PM EMH drops from THREE Hours to TWO Hours

[brertoad]

Its not about 'afford' its whether it makes good business sense. Show any shareholder that their investment is working at a loss and you won't hear 'oh well, we can afford it'

Business wise, extra magic hours is a significant perk of staying on property. If they can keep people on property that means more revenue of course, people will do their eating and shopping with Disney. If they cut PM EMH by 33%, they may see decrease in room sales. Penny pinching doesn't become anyone. They just had another ticket rate hike June 3rd and if they can't compensate for expenses through the sale of park tickets, food, merchandise, and the high priced hotel rooms then I really have no suitable answer for you. Disney can afford it, and it just looks like penny pinching to me. I read somewhere that the nights being cut to 2 EMH coincide with Halloween Horror Nights. So if it's a temporary cut then it makes sense, but if it's permanent I am sure folks will be displeased and complain.

 

[Eeyore98]

This sucks.

PM EMH was a significant factor in our choice to stay onsite vs. offsite for our upcoming August trip. We routinely close down whatever park is open latest.

It's also what got us to add Park Hopping. When we stay offsite, we just go to whatever park had EMH the day before, and do one park a day. But on an onsite trip with evening EMH available to us, we go to a less-crowded park earlier in the day, and hop for the EMH hours.

I have a feeling future trips will see us staying offsite, with Disney losing revenue from us both on a room and on hoppers.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Now that I've had a few days to digest it a little bit, I think I'm likely to miss the winter hours EMH PM more so that the summer ones. We rarely have stayed at MK until 3:00am. As a matter of fact, I don't ever recall doing it but once and that was before our DD7 was even born.

On the other hand, I'm really going to miss the ones in the wintertime. Lots of nights in the winter, MK closes for regular park hours at 8:00-9:00pm. We really did enjoy staying until 11:00-12:00 then, and from what I recall about the crowds, unless it was an unusually cold FL night; so did most other on-property guests too.

 

[vacationer1954]

Since this discussion started there have been a few new discussions about how much trouble people are having getting the rooms they want on dates they want (like the one Karantan just posted). I wonder if we will eventually see EMH go down to just one hour, since this change to two hours doesn't seem like it will get rid of all these complaints about hotels being so full.

 

[raven69david]

This doesn't seem to bother me as we're never up that late. The busiest park is MK and we usually start at 10:30am. This is more than enough time to get all rides done at least 3 times during regular park hours. We plow through the day and we're fired up until about 8pm or so. We'll see Wishes and then we bounce before the crowd bumrushes the monorail.

Even with the new section, I don't see us doing EMH as we'll just do MK a few times during the week anyway with our AP's.

 

[DebbieB]

Since this discussion started there have been a few new discussions about how much trouble people are having getting the rooms they want on dates they want (like the one Karantan just posted). I wonder if we will eventually see EMH go down to just one hour, since this change to two hours doesn't seem like it will get rid of all these complaints about hotels being so full.

If they wanted to do that, they would lower room discounts. They would get more money for the rooms they are filling.

 

[stitchrulz]

Its not about 'afford' its whether it makes good business sense. Show any shareholder that their investment is working at a loss and you won't hear 'oh well, we can afford it'

True, but Disney is definitely not working at a loss in the big picture (I know you didn't say they were ). And, businesses often accept losses/lower revenues in some areas of operation, if it serves their overall purpose. I'm quite certain even Disney isn't making money on every single item on their books (but they're trying!).

I'm sure Disney has run the numbers and decided this cut is worth the blowback. Keep in mind that we are a unique group here and that most of the less-frequent/lesser-informed guests may not even pay that much attention to losing that hour.

 

[mom2rtk]

The ONLY thing Disney cares about in regard to EMH is whether on-site bookings stay up. My guess is that they have made a calculation that either the FLE or the new X-pass will get that job done. Only time will tell.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I wonder who actually survive all 3 hours. Maybe during slow times when park closes early, but during busy times like summer, not so much. Maybe they figured that running parks extra hour for few survivors just not worth it. I will not miss it.

Night owls like myself, and/or my son and his traveling party! Teenagers love to be at the parks till 1, 2, 3 am and so do I. We would rather beat the summer heat, sleep late, come in at 4pm and stay till the wee morning hours! Hey it's a perk, now they are cutting it back, and if they do away with it altogether, so be it! None of it will change how frequently I go to Disney nor will it change my desire of staying on-site!

 

[Phatoomch]

Business wise, extra magic hours is a significant perk of staying on property. If they can keep people on property that means more revenue of course, people will do their eating and shopping with Disney. If they cut PM EMH by 33%, they may see decrease in room sales. Penny pinching doesn't become anyone. They just had another ticket rate hike June 3rd and if they can't compensate for expenses through the sale of park tickets, food, merchandise, and the high priced hotel rooms then I really have no suitable answer for you. Disney can afford it, and it just looks like penny pinching to me. I read somewhere that the nights being cut to 2 EMH coincide with Halloween Horror Nights. So if it's a temporary cut then it makes sense, but if it's permanent I am sure folks will be displeased and complain.

Its still a perk. They haven't cut them completely, they removed an hour so you will need to vacate by 10pm for an early closing of 7pm and 2am for a late closing of midnight. I don't think enough people will refuse to stay now to cause an impact, therefore money saved for Disney.

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

It actually has always stated "up to 3 hours later" in the evenings. That means anything from 1-3 IMO. Granted the 3 hours was nice but we hardly ever lasted that long anyway and left after 2 hours to beat the bus crowds.

 

[Robo]

It actually has always stated "up to 3 hours later" in the evenings. That means anything from 1-3 IMO.

PM EMH has always been 3 hours long.




.

 

[Phatoomch]

True, but Disney is definitely not working at a loss in the big picture (I know you didn't say they were ). And, businesses often accept losses/lower revenues in some areas of operation, if it serves their overall purpose. I'm quite certain even Disney isn't making money on every single item on their books (but they're trying!).

I'm sure Disney has run the numbers and decided this cut is worth the blowback. Keep in mind that we are a unique group here and that most of the less-frequent/lesser-informed guests may not even pay that much attention to losing that hour.

Exactly - you make the point much better than me On the whole, yeah, it was great to have that other hour but really, is it enough ruin peoples experience of Disney? No.

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

What I meant was that since it has always been Disney's stand of "up to 3 hours" was that they could make it anything that they wanted. They could have said 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours at any time during the year if they wanted to for any park.

 

[kaligal]

Maybe Disney is preparing people for when they take EMH away entirely. Maybe this is more build-up to xPass.

 

[stitchrulz]

I agree that likely there won't be enough guests who vote with their feet/wallets by choosing to stay off-site that Disney's bottom line will notice. It will, however, affect even those who don't take advantage of the late EMH's when all those night owls who formerly were sleeping in start showing up early at the turnstiles all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

 

[Callie]

I still remember when there was a EMH PM EVERY night. Now its only a few a week, and now only two hours on top? They at least had them til 2009 every night because I remember getting all the wristbands

 

[MurphyJoe]

Maybe Disney is preparing people for when they take EMH away entirely. Maybe this is more build-up to xPass.

WARNING: BASELESS SPECULATION AHEAD

Maybe this is build up to EMH being a XPass entitlement. Since Disney has tested fastpass parade and firework viewing spots (and I believe at least one interview with somebody who's working on xPass they said as much) I don't think it's too far out there to make the EMH something you have to spend an entitlement on. 1 EMH morning or evening for 1 entitlement. So while the decrease in evening EMH length at this point will increase crowds, if they did implement this I would wager that the crowd levels would fall to around E-Ride nights levels. (Most people preferring to have a reserved ride time during the day instead of going into the night. No data to support this; it's just a hunch.)

Also, this isn't as crazy as it sounds. Disneyland used to, I don't know if they still do, include with some tickets a single use EMH perk so there is precedent for this.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I still remember when there was a EMH PM EVERY night. Now its only a few a week, and now only two hours on top? They at least had them til 2009 every night because I remember getting all the wristbands

Hey, and I remember when there wasn't even such a thing as EHM! Times/things change, perks come and go!

 

[stitchrulz]

The XPass thing sounds just horrid to me. As others have pointed out, rides break down, etc., which would muck that up. And, now you have to decide when to ride something before even setting foot in the park? Ack! What if you wake up to find it's pouring rain, and you want to switch your schedule around to maybe go shopping, etc.? Sorry, we've got a reserved ride time to meet! My guess is the replacement for the EMH's will be a personal planner available to all on-site guests to help them micromanage their trip.

There shall be no spontaneity with a Disney "vacation." Disney hath spoken.