Surprised After Hours still not happening

#1

Considering how safely the parks seem to have been running with the capacities so far, I would have thought they would have brought, or at least announced a plan to bring back After Hours. When went to one in August 2019, I wasn’t within 6 feet of anyone for the entire night. It seems like this would be easy and people would still pay for it (at least I would).

The only thing I can think of is cleaning procedures wouldn’t be able to be completed in time if they shut down later than they are. Anyone have a theory?

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#2

I guess cleaning procedures/staffing issues, or they somehow know that there wouldn’t be enough interest in them to make it worthwhile to run?

We did MK AH in Nov/19 and it was amazing! We were lucky to choose a very low crowd night.

#3

Charging for special events when they’re providing limited park hours and limited hopping to full ticket price paying guests seems a bit crass.

Not that that always stops Disney from capitalizing on an opportunity, but I would hope it’s a factor.

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#4

I agree with all of the above.

But if they could work out the cleaning and staffing concerns (and related fiscal impact), WDW fans being as they are, they could totally sell those out without issue. People are severely lamenting lack of nighttime hours in the parks.

But I just don’t think it’s affordable for them right now.

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#5

Agreed. I think the lack of all the hard ticketed events are more about cost/return than capacity, cleaning or anything else. And I don’t expect that to change in the near future.
If they were to have hard ticket events, they could only sell 35% capacity, but the staffing needed to operate would probably make it a net loss. In a time when they are hemorrhaging money, it just doesn’t make sense.

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#6

That’s where it doesn’t make sense to me. The capacity limits are on the total capacity of the park, not of the event. After Hours were basically empty at normally times and they had to be making money off it or they wouldn’t exist. You could run them now at the exact same capacity as before, charge the same amount, and I couldn’t imagine that their profit margin is so low that the extra cleaning procedures would put them in the red.

#7

you will have to wait longer than normal if you’re caught in a cleaning and maybe they think people will be unhappy with a 20 min line where it would normally be 5 min. However I’d also jump on this if it were offered. You won’t hit every cleaning so I still think it’d be a net benefit plus I’m a night owl. Whose gonna set up the survey and send the results to Disney?

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#8

Since staffing comes under union and union negotiated covid protocols as adopted at the World, union concerns are most likely the main reason.

And a greater % of currently attending guests necessary to buy the hard ticket event than pre- covid. Perhaps the break even number and % of current guests are close.

Or maybe guests in the dark aren’t as easy to manage for covid protocols. Which perhaps circles back around to union.

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#9

They no longer appear to be cleaning the rides like they were back in July and October when I was there. We didn’t see it even once over 6 days (just got back Tuesday). It seems that there are no more cleaning cycles where they stop the line for awhile and send empty ride vehicles through after spraying them down anymore.

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#10

I’m fine with this. Earlier in the pandemic when fomites were thought to be a significant contributing factor, it made sense. But later they discovered that it’s not significant - most spread is through the air. I’d still use a bit of hand sanitizer after exiting the ride, just to be safe.

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#11

I agree the reason they’re not doing after hours parties is due to cost vs. revenue. They want the parks to be at or close to capacity during the regular hours before they start charging for an additional event. They probably just don’t believe there is enough demand, since most people are completing what they want to in the parks in the daytime.

Plus, with no fireworks, Meet & greets, or parades, all you’d be paying for is shorter lines. There are probably cheaper ways for them to provide that if they wanted (FP or paid Express Pass / MaxPass type add-on).

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#12

Same. The cleaning cycles don’t seem necessary anymore (not really sure they ever were), so was happy to see them go as they made the wait times longer than they needed to be.

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#13

I agree on the parties, but the After Hours, like Early Morning Magic didn’t have fireworks or shows (other than the Villain’s version) and was all about the short/zero wait times.

But I totally agree they must not think they will make enough money, and I’m sure they have smarter financial people working on it than me. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go book a resort room at rack rate

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#14

and before to help keep your germs from others! :slight_smile:

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#15

Well since sunlight kills covid, darkness is probably a good guess at why they don’t want to be open late. Though didn’t they have late hours during Christmas holidays.

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#16

They were open after dark yes. It gets dark around 5:30 in winter, they were open until 8, Epcot was 10 I believe. I doubt it has anything to do with sunlight killing Covid.

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