Magic Kingdom After Hours Coming Back!

There was a big thread this summer showing that there were more total theme park hours available to the normal ticket public in summer 2016 than summer 2015.

Although some extra MK hours came at the expense of getting more AK hours.

It's a valid opinion if you don't prefer that distribution, but facts show the WDW parks were open more hours.

I'll grant you that they added 5 hours a day to AK to increase times from a consolidated view.

However, this event only effects the MK. It doesn't matter if the AK is open 24 hours a day. If they close MK at 8 to resell the park after that, then how does AK's operating schedule come into play? Sorry folks, if you want to stay past 8, buy a hopper, or buy another ticket......

Not sure many people should take comfort in AK's schedule at that point..........
 
I'll grant you that they added 5 hours a day to AK to increase times from a consolidated view.

However, this event only effects the MK. It doesn't matter if the AK is open 24 hours a day. If they close MK at 8 to resell the park after that, then how does AK's operating schedule come into play? Sorry folks, if you want to stay past 8, buy a hopper, or buy another ticket......

Not sure many people should take comfort in AK's schedule at that point..........

And this is one of my perpetual...and somewhat numerous rubs.

The quest to find a "hidden model" for what on the surface is correct.

Yes...they have modified some hours and do so fairly often...but you have to accept what your gut should tell you as to WHY?

1. Animal kingdom? To "extend the day" and start to divert people to their massive expenditures over there.
2. Mgm is a wreck...see above.
3. More money dumped at Disney springs...which is completely designed to generate "easy money"
4. Double charging...that's what this extra "magic" is designed to do...sell the same park twice in a day. That feeds #3 also.

Let's look at this honestly: not only is wdw travel booming...demand on magic kingdom is booming...and in 2016 they took May - one of those "slow" months that no longer is slow...and shortened the schedule for this...

Anyone been there in may the last four years? Did it look like an 8 or 9 pm close of the park that pulls 40% of your daily haul look "appropriate"?

Hell no. Stop making excuses that are flimsy and embarassing. They are double charging you for the day...plain and simple.
 
10 hours? How so? You can enter at 7PM, if the park closes at 10PM and then it lasts until 1 am. Thats 6 hours. If park closes at 11-12 thats up to 8 hours. I don't see how you get 10.

Some days in the summer MK has operated until 1 or 2am without EMH. I however highly doubt that they'd plan this event on those days so I guess you're more correct than I. While 10 hours is possible, it's not probable, and the most time one could see from this event would be 8 hours, but more likely 6.
 


From a business prospective, I see it this way.
The days with the pay option for extra time, are your naturally slow periods of time. The park can not justify staying open later as there is not enough through put in the gift shops etc. They can not justify the labor costs for the amount of non gate revenue coming in. In order to satisfy the desire of the few to have the longer hours, you let them see if they'll put their money where their mouth is. Since you can't justify the loss of revenue staying open a "slow" night, you offset it by the charged revenue of the Paid EMH.
They upside is additional labor hours being made available to staff during slow times, paid for by the additional revenue.
I don't think you try to operate this product on an already super busy day. You will kill time needed to re-prep the park and you'll likely push staff into overtime, as they are already maxed out during a busy time.

I think the "next" deal for extra hours should be something along the lines of this. If you buy X amount of dollars in merchandise per person that day, provide your receipts to guess services(or charged on your magic band) and earn a free extra hour in the park. They can use that time to ship the merchandise to the front of the park for pickup on your exit. Buy enough food during the day and get an extra fast pass.
Motivate and reward people to spend, rather than try to find something new to charge for.
 
I bought tickets. It's a dumb amount of money, but it's only going to be 2 of us on this trip. I justified it by thinking that we easily spend $100 or more on a dinner out on any random night and this is at least 2 or 3 times longer than that. ;) Plus, I am assuming my son will get most of his MK riding needs out of this evening, so I was able to shift around our limited days to have more time at other parks, too.

And, really... they had me at unlimited ice cream.:mickeybar:mickeybar:mickeybar:mickeybar:mickeybar:mickeybar:mickeybar
 
I'm a player at about $100. We went to a Christmas party one year and there weren't many people there and afterwards the park was pretty much deserted. Kids rode stuff and just stayed on and rode it again. No lines for anything....it was great. For $100 I think it would be worth it and still priced high enough to be able to keep the crowds low.
 


Let's look at this honestly: not only is wdw travel booming...demand on magic kingdom is booming...and in 2016 they took May - one of those "slow" months that no longer is slow...and shortened the schedule for this...

We went to the event in May, and they did not shorten the schedule. The night we went, I'm pretty sure the extra hours did not even start until 11 PM, other nights they started at 10 PM, but that still was not shortened hours. We decided to go with the DVC discount even though we knew we would probably only make it for about 2 hours which is exactly what happened. We still rode everything we wanted. We all had APs, so we arrived around 6 PM, used our fastpasses, had dinner, and rode a few low wait rides before the extra hours even started.

Are next trip is in March, and if they extended we will absolutely do this again.
 
I'd buy a ticket to the After Hours before I'd buy a park hopper.

The way I tour, Park Hopper would be a way for me to finish an AK or HS in a day and hop to another park that has evening EMH. So for a 5 day ticket, that's $70 per person to hop to another crowded park.

With this deal, I can pay $50 more, hop to MK. Only instead of it being crowded with EMH guest, I get the park all to myself.

I think there's value in that.
 
Are there any rumors about whether the after hours event will be extended after the beginning of March?
 
Okay, this is complete speculation, but they just updated the hours for March. Beginning March 12, the MK is open until 11 PM every night except Sunday 3/19, 3/26 and also 4/2. Could they be planning to test MK after hours on Sunday? I certainly hope so!
 
Okay, this is complete speculation, but they just updated the hours for March. Beginning March 12, the MK is open until 11 PM every night except Sunday 3/19, 3/26 and also 4/2. Could they be planning to test MK after hours on Sunday? I certainly hope so!
Possible. The real teller is if they send a flyer to MK resort guests telling them there will be late testing going on.
 
Okay, this is complete speculation, but they just updated the hours for March. Beginning March 12, the MK is open until 11 PM every night except Sunday 3/19, 3/26 and also 4/2. Could they be planning to test MK after hours on Sunday? I certainly hope so!
I hope so !
 
Really hope they add this for the first week in May! I love MK but the crowds really get to me sometimes. It just feels congested sometimes so if this moves into may it's a definite!!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top