Park Hours.. what is going on?!

[hallowboy11]

I live in Atlanta, GA and travel down to Disney often. (In the past year, made five trips). Last year, I spent a week at Port Orleans during Spring Break. The resort, like most on property, was jammed packed. The parks were slammed. So, we were treated to late weekday hours, with two E-ticket nights.

This year, we are again coming down for Spring Break during the week of April 7th through 13th. I know that many of the resorts are booked solid during this week (including the Swan and Dolphin!) So, I'm sure the parks will be slammed as well.

But when I checked out the park hours a few days ago, I was totally shocked! Every park (with the exception of Epcot) was cut back by at least 2 hours - Magic Kingdom hours cut by FOUR!

So, I decided to call the main Disney number to find out if we AT LEAST had an E-ticket night. But what I found out was that there are NONE during that week.. and TWO the week after.

This all makes absolutely no sense to me! Can anyone explain it?? Why would they cut their hours back, when the resorts are slammed.. and so the parks will be slammed. We will be standing in line all day in the heat, only to have no opportunity at night.

I'm sorry to vent here, but I just don't understand it all. I even wrote an email to wdw.guest.communications@disney.com but have heard nothing back.

Does anyone know why they cut the hours back so drastically this week? And is there anything I can do about it?? Please let me know!

Avid Disney fan,

Kevin

 

[niteobsrvr]

You missed the spring break hours by a week. With Easter being on March 31, the week prior to that date and the week after have the extended hours. Disney is very good at projecting attendance numbers and sets their park hours accordingly.

However, the events of Sept 11 have changed their ability to look into the crystal ball and see what is going to happen. Mostly this is because, instead of people booking vacations months in advance, they are calling and scheduling just a few weeks in advance.

Occasionally, when bookings exceed the projections by a certain amount, the park hours will be extended. This usually happens no later than two weeks prior to the dates in question. This allows time for thousands of cast members schedules to be updated.

To make a long story short, the park schedules have been set on the side of caustion since September. There have also been several occasions when the hours were changed two weeks in advance as mentioned since the more conservatinve park scheduling.

Remember, Disney is a business and must operate as such. Personally, I would much rather be able to visit the parks for the next 30 years instead of a few extra hours during springbreak.

 

[hallowboy11]

park hours

Hey.. thanks for the reply. That helps me out a lot. Maybe they'll make a change. We'll see.

 

[tinkrbel]

I have looked at the hours for when we will be there (4 /19 - 4/ 25) and its really sad ... it looks like it wont even be dark most the days that the parks close when we are there ..and I just love the parks after dark ..I am trying to stay hopeful ..and doing my "polly anna" .. by saying "well we wont get as tired" but its really going to be different with the late opening and the early closing

 

[ToTBellHop]

disney will most likely extend those hours. It doesn't even have to be two weeks prior...Disney extended the Magic Kingdom's hours DAY OF a few weeks back...they just had an A-frame sign out front saying their would be two SpectroMagic presentations that evening and the Times Guide showed the shorter hours...so it can be quite spur-of-the-moment if attendance warrants it.