Why I Gave Up on Walt Disney World

Agree that overall hours have shrunk, though I think you are being a little short in your statement as 10om is pretty common and even midnight at times.

Just looking quick, this week MK hours:
Monday: 9am to midnight
Tuesday: 9am to 11pm
Wed: 9am to 11pm - with extra magic hours (not paid event) to 1am
Thurs: 9am to midnight
Friday: 8am opening for EMH, then 9am to midnight
Saturday: 9am to midnight

Now next week there are a number of parties so definitely shorter day, but on Wednesday they are open until 10pm with EMH to midnight and Saturday they are open 8am to midnight



The holiday parties do interfere - but you just have to plan around those - there are 3 other parks to visit on those days
We may feel different if the hours are extended like this when we are there - Dec 9-12th, but at the moment the hours over all parks is quite poor, especially with RotR opening a few days before.
 
No but again that’s due to the different targets. DL isn’t a world destination like WDW.
What?!?? LOL. DL sits atop the world theme park attendance report right underneath Magic Kingdom. It has more attendance then the other 3 WDW parks and every other park in Orlando. DL is a MAJOR destination, lol you make it sound like a local Six Flags or something.

More directed at the overall conversation of DL being a shorter stay. I believe the weather plays a major factor because you can easily go from rope drop to park close with only small breaks, even children and elderly in good health can manage if they choose; without passing out from heat. You don’t burn an hour here and there “cooling off“ in theaters, sit down restaurants or stores. You don’t have to run and hide from thunderstorms. You also don’t spend hours on transportation.
Does WDW have things we don’t and never will? Of course, but vice versa, there are some major advantages WDW simply can’t match.
 
Point taken. I didn't realize they still had that many late hours. Still, overall, there are more early closing days than there used to be as they have extended the run of the parties. Halloween didn't used to start in mid-August, for example.
Overall park hours are less than historically. If you add up the hours each month for a park and compare to previous years, it is less now on average.
9a openings instead of 8a openings, 9 & 10p closings instead of midnight. Party days used to close 7p, now 6p. Missing those couple hours here and there do make the crowds, lines and FP distribution worse.
 
Point taken. I didn't realize they still had that many late hours. Still, overall, there are more early closing days than there used to be as they have extended the run of the parties. Halloween didn't used to start in mid-August, for example.

yeah, 100% about the parties and also, I think, less overall Extra Magic Hours - it's defintiely less hours than there used to be (at least at it's peak) .... though, Animal Kingdom is now open longer than it used to be
 


Before and after close pay up events shorten what you get for your park ticket. This is the worse kind of up charge. You get fewer hours in the park, and it makes it easier for Disney to up charge park hoppers. Of course, WDW transportation sucks, so now you need more park days to accomplish the same stuff, which requires more resort days and more meals. It stretches your stay. And it makes the vacation far more expensive. You end up doing less each day.

The transportation at WDW really isn't that bad. It doesn't take hours to park hop or get to the parks in the morning.
 
What?!?? LOL. DL sits atop the world theme park attendance report right underneath Magic Kingdom. It has more attendance then the other 3 WDW parks and every other park in Orlando. DL is a MAJOR destination, lol you make it sound like a local Six Flags or something.

More directed at the overall conversation of DL being a shorter stay. I believe the weather plays a major factor because you can easily go from rope drop to park close with only small breaks, even children and elderly in good health can manage if they choose; without passing out from heat. You don’t burn an hour here and there “cooling off“ in theaters, sit down restaurants or stores. You don’t have to run and hide from thunderstorms. You also don’t spend hours on transportation.
Does WDW have things we don’t and never will? Of course, but vice versa, there are some major advantages WDW simply can’t match.
I didn't say it wasn't however its a well known fact DL and WDW are treated and marketed differently. I live in the midwest. I see WDW ads all the time but never a DL ad. It also well known how impactful locals are at DL and thats not the case at WDW.
 


The transportation at WDW really isn't that bad. It doesn't take hours to park hop or get to the parks in the morning.

Let’s say you’re at a park that is closing early and you want to park hop to a park that’s open longer. How much time do you estimate getting from one park to another? Let’s say MK is closing early.
 
I don't have a problem with them EXCEPT for when they take away from the guest experience for everyone else.

Park hours are shorter than they used to be so that they can accommodate the ever-growing number of after-hours events. Magic Kingdom alone closes at 6pm for about 60 nights from August through December for the Halloween and Christmas parties. Years ago, MK was routinely open until 10 or midnight. How common is that today?
Couldn’t agree more with this. Magic kingdom closes at 6:00pm or earlier 5 nights during our week. To add insult to injury, the other parks are mostly closing at 9:00/9:30 on party nights.
I don’t mind the 10-1:00 after hours events much. They are usually once a week at each park (at the most) and they start at a reasonable hour so most guests can still get in a full day if they choose not to pay.
 
I didn't say it wasn't however its a well known fact DL and WDW are treated and marketed differently. I live in the midwest. I see WDW ads all the time but never a DL ad. It also well known how impactful locals are at DL and thats not the case at WDW.
Yep, 2 totally different demographics. All parks are world destination in some right, but I'm pretty sure WDW has the largest percent of world and long distance visitors attending at any given moment, by a far margin.
 
Let’s say you’re at a park that is closing early and you want to park hop to a park that’s open longer. How much time do you estimate getting from one park to another? Let’s say MK is closing early.
They had that internal bus for a short time. I never had an opportunity to use it but the people who did seemed to really like it. It was an added charge, of course. Maybe they should bring that back but make it free.
 
They had that internal bus for a short time. I never had an opportunity to use it but the people who did seemed to really like it. It was an added charge, of course. Maybe they should bring that back but make it free.
That would be great! Never gonna happen, lol.

We relied on WDW transport for the 1st time last trip, we always rent a car instead. It wasn't bad but this trip we're back to rental. It's more pleasant for sure, and we get to miss the bus experience I totally did not enjoy: The crowded MK closing bus full of sulfur gases after a long hot day of guest drinking the free tap water. Shtinky!!!
 
Have you ever tried to get from one hotel to another? That could easily take 60 minutes or more as you get a bus from hotel #1 to a theme park or Disney Springs and then get another bus to hotel #2. Or you could drive or Uber and be there in 10.

That makes sense that hotel to hotel would take significant time save for the ones connected directly.

Overall we find hotel to park transportation to be pretty efficient save for a few hiccups over the years.
 
Overall we find hotel to park transportation to be pretty efficient save for a few hiccups over the years.
Disney does a phenomenal job moving a vast number of people around a huge property. That said, if I had to choose between going to WDW and depending entirely on Disney transportation or staying home, I would stay home. If I don't have a car, I'm not going.
 
Let’s say you’re at a park that is closing early and you want to park hop to a park that’s open longer. How much time do you estimate getting from one park to another? Let’s say MK is closing early.
Skyliner should help this. I hope.

You can take a bus to Riviera and you're one Skyliner stop to Epcot. And that's where WDW wants you to go, because guests like to spend $ there :D
 
Of course it isn't.

I am a bit surprised they stopped it but I also think they didn't market it all that well so it probably wasn't getting as much traffic as it could.
I figured it was a temporary solution til they could get the Minnie Vans rolled out. Those are Lyft, but do provide better door to door access than regular Lyft can.
 

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