Not sure $149 Disney After Hrs event is doing well... (ETA: reviews in 1st post)

[bcrook]

Who would lay out $149 a ticket when there are reports of random freebies?

Good question. It's a lot of money.

 

[lugnut33]

I'll admit I'm hoping for a freebie on May 5 because I sure as heck won't pay for it.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Extra Magic Hours (free): "We have to take away that 3rd hour! No one's there!"

Money Magic Hours ($149): "See, it's great! No one's there!"

People tend to utilize things - experiences, items, etc, - more when they've paid for whatever it is vs getting it free.

 

[Sparkly]

ehhhh nevermind.

 

[DoingDisney]

Amen! I am tired of the haters. I'm begging them to stop going to WDW. If you don't think its a good value, then don't go, but be quiet about it. We're going and I don't think I'm stupid and my guess is that I won't for the 3 hours I'm in MK that night.

This is a discussion board where people can discuss things, not a "Only post positive things board" Whatever you would call that. If thats what you are looking for you could just read the disney parks blog, or the disney webpage, or the disney facebook pages. Disney edits all those so no negative posts are allowed.

 

[kaytieeldr]

like a bad deal because regular hours are reduced (causing even longer lines) and then Disney creates an upsell event to alleviate some of the crowding that they created by trimming hours.

NOT [yet] extending hours doesn't translate into reducing or trimming hours.

I think it's interesting they chose AOA. Most of those guests really aren't the target market. I would see target market as small groups of adults only. Yet AOA is mostly family suites. Standard rooms are a very small part of their rooms available. People with small kids aren't likely to stay out late enough to fully enjoy it, nor would they be as willing to buy it at a future date (would require more $$$$ for their larger group).

A fair number of AoA guests are groups or families without young children, but rather are all adults - whether Disney- or dictionary-defined. Maybe the guests currently at AoA were determined to cover a wide range of ages.

 

[PirateD]

Just watched The Dis Periscope from tonight's event. Someone asked how many people were attending and the word on the street, literally meaning someone was overheard on Main Street saying that 1,000 tickets were "sold" with 500 of them being given free to CMs. It did look really empty. I will be curious to hear other reports as they come out.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I'm on the ferry to the TTC right now... My thoughts: If I were a single adult here on a very short trip, I'd consider paying for a ticket to this. I rode almost everything and saw the nighttime entertainment. It was fun. And I'm not a night owl at all. Plus, I like chocolate covered bananas and I have four bottles of Dasani in my bag.

 

[ChadInOKC]

Sounds pretty neat to me. This will work out nicely with our trip coming in May. We are hitting universal on 5/4-5/5. Universal closes at 7PM. We are going to head out around 6pm and drive to Disney. We will check in to our Hotel and hit Magic Kingdom around 8pm. Before this, our first Disney day was going to be the 6th.

 

[Nancyg56]

I'm guessing numbers were so low, they might not have wanted those who bought tickets to feel like suckers?

DIsney seldom just announces they are giving away freebies like this.

Who would lay out $149 a ticket when there are reports of random freebies?

If I wanted to go, and if it worked out for me financially, I would. I know that when I go anywhere tI may be paying for something the person sitting right next to me got for free. I try no to let that make me enjoy what I paid for any less.

 

[Slapshot1188]

If I had shelled out $750 for my family and found out that the folks next to me were given free tickets (because not enough were sold) I'd be pretty pissed.

 

[Nancyg56]

If I had shelled out $750 for my family and found out that the folks next to me were given free tickets (because not enough were sold) I'd be pretty pissed.

To tell you the truth, when you say $750 I cringe! Yes, that amount would just make me cry!

I think that one thing Disney could do if they wanted to ram up the excitement is to continue a few of these late nights in MK, and instead of selling any tickets, give them away to guests. I remembe that year of a million dreams....I never did get a dream, although my DGD got one of those special pins that you save one and give one away. That was pretty darn neat, BTW, but anyway, I remember how much fun it was thinking about that chanvce to be awarded a night in the Castle. I bet we were not alone.

If Disney randomly chose families at checkin at every level of resort, gave them the chance to experience a close to empy MK at night, WOW! Talk about Pixie Dust! I get excited when I get a cupcake, so I would definately be a fan for life!

 

[CarrieR]

Same. I'd be at the gates demanding a refund.

"I shelled out $150/head for an ultra-exclusive, non-crowded event. You're telling me that you decided it was not crowded enough, so you handed out free tickets to make it more crowded?" No.

As much as I would have loved to attend for the grand sum of $0, I wouldn't begrudge those who had paid for being angry about it.

 

[jknc]

If I had shelled out $750 for my family and found out that the folks next to me were given free tickets (because not enough were sold) I'd be pretty pissed.

Back when I had an unhealthy anger about this event, I would have politely requested to take a Splash Mountain boat home with me as a souvenir had I paid $750 and others were free.

 

[RaginforDisneyRoy]

Same. I'd be at the gates demanding a refund.

"I shelled out $150/head for an ultra-exclusive, non-crowded event. You're telling me that you decided it was not crowded enough, so you handed out free tickets to make it more crowded?" No.

As much as I would have loved to attend for the grand sum of $0, I wouldn't begrudge those who had paid for being angry about it.

If the reports are true that there is no wait time, I'm not sure it would be worth complaining about. The reason we and many others are doing this is to basically have the park to ourselves. As long as the free attendees don't affect that I'm not sure I'd be upset. Sure, I'd like to go for free, but if I get what I paid for, I'm not sure getting angry is constructive (in this instance)

 

[SureAsLiz]

Went back as a non-DAH guest again last night, and the story was pretty similar to last week.
The park was slightly more crowded, but the weather was much better, and I was still able to get on a ton of rides in a short period of time (as long as they didn't break on me which happened far more than I care to admit)

The party make-up was much different than last time - more families and groups of varied ages rather than groups of 2-4 adults like last week.

I wasn't shuffled out at park closing or after the 2nd MSEP. At the start of the event, there seemed to be a manager at or near every ride, probably to handle pushback from guests who didn't have credentials.

A part of me is hoping I can somehow get one of these passes when they are handed out so I can actually experience the event, but my work schedule doesn't allow me to have access to workday freebies

 

[Mikie]

To tell you the truth, when you say $750 I cringe! Yes, that amount would just make me cry!

I think that one thing Disney could do if they wanted to ram up the excitement is to continue a few of these late nights in MK, and instead of selling any tickets, give them away to guests. I remembe that year of a million dreams....I never did get a dream, although my DGD got one of those special pins that you save one and give one away. That was pretty darn neat, BTW, but anyway, I remember how much fun it was thinking about that chanvce to be awarded a night in the Castle. I bet we were not alone.

If Disney randomly chose families at checkin at every level of resort, gave them the chance to experience a close to empy MK at night, WOW! Talk about Pixie Dust! I get excited when I get a cupcake, so I would definately be a fan for life!

That would be a great idea! I traveled (dreamless) during year of a million dreams and met a woman with her daughter at CRT who had just been awarded a night in the castle and front-of-the-line Magic fastpasses for the rest of the day. I was excited for them!

It would have been a very positive intro to this event and,I think, generated more buzz. . . I'm still not sure whether there would be any link between people excited to try a freebie, and people willing to pay $150pp for it, no matter how much they enjoyed it once.

 

[Mikie]

Went back as a non-DAH guest again last night, and the story was pretty similar to last week.
The park was slightly more crowded, but the weather was much better, and I was still able to get on a ton of rides in a short period of time (as long as they didn't break on me which happened far more than I care to admit)

The party make-up was much different than last time - more families and groups of varied ages rather than groups of 2-4 adults like last week.

I wasn't shuffled out at park closing or after the 2nd MSEP. At the start of the event, there seemed to be a manager at or near every ride, probably to handle pushback from guests who didn't have credentials.

A part of me is hoping I can somehow get one of these passes when they are handed out so I can actually experience the event, but my work schedule doesn't allow me to have access to workday freebies

I'm gonna guess that's at least partly due to the AofA freebies. Maybe Disney is trying different giveaway groups to find out who responds positively -maybe a family wouldn't have thought about going, but tries it and discovers its unexpectedly worth it even for younger kids or people who aren't usually night owls and spreads the word?

 

[BethR9]

Thanks! We got no such pixie dust... but we did get an awesome room location, so I have no complaints

I'm curious where your room location is. Did you put in the request or just get lucky? We're staying there next year and want a really good location close to the bus stop and food court.

 

[tinkerbella16]

To tell you the truth, when you say $750 I cringe! Yes, that amount would just make me cry!

I think that one thing Disney could do if they wanted to ram up the excitement is to continue a few of these late nights in MK, and instead of selling any tickets, give them away to guests. I remembe that year of a million dreams....I never did get a dream, although my DGD got one of those special pins that you save one and give one away. That was pretty darn neat, BTW, but anyway, I remember how much fun it was thinking about that chanvce to be awarded a night in the Castle. I bet we were not alone.

If Disney randomly chose families at checkin at every level of resort, gave them the chance to experience a close to empy MK at night, WOW! Talk about Pixie Dust! I get excited when I get a cupcake, so I would definately be a fan for life!

That would be such a great idea!

I remember those 2 years of "A Year of a Million Dreams" - it was so awesome, and we did not get a dream either, but it was the feeling of maybe, that was so great about it. Seeing it happen around us to other guests was so cool. I always thought how awesome that must have been for those CM's getting to give out those dreams each day to random guests. To me, it is things like that, that really sets them apart from other theme parks. So magical!