Festival of Fantasy - 2:00p Beginning August 20, 2017

[hiroMYhero]

What about those that booked the Tony's FoF package?

Disney will resort to their "send an email" mode of communication.

 

[11290]

i'm going to go out on a limb here and "suggest" that it may have something to do with the "party season". Always a lot of congestion with the end of the day parade and the entry of party guests. Just a shot in the dark on my part though as I've heard nothing about this until reading it here.

 

[hiroMYhero]

i'm going to go out on a limb here and "suggest" that it may have something to do with the "party season". Always a lot of congestion with the end of the day parade and the entry of party guests. Just a shot in the dark on my part though as I've heard nothing about this until reading it here.

With MK showing a 6:00 close on Party nights even though non-party guests can remain in the park until 7:00, this does help to clear the park earlier so that "leavers" aren't interfering with the Party early-arrivers.

 

[Accident]

With MK showing a 6:00 close on Party nights even though non-party guests can remain in the park until 7:00, this does help to clear the park earlier so that "leavers" aren't interfering with the Party early-arrivers.

I think this is for a few things and it's a great idea to me...

- 1 is a crowd control technique to try to influence others to pick another park that day, maybe get some thinking of late night adrs to pick another park with a dinner adr available.
- 2 is to be able to close ride lines at 6, get them clear by 7 and everyone non-party on their way out and reopen them for 7.
- 3 is to try to better efficiency on the buses by having a mass exit at 6 and lots of buses showing up to bring party goers back to mk for 7 instead of a rush of buses heading to resorts at 7 after a rush of buses coming from resorts to arrive by 7.
- 4 is see how this works for a possible shift in party times.

again I like the idea, it always seemed that 5:30-7 time frame there was just too many people in mk to enjoy it.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I still think it's too late for my napping kiddos but I would love to try to catch FoF if I thought they could make it.

And if this helps the crowds on party nights all the better. Had resigned myself to getting there no earlier than 6:30 because it was so insane last time we went to MNSSHP.

 

[eastendlights]

We have booked the package at 1 and 1:15 for two different trips and I just tried to change the times- they have removed all availability to book the package from the site. I checked almost every day in Aug, Sept, and Oct and it is showing zero ADR's available.

 

[Accident]

didn't this parade originally run at noon? I vaguely remember seeing it then heading to resort on trips before we had to suffer in the hottest time of day to see it.

They are probably trying to get all the float drivers to fit into 1 shift.

 

[11290]

didn't this parade originally run at noon? I vaguely remember seeing it then heading to resort on trips before we had to suffer in the hottest time of day to see it.

They are probably trying to get all the float drivers to fit into 1 shift.

Only time it stepped off earlier than 3:00 scheduled, was during times when we had double day parades (Easter / some Spring Break and a couple of other weeks). I want to say 12:30 & 3:00 but don't remember the exact times anymore, haven't worked a double day parade for awhile. As far as the float driver scheduling, would not be an issue.

 

[TJDisneymama]

I'd be really hacked off too. You did your part and planned crazy far ahead to get what you wanted. I get that there's fine print saying they can change anything they want whenever they want. But that doesn't make it feel any better when they do. It makes it feel like they just don't care what hoops you had to jump through already.

exactly, and what makes it even more frustrating is this is on DD's actual birthday which is why I so carefully coordinated BBB, CRT and then the parade on this day, because she LOVES the FoF parade, and it's the only day we will be at MK in the afternoon. Oh well, not the end of the world. I just wish they would go ahead and change the 180 day mark to 120 or 90 days since that is the direction they're moving with regards to planning on their end.

 

[DaisyJ]

I think this is for a few things and it's a great idea to me...

- 1 is a crowd control technique to try to influence others to pick another park that day, maybe get some thinking of late night adrs to pick another park with a dinner adr available.
- 2 is to be able to close ride lines at 6, get them clear by 7 and everyone non-party on their way out and reopen them for 7.
- 3 is to try to better efficiency on the buses by having a mass exit at 6 and lots of buses showing up to bring party goers back to mk for 7 instead of a rush of buses heading to resorts at 7 after a rush of buses coming from resorts to arrive by 7.
- 4 is see how this works for a possible shift in party times.

again I like the idea, it always seemed that 5:30-7 time frame there was just too many people in mk to enjoy it.

Ride lines better be open until 7, since the park is open to non party-goers until then.

 

[Jamie77]

I'd be really hacked off too. You did your part and planned crazy far ahead to get what you wanted. I get that there's fine print saying they can change anything they want whenever they want. But that doesn't make it feel any better when they do. It makes it feel like they just don't care what hoops you had to jump through already.

I kind of had this feeling on my last solo trip in 2014. It felt like every plan I'd made had been foiled and I was questioning the validity of FP+ and doing everything 180 days out. Universal was looking really good about that time! I vowed I wasn't going back to WDW for a while until some things got ironed out but I ended up at WDW the following year because my niece had been complaining that she hadn't been there in 5 years.

 

[Accident]

Ride lines better be open until 7, since the park is open to non party-goers until then.

the calendar for mvmcp nights at this time doesn't agree.

 

[Jamie77]

I just wish they would go ahead and change the 180 day mark to 120 or 90 days since that is the direction they're moving with regards to planning on their end.

Why do I have this feeling (or false memory) that a 90 day mark was something they did years ago? It seems like the 180 day mark was a more recent change within the last 10 years at least. I remember (again, maybe falsely) at the time feeling that it was kind of odd to reserve anything 180 days out from my date of travel.

 

[Rachel L]

Thanks for the heads up! I just moved our Crystal Palace lunch ADR for earlier in the day so we can watch the parade.

I'm in the same boat, I had made a CP ADR for 1:30 and now I don't know what to do. I could move it earlier but that means moving rides out of the way and then there may be more lines later, right? Or I could move the ADR to 2:30 but that's a long time to wait for lunch when doing rope drop... ugh.. also I need to look and see if we can even get a different ADR now.

 

[Ava]

Ride lines better be open until 7, since the park is open to non party-goers until then.

the calendar for mvmcp nights at this time doesn't agree.

The calendar for MNSSHP nights still shows MK being open until 7:00. For MVMCP nights, it's changed to a 6:00 close.

It does make sense to have a break in between the park being closed to day guests and the official start of the party, but not sure it will make much difference in practice since party guests can enter at 4:00. Perhaps the change in MVMCP-nights closing time is a test, and if it helps with crowd flow they will change all party night closing times to 6:00 going forward.

Why do I have this feeling (or false memory) that a 90 day mark was something they did years ago? It seems like the 180 day mark was a more recent change within the last 10 years at least. I remember (again, maybe falsely) at the time feeling that it was kind of odd to reserve anything 180 days out from my date of travel.

It was definitely 90 days out for dining reservations in the past. Not sure when they moved to 180 days but I feel like my 2006 trip was the first time I booked anything that far in advance. My previous two trips in 2002 and 2004 I went on CM passes (I worked selling merchandise at one of the Disney Broadway shows) so didn't really make advance reservations.

 

[HopperFan]

I wonder why?

i'm going to go out on a limb here and "suggest" that it may have something to do with the "party season". Always a lot of congestion with the end of the day parade and the entry of party guests. Just a shot in the dark on my part though as I've heard nothing about this until reading it here.

^THIS would be my guess. I wouldn't read too much into it like some other threads are.

Change starts just before the first MNSSHP of the season.

Town Square has been a cluster since folks are arriving at 4 pm to party to get their monies worth, since the tickets are getting very expensive, and guests who stay long enough to watch parade before they leave to break/hop are heading out.

Also the MVMCP dates that the park closes at 6 pm ... I think all this is nothing more than crowd control. We just got back from an annual May trip and we've never seen it so crowded. With the new offerings now, I think it's going to get worse and making adjustments that impact crowds makes sense.

 

[mshanson3121]

Care to spill your guess as to why the change?

It definitely is... different...

 

[rteetz]

Care to spill your guess as to why the change?

Right now I think it's due to the holiday parties

 

[wdw&sonny]

On a related note, we have ADRs at LTT at 12:45. When we finish lunch around 2p, will we be able to just step outside and watch the parade from the front of LTT? OR, how do they control the traffic in that area? Will we not be able to invade that space?

 

[DWillowBay]

The 3:00 parade is now at 3:00, Atlantic Time Zone. 2:00 Eastern, 1:00 Central, Noon Mountain and 11am Pacific. There, that covers it!