Monorails to no longer operate during Evening Extra Magic Hours

[SueM in MN]

I wonder how they will handle wheelchair users since the launches cannot handle the wheelchairs. I'm guessing buses but having to add extra bus stops to the MK area during EMH sure seems like a huge hassle.

I wondered the same thing.

 

[mrsksomeday]

I wondered the same thing.

So was I, this is frustrating me already .

 

[DisneyChristmas]

Sadly, this may be the tipping point for me in a cascading series of cutbacks and disappointments at current WDW.

Slashing room costs and giving away meals for free may fill the resorts and parks for right now, but it can't provide the revenue needed to continue
the Disney experience that we've learned to expect.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Until someone posts new information from the hub, I'm going to believe what was posted in #90:
There's no way they are going to shutdown the express monorail with thousands of cars sitting at the TTC during MNSSHP or MVMCP. It would be a disaster.

It's been posted.

how does it affect guests who drive their cars to and from resorts and parks? it doesnt

???? what does the ferry have to do with me walking from a park to the parking lot?

You can't walk to the parking lot from MK.

How would this affect me if I stay at BWV? I'll get on the bus at MK, same as before or walk from Epcot. The entire system will shut down?

The entire monorail system.

 

[Lehuaann]

Isn't this just for maintenance purposes?

 

[ppony]

Then will come the following announcement.

Due to poor attendance we are no longer offering Extra Magic Hours for resort guests. Valued guests of the Walt Disney World Resort will still be able to take advantage all the many other great offerings we CURRENTLY offer until we cut them back as well.

As a limited time offer please use coupon code 'suckers' to take advantage of semi free dining and receive 10% off our slightly increased room rates and reduced entertainment.

Killer!

 

[ppony]

But we all know if they went back to E-ticket night, the price would be a lot higher, as would be their "limited number". Just witness the evolution of the hard ticketed parties.

So true. Those "limited numbers" on the party nights are limited compared to what!? (rhetorical) I've been there on a sold out night and because of that, I'd never buy tickets in advance again because if I see it's sold out, I'm NOT going.

And speaking as an agoraophobe, I'm already freaked out by crowds and plan accordingly. I guess I'll be planning to never do an EMH or party from the MK unless I'm staying at BLT.

 

[Tink575]

I also have never been charged for parking matter what time we arrived. A quick flash of the AP. We've switched parks later than 7 PM many times.

If you arrive after 7PM for MNSSHP or MVMCP they will charge for parking, even with an annual pass. Perhaps this is where that story came from? I have been an AP member for many years, and arrived late one year and had to pay for parking. Then I found to my amazement people with party tickets were getting in at 4PM.

 

[Always Dream]

Well, that's a shame. Let's hope it's not permanent. I am afraid, however, that with the increasing age of the system that it might be getting to costly to operate. I guess if it is permanent my hopes for an expanded monorail one day will have to die!

 

[papamouse1]

I can understand some things but that aggrevates the horns off a billy goat.[/B]

hehe.... now tha't funny

 

[papamouse1]

So does this mean that the price of the monorail resorts will go down???

HAHA!! Okay you win... that is even funnier

 

[bicker]

For many, it's already reached that point.

Though from the look of the hotels and restaurants, no where near enough to change things in the other direction.

Planned transportation maintenance...sounds like it may be temporary. Perhaps it's a long term project and they just don't want to offer up and end time, so they're just putting it out there are a permanent change?

That does sound plausible.

No, it isn't. It's for every single guest that paid to get into WDW, not just for the ones that are staying on-property.
That's been well documented for many years.

While that may or may not be a matter of disagreement, the reality is that that concept itself might be the foundation for these changes: If you have a financially-inefficient means of transportation that is made even more costly by use beyond its original 1970s intent, what to do? It's a balancing act, for sure. You don't remove a hornets nest haphazardly, but rather very carefully. (And yes, you might replace it with some more beneficent insects.)

I don't know about all forms of WDW transportation but the resort monorail used to be for resort guests only. There was a CM at the TTC ramp directing off site guests to the other monorail. The monorail service for resort guests has not been as pleasant once WDW stopped doing this.

Confirmed. That was the original intent of the resort monorail.

LESS profits, MORE cuts..

Leading to more profits, long-term. Disney doesn't just look at the short-term... they consider the long-term, and the long-term is what matters.

 

[bicker]

It really is just one more reason to avoid Disney hotels.

No, that's not the case, and I think it points out one of the disconnects in this discussion: It is not "one more reason to avoid" Disney hotels. Rather it is one less reason to choose Disney hotels. So given 100 reasons to choose to stay on-site, now there will be 99. And the numbers are actually generous to your disappointed perspective, because the monorail service is being cut back less than 5% (perhaps less than 1%), and monorail service is just one of many reasons to stay on-site.

I wonder how any Bay Lake Tower owners feel about this, surely the Monorail providing transportation would have been some factor in Disney's selling pitch, right?

For most, it will be a flyspeck, since they can still just walk back from EMH. Most of the BLT owners I know are in the avoid EMH camp anyway, so they'll be unaffected.

It is interesting that they are making this change before GFV goes up for sale. Those buyers will have no excuse if they fail to learn of this change before buying, but I suspect some will still whine about it after-the-fact.

One argument that I never seem to buy even though 1000's of dissers here swear to it, is the "cutbacks" every where mentality. I truly don't see this in other vacation venues. Cruises, beach packages, Vegas, all seem to offer way more quality for the same dollar spent.

Oh my gosh Eliza, I really need to introduce you to some other people.

Go over to Cruise Critic and ask if cruises have experienced cut-backs over the years. There's a guy on Cruise Critic who is a chaplain and for a religious man he sure does have a great propensity for negativity with regard to the works of others. He and others will inundate you with hundreds upon hundreds of specific examples of cut-backs.

I can talk from personal experience about staying in cabins and rental houses in the White Mountains, in Maine, and at the Jersey shore. It's insidious because it's such a cottage industry, but the quality-for-rate-paid is plummeting in the long-term. Putting aside the technological enhancements, like Internet access (because you're ignoring them at WDW, as well, aren't you?) the compromises and the general decline in quality over the years is undeniable. Can you find "better" accommodations now? Absolutely, but you're paying a lot more, adjusted for inflation, than you were in the past.

Heck, just go of to Flyer Talk and ask them about declines in the quality of that aspect of vacations that get you too and from the vacation. Rental cars. Restaurants. Luggage. On and on and on. Every last little bit of every aspect of practically everything has been on a sure and clear path toward optimized profit. As long as we're a capitalist nation that will, and should, be the case. All these service providers are actually understanding their customers, now, far better than they ever had in the past, understanding what they really are willing to pay for, and giving them that and charging what they understand their customers are willing to pay for it.

Whether my perception is valid or imaginary for me is a moot point

No, sorry, Eliza, it isn't a moot point. If you convince yourself that things are strange at WDW, when instead it is experiencing the same trends just like everywhere else, then your perception is leading you to the wrong conclusions.

 

[bicker]

This is likely to cause a nightmare for the Contemporary, as everyone tries to park there and valet to walk over. I hope the guards step up to the challenge.

And I hope that guests become a bit more respectful of the rules and the directions given to them by their host's security guards.

Don't worry about it. There are plenty of people willing to stay on-site and pick up where you took off.

The way you worded that is very important: Since this same thing has happened over and over and over, we can see it in the manner you're alluding to: WDW has always experienced such cycles - has always had guests come, become fans, visit for a number of years, and then drift away, only to be replaced by other guests.

It's going to turn into either waiting FOREVER for a ferry (or the God blessed bus) or just avoiding EMH nights at MK.

No. They'll wait a reasonable amount of time for buses that will efficiently take them to their hotels, or to the TTC if that is where they parked.

Maybe they are also planning to do away with EMH in the evening

Perhaps. Folks should recall that EMH was preceded a couple of years earlier by Surprise Mornings, which was a more-than-sufficient incentive to stay at Disney resorts for many of us.

Isn't there a green czar somewhere we can report them to? Seriously..... diminishing the role of the electric system in favor of all those carbon emissions?

A Green Czar would recommend replacing the monorail system with light rail.

I just hope they're prepared for the high vacancy rate as everyone opts to stay offsite.

Though there is no reason to believe this will have any significant impact along those lines.

People complain about the high cost of staying at a monorail resort. I always say it's not about the room, but the location. The realy value of that location was the convenience of the monorail.

Uh, you do realize, I hope, that the difference in room rate between the Contemporary Resort and Wilderness Lodge is sometimes as little as $10 per night. Even if they got rid of the monorail (which, of course, they're not doing, despite how some of the concerns expressed in this thread seem to be making it sound) that cost savings could actually result in more profit, given such small decreases in room rate that would be consequent from the elimination of the monorail. The numbers probably don't work out that way now - if they did, then perhaps Disney would be making a completely different announcement - but the point is that there is a relationship between the monorail and value added to the room, a relationship that can be managed rather than thought of as categorically one-sided.

 

[bicker]

Okay..exactly who do you address complaints to about this change?

Walt Disney World Guest Communications PO Box 10040. Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040. wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

 

[NYDisneyKid]

Not only do people pay for party tickets, they also have to pay for parking if offsite (AP's are not accepted after 7:00pm for parking). If word gets around of huge transportation problems, their ticket sales will go way down.

since when are AP's not valid for parking after 7pm? ive been there several times after 7pm,,,showed my AP drove in no problem.

 

[PolynesianLily]

They may have to find bigger boats to transport guests back to their resorts (i.e., Grand Floridian or Polynesian). If the resort monorail was busy back then and they were operating it during EMH imagine how crowded the other transportation options are going to be. Smaller boats = smaller capacity = more trips?

I don't use the EMH evenings anyways because I find them crowded and I certainly won't be using them now if the transportation is going to be operating like this. However, it will not make me stay offsite, it just makes EMH less attractive to me.

Who knows.

 

[Princesca]

Oh my gosh Eliza, I really need to introduce you to some other people.

I agree with Eliza, as aforementioned. Many destinations are reaching out through promotions like those found with LivingSocial, for example. I get deals in my inbox every week for resort vacations in Costa Rica, Belize, Antigua, marked down 30-50% that are comparable in amenities and services to trips I've taken in the past and are based out of highly-rated resorts that have a much higher per-night cost without the promotion. Perhaps you could broaden your vacation search and pricing methods. There are amazing deals to be had. For example, this one was recently on LivingSocial Escapes: http://escapes.livingsocial.com/deals/58645-7-nights-in-the-caribbean-+-air-transfer 53% off rack rate, 7 nights for two people in a private beachfront cottage in the Grenadines, three meals a day and premium drinks included, ferry and air transfer, and more, for $3250. Original cost, $6960. And this deal is not uncommon for LS Escapes.

The fact that there have been cutbacks at those places does not undercut her argument. Even if it's a race to the bottom, so to speak, the promotional prices reflect those cuts. I could easily find you vacation promotions for your average Caribbean resort that most people would look at and say 'Wow, that's a great deal for the price!' But you are not likely to find that at WDW. WDW's prices do not reflect the 'death by a thousand cuts', so to speak, from what I've seen so far in my tour of Disboards.

That said, I'm still planning a trip next year because, as I pointed out, there is only one WDW.

 

[DisneyChristmas]

I wonder though if they will run the mona-rail during the MNSSHP and MVMCP nights because of the larger crowds it brings.

then.

60 minutes past regular closing hours is exactly that. If there's no monorail for EMH, there certainly won't be a monorail for party nights.

 

[bicker]

I agree with Eliza, as aforementioned. Many destinations are reaching out through promotions like those found with LivingSocial, for example.

Disney reaches out in the same ways. Eliza was asserting that these other types of vacations - she mentioned cruises explicitly - haven't applied cut-backs over the years, while WDW has. That's simply not the case.

I get deals in my inbox every week

Disney issues discounts to folks, though generally fewer - that has always been the case, presumably because there is substantially higher demand for Disney.

There are amazing deals to be had.

And to the extent that Disney is not currently offering discounts, or not offering deeper discounts, it is again a reflection of higher demand for Disney. Disney resorts have generally been running load-levels (an industry measurement) 10%-15% higher than comparable resorts in the area. Some folks would say that that is evidence that Disney has been under-selling WDW resort vacations (i.e., charging less for them than they are truly worth).

The fact that there have been cutbacks at those places does not undercut her argument.

I don't understand what you could mean by that. She explicitly said she does not see "cutbacks" "in other vacation venues". It is basically the only objective claim she made in her comment.

Even if it's a race to the bottom, so to speak, the promotional prices reflect those cuts.

Prices should never "reflect ... cuts". No one in the industry prices that way. Pricing is based on perceived value by the target customer-base. I think it is important to stop looking at pricing alone, and start looking at more metrics that help you see the whole picture, metrics like load-levels, and especially profits over the long-term. Anyone can find examples of a year where one venue or another surges, but we all know that all that matters is the long-term. What alternative vacation destinations are doing so much of a better job doing what WDW does, with substantially superior profit performance over a five year period? To be honest, I don't know of any, but I'd be very interested in learning who they are.