News Magic Kingdom 4:30pm close in May 2022 (originally January 25 2022)

Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:
Typically in the past, cast would just be told they are being extended. The news could come as late as a couple of hours before.

Now I would imagine that since they have already announced the 4:30pm close, they can save labour costs and leave it at that.
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At least when I worked front line, management had to inform the affected cast no later than two hours before the end of their shift. Generally, it would only be an hour, resulting from more guests than expected in the park that day.

Edit/Update: In looking at the latest union contract, apparently it's only 30 minutes now. I'll reserve my comments on that for a more relevant thread topic.
 
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OG Runner

OG Runner

Well-Known Member
JoeCamel said:
Dang what are those keys again? For the benefit of who?
Disney created these expectations and when they fail to meet them people really don't care if it is to honor years of servitude they just want what they paid for not a truncated version.
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I had the exact same thing happen at Universal. We were staying on property and were not given any advanced notice.
We were in Islands of Adventure and would told we would need to leave at 6:00pm, as there was a private event being
held that night. It happens sometimes and you just deal with it. It would probably be appreciated if you were informed
before your trip, even at the beginning of your day. In our case it was only a couple of hours earlier than we would have
left the park anyway.
 
castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:
Typically in the past, cast would just be told they are being extended. The news could come as late as a couple of hours before.

Now I would imagine that since they have already announced the 4:30pm close, they can save labour costs and leave it at that.
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“Force Extensions” can only be a maximum of 2 hours according to the contract, and even then cast don’t have to agree to stay. That’s why parks can usually only extend the operating day by an hour. The next issue would be having to reschedule all the transportation/security Cast that wouldn’t be working during the party.
 
M

Magicmaker2010

New Member
ToTBellHop said:
With respect, the circumstances that led to this moment are unprecedented. A pandemic delayed one year’s celebration so that it was two weeks before the next year’s celebration and then weather postponed both.

There does reach a point when impact on guests is excessive and I think four 4:30 pm MK closures in 6 months might be past that point. I have been supportive of this event throughout this thread, but Disney does need to consider impact on paying guests during an anniversary celebration.
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And if it wasn't for the cast members making that magic for paying guests you wouldn't have a magic kingdom to go to so let's have a little respect for the cast members it's not their fault that their service event was canceled I think you can deal with another early closure and if it doesn't affect your vacation why are you worried about it that is so disrespectful to cast members who work tirelessly tirelessly to give you folks an amazing magical vacation
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Magicmaker2010 said:
And if it wasn't for the cast members making that magic for paying guests you wouldn't have a magic kingdom to go to so let's have a little respect for the cast members it's not their fault that their service event was canceled I think you can deal with another early closure and if it doesn't affect your vacation why are you worried about it that is so disrespectful to cast members who work tirelessly tirelessly to give you folks an amazing magical vacation
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Okay. And I think four early closures is disrespectful to paying guests. It’s a bit…precious…to suggest CMs deserve exclusive 2020 and 2021 events. There was a freakin pandemic. I’m not demanding 3 work Christmas parties this year to make up for the 2 that were canceled. Also, I got my 15-years of service “award” in the form of an email from my job. Do I think CMs deserve recognition? Yes. Give them a single Disney After Hours that will still have far fewer people than the DAH events guests pay for. Then give them a raise.

Whether or not it impacts me is of no consequence. It would be example 624 that Disney no longer respects its guests.
 
OG Runner

OG Runner

Well-Known Member
ToTBellHop said:
Okay. And I think four early closures is disrespectful to paying guests. It’s a bit…precious…to suggest CMs deserve exclusive 2020 and 2021 events. There was a freakin pandemic. I’m not demanding 3 work Christmas parties this year to make up for the 2 that were canceled. Also, I got my 15-years of service “award” in the form of an email from my job. Do I think CMs deserve recognition? Yes. Give them a single Disney After Hours that will still have far fewer people than the DAH events guests pay for. Then give them a raise.

Whether or not it impacts me is of no consequence. It would be example 624 that Disney no longer respects its guests.
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Okay let's look at this from a mathematical standpoint and it really is even less than I am figuring.
Based on 16 hours a day for 365 days, you have 5,840 hours. Say they close the park early by 7
hours for the possible 4 events. That amounts to 28 hours. That amounts to roughly one half of
one percent of the total yearly hours. Wow, how disrespectful can you get? Trust me there are much
more important things in life to be worried or complaining about. This is not it!
 
mikejs78

mikejs78

Premium Member
OG Runner said:
Okay let's look at this from a mathematical standpoint and it really is even less than I am figuring.
Based on 16 hours a day for 365 days, you have 5,840 hours. Say they close the park early by 7
hours for the possible 4 events. That amounts to 28 hours. That amounts to roughly one half of
one percent of the total yearly hours. Wow, how disrespectful can you get? Trust me there are much
more important things in life to be worried or complaining about. This is not it!
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It is if someone planned a once in a lifetime vacation to MK on that day before it was scheduled...
 
jasminethecat

jasminethecat

Well-Known Member
ToTBellHop said:
Yes. This is the same company as the one that wants us booking park reservations for 2024 now.
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Sorry but your comment is somewhere between needlessly exaggerating and outright lying. With 60 day ADR's and barely 70 day-out published park hours, there is no reason or push to book trips farther out than 75-90 days. You cannot even reserve a hotel room past 2022 right now, if you try to force the reservation system into January of 2023 or later it says "No information on resorts is available for the dates specified.".

When you have to actually select a park for each day, you should be reading the park hours and making decisions based on that. All of these recent events have been scheduled farther out than guests can make park reservations, so literally 100% of people chose to go to MK with a 4:30 closing time. And nobody had ADR's that got cancelled either (for the same reason).
 
D

dreday3

Well-Known Member
jasminethecat said:
Sorry but your comment is somewhere between needlessly exaggerating and outright lying. With 60 day ADR's and barely 70 day-out published park hours, there is no reason or push to book trips farther out than 75-90 days. You cannot even reserve a hotel room past 2022 right now, if you try to force the reservation system into January of 2023 or later it says "No information on resorts is available for the dates specified.".

When you have to actually select a park for each day, you should be reading the park hours and making decisions based on that. All of these recent events have been scheduled farther out than guests can make park reservations, so literally 100% of people chose to go to MK with a 4:30 closing time. And nobody had ADR's that got cancelled either (for the same reason).
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actually yes you can. We are booked for April 2023, just do it over the phone. No way in heck am I waiting until 90 days out to book a trip!
can't buy tickets yet though, so can't make park reservations.
 
OG Runner

OG Runner

Well-Known Member
dreday3 said:
actually yes you can. We are booked for April 2023, just do it over the phone. No way in heck am I waiting until 90 days out to book a trip!
can't buy tickets yet though, so can't make park reservations.
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Then you have a better than 99.5% chance of not running into one of the early park closers you were talking about.
Good Luck !!!
 
jasminethecat

jasminethecat

Well-Known Member
dreday3 said:
actually yes you can. We are booked for April 2023, just do it over the phone. No way in heck am I waiting until 90 days out to book a trip!
can't buy tickets yet though, so can't make park reservations.
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Thank you for that correction, I didn't realize that you could make phone reservations further out than the online ones. I still believe that disney is not encouraging reservations later than the end of this year even if they allow it. I think disney encourages advance reservations using park availability and dining reservation availability for the most part (it used to be done based on annual calendar perks - hotel discounts or free dining promos, and the 180 day ADR / 60 day FP rules). I think the "average" guest has little to no experience and does exactly what disney flyers and the website tells them.

I bet that you will already do this since I have seen you posting many times, but free advice if anyone is booking that far out - set a 182-day, 92-day and 62 day reminder in your phone to double check that ADR's, rides and other reservation systems haven't changed. If you check it at 179, 89 or 59 days out you may miss out on reservation opportunities.
 
D

dreday3

Well-Known Member
jasminethecat said:
Thank you for that correction, I didn't realize that you could make phone reservations further out than the online ones. I still believe that disney is not encouraging reservations later than the end of this year even if they allow it. I think disney encourages advance reservations using park availability and dining reservation availability for the most part (it used to be done based on annual calendar perks - hotel discounts or free dining promos, and the 180 day ADR / 60 day FP rules). I think the "average" guest has little to no experience and does exactly what disney flyers and the website tells them.

I bet that you will already do this since I have seen you posting many times, but free advice if anyone is booking that far out - set a 182-day, 92-day and 62 day reminder in your phone to double check that ADR's, rides and other reservation systems haven't changed. If you check it at 179, 89 or 59 days out you may miss out on reservation opportunities.
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Good advice.

I'm probably one of the most easy-going planners out there though, so changing things on the fly doesn't phase us. 😀
But that's just us.
 
castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
ToTBellHop said:
Okay. And I think four early closures is disrespectful to paying guests. It’s a bit…precious…to suggest CMs deserve exclusive 2020 and 2021 events. There was a freakin pandemic. I’m not demanding 3 work Christmas parties this year to make up for the 2 that were canceled. Also, I got my 15-years of service “award” in the form of an email from my job. Do I think CMs deserve recognition? Yes. Give them a single Disney After Hours that will still have far fewer people than the DAH events guests pay for. Then give them a raise.

Whether or not it impacts me is of no consequence. It would be example 624 that Disney no longer respects its guests.
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A bit precious to recognize people for 10 to 50 years of service? This has nothing to do with the pandemic, these people would have started at least 8 years before the pandemic even started. Disney has been doing this for decades, this is nothing new. This is far more than a DAH event. I don’t even know why I’m replying to this, it’s being rescheduled anyways so there’s not much to argue about.
 

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