That’s similar to how we ended the night, riding Big Thunder Mountain, three straight times till they kicked us out. One time we were the only people riding the train.
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I don’t have data to back it up, but my sense has been the the number of EMH evenings decreased over the years. I recall them being much more plentiful in the 90’s than the past 5 years.
While less than ideal, I’ll even take that. However the only option is this “up before the roosters” approach that just doesn’t work.
UOR will at least give me a free “unlimited fast pass” for staying there. I might as well rent out my amazing DVC, recoup the money lost on that, and drown my sorrows in Butterbeer, Flaming Moe’s and mostly unlimited rides.
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Agree!
Do you watch/listen to the Dis Unplugged on you tube? This week Pete Werner talked about that trend exactly - that disney is losing guests to universal because of all the restrictions/limited offerings at Disney vs everything available at Uni. You’re not alone in considering a switch. It seems that many people are following through.
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Oh! Thanks for letting me know!
To be honest, I’m not a fan of most of the attractions at UOR. Something about being put in a box and shaken, not stirred I guess. However the perks are absolutely worth the switch for me.
Evening EMH were a way to escape the crowds. We would literally stop walking and take a deep breath signaling the “start” of the evening, then run off to do all of the attractions. And while UOR might end up being just as busy, at least we won’t have to 1) get up early, 2) play whack a mole trying to get good fast passes, or 3) have anxiety attacks trying to win a lottery for the chance to ride a new attraction. Vacations are supposed to be relaxing. Not stress inducing cattle runs.
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I have a DVC room booked at Disney (CCV) in December, but waffled over this for a while due to the loss of longer EMH and unknowns with lines and restrictions. I decided to also book at Royal Pacific for the known express pass for most UO rides (at least at this point). Eventually, I will need to decide, Oy.
My kids will like either. I was looking forward to getting to experience the holidays at Wilderness Lodge and (not-guaranteed) ride on RotR. We’d have the Hagrid’s and Jurassic coasters as new to all of us at UO, and one of my kids is now tall enough for Hulk, RRR and is excited about that.
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I just listened to most of the video, I stopped to post here when he came to the part about it being a plan of Disney’s to start appealing to families who will pay a premium to play.
That made a lot of sense. Especially as when I typed my last post on this thread, I left out that if Disney refused to come back with evening EMH, then I would only want to come back if I had at least one VIP tour planned.
edit One VIP tour planned or without my kid/when my kids older so my DH can just do Epcot without worrying about my kid being bored.
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It does make sense, and it’s also super crappy and I don’t think sustainable. They are a company who’s customer demographic is “families” not “families with lots of discretionary money” The main reason that they offer 4 different levels of resort accommodations is so they can meet the desires of most families, regardless of their income bracket. For sure it’s a vacation that is considered a luxury item. And for each income level it’s a stretch to save up the funds to go. I think they’d be shooting themselves in the foot if they made a change like that. It’s not good PR
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I absolutely agree.
I didn’t take it as they are doing away with value resorts, meal plans or all of the perks forever. Just taking away the “freebies” that draw in the crowds temporarily.
I don’t like speaking for Walt, but I would like to think he’d want the park accessible to everybody, which was why he had the original ticketing program in place. Only pay for what you use. Then they switched it to this one cost covers all approach and it snowballed with these “extras” that helped draw in attendance. Now in dealing with over crowding, they are simply reevaluating short term until they come up with a solution that appeases everyone.
Especially with crowd levels they are anticipating when travel restrictions open up, it’s a great opportunity to sunset some outdated programs and introduce new options.
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I get the irony of me defending the beast I was just attacking over EMH. I’m complicated like that.
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Aren’t we all? 
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From Len:
“we were on hand for EPCOT’s opening today, and the opening procedure has changed in the last week: while guests were admitted into the park around 50 minutes before official opening, today we were held in the front of Future World, before Spaceship Earth, until exactly 10:30 a.m.”
"This could be Disney testing its procedures for the upcoming implementation of Early Theme Park Entry, in which Disney resort guests (and guests of select other resorts) will get into the parks 30 minutes before day guests. Or it could be an operational change to get away from having to pay CMs to open the park 50 minutes in advance. We’ll check the other parks this week and see how they’re doing."
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It makes sense. The reason they were letting everyone in early was to disperse the crowds and therefore allow social distancing. Once social distancing is officially gone, no reason to not pack the offsite peons in for rope drop.
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I heard this about another park this week. I wish I could remember where I saw it and which park. I was thinking well, something was just not ready for the park to open yet, but maybe it’s this. Ugh. Do not like.
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I experienced this on Thursday. We were held at the bridge at the international gateway. They said they were waiting to coordinate with the front. We were held at the taps until around 10:00 and held until 10:30.
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I just saw a video of Epcot “rope drop” today and….no thank you. I about had a panic attack just watching. Way too many people. I didn’t miss that at all.
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uuggghhhh… yeah… not excited about this again…
https://twitter.com/Blog_Mickey/status/1402637716018413568/video/1
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Did you hear…mooing?
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I’m wondering what the IG entrance looks like by comparison.
At this point, are they still letting everyone in early? Not really doing Early Entry?