Why are CA hours so much shorter than DL?

[mickeymom629]

Sorry if this has been asked a lot, but I just noticed that DL is open 8-midnight during spring break but CA is 10-10. I guess on Mon, April 2nd, when we check in very early in the a.m., we might do better planning for CA that day?

 

[txvjc]

I've been wanting to ask a similar question...does anybody think the DCA hours will be expanded in June after Carsland opens?

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

So far the crowds havent warranted longer hours. Once Carsland opens I heard itll expand hours to 8-11.

 

[HydroGuy]

DCA has a mixed history and was built during a time of misguided leadership at Disney. All of those leaders have been gone for many years, but the truth is that DCA has been an embarassment for Disney. Nobody wanted to go there and over the years Disney has had to use gimmicks to get people there.

Finally Disney decided they needed to do something huge and the decided to basically refurb the entire park. This was about 5 years ago.

The lesser hours reflects the historical low interest in DCA. This is expected to change this summer when Disney puts the finishing touches on the park refurb. The hope is that DCA will take its place as a true Disney park worthy of the name. Disney expects larger crowds and as noted by the PP there are rumors the hours will expand in June.

 

[bumbershoot]

Finally Disney decided they needed to do something huge and the decided to basically refurb the entire park. This was about 5 years ago.

Right after my family fell madly in love with it *as it was*. Sniffle.

 

[Daniellee725]

It never seems to be that busy there, at least compared to Disneyland. Plus you can easily get everything done that you want to do in that time frame, especially with all the construction, there's just not as much to do. However when Carsland opens, it might be harder to fit all of DCA in one day. But for now, the hours provided should be more than enough. PS, for lunch, eat a breadbowl from Boudin Bakery there. Absolutely incredible!!

 

[pixiewings71]

Well I guess I'm "nobody" then because I always wanted to go over there and I've never understood why it closes so much earlier. I always see huge crowds streaming out at night too so again, no idea why it isn't open later. I LOVE DCA at night! Especially the pier area. I think they really do it a disservice to close so early.

I'm hoping insanely that they extend the hours after CL opens!!

 

[coaches24]

DCA has a mixed history and was built during a time of misguided leadership at Disney. All of those leaders have been gone for many years, but the truth is that DCA has been an embarassment for Disney. Nobody wanted to go there and over the years Disney has had to use gimmicks to get people there.

Finally Disney decided they needed to do something huge and the decided to basically refurb the entire park. This was about 5 years ago.

The lesser hours reflects the historical low interest in DCA. This is expected to change this summer when Disney puts the finishing touches on the park refurb. The hope is that DCA will take its place as a true Disney park worthy of the name. Disney expects larger crowds and as noted by the PP there are rumors the hours will expand in June.

I never knew that about DCA. We went in 05 and went to DCA our first day of 3 park days and spent about a half a day there before we had seen everything that was interesting to us. I left being very unimpressed with DCA that first trip.

Then last year we went and had a lot more fun there but still ddint spend an entire day there. Maybe when carsland opens we will but DL right now gets most of our time on trips. Me personally I like Soaring, TOT, and grand rapids and then Im pretty much done there as far as rides. DD liked the kiddie rides there and the shows (Aladdin is great of course and Disney playhouse was a lot of fun).

 

[furb & dez]

DCA has much fewer things to do, and a great number of those things have little-to-no repeatability. (Boudin, anyone?)

I don't think I've ever spent more than 3 or 4 hours in the park continuously, there simply isn't enough to hold our attention for longer than that.

 

[Briarrose1306]

I agree that you can get pretty much everything done you want to do in one day (usually less) at DCA, but I agree with a previous poster, I love being there at night and seeing everything all lit up. Riding Screamin and ToT at night are two of my favorite things but have to be carefully timed as it usually only gets dark there during the winter months and they close Screamin down early for WoC.

 

[AndyLL]

Rumor was that once Carsland was open they would sync up the hours and even offer Magic Mornings at DCA.

I can't remember how much of that was confirmed.

 

[CaliTransplant]

I think it's hours are fine. Even when DH and I went for NYE 2010 we had no troubles getting everything done in a day including World of Color..which in my opinion isn't that great. I prefer Disneyland. Even spending 24 straight hours there I still wanted to stay longer.

 

[HydroGuy]

Well I guess I'm "nobody" then because I always wanted to go over there and I've never understood why it closes so much earlier. I always see huge crowds streaming out at night too so again, no idea why it isn't open later. I LOVE DCA at night! Especially the pier area. I think they really do it a disservice to close so early.

I'm hoping insanely that they extend the hours after CL opens!!

I do not know the exact numbers, but up until maybe five years ago Disney would sell like 200 single park tickets for DCA a day, and thousands (maybe tens of thousands) for DL each day. Nobody (well 200 people a day) wanted to go only to DCA.

Going way back til at least 2003 - my first visit to DCA - Disney made all multi-day tickets automatic park hoppers. Originally (in 2001) they tried to charge a premium for hopping and nobody (well, very few) paid and DCA attendance was way down. In order to get bodies inside DCA they offered "free" hopping. In other words, if you bought a two+ day ticket to DL you could go to DCA "for free". They just quietly changed this maybe a year ago and now you have to pay extra for hoppers.

With all of the work at DCA and especially with WOC and LMAUA - and now with CL and BVS - folks are coming to DCA on its own merits. But historically not many did.

During our first visit in 2003 I loved, loved, loved Soarin but not much else at DCA. Screamin was cool but lacked theming (and still does BTW). They had trailers going up and down the parade route with blaring rock bands and some kind of X-Games competition happening by Paradise Pier. It felt more like Six Flags to me than Disney.

Later they added ToT (2004), TTwC (2005) and DCA started to feel much more Disney to me. With the work over the last five years they have nailed it. I have not of course seen BVS yet but I saw the preview at D23 Expo and heard the imagineers talk about it at the BVS session, and I already know they have a hit on their hands. DCA will emerge as a legitimate standalone park on June 15. Can you imagine what it will be like this summer when DCA will be drawing folks away from DL?!?!?

 

[HydroGuy]

I never knew that about DCA. We went in 05 and went to DCA our first day of 3 park days and spent about a half a day there before we had seen everything that was interesting to us. I left being very unimpressed with DCA that first trip.

Then last year we went and had a lot more fun there but still ddint spend an entire day there. Maybe when carsland opens we will but DL right now gets most of our time on trips. Me personally I like Soaring, TOT, and grand rapids and then Im pretty much done there as far as rides. DD liked the kiddie rides there and the shows (Aladdin is great of course and Disney playhouse was a lot of fun).

DCA was built with a budget of $1.4 billion, with half that going for the GCH. So $700 million for DCA the park. The executives at the time boasted of using "off-the-shelf" rides (a no-no for Disney in the past) and thought the consumers were too dumb to notice. They were wrong. People stayed away in droves.

In 2007 Disney announced a $1.2 billion investment to improve DCA. It was basically a park-wide refurb. Compare this to the cost to build the park originally and you can see how significant it is. They also made an effort to "Disneyfy" DCA - something the original designers purposely avoided (!). So now you have Silly Symphony Swings rather than Orange Stinger. And Goofy's Sky School rather than Mulholland Madness. You have Mickey's Fun Wheel rather than the "Sun Wheel". Maliboomer is gone. And you have three new rides in Cars Land, plus Monsters Inc., TSMM, Little Mermaid, World of Color - and presto! - DCA is now a Disneyfied park! And for the better, too.

 

[Greysword]

On the other hand, I would like to add that Disney Parks does have a precedent in Orlando, too.

EPCOT closes at 9PM each night, regardless of the season, unless they are the evening EMH park. In addition, Future World used to close before then.

Animal Kingdom closes around sunset, due to the animals, so these hours fluctuate with the season, despite a potential desire by WDW to keep it open.

I just wanted to throw this out, as closing a park before another is something WDW has been doing for decades.

 

[HydroGuy]

On the other hand, I would like to add that Disney Parks does have a precedent in Orlando, too.

EPCOT closes at 9PM each night, regardless of the season, unless they are the evening EMH park. In addition, Future World used to close before then.

Animal Kingdom closes around sunset, due to the animals, so these hours fluctuate with the season, despite a potential desire by WDW to keep it open.

I just wanted to throw this out, as closing a park before another is something WDW has been doing for decades.

You are totally correct. But those parks have much higher attendance than DCA. And do not have the bad rep that DCA has.

So on the one hand it should not be expected that all Disney parks should have the same operating hours. But DCA has had issues which is why Disney took the unprecendented step of investing $1 billion+ to upgrade it. Disney is trying to reverse a bad reputation and build a new positive one.

 

[pixiewings71]

I do not know the exact numbers, but up until maybe five years ago Disney would sell like 200 single park tickets for DCA a day, and thousands (maybe tens of thousands) for DL each day. Nobody (well 200 people a day) wanted to go only to DCA.

Going way back til at least 2003 - my first visit to DCA - Disney made all multi-day tickets automatic park hoppers. Originally (in 2001) they tried to charge a premium for hopping and nobody (well, very few) paid and DCA attendance was way down. In order to get bodies inside DCA they offered "free" hopping. In other words, if you bought a two+ day ticket to DL you could go to DCA "for free". They just quietly changed this maybe a year ago and now you have to pay extra for hoppers.

With all of the work at DCA and especially with WOC and LMAUA - and now with CL and BVS - folks are coming to DCA on its own merits. But historically not many did.

During our first visit in 2003 I loved, loved, loved Soarin but not much else at DCA. Screamin was cool but lacked theming (and still does BTW). They had trailers going up and down the parade route with blaring rock bands and some kind of X-Games competition happening by Paradise Pier. It felt more like Six Flags to me than Disney.

Later they added ToT (2004), TTwC (2005) and DCA started to feel much more Disney to me. With the work over the last five years they have nailed it. I have not of course seen BVS yet but I saw the preview at D23 Expo and heard the imagineers talk about it at the BVS session, and I already know they have a hit on their hands. DCA will emerge as a legitimate standalone park on June 15. Can you imagine what it will be like this summer when DCA will be drawing folks away from DL?!?!?

And this may have been the case when DCA first opened, I don't disagree with that. What I'm saying is currently there are more people that are visiting the parks and going to DCA and it is my feeling that they should have longer hours.

 

[HydroGuy]

And this may have been the case when DCA first opened, I don't disagree with that. What I'm saying is currently there are more people that are visiting the parks and going to DCA and it is my feeling that they should have longer hours.

I agree. DCA's attendance numbers are climbing in a down economy. But not a huge climb. I suspect after June we will see a much bigger climb.

For DCA attendance thru 2010 see

http://www.scottware.com.au/theme/feature/atend_disparks.htm

http://www.themeit.com/etea/2010Report.pdf

 

[Fºoºz]

DCA was built with a budget of $1.4 billion, with half that going for the GCH. So $700 million for DCA the park. The executives at the time boasted of using "off-the-shelf" rides (a no-no for Disney in the past) and thought the consumers were too dumb to notice. They were wrong. People stayed away in droves.

In 2007 Disney announced a $1.2 billion investment to improve DCA. It was basically a park-wide refurb. Compare this to the cost to build the park originally and you can see how significant it is. They also made an effort to "Disneyfy" DCA - something the original designers purposely avoided (!). So now you have Silly Symphony Swings rather than Orange Stinger. And Goofy's Sky School rather than Mulholland Madness. You have Mickey's Fun Wheel rather than the "Sun Wheel". Maliboomer is gone. And you have three new rides in Cars Land, plus Monsters Inc., TSMM, Little Mermaid, World of Color - and presto! - DCA is now a Disneyfied park! And for the better, too.

Thanks for the history lesson ... I faintly remember something about the DCA beginnings way back when ... the last time we were at DL was in the pre-DCA era 16 years ago ... so looking forward to going there this fall after our WDW/DCL vacation!

 

[mrswh]

From an economic standpoint, it makes a whole lot of sense to close one park earlier than the other, regardless of the attendance disparity between the two. The fact is that (typically speaking) the crowds get smaller at night. If Disney can accommodate everyone in one park after 10:00 (or whatever time it is), it makes more sense to do so than to pay the operating costs of two half-full parks.

I love DCA and my family spends more time there than DL, so I actually really like the shorter hours (or at least the later opening) - it means that we only have to have early mornings for DL rope drop and can sleep a little later on DCA rope drop mornings.