Extended Evening Hours for Deluxe Guests - Just saw this with specifics

[Marionnette]

Neither of those lists match the extensive, historic Good Neighbor list (which included many independents, like Margaritaville, I might add.) And interesting the Ritz isn’t on either, as flagship Marriott when Swolphin, also Marriott, are.

My point is that whatever this new EMH list is, it isn’t Good Neighbor, and it isn’t “deluxe” as a consumer would define it. Maybe it is still being negotiated. Obviously, it isn’t intended to be the dozens of hotels like EMH used to be.

This is really exciting to me coming from DVC, snd buying into DVC because of EMH. Excluding the many hotels like Springhill Marriott and the All Stars/pop/Aoa is probably most of who used to be at EMH.

From what I was told in another thread, the S/D/SR are part of a land lease that the parent company of those resorts (now Marriott). While not truly Disney Deluxe, for some reason that is beyond my level of comprehension they qualify for the even extra hours while other resorts do not.

 

[bookgirl2632]

I was hoping to have an updated list when the new week of hours was released, but the page for Extended Hours has not been updated.

 

[Cynner]

From what I was told in another thread, the S/D/SR are part of a land lease that the parent company of those resorts (now Marriott). While not truly Disney Deluxe, for some reason that is beyond my level of comprehension they qualify for the even extra hours while other resorts do not.

They are called the 'Disney Swan' etc, so Disney has always 'claimed them'.
That said, I did just go and get the Marriott rewards credit card. It has a $95 fee, but also gives you enough points annually to reserve a free room - (Covers most of S/D/SR). Plus the new card owner rewards will give me at least another 3 nights if I spend 4k in 3 months (easy, I'm going to charge half my new roof on it ;P).
If the extra evening hours schedule stays the way it is, I would plan my deluxe nights as Mon-Thurs and swap hotels before or after. I would honestly not have seriously considered the S/D/SR, as rented DVC points are even cheaper, but I'm afraid that not that many DVC owners are going to rent out their points in 2022 - they're all going to want to use them. So the S/D/SR is decidedly cheaper than the other Deluxe resorts, and it is nicely located for EP and HS. So it would be my backup for some of my trips over next year.

 

[Sherlee]

October 18 and 20 have been added to the list.

 

[Marionnette]

October 18 and 20 have been added to the list.

 

[RoseGold]

This is awesome news for DVC, and it's been a while since there was any good DVC news.

EMH (but excluding the giant value/moderates and most of the competitors!) is huge. I was on the fence for my October trip, which happens to cover a Wednesday. Now I'm all in.

 

[JakeAZ]

Adding dates, but still just two parks. It’s starting to feel like a bait and switch.
Extra hours at MK is always nice, but a couple extra hours at Epcot, especially right now, IMO is eh.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Adding dates, but still just two parks. It’s starting to feel like a bait and switch.
Extra hours at MK is always nice, but a couple extra hours at Epcot, especially right now, IMO is eh.

I know, I thought I had seen that it was going to be a different park every night. But not sure if that was an official announcement, DIS aboard s or just media coverage. Or perhaps I’m confusing it with the early morning 1/2 hour, which still hasn’t started, correct?

 

[JakeAZ]

I know, I thought I had seen that it was going to be a different park every night. But not sure if that was an official announcement, DIS aboard s or just media coverage. Or perhaps I’m confusing it with the early morning 1/2 hour, which still hasn’t started, correct?

The fact that they appear to be trying to get by without HS and AK at the beginning really irritates me. I was already booked for November, so the EEH announcement had no bearing on whether or not we went Deluxe. But a total of 4 extra hours (2 at the worst park for rides) per week is super lame.

I understand more can be added later, but they should have kept their mouths shut until they were willing to do all 4 parks, at least, once per week.

Right now it just seems like Disney knows there is no real benefit to staying on property Deluxe, so they pulled this out of thin air.

Staying Deluxe for a week will run your bill up by $1000+ easily and more than likely $2000+. For that, you get 2 extra hours at MK and 2 extra hours at Epcot.....YIPPEE.

And, if you check in for a 6 night (or less) stay, the day after a MK night, you only get Epcot....It's just (bad) luck of the draw since you, more than likely, won't know the EEH days at the time of booking.

 

[RoseGold]

The fact that they appear to be trying to get by without HS and AK at the beginning really irritates me. I was already booked for November, so the EEH announcement had no bearing on whether or not we went Deluxe. But a total of 4 extra hours (2 at the worst park for rides) per week is super lame.

I understand more can be added later, but they should have kept their mouths shut until they were willing to do all 4 parks, at least, once per week.

Right now it just seems like Disney knows there is no real benefit to staying on property Deluxe, so they pulled this out of thin air.

Combine with the morning stuff also supposed to start in October, and it's pretty close to what the old EMH were. They were an extra two hours MK on Wednesday, because I always planned around it.

Cutting the list down to such a small group will really make this incredible. Even if it's just these two parks, I'll take it. DVC direct sales has nothing going for it right now. It needs an AP discount and EMH to get something going. This is a real, concrete benefit that I think is amazing.

Those cheaper Hiltons are an interesting addition to this list, the cheapest on the list. This also makes Swolphin look really good.

 

[JakeAZ]

Combine with the morning stuff also supposed to start in October, and it's pretty close to what the old EMH were. They were an extra two hours MK on Wednesday, because I always planned around it.

Cutting the list down to such a small group will really make this incredible. Even if it's just these two parks, I'll take it. DVC direct sales has nothing going for it right now. It needs an AP discount and EMH to get something going. This is a real, concrete benefit that I think is amazing.

Those cheaper Hiltons are an interesting addition to this list, the cheapest on the list. This also makes Swolphin look really good.

Your points are valid (something extra is better than nothing extra), but there are 4 parks at WDW. To come out of the gate and leave 2 of them out, is just poor execution. It seems like they wanted to announce this as something to coincide with the 50th, but it's a half baked way to try to keep those "deluxe" hotels filled into 2022 and beyond. It makes sense to have this at all four parks, one day per week. Most people visit WDW for close to a week. This way, they get a shot at each park during their trip. I can't see anyone using 4 hours per week (spread over two parks) as justification to move up to deluxe.

Regarding DVC and "benefits"...I hope nobody purchases based on current offerings. You're buying a place to stay. Anything that comes with it, is extra and can come and go in an instant.

 

[Turk February]

Adding dates, but still just two parks. It’s starting to feel like a bait and switch.
Extra hours at MK is always nice, but a couple extra hours at Epcot, especially right now, IMO is eh.

This isn’t a bait and switch. The original announcement said it was select parks on select days and that’s exactly what this is. I understand people being disappointed with the days and/or parks offered, but they never baited you with something and then switched it to something else.

 

[Delilah1310]

this is how I think I might approach this. (Granted we have a 14yo so later nights might be right in our wheelhouse this trip.)

• 2 hours may not be a lot of time, but with lower crowds, you can get quite a bit done ... especially in Epcot with fewer rides.
• I'm thinking I don't need to use a park reservation for Epcot ... I can use the EH for rides and our park hoppers for dinner/shopping one evening.
• That frees us up to have another park reservation for HS, which has lots of faves for the teen.
• Same thing with MK ... although I will likely have one day with a park reservation (day and night in the MK are so different and lovely!) but we can save some of the repeats or longer lines for the EH night.
• if others have the same approach as me, that should thin out the crowds some during the day at MK and Epcot for the daytime guests.

so it seems like it might be a good way for Disney to further encourage crowd distribution across parks. I know we would have all have liked another hour, or another park or more properties included, but I am thinking of this as a test run for Disney to see what/if any impact this has on the traffic patterns. If it does what they want, I bet they add more parks ... then maybe another hour in the future.

 

[JakeAZ]

This isn’t a bait and switch. The original announcement said it was select parks on select days and that’s exactly what this is. I understand people being disappointed with the days and/or parks offered, but they never baited you with something and then switched it to something else.

That's fair.

I guess, for those of us who are disappointed, it's our fault for assuming Disney would offer this at all of their parks. We should have known that wish was too good to be true.

However, I stand by this being a poorly executed benefit launch. I can't see anyone making the switch to Deluxe based on the October hours, who wasn't already going to stay in Deluxe. 4 extra hours per week, spread over 2 parks isn't worth $1000s in extra hotel money plus (more than likely) having to upgrade your entire family's park tickets to hoppers.

Maybe they don't care right now with the resort practically sold out from October - December.

But if I was on the fence about a 2022 Deluxe vs Moderate booking, I would book Moderate or off-site for now and just monitor things to see if the benefit gets better.

 

[Cabius]

That's fair.

I guess, for those of us who are disappointed, it's our fault for assuming Disney would offer this at all of their parks. We should have known that wish was too good to be true.

However, I stand by this being a poorly executed benefit launch. I can't see anyone making the switch to Deluxe based on the October hours, who wasn't already going to stay in Deluxe. 4 extra hours per week, spread over 2 parks isn't worth $1000s in extra hotel money plus (more than likely) having to upgrade your entire family's park tickets to hoppers.

Maybe they don't care right now with the resort practically sold out from October - December.

But if I was on the fence about a 2022 Deluxe vs Moderate booking, I would book Moderate or off-site for now and just monitor things to see if the benefit gets better.

It may be more about making people feel good about their decision than actually getting guests to switch, at least for now. They're effectively eliminating EMH for 70% of guests in the hopes that offering a better (less crowded) experience to Deluxe guests makes them happier with their experience and more likely to return in the future. It may alleviate the problem of "I was here for a week and paid $800/night and still never got to ride 7DMT because the line was always 90+ minutes", makes them feel more special, etc. If those two hours in MK create magical memories, aren't they more likely to do it again?

 

[JakeAZ]

It may be more about making people feel good about their decision than actually getting guests to switch, at least for now. They're effectively eliminating EMH for 70% of guests in the hopes that offering a better (less crowded) experience to Deluxe guests makes them happier with their experience and more likely to return in the future. It may alleviate the problem of "I was here for a week and paid $800/night and still never got to ride 7DMT because the line was always 90+ minutes", makes them feel more special, etc. If those two hours in MK create magical memories, aren't they more likely to do it again?

Maybe for some.

But, maybe I'm alone in this thinking, this launch makes me mad. It's not the least they could do, but it's pretty close.

We were already booked Deluxe for November, so this is something extra we didn't have at the time of booking, but based on how they announced it and proactively sent out emails to those of us staying in Deluxe...it just seemed like it was finally going to be a big Deluxe benefit we've all been hoping for. Instead, it's just fizzles and if your reservation is Thursday - Tuesday, you don't even get MK. And yes, I get it was this way with the old EMH too, but everyone got those. This is specific to people willing to overpay for their on-site hotel.

 

[Cabius]

Maybe for some.

But, maybe I'm alone in this thinking, this launch makes me mad. It's not the least they could do, but it's pretty close.

We were already booked Deluxe for November, so this is something extra we didn't have at the time of booking, but based on how they announced it and proactively sent out emails to those of us staying in Deluxe...it just seemed like it was finally going to be a big Deluxe benefit we've all been hoping for. Instead, it's just fizzles and if your reservation is Thursday - Tuesday, you don't even get MK. And yes, I get it was this way with the old EMH too, but everyone got those. This is specific to people willing to overpay for their on-site hotel.

The advantage for Deluxe/DVC guests is that it should be less crowded -- 70% of the people who were eligible for EMH are not eligible for this benefit -- and beyond that, I'm sorry that you're angry that Disney didn't come through on the benefit that you imagined they were announcing.

As a DVC visitor myself, of course I'd rather it be every park every night, or at least swap Epcot for DHS (even w/o RotR open), but this is still a nice perk and I'm looking forward to the occasional long evening in MK.

 

[RoseGold]

The late night EMH are my favorite thing at WDW and why I bought into DVC. I first experienced them staying at AoA.

Doing this with only a handful of hotels is my dream. I think this is a better perk than the hard ticket events, honestly. It's such a small list, it doesn't seem sustainable to me, so I'll take it now!

 

[Willow1213]

Funny that it's only on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Completely avoids the "long weekend" guest. We arrive Thursday and leave on Monday. No opportunity, so I don't feel like I missed anything not booking deluxe!

 

[Suzabella]

I guess I'm not really surprised that it's only at 2 parks now that I think about it. We went to WDW last year right after they re-opened. We chose to do MK and EP because we felt those were the easiest parks to safely social distance. AK and HS are smaller and have areas that are usually congested under the best circumstances. With EMH of old, the parks that had extra hours were parks we avoided even though we could have gone on that given day because the crowds would be higher during the day. I'm not sure that funneling more people into those 2 parks right now would be a good decision. I do expect we'll see them once things get safer for all. I'm just happy they brought them back at all but understand the disappointment.