UPDATE: April Hours Posted: Has the bleeding stopped - are hours on the mend?

[DisneyKidds]

April '02 did have some 6pm and 7pm closings last year, but that was well after Easter,

Actually, it wasn't "well after Easter", and the stated MK closing time was 6 or 7 on 16 out of 30 days - hardly the insignificant "some" that you imply.

The info I was able to dig up puts the MK April '02 hours at 336. That would make April '03 an 11.5% increase over April '02.

March isn't the best month for purposes of this comparison as the 6:00 and 7:00 closes had't really begun yet in March '02, and haven't been put behind us for March '03 like it appears they may have been in April '03.

Again, I think the most indicative thing in the April hours is that there are no 6:00 or 7:00 closes as there were in both March and April of '02.

 

[raidermatt]

I'll show you mine if you'll...

laughingplace hours

My unscientific sampling from the past has indicated they are accurate, but its not like I'm willing to bet the house on it. Where did you get your 336 from?

Actually, it wasn't "well after Easter", and the stated MK closing time was 6 or 7 on 16 out of 30 days - hardly the insignificant "some" that you imply.

Clearly a gap in our info, as the link I provided has closing at 6 or 7 10 days in '02, not 16. The first 7 showed up on 4/7, and the first 6 on 4/23.

Again, I think the most indicative thing in the April hours is that there are no 6:00 or 7:00 closes as there were in both March and April of '02.

Its not that the 6's and 7's are insignificant, but if in the process of lengthening those nights, others are being shortened (like Midnight back to 11:00), it isn't really a net gain. It becomes a question of allocation, not addition.

Regardless, May should give a better picture as it doesn't have the "floating holiday" to deal with.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Regardless, May should give a better picture as it doesn't have the "floating holiday" to deal with.

I agree. I'm willing to wait another month to convince you . May '02 had lots of 6:00 and 7:00 closes, and no midnight closes. If May '03 hours are consistent with April '03 hours it might tell you something.

As for my source...........

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/hours.html

 

[raidermatt]

I'm going to take a guess and say that wdisneyw.com is not updating the hours once they are originally posted. I notice they are off on at least 6 days for February '03, most likely because changes have been made since they were originally released...

 

[ThAnswr]

I really should stay out of this discussion, but I keep reading about all these "midnight" closings. The first time I went to WDW was in 1982 and the MK closed at 7PM. No late parade and no fireworks. I didn't see a "midnight" closing and fireworks until I went during the Christmas holidays several years later.

I don't mean to be objectionable, but I'm starting to believe people are starting to remember things even if they never happened.


Please take note of the smiley.

 

[DisneyKidds]

I don't mean to be objectionable, but I'm starting to believe people are starting to remember things even if they never happened.

I'm with you, and I've tried to point that out before . Sometimes the good old days weren't as good as we remember them to be .

In all fairness, I'm going to guess your 1982 trip was during an off season. When many people talk about "midnight hours" they are most likely referring to hours during the summer or other holiday periods.

 

[raidermatt]

In all fairness, I'm going to guess your 1982 trip was during an off season. When many people talk about "midnight hours" they are most likely referring to hours during the summer or other holiday periods.

Yup. Baron is the most frequent user of the Midnight standard, and he has made no bones about the fact that he's talking about Summertime hours.

I sometimes mention it more as a symbolic time, understanding that off-peak closing isn't going to be Midnight. However, the Midnight closings I mentioned from Spring Break '02 were real.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Not that I know of, Scoop. And believe me, I've looked!!

And you are right Sir Matt!! Summer only!! I have no clue what off-season hours were or are. And I never claimed to!!

 

[ThAnswr]

>In all fairness, I'm going to guess your 1982 trip was during an off season. When many people talk about "midnight hours" they are most likely referring to hours during the summer or other holiday periods.<

My 1982 trip was in October. WDW was quite a different place than it is now. There were only 3 hotels (The Polynesian, The Contemporary, and the Golf Villas) and Epcot had just opened up. We stayed at the Polynesian and had a lagoon view. WDW was so quiet at night, we could hear the Haunted Mansion's "howling dog" from our balcony.

 

[Gillian]

Well, one day's hours (in March) were shortened! I'm planning our trip for the first week in March. Monday 3/3 originally had MK 9-8, with a spectro at 7 & fireworks at 8. Now it's a 7 pm close with fw at 7 & no spectro. The other Mondays during the month still have the 8 pm closing.

I remember last year that Monday 3/11 had spectro/fw and closed later, 9, at least. Closing was pushed back an hour a week or 2 before. It was also an e-night.

 

[Planogirl]

We're going in mid-March and I'm certainly glad that Spectro is running but will it be completely dark at 7? I'm used to old summer hours too and these early closing hours during Spring Break have me a bit worried.

I'm also wondering if attendance might drop again due to this constant threat of war with Iraq.

 

[hopemax]

Is there any resource to find out what the actual closing times have been since MK opened? What about Epcot and the Studios?

You can use Google to search the rec.arts.disney and rec.arts.disney.parks newsgroups to find hours for the mid-1990's forward. Especially posts by "Ed Sterrett." Ed worked for WDW Security and he used to have his own Disney website where he kept WDW hours and other park info (like Pete & the DIS).

If you go back to the 1992-1994 timeframe it looks like they had an hours FAQ and someone would post the official hours. I didn't find anything really from pre-October 1992, but I didn't try really hard. So if someone really wanted to they could pull together a pretty good database for the last decade.