Magic Kingdon Hours September

[Tiger45]

I am going to WDW in September and just noticed that they recently changed the hours of park operations during that time. WE have already made our dining reservations and planned the BB Botique & Pirate on the 24th, which appeared to be a MNSSHP day, but may not be on that date now with these changes.

Has anyone else noticed or experienced this?

Never seen Disney do this before, that is the point in having the park hours posted 7 months out and allowing reservations for events and meals 180 days prior.

It looks like these changes are permanent, but still unofficially official. LOL

Check out this site:
http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney...y-halloween-walt-disney-worlds-magic-kingdom/

165 days until WDW

 

[mike7904]

Just looked at the Disney site and the calendar for september does look different. according to how it looks now the MNSSHP would be on Tuesday and Saturday and not start until 9/14. I too hope this is wrong as we had made our ADR's hoping for MNSSP on either 9/3 or 9/8 which were 7pm closings on the original calendar.

 

[disneydudette]

The original speculation of dates actually commented on how early MNSSHP "could" be starting this year:

From Mouseplanet.com

Tickets are expected to go on sale May 1 as usual for this fall's Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party hard-ticketed events at the Magic Kingdom.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party will again be held on 25 nights from mid-September through the night after Halloween, running September 3, 8, 14, 17, 21, 24, 28, and 30, October 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, and 31, and November 1. The September 3 start date is the earliest ever, with the Night of Joy event (which returns to the Magic Kingdom this year) moving back one week to September 10 and 11.

Unfortunately... Disney has the right to adjust dates as everything is "subject to change" based on expected occupency and crowd levels.

The MK has to be fully decked out to support MNSSHP... 9/3 falls before Labor Day... 9/8 only two days after... and as the last major weekend of the summer... it doesn't surprise me that Disney has "held off" on the idea of offering parties those nights.

Frankly the fact that not a single Sept promotion (or even late August for that matter) has been offered is more of a concern to me.

We too are in a similar situation (9/27 - 10/2) and have a week long list of ADRs booked with hopes of a party on the 28th.

 

[mike7904]

Fully understand that they can make any change they want but I do know that the first party last year was Sept 4, also before Labor Day. If they were going to extend the regular park hours because they weren't going to be starting the party would be one thing but right now the hours for Friday of Labor day weekend, 9/03, look like this: AK 9am-5pm, DHS 9am-7pm, MK 9am-9pm, and EPCOT 9am-9pm with EMH 9pm -12am. So it looks like only EPCOT is looking to keep guests in the park for the start of the weekend and MK closing at 9pm instead of 12am with the party is losing 3 hours of guests spending money. Just my 2cents, will have a fun time regardless, just may have to adjust some ADRs if these new hours hold true.

 

[disneydudette]

Fully understand that they can make any change they want but I do know that the first party last year was Sept 4, also before Labor Day.

You're right! I somehow missed that!

I find it odd that the next date following that party was almost a week later though (September: 4, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29 2009) Perhaps Disney was really pushing for an event that weekend... but I wonder what changed from last year to this? :shrug:

There's so many rumors about this Sept season... including Free Dinning not returning (which recent events support). I've given up on the "assumption" game...

Glad to hear the potential change in times won't affect your vacation [too much ]

 

[NewfieFan]

The original speculation of dates actually commented on how early MNSSHP "could" be starting this year:

From Mouseplanet.com


Unfortunately... Disney has the right to adjust dates as everything is "subject to change" based on expected occupency and crowd levels.

The MK has to be fully decked out to support MNSSHP... 9/3 falls before Labor Day... 9/8 only two days after... and as the last major weekend of the summer... it doesn't surprise me that Disney has "held off" on the idea of offering parties those nights.

Frankly the fact that not a single Sept promotion (or even late August for that matter) has been offered is more of a concern to me.

We too are in a similar situation (9/27 - 10/2) and have a week long list of ADRs booked with hopes of a party on the 28th.

Well, last year they had the MK decked out before August was gone... so they certainly don't mind putting it up early! (And they pretty much put it up over night!)

Just curious... what concerns you about no promotions/offers? Do you think they're going to offer none? I can't see Disney getting away with nothing for the end of August/Sept. It is their value season after all!?! I'm just guessing too! :shrug:

 

[disneydudette]

Just curious... what concerns you about no promotions/offers? Do you think they're going to offer none? I can't see Disney getting away with nothing for the end of August/Sept. It is their value season after all!?! I'm just guessing too! :shrug:

It's been previously mentioned by management that discounts would be on the "lighter" side this Sept season.

Last year, Free Dinning was released 3/30... the year before 4/10... and the year before that 4/12. The next package/promotion for the aug/sept/oct timeframe wasn't released until late June/July.

Evidence supports that Disney will not be releasing a Free Dinning promotion this year, or at least the FD package thats been released over the last 3 years... perhaps a much smaller, scaled back version if one at all. Most speculate the FD promotion will move to early Dec.

Of course a promotion will be released... but I certianly don't have the patience to wait for it come out Typically one would expect a new promotion to be released at the end of another. So when the last promotion ended... disney re-introduced the "up to 30% off summer dates" INSTEAD of a fall promotion. *sighs*

It's certainly a waiting game...

 

[dnalorg]

We had ADRs for Cinderella's Royal Table on Saturday September 18th at 8:30pm. We got a call yesterday stating that the park had changed their hours and was now closing at 7pm instead of 11pm and our reservation time was no longer available. So it appears they have indeed rearranged things.

 

[wdwwdeagle]

Just a couple points, anecdotally....

We went to WDW last year over Labor Day weekend, and it was pretty much a ghost town until Monday (Labor Day itself), when it was packed (probably lots of locals). In fact, on that Saturday, I overheard a conversation b/t two CMs at EPCOT, one a management type, the other a regular employee, in which the more senior CM remarked that the Labor Day weekend the year before (2008) had been a mad house, and this year (2009) was "dead" at the parks.

The MNSSHP was held that Friday night, 9/4 (we didn't attend), but if there wasn't a large turnout (which I expect was the case based on overall attendance), it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't offer it again this year on that early of a date. My guess (purely a guess) is that they initially planned that they would offer it, but then haven't liked the way things are projecting based on reservations, and are concerned about continued low attendance. They certainly don't want to lose money on the party. This would also explain the shorter overall park hours for that Friday.

On the flip side of that, I would guess (again, just my guess) that low attendance may inspire some deals to come out for the fall. Last month, I was able to book a bounceback for Sept. for 45% off a deluxe villa, so maybe that's a precursor to what will be offered to the gen. public in the near future. Let's hope so!

 

[draybook]

I just checked the site and the only change for us is 2 added hours at MK on the 8th.:sohappy:

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

man am i glad i saw this post. i had no idea they changed the park hours! :veryconfu this has me really perterbed. i had my whole plan for which parks we would hit on which days and our dining reservations made accordingly. and i was really looking forward to going to mnsshp again. bummer. now i need to go back and figure out how to make a plan work with the new park hours. i know it sounds crazy to have planned so early and now be frantic, but with making reservations 180 days out you kind of have to know which parks you are going to go to on which days to make it work. oh goodness. :lol: now i guess i can enjoy the fun of planning our itinerary once more! hahaha

 

[Tiger45]

Thats not crazy. I do the same thing. Thats what really had me disappointed with the change. although it was minor it was enoughto mess up the date and reservations that we had anticipated for the MNSSHP. but with that, I called today and made the changes to cover the initial day we had planned and the original and now will cance one, once the Official dates drop from WDW for MNSSHP.

 

[Tiger45]

I know they did a random for free dining all the way out to October, because I received one through an email with a pin, but that was limited and one had to stay at a moderate or deluxe. We couldn't use it because we are staying on our DVC points, but I was able to book my Brother-in-law on it since we are traveling together, and ended up providing his family with a great savings.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I find it odd that the next date following that party was almost a week later though (September: 4, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29 2009) Perhaps Disney was really pushing for an event that weekend... but I wonder what changed from last year to this? :shrug:

Isn't Night of Joy in the MK on 9/10 and 9/11 2010?

 

[disneydudette]

Isn't Night of Joy in the MK on 9/10 and 9/11 2010?

Sure is... but those were 2009 dates that I mentioned in that post... commenting on how the labor day weekend party last year (9/4)... was so much earlier than the next scheduled party (9/11) :wave:

 

[Tink313]

AWWW MAN Im so upset right now. I was so looking foward to MNSSHP on Sept 3. We went last year and had such a great time. I cant imagine how more crowded it could have been. We even didnt get to go on rides during the party, we were to busy on lines taking pic w/ characters qnd getting candy (we even couldnt do it all) I really hope they change it back.

:veryconfuI was also in the MK on Sept 5 (Sat) and it was very crowded (compared) to the previous times we went on vacation. I was also so silly enough to ask a cm why was it so crowded lol he let me know it was a typical Labor Day crowd :hammer: boy didnt I feel stuipd. I guess when Im on vacation I forget what else is going on in the real world

 

[goofyplus4]

Early September Halloween party

I'm really disappointed that it looks like there won't be any early September dates for the party. I guess we won't know for sure until they come out with the schedule, but it doesn't look like September 3rd is going to be on the list.
Thanks for noticing this change. I didn't realize it until I read the forum.

 

[wdwwdeagle]

I was also in the MK on Sept 5 (Sat) and it was very crowded (compared) to the previous times we went on vacation. I was also so silly enough to ask a cm why was it so crowded lol he let me know it was a typical Labor Day crowd :hammer: boy didnt I feel stuipd. I guess when Im on vacation I forget what else is going on in the real world

Wow! I am surprised to see this. I wish you had gone to EPCOT on the 5th. It really was pretty empty. The longest wait we saw all day for soarin' and tt was 20 minutes! We've gone in late April, early May and mid October and this was the smallest crowd we'd ever seen! We also went to AK and MK on Sunday (6th), and found both of those to be pretty light as well, though not as light as EPCOT had been the day before. Monday went to DHS and that was insanely crowded and HOT! Left early because of it.