News Round Up 2020

[DisLiss]

NEWS

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Part to start even earlier this year - first party is Aug 13th

Pretty soon you'll be able to celebrate 4th of July one day and Halloween the next!

I wouldn't care if it weren't for the fact that I do miss the years gone by when you could see Main Street without holiday decor a bit more often. Because early Sept. is our go-to time for Disney, we never get to see Main Street out of Fall/Halloween mode anymore.

And because we come from a colder climate, it's super weird to celebrate Halloween while dying of the heat, LOL! I always have to remind my kids that if we go to a party they cannot wear the type of costumes they do at home. (Where the main goal is to construct a costume either warm enough or loose enough not to have to put your jacket on over it. (with loose costumes allowing for multiple layers beneath the costume))

 

[jade1]

I can at least understand people going to Christmas Parties in November, but Halloween in August IN FLORIDA makes absolutely no sense to me. Who wants to spend $130 bucks a pop to celebrate Halloween 75 days before Halloween? Apparently a ton of people, but I wish they'd stop.

They just keep signing up.

 

[tlmadden73]

They used to do one at DHS, but they stopped when SWGE opened.

the problem is that The super headliners at DHS (MFSR) and AK (FOP) take 30+ minutes in ideal conditions, so you might get 2 rides in? It’s harder to create the value. And at Epcot the attractions are super far away from each other and the 20 year old headliner (TT) still breaks down all the time; if it broke down during EMM would they refund your money?

I could see it returning to Toy Story Land, perhaps with MMRR added in, but would be shocked to see it anywhere else in the near future.

But since SWGE is a whole land, I think people would pay for it for simply "no line" for riding MFSR and RotR once. They offer a breakfast at Docking Bay 7, and have some characters meeting and greeting IN Black Spire Outpost ... that's all you need and people will pay for it simply because of the value of "skipping the lines" and headaches of boarding groups. There is a just a lot to see and do in SWGE and doing so without worrying about crowds for an hour or two would hold value for people.

I'd do it for Toy Story Land just because all those rides are pretty close to each other and very re-ridable. Maybe once the new restaurant opens they will do it with breakfast in there.

So I could see DHS having two early morning "parties" either on the same day or rotating -- either SWGE or Toy Story Land.

Epcot makes it a lot harder to do an early morning Magic because ALL the rides in that park are so spread out. You could maybe do a "Future World East' (or whatever that new area will be called) with Test Track, Mission Space and Guardians of the galaxy with a breakfast in Space 220 or something.

AK, Ya .. Pandora just doesn't have enough to do in there to justify it and no other attractions really that close to it.

I'm waiting for them to basically have a party year round like festivals. So when they have soft bookings like this year, they will offer 1 free party night with 5+ days of hopper purchase instead of doing free dining.

They are getting close with this Villain's party aren't they? I am surprised there hasn't been some sort of Summer party or Festival at Epcot yet.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I certainly felt that How to Train Your Dragon 3 and Toy Story 4 we’re far better movies than Frozen 2, which was fine.

I haven't seen any of the Train Your Dragon movies - but I preferred Frozen 2 to Toy Story 4. I didn't think TS4 was all that great and though Frozen 2 was rather good

 

[TheMaxRebo]

They just keep signing up.

That is always a tricky aprt with Disney ... where, they keepo adding extra paid events that cut regular park hours, they keep increasing the price of everything, yet people keep buying the tickets.

We can debate if crowds are up or down a tick in the most recent years but even if down slightly it is still huge amounts of people that come and are willing the spend the increased prices - so hard to fault Disney too much. I mean, what is the pitch? you should keep prices down, keep hours high, limit crowds, etc.? Like what is the motivation for them?

 

[DGsAtBLT]

That is always a tricky aprt with Disney ... where, they keepo adding extra paid events that cut regular park hours, they keep increasing the price of everything, yet people keep buying the tickets.

We can debate if crowds are up or down a tick in the most recent years but even if down slightly it is still huge amounts of people that come and are willing the spend the increased prices - so hard to fault Disney too much. I mean, what is the pitch? you should keep prices down, keep hours high, limit crowds, etc.? Like what is the motivation for them?

Hence my next birthday wish Stop buying special event tickets, people!!

I feel so lucky that we had a trip during EEMH time. Longer park hours benefit everyone. Offsite guests couldn’t take advantage, but they definitely benefited from me and everyone like me feeling done with DHS, for example, by like 10 AM.

 

[jade1]

That is always a tricky aprt with Disney ... where, they keepo adding extra paid events that cut regular park hours, they keep increasing the price of everything, yet people keep buying the tickets.

We can debate if crowds are up or down a tick in the most recent years but even if down slightly it is still huge amounts of people that come and are willing the spend the increased prices - so hard to fault Disney too much. I mean, what is the pitch? you should keep prices down, keep hours high, limit crowds, etc.? Like what is the motivation for them?

Spot on.

And I think out of 300M people (just in America) there's plenty that look for any angle of lower crowds-which includes spending more, parties do provide that-even in August.

 

[SG131]

I don't think the 50th is going to be as busy as many people think it will. I think there is a good chance a combination of things will lead to it being much like the opening of SWGE at Disneyland.

I don't know about that. On the podcast Kevin and John have mentioned more than once that they are regularly getting requests to book 2021 for the anniversary even though they can't book out that far yet.

 

[jade1]

Hence my next birthday wish Stop buying special event tickets, people!!

Trouble is, there are plenty of birthday wishes FOR a special event ticket.

 

[The Pho]

I haven't seen " I Lost My Body", but I think the other movies nominated were probably more deserving.

It’s a pretty good movie. Honestly just wasn’t that strong a year for animation in general.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I'm waiting for them to basically have a party year round like festivals. So when they have soft bookings like this year, they will offer 1 free party night with 5+ days of hopper purchase instead of doing free dining.

They kind of already do that with the After Hours events.

 

[YesterDark]

The thing with parties is that if most people are going down on a non-annual basis (every other year, once in a life time, second time in 10 years etc.) and the people who are going, they are going to splurge on a "party" ticket because they're never going back or won't be back until whenever.

At least that is my guess as to the thought process of a lot people who are annual visitors or locals or Disney fanatics.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I am surprised there hasn't been some sort of Summer party or Festival at Epcot yet.

Oh there will be once construction is complete.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Trouble is, there are plenty of birthday wishes FOR a special event ticket.

I know, I’m mostly joking around. I get why people eat these events up, we’re guilty of doing a DAH a couple years ago too.

What I really would wish for is Disney having incentive to open the parks longer without extra charge. They’ve artificially created the “need” to buy tickets to hard ticket events by no longer staying open late and running frequent 3 hour EMH, so I can’t blame people for taking advantage of it.

 

[Brianstl]

It’s a pretty good movie. Honestly just wasn’t that strong a year for animation in general.

I agree it was a pretty good movie and it was a down year overall in animation.

I thought last year was one of the strongest years ever in that category. I thought "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" should have been not only nominated for Best Picture, but I thought it should have won Best Picture and was the best movie I saw in several years.

 

[Brianstl]

I don't know about that. On the podcast Kevin and John have mentioned more than once that they are regularly getting requests to book 2021 for the anniversary even though they can't book out that far yet.

We will see. I have seen too many times when there is a long build up to something with expected huge crowds where the crowds end up disappointing because the fear of crazy crowds leads to people deciding to avoid it completely.

 

[LoganBrown1990]

I haven't seen any of the Train Your Dragon movies - but I preferred Frozen 2 to Toy Story 4. I didn't think TS4 was all that great and though Frozen 2 was rather good

I loved both, but I felt like Frozen 2 was a much stronger film. I didn't walk out of TS4 ready to watch it again like I did Frozen 2.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I can at least understand people going to Christmas Parties in November, but Halloween in August IN FLORIDA makes absolutely no sense to me. Who wants to spend $130 bucks a pop to celebrate Halloween 75 days before Halloween? Apparently a ton of people, but I wish they'd stop.

We need to remember that those of us on DISBoards do not represent your normal park guest. People here often (but not always) Travel to the park’s more often than many other guests.

I ageee with @YesterDark. For guests who don’t go to the parks often or, are restricted to when they can go (e.g. teachers), offering these parties in the summer allows them to participate in something they have not been able to in the past.

personally we love going to the MK on party days as others choose to go to other parks due to reduced hours in the MK. We get a TON done between 8/9am and 4 when party guests start to enter!

I know I’m in the minority here but I don’t mind that they start the parties in August!

The thing with parties is that if most people are going down on a non-annual basis (every other year, once in a life time, second time in 10 years etc.) and the people who are going, they are going to splurge on a "party" ticket because they're never going back or won't be back until whenever.

At least that is my guess as to the thought process of a lot people who are annual visitors or locals or Disney fanatics.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I don't know about that. On the podcast Kevin and John have mentioned more than once that they are regularly getting requests to book 2021 for the anniversary even though they can't book out that far yet.

and a lot of the stuff currently being built is marketed as being complete by the 50th - so while I am sure actual openings will be staggered I think a lot of people have in their head that "construction will finally be done" 9even if not true as EPCOT will still be a construction zone) and for the 50th we will have the new Guardians ride, and Tron, and Ratatouille, etc.

Not sure if a lot of people plan a trip around 1 attraction but they can mentally allocate a number of new things to an event and lump it together as "for the 50th"

 

[DGsAtBLT]

We need to remember that those of us on DISBoards do not represent your normal park guest. People here often (but not always) Travel to the park’s more often than many other guests.

I ageee with @YesterDark. For guests who don’t go to the parks often or, are restricted to when they can go (e.g. teachers), offering these parties in the summer allows them to participate in something they have not been able to in the past.

personally we love going to the MK on party days as others choose to go to other parks due to reduced hours in the MK. We get a TON done between 8/9am and 4 when party guests start to enter!

I know I’m in the minority here but I don’t mind that they start the parties in August!

I agree that the party days are nice and quiet beforehand. The biggest problem is the nighttime shows and just general nighttime touring in the park. On our week last October there was one single night where MK was open past 6 and HEA was shown. Super crowded. If you want MK fireworks, there’s no avoiding a massive crowd or an expensive party.

It would be nice if the parties took up less nights a week. And we had a week where there was a private party closing down MK a separate night which IMO they should not be doing during party season, unless they want to do it instead of a party.