Early Magic Hours In The Parks?.. Are They Going.?

[dreamfinder]

EMH = Extra Magic Hours, both the morning and evening variety. Yes, it would appear that they are looking into further reductions/eliminations. Between chopping the 3rd hour from the PM ones, to simply reducing the occurrences, it would point to removing them.

It would be such a shame if they go! Disney keeps taking away from the resort guest experience instead of adding to it. First the soon-to-be-implemented limit on Fastpasses, which makes the EMH all the more valuable, followed by the diminution of EMH. Are they TRYING to drive us off-site?

Some people would offer up the opposite argument. Implementation of MDE/FP+/MM/Etc allows them to offer more targeted benefits to on site guests. Staying onsite? Well, you get the ability to book an extra 3 FP+ each day..... Or only offer other NextGen perks to on site guests that requires your use of the MagicBands, and then limit off site guests to RFID enabled tickets instead. Solutions like that would let them hit their magical guest experience numbers, without having to pay to staff 2/3 of the park for an extra 2 hours. Stinks, but look at how many chimed in as to how empty the parks were during the 3rd hour of evening EMH? Everyone said the pars were dead then. It's a fairly easy way for them to greatly reduce their spend, and offset the effects at the cost of off-site guests.

 

[real mad hatter]

EMH = Extra Magic Hours, both the morning and evening variety. Yes, it would appear that they are looking into further reductions/eliminations. Between chopping the 3rd hour from the PM ones, to simply reducing the occurrences, it would point to removing them.



Some people would offer up the opposite argument. Implementation of MDE/FP+/MM/Etc allows them to offer more targeted benefits to on site guests. Staying onsite? Well, you get the ability to book an extra 3 FP+ each day..... Or only offer other NextGen perks to on site guests that requires your use of the MagicBands, and then limit off site guests to RFID enabled tickets instead. Solutions like that would let them hit their magical guest experience numbers, without having to pay to staff 2/3 of the park for an extra 2 hours. Stinks, but look at how many chimed in as to how empty the parks were during the 3rd hour of evening EMH? Everyone said the pars were dead then. It's a fairly easy way for them to greatly reduce their spend, and offset the effects at the cost of off-site guests.

The late hours don't concern me..Iam in bed by midnight.....It's the morning ones I love..Anyway I noticed in October there cut down..

 

[wogwog]

It would be such a shame if they go! Disney keeps taking away from the resort guest experience instead of adding to it. First the soon-to-be-implemented limit on Fastpasses, which makes the EMH all the more valuable, followed by the diminution of EMH. Are they TRYING to drive us off-site?

Disney is simply trying to squeeze labor hours as much as possible until the guests scream stop, enough already. Certain times of the year they miss a guess and schedule a closing at 10 or 11 and often need to extend the park hours an hour to accomodate a larger than expected late attendance and reduce complaints at GR. Now and then they miss the estimate so badly I have heard they even add a second night parade after Wishes.

 

[KB LUVS MGM]

Our family loves EMH. Not only do you get that first hour, you get the next hour until the parks really start to get hopping. We also love the LMH because it is so different when the sun goes down. I also like the hours in between. So I guess I was no help here.

 

[Weather_Lady]

EMH = Extra Magic Hours, both the morning and evening variety. Yes, it would appear that they are looking into further reductions/eliminations. Between chopping the 3rd hour from the PM ones, to simply reducing the occurrences, it would point to removing them.



Some people would offer up the opposite argument. Implementation of MDE/FP+/MM/Etc allows them to offer more targeted benefits to on site guests. Staying onsite? Well, you get the ability to book an extra 3 FP+ each day..... Or only offer other NextGen perks to on site guests that requires your use of the MagicBands, and then limit off site guests to RFID enabled tickets instead. Solutions like that would let them hit their magical guest experience numbers, without having to pay to staff 2/3 of the park for an extra 2 hours. Stinks, but look at how many chimed in as to how empty the parks were during the 3rd hour of evening EMH? Everyone said the pars were dead then. It's a fairly easy way for them to greatly reduce their spend, and offset the effects at the cost of off-site guests.

It would be a fine thing if there were such "solutions" -- but none have been announced yet. Not only that, but 3 extra Fastpasses won't do us much good if we can't select more than 1 or 2 headliners, and/or can't select the same attraction more than once. If Disney decides to do something to offset the loss of EMH for on-site guests, great, but I'll keep whining until they do.

 

[LucyK]

If they do away with EMH they need to seriously upgrade FP+ passes to on-site guests. Maybe upper the number to 5 or 6 and for Pete's sake, don't make me choose between HOP and CBJ, I want all of them to be either BTMRR or Splash!

But seriously, I rather they keep EMH and I'll be very vocal about it if they go away. I love morning EMH, they are the best, the park is almost empty and I can ride all my favorites before some people are even out of their beds!

 

[tare]

It would be such a shame if they go! Disney keeps taking away from the resort guest experience instead of adding to it. First the soon-to-be-implemented limit on Fastpasses, which makes the EMH all the more valuable, followed by the diminution of EMH. Are they TRYING to drive us off-site?

This is so true!!!

 

[GrimGrinningGhost15]

Just looked at the calendar for January that is on the wdwmagic main page... and there are almost no extra magic hours. A few in the morning but my almost-husband and I are night owls and were so looking forward to being out later and sleeping in since it will be just us two! What a bummer.

 

[WDWVolFan]

Could Disney make those a seasonal thing, only for moderate to peak weeks/months, therefore giving an extra incentive for you to stay on-site?

 

[DisneyGal1221]

We are going the first full week in October and there are EMH almost every day, but they are at most two extra hours in the evening (to 11pm) and 1 hour in the morning. I do enjoy the really late nights - though sometimes I simply don't have the energy to go until 1am - but i am thinking its due to that week being generally light crowds and thus not warranting staying open so late. I really hope they don't do away with the EMH, the early mornings at DHS and AK are some of my favorites.

Do they actually enforce having to be an on-site guest? I always stay on-site but i don't remember seeing people turned away recently.

 

[taz0162]

We have utilized the early morning hours to take advantage of experiencing Fantasylands attractions before the non resort guests arrived. No lines in the morning is great. As for late closing hours ...Love them the park is a different place at night. Jungle cruise has more of a "what's that hiding in the trees and plants?" type feel to it. Even the lands feel different. A lot calmer. The only problem at night is that it is easy to loose members of your party.

 

[DisneyDelirious]

[Do they actually enforce having to be an on-site guest? I always stay on-site but i don't remember seeing people turned away recently.[/quote]
Staying in the park isn't difficult, but they check you for your KTTW before you can get in the queue. I'm assuming this will change to your magic band being recognized when they transition over to that.