EE isn't the only answer, keep the parks open later!

[mjwiand]

Early Entry is great but I think it would be more benficial to have the parks stay open later at night as part of regularly scheduled park hours instead of having it a "specical event", like E Ride nights, the halloween and christmas parties. There are many more entertainment options that they could use witht the pakrs being open later at night

 

[Bob O]

I agree!!!! They need to get rid of making people people for a couple of hours and have MK/MGM/AK open later as part of your admission and not try to scam more money by having E nights!! Just more examples of cutbacks that need to be done away with.

 

[Grog]

You won't get an argument here. I'm all for later hours. I can remember being in WDW and DLR late into the evening.

 

[colleen costello]

We sleep late and ALWAYS miss early entry. I haven't done EE since I was a kid and my crazy Mom would have us up at 6am so we could get the first launch over from Ft WIlderness. I have two little kids and a "not a morning person" husband -- we like LATE hours. EE is fine, but nothing beats the parks at night for pure magic!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I enjoy early entry very much, but there is nothing more magical than MK at night with all the lights on. It is such a shame that those in the off season miss out on such a beautiful sight.

 

[raidermatt]

Scoop, my concern is how they are measuring the impact to demand...

We all know that most folks don't know what the hours are at least until they arrive on property, and sometimes not until they get to the park. So just as reducing hours didn't have a huge immediate impact on attendance, neither will the increases.

But do you think they will accurately account for the impact that the improved guest experience will have in the future? In other words, since the guest probably didn't know about the increase until they arrived, will Disney ask questions that will accurately determine if the later hours will make that guest more likely to return in two years, and more likely to spread postive word of mouth to their friends and family?

From discussions with your contacts, do you think that this will be the major determining factor in the success of the experiments? Do you think they will do an accurate job?

Since it appears they underestimated the imapct of eliminating EE, I think its fair to question their ability (or maybe motiviation) to accurately guage the long term impact of their decisions.

 

[Bob O]

Disney will have a short test of longer hours, than said they did a survey and say people didnt want longer hours but wanted the return of the character caraven!!
So they will return to shorter hours.

 

[colleen costello]

RaiderMatt, I think your questions are interesting ones. My family will come to WDW no matter WHAT the bad bosses do, but if they keep hours short we certainly may visit the parks less often. When we visited this Spring, AK closed by 5 and we saw virtually nothing. By the time we got over there, many of the shows were done and we couldn't believe the place actually closed so early. I wouldn't waste a ticket again on AK if it wasn't open later. We would spend the day swimming or shopping or just hanging out.

I spoke to a Mom here at home who mentioned their Spring trip to WDW. She was not impressed. They were mostly focused on doing the parks and stayed off-site, but she said the crowds were stressful and they got to ride too few things during the operating hours to justify the ticket price. Their family was much more impressed with SeaWorld, which offered a return visit for free or reduced price.

I think over the long term, limited hours and services DO affect park attendance, in different ways. My DVC family may spend less days in the parks, and other families may just not come at all. I hope some of the "powers that be" realize this!

 

[stevets]

I was at wdw 8/31 to 9/12. I was worried going in because hours were really short (especially MK closing at 6 most nights). But, as it turned out, the lines were so short that there was more than enough time to do everything. And I mean everything...over and over and over again. The hyperdisneyphiles in my crowd weren't happy to do a ride just once. So for me this trip got a little dull what with all the repetition (I mean really, how many times can you do Dumbo...and we did Thunder and Space Mountains so many times I got sick. Though I have to say
Splash Mountain, Test Track and Tower of Terror were as cool on the seventh go round as they were on the first.) So after having gone in the off-season, I really don't see the point in Disney extending off-season hours.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

8/31 to 9/12 is about as off season as you can get! Probably followed closely by early January.

I can understand shorter hours in all of September and the first 3 weeks in January...even to the point of closing MK by 6pm in September. For all other months the MK should close after dark.

My suspicion on the revised MK hours is to drive people out of a park that doesn't offer more expensive dinner meals over to parks and locations that do (MGM, EPCOT, DTD). It really looks like a relentlessly financial decision to me.

 

[JimB.]

I remember visiting the MK as a kid a loooooooooooooooooooooo- ooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago during the summer & the park being open until midnight or 1 a.m.


Ahhh, for the good old days................. :-(

 

[Ona]

I was out there around the same time as you doubletrouble. (Aug. 30th to Sep. 20th). I agree that most of the lines were not that long. But I was still dissappointed at not being able to see the MK at night. (Except for ONE Sat. night when EVERYONE in Central Florida seemed to be there too ). But while I was out there a thought struck me.

The reason for the early closures (6pm) seems to have been that the powers that be had deemed it finacially not worth the trouble. So here is my question. Why not open the park later a few days a week and close later a few days a week? Say open at 11am and close at 9pm? At least that way we would have the chance to see Main Street at night.

Is there a reason that this is not a reasonable suggestion? What am I missing? That way both morning people and evening people would have the hours that suit them. But with no extra labor costs.

Oh well. It's just an idea.

Ona

 

[disneyatheart]

We were there 9/08-9/16 and were also disappointed with the hours of the park. We have two sons under the age of 4 and it works best if they can sleep in the afternoon and return to the park in the evening-when its the most magical. I like the idea of splitting the days with later open/close hours and earlier open/close hours every other day.

On Sept 14th, everybody was at MK to see the fireworks. We were very disappointed with WDW transportation for not having adequate buses to transport guests to their resorts. When they have longer hours, visitors are able to do things after the fireworks and therefore not forcing everyone out at once. I do realize that the park stays open an hour later, but on the 14th I really do believe that everyone in central Florida were there!!!

I hope WDW would reconsider there EE! WE have never used this option, but would always buy E ride night tickets, if they were available and still would.