How Important is EE to You? - DVC Member Only Poll

[PamOKW]

With the cutback on EE until the crowds pick up again and the uproar this has caused among some people, I'm wondering how important it is to DVC'ers. Many non-DVC people seem to feel there's no need to stay on-site without EE. What are your feelings? With the ability to keep returning to WDW, is EE still as important?

 

[Pluto4President]

doesn't matter to me...

 

[TrudyZ]

We use it all the time for MK (have a 3 year old); and sometimes for the other parks.

We were just there October 10-20th. Not counting the first and last days, as we were not there long enough to use it; we used it five out of nine days. We used it every possible MK EE day (4 out of 5 EEs we did) during our trip.

On the other four days we went to AK (1), pool hopped (1), slept in due to MNSSHP prior evening (1), and lazed around one day that we were sick.

I was first very dissapointed that E nights were gone--we used those nights to do all of the " big people" rides. We were not aware of any loss of the EE priviledge while we were there--no rumors what so ever.

I feel that staying on site has lost much of it's magic--no EEs, noE nights, etc. No much incentive.

I will lobby very strongly to bring them back--especially for MK--which had the most rides/attractions by far open for EE.

Trudy

 

[danicaw]

I havent been since the cut of EE, but they are doing this because of a drop in attendance - more specifically not as much money coming in - if that is the case there should be fewer people and not the need for EE as there used to be.

I love staying on Property. I will continue to with or without EE. Half the time I can't drag myself out of bed early enough to take advantage of it anyway.

Just my opinion.

 

[RONfromRI]

Although I voted for the second choice, a 5th option would have better described our opinion. "Use it frequently but are not upset at its demise" because with drop in attendance, it's not really needed.

 

[Disnydad]

We have used it a few times over the years. I find it not worth the hassel of getting the four of us up, b'fast and to the park. I'm on vacation and going to EE is too much like getting the four of us up, b'fast and to the bus stop(kids) and to work.

 

[PamOKW]

Good suggestion Ron! I didn't think about adding an option for, "Don't need it with low crowds but look forward to its return."

 

[Regina]

That's how I feel Ron.

We enjoyed WDW before EE was introduced, and we'll still enjoy it without it.

 

[Eeyore2U]

I think there was a line in a song "it don't matter to me"

We were just home from 9/30-10/6. I'm glad we had a rental car since we did everything we wanted to do in the parks by Wednesday. I like the sleep I don't usually get too!!!

 

[TrudyZ]

Ron,

We were just there; and although there was a supposed drop in the crowds, MK was still the most crowded park--and packed on the weekends.

On the four days we went to MK on EE, many of the rides that are part of the EE program had a 30+ minute line before noon (Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Buzz, Astro Orbiter, etc.) Those are awful long times for small children to wait--so that 1 1/2 hours we get for EE with limited access really count (and it doesn't hurt that it is cooler in the early mornings also).

Also, with the park hour cutbacks, you will find that as parks open later in the morning, they will be more crowded from the start. And as the parks close earlier, the parks will stay crowded until close. There won't be that hour or two of lower crowds that the early birds or night owls used to enjoy.

I also found that at the other parks with EE, there were only a few attactions open, and many of those had fast passes, so EE was not as important. But, I think for many of us with small children, EE really helps us enjoy MK and was very much a part of our vacations plans.

I will be interested in hearing reports from families who used to do EE (especially at MK); and how the loss of EE and E nights affected their trips.

Trudy

 

[lyndon1]

Our family has found that while everyone rushes to get to the parks scheduled for "EE", we go to an alternate park and there are less people there. Wow, what a concept.

No harm, no foul.

The Girvins

 

[NJmouse]

Like lyndon we used EE the oppsite way. We would go where the crowds were not. If MK was an EE we would go to the Studio or Epcot and the opposite for those parks. It worked out really well for us. There is no poll for this particular concept, so I didn't pick any.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Have to agree with Ron. We used it but wont miss it either.

 

[DVCJman]

Our plan was to go to the park that had Early Entry the day before......

 

[jennybobenny]

I wouldn't say I'm 'quite upset', more 'concerned'.
With small children the only EE park that mattered to us was Magic Kingdom. We would take the first bus at 7am, get into the park at 7:30am, ride Dumbo, Pooh, the carousel etc. and then head back to our resort mid-morning. It was an ideal situation for us, especially since my kids are up at the crack of dawn anyway. The plan for our upcoming trip was to do EE at MK at least twice. If the crowds are low, maybe we won't miss it, but I've read a few posts from folks just back saying the MK wasn't even close to being empty. Thanksgiving weekend, especially, should be interesting.

 

[Chuck S]

The only reason I'll miss it is that it was the park we avoided that day...EE parks were generally the most crowded that day, so we always picked a different one.

 

[Lesley]

All of our trips have been taken using ee....we get less "hardcore" about doing early mornings now that we spend more time in WDW all together, but we had still planned to do at least half of our days with ee in Jan. We find our favorite times to be in the parks are at ee and enight...we barely would spend any time in the MK during regular hours...just enough to see Adventureland mainly. Everything is so peaceful early in the morning...even if we weren't doing rides its nice to hang out when its empty.

So we're pretty upset, but it will be interesting taking a different approach this trip. We might actually get enough sleep! Still its irksome that our first DVC trip will be without one of the on property perks we've come to love.

 

[KNWVIKING]

For the most part DW and I are nite owls when we're on vacation so we've never even been awake for EE. We spend our whole working lives going to bed early and getting up at 6:00 am ,we like to break up the routine a little on vacation. Of course,we suffer that first morning after vacation when the alarm goes off :-(

 

[MikeBW]

I believe that people with small kids feel the effect of EE's loss, more than others. With small kids, there is no sleeping in because we are on vacation. We have used EE extensively, and it has worked out great every time - we see and do a lot before 10 AM. We feel that we can leave the parks in the afternoon instead of staying to get our money's worth, and in the afternoon is when you see the kids pitching fits. (Not my kids, they are perfect. LOL!!)
If the parks are truly less crowded, then EE's loss should not be that much of a hardship. IMHO, EE will be back sooner rather than later. This is a short term inconvenience.

 

[drusba]

We have not used it in several years as kids (including a teen) won't get up early enough. However, I still consider it an important on-site perk because it provides "definition." You knew what parks would be lighter on a day because they did not have ee and thus you could plan to go to those. Lack of ee will likely take away the ability to define what park is going to be crowded and which not on any particular day. Also, the death of ee to me is just one more event in a pattern of Disney in the last several years to reduce park hours generally. For example in old days MK would be open to midnight in the summer (and 1 on weekends) because the summer had huge crowds and the extra hours are needed. That was reduced to 11 then to 10 for most weekdays over the last several years even though the crowds did not get any smaller; the result has been just more congestion during the hours the parks are open. In other words, we get a sense that the "bean-counters" are in control and they don't consider the issue of impact on the guest when determining what to cut.