What are your thoughts about all the park ticketed events that seem to have become more frequent and more popular? // On my last trips the week before Christmas, we wanted to do a day at the MK for the overall vibe with a desire to do maybe 7 or 8 attractions and see a parade and fireworks. // There were quite a few party days that week though and crowd predictions were low on party days, but no parade or fireworks, and crowd predictions were particularly high on non-party days because of people's desire to be able to do parade and fireworks without buying an extra ticket. // And I really sort of think of parties as Disney double dipping and really didn't want to support those. I also thought we might like a little more time at the MK than what the party offered. I figured, though, we could do the stuff in that we wanted to do, but it would be a late night with our hanging around Mainstreet USA a good hour or two after official park closing to get the time here we wanted. And I'm not all that fond of that late a night. The youngest in our party, though, was 19, so no cranky tired little kids, etc.
In the end, I caved. We really didn't like any of the choices, but we wanted to go, didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for two tickets, so just went with what seemed like the best choice for our circumstances -- no day ticket, just a party ticket for a day during the week. lol So here I am supporting the party events that I think of as double dipping by Disney.
The fairness concept is probably not that much of a discussion item here. Disney owns the parks and can decide hours, rules, and prices. People who buy party tickets are the only ones that can go to the parties. And people can decide whether or not to buy a theme park ticket, party ticket, both, or skip going to Disney or the Magic Kingdom entirely. Disney heavily advertises it's hours and night time shows and parades, so people are warned ahead of time about earlier closings.