Disney Early Morning Magic - Details & Prices

[disney world dreamer]

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner....this is EXACTLY why Disney is doing this: getting more money from the off-site guests. Just don't forget to add in this cost for EVERYONE in your party along with the $20 (for now) parking fee per day when pricing out the off-site rental.

if i stayed offsite i wouldn't give them my money for the extra hour.
plus i'd stay somewhere that is half the price per night as a value resort (my family trusts several low cost motels in davenport)
the $20 park + renting a car would still come out cheaper.
only problem is my sister doesn't want to have to drive. she rather take a relaxing bus ride.

 

[LoveThatMouse!]

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner....this is EXACTLY why Disney is doing this: getting more money from the off-site guests. Just don't forget to add in this cost for EVERYONE in your party along with the $20 (for now) parking fee per day when pricing out the off-site rental.

Well, considering we are a family of 5, and generally have to book two rooms on property, off site is still more economical....
The $20 parking fee is going to roughly equate to the resort fee they are about to start charging. Not being able to book FP+ at 60 days isn't going to effect us as we are generally pretty spur of the moment on our trips and have been enough times that if we have to skip a ride no biggie. Disney has done nothing but force me into what I've always wanted to do in staying off property. Yee haw!

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner....this is EXACTLY why Disney is doing this: getting more money from the off-site guests. Just don't forget to add in this cost for EVERYONE in your party along with the $20 (for now) parking fee per day when pricing out the off-site rental.

I think this is the opposite. An unintended side effect Disney isn't going to like. Here's a family that's stayed on site for years and now they are considering a move off site. Given the choice between having someone stay onsite, eating Disney food and doing all Disney activities is much better for them than one lump payment for an extra hour. If a lot of people do this and they have trouble filling the resorts to capacity, this could go away.

 

[Srbright]

Next to nothing cost of BOG breakfast when split between a slew of people all in order to jump the gun on the Mine Train.

Yes, because what would happen if they made BOG be AYCTE and upped the price to $40/pp?

People would scream that they are losing the value of BOG and only "rich" people can go.

Stacy

 

[snayak]

You're right about that much. Prices are already bordering on to high. As long as Disney keeps trying to reach further and further into the pockets of Joe Average, more and more Joe Averages are going to spend their vacation dollars elsewhere. Like I said before, ROI. When the value of the entertainment no longer meets up to the expense of experiencing it, the dollars will go somewhere else. Return on Investment works both ways.

I agree - it all comes down to ROI, both for Joe Average & Disney - it's a fine line...will Joe Average keep coming with the current price increases (ROI for Joe) or will Disney keep investing if attendance drops (ROI for Disney)? Who knows what the future holds? I wouldn't be surprised if there was a crappy Stars Wars World if attendance dropped and Disney felt the investment isn't worth it - less guests, why should we make it awesome?

The pictures and easy walk up main street were the main reason for doing a bog breakfast for me. Now they've raised the price to 24 for breakfast and are letting even more people in, not sure if the value of the breakfast will still be there. I took this pic of my girls on our way in and its one of my favs.

I mostly feel sorry for people with trips right now, you plan and plan and disney throws crap in at the last minute.

I dropped some of your text & the (beautiful) picture for the quote above to save space.

My question is - how much was that memory worth to you? Disney thinks its now worth $50-$70/pp to be on main street/MK with minimal crowds... we'll see if people pay (I won't pay it!).

Don't want to? Welcome to coach along with everybody else! Good luck trying to fit your vacation in the overhead bin...should have gotten the "Extra leg room" package #sarcasm. (not directed at you ruthies12 - wonderful picture!)

Hi, Captain Obvious here.
Just wanted to say I do not care if you are a Disney stockholder.
Be blessed.

Or - buy stock now! My Apple stock pays for a new iPhone (unsubsidized) every year through dividends. Can't beat 'em? Join 'em! (and pay the taxes). What would happen if people skipped a vacation and invested in (not necessarily in Disney).

Throwing my thoughts into the ring - I think this *could* be worth the cost, if it is truly limited attendance. Breakfast can cost between $30-60 for AYCTE meals; with this, you also get to ride three rides...three rides that many would most likely want to FP+ and two of the three regularly have very long standby waits. So, you could argue that you are getting breakfast plus three fastpasses (or more, if you can ride multiple times). Then, you can save your FP+ for other rides. We usually stay off-site (doing a split-stay our next trip), and this would be something I would consider for our family. I would put it on equal footing as a character breakfast. (*Provided Disney executes this well.)

I'm of two minds for the early morning party (mainly cause I love RD and the low crowds). First, I think feel that most, if not all, most dining experiences trade on character meets in lieu of the food - most of the time the food is "awful" to "meh", certainly not "good" for the price (for free at a random motel, I wouldn't complain - but $50+ per person for crappy food worse than at home, come on!). But we suck it up just to meet characters or ride attractions (and the interactions ARE worth it, don't get me wrong, even though I don't prioritize them).

BUT - In my opinion anyway, my time is worth money - so an event like this COULD be worth the cost. I would totally 100% eat breakfast before (mainly cause I don't eat food in the traditionally Disney breakfast offerings, I prefer a protein shake) and then hit all the rides I could saving valuable FP+ for later. Since this seems to be only 3 attractions, 2 of which were easily "walk on" at RD its a tough choice. I hope nobody goes so I don't have to spend $70x2 to join them if this becomes permanent!

I think this is the opposite. An unintended side effect Disney isn't going to like. Here's a family that's stayed on site for years and now they are considering a move off site. Given the choice between having someone stay onsite, eating Disney food and doing all Disney activities is much better for them than one lump payment for an extra hour. If a lot of people do this and they have trouble filling the resorts to capacity, this could go away.

What would be best is if people avoided Disney entirely- forget staying offsite and still going to the parks (they still get your $$)...if you want to make a point then do not go. At all. Period. MK in particular is busy every day of the year (I don't know the stats for ever park) - if it dropped similar the drop in 2001/2002 then Disney would have no choice but to revise prices. But if the park is full every single day then who can blame them? They literally have to turn guests away some days! (Phased closures).

 

[DavidNYC]

I think you're wrong. You can have an 8:05 ADR, spend a good amount of time eating and still have quite a few minutes in the park before rope drop.

So then how does that make a pre-park ADR worthless. That proves how valuable they are. What's the alternative, eating from 9-10 and losing that whole first hour. Again - you're basing the value of a pre-park ADR on trying to get to the front of the line. I'm basing it on I get to have my character breakfast and still get to enjoy MK when the park opens. 100% not worthless.

 

[Naomi Rohrbaugh]

I am intrigued by the idea but...
What are the dates?
Will there be any characters to make up for missing the Welcome Show? We love the welcome show!
Will guests go through the interactive queues or boring FP+ queues? We don't use FP+ for these. We hit them first thing because we enjoy the interactive queues. I don't even like the PP ride. PP is all about that queue for us.

If the interactive queues are open
If there are some characters about
If it's truly limited in numbers
Then maybe just maybe I would shell out the $ for this.

 

[pens4821]

sure for now. but what about down the line?
you can't say with certainty that EMH will not go away.

While no one can say if it'll go away (I doubt it does), why worry about it now? There is no incling it's going to happen (other than far fetched speculation on a message board), so go enjoy it and worry about it if it does. People are way to worried about it going away. They want people to stay in thei hotels, and this is a reason quite a few people stay there. not only do they want their parks full, but they want their hotels full too.

This is a smart business move from Disney IMO. Not only do they get people spending extra money to stay at their hotels (compared to similar hotels offsite), they will now get people staying offsite to spend extra money.

 

[senadler]

Great post by KTP on this whole ordeal.
http://www.kennythepirate.com/2016/...gic-and-disney-after-hours-events/#more-31343

I absolutely agree with his take on this. I don't think it significantly impacts those not participating and could be a good experience for those it makes sense for. For my next trip this spring neither of these experiences interest me based on our current plans, but I am sure there are others that would benefit from them and why not give them those options.

 

[Planogirl]

I doubt that this will be worth it to a lot of the offsite guests. Breakfast is no big deal because so many offsite hotels include it in the price of the room or at least charge far less. So that leaves three attractions. I just don't see offsite people flocking to the parks for this money to ride three rides and get a breakfast they could have already had.

 

[disney world dreamer]

I doubt that this will be worth it to a lot of the offsite guests. Breakfast is no big deal because so many offsite hotels include it in the price of the room or at least charge far less. So that leaves three attractions. I just don't see offsite people flocking to the parks for this money to ride three rides and get a breakfast they could have already had.

i totally agree. this would be true for my family anyways.
when we've stayed offsite if we don't eat the included breakfast that generally has a number of hot and cold options we will go to waffle house which is also very cheap. the closest waffle house to where we live is 3+ hours away so we enjoy eating there on vacation.

also we rode 7DMT once and that was enough.
we could take or leave winnie the pooh.
that would leave peter pan's flight which if you go on fairly early you won't wait in too logn of a line.

as i mentioned before if all of fantasyland was up and running it would be much more worth while but still not $69 and $49 worth.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I'm waiting to see what easyWDW says about this. If RD changed significantly in that they don't let people in until 9 or there are a lot of tickets sold to this, then I think it does affect the baseline RDer experience. Delaying RD 15 mins may not seem like a big deal but at that time of the morning that's 3 times thru BTMR. Not insignificant to me.

Can anyone comment on what time RD happens on EMH days? Is it delayed or normal?

If this is a once a week thing and/or very limited number of guests and normal RD times, then I'd agree with PPs and say yes, limited impact to those not partaking. Then it's nothing more than an option you don't have to partake in, but the jury's still out on that I think.

 

[Ellwood970]

Sorry folks, but welcome to capitalism. Every company does it. A Coca Cola costs exactly what they think you are willing to pay. If you don't like it, don't go. If enough don't go, it will go away. If resort property suffers, they will do something to bring it back up.

Not so. Coke has competition. Disney has no comparable competition.

 

[ruthies12]

I dropped some of your text & the (beautiful) picture for the quote above to save space.

My question is - how much was that memory worth to you? Disney thinks its now worth $50-$70/pp to be on main street/MK with minimal crowds... we'll see if people pay (I won't pay it!).

Don't want to? Welcome to coach along with everybody else! Good luck trying to fit your vacation in the overhead bin...should have gotten the "Extra leg room" package #sarcasm. (not directed at you ruthies12 - wonderful picture!)

This is exactly what I'm worried about though- they can put any price tag they want on it but if they keep adding more and more people in at pre-park opening then it will become worthless. The problem is that you may have a much smaller crowd than you do the rest of the day, but that entire crowd is going to be doing the same thing at the same time which is wanting to be on main street getting pictures. The morning we did this, we still had to wait in line for a photopass photog, because everybody else there was getting pictures too. And I was fine with that and still got some great pics, but at some point they are going to hit the limit and with the crowd I saw that morning and hung back to get away from, I think they were already there at the limit with the three different places open for breakfast.

The other concern I have is that even though I personally didn't do the breakfast for early rides, it could now be a big problem for me to have the rides open. Last time on the way to BOG my kids saw the carosel and the 2 year old wanted on it bad. But it wasn't open and I was able to tell her it's not open yet, we have to ride later and she was okay with that. Now when we go on our trip next year (assuming they make money on this and the early morning event continues to happen), that 2 year old will be 4 at the time of the trip and will see people riding mine train as we go past. She is not going to understand that mommy didn't pay the extra for the rides and that she has to go sit quietly at breakfast and can't go on the ride that she sees other people going on. That's not going to be a very magical start to our day and I imagine a lot of other parents are going to feel the same.

But what bothers me the most about the whole thing is the suddenness of the change and them adding it in now instead of planning it out at 180 days like everything that we have to plan. I have a friend who is going in May who booked a pre-park ADR at BOG on my recommendation after seeing my pictures. She has her heart set on getting those same pictures of her son. Now I'm anxiously waiting to see dates released for this to see if it is going to affect her morning and I have no way to know what to tell her to do with her ADR because we don't know how many people they are letting in or how it will go. I do know that her 4 year old is not going to be happy to go eat breakfast when he can see rides open. If they would have announced this at 180 days, then she could have made her ADR for a different day, but it's much too late to change it now.

Ah well, first world problems right?!

 

[Robo]

Guests see others riding many attractions as they walk by on their way to do other things.

"Oh, look... We'll be back to ride this one later!"

 

[Robo]

Welcome to MK!

 

[jknc]

I'm waiting to see what easyWDW says about this. If RD changed significantly in that they don't let people in until 9 or there are a lot of tickets sold to this, then I think it does affect the baseline RDer experience. Delaying RD 15 mins may not seem like a big deal but at that time of the morning that's 3 times thru BTMR. Not insignificant to me.

Can anyone comment on what time RD happens on EMH days? Is it delayed or normal?

If this is a once a week thing and/or very limited number of guests and normal RD times, then I'd agree with PPs and say yes, limited impact to those not partaking. Then it's nothing more than an option you don't have to partake in, but the jury's still out on that I think.

I'm with you on this, we know Josh will give candid feedback on the impact at RD.
I'm personally hoping this is a 2 day a week offering at most.

I just wonder if the event will make the RD crowds larger during those non event mornings.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

I'm with you on this, we know Josh will give candid feedback on the impact at RD.
I'm personally hoping this is a 2 day a week offering at most.

I just wonder if the event will make the RD crowds larger during those non event mornings.

I think so.

 

[Merx]

My comments below are of sarcastic nature, please don't take this seriously, Disney

I should thank Disney for saving me money, now I can save money by not having breakfast at BOG at 8am, they should help me to save more money by charging for the toilets as another poster suggest, or charge $10 per photo of the castle (actually, you do that already), or maybe have a April Fools "Magic" party package with all your can drink ice water with bonus breathable air for guests to breath! Then with these money saving changes implemented, then I can save more money by cancelling my trip altogether!

Seriously though, I think Disney are lazy with this, they really could have throw in either BOG breakfast at 7:30am, or open up 7DMT, or have Elisa as a character in the breakfast and I'm sure there would be more demand and less complain, none of them are hard to do, if you're asking for more money from the guests.

 

[jsmla]

Have any dates been announced? I have an pre-opening ADR for Be Our Guest next week and I want to cancel it if it falls on one of these mornings. I'm afraid I'm one of those morally bankrupt folks who are primarily interested in getting into the park early.

Thanks!