March hours cut

[Rileygirl]

Just thought everybody should know that the hours originally posted at Disney's official website for March have changed. A few spectro magics have been cut as well as one e-night. It looks like the cuts only occur in the first two weeks of march.
Here is the link to disneys official website park hours
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wa...ursindex?id=SEAllParksLocationCrit&date=32003

and because I have not seen anywhere else indicate the e-night cancellation, here is the tgm link that shows it, free page
http://tourguidemike.com/whatsnew/index.asp?latest_id=22
Hope this helps out
Rileygirl

 

[strawberryblonde]

Thank-you for posting, better to find out now than later I'm so bummed. My DS's 6th birthday is the 3rd of March and there WAS a spectro scheduled for that night. We had dinner PS's made around it and everything.........Blizzard Beach is now listed as closed and a week or two ago it was listed as 10-5 each day. We were hoping to make it to both water parks. I'll get over it, just dissapointed at the moment.

 

[kilee]

This could be due to tourism being down right now. So many people are canceling their trips, too afraid to travel. Not to mention I know more people who are out of work now (people who were at their jobs for 10+ years).
The one positive point is that if the parks are less crowded they are easier to enjoy.

 

[mareed]

I am also disappointed to see the hours cut and Spectromagic canceled during the week of March 9-14. We will not be able to see it during our visit now. We'll be there March 6-15, but have Grandma and Great-Grandma flying in on Saturday, March 8 which is the only day Spectro is showing. We really don't want to have them use a day on their park-hopper to enter MK for 2 hours to see the parade, and hadn't planned on going to a park that evening at all.

I don't suppose there's some secret admission pass that's cheaper that's just for the last few hours the park is open, is there? I'm pretty educated about Disney and I'm sure I would have heard about this before, but I had to ask.

 

[Rileygirl]

I know I am really bummed out about the cut in hours. Our trip sort of spreads between the second and third week, so I am hoping to do the spectro on monday the 17th, but then, that could be cut too, and not knowing is driving me crazy! And then the blizzard beach thing, I know if we go to the water park when tl is only open, its going to be packed, and if we wait and go to bb at the end of the trip I know its going to be packed! I think the water park closure is almost as bad as no spectro! darn
I guess though, if attendence was not down, I would not be getting those great hotel discounts (thanks mary !) Plus now I am going to watch mousesavers like a hawk, perhaps an unheard of discount for hotels is going to come out.
Rileygirl

 

[disneydave2003]

good morning-
is it normal for Disney to cut hours and events with a couple of weeks notice?

thanks-
dave

 

[zulaya]

If attendance looks like it will be down, DIsney will cut hours to save money. Basically they can look at their resort room occupancy and see what attendance will be like and adjust if they need to. I read once that they adjust the hours so that you can get to at least 8 rides during one day (I am assuming this is at MK).

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Well junk, both e-nights for our trip have been cancelled and now Spectromagic is only shown on the same night as the last night of Tapestry of Dreams.

Thanks for the heads-up. The only positive thing about this is that it sure makes planning decisions earlier when trying to work around events where you cannot control the time you must be there.

 

[Mamu]

I know everyone is disappointed about the cut hours and shows be canceled. We just returned from Disney. We were there during Presidents Week and attendence is down. The parks were never crowded. Very little wait for any rides. All restaurant were almost walk-in. Never waited more then 15 minutes for a seat. Prime viewing for just about every show.
We enjoyed our resort stay this time. Most parks could be done in a 1/2 day using fastpass. More time to check out all the extra's things Disney has to offer. Things you never seem to have time for.

We would do the parks in the morning, go back to the resort in the afternoon, swim or rent WaterMouse Boats. My Grandchildren loved the boats. Go back to the parks in the evenings.

 

[buzz2400]

It was just posted that disney has a hiring freeze because of the possible war. Maybe they cut the hours just in case of war. I just hope they don't take away EE. I will definity cancel my reservation and go offsite if they do.

 

[Rileygirl]

Thanks Mamu


As our children are really going to need those afternoon breaks, (4, 6,8) that definetly makes me feel better!
Rileygirl

 

[justhat]

I too was there for President's Week (2/13-2/20) and noticed the crowds were not bad. We had planned to be there 2/13-2/17, but our flight was cancelled since our DC airport was closed due to the blizzard, so the earliest flight we could get was the night of 2/20. But since we planned to leave the 17th, we had done everything we wanted to by noon that day when we found out our flight was cancelled (luckily we found this out in AK so we never left the parks for the airport). So this left the rest of the week to do lots of things we thought we wouldn't have time for until our Ocotber trip, including non-Park activities.

Waits on the weekend were bad, with the big rides having waits over an hour (all 3 mountains, Buzz, Pooh, RNRC, TOT, TT), but it was President's Weekend, Valentine's Day, and Speed Week with the Daytona 500, so all of those events at the same time brought very large crowds to the parks. But wait times definitely went down later in the week with those same rides having lines of about 20 minutes. In fact on one day, TOT had a 45 minute wait but the Fastpass time was only 15 minutes from when you got it! We had PSs for most meals so I can't say much about restaurant waits, but with most of our PSs we only waited about 10 minutes.

One comment about EE that really bothered us, however, was that at MK non-resort guests were allowed in for EE on every EE day. AK and MGM seemed to be checking, though not every guest, and we didn't go to Epcot on EE day so I don't know what they did. But we were at MK before 8 on both EE days we were there for and both times they let everyone in and did not ask to see a resort ID. This was especially bad on Sunday 2/16, since weekends are generally more crowded and with all of the extra people the wait times for the EE attractions were over half an hour by 8:10! We went to guest services to point out that we spend good money to stay at their resorts and could have stayed at a Motel 6 and still gotten the same priviledges. The CM told us maybe we didn't think they were checking for resort IDs but since many resort guests have their admission on their room keys that they didn't need to check. However, we have APs and so those are not on our room keys and we were not asked on either day to show proof of staying in a Disney resort. Normally, we would not care, but since the point is that resort guests can enjoy rides without the big wait times and that was not possible since htey let anybody in, we told them about it. Basically, they didn't do anything but said we could wait and speak to a turnstiles manager, which we didn't feel like waiting for so we left. It was pretty surprising though since it was very crowded on those days and during our NYE trip they checked resort IDs at every park.

 

[Fantasmic303]

Grrrr...

Well, this upsets me because we had planned our itnerary around having every available second in the parks lol. We had also planned on going to Blizzard Beach, and now, with the parks closing so early and BB being delayed, we're wondering why we paid so much for "ULTIMATE" Park hoppers. There won't really be enough time for us to Park hop, the parades are getting cancelled, and we're only going to be able to get into one water park, which, naturally, is going to be packed with people because it's the only one.

And with hours being cut and things being closed, does anyone know why we're paying for "peak" season??

*sigh*

This isn't how I intended to start my vacation.

 

[Eeyore2U]

Originally posted by Fantasmic303
Grrrr...

Well, this upsets me because we had planned our itnerary around having every available second in the parks lol. We had also planned on going to Blizzard Beach, and now, with the parks closing so early and BB being delayed, we're wondering why we paid so much for "ULTIMATE" Park hoppers. There won't really be enough time for us to Park hop, the parades are getting cancelled, and we're only going to be able to get into one water park, which, naturally, is going to be packed with people because it's the only one.

And with hours being cut and things being closed, does anyone know why we're paying for "peak" season??

*sigh*

This isn't how I intended to start my vacation.

If there are no people there are no crowds. If there are no crowds there are no waits. You are paying based on historical crowd data that only Disney has. Disney also knows what is booked and not booked for their resorts.

I'm sure they didn't change the hours to upset you. Oh, the limo is picking us up in 14 hours and we plan on having a great time with what we have.

 

[Fantasmic303]

Thank you for your response - you are right, buuuuuuuut...

Disney should offer price compensation for Resort guests paying Peak rates when, clearly, the attendance isn't what they expected. I understand that a smaller crowd means less waiting, but that's the point - low attendance means the rooms are not in demand...the pricing should reflect that.


I am just disappointed in Disney right now. One of the guests I am traveling with would have been enjoying Blizzard Beach for the first time and, though not the centerpiece of our trip, the refurbishment was something we considered. And, along those lines, no waits does nothing to calm the 4 year old who wanted to see SpectroMagic, or her parents who were hoping to spend some "quiet" time together at E-Night, events that were scheduled at the time their trip was booked.

Again, I understand what you're saying, and you are right - but I think Disney should either be more cautious when releasing park hours (I'm sure people would rather have an 'extra' hour or two than they had planned than having it 'cut') or compensate for it in their package prices.

 

[Eeyore2U]

Originally posted by Fantasmic303
Again, I understand what you're saying, and you are right - but I think Disney should either be more cautious when releasing park hours (I'm sure people would rather have an 'extra' hour or two than they had planned than having it 'cut') or compensate for it in their package prices.

We can agree to disagree. We have always gone offseason. Last week of February and have paid the same ticket prices as those who recieve more. We are lucky to get Spectro on the weekends. This year we are not seeing it. Since we aren't there on a Saturday. We have never had hours late. We don't complain since it is what it is.

As far as released hours. Did you expect Disney to know that tourism would go back into the tank with pending war? They are reacting to their businness need. Also, i'm sure you know. Hours are subject to change.

We are victims of our own expectations. You have time change what to expect and salvage your trip.

 

[JJS2K3]

I'm not going until May but after following the trends of this subject for the last couple of months I figure the best strategy is to not expect anything and just hope for the best.

It's kind of sad though that WDW has to join that growing business community of 'lowered expectations' - but business is business I guess and no amount of 'magic' is going to change it.

Maybe if we went every year it wouldn't be as disappointing but we're not that fortunate.

 

[hmerritt]

Then lets see some of the hotel rates go down. Wouldn't it be better for them to release a better rate than to shut down the parks and parades? People are paying peak season rates and apparently it's really not yet?

Heather

 

[Eeyore2U]

Originally posted by hmerritt
Then lets see some of the hotel rates go down. Wouldn't it be better for them to release a better rate than to shut down the parks and parades? People are paying peak season rates and apparently it's really not yet?

Heather

Again, I will ask. How was Disney suppose to see the downturn in tourism due to the pending war. If everyone was traveling as normal the reports from last week would have been of mega crowds. I think some of you are being short sighted but thats your right. The crowds going forward would be of Mardi Gras and Spring Break and the crowds would fit into normal pattern.

So using your logic, they should be giving money back at check in? Would you expect this at any other place other then WDW.

As far as rates. I think you'll see codes. But if you've been on the boards since 9/11 you will see Disney will protect the brand as opposed to giving it away.

 

[kilee]

I am reading this thread in awe the general consensus is we want the longer hours and the parades or a discount to compensate us for being there? I am sure that the slump in the economy and pending war is hurting Disney financially. They most likely depend on high crowds from March-July. It doesn't look like they are going to get it. People can't afford to travel, or are too scared to travel. All in all, there will still most likely be more people there next month, than there were in the deep freeze they had in January.