January 2024 thoughts...extended evening hours and skyliner refurb

[Mintycake]

Is extra evening hours worth it? We are currently booked offsite at the Drury for Jan 2024 but considering moving to a deluxe to get access to extra evening hours. I'm not sure it's worth it or if it will even be offered in January 2024? Currently it's only listed until the end of October. We still get early entry with Drury so may just stay put if it's not worth it.

The other thing is we are considering potentially Pop Century or Caribbean beach for access to Skyliner. But looking historically, it may be down during our trip, which negates staying at these resorts for us. Does anyone know when they will announce when the skyliner will be down for maintenance?

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We really like extended evening hours at MK and felt like it was of value for paying more for our resort to ride with much lower regular crowd waits. For us it took the first hour of the event for ride wait times to go down but the last hour is nice as most guests bailed before 12am, the night we went the park closed at 11pm, EEH closed at 1am. Of course, the downside with the smaller parks like DHS/Ep is if a ride is down, that can impact waits but at MK, it's so large it's not as impactful. The last time we did it, we stayed at Swan/Dolphin which can be priced closely to CBR. I don't know how late the park will be open but if the park closes at 9pm and EEH are 9-11p, I'd suspect it will be more crowded than if EEH are 11p-1am so take that into consideration when you decide. And if you'll only be using it for one park and not two offered that week, if they are actually offered, that might not really be worth it.

As far as the skyliner resorts, I don't know if they'll be up but when they're working, it's great. If you plan to be at your resort more and want some more food options and a nicer pool, I'd go with CBR. But do keep in mind it's a really really large resort with A LOT of bus stops, POP's bus is much much easier.

 

[pens4821]

We did the deluxe extra hours last year and enjoyed it at MK. We had very little waits for everything (we rode hm,pp,7d,buzz,sm,btm). Plus stopped for a few pictures in the empty park, and took a little drink break. Epcot we didn’t feel it was as valuable. We only got a ride on test track (got in line a little after 9) and remy. By the time we got off remy there was only a couple minutes left.

We will be staying deluxe in March again, and will go to both if they are offered. Having said that, I wouldn’t book a stay at a deluxe just for the extra hours. I don’t feel that is worth it just for the extra hours, but it’s surely a nice bonus.