MK closing at 10:00. Why?

radiohost

radiohost

Well-Known Member
Legendary said:
Were you able to enjoy everything that you wanted to? We were there during Pandora's opening weekend which also included Memorial Day and the end of the Food and Wine. It was pretty crowded but we were still able to enjoy everything and I mean everything. We left at around 10. It takes some planning but it can be done. My advice for your next trip...rope drop is a much better payoff than later hours!
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We were all on Main Street at 8:30am. We left at 10pm when the park closed. I think we planned our day as perfect as possible with one hour devoted to a sit down meal at The Plaza.

No, we could not do everything. It was 4th of July Saturday and the crowds reflected that.


On a side note. It was discussed by Tom, the disney tourist that writes a blog, that the South America tour groups were down this year due to economic troubles. I really love he and his wife's blog and have a lot of respect for them. Well I've been coming here every year since 2006, it's as more packed with these groups than I've ever seen it.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
AndyS2992 said:
It is today being Summer and a weekend which is great but from January to April and September through November park hours are more limited however Magic Kingdom and Disneyland CA for the most part seem to be open from 9am to 11pm all year round.
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Magic Kingdom closed at 9pm for the majority of January, February and into March this year.
 
raven

raven

Well-Known Member
Mickey5150 said:
Part of the problem of staying open until 12:00, 1 or 2 am is that there is less time to get the park ready for the next day. Sometimes the park needs a little extra tlc time. Besides this year has AK opened late to attract the crowds.
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That actually doesn't effect park hours. The parks can get cleaned in very few hours and MK has proven that. The issue is Disney doesn't want to pay extra operating costs and employee hours to keep it open late much anymore unless they have an event that will cover these costs. They are just doing business but it sucks on this end.
 
rob0519

rob0519

Well-Known Member
We actually prefer the MK at night. So we used to go deal with the heat and the crowds of July or August because the park was open until Midnight or later every night. Obviously reduced hours are a financial decision. With the AK being open later, the payroll dollars have been shifted. For us and others that's a major downside. I've always avoided Jan, Feb, Mar just because the MK closes so early. I try to take the ticket price and divide it by the possible number of park hours to see when I am paying the least amount per possible hour for park time, whether I use it or not.

And to the OP. It's just my opinion after more than twenty years of experience. No, I do not believe Disney management cares about their customers. They are only interested in quarterly profit numbers. I said management not cast members.
 
U

UKDisney Dave

Well-Known Member
Disneyland Paris's shorter operating hours are as much to do with the climate as anything else.

For a few months of the year it's okay being in the parks late night, but come 7pm Oct-March it's pitch black, freezing cold, and most likely raining or damp!! I've been many a time in the quieter season, and its not much fun walking round when it's freezing cold. Warm Florida rain I can cope with, bone chilling Paris drizzle really takes the magic out of "extra magic hours".
 
WondersOfLife

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Eh. Universal's parks close even earlier. We're actually kinda spoiled with Disney's operating hours in comparison most of the time.
 
WondersOfLife

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
flynnibus said:
If you aren't going to do better than the local amusement parks... why spend more to go to Disney?

These comparisons are stupid. Why not compare Disney to.... Disney?

Care to look at disneyland's hours today?
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Because Disney is a company for profit. Just like those local amusement parks. It's the same comparison, business wise. Honestly, not very many people stay in the parks past 10 pm. So why keep em open anyways? It's not like they need to.
 
THECARISMINE

THECARISMINE

Active Member
WondersOfLife said:
No idea what you aren't content by 10 pm.
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...I can 100% say that I for one am never content with anything by only 10pm while on any vacation, no matter what time I start my day.

But as for the subject, honestly, 10pm isn't a very unreasonable closing time outside of EMH. I love my 2am treks through Magic Kingdom as much as the next guy but while I wouldn't consider it late, I wouldn't consider it early either.
A more pressing issue is the fact that they seem to now close every quiet pool back at the resorts early. I miss being able to take a quick 20 minute dip after the park before bed to do a quick unwind. Actually got yelled at and kicked out last year while I was quietly floating about watching the stars waiting for my laundry, shame.
 
Jeff456

Jeff456

Well-Known Member
Yeah the hours are really short every day of my end of August trip the Magic Kingdom shuts at 9PM unless there is EMH or it's closing at 7 for MNSSHP!
 
T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
Jim S said:
It seems rather cheap to be closing the MK at 10:00 in the summer months. Summer is the only time many can make the Disney trip and with the price of tickets why would they close at 10:00,
Does Disney care about its patrons anymore?
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Things change. My local Six Flags used to stay open way late when I was back in high school... then someone realized that people wouldn't stop showing up if they closed a little sooner than midnight... Next thing you know they close at 10:00pm and on some days this summer they close at 6:00pm or for more than half of August they'll close at 8:00pm.... why? Same reason as Disney. It saves them a lot of expenses and doesn't impact revenue much at all. Most people won't say well you aren't open till midnight so I'm not going.... Most people will just go whether it is 10 or 9 or even 8.... But it means that every cast member they would otherwise have on the payroll until midnight is now gone 2 hours sooner.... think of the number of cast members that are working in the evenings, multiple that number by $40 and that's probably a good estimation of what they'll save by closing sooner. This shouldn't be unexpected. MK has been more and more of a kid centric park for years now with the older teens preferring to go to Universal... How many little kids do you know that would stay awake until midnight?

In the end it is what it is. You can complain... you can cancel your trip... but Disney won't care because they are still printing money hand over fist and until the crowds stop showing up they will continue to cut things around the edge to increase profits.
 
dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
AndyS2992 said:
Not usually the case though right? WDW must be having a bad year.
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I think that's been standard for several years. Just pulled out my spreadsheet for 2016, and 1/5-1/16 showed 2 Midnight closures, 1 11PM closure, 5 9PM closures, 4 8PM closures. And I think those midnight closures were a holiday weekend. A large chunk of our Disney days have been in January, and I don't recall many nights were it was open past 9PM, except for EMH.
 
Horizons '83

Horizons '83

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I would be curious to see how much it costs Disney to run MK for an hour. I love taking advantage of the later hours, thats when my wife and I shine haha
 

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