E-ride fans unite!!

[goofy4tink]

Another thought here.....before 9/11 the parks routinely stayed open later than they have since then. But with so many people not traveling, especially by air, the parks started closing earlier and earlier, especially MK. I remember people here complaining about the shortened hours. We got some terrific room discounts but parks closing early. Then they stopped the EE telling us that more people wanted those characters...hence the character caravans to the resorts. Well, those stopped and they started the E-nights. They charged for them and more and more people used them. So, they go away and we have the EMH's. Same as usual in the morning but for 3 hrs. extra at night. And I do remember MK shutting down about 8:00 on those E-Nights. So, what do we have now?? We have the parks being open until past midnight. There is usually a park open each night, maybe 5 out of 7 nights. And not every morning has an EMH.

So...could it be that Disney is trying to see how it all shakes out with the later park closings, since the resorts are starting to run at capacity? Rather than just leave the parks open until, say 11 each night, they see how this one park open late once a week works.

 

[welovedis]

Please help me to understand why you'd rather pay for something that you're now getting for free.

Because the free perk cannot compare to what the additional paid admission offered, that's why.

 

[Stitch_lover_Sith]

I have no idea what the old E-nights were like but I do know that EMH is very crowded. One solution that I have not seen any mention is maybe Disney should keep more than one park open, like MK and MGM, so that people are more spread out. On the 29 of May my sister and I went to the EMH at MGM to do RR and TOT because we had our Grandmother with us and this would have been our only chance to do them. So we get there and the line for RR is over two hours long and by the time we left it was closed and the line for TOT was 45 minutes long. But when we went over to the other side of the park where ST and MV3D are there were no lines. It really depends on what you want to do.

 

[Disney Dadd]

Actually it is not the exact same perk....only onsite quests that had paid for the privilege could ride and from what I hear alot of others(not even Disney Resort quests) are staying in the parks.

I would much rather pay and have less people in the parks so I can ride the rides more than one time each....

but then that's just me....

Mal

I couldn't agree more Mal!

 

[carl_w]

I miss the old E-night. We did the late EMH at MK May 25 and it was just as crowded, maybe a little more so, than during the day.

We were there on that day too. Same problem at Epcot the next evening. Hardly got to do any rides

 

[mickey7861]

We were at the EMH at MK on 6/8 and it was packed. The problem was not only that alot more people attend since WDW has alot more than 5000 resort guests the biggest problem was in the way they gave out the wrist bands. We got ours at Timekeeper and as we stood in line NO ONE asked to even see our resort ID then they simply handed us a wrist band that we could put on ourselves. I can see where this system could lead to alot of extra guests. The following night at Epcot things were much more controlled, our resort ID's were checked and the wristlets were put on for us. Epcot was much less crowded and it was a great night. I wonder why they don't make you get the wristbands at your resort , or atleast a pass for the wristband like they did with E-ticket.

 

[Disney Dadd]

Naive is believing there is only one way to run a business.

The board hires executives who are expected to use their best judgement, and the shareholders expect bottom line results AND growth.

Of course many companies do use that type of short term approach, and in many cases, with good reason.

Disney, however, became Disney by taking the road less taken. In their case, it was the right way to go, and it continues to be today.

Raidermatt, I definetly don't want to get into the "you're naive, no..., you're naive" game. I am not trying to insult your intelligence by any stretch of the imagination. You sound like a nice, wellspoken guy. My response to you is that, as I have stated in earlier replies, I think there are many ways to run a successful business. God knows I am not going to question whether or not Disney can run a successful company. I feel (as I read your replies to my posts) that you think I feel that what Disney is doing is a bad thing. Quite the contrary. I have stated before that Disney has earned my repsect and trust over the years and has every right to tweak their programs for the betterment of their company and it's millions of fans/supporters. I happen to miss the E-nights for the reasons stated before by myself and many others on this thread.

I feel as though you are looking at this situation through "disney shaded" glasses if you don't think there is any chance that the company has looked at this new program with the possibility of increasing monetary profits. I am just offering you, and others that view this thread, my own opinion as to one possible solution as to why we now have EMH instead of the old E-nights.

I think, as you see this thread continue to grow (espescially in the coming months with more folks having gone to WDW and actually doing the EMH) you will see that most fans that have done both (EMH vs E-nights) will prefer the old E-nights better. That's my feelings. I could be totally wrong but I already miss E-nights!

 

[tomerin]

Call for Disney to make decisions based on the idea that people want value, and if you give it to them repeatedly, you can build not only an extremely loyal customer base, but even a rabid fan base. The fact that Disney used that business plan, and also created wonderful products, is why we are here talking about them today.

Sure, you can make a spreadsheet that shows you can make x amount of $'s by closing the park earlier and charging $12 for those same extra hours. I'm sure one can make a darn nice looking Powerpoint presentation on it as well.

But if you don't accurately account for the long term benefits those extra park hours had in terms of loyalty, repeat visits, ancillary sales, etc, you haven't made a very wise decision.

people do want value but when you offer them something like the EMH night hours and they cannot ride any attractions because of incredible wait times for the e-ticket attractions they will stop going to the emh parks. so if i go and bring my family of 4 to emh night and we have an average of 45-to an hour wait to get on SPM SPLM or BTMRR i only get to ride 3 rides in 2-3 hours. my waiting time prevents me from shopping or visiting the concession stands. nothing to add to that darn powerpoint presentation because after all of the waiting and waiting in line there wont be the time to do anything else but go home. if you give your guests something for free that they cannot use in the manner it was presented to them it doesnt instill loyalty. there is no value in something i cannot use. if i cannot use it why would i return to use it again

when we did the e-ride nights the only complaint i really had was the lack of food and refreshment stands open. many of the shops off main street were closed so there really wasnt any way to correctly judge just how much extra profit could be added to the bottom line from e-ride nights. i would have spent much more money on e-ride nights because of the easy going relaxed and pleasent pace you experienced on those nights. there werent enough places open. when i have to walk to almost main street to get some refreshment or to shop i would just rather continue out the gate and go back to the resort.


yes when you cram 20,000 guests into an emh night everyone cannot be on line and many will be forced to find other alternatives to riding the attractions. yes ancillary sales will increase but in the long run when all you can do on emh nights is maybe ride one or 2 e-ticket rides and eat or shop, whats the point of dealing with the massive crowds at night when you can do that during the day. i believe in the short term emh will be a boon to the bottom line but in the long run i cannot be so sure.


i will try at least one emh night hours this july, peak time, to experience this offering and hopefully it is not as bad as i have read it is because i am a rabid disney fan but if there were e-ride nights my family of 4 would definitly be there each and every night.


raidermatt, i am not replying to your post as a criticism to you. i have read many of you posts in the past and i do enjoy reading them. please dont take this as a personal attack

 

[DCHSswimmer10]

I just got back from an 8 day disney vacation and we only did EMH once at MK. Needless to say i was very disappointed we waited over an hour for splash mountain and about and hour and a half for Space Mountain. The liines were crazy long. They were shorter at noon that day when anyone could ride. I definetly think they should bring back e-ride nights.

 

[raidermatt]

I'll try this again.

This is not a simple question of what do you like better, Eride nights or EMH as it currently exists.

The problem, in the view of those in this thread, is that they aren't happy with how crowded the parks are during the current EMH.

Going back to Eride nights is not the only alternative, and some on this thread have already brought up some other possibilities. Such as better control over who gets wristbands, and having EMH's in multiple parks on the same day.

The problem is there exists at times a significant demand for later hours in the parks, and consquently, less crowded circumstances.

If EMH is not meeting that need for you, by all means, speak up. But again, don't settle for something that works better for you because you are willing to fork over the extra dough. If EMH really is not working for anyone, perhaps the park(s) should be open later in the first place, with EMH added on to that. Just like EE, there is a point at which it will work.

And from the business side of things, Disney Dadd, I am not at all saying that Disney is not looking at these types of decisions from a profit perspective.

I am saying that these days, they look at them from more of a SHORT TERM profit perspective than a longer term perspective.

When you cut hours, then give them back as a "bonus" with a fee attached, its going to rub some the wrong way. It increases the cost of their vacation, thereby decreasing the value. Which of course makes them less likely to return. Even if you think $12 or $14 for an enight is a good value, its not as good a value as 2 or 3 hours of the entire park for no extra cost.

I tend to think that even Disney has realized this, hence the EMH program in the hopes it will be a better incentive to stay on-site and increase the enjoyment of its guests. But again, if its not working in its current "free" format, it would be more Disney-like, and therefore more profitable in the long run, to do some tweaking rather than returning to the "fee for extra hours" model.

 

[BriarRose59]

Okay, I'll jump into the fray. I for one am an avid e-ride fan. I would pay $20 or $25 additional to stay late if the number of people is limited so that I can enjoy my evening of riding and strolling through the parks. My DD14 and I participated in the EMH at Epcot last Thursday, June 9. What a farce! We were not aware that FW stayed open until 9 pm on Thursday nights, but thought it closed at 7 pm as is the usual closing time. We had been told the day before by a CM that Soarin' stayed open until 8 pm normally. My DD and I got in line for Soarin' at 7:50 with the sign saying a 45 min. wait. About 10 minutes later a CM came into the line and said from the point where we were standing that it was a 90 minute wait, not a 45 min. wait as the sign had indicated. I asked if the ride line closed at 8 pm to the GP and was told that no, on Thursdays all the FW rides stay open until 9 pm! The EMH doesn't start until then and runs until midnight. We stayed in line and really enjoyed the ride, but when we exited we noticed the Fast Pass machines were open. Well, sometime in the hour plus that we were waiting for the ride, the FP machines opened. By the time we got out (roughly 9:15) the FP's were for 11:30-midnight and the standby line was 90 minutes. We were not interested in staying that late. I had thought it would be like the old days at MK with the park closing as it usually does at 7 pm and the extra 3 hours would be from 7-10 pm. No such luck. We did walk back over to MS and ride it again. The wait was only about 20 minutes. The park was packed. I will not be doing the EMH again. The early morning EMH was not attractive to us this trip because I had promised my DD14 that I would not get her up early as I have done in the past. We were usually at the parks by 9:30 and able to do everything we wanted by utilizing FP's. I hope that more "tweaking" is done on EMH such as have the different types of resorts, i.e. value, moderate, deluxe and home away from home resorts on different nights. The value and the moderates have the most people so give them each a night to themselves and combine deluxe and DVC. Somehow, they are going to have to decrease the number of people in the park at one time to make this work.

 

[ciera321]

Count me in...I LOVED e-nights and just experienced EMH evenings. I would gladly pay to have them back!!!

 

[rnd4life]

My family and I loved E-Ride Night. We had so much fun last June when we were there and didn't have to wait for a single ride, they were all walk-on's. I emailed Disney the other day asking if they had any plans to bring back E-Ride Night and I just received this response from them.....

Dear Donna,

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort.

After listening to our guests we have actually modified the extra magic hours to included evenings
free of charge. Here is an explanation of the new extra magic hours.

The Extra Magic Hour schedule allows Guests that are staying at Walt Disney World Resorts time in
our Theme Parks in both the early morning and evening.

Morning Extra Magic Hour occurs one hour prior to regularly scheduled Park opening and Guests will
need to present a valid Key to the World Card at the park's turnstiles.

Resort Guests wishing to enjoy Evening Extra Magic Hours should obtain a wristband at the theme park
by presenting a valid Key to the World Card no sooner than two hours prior to Park close.

Offerings by Day of Week

Sunday - Disney-MGM Studios (evening)
Monday - Epcot (morning)
Tuesday - Disney-MGM Studios (morning); Disney's Animal Kingdom (evening)
Wednesday - Magic Kingdom (evening)
Thursday - Epcot (evening)
Friday - Magic Kingdom (morning)
Saturday - Disney's Animal Kingdom (morning)


I already knew about EMH in the evening but we haven't had the opportunity to try one yet. From reading this thread, it sounds like it's much more crowded than E-Ride Night was. Guess I should be glad we had the chance to go to one last summer before they did away with it, for what sounds like, could be for good.

 

[vettechick99]

Add me to the list of E-Night fans. It was the best deal on property! I was so bummed to hear they had stopped it and the new EMH is really no replacement. I would love for it to come back!!

 

[Disney Dadd]

Count me in...I LOVED e-nights and just experienced EMH evenings. I would gladly pay to have them back!!!

I completely agree, ciera321.

 

[trbrophy]

Last year we did E-ride nights twice over 7 days and my 5 yr old son had no problem staying up. It was the best time because my son got to ride Thunder Mountain about 5 times in a row!

 

[SuzEm]

post deleted....

I had wondered if you were talking about the old E-night or the new EMH - but you clearly say E-night! Duh!