I'm sorry if you feel my comparison of hours in 1994 to 1998 is unfair or comparing apples to oranges. The truth of the matter is there is no way to compare apples to apples in this situation unless I was to go hour by hour for every shop, ride, and dinning location.
That's just not the case.
It's very simple when comparing operating schedules. You look at when Park A was open at one given time versus the time it is open at another.
It is no more complicated than that -- really!
And you absolutely don't have to go hour by hour for each attraction, shop and dining location. You were the one who tried to bring that into the equation and you won't win any debate on it because Disney has shuttered/closed/combined so many places from even as recently as the 1990s vs. today.
I was just pointing out there's a tangible aspect of less quantity and quality at each individual park (except for DAK) over what was offered back in the 'good old days.'
I'm also sorry if you feel adding EMH is an unfair advantage but the fact of the matter is that it happens every week and therefore is part of the regular schedule.
I feel like I am going around in circles here (anyone else like to step in?), but EMH is not part of the regular schedule. It isn't ... and repeating it ad nauseum here won't make it so.
It is EXTRA magic hours. It is something that happens after regular park CLOSING. It is offered to a select audience of guests. It's no different than a store closing and then offering a special sale for select shoppers.
It is not, however, part of regular operating hours.:hammer::hammer::hammer:
Also to say it is unfair to add it because not every guest is included is a silly notion to me. Every guest who plans a trip to Walt Disney World resort has the opportunity to take part in EMH by booking a Disney hotel. By not booking a Disney hotel that family has chosen not to allow themselves access into the park for that three hours. That's like saying I should adjust hours because John Doe, who has booked a plane back home, has to leave Epcot three hours early and therefore it's not fair those who have not chosen to leave early get an extra three hours more.
No, it isn't the same.
You don't seem to understand the difference from when say EPCOT regularly had 10, 11 and midnight closings to the fact that one night a week (two in recent summers and holiday periods) resort guests can stay for three hours and enjoy select attractions, shops and dining.
Disney cut its hours, in some cases drastically. And then it offered some of them back (and in some cases added when you get a 3 or 4 a.m. EMH at MK on 5-6 nights a year!) for resort guests.
EMH creates a stratification based upon those who stay at WDW resorts and those who don't. And again, it still isn't the benefit you make it out to be. If EC was open until 11 p.m. every night (the ENTIRE park) in 1990, all guests including on-site got to enjoy that. How does having pieces of the park open late one or two nights make up for that?
Also, the notion that guest on property do not make up the majority of guest at Walt Disney World seems silly to me. Why wouldn't that be the case? With about 25,000 hotel rooms (not including rooms at the Swan and Dolphin plus hotel plaza whose guest also have access to EMH) on property. Lets say each room is book with an average family of four. That would mean that on any given day there could be 100,000 guest staying on property. When you take into affect that each park has an average attendance of about 30,000 guest that means that on any given day attendance between the four parks is about 132,000 guest. That means that hotel guest can make up about 75% of individuals in attendance. This is of course all estimates based on information at my disposal.
Now lets say that all on property guest (based on an average family of four) take part in Magic Kingdom's EMH. That would put about 100,000 guest in the Magic Kingdom on one night, a number that is close to an average Christmas Day in the Magic Kingdom and close to capacity.
I could go round and round with you and I think that's what you desire, but you're like a dog chasing its tail here.
Resort attendance varies drastically (remember January is looking at likely a load level in the 40s). All rooms are NEVER booked at any time as there are so many rooms (not to mention people do see the real value of staying off property ... like paying less to stay at the Ritz Carlton Christmas week than a room at a Disney moderate motel will cost) ... some rooms are routinely out of service for rehab work as well (though not nearly enough). Also, many rooms don't have four guests in them. Many people actually come to WDW and don't visit the parks (or spend much time in them) as WDW is a huge convention locale. And as many rooms as WDW has, it's still just a chunk of what is available in metro-Orlando.
Again, sometimes there certainly are a majority of WDW resort guests in Disney parks ... but that is not pertinent to the discussion at hand. And many times that's not the case.
And either way, it doesn't justify Disney closing parks early. A bad economy is one thing. A greedy Mouse led by greedy execs is another.
