Noooo...the end of EMH?

[WEDWDW]

The Hilton report clinches it for me.

I think they are going to replace EMH with "Bonus FP+s" for resort Guests(Blah)-JMHO.

 

[Mikie]

The Hilton report clinches it for me.

I think they are going to replace EMH with "Bonus FP+s" for resort Guests(Blah)-JMHO.

I tend to agree with you, but I won't bet the whole farm on it just yet. As often as we know the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing even within Disney, it's possible this non-Disney hotel with Disney perks just doesn't have any further info yet.

 

[bgraham34]

EMH is going to be going away at some point. Just look at the reduction of hours of it and the Installation of FP+. It all comes down to money. If they can eliminate a few hours a day in operating hours that 100k + in savings to them. Why do you think they have spent so much money building Downtown Disney. They want you shopping and eating which translates into less Castmembers working in the parks and there is a whole lot less upkeep there than in the parks.

 

[tlmadden73]

The Hilton report clinches it for me.

I think they are going to replace EMH with "Bonus FP+s" for resort Guests(Blah)-JMHO.

I would easily see it. And think it would be a much better perk than EMH.
Costs a LOT less than trying to staff extra hours. It uses the technology they have put tons of money into.

I mean they could offer a 4th, 5th or even 6th to resort guests and it would essentially the same as EMH with MORE flexibility (basically if you are staying onsite you can get on more rides with less waits than off-site guests (which EMH does for you today) without the need of getting there early or staying late. I am sure a TON of families with young kids would prefer this over EMH. (I know I would).

I think that would draw more guests to resort stays than EMH does. I have never considered EMH when deciding whether to stay onsite or not ..

I am planning on going in August and going to TRY and take advantage of the early EMH at MK . but that means I have to get my wife(and 3 year old) rolling out the hotel door at 7:00 AM. I don't even know if my in-laws (wife's parents and sister's family) will want to get up that early so we may be doing that first hour ourselves ..

I would much rather have an extra guaranteed fast passes so I could leisurely plan out my day with my entire family and not worry about being there super early.

Plus no EMH would mean that park population could be balanced out, right? MK won't be as super crowded on the EMH days.

 

[jbish]

I find it interesting that several people here have equated staying offsite to laundry/cooking. We do it all the time as we stay in a DVC villa. But maybe the point you're trying to make is that for the same price, or less, you CAN (if you want) stay at a place that offers these options? Quite honestly, we will be cooking more on our next trip and driving to WDW (hence, no DME) - but these are cost cutting measures for us. If staying onsite gives us the ability to get some discounted tickets, that would help!

I would venture MANY people, myself included, do not fly to Disney and have a car. Yes, I have stayed at Disney and never seen my car the entire trip but I will bet I can leave a park and be in my condo or offsite hotel before the Disney bus riders get back to their rooms.

But you have an AP and, therefore, get free parking, right? I know staying offsite is going to save more than the $17/day parking fee, but that does add up. I guess what I'm saying is, when listing out the benefits of staying onsite, free parking should be added.

This is not an endorsement of EMH disappearing, though. We are early risers and like to use morning EMH. I really hope they put something in it's place for those of us paying a hefty premium by staying onsite.

 

[bgraham34]

I would easily see it. And think it would be a much better perk than EMH.
Costs a LOT less than trying to staff extra hours. It uses the technology they have put tons of money into.

I mean they could offer a 4th, 5th or even 6th to resort guests and it would essentially the same as EMH with MORE flexibility (basically if you are staying onsite you can get on more rides with less waits than off-site guests (which EMH does for you today) without the need of getting there early or staying late. I am sure a TON of families with young kids would prefer this over EMH. (I know I would).

So basically what you are saying is yeah its fine Disney for you to take away a benefit from staying onsite but you continue to raise prices across the board but don't offer any other incentives but maybe an extra fastpass or 2. Personally I would rather have a few extra hours at night at the Magic Kingdom instead of an Extra Fastpass. Would you still pay say $30 bucks to go to a baseball games but shorten it to 7 innings or only play 3 quarters in football. Its the same thing. You are paying more for less in the long run.

 

[pigletto]

I don't know what to think. EMH were promoted so heavily as a reason to stay onsite, that I find it hard to believe that they would just do away with them entirely. I think the answer will be evident when they start heavily promoting some aspect of the onsite experience that they already provided. They were pretty masterful at selling us the less is more strategy when it came to FP+.
As soon as I hear "New Magical Snack Sized Operating Hours!!" I'll be convinced.

 

[ArwenMarie]

The Hilton report clinches it for me.

I think they are going to replace EMH with "Bonus FP+s" for resort Guests(Blah)-JMHO.

Yeah it seems like the Hilton really doesn't want to deal with angry customers if it's not available.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I would easily see it. And think it would be a much better perk than EMH.
Costs a LOT less than trying to staff extra hours. It uses the technology they have put tons of money into.

I mean they could offer a 4th, 5th or even 6th to resort guests and it would essentially the same as EMH with MORE flexibility (basically if you are staying onsite you can get on more rides with less waits than off-site guests (which EMH does for you today) without the need of getting there early or staying late. I am sure a TON of families with young kids would prefer this over EMH. (I know I would).

I think that would draw more guests to resort stays than EMH does. I have never considered EMH when deciding whether to stay onsite or not ..

I am planning on going in August and going to TRY and take advantage of the early EMH at MK . but that means I have to get my wife(and 3 year old) rolling out the hotel door at 7:00 AM. I don't even know if my in-laws (wife's parents and sister's family) will want to get up that early so we may be doing that first hour ourselves ..

I would much rather have an extra guaranteed fast passes so I could leisurely plan out my day with my entire family and not worry about being there super early.

Plus no EMH would mean that park population could be balanced out, right? MK won't be as super crowded on the EMH days.

It would be more appealing to me too. We've never gotten much use out of EMH.

 

[pigletto]

I agree that IF they were doing away with EMH it will likely dovetail with the announcement of more FP's for onsite guests. I suspect if that were to be true we'd start to see tiered fastpass+ shortly after that, with more FP's being a perk of staying deluxe. Again.. totally speculation but tiering has felt like where they were headed from the beginning.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

If they were doing away with EMH, why wouldn't they clearly state that when beginning to release 2016 hours?

 

[Jfsag123]

If they were doing away with EMH, why wouldn't they clearly state that when beginning to release 2016 hours?

Goes against company policy

 

[focusondisney]

The Hilton report clinches it for me.

I think they are going to replace EMH with "Bonus FP+s" for resort Guests(Blah)-JMHO.

I agree that IF they were doing away with EMH it will likely dovetail with the announcement of more FP's for onsite guests. I suspect if that were to be true we'd start to see tiered fastpass+ shortly after that, with more FP's being a perk of staying deluxe. Again.. totally speculation but tiering has felt like where they were headed from the beginning.

Well, I might be ok with extra &/or resort level tiered fast passes. But not if you see still limited to only 1 fastpass per ride. I mean, if you are taking away 2 extra hours at DS, I want more than 1 fastpass for TSM. I don't do RR or TT. I don't need extra fastpasses for GMR or Muppets.

If you are taking away park hours, at least give us more than 1 shot at the headliners.

 

[JanaDee]

I think they will be listed later. I just received my booklet for our Aug 2016 trip and EMH are listed as a resort guest benefit

That's because you got current literature for a trip over a year away.

 

[HopperFan]

But you have an AP and, therefore, get free parking, right? I know staying offsite is going to save more than the $17/day parking fee, but that does add up. I guess what I'm saying is, when listing out the benefits of staying onsite, free parking should be added.

There are benefits that are included with your stay but I am of the opinion that unless they are exclusive benefits, such as EMH, they may have no impact on my stay offsite. I can park for free with my AP, some use shuttles from other resorts and some find their offsite costs are so low that parking is just a minor expense. Also factor many who stay offsite are going other places as well and not paying to park every day of their trip.

For my last trip in May:
- I paid $64 a night for a beautiful 2 bedroom condo in a resort full of amenities, more than any Disney resort offers, even the deluxe.
- Had I booked POP Century, which I love, my small room with minimal amenities would have been $167 a night.

Considering the living space alone is apples to oranges (I could put 4 POP rooms in this condo and still not have a kitchen or laundry or patio) there is nothing Disney offers, not even free parking that would add up to $103 a night value or $700 more for the week. So even if I paid for parking the 5 days in the parks it would have only reduced my savings by $85, so still saving $615. That paid for all our meals for the week plus some stuff we did not Disney. And that is a value resort. Had I chosen my favorite moderate Coronado Springs the room would have been $259 a night or $1365 more for the week...huge savings.

Again, I LOVE staying on property but I do it because I want to not because I feel there is any value to staying there. Disney rates are highly inflated for what you get. Yeah they have done some nice imagineering but even that is going to go by the wayside as Disney is making their full lodging focus DVC. I will be surprised if we see any Disney hotels developed in the foreseeable future. They are focused on DVC and bringing in outside chains. Four Seasons, the new Flamingo Crossing hotels with 5 more to come. The "in the know" or "visit often" guests are going to tire of this raise the price-reduce the benefits routine and look for other options. I can afford to stay there at all levels, but am finding more and more I can't pass up way better options offsite. Believe me I can talk myself into anything ... but I'm losing this one.

 

[Planogirl]

More FP's for onsite guests would lead to less availability for offsite guests wouldn't it? Not a good prospect...

 

[ArwenMarie]

More FP's for onsite guests would lead to less availability for offsite guests wouldn't it? Not a good prospect...

Yep. If half of customers on an average day are onsite, I can't see how they could give more than 1 extra FP to onsite without totally depleting the 30-day supply. Unless they move even more over from standby I guess? Or add FP to more things (is that even possible?)

 

[disneyseniors]

Well, I guess we never took much advantage of the EMH's in the past; just used an early morning one at AK once. So, no EMH would not impact us much, BUT....we used EMH's to help us decided which non-EMH park we would go to with the best crowd numbers. Well, so, okay, I guess we did use EMH in a backwards way to avoid those parks. We stay in the Disney bubble because we like the ambience. This vacation is for my husband, who does not like to drive in Florida traffic), and me(who likes to cook all year long, but not on her vacation). So we like the DME and pampering at WDW for US. It won't make or break us staying onsite in the future.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

More FP's for onsite guests would lead to less availability for offsite guests wouldn't it? Not a good prospect...

I think thats the way it is heading. Always have thought the the FPs will possibly go to either only hotel guest, more of them for hotel guest and/ or tiered levels of the the hotels. Greeeeeeddddddd!!!!!!!!!! Gotta love it.

 

[JimmyV]

I agree that IF they were doing away with EMH it will likely dovetail with the announcement of more FP's for onsite guests.

It's hard to imagine that this could be anything close to an even trade. For those who say: "I'd prefer the extra FP+", consider that the extra FP+ can only be mined from the lot of unused FPs. And as we know, for the most popular attraction, that is a small to non-existent set. There are three possibilities here. 1.) They could allow you to book your 4th FP once you arrive in the park, or perhaps a week in advance, at which point your "extra" FP will be for secondary attractions; or 2.) They could allow you to book your 4th FP at the 60 day mark, but limit you to Tier 2 attractions; or 3.) They could allow you to book your 4th FP at the 60 day mark and allow you to book a second Tier 1 attraction. This third option seems like the best for guests, but only the first people to the trough will get that coveted headliner FP+. Supply is limited, which is why Tiers exist in the first place. If they allow the most diligent "super users" to book all the Tier 1 attractions at midnight on the 60th day out, what will be left for the people who don't join the virtual queue at the earliest possible moment? And what will be left for people who do not get to book 60 days out? EMH allowed every person staying on site to get to Epcot early and ride the two major headliners with little to no wait. The extra FP will allow only a small subset of on site guests to get a FP for both major headliners. Now, I suppose that people here will rejoice in the fact that they will absolutely beat the system by being early bookers. But is that really the best solution to all of this. It just makes one's vacation planning that much more Machiavellian.