Would you like the parks open for 20hr days?

[ArielRae]

Was listening to The DIS Unplugged Podcast and got me thinking to make a poll for this. Would you like if Disney offered one park a day that was open for 20hrs? It would be great for those that like early starts or those that are night owls and want to be out late. So if Disney did this what hours do you think they should be open for? You can pick more then one choice if you like.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Definitely, I'd be there at 6:00 am

 

[OKW Lover]

Although I voted for one of the other choices, I think I've actually got a better idea and should have voted for that one.

My idea for a 20-hour day is to have the parks close for 4 hours at 1 pm. That would force people to take a break from the parks in the afternoon heat.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

Las Vegas hours would be better,.,,,24

 

[Iowajes]

My idea for a 20-hour day is to have the parks close for 4 hours at 1 pm. That would force people to take a break from the parks in the afternoon heat.

I think this would be a terrible idea for Disney. Not everyone is a night owl and wants to be in the park super late at night/early in the next morning.

Closing from 1-5 would be closing during one of the busiest times of the day. And, like you said- a hot time. A time when everyone goes and buys Mickey Bars and Frozen Lemonades to try to keep cool while enjoying the park.

If you need a break in the afternoon heat, take one- but I think based on crowds, many people still want to enjoy the part of the day they are awake, heat be darned. Emptying the park would be ridiculous.



I think 6-2 or 7-3 makes the most sense. None of those times are really early or really late.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Definitely, I'd be there at 6:00 am

we would be there with you!

 

[Minnesota!]

6 am here I come!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

we would be there with you!

Well, guess I'd better book a Fast Pass then!

 

[ArielRae]

Looks like quite a few people like the parks to open earlier just like I do.

 

[Micca]

I guess for me the advantage would be to tour the parks without the blazing hot sun beating down in the hottest months. And in the early morning hours you could likely beat the crowds as many people just don't want to rise early on vacations. Definitely something positive about that. OTOH would I want to get up/stay up to take advantage of the "dark hours?"

 

[Buttrcp16]

Although I voted for one of the other choices, I think I've actually got a better idea and should have voted for that one.

My idea for a 20-hour day is to have the parks close for 4 hours at 1 pm. That would force people to take a break from the parks in the afternoon heat.

Another huge issue with this is that it would be a major inconvenience for guests staying offsite. The trek back to the parking lot and then to wherever they are staying can take upwards of an hour. Not to mention the fact that you have to deal with "closing" crowds and the mass exodus in the middle of the day. I think it would discourage people from coming back, which essentially means they only had 6-7 hours or less to enjoy the park. Not everyone has park hopper, multi-day tickets and not everyone stays on site 5 minutes away at the Contemporary. This would be a horrible idea!

I like the hours the way they are. Just thinking about the amount of upkeep and maintenance that has to be squeezed in every night makes me think keeping a park open so long every week would never be possible without sacrificing the integrity of the parks.

ETA: in addition to longer operating hours, ticket prices would inevitably be raised to compensate for the cost in keeping the park open longer. Then you have upset families who are forced to pay higher prices even though there is NO way they'd be able to take advantage of the longer hours (think small children).

 

[fluffykalie]

i think 8am-2am would be awsome park hours for magic kingdom. i think the only reason the parks get so packed at the 24 hour events is that it is an event. and once the new factor wares off there wont be enough people in the park to make it worth disneys while. also for parks like animal kingdom and hollywood studios it dosent make sence to extened the hours that much theres not much to do in those parks. but I would love to the whole park stay open till nine at those. epcot only makes sence to extend the hours in the evening. mabey in the summer more extended hours would make sence.

 

[asmit4]

I love the 'shut down from 1-5 idea also....We are never at the parks at that time anyway.

If I was going alone- 6am would be great- but with kids/hubby in tow- I'm thinking 7 would work out better.

 

[luisov]

As attractive as this sounds for some, the parks need some serious time for maintenance. Walt used to close DL every now and then (probably weekly) to keep it working smoothly. Nowadays people say that most of the technical difficulties are due to the rides working over and over throughout the day with very little time to be checked and maintained. The parks need that time.

If we don't take that into account, I would be fine with it just to disperse the crowds, but I wouldn't be a night-time visitor myself.

 

[Micca]

As attractive as this sounds for some, the parks need some serious time for maintainance. Walt used to close DL every now and then (probably weekly) to keep it working smoothly. Nowadays people say that most of the technical difficulties are due to the rides working over and over throughout the day with very little time to be checked and maintained. The parks need that time.

If we don't take that into account, I would be fine with it just to disperse the crowds, but I wouldn't be a night-time visitor myself.

Actually this occurred to me too. If they don't have time to do cleanup/maintenance, the extended hours would be a negative. They can always close attractions for maintenance, but the thoroughfares that require a daily power wash are very important to the apparent freshness of the parks.

 

[asmit4]

I took the poll to mean "in your perfect fantasy world what would you want the park hours to be"

In reality- what they have now is fine- and we do enjoy EMH. But in my 'perfect fantasy world- closed from 1-5....and I know this would be a clusterfluck with traffic and things but in my perfect world- it would be 'perfect' with no traffic/logistic problems

 

[supergoofy]

If they did 1 park for 20 hours one day then another park the next I'd suggest Disney stock up on energy drinks You know some commandos are going to try and do all the parks in 4 days.

Personally I like the hours like they are. Even now its sometimes hard to do rope drop back to back. Like when we go in August MK closes at 11pm and the parks open the next day I think at 9am. So by the time you get back to your hotel its midnight. And if the park opens at 9 you want to be there 30-45 minutes early and lets say for easy math its a 30 minute ride to the park.

This means if you can slid out of bed and get dressed and hit the day running you get 8 hours of sleep.

Lets get real in that the ride is longer and breakfast needs to be had and we need time to wake up.

Sorry but I am all for kids getting there sleep and not being ticking cranky time bombs.

 

[sethschroeder]

Sorry but those people crazy enough to want the parks to open at 6am need to be examined. That means likely getting up at 4:30-5 to make rope drop everyday on vacation.... 8am is about right as it's the start of a normal day in society and kids likely have a school time similar so it's nothing out of the ordinary. Followed by a late night (later the better is my vote) which includes more of the teen and young adult crowd who stay out later.

No matter what time they open people will be there to rope drop.

Why couldn't Disney do a late followed by early hours to do a 2 park 24 hours? 9-5am Epcot then 5am-1am MK and so on ?

 

[Disney_Princess83]

Our favourite time to be in the park is 1am -3am. It's quieter and much cooler. We never get to the parks before 11am. We're night owls and we are far too grumpy if we wake up early and hit the parks early. We would love a 4am-5am close.

 

[ArielRae]

Sorry but those people crazy enough to want the parks to open at 6am need to be examined. That means likely getting up at 4:30-5 to make rope drop everyday on vacation.... 8am is about right as it's the start of a normal day in society and kids likely have a school time similar so it's nothing out of the ordinary. Followed by a late night (later the better is my vote) which includes more of the teen and young adult crowd who stay out later.

No matter what time they open people will be there to rope drop.

Why couldn't Disney do a late followed by early hours to do a 2 park 24 hours? 9-5am Epcot then 5am-1am MK and so on ?

We are those people up at 4am during our normal nonvacation lives. DS(4) is an early to bed and early to rise kid and so are we. It is hard for us to keep him entertained in the morning while at Disney until the parks open for the day. That can be 5 hrs from when he wakes up until park opening. I would love to spend that time in a park instead of trying to find things to do around the resort that early in the morning. Right now we get 4-5hrs in a park each day. If the parks opened earlier we could get 7-8hrs. We don't make it to the fireworks at night cause they go on to late for us as we are in bed asleep by 8:00pm each night.