News Disney Villains After Hours coming to the Magic Kingdom

[eliza61nyc]

True...but the biggest myth in Disneydom is that all opinions are of equal value...they are not

Don’t believe me...your prophet has spoken here as well

Actually I think the only opinions that really matter are of the people who are purchasing the product.
If the "standards" are soo low, it will manifest itself.

I never stayed in any park to midnight so I really don't have a horse in this race but I am considering maybe cutting my days on my park tickets by two and just do an event.

 

[marni1971]

As usual the haters are out in full force

The usual mugs are too it seems.

 

[marni1971]

So far the bitterness seems to be outweighing the excitement.

On this board? Who’da thunk it?

That’s the great thing about Magic. It doesn’t butter things up.

But there’s plenty of can-do-no-wrong boards elsewhere.

 

[monothingie]

Best times were always at EMH when they ran until 2 am, gone are those days

Haha 2AM. I remember being chased out at 3:30AM I wish I could find the picture of me at 3AM in front of the clock on Main Street.

 

[LuvWDW2]

Haha 2AM. I remember being chased out at 3:30AM I wish I could find the picture of me at 3AM in front of the clock on Main Street.

Those were the days!!!! DS was 9 and he was SO proud of himself making it all the way to 3 am (with one last ride on Space Mountain at close).

 

[bunnyman]

Not trying to be a hater, but with infrequent EMH and more of these ticketed nightly events, what exactly are the benefits of staying on property? Looking at next week's calendar for instance, there are only two nights in any park with EMH; it wasn't that many years ago that there was one 5 or so nights a week in any park. Add to that the resort parking fees, etc...

 

[marni1971]

At least I dont get personally offended over the operation of a theme park!

I know. Imagine that.

 

[ppete1975]

my only issue with this and one of my only huge grips against Disney.
They need to give everyone they are kicking out early that only have a ticket to MK a park hopper for that day.
I'm sorry that we are closing earlier than normal but you can visit any of the other parks the rest of the day. Heck this has been made so easy now with magic bands, it could all me done automagically.
Look at it this way

• How many people only buy a ticket to just MK (no park hopper for the day)
• How many first timers are you ing off because they didn't do any research and didn't know the park was closing early (I get it, its their fault blah blah blah)
• What does it cost Disney to do this (answer is 0)
• How many people would experience a park they would never have went to, and now will come for more days and spread out the herd a bit (the walt Disney world=MK people)

 

[LuvWDW2]

my only issue with this and one of my only huge grips against Disney.
They need to give everyone they are kicking out early that only have a ticket to MK a park hopper for that day.
I'm sorry that we are closing earlier than normal but you can visit any of the other parks the rest of the day. Heck this has been made so easy now with magic bands, it could all me done automagically.
Look at it this way

• How many people only buy a ticket to just MK (no park hopper for the day)
• How many first timers are you ****ing off because they didn't do any research and didn't know the park was closing early (I get it, its their fault blah blah blah)
• What does it cost Disney to do this (answer is 0)
• How many people would experience a park they would never have went to, and now will come for more days and spread out the herd a bit (the walt Disney world=MK people)

Nope. I pay to park hop. If someone is careless enough to go to a theme park not knowing anything about the operating hours that day, they don’t get a paid option for free. Sorry not sorry.

 

[Missing20K]

I would say it took an equal amount of time to experience an equal number of attractions. The lines were, on average, somewhat shorter, but the attractions that were actually open were spread far apart so there was much more walking in between things. The general feeling of "crowded-ness" was far worse. Experiencing the party-specific offerings was a complete nightmare of crowds. You couldn't get anywhere close to the parade route without being trampled.

If someone asked me for my MNSSHP recommendation, I'd tell them to watch the parade on YouTube and stay far far away.

Equal time being the total of time spent in the parks, yes? So in this scenario one could spend the whole day, going back and forth from the park as they wished and experiencing X attractions for Y hours. Or, one could spend the last few hours of the day, to experience X attractions in Y hours, but they would have to cram it all in and not be able to leave the park and return. Not judging which is better, I'm sure it varies depending on the parties involved.

All of this is assuming one does not care for the "party" events and just wants to crank out as many major attractions as possible. Crowding notwithstanding, I imagine there could be some calculations that suggest a hard ticket event is a better value per each ride at a major attraction than a general admission ticket.

Not sure this would appeal to me and mine as we enjoy the theming, casually strolling, slower paced shows and attractions that would be shuttered during the hard ticket events, but maybe once just in an attempt to experience a "pseudo E-night" one more time. I greatly enjoyed the super late nights in the parks.

 

[Patcheslee]

my only issue with this and one of my only huge grips against Disney.
They need to give everyone they are kicking out early that only have a ticket to MK a park hopper for that day.
I'm sorry that we are closing earlier than normal but you can visit any of the other parks the rest of the day. Heck this has been made so easy now with magic bands, it could all me done automagically.
Look at it this way

• How many people only buy a ticket to just MK (no park hopper for the day)
• How many first timers are you ****ing off because they didn't do any research and didn't know the park was closing early (I get it, its their fault blah blah blah)
• What does it cost Disney to do this (answer is 0)
• How many people would experience a park they would never have went to, and now will come for more days and spread out the herd a bit (the walt Disney world=MK people)

They don't kick day guests out until the advertised park closing time for the After Hours events. At this point that is anywhere from 8:30pm-10pm.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The usual mugs are too it seems.

The loss of value and increase of prices never fails to generate thunderous applause from the “faithful”

That’s the great thing about Magic. It doesn’t butter things up.

But there’s plenty of can-do-no-wrong boards elsewhere.

Hey...it’s tough selling outdated vacation packages from your travel agency if everyone isn’t “happy”

At least I dont get personally offended over the operation of a theme park!

But you also never get offended about anything...as proven by the standard first sentence of near every response.

I’ll give you an example where it’s warranted. If they close the park on a high crowd day at 10 pm on July 20th to sell another $125 ticket from 10-1...you damn well should be. Because you paid for the whole day...and on that day the ops calendar would have dictated 9-11,12,1 for 40 years. No need for a square wheel that makes the car bumpy. Limits and priorities

The truth is somewhere in the “middle” of the rainbow.

Generally speaking...when you patronize, ya got nothing.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Not trying to be a hater, but with infrequent EMH and more of these ticketed nightly events, what exactly are the benefits of staying on property? Looking at next week's calendar for instance, there are only two nights in any park with EMH; it wasn't that many years ago that there was one 5 or so nights a week in any park. Add to that the resort parking fees, etc...

The writings on the wall on emh...

The customers are allowing them to “re-monetize” operational hours with upsells...emh is a hindrance to tnat.

I would expect it to go to the Disneyland “one Magic morning”...then go away all together.

You’re staying on property for the label and the transport now...and warm and fuzzies. But they even have dabbled in selling transport now too. Stay tuned

 

[Disvillain63]

Remember when E ride night was $12?


$$$$$$$$$$ grab

The first time we went to E-ride night it was $10. This was somewhere around 1995-98. It was a new offering that had just been started a few weeks before. Back then, we went to the parks in October. We enjoyed those nights.

 

[PuertoRekinSam]

I have a friend who works for the parks in one of the office buildings (so not a bus driver) who was home for our 20th reunion last week and he said something along the lines of:

Give it 10 years... when a one day ticket is about to breach $200 a day for a “normal” day, the A-E ticket concept will be back. There will be one all inclusive ticket like today for the $200 price point. And then to appeal to the “middle class” there will be a park admission for around $100 and you pay by the attraction after that. All the MDX touch points will charge your magic bands the price of the ride.

He didn’t have proof for this, but said it’s the only logical step after date based tickets.

 

[Piebald]

I like the passholder nights they do, but I'd never pay extra for these things as an AP.

 

[dreday3]

I'm going to make a prediction of some new parties.

Party at the Boardwalk!!!

Party at Stormalong Bay!!!

Party at Trader Sams!!!

Party on the Monorail Concourse at Contemporary!!!

(all of the above with a tasting menu and cocktails. All areas will be closed to non-ticket holders)

 

[FerretAfros]

They'll extend when we get closer. They always do.

People like to say (in March/April): Park hours this summer are shorter than they used to be! But then nobody likes to update their comments when summer actually arrives and Disney is adding hours left and right.

When Avatar and Toy Story Land opened, Disney was doing 8am openings and 7am EMH every single day for months at a time. Those are added hours that they didn't do "in the good old days." You can't just take a small sliver of total park hours (MK evening EMH in the summer) and make blanket statements about park hours more generally.

On my last trip, MK opened at 8am almost every day, and it was just a normal week, not a holiday.

Scheduled park hours are like rack rates. Disney posts the lowest possible hours and highest possible rack rates and then adjusts as they get more information about projected crowd levels.

I know this is what they've done for a few years now and we're just supposed to accept it, but it's one of the most infuriating things that Disney does. Guests are expected to arrange the details of their itineraries months in advance, yet Disney can't figure out whether or not its flagship park will be busy in July.

Perhaps if they weren't the nation's leading family vacation destination, or if they didn't have nearly 5 decades of experience, or if they were on the verge of bankruptcy, I would have a little more sympathy for this sort of thing. It just reeks of desperation to do the absolute bare minimum, while simultaneously putting unnecessary burdens on the guests.

Disney sells a premium product and is the industry leader, but acts like they've never done this before and they're not quite sure whether or not this whole theme park thing will still be around in 6 months. It's not unreasonable to expect them to know in April what they're doing this summer, or to expect them to have minimal fluctuations in hours over the course of any given week.

Disneyland is open 8am to midnight during all weekends and busy periods throughout the entire year, and has been for decades. Why can't MK figure out a similarly consistent schedule? Why are WDW guests only given the bare minimum, while being charged exorbitant prices and being forced to use unwieldy planning tools to get any sort of value out of their time?

This is an unforced error on Disney's part. It makes them look petty and aloof, with very little meaningful benefit. For a company that charges premium prices and positions itself as a premium product, it really isn't a good look.

 

[jt04]

Since the Villains special event was such an amazing success at DHS it is really surprising they did not do this sooner. And it would also be surprising if they have announced all the details.

Supply meets demand.

 

[monothingie]

I know this is what they've done for a few years now and we're just supposed to accept it, but it's one of the most infuriating things that Disney does. Guests are expected to arrange the details of their itineraries months in advance, yet Disney can't figure out whether or not its flagship park will be busy in July.

Perhaps if they weren't the nation's leading family vacation destination, or if they didn't have nearly 5 decades of experience, or if they were on the verge of bankruptcy, I would have a little more sympathy for this sort of thing. It just reeks of desperation to do the absolute bare minimum, while simultaneously putting unnecessary burdens on the guests.

Disney sells a premium product and is the industry leader, but acts like they've never done this before and they're not quite sure whether or not this whole theme park thing will still be around in 6 months. It's not unreasonable to expect them to know in April what they're doing this summer, or to expect them to have minimal fluctuations in hours over the course of any given week.

Disneyland is open 8am to midnight during all weekends and busy periods throughout the entire year, and has been for decades. Why can't MK figure out a similarly consistent schedule? Why are WDW guests only given the bare minimum, while being charged exorbitant prices and being forced to use unwieldy planning tools to get any sort of value out of their time?

This is an unforced error on Disney's part. It makes them look petty and aloof, with very little meaningful benefit. For a company that charges premium prices and positions itself as a premium product, it really isn't a good look.

When a 9 PM close turns into an 11PM close everyone gets happy. This is not an unforced error, they are very deliberate in their operational hours because every additional hour above the minimum becomes a profit/loss problem. Disney will only extend hours if they feel the parks can be filled to XX Percent. It’s the reason why DHS (pre SWGE) and DAK never went consistently past 9PM, even during peak periods.

The one exception I’ve never understood is EPCOT during festivals. The latest they close is 10PM during F&W on weekends. EPCOT during festivals can easily support 12 AM closings, but there may be other factors (DrunkieCot) affecting this.