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News Disney's Hollywood Studios closing early on October 17, 2023
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
DVCDisneyDan
New Member
My guess is the Gartner IT Symposium. They always have a night at DHS, This year the conference is October 16 - 19
Yes this is it. There is a welcome reception from 6pm to 8:30pm.
Drdcm
Well-Known Member
Right? That’s after hours. Imagine paying them so much that they close the park for you lol
gsansone
Member
See...this is NOT COOL. Treating the parks like a big corporate convention center. Some people save for a long time to make the trip, and they spend a lot of money at WDW. The last thing a family needs to find out is that a park is closing early so that it can be used to welcome convention attendees. Go ahead and have an event somewhere, but don't close it off to the people paying the bills. This, too, was never part of the original vision.
Walt had an entire area for that in the early days of Disneyland... Holidayland. Seriously, it used to be used for corporate events all the time, but wasn't really part of the park itself, in my opinion.
Brian
Well-Known Member
The people who save for a long time to go to WDW should check the posted park hours when planning their visit to ensure that they do not visit during one of very few times in a year in which a park closes early for a whole-park buyout.
Of course, should they fail to research the park hours and end up at WDW on the day of a buy out, they are welcome to visit one of the other three (or in this case, two) other WDW theme parks which operate normal hours, or Disney Springs.
I'm far from a Disney sycophant, but the responsibility for checking park hours rests squarely with the guests. Gartner brings in astronomical sums for Disney, and the buyout alone brought in way more revenue than they can make had the park been open to day guests. Disney would be downright moronic to turn it down because some guests are too lazy to do research when planning their vacation.
Gartner IT Symposium is big business. We were at Boardwalk last year during it and I think they had blocks at all of the deluxe hotels, Coronado, swan, dolphin, and some of the springs hotels as well. It’s an insane conference and brings in a ton of money.
In fact it’s so well attended that you have to be a certain level or being a certain level executive from your company to stay at the deluxe hotels and especially the Boardwalk, Beach, or Yacht club - just a regular conference attendee can’t even book those. They actually segregate the hotels by career level to control capacity. And on top of that, it’s an extremely expensive conference for attendees - $7,200 for private sector and $5,325 for public sector, and that doesn’t even I close hotel, travel, non-provided meals, etc.
8,000 attendees at an average of $6,250.50 an attendee comes out to over $50 million just in registration fees.
In fact it’s so well attended that you have to be a certain level or being a certain level executive from your company to stay at the deluxe hotels and especially the Boardwalk, Beach, or Yacht club - just a regular conference attendee can’t even book those. They actually segregate the hotels by career level to control capacity. And on top of that, it’s an extremely expensive conference for attendees - $7,200 for private sector and $5,325 for public sector, and that doesn’t even I close hotel, travel, non-provided meals, etc.
8,000 attendees at an average of $6,250.50 an attendee comes out to over $50 million just in registration fees.
Fido Chuckwagon
Well-Known Member
People who save for a long time often book their trips before Disney decides to cut park hours for a buyout.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
Exactly. This was only announced a couple months ahead.
Brian
Well-Known Member
In that case, they are welcome to swap their plans around and go to a different park that day and the bought out park on the other. Also, not for nothing, but on days where the park closes early, the crowds tend to be more manageable, so one could theoretically get more/most things done before close during the limited park hours then go either to another park, or if they don't have a hopper, go to Disney Springs or do an activity at the resort.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
That’s when park hours are always announced and we’ve always had to adjust plans at that point. As long as it’s announced before people make ADRs, I don’t see the issue.
It was probably a lovely day in the park for those who can hop out.
It was not, it was a normal cluster starting at 10:30. Was really bummed about that.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
The point made that was correctly refuted was people should check park hours before they book their vacations. Back when WDW used to do things the correct way and put out park hours 6 months in advance and rarely change them, that point could have been made. Now that park hours are adjusted literally up to day of, trying to plan in advance is futile.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Well that stinks. I guess DHS is never pleasant then. Thank goodness they sell hard liquor from carts now.