reservation before the "standard" opening, so they let us go first. We had time before the reservation so wanted our kids to see the park empty. Have a picture of the just our family in front of the castle with no other people (very hard to imagine).
Then we noticed that the carousel was running, so we went back to check it out. My wife was tearing up seeing all the characters riding.
We did a ride on the carousel and dumbo before heading off to breakfast.

Went back a couple of days later, this time in the know. The character interaction was great. This time my son got to ride Dumbo with Stitch.

I'm not sure how I'm going to tell him that he may have to ride with Daddy this year.

 

[Schmeck]

I just called Disney World and was told by three different people that there had NOT been an announcement made about whether or not there would be little ones travel time, and each of them also said they fully expected there to be little ones travel time AND free dining offered for Sept 2008. Each also advised me that disboards are NOT run by disney. ANY idea who is the source of this "NEWS"??? is whoever put that announcement on this site a reliable source??? We already booked for Sept 2008 after LOVING little ones travel time in Sept 2007; i am PRAYING this is a FALSE "announcement"!

Did you call Walt Disney World in Florida,USA, or did you get the reservation center in who-knows-whereville? Becasue if you called the reservation center, you could call them twenty times and get twenty different answers... If you called Walt Disney World, you'd get only 8-10 different answers for those 20 calls...

 

[momamy]

It is sad. We did this last year with our dd and it was so nice!

I really hope they reconsider!

 

[girlsmom]

the fact there there are NO morning EMH's listed on disneyworld.com for Sept on Sun, Wed, Fri also makes me think that there WILL be LOEMH b/c the days of the LOEMH last year were Sun, Wed, and Fri...(why ELSE would there be NO morning EMH at MK, AK, MGM or Epcot for those days???)
is anyone else hopeful that the announcement on disboards was incorrect????

 

[girlsmom]

Schmeck, I called 407-939-INFO and got same answer as when I called 407-WDISNEY twice...that all 3 people expected there to be the little ones travel time and free dining offered for this fall.
Does anyone know how to find out WHO is the "insider" that posts these announcements??? Where did they get that information from?

 

[sdb72]

I just called Disney World and was told by three different people that there had NOT been an announcement made about whether or not there would be little ones travel time, and each of them also said they fully expected there to be little ones travel time AND free dining offered for Sept 2008. Each also advised me that disboards are NOT run by disney. ANY idea who is the source of this "NEWS"??? is whoever put that announcement on this site a reliable source??? We already booked for Sept 2008 after LOVING little ones travel time in Sept 2007; i am PRAYING this is a FALSE "announcement"!

I just got off the phone with a disney representative and he told me that they have not been told that this has been discontinued and he would expect it to happen again this year. He also said don't beleive everything you read they've been saying for 3 years disney quest was going to close. He did say they usually know in april along with a line up for Concerts for the preschoolers. He did not however confirm that their will definately be it he just said most everyone who works their thinks its going to happen again. I hope he is right because I'm going in September.