Park hours feeling like a moving target

[LilyWDW]

On one of my many trips, sometime around 2010 or maybe a bit earlier, we entered the park and there was an announcement that MK would be staying open later then scheduled. I watch the Disney park information channel every single morning and the hours had not been changed there... but it they were extended when the park opened.

So this has been happening for years. When Disney releases hours, it is a good basic starting point. But one should always go in with the understanding that things can change. SO many moving parts.

And I would be ecstatic if AK opened at 8am with a 45 minute early entry for resort guests! Because so many people won't get up that early to get there. Hopefully I would be able to get a lot more done with lower crowds!

 

[mistysue]

Disney has changed their hours, sometimes as late as the day of, since Disney started. So really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has read this board. To non planners yes. But if you are here, you are planning and it's well established that park hours are written in pencil until they close on a given day. Do a search on the subject, see how far back the dates on said subject go

Yes, hours have always changed. But lets be fair, parks used to open consistently at 9AM. Then they would occasionally stay open later and over extra busy holidays or for a special thing it might be a bit early. Then there would be maybe 1-2 days/week with early morning for on-site guests, announced before ADRs were available. There would be occasional small changes.
My issue with it is you book a trip with 9 and 10 AM openings, and then 2 weeks out they completely scap ALL of the hours, plus there are early hours every day, plus they aren't serving food until after then. We have always done rope drops. We are talking about that meaning leaving 1 1/2 hours earlier and without breakfast for the same experience, or else we're behind hours worth of people.

I know there have always been blips, but they are messing with us way more than they used to, it's not even comparable.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I think only on the Dis can people find way to make it a negative when they are getting more park time at no added cost mind you.

All at the same time there are post after post complaining about the reduced hours. What’s the saying, be careful what you wish for……

 

[Mrs.AMC]

The biggest difference from before is how the park hours impact Genie+ planning. The late day availability is impacted by closing time, and the 2 hour rule is predicated on the opening time.

Have you even used Genie yet? Changing park hours on day in advance have no effect on Genie at all. Genie times are not reserved till that day so park hours being changed for any day in the future means nothing in relation to when you can buy your first Genie or ILL either one. You can’t preplan any Genie+ times so not sure what you mean

Could a change day of to closing time impact, maybe. But that is rare to be fair

 

[mistysue]

I think only on the Dis can people find way to make it a negative when they are getting more park time at no added cost mind you.

All at the same time there are post after post complaining about the reduced hours. What’s the saying, be careful what you wish for……

I wouldn't mind if they added time at the end of the day or if they set their schedules before we had to be locked in to locations and dining. Making this many adjustments, that we have no way to predict whether or not they're doing it for sure, at the last minute after you can no longer switch parks or dining, is not acceptable.

 

[godfather927]

Have you even used Genie yet? Changing park hours on day in advance have no effect on Genie at all. Genie times are not reserved till that day so park hours being changed for any day in the future means nothing in relation to when you can buy your first Genie or ILL either one. You can’t preplan any Genie+ times so not sure what you mean

Could a change day of to closing time impact, maybe. But that is rare to be fair

That's not what I meant. I mean your booking windows shift based on park opening (instead of an 11am window for a 9am opening, it's now a 10am window for an 8am opening) and late day availability is also impacted. For example, look at the availability of headliners on April 5th when DHS closed at 5pm.

 

[mistysue]

You can eat your 'real food' (not sure what that means)

I do not begrudge Cast Members getting their time at the parks. I will also be at WDW during that time and it did impact my plans, but I just moved my park reservations and made a new plan. CM deserve anything they can get.

I hope you can turn your emotions around and still enjoy your trip.

LOL- about the real food- I like to eat cooked food for breakfast. Dinner for me is when I eat the little snacky items that It seems a lot of people eat at breakfast time, and my dietary restrictions mean things like all those frozen sandwiches you can microwave don't exist. It just throws off my entire day not to have a good meal at breakfast time.

Our magic kingdom day is scheduled on one of those cast member party days. In no way do I begrudge the cast members that time, But nobody is going to change my mind that Disney should have sent something out to people who had that day already reserved for MK right away when they took 5 hours off the day. I made our dining reservations for a group of eight, then found out about that party a few days later. There weren't any available lunches for me to be able to change our days.

Of course I will get over all of it. Regardless of the fact that we will be fine, I find all of this disrespectful that Disney expects us to make so many plans so far in advance and can't get their crap together to let us know what we're getting into with a few minor changes. They shouldn't have put out hours at all knowing that they were going to make this sort of drastic change to every single day at all four parks.

 

[glocon]

I think that someone is always going to be unhappy. Some people will be thrilled with parks opening earlier and some will despair. Some will be thrilled with parks staying open later and others will say it ruined their day. It doesn’t matter what Disney does or doesn’t do, there will be some that will be unhappy with the change/non-change and some will be happy. I do think overall they are trying to add to the guest experience with additional hours, not trying to make things worse or save money (like so many of their decisions seem to be based on).
But they do really have to do something about earlier and more plentiful hot breakfasts, it seems so many people really need or want them. Adding hot or make substantial breakfasts will only make people happy- I don’t think anyone would find something to complain about with that addition.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I think that someone is always going to be unhappy. Some people will be thrilled with parks opening earlier and some will despair. Some will be thrilled with parks staying open later and others will say it ruined their day. It doesn’t matter what Disney does or doesn’t do, there will be some that will be unhappy with the change/non-change and some will be happy. I do think overall they are trying to add to the guest experience with additional hours, not trying to make things worse or save money (like so many of their decisions seem to be based on).
But they do really have to do something about earlier and more plentiful hot breakfasts, it seems so many people really need or want them. Adding hot or make substantial breakfasts will only make people happy- I don’t think anyone would find something to complain about with that addition.

Except they would if they booked an early morning hot breakfast, at what they think is before the park opens and they change the park hours so that the breakfast is now no longer before the park opens.

Are there not hot breakfasts at all the resorts early in the mornings? I don't try to do early hours so I've never compared what time they open to what time they serve breakfast

 

[glocon]

True. There is a flip side to everything.
I guess I meant more that resorts had earlier hot breakfasts available- at least grab and go, not necessarily sit downs at the parks. Maybe a quick service breakfast or a kiosk at the parks.
But I suppose there could be a down side to that as well…. Idk.

 

[Disturbia]

Those of us with ADRs had to shift things around and those of us looking for ADRs jumped on the highly coveted ones (once CRT and BOG were added, Story Book dining popped up but I couldn’t grab it; did get CRT and let go of BOG; CRT food exceeded expectations, but Cinderella was MIA during 9:25 pm dinner; no wishing ceremony).

https://www.disboards.com/threads/updated-park-hours-and-new-adrs.3831833/page-15#post-63849802

The worst impact IMHO was for deluxe guests who had paid all that money to utilize the MK 9 pm-11 pm extended hours; their hours changed to 11 pm- 1 am (would be harder to utilize fully).

 

[mistysue]

Except they would if they booked an early morning hot breakfast, at what they think is before the park opens and they change the park hours so that the breakfast is now no longer before the park opens.

Are there not hot breakfasts at all the resorts early in the mornings? I don't try to do early hours so I've never compared what time they open to what time they serve breakfast

They stopped doing early resort breakfast post-covid - In past years you could run in and get a platter before running to the bus. Hotels had places open for the early risers AND the night owls, and were up and running by 6:30 or so. Today rope drop busses are happening up to an hour before QS opens at all. I think most are at 7. You used to have a solid hour or two to get breakfast before transportation opened, now it's the opposite way around. They also stopped doing allergy orders at some resorts before the table service opens- we couldn't even order breakfast until 7:30 at the Poly last year. At that point people are already inside the parks. They basically stopped selling QS breakfast in the park at the same time.

The more I think through why this is bothering me I keep coming back to that. They should be opening QS when they get the busses running at the latest. Being 15 minutes behind because you're doing "grab and go" is not as crazy as "grab and go" putting you an hour+ behind. I kid you not- a piece of our Polynesian DVC purchase was that 5 years ago we could get into Capt cooks, eat a full meal, sit around thinking, walk slow, and STILL be at the front of the rope drop crowd.

If you're a night person you've probably noticed how you used to be able to get back at 11PM and get a snack. Now they've been closed for an hour.

True. There is a flip side to everything.
I guess I meant more that resorts had earlier hot breakfasts available- at least grab and go, not necessarily sit downs at the parks. Maybe a quick service breakfast or a kiosk at the parks.
But I suppose there could be a down side to that as well…. Idk.

Yes, they used to have earlier breakfasts. At minimum you could get coffee and some assortment of little pre-packaged things.

 

[Miffy]

I am a morning person--get up at 5, sometimes at 4, every day--but one way I solved the breakfast issue was to make all my ILL$ and G+s for the afternoon and forget about RDing. It doesn't work every day of the trip, but the couple of days we did it, we were quite relieved to (a) have a real breakfast and (b) not have to deal with RDing.

Also, this doesn't work if you don't get G+ and ILL$ and start booking them at 7 a.m.

 

[mistysue]

Those of us with ADRs had to shift things around and those of us looking for ADRs jumped on the highly coveted ones (once CRT and BOG were added, Story Book dining popped up but I couldn’t grab it; did get CRT and let go of BOG; CRT food exceeded expectations, but Cinderella was MIA during 9:25 pm dinner; no wishing ceremony).

https://www.disboards.com/threads/updated-park-hours-and-new-adrs.3831833/page-15#post-63849802

The worst impact IMHO was for deluxe guests who had paid all that money to utilize the MK 9 pm-11 pm extended hours; their hours changed to 11 pm- 1 am (would be harder to utilize fully).

I couldn't get any of our ADRs moved around because we have too many people. In addition to having alarms set, I've been looking multiple times/day. Making reservations was a disaster for me even at 60+ this year. Our only goal was a QS breakfast and a TS lunch, we have lunches anywhere from 10:50 to 1 on various days, and breakfast doesn't open until after we are on the bus or in line to get into the parks.

 

[Miffy]

I couldn't get any of our ADRs moved around because we have too many people. In addition to having alarms set, I've been looking multiple times/day. Making reservations was a disaster for me even at 60+ this year. Our only goal was a QS breakfast and a TS lunch, we have lunches anywhere from 10:50 to 1 on various days, and breakfast doesn't open until after we are on the bus or in line to get into the parks.

Yes, @mistysue, I feel your dilemma.

We RD'd MK the last trip and had to leave so early we had zero food beforehand. Around 10 a.m., we were quite hungry and stopped by the open-air place by CHH. But it wasn't open yet! Didn't open until 11.

We had popcorn for breakfast. That was the only food nearby. The only positive I can say is that now I have a popcorn bucket.

 

[Disturbia]

I couldn't get any of our ADRs moved around because we have too many people. In addition to having alarms set, I've been looking multiple times/day. Making reservations was a disaster for me even at 60+ this year. Our only goal was a QS breakfast and a TS lunch, we have lunches anywhere from 10:50 to 1 on various days, and breakfast doesn't open until after we are on the bus or in line to get into the parks.

For breakfast, we order cereal, milk, bananas etc from garden grocers. I would keep looking whenever you have time. For spring break I only saw opening 24-48 hours before.

A lot of reservations are being held back for walk ups, esp. Space220 lounge.

 

[mistysue]

Yes, @mistysue, I feel your dilemma.

We RD'd MK the last trip and had to leave so early we had zero food beforehand. Around 10 a.m., we were quite hungry and stopped by the open-air place by CHH. But it wasn't open yet! Didn't open until 11.

We had popcorn for breakfast. That was the only food nearby. The only positive I can say is that now I have a popcorn bucket.

My older son got braces last week. I wish I was joking that when the Ortho said to avoid popcorn he looked at me and asked "what about the popcorn bucket" - It's such a trusted snack around here.

 

[Disturbia]

Also, if you’re not in the first 5-10 min wave of crowds (you would have to be on the first or second bus/Skyliner/monorail so lines up an hour or so before the early morning hour) your wait time is the same as someone entering 30 mins after park opening (45 mins for a ride per allears analysis). Hence we don’t rope drop.

 

[mistysue]

For breakfast, we order cereal, milk, bananas etc from garden grocers. I would keep looking whenever you have time. For spring break I only saw opening 24-48 hours before.

A lot of reservations are being held back for walk ups, esp. Space220 lounge.

I've been trying to figure out a good way to transport food for a split stay so we don't have to order again. I've been looking for a cooler that would fit in our suitcase for a few items.

I wish I could rely on held back slots. We have had in park QS experiences where a single meal took us 3-4 hours before anyone could feed my son. My favorite is the time we were offered a "turkey sandwich, no bread, minus the turkey" because they were out. She straight face confirmed she was offering us a $7 piece of lettuce with no sides. It's too stressful so our long term lesson was to ALWAYS have a lunch plan. I know that is our restriction, but we didn't get adament until somewhere in the range of 10-15 skipped meals for multiple family members across a few trips. After the horror that was mobile order for us in the parks last year (they can't do allergies mobile, and in park locations weren't letting us order at all because they had such a massive mobile back up) I'm not taking that chance until I see evidence there's even a chance it can work.

 

[mistysue]

Also, if you’re not in the first 5-10 min wave of crowds (you would have to be on the first or second bus/Skyliner/monorail so lines up an hour or so before the early morning hour) your wait time is the same as someone entering 30 mins after park opening (45 mins for a ride per allears analysis). Hence we don’t rope drop.

We have always gone to rope drop, and consistently found that as long as we got there before they let us in, it didn't make a huge difference. The absolute front of the crowd people are arriving and getting 2-3 rides in before actually hitting a line. Otherwise the comments from rope droppers would be "we got ONE ride, and then the lines were massive" So maybe we get one ride without a line vs 2, but the lines are still shorter for around an hour and we've always felt it when the gates open for real. I know they run an analysis, but unless they secretly geotagged all the people they are going off of reported wait times which we all know aren't accurate.