Early Park Mornings

[Epcot Dave]

To All-
We are going to WDW in September and we are wondering the status and days of the Early Park Mornings. Are the still doing this for WDW resort guests?
Thanks!

 

[Thrawn]

Early Entry is gone, probably never to return, unfortunately.

 

[fanofwdw]

Replaced by Character Caravan

Due to Sept. 11, Disney cancelled these in October. Instead they do Character Caravans, sending groups of characters to the resorts in the mornings. You can read more about it at http://www.wdwig.com/charcrvn.htm.

 

[WDWManic]

That stinks, who carres abou the characters at the resorts.... I wan early entry!!! Lol

 

[WDWManic]

SO... the only reason they cosed early entry was because of Sept. 11th?

 

[AliciaLuvzDizne]

Originally posted by WDWManic
SO... the only reason they cosed early entry was because of Sept. 11th?

And umm is this because terrorists ONLY attack in the morning time??? I dont get the connection between sept 11 and ending early entry...

 

[Yellow Shoes]

After Sept 11, attendance dropped dramatically because people were afraid to fly and "W" told us to stay home and hug our children.

WDW's response was to
slash its employee roster, to the point of closing Port Orleans (the hotel formerly known as Dixie Landings),
closed parts of other resorts
Cut park hours
Laid off casts of live shows and cutting their frequency (for example, there were 2 casts of Indiana Jones, and one was let go)
and.......... eliminated early entry.

As many have said, we early birds fear it is gone forever.

 

[pheneix]

Sept. 11th was an excuse to discontinue Early Entry. The reality is that Disney was trying to find away to discontinue EE for a while, because it provided no income on it's own, and for the most part costed money to run. Sept. 11th was just a good excuse to discontinue the perk and to make many other cutbacks that Disney had planned.

 

[Becky]

In the old (not really that long ago) days you had early entry and the parks were open late. Now there is no early entry and (See September) they throw you out of MK at 6. Then they charge you $12 to get back in. Hum they have enough people to reopen MK three days a week (@ $12 per person) but they don't have enough people for early entry. :animwink:

Think about this too. The gate price with tax is $50.88 when MK closes at 10 or 11 and the same when it closes at 6. :veryconfu

 

[pheneix]

>>>Hum they have enough people to reopen MK three days a week (@ $12 per person) but they don't have enough people for early entry.<<<

They can't charge for Early Entry.

 

[Pan]

The only way to get EE back is if people stopped staying at the Disney resorts because of the lack of this perk. We considered it at our trip last Feb. but in the end still stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside. There are too many other benefits of staying at a Disney resort such as the transportation, not to mention the intangible aspects of the place, being surrounded by Disney 24 hours a day.

However they were also offering a great discount rate at the time. If they return to their usually overpriced rates, I might think again about staying off-site.

By the way, I've been out of the loop here for awhile. Has attendance returned to pre Sept 11 norms? And I think the poor economy has more to do with diminished attendance this past 6 mo more than any terrorists.

 

[pheneix]

>>>Has attendance returned to pre Sept 11 norms?<<<

No, at least not at WDW. It is currently down 6-8% (to the average guest, that is NOTHING, so don't look for shorter lines). Room occupacy is the real problem though. I don't have the specific numbers, but I have been told that it is "well below" normal occupacy, which around 90% at this time of the year.