How WDW Co. spins ...

[jaklgreen]

I think this is Disney's way of testing out how many people are willing to pay for extra magic hours. I would not be surprised if they started charging for this "privilege". Maybe not $150 but something. Especially if they start selling out of this.

 

[olie64]

I think that is crap to punish the kids' academics because of the decision the parents made. It is not like the child has a choice. Any teacher or educator that punishes kids for this should be fired IMO. When it comes down to it, they are our children, not the school systems. This is not a communist state. Letting kids skip school or letting them be delinquents is one thing but going on a family vacation(which usually means there is a good family base at home) should not be punished in any way. Schools are always saying how families are important and parents should be involved in their kids life. What better way of being a "family" then going on vacation together. I have pulled my kids out of school for Disney trips and for out of town family weddings and they do just fine. In fact they are both honor students.

Generally if they are told about it an advance most school and teachers will work with the student and won't care too much.

 

[Baloo62]

One way to look at it is if you stay off site instead of on property you can probably easily save more than $600 on a weekly stay and still get your one night of EMHs

EMH hasn't been a good deal for a very long time. In fact many people are starting to realize that by avoiding the park with EMH you avoid the large crowds from Disney's 30,000+ hotel room guests all trying to take advantage of the EMH.

This pretty much outlines our approach since 2011. My wife and I were die-hard resort guests beginning in the mid-90's. We've stayed in many, many Disney resorts in all price ranges from the All Stars to the Contemporary (the cabins at Fort Wilderness were our favorites because they were the roomiest for the $$$). As our three children (and I) got older, it became obvious that everyone needed their own private space and bathrooms. We just came back last week from our 6th stay at Windsor Hills Resort through All Star Vacation Homes. It is literally a five minute drive to the property. For $205 a night (during peak time!) we get three bedrooms, three full baths, a washer-dryer, private pool, and full kitchen. I couldn't get two Value rooms at Disney for that - even during the slowest times of the year. The boy's rooms have always had Disney decor so I don't feel we even miss out on the "magic"...certainly not enough to spend $400+ a night for a glorified Hampton Inn double-queen room. Because we can no longer take advantage of any EMHs, we have adopted the "go to a non-EMH park" strategy and always get there before opening. We are able to ride/see everything (multiple times if desired) with little to no waits - even during Christmas and Thanksgiving! I can see where being able to buy the EMH privilege, even at $150 a pop, would cause guests to re-think the obscenely inflated rates of a Disney room. Personally I would love to see this backfire in Disney's greedy face.

 

[Mike S]

I think this is Disney's way of testing out how many people are willing to pay for extra magic hours. I would not be surprised if they started charging for this "privilege". Maybe not $150 but something. Especially if they start selling out of this.

It's a slippery slope my friend.

 

[jaklgreen]

Generally if they are told about it an advance most school and teachers will work with the student and won't care too much.

Our district was just fine with people taking kids out of school for a WDW vacation. Many of the teachers went themselves. I was responding more to those who where saying that the district they live in does not "allow" kids to take time off of school for vacation. Which to me is crap since they are our children. NeartheEars posted that where they lived the children were punished, that is not OK in my book. Others have even posted that they have to ask for permission to take their kids out, also not OK with me.

 

[epcotWSC]

I think this is Disney's way of testing out how many people are willing to pay for extra magic hours. I would not be surprised if they started charging for this "privilege". Maybe not $150 but something. Especially if they start selling out of this.

There are four days a week where there are no PM EMH (Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday).

So, EMH is the perk for the people who are staying on property. It's an easy incentive (even though it's not worth much these days since there are so many people who stay on Disney property anyway). If people are already staying on Disney property, that's money for Disney. No need to charge them extra for this so called perk or take it away.

Now let's take those other nights and make them paid after hours nights. Even if you make it for just Magic Kingdom and/or Epcot. It's the exclusive, low crowd option that the wealthy would be willing to pay for. The amount you're paying for labor and operational costs would be minuscule compared to what people are willing to pay for this option.

So you could easily offer EMH at night three days a week and paid exclusive "Disney After Hours" on the other four nights and rack in tons of money. Imagine Disney pulling in $2M extra every week just for keeping their parks open for an extra 12 hours (or $104M per year). If that $104M was invested back into the park, then I'd think, great, let the rich pay extra for their exclusive park time. Unfortunately, we know that won't be what's done with the money.

 

[GoofGoof]

I think the key here is that this could replace purchasing a daytime ticket. This gives you in the best case 7 full hours of park time, with 3 of those where you can race through the park and do everything with no wait. If for example you could get the same benefit of going to the park 2 days you could save yourself 1 hotel night stay plus the cost of 2 days of regular park tickets as well as probably skip a meal for the family so long as your okay with just eating ice cream.

This is true. If you are buying 1 day tickets it might actually not be a terrible deal. It's a 50% increase on the price and you only get 7 hours in the park instead of 12 but 3 of the 7 hours are extremely low crowd hours where you may be able to do 3 times the rides due to no wait. For anyone buying APs or multi-day tickets it's a terrible value.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

Our district was just fine with people taking kids out of school for a WDW vacation. Many of the teachers went themselves. I was responding more to those who where saying that the district they live in does not "allow" kids to take time off of school for vacation. Which to me is crap since they are our children. NeartheEars posted that where they lived the children were punished, that is not OK in my book. Others have even posted that they have to ask for permission to take their kids out, also not OK with me.

My brother's school district does not allow the students to take extra time off. If they do, they are not permitted to make up the work that they miss.

 

[s8film40]

This is true. If you are buying 1 day tickets it might actually not be a terrible deal. It's a 50% increase on the price and you only get 7 hours in the park instead of 12 but 3 of the 7 hours are extremely low crowd hours where you may be able to do 3 times the rides due to no wait. For anyone buying APs or multi-day tickets it's a terrible value.

Yeah I've known people who've spent a long very busy day at MK and only been able to see a handful of attractions. This is a great alternative for someone looking to go to WDW for only one day. Of course it surprising because Disney has spent years trying to eliminate options like this.

 

[Brewmaster]

There are academic penalties, plus if there was no communication with the school that the student would be out, truant officers, or other officials would be investigating. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that students at my school could only have a set number of "unexcused" absences each year. If we went over that number, they could fail you for that year.


View attachment 135543

Indeed, against the law (technically) in Texas too. http://www.mytexaspublicschool.org/Preparation-and-Enrollment/Attendance-Requirements.aspx

 

[seabreezept813]

It's perfectly legal in the states. It's highly dependent on the school and even the teacher whether it's generally acceptable or frowned upon but it's legally allowed. Generally speaking the younger the kid the more acceptable it is. Once you get to high school level between the school work load and after school activities it's much more difficult to do. It also can depend on how well the kid does in school. A kid who is smart and handles the school work easily can miss a week and usually not miss a beat while a kid who struggles with academics or behavior is more likely to have issues. Even within schools I've heard of individual teachers who are opposed to the practice of pulling kids for vacation and will give parents a hard time. In a lot of cases these are teachers who raised their own kids and didn't pull them from school for vacation so they feel you shouldn't either. Of course they are teachers and wouldn't be able to take off for a week during school anyway so it wasn't a debate for them.

As a high school teacher, it actually does not bother me when kids are pulled out for vacation, as long as they can independently make up the work. In certain professions, adults really can't take vacation time during the summer. And while school is important, education comes in many forms. Kids need solid family time and experiences. Of course some families will abuse this practice, but they are the minority. Whenever a kid tells me they are going to Florida and will miss a few days, I just give them an honest report of how much work they will miss and tell them to say hi to Mickey for me. Because let's be honest, I'm just jealous that I can't go in the off season.

Generally if they are told about it an advance most school and teachers will work with the student and won't care too much.

 

[GoofGoof]

As a high school teacher, it actually does not bother me when kids are pulled out for vacation, as long as they can independently make up the work. In certain professions, adults really can't take vacation time during the summer. And while school is important, education comes in many forms. Kids need solid family time and experiences. Of course some families will abuse this practice, but they are the minority. Whenever a kid tells me they are going to Florida and will miss a few days, I just give them an honest report of how much work they will miss and tell them to say hi to Mickey for me. Because let's be honest, I'm just jealous that I can't go in the off season.

I agree about family time and learning outside of school. With high school sports and other activities taken so seriously these days it may not be the school work that prevents a student from going. I know a few high school kids who would get a much harder time from their coaches than a teacher. Then again some kids get lucky and get to go to WDW with a team or the band in high school. I always wished I got to do that, but it was never offered at my school

 

[Animaniac93-98]

My opinion is based on having friends who are teachers. When parents take responsibility like you did, the vacations aren't problems. Most parents don't take personal responsibility for it.

That certainly can be the case, and you and others are free to have that opinion, but I don't believe on outright banning all students and parents from having the choice. As with any other scenario involving an assignment or test, if the student fails to do the work they should get the appropriate grade.

 

[JoeCamel]

This is so far off topic I shouldn't but I have very little self control so here goes.

You know how schools get money? Student days. They are paid per pupil per day so they require you to keep your kid in school if you register them at the beginning of the year. In some places mandated by the state but the admin will do everything they can to have as many students in school each day that they can.

Maybe it is a business?

 

[wdwfan4ver]

How did they enforce this? If a family just took a vacation came back and said "oh we were at WDW" what would they do?

Back in my public school days aka 1980's and 1990's, I know that I would've been in hot water water back in elementary school and middle school for sure. I am going by memory. All I know growing up my parents made sure that I handed in a letter whenever I was not in school. I'm guessing there would have been penalties. I said guessing since it is possible for anyone not to recall everything over 20 years ago.

The other thing is I didn't remember any students in any of the classes I went to for vacation on days there was school.

 

[Cesar R M]

I think this is Disney's way of testing out how many people are willing to pay for extra magic hours. I would not be surprised if they started charging for this "privilege". Maybe not $150 but something. Especially if they start selling out of this.

well, that would pretty much destroy most of the benefits of staying at Disney "premium" priced hotels.

 

[Cesar R M]

There are four days a week where there are no PM EMH (Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday).

So, EMH is the perk for the people who are staying on property. It's an easy incentive (even though it's not worth much these days since there are so many people who stay on Disney property anyway). If people are already staying on Disney property, that's money for Disney. No need to charge them extra for this so called perk or take it away.

Now let's take those other nights and make them paid after hours nights. Even if you make it for just Magic Kingdom and/or Epcot. It's the exclusive, low crowd option that the wealthy would be willing to pay for. The amount you're paying for labor and operational costs would be minuscule compared to what people are willing to pay for this option.

So you could easily offer EMH at night three days a week and paid exclusive "Disney After Hours" on the other four nights and rack in tons of money. Imagine Disney pulling in $2M extra every week just for keeping their parks open for an extra 12 hours (or $104M per year). If that $104M was invested back into the park, then I'd think, great, let the rich pay extra for their exclusive park time. Unfortunately, we know that won't be what's done with the money.

I actually wonder how heavy the load would be on the park, thus increasing the wear and tear on the attractions.
Could we get another Space Mountain type accident in the future?

 

[jaklgreen]

There are four days a week where there are no PM EMH (Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday).

So, EMH is the perk for the people who are staying on property. It's an easy incentive (even though it's not worth much these days since there are so many people who stay on Disney property anyway). If people are already staying on Disney property, that's money for Disney. No need to charge them extra for this so called perk or take it away.

Now let's take those other nights and make them paid after hours nights. Even if you make it for just Magic Kingdom and/or Epcot. It's the exclusive, low crowd option that the wealthy would be willing to pay for. The amount you're paying for labor and operational costs would be minuscule compared to what people are willing to pay for this option.

So you could easily offer EMH at night three days a week and paid exclusive "Disney After Hours" on the other four nights and rack in tons of money. Imagine Disney pulling in $2M extra every week just for keeping their parks open for an extra 12 hours (or $104M per year). If that $104M was invested back into the park, then I'd think, great, let the rich pay extra for their exclusive park time. Unfortunately, we know that won't be what's done with the money.

I'm just saying that they could be testing how many people will pay for EMH, which this is. I do not think it is out of the scope of possibility that Disney might eventually do this. I have taken surveys asking whether or not I would be willing to pay for taking the buses to the parks from the resort. I think that if Disney thinks it could get away with charging for that then they would. I mean, look at how this is presented. They are saying that this is an special perk for those staying on property, just like EMH. So how special do you feel paying for EMH when it is already offered for free. Granted they might let less people in but who knows, they will never release a figure.

 

[NearTheEars]

I think that is crap to punish the kids' academics because of the decision the parents made. It is not like the child has a choice. Any teacher or educator that punishes kids for this should be fired IMO. When it comes down to it, they are our children, not the school systems. This is not a communist state. Letting kids skip school or letting them be delinquents is one thing but going on a family vacation(which usually means there is a good family base at home) should not be punished in any way. Schools are always saying how families are important and parents should be involved in their kids life. What better way of being a "family" then going on vacation together. I have pulled my kids out of school for Disney trips and for out of town family weddings and they do just fine. In fact they are both honor students.

I think it's more about making parents more responsible for their child's education.
A student falling behind by a full week could be detrimental to not just them, but their class as a whole.
Even if they are doing homework in the car, or hotel, they are still missing full days of school.

That's all just my opinion and I recognize that you've made good points as well.
Maybe I'd see things differently if I had been pulled out for a week during the term for a vacation, but I never had that experience.

 

[NearTheEars]

This is so far off topic I shouldn't but I have very little self control so here goes.

You know how schools get money? Student days. They are paid per pupil per day so they require you to keep your kid in school if you register them at the beginning of the year. In some places mandated by the state but the admin will do everything they can to have as many students in school each day that they can.

Maybe it is a business?

Yeah, sorry for helping derail. I don't even remember where we got off track.