Heads up on Early Entry to DL and DCA - Sunday is now EMH at DCA

[tanyaewa]

Does the MM on multiday park hopper extend to DCA or just DL?
If not, any idea whether they ever will?

 

[coopersmom]

Sundays, Sept 30, Oct 7 & 14 are all listed as EE for DCA. That looks like an official change to me. I wish DLR would update their website completely.

I agree that with that many days it's unlikely to have an accident. (Still, stranger Disney web things have happened.) Hope it's accurate. Now that California Adventure has more demand for early entry, it makes sense to more evenly distribute the days throughout the week. I wonder if they will eventually offer Magic Morning entry to both parks as well?

 

[tinkerbelt]

APEE ends on Sept 13. It was not nearly as popular as Disney thought it would be. I would be very surprised to see it ever come back again.

AP's have been a thorn in the side for Disney for a long time. They've been trying to figure out ways to reduce the numbers of AP's for a few years now. I was surprised to see that they offered the APEEs in the first place.

The DCA early entry thing on Sundays really sucks for us as AP's. It's getting to the point that it's not worth buying AP's anymore. Most of our friends have stopped buying them because they're so expensive, and this makes it nearly impossible for AP's to visit Carsland.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Ah, when I was reading tinkerbelt's post, it just hit me why this EE change might be coming. Block out days. Since Saturdays are often blocked out for non-premium passholders, then the APs are more likely to come to the parks en masse on Sundays. With the shift in attention to DCA and Carsland, then early entry to DCA on Sundays for hotel guests (and what about multi-day ticket holders, do we think a choice of where to use MM is coming?) gives that vacation demographic the leg up on AP holders. Plus, this evens out the weekend with each park having one day of early entry and one day of opening at the regular time.

 

[tinkerbelt]

Ah, when I was reading tinkerbelt's post, it just hit me why this EE change might be coming. Block out days. Since Saturdays are often blocked out for non-premium passholders, then the APs are more likely to come to the parks en masse on Sundays. With the shift in attention to DCA and Carsland, then early entry to DCA on Sundays for hotel guests (and what about multi-day ticket holders, do we think a choice of where to use MM is coming?) gives that vacation demographic the leg up on AP holders. Plus, this evens out the weekend with each park having one day of early entry and one day of opening at the regular time.

That's exactly it. Sundays are a big AP day, especially when the weather is nice. But, one thing that Disney doesn't seem to take into consideration is that the Sunday AP crowd is not coming into the parks to spend the whole day going on rides like the vacation crowd does.

Disney was trying to figure out an issue to the AP solution about 4 or 5 years ago. Their problem was that attendance was down, and it was mostly AP's coming into the parks. But AP's don't spend money like tourists do. There were rumors swirling at one point that they wanted to be able to do away with AP's completely.

The SoCal/SoCal Select AP's are all but useless because there are so many blockout dates. And the Deluxe and Premium have gone up so much that most people won't buy them anymore. My first Premium pass was $189. Now they're $649. Like I said before, we are the only ones out of all of our friends who still have AP's. A few years ago, everyone that we knew had AP's. Now, nobody does. We most likely won't renew, because they're cost prohibitive, and every other park in the area has much more reasonable season passes.

I think that Disney got themselves in deep with the AP's, and is now trying to make them less desirable because they're not cost effective.

 

[roobug]

That's exactly it. Sundays are a big AP day, especially when the weather is nice. But, one thing that Disney doesn't seem to take into consideration is that the Sunday AP crowd is not coming into the parks to spend the whole day going on rides like the vacation crowd does.

Disney was trying to figure out an issue to the AP solution about 4 or 5 years ago. Their problem was that attendance was down, and it was mostly AP's coming into the parks. But AP's don't spend money like tourists do. There were rumors swirling at one point that they wanted to be able to do away with AP's completely.

The SoCal/SoCal Select AP's are all but useless because there are so many blockout dates. And the Deluxe and Premium have gone up so much that most people won't buy them anymore. My first Premium pass was $189. Now they're $649. Like I said before, we are the only ones out of all of our friends who still have AP's. A few years ago, everyone that we knew had AP's. Now, nobody does. We most likely won't renew, because they're cost prohibitive, and every other park in the area has much more reasonable season passes.

I think that Disney got themselves in deep with the AP's, and is now trying to make them less desirable because they're not cost effective.

Although if this where true why the big push for AP's? With the elimination of more then six day tickets the consistent reply from Disney is to purchase an annual pass. Plus when you drive in on the tram they push them as a value. If they where trying to do away with them or get less people to buy them seems like they would tone down on advertising them.

 

[tinkerbelt]

Although if this where true why the big push for AP's? With the elimination of more then six day tickets the consistent reply from Disney is to purchase an annual pass. Plus when you drive in on the tram they push them as a value. If they where trying to do away with them or get less people to buy them seems like they would tone down on advertising them.

It's an easy upsell for them. If they can get someone to come in and upgrade their ticket to an Annual Pass, it's a win-win for them, because they've made more money off of the sale.

Most of the people who use multi-day hopper tickets aren't locals. And 5-day hoppers are, what, $250? $275? If Disney can get someone to upgrade a $275 ticket to a $469 (or $649) ticket, then that's more money for them. Plus, there's increased likelihood that it will bring in repeat business, because someone is more likely to plan another Disney vacation if they want to get value out of their AP.

Disney doesn't want locals to buy AP's, because there's no value in that for them. They want tourists to buy AP's, because they make more money off of them.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

That's exactly it. Sundays are a big AP day, especially when the weather is nice. But, one thing that Disney doesn't seem to take into consideration is that the Sunday AP crowd is not coming into the parks to spend the whole day going on rides like the vacation crowd does.

Disney was trying to figure out an issue to the AP solution about 4 or 5 years ago. Their problem was that attendance was down, and it was mostly AP's coming into the parks. But AP's don't spend money like tourists do. There were rumors swirling at one point that they wanted to be able to do away with AP's completely.

The SoCal/SoCal Select AP's are all but useless because there are so many blockout dates. And the Deluxe and Premium have gone up so much that most people won't buy them anymore. My first Premium pass was $189. Now they're $649. Like I said before, we are the only ones out of all of our friends who still have AP's. A few years ago, everyone that we knew had AP's. Now, nobody does. We most likely won't renew, because they're cost prohibitive, and every other park in the area has much more reasonable season passes.

I think that Disney got themselves in deep with the AP's, and is now trying to make them less desirable because they're not cost effective.

Although if this where true why the big push for AP's? With the elimination of more then six day tickets the consistent reply from Disney is to purchase an annual pass. Plus when you drive in on the tram they push them as a value. If they where trying to do away with them or get less people to buy them seems like they would tone down on advertising them.

I don't think that Disney doesn't want APs. That really wouldn't make any business sense considering their market, and as has been pointed out already, is contra-indicated by their continued heavy marketing of APs. I agree though that they might like to maintain a certain balance between the number of lesser spending park guests and bigger spending guests who use the park, and one way of doing this is obviously with the AP price increases (although ticketing prices have gone up across the board and that's just an indication that Disney believes the market can bear it, a theory so far being born out). Another change to their AP marketing has been the offer of payment plans to all California residents rather than just locals. This increases their numbers of APs and their income from AP tickets themselves while not severely inundating the parks with more guests on a day-by-day or weekend-by-weekend basis since these further away AP holders are actually vacationers rather than day-trippers. This also creates a heavier spending subset of the AP population to balance out the supposedly smaller spending base of local AP holders since out-of-towners will be more likely to spend more on lodging, food, and extras than those locals that have an AP or regular tickets.

As far as whether an AP is a good value, that's an individual choice and completely relative to individual circumstances such as income, location, other hobbies, interests, vacation wishes, and so on. Our family doesn't live in SoCal, but we choose to spend most of our entertainment and vacation money on going to Disneyland three to six times a year for multiple days at a time. The AP therefore is a good value for the amount of entertainment we get from it. On our last set of APs we entered the parks on 28 separate days for at least two hours each time and anywhere from eight to eleven hours on most days. For the old AP price of $499 for a premium, that averaged out to $17.82 per day, and at the current AP price of $649, that average goes to $23.18 per day which we still found reasonable. A local who might more easily visit the park for the same number of days a year would be paying the same average cost or less if that person is willing to work around block out dates and choose a lesser priced AP option. Plus, the local has more options and control over extra spending on lodging, food, and stuff than someone coming from further away. So in comparing these prices to the costs of movies, ball games, theater, gym memberships, and other forms of entertainment, the pricing isn't all that unreasonable. When and if AP prices get too expensive for our budget, then I guess we'll go back to what we did before we could afford them, and that was go once a year with tickets or not go at all and find other interests and activities with what money we have.

 

[revwog1974]

Please help me be sure I'm understanding this change correctly. I will be there Oct. 12-14, Fri-Sun, staying of-site with 3-day park-hoppers. With this change my only opportunity to use my Magic Morning is now Saturday? Disney has now taken away half my chances? Wow. I'm actually leaving mid-day on Sunday. If I'd know this when I bought my tickets, I would not have bought 3-day park-hoppers. I was counting on that extra hour Sunday morning to make going to Disneyland on Sunday worth it.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Please help me be sure I'm understanding this change correctly. I will be there Oct. 12-14, Fri-Sun, staying of-site with 3-day park-hoppers. With this change my only opportunity to use my Magic Morning is now Saturday? Disney has now taken away half my chances? Wow. I'm actually leaving mid-day on Sunday. If I'd know this when I bought my tickets, I would not have bought 3-day park-hoppers. I was counting on that extra hour Sunday morning to make going to Disneyland on Sunday worth it.

If it turns out that the calendar is correct, then, yes, this would mean that Magic Morning will only be available to you on Saturday of your stay.

 

[HydroGuy]

Please help me be sure I'm understanding this change correctly. I will be there Oct. 12-14, Fri-Sun, staying of-site with 3-day park-hoppers. With this change my only opportunity to use my Magic Morning is now Saturday? Disney has now taken away half my chances? Wow. I'm actually leaving mid-day on Sunday. If I'd know this when I bought my tickets, I would not have bought 3-day park-hoppers. I was counting on that extra hour Sunday morning to make going to Disneyland on Sunday worth it.

If you want to go to DL on Sunday then the fact that the switched the EMH from Dl to DCA on Sunday will work to your advantage. What will not work to your advantage is that the parks open at 10AM on Sunday because of CHOC walk.

 

[revwog1974]

If you want to go to DL on Sunday then the fact that the switched the EMH from Dl to DCA on Sunday will work to your advantage. What will not work to your advantage is that the parks open at 10AM on Sunday because of CHOC walk.

Sigh. Thank you. How on earth did I miss that? At least after 2 late nights with Fantasmic and fireworks and the Halloween party we won't be up at the crack of dawn on Sunday.

 

[PixiePowered]

Haven't been to DL since June 2011. Heading down 10/20-21 (Sat/Sun) with 2-day hoppers. Staying off-site.

If I'm understanding EMH and MM correctly our best plan of attack for Carsland would be rope drop Saturday ?

 

[HydroGuy]

Haven't been to DL since June 2011. Heading down 10/20-21 (Sat/Sun) with 2-day hoppers. Staying off-site.

If I'm understanding EMH and MM correctly our best plan of attack for Carsland would be rope drop Saturday ?

 

[IFlossU]

We're going to be at the parks 10/9-10/11 (Tues.-Thurs) I'm trying to decide if staying at PPH is worth the EMH. I understand w/ my 3 day park hopper I can do MM on Tues., then if we stay on-site I could do DCA EMH on Wed., but does staying on property also allow me an extra MM on Thurs. as well, or do I still only get 1 MM day?

 

[HydroGuy]

Let me see if I can get "official" confirmation of the change.

Any luck?

 

[Eeee-va]

We're going to be at the parks 10/9-10/11 (Tues.-Thurs) I'm trying to decide if staying at PPH is worth the EMH. I understand w/ my 3 day park hopper I can do MM on Tues., then if we stay on-site I could do DCA EMH on Wed., but does staying on property also allow me an extra MM on Thurs. as well, or do I still only get 1 MM day?

You would get an extra MM on Thursday. If you've been to Disneyland many times, I don't know if I'd personally switch to Paradise Pier solely for the MMs. You'll be getting one early entry into Cars Land (very big bonus) and one early entry into Disneyland (absolutely nice, but frankly I think I'd probably go to DCA on that day to open up Cars Land anyway).

If you don't go to the parks often and Disneyland is more of a priority, that Thursday early entry will be useful, but otherwise I think I'd probably do DCA first thing Thursday anyway. Not saying don't stay at Paradise Pier--it's fun to stay on-property and use the GCH entrance--but I know the price difference is often enough that you could do a Fantasmic! dessert seating, or a character meal and a really nice souvenir, and have money left over.

Have a great trip!