Thoughts on direction of Disney World

[BigredNole]

After spending a week offsite and only being able to go to AK because I booked a campsite, I have a feeling Disney is going to start down a dangerous path. AK has EMH every morning this Summer. This leaves non-resort guests out of any chance of getting on FoP without a long wait. This would go for any of the main park attractions at any park. We avoid EMH morning parks when staying offsite.

With the ever increasing number of rooms, does anyone think that Disney may go to EMH morning at all parks? I see them making this a perk and forcing people to stay onsite. I even thought they can make it resort specific. Deluxe have EMH at MK one day, Moderates at Epcot that day, PC/AoA at AK, AS resorts at DHS.

 

[GPC0321]

I think AK has EMH every day right now because of the demand for Pandora/FoP this summer.
Personally, for the expense of staying on Disney property vs off property, I think on-site guests should get EMH every day at every park. I don't see that happening, as it would require more staffing and expense on Disney's part, but it would be nice. Off-property guests aren't paying the premium prices to stay with Disney, so they shouldn't get the same perks. Otherwise, why pay the big bucks to stay with Disney?

 

[Nancyg56]

I am not at all sure that Disney is going in a direction that it has not been in for years. Onsite guests do get perks, and they should. I woudl like to see more EMH for resort guests, although my family never uses them. I know that for many the bonus hours are a wonderful way to get nmore out of their stay.

 

[Disneylover99]

After spending a week offsite and only being able to go to AK because I booked a campsite, I have a feeling Disney is going to start down a dangerous path. AK has EMH every morning this Summer. This leaves non-resort guests out of any chance of getting on FoP without a long wait. This would go for any of the main park attractions at any park. We avoid EMH morning parks when staying offsite.

With the ever increasing number of rooms, does anyone think that Disney may go to EMH morning at all parks? I see them making this a perk and forcing people to stay onsite. I even thought they can make it resort specific. Deluxe have EMH at MK one day, Moderates at Epcot that day, PC/AoA at AK, AS resorts at DHS.

I don’t think it will happen, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it. Now that select DS resorts can book fp’s at 60 day’s and with the addition of resort parking fees, it might be a good incentive to get people back to the Disney resorts.

Lots of people staying onsite and offsite never even consider going at ropedrop anyways so it would probably be a non-issue for the majority of people.

 

[Nancyg56]

After spending a week offsite and only being able to go to AK because I booked a campsite, I have a feeling Disney is going to start down a dangerous path. AK has EMH every morning this Summer. This leaves non-resort guests out of any chance of getting on FoP without a long wait. This would go for any of the main park attractions at any park. We avoid EMH morning parks when staying offsite.

With the ever increasing number of rooms, does anyone think that Disney may go to EMH morning at all parks? I see them making this a perk and forcing people to stay onsite. I even thought they can make it resort specific. Deluxe have EMH at MK one day, Moderates at Epcot that day, PC/AoA at AK, AS resorts at DHS.

I have to ask because I am confused. Why were you limited to only one park? Offsite may reduce some of the perks, however you can still purchase tickets that allow access to all four parks. The cost of tickets are the cost of tickets, onsite or offsite.

 

[Sparkly]

Again, why shouldn't onsite guests paying $$$ for a hotel room get extra perks? I'd love more EMH mornings or evenings, especially in the first few days of our trip where we get up super early due to jetlag!

 

[CAS239]

I don't think that's the path Disney is heading down, but yes it's very annoying to see one park have early emh every single day. I don't think they should do that since it basically blocks out offsite guests, including passholders from going to that park in the morning.

I hope we don't see HS with early emh every day for a month or so once Star Wars opens

 

[StacyStrong]

I don't think it will happen on a large scale. It's just FOP demand right now.

With that said, you weren't "only able to go to AK because you booked a campsite," you just decided you didn't want to go on an EMH day without a resort reservation.

It's a cost benefit analysis and you made your choice. I feel for lower income households (not saying you-no idea what your income is like) who are priced out of Disney altogether and do think it's a shame how expensive it is generally, but demand at Disney is incredibly high. They NEED to manage crowds for safety reasons and just for guest satisfaction overall. This is one way to do it. Obviously off site guests get a bit of a disadvantage, but on site guests are essentially paying more to enter a park early.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree that there should be more perks for on site guests, we always stay on site, always have and always will. Having said that, we never book FPs more than a day or two in advance and rarely use the morning EMHs. We were there in May and about two weeks before the trip I decided I might oughta try to get some FPs for FOP since my son likes riding it (I'm not a fan). I was able to get FPs for an early evening on the first day of our trip, booking two weeks out so it's possible to do so. As a matter of fact, there wasn't a single ride I wasn't able to book had I wanted to at that two week point including Frozen, SDMT and FOP.

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

I don't know if they are remembering accurately or not, but my parents went to Disney way way back in the day, and say that it used to be that resort guests were always allowed into the parks early, every day.

My guess is that Disney is not going to make most perks resort-dependent (would they even have the capacity to fill all the parks, with resort guests only?), but they will be ramping up the "Magical Extras". Now they have the room parties, holiday parties, dessert parties, VIP parade lunch seating, fireworks cruises, AK animal experiences, tours, early mornings in Fantasy Land, and so on.

For the most part I like the extras, as they let you save up for something that is particularly important to you (I'd rather skip adding a day to go to HS and have reserved firework / parade seating, for example.) The downside is that:

1. I do feel bad that they make the full experience less available to everyone, and also fear that I am possibly accruing eons of bad karma by dropping that kind of money on a theme park when people are starving in the world. Although maybe it's a good thing overall, as in planning I often go "I am going to donate more to charity this year, I swear, I will eat beans and noodles for one week every month to save the money, I am definitely going to donate more this year so I don't have to feel bad about this, like seriously God, if you're watching this, I promise..." Disney: increasing charitable giving by making you feel really really guilty about how much you just paid them, lol!


2. The availability and scheduling of the 'extras' is often all over the place. Is the FEA party still happening next year? Heck, is Illuminations even still happening next year? When will we know? It adds a bit of a lottery element to vacation planning.


3. I am kinda stymied by who some of these extras are marketed to. $2K a night for a club level room? Over $2K a day for a VIP guide? For a vacation lasting about 5 days, that is easily a five figure trip. I mean, more power to people who are able to pay for that, but a part of me wonders who the target audience for that even is - I'm genuinely surprised that a substantial amount of people must be able to pay that much.


But overall, again, I like the extras, as adding them into the cost of a general ticket probably wouldn't make sense, since not every family would want a chance to reserve a seat along a parade route or swim with dolphins. It seems like a good way to allow people to personalize their trip while also pulling them in different directions so that crowd levels don't get too concentrated in any one place.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Off-property guests aren't paying the premium prices to stay with Disney, so they shouldn't get the same perks. Otherwise, why pay the big bucks to stay with Disney?

I used to stay mostly onsite because I liked the theming in the rooms. Lately as each WDW resort is refurbed, the in-room theming has been toned way down to almost nothing. This removes my main incentive to stay there.

 

[matty624]

I decided I might oughta try to get some FPs for FOP since my son likes riding it (I'm not a fan). I was able to get FPs for an early evening on the first day of our trip, booking two weeks out so it's possible to do so. As a matter of fact, there wasn't a single ride I wasn't able to book had I wanted to at that two week point including Frozen, SDMT and FOP.

We're going in a few weeks time, I've checked everyday (even before today, which is 30 days out), and over the last 2 weeks or so, I've not seen a single (we're a group of 3) slot for FOP!!! I think you were either a bit lucky, or I'm just very unlucky! But I'll keep[ on refreshing, you never know...
As an offsite guest, and in the past, often an annual pass holder, I have to admit I'm not over joyed at the prospect of never being able to get on certain rides. We cant entertain the idea of a 2-4 hour wait for a ride, with a 4 year old. And despite being on a pretty good salary, I cant justify the expense of staying on site at the moment... It's particularly expensive for UK visitors at the moment. Ah well...