Changing Park Hours

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Okay, am I the only one who gets frustrated by this? Disney wants us to book ADRs at 180 days, so I do. They want us to book FPs at 60 days, so I do. I know neither is a requirement, but since it's an availability, you sort of have to do it to get everything you want. Okay, so we'll play along and schedule everything months in advance.

Then they go and change park hours!!! I'm looking at the third week of August. ADRs all set. FPs all set. We don't do park hoppers, so this means choosing parks far in advance, based on the schedule they put out.

My kids wanted to stay really late at MK one night, so we picked a day that has EMHs in the evening, open until 1:00 am. Now they're only open until 11:00. In fact, the only night they're staying open late the whole week we're there is 8/23, the same night we have tickets for the Villains party.

Then we wanted EMH at Animal Kingdom and chose our FPs based on what we'd be able to get done in that extra hour before FPs even start. Now there's no EMH on that date. Again, already have FPs and ADRs based on the original schedule.

Do they do this a lot? Should I expect even more changes before our trip? If we have to have our schedules set months in advance, why can't they?

 

[wdwfan]

I think I'll be there during the same time as you. I just checked The Dis park hours for MK and it looks like 8/17/14 (Sunday) is still extra evening hours with an 11pm close, before the evening hours begin (extra 2 hours after closing). Maybe I'm missing something, which could be, but it looks like MK will still be open late on that date. Does that fall within your stay?

 

[smitch425]

Okay, am I the only one who gets frustrated by this? Disney wants us to book ADRs at 180 days, so I do. They want us to book FPs at 60 days, so I do. I know neither is a requirement, but since it's an availability, you sort of have to do it to get everything you want. Okay, so we'll play along and schedule everything months in advance.

Then they go and change park hours!!! I'm looking at the third week of August. ADRs all set. FPs all set. We don't do park hoppers, so this means choosing parks far in advance, based on the schedule they put out.

My kids wanted to stay really late at MK one night, so we picked a day that has EMHs in the evening, open until 1:00 am. Now they're only open until 11:00. In fact, the only night they're staying open late the whole week we're there is 8/23, the same night we have tickets for the Villains party.

Then we wanted EMH at Animal Kingdom and chose our FPs based on what we'd be able to get done in that extra hour before FPs even start. Now there's no EMH on that date. Again, already have FPs and ADRs based on the original schedule.

Do they do this a lot? Should I expect even more changes before our trip? If we have to have our schedules set months in advance, why can't they?

Are you using this calendar?

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_August.pdf

Expect more tweaking in July. EMH days typically don't change, though.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I think I'll be there during the same time as you. I just checked The Dis park hours for MK and it looks like 8/17/14 (Sunday) is still extra evening hours with an 11pm close, before the evening hours begin (extra 2 hours after closing). Maybe I'm missing something, which could be, but it looks like MK will still be open late on that date. Does that fall within your stay?

Actually, the MK day I was referring to is 8/24. On the DIS site, it's still listed as EMH at night (until 1am), but on both the actual Disney World site and on Touring Plans, it's now listed as closing at 11pm, but open late on the 23rd.

AK did have morning EMH on 8/25, but now they don't. They got moved to 8/24.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Are you using this calendar?

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_August.pdf

Expect more tweaking in July. EMH days typically don't change, though.

Where did that calendar come from and when was it downloaded? That has the original times for the dates I was looking at, but if you go to the Disney website now, the 24th and 25th have changed.

 

[tndisney5]

Okay, am I the only one who gets frustrated by this? Disney wants us to book ADRs at 180 days, so I do. They want us to book FPs at 60 days, so I do. I know neither is a requirement, but since it's an availability, you sort of have to do it to get everything you want. Okay, so we'll play along and schedule everything months in advance.

Then they go and change park hours!!! I'm looking at the third week of August. ADRs all set. FPs all set. We don't do park hoppers, so this means choosing parks far in advance, based on the schedule they put out.

This was my biggest "beef" with dis during our last trip earlier this year. Changing park hours is frustrating for those of us who like to do major preplanning!

 

[siskaren]

Where did that calendar come from and when was it downloaded? That has the original times for the dates I was looking at, but if you go to the Disney website now, the 24th and 25th have changed.

It's the travel agents calendar, and if you look at the bottom of each page, it says it was last edited on June 13. It's actually a better calendar to use than the one on the Disney website (and it is the official calendar). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Robo were to come along and confirm that this is the calendar to use.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

It's the travel agents calendar, and if you look at the bottom of each page, it says it was last edited on June 13. It's actually a better calendar to use than the one on the Disney website (and it is the official calendar). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Robo were to come along and confirm that this is the calendar to use.

But that's exactly what the hours were and that's what was on Disney's site up until some time in the past couple days, as far as I can tell. Now they've changed their site. Are you sure the travel agent's calendar isn't going to be updated too?

 

[smitch425]

But that's exactly what the hours were and that's what was on Disney's site up until some time in the past couple days, as far as I can tell. Now they've changed their site. Are you sure the travel agent's calendar isn't going to be updated too?

Typically, the changes are made on the TA calendar first, then the Disney site is updated to reflect the changes. As I mentioned earlier, I would expect some additional changes in a July, but typically the changes are to increase hours, not decrease them. The TA calendar is provided to travel agents directly from Disney. It is the most accurate calendar that exists.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Are you using this calendar?

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_August.pdf

Expect more tweaking in July. EMH days typically don't change, though.

They did for July

I just posted on the July thread how frustrated I am by this. We're going the third week of July and they changed two EMH dates. For as long as I can remember, MK PM EMH have always been on Sundays (used to be Fridays too!) Up until this past week there were EMH scheduled for the Sunday night of our trip. I booked a BOG dinner around this plan. We were planning on doing a resort day and then going to MK just for BOG and EMH. All of a sudden, the EMH were changed to Saturday instead. Grr..... There's no way I can change our plan. BOG is impossible to get.

They also changed an AK morning EMH from Monday to Sunday.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

They did for July

I just posted on the July thread how frustrated I am by this. We're going the third week of July and they changed two EMH dates. For as long as I can remember, MK PM EMH have always been on Sundays (used to be Fridays too!) Up until this past week there were EMH scheduled for the Sunday night of our trip. I booked a BOG dinner around this plan. We were planning on doing a resort day and then going to MK just for BOG and EMH. All of a sudden, the EMH were changed to Saturday instead. Grr..... There's no way I can change our plan. BOG is impossible to get.

They also changed an AK morning EMH from Monday to Sunday.

EXACTLY! These are exactly the changes I found for August too! And I'm afraid to trust a TA calendar that is older than the changes they just made to the Disney website. I would love for some TAs to verify that the changes on the Disney website aren't accurate, but I suspect Disney is making unexpected changes!

 

[Tonyz]

They changed the EMH for MK in September, too... completely screws me for watching Wishes. I never do Wishes because I hate leaving at the same time as every single other person in the park. It's such a mess.

9/7 was gonna be my Wishes night since MK was open till midnight, and now I gotta switch stuff up!

 

[siskaren]

They did for July

I just posted on the July thread how frustrated I am by this. We're going the third week of July and they changed two EMH dates. For as long as I can remember, MK PM EMH have always been on Sundays (used to be Fridays too!) Up until this past week there were EMH scheduled for the Sunday night of our trip. I booked a BOG dinner around this plan. We were planning on doing a resort day and then going to MK just for BOG and EMH. All of a sudden, the EMH were changed to Saturday instead. Grr..... There's no way I can change our plan. BOG is impossible to get.

They also changed an AK morning EMH from Monday to Sunday.

The July travel agents calendar (just change August to July in the link smitch425 provided) shows MK having evening EMH every Sunday in July and AK having morning EMH every Monday.

 

[smitch425]

They did for July

I just posted on the July thread how frustrated I am by this. We're going the third week of July and they changed two EMH dates. For as long as I can remember, MK PM EMH have always been on Sundays (used to be Fridays too!) Up until this past week there were EMH scheduled for the Sunday night of our trip. I booked a BOG dinner around this plan. We were planning on doing a resort day and then going to MK just for BOG and EMH. All of a sudden, the EMH were changed to Saturday instead. Grr..... There's no way I can change our plan. BOG is impossible to get.

They also changed an AK morning EMH from Monday to Sunday.

The July travel agents calendar (just change August to July in the link smitch425 provided) shows MK having evening EMH every Sunday in July and AK having morning EMH every Monday.

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_july.pdf

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

The July travel agents calendar (just change August to July in the link smitch425 provided) shows MK having evening EMH every Sunday in July and AK having morning EMH every Monday. confused3

Yes, but it's updated June 13. The changes the other posters and I are talking about have only occurred in the past few days. I would love to see a TA calendar dated today!

 

[Polydweller]

Disney changes park hours depending on expected crowd levels and they will change them right up to the same day. If it looks like they are going to get huge crowds hours will be changed to accommodate the crowd size and that often can't be accurately predicted until they get much closer to the date.

It may be frustrating but it's one of those factors you can't control just like you can't control that your best laid plans get ruined by a thunderstorm of hurricane. No use getting upset about something you can't control. All you can do is do your best planning and then do what humans do best, adapt to change.

 

[smitch425]

Yes, but it's updated June 13. The changes the other posters and I are talking about have only occurred in the past few days. I would love to see a TA calendar dated today!

The Disney site is notorious for being incorrect and having glitches. The TA calendar link is a live link, meaning it is as current as it gets. The date just means the last time it was altered.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Made my plans around late EMHs on Sundays in August which would have had the MK open til 1am.. after reading this thread I went back into MDE and park closing is now showing as 11pm - no EMH.

Time to do a bit of shuffling of ADRs & FPs...

Never a dull moment.

 

[Tonyz]

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_july.pdf

9/7 = September 7th.

 

[smitch425]

9/7 = September 7th.

I'm not sure what this post means. :confused