Early Morning Hours is it really a perk?

[gharter]

April of this year. Every park except MK was opening about 30-45 minutes ahead of posted opening.

 

[wfjny]

In a pre-pandemic time, I specifically remember go to AK one morning for EMH, going on several rides, and looking at the people that were lined up for the "normal" opening time as we were leaving.

It was one of those, "We are done before the park is really open" moments. It was good for us because we were leaving that morning.

Now, will 30 minutes make much of a difference? As others have said, one, maybe two rides...

 

[ParklandDISDad]

Disney has pretty much abandoned all COVID protocols, other than masks indoors.

Cast Members now actively encourage Guests to "fill all available space."

That’s so interesting to hear, especially since it’s such a stark contrast from how things were being handled just a few months back.

Does anyone else feel like the mask requirements gave some cast members the ability to take out frustrations on guests that they previously didn’t have an outlet for? I mean don’t get me wrong, Disney is my happy place and the cast members and customer service level generally is a huge part of that. But, during our post reopening trips some of the interactions I witnesses regarding masks between guests and cast members and just the way that the cast members approached those situations initially and handles them, the tone, attitude, etc.. it was off putting.

Example, I witnessed a cast member hold up Dumbo from taking flight because ofa two year old that was refusing to keep her mask on.. likely due to a mix of excitement and anticipation for the ride to begin. The mother was clearly trying her best to comply and appeared distraught as the cast member eventually forced them to exit the solo ride vehicle and have the poor little girl dragged away crying by her parents. That’s just one example. Anyways, I’m very much looking forward to things getting back to “normal.”

 

[ParklandDISDad]

I've always had a PH or AP but now that we have a toddler with us, we're not sure we will really make good use of the PH.

We have a 4 year old and 1 year old and have maintained APs since our now 4 year turned 2... our typical strategy is to rope drop and be out of the park before noon.. back to the resort, enjoy the pool, have lunch, take naps.. and back to out to a different park for the evening... so, yeah.. you aren't going to be "hopping" from park to park on park-to-park bus routes with a toddler, but there is still ways to get value from an AP or PH IMO.

 

[ParklandDISDad]

I don’t understand why they wouldn’t designate certain turnstiles for onsite & off in this instance.
Akin to The AP ones in place now

They don't want to hold off site guest complete outside the parks until the official opening time.. that's time those guest are going to be contained to the hub/mainstreet for example where they have nothing to do but purchase merchandise and food/drinks + on peak days it just wouldn't be practical.. the crowds would be backed up into Seven Seas Lagoon or the HS parking lot.

 

[ParklandDISDad]

I project that Disney will eventually at some point make the morning EMH a Deluxe resort only perk as well.

Maybe Extra-EMH for Deluxe guests.. but there is still incentive for them to incentivize people to stay on site at moderates and values.. those are for the most part the people who are on the fence about staying on site to begin with... those who stay in Deluxe resorts aren't really considering off site.. not in the way someone who is looking at $100/night for Holiday Inn Suite or whatever is considering $160-$200 for All Star *** or Pop.. remove all of the added benefits of being an on site guest and especially value resorts begin to lose there appeal IMO.

 

[gharter]

They don't want to hold off site guest complete outside the parks until the official opening time.. that's time those guest are going to be contained to the hub/mainstreet for example where they have nothing to do but purchase merchandise and food/drinks + on peak days it just wouldn't be practical.. the crowds would be backed up into Seven Seas Lagoon or the HS parking lot.

Thats what they did in the past as well when onsite could enter 1 hour before. Everyone could enter the park to a certain point. Then there were CMs there to scan you MB to let you go into the park for attractions. It makes sense as it maximizes potential sales in stores and drinks before the park officially opens.

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

Example, I witnessed a cast member hold up Dumbo from taking flight because of a two year old that was refusing to keep her mask on.. likely due to a mix of excitement and anticipation for the ride to begin. The mother was clearly trying her best to comply and appeared distraught as the cast member eventually forced them to exit the solo ride vehicle and have the poor little girl dragged away crying by her parents. That’s just one example. Anyways, I’m very much looking forward to things getting back to “normal.”

This breaks my heart.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

That’s so interesting to hear, especially since it’s such a stark contrast from how things were being handled just a few months back.

Does anyone else feel like the mask requirements gave some cast members the ability to take out frustrations on guests that they previously didn’t have an outlet for? I mean don’t get me wrong, Disney is my happy place and the cast members and customer service level generally is a huge part of that. But, during our post reopening trips some of the interactions I witnesses regarding masks between guests and cast members and just the way that the cast members approached those situations initially and handles them, the tone, attitude, etc.. it was off putting.

I'd say for every 1 event we witnessed like the one you describe, we witnessed 10 where guests were the ones taking out their frustrations on cast members. We found a very high percentage of cast members to be friendly and extremely patient during some trying times. And granted, stopping a ride to force kids to pull up there masks is a tough situation - but one that perhaps parents should have been more involved with than cast members.

We've rarely experienced such a difficult time as we have the past 18+ months. Most have handled it well with patience, courtesy, and common sense, including a very large majority of Disney cast members.

 

[sethschroeder]

Any idea how they are going to separate hotel guests from non hotel guests? You kind of lose the advantage if you have to queue up behind a bunch of non hotel guests. Will there be separate holding pens or turnstyles?

Doubt they even let them park until the early hours are running.

 

[gharter]

Any idea how they are going to separate hotel guests from non hotel guests? You kind of lose the advantage if you have to queue up behind a bunch of non hotel guests. Will there be separate holding pens or turnstyles?

Previously, when onsite could enter a park 1 hour before opening, everyone could enter the park to a certain point (usually by shops). There were CMs there who would scan your MB to see that you were staying onsite and let you into the rest of the park. I suspect they will handle it similarly this time.

 

[CWTC]

Previously, when onsite could enter a park 1 hour before opening, everyone could enter the park to a certain point (usually by shops). There were CMs there who would scan your MB to see that you were staying onsite and let you into the rest of the park. I suspect they will handle it similarly this time.

Thanks - its been many many years since we have rope dropped anything. We loved FP+ but alas we will adjust.

 

[ParklandDISDad]

I'd say for every 1 event we witnessed like the one you describe, we witnessed 10 where guests were the ones taking out their frustrations on cast members. We found a very high percentage of cast members to be friendly and extremely patient during some trying times. And granted, stopping a ride to force kids to pull up there masks is a tough situation - but one that perhaps parents should have been more involved with than cast members.

We've rarely experienced such a difficult time as we have the past 18+ months. Most have handled it well with patience, courtesy, and common sense, including a very large majority of Disney cast members.

I completely agree and I think its terrible cast members have to eat so much crap from rude guests.. the cast members are very large part of the magic for me and one of the reasons I continue to return after 30+ years. It’s not at all innacitate to say that they have handled a very difficult situation over the past 15 months very well, and I thank them for that.

What I was pointing out is that it seems like the mandates have given a extremely small minority of cast members who are likely fed up with being mistreated by guests over the years an outlet with which to vent that frustration, as opposed to having to just smile and deal with it. It’s not the enforcing of the rules, that’s completely understandable.. they are only doing their jobs and everyone is there fully understanding the expectations placed on guests... it’s more so the demeanor and attitude that I’ve witness that has been so off putting.. again, talking a relatively very small minority of cast members and not really referring to situations where the guest deserved it, because that’s a whole different discussion.. but still, it’s been weird and for sure and off putting to witness, like seeing behind the curtain for a moment. So in that sense I am very much looking forward to returning to normalcy.

 

[havoc315]

With the early morning hours only a half hour before park how are they going to keep people not entiled to early entry out of the parks? Most people are there a half hour before park open if they are planning that park for the day. Do we really think this can happen? Also really what is a half hour going to give you in a park like AK?

1. Yes, they will keep out the people not entitled to it. That's what they did during EMH, that's what they will do with early entry. It really won't be that hard.

2. Yes, it's a perk. Because it's a head start. What can you do at a park like AK? Well, you can actually rope drop FOP, finishing the ride before official park opening. Meanwhile, the off-site guests who enter the park right at official opening, will already find a 60-120 minute line for FOP.
So I would say it's a pretty big perk to get Flight of Passage without having to wait in a 1-2 hour line, or longer.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

30 minutes early entry is not an on-site perk. It's more of an off-site punishment.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

30 minutes early entry is not an on-site perk. It's more of an off-site punishment.

Anything early morning is a punishment.

 

[kilik64]

Could they use the LL entry for rides? I know when we went in 2018 or 2019 last and did the evening extra hours, in order to get on a ride you had to scan your band to the fp scanner to verify you were a onsite hotel/dvc guest. So maybe they just let everyone in, but if you are a on site guest you get to scan into the LL queue for that time frame while the offsite folks have to get into the normal queue which wont start running until official park open?

 

[masupo]

They're adding Rise of the Resistance to early entry, so that makes it a bit of a perk at HS.

https://blogmickey.com/2021/09/star-wars-rise-of-the-resistance-added-to-early-park-entry/

 

[zavandor]

Right here



Morning magic when it was a full hour and a single park while drawing a crowd didn't draw even close to that sort of attention.

Yes I know you are trying to say it's spread across all 4 parks but as of 2 years ago those wanting extra magic hours would have been consolidated to a single park. Did you ever see a 50% in participation? Why all of a sudden when it's every day and every park would people go out of their way to use it consistently when they never bothered in the past.

I just don't see any logic to these theoretical numbers of 50% guest participation. With every park every day for 30 mins you should actually see a fair reduction in usage per park with an overall small uptick across all the parks.

Maybe 5% used it historically (5k visitors) so now you might see 8% use it or roughly 2k people per park. Also I am talking about people who actually use it and get there early not sleep in or can't get a bus. Disney IMO couldn't even transport 50k people to the parks for the early access.

Example at AK Resort by your math:
1644 Resort Rooms
3 Guests Per Room
90% Capacity
4438 Guests at AK Resorts

50% Utilization of morning hours
2219 Guests going to parks
555 Guests per Park (less to HS and more elsewhere)

WDW Bus Capacity (normal times) 130 guests
5 Busses (pretty much at capacity)

Now to make it more interesting:
Busses will likely run for a 9am MK opening starting at 7:30am (1hr prior to early hours start time)
5 busses from AK Resort between 7:30am and 8:10am for MK (two trips to MK in a 40 mins window not really possible for the biggest resorts at WDW - AK, POP, AoA, All Stars)
1 bus every 8 minutes arriving at AK in that 1hr to 20min prior to early access

Now think of All Stars running with 330% more rooms (possibly with more guests per room as well since its more family/group oriented but we will keep math flat). You are talking about 16-17 busses within a 40 min space in that magic zone of 1hr-20min prior to park opening.

I don't think that many people are going to use this daily or that Disney would even have the busses to transport that number of people around.

Flaw in the math: I dont think you are cramming 130 guests on a bus. That capacity limit is in theory and will be reduced via needing to load scooters and strollers. So you could end up needing more like 7 or 8 busses or 1 bus every 5 to 6 minutes.

I agree with you that the number of onsite guests who will take advantage of early entry will be far lower that 50k.
Proof is in AK. Before Covid the park used to open 40 minutes before scheduled time to let people in and start loading on FoP. Almost everyone who was at the entrance at that time went straight to FoP, very few to River Journey and almost no one to the other attractions, because they started loading at park opening so it was pointless.
After the initial rush, FoP would have an average of 90 minutes line (when full capacity was available). If FoP capacity is 2000 people per hour (not sure, probably less), it means there were around 3000 people at the gates 40 minutes before opening. Those included both offsite and onsite. Since offsite guests were more likely shut out of booking a FP+ for FoP, we can reasonably say that onsite guests hadn't a smaller incentive to be at the gate super early to ride it. But even if half of those were onsite guests, it's still 1500 and not 10,000.
That's why I hope early entry will be actually a very good perk for onsite guests, if it will really be possible to ride an headliner and then queue for another ride before offsite guests enter the park.
Of course, the prospect of the paid LL might force more onsite guests to take advantage of early entry. Also, the early opening at AK was not advertized by Disney, while early entry will be prominent so more people will take advantage. At this points, no one really knows, not even Disney, since they're not launching it in time for the start of the 50th (it seems or we would have more details by now).