Should the parks keep longer hours?

[ritchie56]

quote:Originally posted by Pixie Duster
What months and seasons do you all want us to be open late?

Well, I don't have any problem with the hours at Epcot, MGM or even the Animal Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom is the only park that the hours tend to be an issue, and that issue isn't in the busy summer months when they ARE open late. My issue is in the off season when they are only open till 7.

I know that in the off season supposedly a guest can do more because there are less crowds, but that assumes that you stay all day in the park. Even in the off season, we like to take a break in the afternoon and return for the evening hours. You can't do that when the Magic Kingdom closes at 7. Since you asked the question of what we would LIKE to see, my answer would be I would like to see the Magic Kingdom open to at least 9 PM year round.

 

[jeffgn]

I've been caught in both peak and non-peak season hours. I don't mind the early closings. I would prefer they stay open until at least 8. 6 and 7 seems a tad early for me.

Now I know people would argue that you can do more on a non-peak season day then you could on a midnight close during peak season. I half agree with that. You can if you know what your doing. Usually early closings also mean attraction times that don't go from open to close. This makes it hard if you don't plan it right.

Bottom line for me is I try to overlap both. I take an extra week before Christmas or an extra week after New Years. It took me a few trips before I figured out how to make work it. I'm fine if they leave the hours alone, just keep all attractions open all day.

 

[Heyyall]

Originally posted by Bill
I'm sorry, but the term "late" is relative.

Late being 11 at MK isn't as late as midnight.

Epcot should be open till 10. Mission: SPACE and Test Track at least.

Studios I really don't care, but at least do more shows later in the day. Everything closes so early there. And Fantasmic should have two showings in season, and Sorcery should be brought back at least once a week.
AK needs to be open al least till 7 every night of the year. Espically with these 9am openings now.

sorry if you mentioned it, but do you mean these hours all year or at certain times?

 

[twistedmickey]

I love seeing the Magic Kingdom at night. For me, its more magical. These reduction in hours can be blamed on fastpass and DTD. Disney feels you can see the whole park with fastpass so no need to keep hours longer. They also want you to end up at DTD to spend more of your money. Bring back midnight closings!!!! :kiss:

 

[MKBurn15]

Hey midnight closings are what I grew up with. But I agree that Magic Kingdom should be the one open until midnight. It's the most magical place for me with the castle and all. Animal Kingdom is not the greatest nighttime park for me. Epcot is OK, and MGM I don't really care about, but Magic Kingdom is my special park.

 

[Bill]

MK should be open at least until 9 every night of the year. Epcot should as well, but Future World needs to stay open later, and Test Track & Space should stay open till 10.

Studios should close an hour after sunset at least.

AK should be open till at least 7 everyday of the year.

 

[Disneyland1970]

Originally posted by Pixie Duster
No sorry. If we do that, stay open until 11 or midnight everynight, I quit. Honestly. I love my job, but if I have to there until 2 am everyday, I am moving on...

We do not NEED to stay open that late all the time, it is pointless. I understand people need time to enjoy themselves, but no one need 14-15 hours at a theme park. 6-8 hours is really all you need, that's all most people can last so even when we are open until 9, which is apparently early, we still can wait until 2 or 3 to arrive, which very reasonable.

I understand where you are coming from, but on an off season it is unreasonable to be open later than 9.

Edit: SO I realized you weren't saying we should be open until midnight so sorry, but for anyone who feels we should open until 11 or 12 each night the above post is for you

I feel that any time schools are out the MK needs to be open untill at least 11pm. Having grown up on the West Coast, I can remember DL being open from 7am to 1am. It was great!! You could take a break during the day and go for a swim or take a nap and still see everything.. Now with WDW having so much more to see and do I feel the longer hours at the MK would add flexibility to your day, and also help with the crowds. When the parks are open later the stroller crowds die down and let you explore the park at night. I know it means more CM's and parades and ETC, but I feel the STATEMENT it would make to the guests would way outway the costs!! Disney needs top start giving back to it's loyal following!

The rest of the parks hours seem to be fine to me, maybe longer at the Studios when Fantasmic is super crowdwed. I know they go to 2 shows and that seems to help!

Sorry Pixie, I know the longer hours must suck, but if things stay as busy as this weekend, I can only hope they hire more help!! I can see 2 shifts being necessary in the future.!! Well At least I hope it stays busy for the parks sake. Gives Mike one less excuse to keep the parks in the bad shape they are in!!

Again thanks to all the CM's who have worked through these yucky times!

We just got home and my family had a great weekend!

I hope relief is in the near future for all of us!

 

[cherrynegra]

I don't see a problem with the parks closing at 1:00 a.m. in the summer or during major holiday weeks or weekends. This should definitely apply to MK. During summer the other parks could stay open late until 10:00. And I know it's been discussed ad nauseum, but I think AK could also stand to stay open later.

 

[MKBurn15]

Earlier in the thread, it was said that CMs have to stay like, 2 hours after the park closing. I don't think it is fair to them to stay there until 3 AM. I don't work there or anything though. I mean, I wish it could stay open until midnight though. Especially MK.

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

My family agrees that the later the better. When we first started going to WDW in 1996 it seemed like the parks were open very late. We were there so late our 7 year old thought he was going blind!!!

The 9 times we have been to WDW since have always been during the summer (July and August).

Question is - although I know it is stupid - when the parks close earlier, doe sDisney charge any less since the guest doesn't get as many hours of WDW service in the slow times of the year???:veryconfu :veryconfu

I also like the parks open later than the early opening hour for resort guests.

 

[MKBurn15]

They Don't charge less. You're really s crewed if you have a Park Hopper also cause you're wasting a ticket when you could use it on a night when it's opened way later. What's with the early opening for guest resorts thing? Is that really true? That's cool, but I would prefer for them to do that, and for them to open later.

 

[joviacdan]

Originally posted by Pixie Duster
No sorry. If we do that, stay open until 11 or midnight everynight, I quit. Honestly. I love my job, but if I have to there until 2 am everyday, I am moving on...

We do not NEED to stay open that late all the time, it is pointless. I understand people need time to enjoy themselves, but no one need 14-15 hours at a theme park. 6-8 hours is really all you need, that's all most people can last so even when we are open until 9, which is apparently early, we still can wait until 2 or 3 to arrive, which very reasonable.

I understand where you are coming from, but on an off season it is unreasonable to be open later than 9.

Edit: SO I realized you weren't saying we should be open until midnight so sorry, but for anyone who feels we should open until 11 or 12 each night the above post is for you

I would be satisfied (not ecstatic) with a 9:00PM Magic Kingdom closing. What I'm talking about is the idea that the MK was closing at 6:00 PM some nights imn January. I don't care how slow it is - That is unacceptable.

 

[hbrady77]

Originally posted by ClarkWGriswold
My family agrees that the later the better. When we first started going to WDW in 1996 it seemed like the parks were open very late. We were there so late our 7 year old thought he was going blind!!!

The 9 times we have been to WDW since have always been during the summer (July and August).

Question is - although I know it is stupid - when the parks close earlier, doe sDisney charge any less since the guest doesn't get as many hours of WDW service in the slow times of the year???:veryconfu :veryconfu

I also like the parks open later than the early opening hour for resort guests.

Great points! Here is an idea..

Stay open later... early entry is a joke if you have kids. My kids are much more likely to stay up late than get up at 5:30am (shower, dress, eat breakfast, etc. and get to the park by 7).

Now, that may mean more operating expense; however, I would pay $20 more a day for my Park Hopper if I could say until 11pm every night.

Ditch the cheep yearly open pass for Florida residents; sorry but the 49 other states bring in much more revenue than the tax payers of Florida.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Pixie Duster]

No we cannot ditch any FL resident pass, FL residents demand that we have a special pass for them.

Once again 6 or 7 closing should not be the norm all the time, during non peak seasons, but once again remember we hold special events, a lot.

 

[joviacdan]

Originally posted by Pixie Duster
No we cannot ditch any FL resident pass, FL residents demand that we have a special pass for them.

Once again 6 or 7 closing should not be the norm all the time, during non peak seasons, but once again remember we hold special events, a lot.

As far as special events - I don't agree with that at all!!!!

Have it in a seperate location. Totally unfair to a guest that paid $4,000 to take their family to Disney World to get to a park at 6:00 PM and have someone say "Sorry - We're having a special event tonight. Park's closed."

 

[hbrady77]

I agree, closing the park for special events is a joke when people plan a year in advance, spend $6,000.00 and travel 2000 miles. As far as the Florida residents "demands" go I would say what gives them the right to demand anything? I’m willing to bet their tax dollars do NOTHING for Disney, IN FACT, how many dollars does Disney dump into the Florida general fund every year? Millions I'm sure. I'm sure the Florida free loaders play a large role in PACKING the park and making it miserable for those who pay top $$$ so they can wait 2 hours to get on splash mountain. Sorry, the Magic isn't as magic as it used to be and this thread got me a little fired up

 

[ToTBellHop]

Disney would tick off thousands of people if they got rid of the FL passes. They are hardly freeloaders when they go to wdw 30+ times a year, buy Disney food, get Disney merchandise (I have seen pictures of some of their houses...), and bring their friends and family with them. I have said it before and I will say it again. If you are really having such a "miserable" time at wdw and feel like you are not getting your money's worth out of it, don't go. We all know everything is exceedingly expensive, but current park attendance suggests that people still feel they are getting their money's worth. Anyone who feels otherwise should enjoy a magical day at a Six Flags amusement park for $40. If you were managing 4 parks and an entire surrounding resort, were being screamed at by your stockholders to save money so they can make money, and you noticed your parks were practically empty after 9 pm, would you pay to keep them open until 1 am? Not gonna happen.

 

[hbrady77]

I'm sure they are not all "free loaders" but if they live in 5000 SQ FT houses and drive 70K SUV's why shouldn't they pay the same price as everyone else? I live in NE and we don't make Yankee fans pay more than us to see a game in Fenway (Maybe we should .

That's a good Disney attitude... don't like it? Go to Six Flags. Sorry but Walt would be rolling in his grave if he heard that. When I was at MK two weeks ago the park was packed right up until closing time so I would not say it's always empty at 9PM. I have been going to DW for 25 years and my best memories have been at night when it's not as crowded (I think DW resort guests used to be able to stay late). As far as I'm concerned they can raise the ticket prices if they keep better hours. Lord knows you don't want to P off the board of directors or stock holders (ah.. the days of privately held companies).

I'm involved in "Improvement" efforts all the time in business and the number one concern should be the customer expectations. If you meet or exceed the expectations you will have a larger base of happy customers which will be willing to pay a little more. If you charge $10 for 2 bags of chips and 2 soda pops, encourage large crowds of people who pay much less than others and close the doors at 7PM you will lose business, that’s a fact. Maybe Disney needs someone to focus on the customer not the stock holders… take care of them and the rest will fall into place.

 

[se8472]

You guys know they do tell people what parks are going to have events so people can plan around it. If MK is going to be having a event that day then head over to Epcot, or MGM, or even DAK. How about the water parks or even some shopping at Down Town Disney. People know that we are holding the events. Its not like someone waites till 6pm and then says OK we are having a event tonight, you all got to get out now. Its all well planned out months and even years ahead of time

And I just thought about something else here. During the few times that I got to work till 1am and so forth, Mantaince would come in at the end of cours shifts and start doing there work. What would happen would be that work on the ride would start while the trains are still running, meaning that the ride will have to run slower at space and thus, longer wait time. If the 3rd shifts CM didn't start there work before the parks close then they would not get it done in time for the CM's who have to be there in 4 hours to start the ride back up again for the next day.

So really would you all like for the parks to stay open later, only to have the rides start to fall apart around you???

 

[ToTBellHop]

Have you ever even been to Florida? 5000 sq. ft. houses and SUVs? Florida is one of the poorest states in America. Try leaving the magical Orlando area and you will see Florida. And again, current attendance numbers do not suggest that the customer base is in any way shrinking or that guests are displeased.