Early Entry in- Extra Magic Hours out

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Disney anticipated the huge backlash they would get by removing DME in 2022 and everybody saying they would stay off site if they needed to rent a car anyways. So, to make off site less attractive they took away the option to rope drop any park. Now because of this (especially during the very busy holidays) many people will see on site as their only option thus leaving Disney free to keep removing on site perks while raising prices. If free fps do not return off site guests would have some huge waits to ride any headliners. If paid fps become a thing Disney knows a lot of people stay off site to save money and chances are most would not pay for fps (of course some would). Early entry is not so much a great plus for onsite as it is a huge negative for off site. That is why they revealed these two huge changes on the same day.

 

[kevgraub]

Keep in mind that everyone during that 30 minutes will be rushing toward the same headliners, which will build those lines quickly.

True. But also keep in mind that the crowds will be spread out across the 4 parks during that 30 minutes. In the past, you had 60 minutes, with everyone wanting to take advantage of EMH going to a single park. Lines will not be building as quickly as they did in the past.

No one knows for sure how it will work out, but my guess is that for the mornings, the 30 minute window available at all 4 parks every day will be just as good, if not better, than the previous EMH where they pushed all onsite guests to one park for 60 minutes.

Now, the loss of evening hours is an entirely different topic. That is a major loss for those that wanted to stay up late and enjoy the cooler weather and lower crowds. Since we typically avoided EMH parks anyway due to crowd levels, it will not impact us. But I can definitely see the loss there for many families.

 

[Sha259]

These developments are surely interesting to watch. Disney was never able to entice me to stay onsite with their astronomical prices prior to Covid, even with things they considered perks like riding a shuttle from the airport, rushing to specific parks on designated days, and being required to reserve my dining almost a half year in advance to eat where I want.

I've been happy to stay offsite, save a few thousand, and leisurely visit the Disney parks on my terms. It does however seem that they have decided to remove all the perks they gave to onsite guests, while simultaneously making being an offsite guest going on a once in a lifetime trip pretty unbearable. Very sad.

I'll have an AP for my next trip, and dont plan to change my touring strategy. I'll visit a few times in the AP year before it expires. Likely never having the opportunity to ride any of those Tier 1 rides. But my intuition was right, I'll not be renewing and will continue to travel to other places. We have thrill rides and rollercoasters with long lines in NJ and PA, its driving distance and WAY cheaper. I'll stick to those.

Disney is taking the magic away from their brand, making visiting their park just as chaotic and cramped as any other amusement park without FP+.

 

[nkereina]

True. But also keep in mind that the crowds will be spread out across the 4 parks during that 30 minutes. In the past, you had 60 minutes, with everyone wanting to take advantage of EMH going to a single park. Lines will not be building as quickly as they did in the past.

No one knows for sure how it will work out, but my guess is that for the mornings, the 30 minute window available at all 4 parks every day will be just as good, if not better, than the previous EMH where they pushed all onsite guests to one park for 60 minutes.

Now, the loss of evening hours is an entirely different topic. That is a major loss for those that wanted to stay up late and enjoy the cooler weather and lower crowds. Since we typically avoided EMH parks anyway due to crowd levels, it will not impact us. But I can definitely see the loss there for many families.

Well, keep in mind that the parks have been unofficially opening 30+ minutes early since the parks re-opened in July. While that's for everyone and not just resort guests, its probably a comparable number given how much attendance is down. FOP and MMRR are still 45+ minutes rather quickly. MK has more headliners to spread the people between, but people do rush to Mine Train. I'm envisioning a scenario where there are limited rides operating and most people are able to get rides on these popular ones by the time the public is allowed in. While that's better than waiting 60+ minutes later in the day, it still shouldn't be conflated with a big perk that justifies onsite prices.

 

[Tiggerette]

The other part for me, in my personal touring strategy, was to avoid the park that had early morning opening. Since EMM isn't returning, I will definitely need to re-think how I plan future rope-drop strategies.

On the "Lemonade" side, we have a lot of information on how the early opening & ride queues are working. As I understand most parks are already opening at least a half hour early already. Of course, with reduced capacity, I concede that the queue-length comparisons may not work in the future.

 

[mdsouth]

Here is a link to an article that talks about it, from a source other than Disney propaganda. Marketwatch

Yet another example of how Disney is cost cutting across the board. No Magical Express in 2022, No Extra Magic Hours (including the evening hours), They already charge to park at resorts, no Fast Passes (if those even come back) no package delivery. Whats next fee to take Disney busses, boats and Skyliner? Not sure what the perks are for staying on Property anymore..........

Exactly!!!

Seriously, what good is a half an hour?! It takes that long to walk to a ride lol. UGH

That is what I am thinking too!

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

I expect that this is how Disney will introduce the hard ticket evening extra hours where someone has to pay extra for the extended hours. No free evenings anymore. BOO HOO!!

For me, the loss of the evening EMH is the worst thing hidden in these announcments. I would accept the ME leaving it it meant they would give back evening EMH.

Yes, this is my thought too.

30 Mins... That was Disney's best offer? Really? And I have doubts about transportation being able to manage this if social distancing and temp checks are still a thing.

I thought part of the reason they let guest in early since covid was to manage the tap que lines from getting too long but I'm guessing they are planning on that not being an issue? Like offsite guest I guess don't take up that much space??

Sorry but thirty minutes in no way makes up for all the perks they have cut and clearly continue to cut from those staying onsite.

RIght!

Yea the writing was on the wall. Even if they don't outright call it a 2 ticket day, they will will make every night a special event ticket.

Every night:

• January-Feb: Mickey's Winter Wonderland Special Event Ticket
• March-May: Mickey's Springtime Special Event Ticket
• June-July: Mickey's Summer of Fun Special Event Ticket
• August - October: Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween Special Event Ticket
• Nov-Dec: Mickey's Christmas Special Event Ticket

You nailed it !

For me/my family, personally, it’s negative because we never utilized Early Morning EMH.... we’d get our 3 FP’s, first one we’d get between 9:30-10 so we didn’t have to rush to be in the parks early, finish our 3FP’s, swim all afternoon, have dinner and go back in for Evening EMH. That’s how we like to Disney. Everyone is different. With the change, I still will not utilize the Early Entry, so it’s not something that benefits us. I’d prefer late nights any day to early mornings.

I used both early entry and late night times. But my family preferred the late evenings. It was just something special.

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.

Yes, my favorite memories are from the late night in the park, the twinkling lights, lower crowds, cooler temps in the summer. BLISS!

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...

It has me rethinking off site too.

Really disappointed in this change, we used the EMH frequently and love the late nights in the parks when we go in the summer months.

I am extremely sad over the loss of the late nights at the parks. We, too, loved the late nights at MK during the summer. The temps were cooler and it was just fun to be running around the parks late at night. Now, if we want to do that we will have to pay extra for the opportunity and it will most likely be large crowds because the "party" was overbooked. My guess the extra money for the extra time will be equivalent to the same price as the regular entrance ticket. Meaning you will be paying double to pay for the extended hours that you used to get for free with the regular entrance ticket.

 

[ghtx]

I'm not thrilled that it's just 30 minutes instead of an hour in the mornings, but I think it's great that it's EVERY DAY at EVERY PARK! No more having to plan my schedule around when EMH are offered! (We never stay up late enough for the evening EMH so their cancellation doesn't bother me.)

 

[AMartin767]

The axing of EMH coupled with the new announced cutback hours (Which are REALLY early in all parks) has made the decision about APs and trips easy for my wife and I. We find these two things to simply be too much so, we plan to take the AP money and spend it on other trips later this year. Sorry Disney, this time, you've blown it.

 

[AMartin767]

The axing of EMH coupled with the new announced cutback hours (Which are REALLY early in all parks) has made the decision about APs and trips easy for my wife and I. We find these two things to simply be too much so, we plan to take the AP money and spend it on other trips later this year. Sorry Disney, this time, you've blown it.

These are the hours btw. Just absurd:

• Magic Kingdom: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• EPCOT: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

 

[MarBee]

It has me rethinking off site too.

I’ve been looking around and there are some really awesome looking hotels that are super cheap. I’m actually getting kind of excited about trying them.

 

[Tom_E_D]

These are the hours btw. Just absurd:

• Magic Kingdom: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• EPCOT: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Disney has been scheduling short hours in the first instance then usually expanding them as the dates get closer. Those will probably not be the final park hours. Here's a link showing expanded hours for late January, normally one of the slowest periods of the year:

https://blogmickey.com/2021/01/all-...-park-receive-extended-hours-in-late-january/

 

[MMSM]

I’ve been looking around and there are some really awesome looking hotels that are super cheap. I’m actually getting kind of excited about trying them.

Funny. Just was looking at doing Universal for the first time. I tried to ask a CM (who was kind) some questions about when will early hours start, when do I need to start to reserve a water park, and about golf. There is no sunrise special for golf which allows 9 holes in the morning. Now you can only do 18 holes and pay $125. That’s not due to safety that is about money. Regardless I am tired of having no idea if changes are spring/summer/fall. I’m going spring break and prices are high for everything. Would rather not if I know it’s all closed. Cm said classic “keep checking back “.

 

[pinkxray]

I am really disappointed with the no evening EMH and no DME.

I am currently planning a 6 night stay in the fall. We were going to do 3 nights at WDW and 3 at Universal. 3 day park tickets at both. I just switched us to 2 nights at WDW, 4 night at Universal. Dropped to 1 day park ticket at Disney and will get annual passes at Universal.

Will I still go to Disney? Of course. But it won’t be as often and I will spend less there than I would have. We are spending $1000 less on tickets and since now we wont be going to DHS thats $600 less since I had planned on letting the kids get lightsabers.

 

[MarBee]

I am really disappointed with the no evening EMH and no DME.

I am currently planning a 6 night stay in the fall. We were going to do 3 nights at WDW and 3 at Universal. 3 day park tickets at both. I just switched us to 2 nights at WDW, 4 night at Universal. Dropped to 1 day park ticket at Disney and will get annual passes at Universal.

Will I still go to Disney? Of course. But it won’t be as often and I will spend less there than I would have. We are spending $1000 less on tickets and since now we wont be going to DHS thats $600 less since I had planned on letting the kids get lightsabers.

This is exactly what I’m thinking. I’m now going to be trying out all of the other cool things that the area has to offer, but we never went to because I didn’t want to leave the Disney Bubble. Now that we are going to stay off site and rent a car, we plan to do Universal, Legoland, Cape Canaveral, and Sea World. Any other big attractions I’m missing?

 

[Porsche4]

True. But also keep in mind that the crowds will be spread out across the 4 parks during that 30 minutes. In the past, you had 60 minutes, with everyone wanting to take advantage of EMH going to a single park. Lines will not be building as quickly as they did in the past.

No one knows for sure how it will work out, but my guess is that for the mornings, the 30 minute window available at all 4 parks every day will be just as good, if not better, than the previous EMH where they pushed all onsite guests to one park for 60 minutes.

Now, the loss of evening hours is an entirely different topic. That is a major loss for those that wanted to stay up late and enjoy the cooler weather and lower crowds. Since we typically avoided EMH parks anyway due to crowd levels, it will not impact us. But I can definitely see the loss there for many families.

It actually will impact you because as you rightly say you used to avoid the park with the EMH as did I, and you could be pretty much assured of lighter crowds at the other parks as everyone flocked to the park that offered it that day. Now you won't have that luxury of knowing which park will be the better one to tour for the day because every park will offer the early entry. It is going to be interesting to see how Touring Plans adjusts its algorithms to advise you of the best park to visit on any given day.

 

[DisFanDad]

It won't make a difference for off-site folks? Yes, it will. We were actually able to get in line and ride things first thing in the morning that would be crazy waits within 30-60 minutes.

Fair point, I meant for onsite folks. If anything this is going to do the same to them its going to be "rope drop or else" except rope drop is going to be 30 mins earlier now.

 

[DisFanDad]

It actually will impact you because as you rightly say you used to avoid the park with the EMH as did I, and you could be pretty much assured of lighter crowds at the other parks as everyone flocked to the park that offered it that day. Now you won't have that luxury of knowing which park will be the better one to tour for the day because every park will offer the early entry. It is going to be interesting to see how Touring Plans adjusts its algorithms to advise you of the best park to visit on any given day.

And you are going to have to be there for those 30 mins early, or else you will be showing up after crowds have already had time to build.

The only people this should even be somewhat ok for are people who rope dropped every day, I think this is a worse deal even than morning EMH's (people will say, yea but there were so few of them, or only 1 hour at 1 park per day - they forget EMH's used to be MUCH more plentiful). Its just another cut, while charging us more and more.

 

[DisFanDad]

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not . . . "at worst this will make literally no difference in your day."

Rope dropping an hour before 'official' park opening (at parks that did not have EMHs), literally made ALL the difference on our trips. We'd bang out 4 or 5 headliners before most of the crowds arrived. Whether onsite or offsite guests, not having the ability to do this anymore several reduces our experience.

I think I meant to say that this will simply not offer any real benefit, but you are right, at worst this will actually make people's days much worse.

 

[AMartin767]

30 minutes = 0^10 = Nothing at all. 30 minutes is nothing. Worthless compared to 3 and 4 hour EMH that used to be provided to all guests. This is just another example of Disney lowering the quality of value per $ while charging the same (and soon more with price increases).

 

[DestyTiger]

Ever

I think that at sometime in the future, once all the pandemic fears are gone, you will most likely see EMH return. Not sure how long that will be, maybe 2022 or 2023, but I believe it will return once crowds are back at normal levels.