Early Entry in- Extra Magic Hours out

[MMSM]

I'm thinking a main way they will control the early entry is by only allowing you in to the parks via Disney transportation. If off site guests or day visitors are driving themselves they will hold you at the parking lot entrance.

Last Sunday I drove to HS. Was in the parking lot line at 7:52am for a 9am park opening. They didn't start letting cars in until after 8:10am. But the Skyliner was running bringing people in & so were the Disney buses. I assume the boats were running too.

I am super disappointed about the Magical Express. I would drive over & my mom flies in taking the ME so we can just meet at the hotel. That was a major draw to staying onsite (even though I still get charged for hotel parking ).

But I rent a car and stay on property. I would not like that.

 

[Porsche4]

This comment is aimed more at say a 2022 and onwards visit rather than right now, when hopefully things will be a little more normal (whatever the heck that ends up being). I always used to avoid the park with Extra Magic Morning Hours and that was the way we would avoid the crowds. It was always pretty predictable that any park with EMMH would be extra busy once the non on-site visitors arrived so if you avoided those parks on those specific days you could usually tour without too many crowds. This new system will make it very difficult to work out which park will have less crowds as EMMH will apply to every park every day. Good luck touring plans trying to work out your algorithms, its going to be one heck of a tricky situation.

 

[SL6827]

At some point the 30 minutes will be taken away and the one hour will come back. But with a price tag attached to it. This is just a building block of such.

 

[ctl]

Am I to interpret it as: EMH will not return, ever -or- EMH will not return as long as we are managing crowds

I think EMH will never return. Disney wants to make money by having ticketed early opening events and late night events where you pay separately. By taking away DME they also will get more people to bring their cars and park them in the resorts where they charge for overnight parking now. Its the almighty dollar. pay more, get less.

 

[WorldOfPooh]

So does this mean that they're going to start holding offsite guests at the tapstiles until the posted opening time now?

They let non AP go through the AP line, so what do you think?

 

[chrissy92972]

Scan what? Remember they are not doing Magic Bands anymore.

 

[PetePanMan]

I don’t mind this as much if the 30 minutes is at least a full 30 minutes I.e. . they don’t let non-Disney resort guests in “unofficially” 10-15 mins early. I do like flex of having this apply to all parks, every day.

 

[SMRT-1]

Scan what? Remember they are not doing Magic Bands anymore.

They're not getting rid of Magic Bands; they're just not giving free Magic Bands to resort guests any more. And even if you don't have a Magic Band, you still have a ticket card that you scan instead that's linked to your MDE account just like a Magic Band.

 

[JETSDAD]

I posted elsewhere earlier but thought I'd share my opinion here as well. I prefer this over the traditional EMH. We stay onsite and normally skip the EMH park due to increased crowds at that park. Half hour every day at every park gives us a jump on 1-2 rides without a surge in attendance. By the time non-resort guests are let in there will already be long lines at the top attractions but we can be moving towards the next tier of ride. I could see offsite guests and locals being upset by this though.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

I can live without Magical Express but no EMH will change a lot for us. Our last three trips we've stayed onsite solely for the benefit of EMH. The trips before that we rented villa's with pool. As a family we preferred the space the villa's gave us and the private pools were huge bonuses. The price compared to being onsite an even bigger bonus. With being able to book fastpass online, there was no need to get up at a ridiculous time so we were able to sleep in and make the most of EMH on a beautiful warm night. It felt like a vacation. Getting up at 6am to wait for a bus to take us to a park does not sound ideal on vacation and I can't imagine it will be something our family will do. There just doesn't seem to be a reason to stay onsite now.

 

[Techniwreck]

I agree, the perks of staying onsite are becoming greatly compromised! Will rethink my planned trip for early 2022.

 

[Delirium]

A lot of special memories when we utilized Evening Extra Magic Hours, especially at Magic Kingdom. Morning is not as appealing to us, because it creates rush and stress to get there on time to take advantage. With evening extra magic hours, we could really slow down and enjoy the moment.

This makes summertime visits even less appealing. Every single one of the parks is so much more magical at night than it is at day. When it doesn't get dark until after 9, and the parks are closing immediately after, there is no time to enjoy the bright lights that help make the place so magical.

 

[Delirium]

Evening Extra Magic Hours made park hopping a lot more appealing as well. Without those, combined with reduced hours, paying extra for a park hopper may not be as appealing.

 

[LovesTimone]

Scan what? Remember they are not doing Magic Bands anymore.

Yes... magic bands are still being used, you just don't have to do the finger print anymore... As well people were charging to their rooms for meals and souvenirs...

AP holder still have their own line, We were at MK on Saturday for the day, we used our magic bands to get in, and saw them bring used in the stores, as well as at Tony's for dinner that night.

 

[LovesTimone]

I think that and this is just me talking out loud... Local here and AP holder...

1) There is a ton of pressure on Disney to just be able to stay open, and right now people are not wanting to get on a bus all together... and with the social distancing rules, and the mask rules... and everything else that needs to be done with cleaning. When you can't fill up a bus as before, the cost to run the bus comes into play... and for goodness sake if someone so much as adjust their mask out in public spaces, or just think if you are in a store and some cough's, sneeze's, or even clears their throat, everyone giving them the side eye.. So a lot of this is the reactions that guest are having... and new needs and demands of the guest are coming into play... so Disney is reacting to what the court of masses is throwing out there... and Spreading everyone out right now is a good thing... Right?

2) As the vaccine become more available to the masses, and herd immunity is reach... and people start to travel again... things will start to shift...
Things will really heat up again, when international travel opens up...

3) Never say "never ever" with Disney, they change due to what the the guest want...

4) Disney is a business and are in business to make money, and there are Parks such as Disneyland that have not been opened for almost a year now, and most likely not going to opened this year, as it's looking, with all the numbers that they are experiencing right now .... and when they can open it's only going to be at 25% at first.... as well as other Parks in other areas of the world that are shuttered, and have been opened here and there... When you have 5 of the 6 parks not open and making money just like any other business you have to approach things differently... and things are going to change.... you can't keep bleeding money with no light at the end of the tunnel...

5) I know that while things will be better in the future, we are willing to show support for Disney and CM who have given us years of magic and memories...

The one thing I think that we all have learned from 2020 is how to be patient... so I think that we need to be patient and lets get past the Covid and get people the vaccine, and then see how things are going...

 

[WorldOfPooh]

4) Disney is a business and are in business to make money, and there are Parks such as Disneyland that have not been opened for almost a year now, and most likely not going to opened this year, as it's looking, with all the numbers that they are experiencing right now .... and when they can open it's only going to be at 25% at first.... as well as other Parks in other areas of the world that are shuttered, and have been opened here and there... When you have 5 of the 6 parks not open and making money just like any other business you have to approach things differently... and things are going to change.... you can't keep bleeding money with no light at the end of the tunnel...

Don't be so sure on that.
Cuomo just did an about face and said NYC absolutely has to be opened back up. So that's a good sign for Diseny.

 

[JPTexan82]

Ironic that they're calling it "early entry", which is the same term Universal uses. But at least Universal offers an hour of early entry.

I disagree with you on this a little. Universal Early Entry is very limited during that first hour. For example this past summer, it was one park and only two rides. So it’s a little advantage, but really not much.

Also during their early entry, they would still let no resort park guest in the park. But you had to show a room key inside the park to get past a certain point.

 

[MarBee]

We are not morning people. We have never and will most likely ever take advantage of an extra 30 minutes in the morning, but we LOVED late night EMH. Super bummed that they’ll be gone.

We have always been “Disney Bubble” people and stay on site the few times a year we visit. I’m now thinking- and actually a bit excited- to try some of the off site resorts now. I’ll save a ton of money and will hopefully not miss the bubble as much. We shall see...

 

[LovesTimone]

Don't be so sure on that.
Cuomo just did an about face and said NYC absolutely has to be opened back up. So that's a good sign for Disney.

I hope for sure that this is a sign... for better things for NYC... I really hope that it hasn't gone to far...

For us I think it has crossed the line... with everything that happened in 2020... I really can't see us going there...

When we were looking at our vacations and getaway long weekend NYC did not even come up in conversation this year, and when I did mention it to DH the other day, he was like nothing there anymore do, or see, or enjoy that we like, so just take it off the list permanently ... I have to agree with him... so I just deleted it from the list...

I used to love to go to NYC, DH and I would go at least once a year during the holidays, see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, whatever was hot on Broadway, sight seeing and as always a long wall through the Park and rest of day at the Met ... It really sad to think we won't be back...

With Disneyland and California.... I hope for better things... I really don't see it happening any time this year, short of a miracle...

As far as California and Disneyland, we had planned to take a Family trip to Disneyland California for a milestone birthday that I have coming up later this year... DH and I, and DD, SiL and sweet grandson who will be 6 at the time... With everything that is going on out there, it really is not feasible that we even look at going, and so we have moved on to looking for another spot...

I am really excited and really looking forward to other destinations... and making some new spots our new fav's...

 

[wilbret]

Six Flags has early entry. I guess Chapek wants to be like Six Flags?

Whatever the case is for these changes, it's certainly a bad look to announce the changes without also announcing the replacement.