News 'Disney After Hours' ticketed event

peter11435

Well-Known Member
With or without the event it is too early to close the park on a Friday night. Lets face it, there are no "slow" times anymore. It probably shouldn't close before 10 any night with cost of admission.

Well that’s another debate altogether. I will agree there are no slow times anymore but there are slower times. Which this is one.

Disney bases their park hours entirely on planned park attendance. The lower the expected attendance the shorter the hours. If attendance drastically exceeds expectations they extend park hours. At least currently they feel 8:00 is adequate for this attendance level. I agree with you that it is not. But this event has nothing to do with why the park closes at 8:00.

Friday is not the busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
With or without the event it is too early to close the park on a Friday night. Lets face it, there are no "slow" times anymore. It probably shouldn't close before 10 any night with cost of admission.

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xdan0920

Think for yourselfer
People act like early closings at MK in January are something evil and new. Lol!
You know what it is though. It’s “one more thing”....

They are Selling the park twice so many days now. MNSSHP, MVMCP, now Disney After hours. They are eroding the value of a regular ticket in order to resell the park for the late arriving crowd.

They are on the road to monetizing FP+. They are charging stunningly outrageous prices for food. They are closing the park to regular guests and reselling it to party guests about 70 nights a year now. It’s all adding up. Value is eroding. Will it matter? Does Disney even factor in value or customer satisfaction into their decisions any more? I dunno.
 

bhg469

Well-Known Member
You know what it is though. It’s “one more thing”....

They are Selling the park twice so many days now. MNSSHP, MVMCP, now Disney After hours. They are eroding the value of a regular ticket in order to resell the park for the late arriving crowd.

They are on the road to monetizing FP+. They are charging stunningly outrageous prices for food. They are closing the park to regular guests and reselling it to party guests about 70 nights a year now. It’s all adding up. Value is eroding. Will it matter? Does Disney even factor in value or customer satisfaction into their decisions any more? I dunno.
Exactly. To answer your question, even if it was rhetorical? No, not at all.
 

Maccabee18

Active Member
I think the cost of this event does not justify the perks. Its more than a 1 day ticket and you only get the park for 3 hours. This also includes a perk of not every ride being available; and the "free" food cost means you'd have to be a complete glutton to make it worth it. I don't understand why people are willing to pay for this.

The problem I am having with all of this, is these added costs don't equate to better service, food quality, entertainment. The theming is great, but as a consumer Id rather enjoy a better overall experience, than pay more money, for less time, and free "snacks" like chips, and ice cream bars. And if the free food is anything like the last DVC Moonlight event where they gave away free Hot Dogs its just stupidity honestly.

People should not be paying more money to Disney to say they were able to go, and get in. We should be demanding better quality, service, and entertainment. WDW doesn't even have an evening parade anymore. I mean seriously.
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
I think the cost of this event does not justify the perks. Its more than a 1 day ticket and you only get the park for 3 hours. This also includes a perk of not every ride being available; and the "free" food cost means you'd have to be a complete glutton to make it worth it. I don't understand why people are willing to pay for this.

The problem I am having with all of this, is these added costs don't equate to better service, food quality, entertainment. The theming is great, but as a consumer Id rather enjoy a better overall experience, than pay more money, for less time, and free "snacks" like chips, and ice cream bars. And if the free food is anything like the last DVC Moonlight event where they gave away free Hot Dogs its just stupidity honestly.

People should not be paying more money to Disney to say they were able to go, and get in. We should be demanding better quality, service, and entertainment. WDW doesn't even have an evening parade anymore. I mean seriously.

Welcome to the club. ;) Disney is continually coming up with new ways to separate guests from their money, and for whatever reason are quite successful at doing it. Call it stupidity, call it being a rube, call it large quantities of MAGICAL!!! pixie dust... To be honest, I think it's a reflection on today's culture and society in general. Too many people are more than happy to throw money around to "feel special", and Disney is giving them plenty of opportunities to do so. I guess I just don't "feel special" in doing stupid things like paying more than a regular 1-day park ticket just to have 3 hours in a park with free soda and ice cream bars and most, but not all, rides open. Again, Disney is monetizing a "solution" to a problem it created over the past 12 years (long lines in the parks), and laughing all the way to Wall Street. Not that long lines didn't exist pre-Brand becoming CEO, but they were more during what used to be the busy times of the year - Spring Break, Easter week, summer vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Now, you can have hour-or-longer waits for many rides on a Tuesday in late January during a cold snap.

That being said, though, I could probably throw down quite a few Mickey Ice Cream Bars over the course of 3 hours if they were free, even when factoring in time to have a few rides. I did have 4 for dessert at a pre-Princess Half Marathon dinner a few years ago...
 

nickys

Premium Member
I think the cost of this event does not justify the perks. Its more than a 1 day ticket and you only get the park for 3 hours. This also includes a perk of not every ride being available; and the "free" food cost means you'd have to be a complete glutton to make it worth it. I don't understand why people are willing to pay for this.

The problem I am having with all of this, is these added costs don't equate to better service, food quality, entertainment. The theming is great, but as a consumer Id rather enjoy a better overall experience, than pay more money, for less time, and free "snacks" like chips, and ice cream bars. And if the free food is anything like the last DVC Moonlight event where they gave away free Hot Dogs its just stupidity honestly.

People should not be paying more money to Disney to say they were able to go, and get in. We should be demanding better quality, service, and entertainment. WDW doesn't even have an evening parade anymore. I mean seriously.

The "perk" is being able to ride 7dmt, pp, Pooh, him, pirates, JC, Space, Buzz etc with virtually no lines. Trouble is I can do all that in a "proper" evening EMH in the summer, of midnight to 3 am.

But whilst that isn't an option, then people WILL pay for the privilege. If one of these was on for our next trip, and there was no old school EMH scheduled, or a DVC event, I'd consider it. If I was only there for a week I'd definitely do it.

I don't begrudge people wanting to go to events like this. At least it's not as often as the party nights, that really would be annoying - to have MK close early 3 or 4 nights a week.
 

NZDisneyFan

Member
I posted a version of this in another thread but there are those of us with different perspectives.

While I will never get to do this event I have a different perspective. I don’t live in America, I got a once in a life time trip to WDW 2 years ago and I would have done this. Those of us who are limited by time on their once in a lifetime trips (or even once every few years) want to do as much as we can in that time. If I can do a huge amount of rides in magic kingdom in three hours and pay $129 you bet I’m going to do that instead of waiting in lines all day. Lines full of AP holders, who get to go any day they want, if they miss a ride they can go back another day, I can’t. You may miss out on a couple of hours but you can literally go back any other day. Also I now have a child and there is no way I would be staying up to do the midnight EMH, she will be in bed a long time before that starts.
 

Much-Pixie-Dust

Well-Known Member
Value is such a subjective thing and to each his own. I too miss EMH days of midnight to 3 am, but I don’t consider myself stupid or a rube because I am choosing to attend one of these events. The rides I want are included, so I am fine that everything isn’t open. The snacks will nice to take when leaving the park, so I don’t feel gluttonous about taking a mickey bar and a bottled water on my way to the car. Honestly, the pricing is consistent with other non-Disney activities like professional sporting events, concerts, and theater productions that some people go to; some on a regular basis and for me, a special occasion event. This event is also a special occasion event. I live over 1,000 miles away and it’s a short trip, so I chose to do it to maximize my time.
 

JediMasterMatt

Well-Known Member

<Insert Goldblum from Jurassic Park .gif> "well... there it is."

There is no stopping this train. Parks simply can't find the line that guests aren't willing to cross. They continue to play chicken with us and nobody is even flinching.

I haven't shared my thoughts on our latest trip to WDW yet; but, this is as good of a place as any. We historically go to WDW the last week of January and other than missing one year to avoid some refurbs and doing DLR instead, we've visited this week (or the 1st in Feb) like clockwork for over the last 10 years.

It's gone from truly being slow (walk on Omnimovers slow) to last week's experience.

Last week was easily busier than my visits to WDW in early June and the 2nd week of July last year.

Our 2017 visit saw a slight uptick in attendance over 2016 the first weekend and into the first few days of the week that I attributed to the NFL Pro Bowl being in town; but, this year was something completely different. It stayed consistently busy all week and by the time we departed on 2/3, I saw gridlock in the MK that I haven't experienced since some holiday season trips I've made.

Last year, I was a huge fan of Disney After Hours as I did the event twice and on both occasions - there were points where you would see more Cast in the streets than guests. This year, it was a different animal on both nights we visited. While you could easily still knock out attraction after attraction, guests were swarming all over the place from the very start of the event to the end. At the very end of the event, the lines for Photopass were 20 deep on both sides of the Partner's statue for last Tuesday's event. Even the Cast Members were amazed by this. *FWIW - I still think DAH is worth it as you can still knock out everything you want in the 3 hours; but, it is definitely not a ghost town like it was before.

This wasn't just a WDW uptick as we also visit Universal during these visits and they were similarly swamped on multiple days.

Other than the last bastion of what is truly the "off season" that is now in that window after Labor Day and runs perhaps two weeks into September (you know when Florida is at it's most Floridaness), I don't think there is any point that is slow. I now hate to say that I'm rethinking how best to tackle Orlando.

I believe it has now moved into the territory of treating it exactly like Disneyland Resort. You are best served to fly directly into the storm to some extent. Disneyland does have some slower periods; but, during those windows refurbs are rampant and shows and services are curtailed. DLR is best toured by avoiding the true peaks around the holidays and picking windows of time before or after them while they are still operating under peak hours and services.

For WDW, unless you can go during the back-to-school nuclear heat window in early September - I now think you may be best suited to visit in those windows going into or out of the summer or winter season holidays. Hours are up and crowds will still be in the busy; but, manageable range so it will be a better balance.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
They are Selling the park twice so many days now. MNSSHP, MVMCP, now Disney After hours. They are eroding the value of a regular ticket in order to resell the park for the late arriving crowd.

Well, they keep doing it and more people keep coming, so people must see value.

Does Disney even factor in value or customer satisfaction into their decisions any more? I dunno.

I'm curious if any insiders know how in general customer satisfaction is? Many here complain, but does the average guest (who isn't necessarily a Disney Parks enthusiast) feel satisfied about their experience at WDW? Many here say value is decreasing, etc., but yet crowds go up and more and more people are visiting... So something isn't quite adding up.

Last week was easily busier than my visits to WDW in early June and the 2nd week of July last year.

Our 2017 visit saw a slight uptick in attendance over 2016 the first weekend and into the first few days of the week that I attributed to the NFL Pro Bowl being in town; but, this year was something completely different. It stayed consistently busy all week and by the time we departed on 2/3, I saw gridlock in the MK that I haven't experienced since some holiday season trips I've made.

Last year, I was a huge fan of Disney After Hours as I did the event twice and on both occasions - there were points where you would see more Cast in the streets than guests. This year, it was a different animal on both nights we visited. While you could easily still knock out attraction after attraction, guests were swarming all over the place from the very start of the event to the end. At the very end of the event, the lines for Photopass were 20 deep on both sides of the Partner's statue for last Tuesday's event. Even the Cast Members were amazed by this. *FWIW - I still think DAH is worth it as you can still knock out everything you want in the 3 hours; but, it is definitely not a ghost town like it was before.

This wasn't just a WDW uptick as we also visit Universal during these visits and they were similarly swamped on multiple days.

I wonder what explains this massive uptick for this time of year? More South American tour groups? Events/Conventions? Anyone have any insight?
 

dizneeboy

Active Member
Perceived value of the offering is obviously situational. If I wasn't an annual passholder and had one day in orlando to see the magic kingdom, this sounds like a great option (free snacks or not). If I had enough budgeted, or unlimited, funds and didn't want to deal with heavy crowds, this also sounds like a great option. No one wants to feel like they aren't getting their moneys worth but its not like Disney originally posted an 11pm closing time and then changed it to 8 to create these events. Sounds like it would have closed at 8 anyway if I went on any of these days.
 

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