This doesn’t sound good (EMH going away?)

[LSUmiss]

I've (and many others) have been predicting this for years.

It's simple .. why would they give away for free what people are willing to pay for? Plus . .with EMM they don't even have to run all the rides.

EMH was created to pull people to the hotels during some economic downtimes. It worked.

But now, demand is there without EMH and it already has practically been eliminated. On my trip in March there were more paid events than EMHs. Because some parks only offer one EMH a week .. it was impossible to line up our schedule to even use them. A resort perk that is just wasted.

Plus, I would gather that only the minority (us repeat guests here) really opt for on-site because of EMH. Most probably just find out about it when they arrive and use it if it lines up with their schedule. I that of all the reasons to stay on-site .. EMH is probably last -- simply because it's a perk we can't (or choose) to use because of schedules or touring with young children.

My hope is that they replace EMH with some sort of FP+ perk (especially if they start charging for them) to encourage onsite stays. As of now .. with neighbor hotels getting perks, parking fees and less and less EMH -- staying on Disney property makes less and less sense. Though . .the service and immersion is STILL a big perk.

In our circle, everyone I know stays on site & always has & it has never had anything to do with any of the perks other than transportation. I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but I think that there are more ppl who do.

 

[Delirium]

And also a set up for paid EMH, i.e. DAH. Day crowds are even more crowded and you want to enjoy a less-crowded after-dark park? Pay for it and it's yours!

And, those that are willing and able to pay for DAH should not be surprised when they begin to have a much less 'exclusive' experience. I strongly suspect that no EMH means more tickets will be sold to DAH.

 

[SaintsManiac]

In our circle, everyone I know stays on site & always has & it has never had anything to do with any of the perks other than transportation. I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but I think that there are more ppl who do.

Transportation and 60 day FP are the only reasons we stay onsite.

 

[ChipnDale79]

In our circle, everyone I know stays on site & always has & it has never had anything to do with any of the perks other than transportation. I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but I think that there are more ppl who do.

I have a very good friend that we used to debate back and forth the pros and cons of staying onsite vs not staying onsite. He was always in the camp of staying off and i was always in the camp of on.

Honestly, i love being in the bubble, i love being able to park my car for the week, the magic hours, and all of that. I love the themed hotels.

Over time, the buses to and from the parks have gotten horribly crowded, we drive from our hotel to the parks to all of them except for MK now. With magic hours being taken away, and now a nightly parking fee, in addition to being able to earn reward points at offsite hotels. He's finally won me over.

 

[LSUmiss]

I know prices have gone up, but I just don’t see it in the detrimental others have mentioned & everything has gone up. Our first adult trip that we paid for ourselves cost us about $3200 total. Our current trip will be $6000. But, that’s 13 years later & we have upgraded our dining experiences and resort type since that first trip. That just doesn’t seem like that much more to me considering. If I wanted similar experience to what we had in 2006, I could get the July trip down to $3700. That’s just $500 in 13 years.

 

[DisFanDad]

I know prices have gone up, but I just don’t see it in the detrimental others have mentioned & everything has gone up. Our first adult trip that we paid for ourselves cost us about $3200 total. Our current trip will be $6000. But, that’s 13 years later & we have upgraded our dining experiences and resort type since that first trip. That just doesn’t seem like that much more to me considering. If I wanted similar experience to what we had in 2006, I could get the July trip down to $3700. That’s just $500 in 13 years.

Yea, I'm not sure how your math is working out, or if you are looking at Rack rates only, etc... not sure.

We only started going a few years ago, the price of a trip for 2 has doubled in the last 5 years. So again, not sure how this math is working out for you...

 

[ChipnDale79]

I know prices have gone up, but I just don’t see it in the detrimental others have mentioned & everything has gone up. Our first adult trip that we paid for ourselves cost us about $3200 total. Our current trip will be $6000. But, that’s 13 years later & we have upgraded our dining experiences and resort type since that first trip. That just doesn’t seem like that much more to me considering. If I wanted similar experience to what we had in 2006, I could get the July trip down to $3700. That’s just $500 in 13 years.

Apples to apples

Our honeymoon trip in 2008 vs the same exact resort and options for the same week this year, 11 years difference.

We were stupid in 2008, this was the first trip for both of us in almost 10 years and the first one we had ever planned. We paid rack rate. So for comparison purposes, the 2019 rate are also rack rate. I assume the discounts in 2008 were much better than they are now.

2008 = $2800
2019 = $4500

2008: free parking, evening magic hours were 3 hours a night and we could hit at least each park during our week
2019: nightly parking fees, multiple after hour events that cut into our park hours, 2 hour EMH and they don't seem to be as often

 

[tlmadden73]

And then, people will try to say "Well, if you don't like it, just don't do it, it doesn't effect you" - except it DOES. All these things effect everyone. It means there are fewer hours you have access to in the park with your regular ticket price, which means the value of that ticket is going down, despite the price going up. It means what you used to use to justify the higher price of disney rooms, is diminished because now you ARE paying extra for parking, you have less EMHs, and non-disney hotels have 60 day FP booking. It means that for every person who pays for an FP, or gets a tour, they are taking up ride Capacity (which doesn't change) from someone who bought a regular ticket. Every time a person rides a ride on a tour or a paid FP, that's one less ride available to everyone else, the pool is finite. All of these extras come at the cost of everyone else, and prices have increased at that.

Ugh ---- end rant ? I think I even stayed within the rules.

Right .. the fact remains that as long as people are paying for parking fees, extra events, dessert parties, etc. Disney will KEEP offering them.
It happens all across all industries. Supply/demand.

Disney does seem to be putting their money where their mouth is by adding a ton of new E-ticket attractions (and restaurants and expansion lands, etc.) in a very short span of time. Not since the they made whole entire parks decades ago did we see this sort of "attraction" growth.

In our circle, everyone I know stays on site & always has & it has never had anything to do with any of the perks other than transportation. I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but I think that there are more ppl who do.

Right . and since Disney probably knows this too -- they know they can remove a perk (that probably costs them a lot of money to have the park open an extra hour or two) without a lot of complaints. Just how they added parking fee (instead of simply raising hotel prices) .. where a lot of people didn't care because they never drive to WDW.

 

[LSUmiss]

Yea, I'm not sure how your math is working out, or if you are looking at Rack rates only, etc... not sure.

We only started going a few years ago, the price of a trip for 2 has doubled in the last 5 years. So again, not sure how this math is working out for you...

I never pay rack rate. I always book with a discount travel agency that I actually learned about on these board. Their prices are not as good as they used to be, but still much better than wdw.

ETA: Through travel agent now we can get port Orleans for $219/night with 7 day park hopper for $460/person. I was also including about $1300 for the week for dining. That’s about $3700.

 

[samsonjs]

Transportation and 60 day FP are the only reasons we stay onsite.

With Uber/Lyft I would stay off site. My last child will be out of a car seat soon. I have a May trip planned, but for my next trip, unless something changes, I will most likely look at a Disney partner hotel with 60 day FP and put the savings towards Uber.

Lets wait for them to ban Ubers.

 

[Delirium]

Lets wait for them to ban Ubers.

My inside source indicated an emergency 'budget' meeting was called less than 40 seconds after this posted.

 

[Doug M]

No, I thought I read the extra magic hours were introduced to lure people in when crowds were low. I thought it was the economy crash but maybe it was 9/11.

I assume they know the economy won't always support these paid extras. The crowds probably won't drop until the economy does.

We went to EMH in the 90s as I recall so has nothing to do with either.

 

[SaintsManiac]

With Uber/Lyft I would stay off site. My last child will be out of a car seat soon. I have a May trip planned, but for my next trip, unless something changes, I will most likely look at a Disney partner hotel with 60 day FP and put the savings towards Uber.

Lets wait for them to ban Ubers.

We'll most likely stay offsite in the future unless there's some amazing deal. After this year we won't return until 2022 at the earliest.

I already bumped us down to value for our Thanksgiving trip. I'll probably never stay in a deluxe again after July. Not worth it, IMO.

 

[LSUmiss]

Apples to apples

Our honeymoon trip in 2008 vs the same exact resort and options for the same week this year, 11 years difference.

We were stupid in 2008, this was the first trip for both of us in almost 10 years and the first one we had ever planned. We paid rack rate. So for comparison purposes, the 2019 rate are also rack rate. I assume the discounts in 2008 were much better than they are now.

2008 = $2800
2019 = $4500

2008: free parking, evening magic hours were 3 hours a night and we could hit at least each park during our week
2019: nightly parking fees, multiple after hour events that cut into our park hours, 2 hour EMH and they don't seem to be as often

I guess I don’t see the difference as that bad. You have paid an extra $154/yr for I’m assuming 2 ppl. Those perks are less & affect some more than others. We don’t park onsite so not an issue for us. As far as the hours, right now it doesn’t bother me b/c we have a young DS. But, even before that we had been able to get everything we wanted to get done. So I don’t look at hours as much as experiences & our experiences has not been affected although I understand some ppl’s has. Also, for us, like I said, we pay more now but spend more on upgrades to resorts & dining that we couldn’t afford then. So actually our experiences are more enjoyable.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have had so much fun at the super late EMH over the years. Now that we have little ones, we don’t do late EMH so this doesn’t affect us in this stage of life, but I’m sad to see these go away. Although, they lasted much longer than I ever thought they would! Many nights when MK was open until 2 or 3, lands were completely empty for the last hour of EMH. Will be interesting to see if they’re gone for good, or just during the height of party season.

Do you get park hoppers? They're expensive. It seems useless to get them if the latest you can stay at any park is 9pm now. You can't hop over to MK after closing another park.

We always get hoppers - the one time we didn’t, we added it on after one day.

They are especially nice when staying in close proximity to a park (monorail resorts, Boardwalk, etc.) Easy to just pop in for an hour or two, even with an early close.

We also love walking or taking the boat to Epcot after we are done with DHS (we usually spend only 3-4 hours there.)

We usually go to another park on our AK day too.

For us, the park hopper is valuable because we like to be somewhat spontaneous. The option to go to another park gives us the flexibility we prefer.

 

[Tiki Birdland]

as though this was the final nail in the proverbial coffin

For us, the daily charge for parking and other money grabs are a whole box of "final nails". We're not going in 2019. 2020 is likely out too.

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

WDWMagic is saying this rumor is incorrect.

 

[Delirium]

WDWMagic is saying this rumor is incorrect.

Disney's own calendar on it's own website says differently, at least for early October.

 

[Ben E N]

The economy is awesome, the parks are full, the resorts are full but they continue to reduce park hours? How can they continue to justify this? More people + less hours = extremely crowded parks. They have created the perfect model for upcharge events. Genius! If we didn’t have $3,000 in Disney gift card I would cancel our August trip and go to Hawaii.

I'm sure you could easily sell them for $2800 and still enjoy your trip to Hawaii if you are serious.

 

[Magical2017]

I hope the rumor is not true, but it would not surprise me. If so, it makes our decision between staying on and offsite much easier. I am not sure when the next Disney trip will be or what else will be changed by the time we go, but we will still go.