Clearing MK before a party

[mesaboy2]

At one point they held everybody in tomorrowland. The only way to ensure ticket holders are the only ones there is to clear the park around 4 and start letting people with tickets in the gate around 6 PM. The most cost effective way for Disney, and they are all about money, is to keep people in the park and try to push people to the gate. CMs will tell the guests to leave, but they are not forced to. I have seen them shopping (no party merch) and buying food. They get a free parade and fireworks and Disney still makes money.

When Disney is in an enforcing mood--and with hard-ticket parties they usually are--this is not correct. Guests without party wristbands are escorted to the exits.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Maybe they can start having the MBs flash red after 7p if you don't have a party ticket! lol

Put a little zapper in em so they give a painful jolt. Zzzzt. It's 7:05 You must reach the gate by 7:10 or the pain increases. ZZZZT. you naughty guest. it's 7:10. You must reach the gate by 7:15 or the pain increases.

zzzzzzzzzzzt. Still not cooperating eh. It's 7:15. Put down the dole whip and head to the exit by 7:20 or the pain increases.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. time of death, 7:20. Let that be a lesson to those of you that would linger around after we told you to get out!!

 

[Hopelessly_Devoted]

When Disney is in an enforcing mood--and with hard-ticket parties they usually are--this is not correct. Guests without party wristbands are escorted to the exits.

I have been to MANY parties. We just need to disagree based upon personal observation. Even as a CM we were limited on what we could do.

 

[siskaren]

CMs will tell the guests to leave, but they are not forced to. I have seen them shopping (no party merch) and buying food. They get a free parade and fireworks and Disney still makes money.

CMs will make people without wristbands leave.

 

[mesaboy2]

CMs will make people without wristbands leave.

Yeah, that.

 

[Sammie]

I think they do a great job, I just think some at these parties think the parks are going to be less crowded than they really are. They stop you at several crossovers to different lands and check for wristbands, they check on attractions and they even walk through outdoor food areas and ask people to move to the exit. They won't let you get in line for characters without a wristband and I have even seen them escort people to Main St. that were stragglers.
I have even seen them call security when someone wanted to argue with the CM about leaving.

 

[HopperFan]

At one point they held everybody in tomorrowland. The only way to ensure ticket holders are the only ones there is to clear the park around 4 and start letting people with tickets in the gate around 6 PM. The most cost effective way for Disney, and they are all about money, is to keep people in the park and try to push people to the gate. CMs will tell the guests to leave, but they are not forced to. I have seen them shopping (no party merch) and buying food. They get a free parade and fireworks and Disney still makes money.

Been doing 2 Halloween Parties each year for many years and have never experienced this.
What I have seen is:
- CMs forming barricades to lands and not allowing anyone to the land without a wristband.
- When guest complains their family is in there heard them say to meet them at the front gate.
- CMs blocking the doors to all stores and food locations. No wristband, no enter, no transactions.
- When guests say they just need to get something quick, they are told no park is closed.
- Seen them blocking bathrooms. When guests say their kid HAS to go, they say there is a bathroom outside the front gate.
- I've seen them walk them towards Main Street, telling them they can buy tickets at Guest Relations.
- CMs asking over and over of folks sitting at parade to show their wristbands.
- I think one reason the parade is later this year to give them enough time to make sure all are out, including those who are eating at TS.
- I've seen them ask those without wristbands to leave the character lines.
- I've seen them tell guests, even kids, without wristbands they can not have candy.

I've been very impressed each time on the diligence of the CMs. They absolutely can enforce it. And I've seen security walking folks out too. If a CM is not being pro-active in getting guests out then they are not doing their job. I'm heading to two more next week, guess I will see if things have changed since all the previous years.

 

[Indio]

We love the Halloween and Christmas parties, but if they didn't let party goers in at 4, we would stop going to the parties. The tickets are just too expensive for only 5 hours - I can justify 8 hours! That's a whole day! At all the parties we've attended, the CM's have done an excellent job at clearing the parks - we were asked to show our bands at every turn, every shop, every bathroom. And the whole group had to show bands, not just a couple of us!

 

[RedAngie]

Personally, if they didn't allow party guests in at 4:00pm I believe the sale of special event tickets would drop. I am an AP holder and I always go to the parties but my family and friends who don't have AP's wouldn't pay the escalated price for a party if they couldn't get in before 7:00pm. They don't mind the price of the special event ticket as long as they can enter the park at 4:00pm.

I never considered buying a ticket for the Halloween party until I read here that you can enter at 4pm. The price for just five hours was too high IMO, but very reasonable for eight hours. I would rarely be in the MK for more than eight hours anyway even if was a 16 hour park day.

We've been to Magic Kingdom on party days without tickets, and we always leave before 6:30 because we don't belong there in the evening and aren't the type to try to cheat the system. It's a pretty sad commentary on human nature that this problem exists.

No need to leave before 630pm. I believe day guests should be able to enjoy all park activities until 7pm, even entering a long ride line at 659pm. And in practice that's how it seems to work. If Disney wants day guests OUT of the park by 7pm, they need to post a 6pm closing time.

Last October I saw CMs question two groups about their lack of wristbands. Both before 8pm. So I stopped to eavesdrop a bit. One party headed toward the exit, but who knows if they ducked away when they were out of sight of the CMs. The other party IMO pretended not to understand and was arguing a bit. Some higher level CMs arrived to talk to them. I don't know if that group was escorted out.

I stayed at Universal last October and they DO clear the park before their scary Halloween party. I think the Studios close at 5pm on party nights. We lollygagged out about 530ish and there was already a long line waiting to get in. I'm not sure when Universal starts admitting guests for their 7pm start. We hopped over to Islands of Adventure which was open until perhaps 8pm that night.

(ETA: I see by reading further that philharmagic fan has clarified his/her response).

 

[RedAngie]

I went on a party night and was shocked at the number of people who had no idea they were supposed to leave at 7:00. I saw the shocked looks on several different groups faces as they were told the park would be closed to them at 7:00. We meandered from Buzz to the hub and down Main Street and our the exit at about 6:45. Then we went back to OKW and the boys went swimming and DW and I had a Turtle Krawl or 2 or 3.

I don't buy that "had no idea" excuse. There were signs at the MK parking toll booth, signs outside the MK gates, closing time posted in hotel lobbies, on the web, and in all printed times guides. Plus I believe there was a loudspeaker announcement in the park about 630pm.

Then again, I suppose one can't expect some people to actually read or hear such things.

 

[HopperFan]

I don't buy that "had no idea" excuse. There were signs at the MK parking toll booth, signs outside the MK gates, closing time posted in hotel lobbies, on the web, and in all printed times guides. Plus I believe there was a loudspeaker announcement in the park about 630pm.

Then again, I suppose one can't expect some people to actually read or hear such things.

Plus before anyone goes to a park they actively check the park hours, it's key to your plans especially if you don't have park hoppers.

 

[disneyseniors]

It seems that Disney struggles to get MK totally clear of non-party guests during their holiday parties. At least based on the feedback from the first Halloween party of the year and how crowded it was, being partially blamed on non-party guests.

While it may be logistically difficult, my idea would be to have all park guests leave the park at lets say, 6:30 and only allow party guests back in once all guests have been cleared out. This might delay the party for a bit but might also give the guests a much better experience with a less crowded party.

I think it is a compromise between the non-party guests being asked to leave a little earlier and the party guests potentially having to wait a little longer.

I never quite understood why they allowed party only guests in at 4:00pm. That seems very early to me for a 7:00pm party.

LOL, this is a joke, right???

 

[snausman]

Been doing 2 Halloween Parties each year for many years and have never experienced this.
What I have seen is:
- CMs forming barricades to lands and not allowing anyone to the land without a wristband.
- When guest complains their family is in there heard them say to meet them at the front gate.
- CMs blocking the doors to all stores and food locations. No wristband, no enter, no transactions.
- When guests say they just need to get something quick, they are told no park is closed.
- Seen them blocking bathrooms. When guests say their kid HAS to go, they say there is a bathroom outside the front gate.
- I've seen them walk them towards Main Street, telling them they can buy tickets at Guest Relations.
- CMs asking over and over of folks sitting at parade to show their wristbands.
- I think one reason the parade is later this year to give them enough time to make sure all are out, including those who are eating at TS.
- I've seen them ask those without wristbands to leave the character lines.
- I've seen them tell guests, even kids, without wristbands they can not have candy.

I've been very impressed each time on the diligence of the CMs. They absolutely can enforce it. And I've seen security walking folks out too. If a CM is not being pro-active in getting guests out then they are not doing their job. I'm heading to two more next week, guess I will see if things have changed since all the previous years.

This is how they were doing it on Sunday when we were there. This is also how they have always done it in the past. We have been going for years (to many to even think about) and this has always been the practice. We had a wonder time and rode everything we wanted a couple of times. The new show is wonderful!!!!

Laura

 

[HopperFan]

This is how they were doing it on Sunday when we were there. This is also how they have always done it in the past. We have been going for years (to many to even think about) and this has always been the practice. We had a wonder time and rode everything we wanted a couple of times. The new show is wonderful!!!!

Laura

Figured. I wonder if the first night was understaffed .... don't under-estimate the power of the Sanderson Sisters to sell out the parties. We've been going since 2006 and have never seen a party where they didn't do a great job on the clearing.

Two parties next week for us! CAN'T WAIT for the show! Big Hocus Pocus fans!

 

[nkereina]

Universal does this for horror nights but I suspect attendance there is considerably less, which makes it easier. Around 5pm, guests in the park that have HHN tickets must proceed to one of several designated "holding areas". It's a large area where guests are made to wait about 45 minutes while Universal clears out the park of non-party guests. Guests in the holding areas get a jump start on some of the HHN events, so it makes it enticing to add a day ticket as well. Disney could probably implement a similar strategy, but I suppose the party would need to start earlier and the 4pm early entry would have to go away.

 

[mickey1968]

For whatever reason Disney dropped the ball on opening night, but seem to have corrected the problem on subsequent nights, but all the parties appear to be crowded even if not sold out. Somebody mentioned in one of the threads that UNI actually stays open until 2am on HHN. It would be great if Disney extended until 2 am next year. That would help with the time constraints.