News Round Up 2020

loutoo said:
I understand that perceived cuts can be frustrating but this singular data point that Josh has pulled is deceiving. I miss the nighttime parades and hope they bring one back, but operations has remained nearly consistent when viewed from a larger perspective. Josh is looking at this time in 2016 so I will use that same time. This week in 2016 had a total of 339.5 park hours. This week in 2020 has 336. Yes that is is a cut of 3.5 hours but it is over the course of a week and represents only 1% of operations. The hours have been shifted from very MK heavy to more even over all of the parks. They have also shifted from very weekend heavy to more even over all of the days. This is because the business and crowds have made a similar transition (through no small effort on Disney's part.)

Additionally Josh sites the loss of the nighttime parade (two showings) and one showing of Fantasmic. He however fails to point out the addition of River of Light (2 showing on that day) as well as the addition of the wonderful world animation nighttime show at HS.

Do I miss late nights in the park? sure. Do I miss the nighttime parades? Very much so! Is Disney operations slashing hours and entertainment offerings in a drastic way? Not really, they are just evolving how they deploy their resources in a manner that is more even across time and geography and that better matches the trend lines of actual park attendance. There are now more hours (and therefore more capacity) in the early to mid evening when the bulk of their guests are actually in the parks.
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MK is the most visited park. By cutting hours at MK, they are doing guests a disservice. I don’t know how having AK open at 7 helps someone wanting to stay at MK past 9......To say they are matching hours with trend lines is not accurate. If that were accurate, MK would be open longer. I think they are trying to manipulate attendance. They are trying to push more people to AK. But they are not following trends.

Also, how having a night show (which is not rated well) at AK helps someone looking for a night parade at MK is beyond me as well.

What are early evening to mid evening hours? 4-6? Is that early evening? How in the world have they grown the 4pm - 6 pm timeframe? I don’t recall Epcot, HS,MK closing down at 4. Are we saying that because AK doesn’t close at 6 anymore that somehow they are now growing early evening hours across the board? That’s a stretch......and again I don’t see what solace that brings to someone at an overcrowded MK park who is seeing less hours. I guess they should think “well at least AK is open too”?.....It’s no big deal that MK closes earlier, because AK will be closed when they leave too? I’m lost here...
 
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loutoo said:
I understand that perceived cuts can be frustrating but this singular data point that Josh has pulled is deceiving. I miss the nighttime parades and hope they bring one back, but operations has remained nearly consistent when viewed from a larger perspective. Josh is looking at this time in 2016 so I will use that same time. This week in 2016 had a total of 339.5 park hours. This week in 2020 has 336. Yes that is is a cut of 3.5 hours but it is over the course of a week and represents only 1% of operations. The hours have been shifted from very MK heavy to more even over all of the parks. They have also shifted from very weekend heavy to more even over all of the days. This is because the business and crowds have made a similar transition (through no small effort on Disney's part.)

Additionally Josh sites the loss of the nighttime parade (two showings) and one showing of Fantasmic. He however fails to point out the addition of River of Light (2 showing on that day) as well as the addition of the wonderful world animation nighttime show at HS.

Do I miss late nights in the park? sure. Do I miss the nighttime parades? Very much so! Is Disney operations slashing hours and entertainment offerings in a drastic way? Not really, they are just evolving how they deploy their resources in a manner that is more even across time and geography and that better matches the trend lines of actual park attendance. There are now more hours (and therefore more capacity) in the early to mid evening when the bulk of their guests are actually in the parks.
Click to expand...

Increasing park hours at the other parks is understandable, but not at the expense of MK hours. It is easily the most worthy park for being open early am to midnight or later. That was the killer for us during our last trip in Aug 2019, especially when afternoon breaks have to happen for our family. In my opinion the cuts to MK are very drastic when just 4 years ago I could spend 4 more hours in the park.
 


CCostner said:
Increasing park hours at the other parks is understandable, but not at the expense of MK hours. It is easily the most worthy park for being open early am to midnight or later. That was the killer for us during our last trip in Aug 2019, especially when afternoon breaks have to happen for our family. In my opinion the cuts to MK are very drastic when just 4 years ago I could spend 4 more hours in the park.
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Having Ak open past 6 didn’t at least make you feel better about losing hours at mk?
 
CCostner said:
Increasing park hours at the other parks is understandable, but not at the expense of MK hours. It is easily the most worthy park for being open early am to midnight or later. That was the killer for us during our last trip in Aug 2019, especially when afternoon breaks have to happen for our family. In my opinion the cuts to MK are very drastic when just 4 years ago I could spend 4 more hours in the park.
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Agree. I can't understand how anyone can defend what they are doing this weekend. 9am open at the MK? President's Day weekend? Are you kidding me?
 


dlavender said:
Having Ak open past 6 didn’t at least make you feel better about losing hours at mk?
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We did have both open later for a bit. Disney has simply removed the option for the late nights folks most of the year. Fun Spot can manage to close at midnight every night, but somehow the largest parks in the world struggle.
 
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dlavender said:
MK is the most visited park. By cutting hours at MK, they are doing guests a disservice. I don’t know how having AK open at 7 helps someone wanting to stay at MK past 9......To say they are matching hours with trend lines is not accurate. If that were accurate, MK would be open longer. I think they are trying to manipulate attendance. They are trying to push more people to AK. But they are not following trends.

...

I’m lost here...
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CCostner said:
Increasing park hours at the other parks is understandable, but not at the expense of MK hours. It is easily the most worthy park for being open early am to midnight or later. That was the killer for us during our last trip in Aug 2019, especially when afternoon breaks have to happen for our family. In my opinion the cuts to MK are very drastic when just 4 years ago I could spend 4 more hours in the park.
Click to expand...

I just want to be clear, I didn't say that you or anyone for that matter should like these changes. I didn't even say I liked them (I stated plainly I miss the parade and would like it back). I just pointed out that what had been characterized as "cuts" were actually reallocation of resources, and those reallocation were based on sound operational theories designed to create a net increase in the guest experience.

Attendance at all of the parks is highest from 10:00AM - 8:00 PM regardless of the day of the week or the park. There are more people in AK at 6:30PM on any given day than there would be at MK at 7:30 AM. Toystory land, SWGE, the rides in Pandora, the night time safari, the beauty that is Pandora at night, tree of life awakenings and even River of Light, draw guests out of an already overcrowded MK. If AK closed at 6:00 PM everyday the overcrowding at MK at night would be exponentially worse. Having four parks open until at least 8:00 PM has a far more beneficial impact on the night time crowds at MK than being open until 1:00 AM instead of 11:00 PM.

Disney has chosen to allocate its resources when the bulk of the guests are actually in the parks in order to benefit the greatest number of guests daily. The guest experience is better if they are spread out over a larger number of parks and attractions. We don't have to like it. We don't have to agree that it is the right decision. Honestly you don't even have to believe it, that is your choice.

Finally, I want to state that I have looked at the park hours for the top 25 parks in the world and the top 20 parks in the US according to TEA/AECOM. Magic Kingdom's hour are the most expansive of any park in either of those lists (in most cases by a large margin, many of those parks open at 10:00 and some of them close as early as 6:00 while a large number stay open only unit 8 or 9) To complain the park that is open the most number of hours compared to all of the others is closing too early seems strange.
 
loutoo said:
Finally, I want to state that I have looked at the park hours for the top 25 parks in the world and the top 20 parks in the US according to TEA/AECOM. Magic Kingdom's hour are the most expansive of any park in either of those lists (in most cases by a large margin, many of those parks open at 10:00 and some of them close as early as 6:00 while a large number stay open only unit 8 or 9) To complain the park that is open the most number of hours compared to all of the others is closing too early seems strange.
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Just to focus on one paragraph because I don't want to write out a thesis as a response to the whole argument.

I don't think it's strange at all to lament the past when MK used to stay open until midnight or later.

I also don't care what other parks in the US do. I hold Disney to a higher pedestal. They certainly charge more than Legoland or whatever other parks you looked at to compare the opening hours. I stand by my earlier statement that MK closing at 11 on a holiday weekend is crap.

Why in the world would it be strange to complain about MK closing earlier than it used to on a holiday weekend?

Hurrah, AK is open 2 hours later than it used to be. Praise be.

Nope.
 
loutoo said:
I just want to be clear, I didn't say that you or anyone for that matter should like these changes. I didn't even say I liked them (I stated plainly I miss the parade and would like it back). I just pointed out that what had been characterized as "cuts" were actually reallocation of resources, and those reallocation were based on sound operational theories designed to create a net increase in the guest experience.

Attendance at all of the parks is highest from 10:00AM - 8:00 PM regardless of the day of the week or the park. There are more people in AK at 6:30PM on any given day than there would be at MK at 7:30 AM. Toystory land, SWGE, the rides in Pandora, the night time safari, the beauty that is Pandora at night, tree of life awakenings and even River of Light, draw guests out of an already overcrowded MK. If AK closed at 6:00 PM everyday the overcrowding at MK at night would be exponentially worse. Having four parks open until at least 8:00 PM has a far more beneficial impact on the night time crowds at MK than being open until 1:00 AM instead of 11:00 PM.

Disney has chosen to allocate its resources when the bulk of the guests are actually in the parks in order to benefit the greatest number of guests daily. The guest experience is better if they are spread out over a larger number of parks and attractions. We don't have to like it. We don't have to agree that it is the right decision. Honestly you don't even have to believe it, that is your choice.

Finally, I want to state that I have looked at the park hours for the top 25 parks in the world and the top 20 parks in the US according to TEA/AECOM. Magic Kingdom's hour are the most expansive of any park in either of those lists (in most cases by a large margin, many of those parks open at 10:00 and some of them close as early as 6:00 while a large number stay open only unit 8 or 9) To complain the park that is open the most number of hours compared to all of the others is closing too early seems strange.
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I can appreciate your point and your numbers about operational hours which are much closer than I would have thought honestly. But I think comparing Disney to other destinations is a bit unfair because they set the bar of how long their parks are going to be open for; if they had never offered 12 am closings and then weened back on them no one would be up in arms because it’s perceived as a cut. Even as you say many of the other parks are open later now
 
OhioStateBuckeye said:
Just to focus on one paragraph because I don't want to write out a thesis as a response to the whole argument.

I don't think it's strange at all to lament the past when MK used to stay open until midnight or later.

I also don't care what other parks in the US do. I hold Disney to a higher pedestal. They certainly charge more than Legoland or whatever other parks you looked at to compare the opening hours. I stand by my earlier statement that MK closing at 11 on a holiday weekend is crap.

Why in the world would it be strange to complain about MK closing earlier than it used to on a holiday weekend?

Hurrah, AK is open 2 hours later than it used to be. Praise be.

Nope.
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I know there are actually people that feel that way to the bolded, because I am one of them. I would much, much, much rather be able to stay in AK until 8PM, then MK until 1AM. Not even close for me either. I'm not a super late person and AK at night is absolutely stunning. Something I wasn't able to see much before. So whether or not MK closes at 11 or 1 makes zero difference for me, because I would likely be gone by 10 or 11 anyway. But having that extra time in AK means a whole lot more to me, I love being able to spend more time in what is IMO the best park. But, I can definitely appreciate where others are coming from.
 
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