I dunno about everyone else, but whilst I am not outraged, I feel pretty annoyed. I want to know how much the Christmas parties are going to cost this year, if this offering is priced at $150?
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I don’t understand how this is going to work. I’m not paying that so I guess I don’t care at the moment but if this affects EMH for on site stays then it becomes an issue.
The optimistic side of me says they have huge plans in the future and just need a few extra bucks to finance them 
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Right, of course. I was only noting the similarity in being allowed to enter before the official start of the event.
As @Ellen1976, I’m interested to see what those parties will cost this year. If they think that they can charge $150 for this experience, I’d anticipate party costs going up as well.
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My main issue with it is the hours. I will be in the world on April 21st. Never mind that I have an AP but I never would pay a premium to be in the park from 11-2.
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Agree. I really want to go to one of the Christmas parties, but if it is going to add up to $900 for the 6 of us, then I’ll have to think again - I could buy an awful lot of shoes with that.
I understand WDW to milk it for all it is worth. But this further devalues “staying on property”. I totally get the model - however I continue to see less and less value in going to WDW. I used to love it - but they keep “chipping” away at the Magic. This will probably succeed, and it will result in fewer “free EM” nights for those who have paid for it. I don’t see the value of this offering though. I can’t justify $600 for my family for 3 extra hours.
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The way I see this is similar to a football stadium renting out for a party or a concert. The infrastructure already exists, but there are 8 plus hours not being used every day. This is the easiest way for them to monetize that.
Also, I think there is a much bigger demand for private touring than we know about, and MK is very expensive to rent out. When I was working there certain ultra wealthy and famous people would rent BB or the studios for a few hours so that they could tour in complete privacy. If I were even a b-list celebrity it would be totally worth it to me to bring my family in a time when no one will notice me or care.
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I’m curious how this will affect the crowds. None of these are my scheduled MK days, however those that have selected MK those days may change now.
I don’t plan on making any changes now that my ADRs and FPs are set at the perfect times I want. I’ll be following along closely to see what happens in April for our May trip.
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[quote=“Ellen1976, post:21, topic:21884”]
I want to know how much the Christmas parties are going to cost this year, if this offering is priced at $150?[/quote]
This is what has me puzzled. If the Christmas parties are $200 per person, then the price for this (extra park hours without the extra entertainment) makes sense. At this point, it doesn’t.
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[quote=“davidtyost, post:26, topic:21884”]
But this further devalues “staying on property”[/quote]
Assuming some normal EMH are still offered, then I’m not sure I agree with this. I think it makes Disney resorts appear more valuable, or at least quantifies the value of EMH. If a group of four can pay $600 for one night of EMH this way or pay to stay in a Disney resort (as opposed to off-site) and get a couple other days/nights of EMH during their stay, then that group might be more included to pay $500 extra for their hotel, since they’ll appear to be saving money and getting more benefit for doing so.
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Hmmm… I’m currently planning a trip for a west coast friend and myself for 5/18-5/22. We’ll be using military 4-day hoppers, and weren’t planning on visiting a park on the 18th. We’re both night owls, and he’s got the time difference to deal with as well but we arrive late in the afternoon on the 18th and leave late on the 22nd so we decided that using a hopper day on the 18th would be a waste.
I’m now wondering if it wouldn’t be worth it to book this for the 19th (instead of using a hopper day, with an 11:00am-noon later start time) and then we can still visit MK on the 18th, since there are evening EMH until 1:00am anyway.
Any thoughts?
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It still devalues it. If I was staying for 7 nights and would get 3 EMH “nights” - but now I only get 2 - that devalues my staying on site.
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This is a play to entice people to stay onsite at the cost of people who are staying onsite.
Staying offsite - “HEY now I can pay extra to stay longer - COOL”
Staying onsite - “HEY you told me if I stayed onsite - I would get EMH for free - and now you are charging me for some?”
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Well on the one hand it would make sense, but on the other, it would just be compounding the ridiculousness. $150 for the extra hours is ridiculous, and $200 for the Christmas party would be equally ridiculous.
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It’s like their trying to figure out what is the max we can charge people for minimal value…assuming not all rides/attractions/restaurants will be open during these after hours.
How much can we charge without having to go above and beyond like the MNSSHP and MVMCP nights.
Also curious to know if the the 3 hours start right at park closing…the time it takes to herd the masses out at the end of the day is staggering. Out of that 3 hours, how much of that time is truly for the after hour paying guests when it takes over an hour to get “us riff raff” out the door?
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That is exactly what they’re trying to figure out. How far can they push people, how much money can they ask us to spend, before we break? The fact of the matter is, I’ll still go to Disney despite resort fees, despite extra costs for premium parking, etc. And I understand that we exist in a capitalist society where corporations like Disney seek to make a profit and are beholden to their shareholders. But there’s a point where it goes from making a profit to being greedy, and Disney is inching closer with offerings like this.
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I think this is clearly different from EMH, and it is NOT just for offsite guests. The announcement says that Disney Transportation for on-site guests will be offered until 2 hours after the event is over. You can pay more for what are anticipated to be very short lines with limited admission numbers. To me, this replaces getting a plaid if you don’t quite have the money and just want to use it to do rides. I think it’s a really cool idea. I can’t imagine them cutting EMH any further without risking losing on-site occupancy numbers.
If I had the energy to stay up that late, I’d absolutely consider it if I expected near-walk-on waits for popular attractions like 7DMT, Space, PP, etc.
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It looks like none of the dates of the event conflict with any existing EMHs. On each of the dates the EMHs are for one of the other three parks.
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I agree with you. I will still find ways to make it work because going to Disney is something I will always want to do, and Disney is first and fore most a company and businness so of course they will go for what will make them a profit first.
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Bingo. When a company like Disney is charging 4.25/churro (at Disneyland Resort, not sure if it’s the same in WDW) and is also worrying about cost-cutting, then there’s something illogical about the equation. I too understand they want to make money, but when will enough be enough? I guess we’ll all discover that together. But man is it disheartening to see.
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