For those wondering, the EMH at
Disneyland vs MM at DCA was massively different. The mornings at DCA where only hotel guests could come in had like 10-minute lines for everything, at the busiest. The mornings at DL were quite busy - it felt exactly like a normal rope drop crowd, if not
more because so many people were using their "one day of early morning" so they had to take advantage of it. It was a much more stressful feeling on the DL side and much more crowded.
On the one hand, bringing this back makes sense, like good grief Disney's Hotels have had almost no real benefits at DL recently, hotels across harbor are closer walking distance lol. But on the other hand, I've been really thankful for the 5 or 6 days I've been able to rope drop and just straight up go on rise of the resistance as one of the first 10-20 people in line, same for space mountain, just because I was willing to line up early. Now even if I line up
perfectly I can't get on Rise or Space without a minimum 15-20 minute line in the morning. Seems minor but rope drop was my one reason I haven't gotten super emotional about Genie and Lightning lane - at least I can rope drop efficiently. Now rope drop will be very neutered and I'm actually tempted on a splurge trip sometime to stay in an onsite hotel.
No spending? No real option for the minimal wait. "Not that much spending" - yeah you can minimize the wait. Big spending? Have 30 minutes of free reign. And fork over a bit more if you still want the Genie because our $500/night hotel room can't include our service that costs us almost nothing per person that buys it. I understand they want to make money, but I'm a college student and I'm working dozens of hours a week on top of a way bigger than normal course load to try and graduate debt free - a 1 day ticket is a massive splurge for me, let alone hotels and all that.
I've enjoyed the last 12-18 months of the status quo as somebody who doesn't spend on the onsite hotels, so I'm glad everyone is excited about this, but I'm mostly sad, though it does make sense. And the day I
can stay in an onsite hotel, just watch, I'll be going ham during those morning hours.
The other reason that I'm not very excited about this (and to be fair, this reason applies to probably me and about 20 other people) is that I have been planning a run where I try to ride every ride in both parks in a day. Now in order to do that, I basically
have to book an onsite hotel for the night, I can't just show up early. Will I eventually do it? Yes for sure, it's been a dream of mine for a solid 10 years now, it just means I'll have to wait until I can afford a hotel room
and re-trying the challenge if one ride breaks down and crushes my whole run will require
another hotel room. First world problems man XD
