I think the two I picked are also the two least likely to happen, because I don’t think they would drive additional revenue for Disney…or if so, only marginally so.
But as far as longer operating hours, I think Animal Kingdom immediately comes to mind. It is such a beautiful park, and lit up at night is gorgeous. Pandora, in particular, is a must-see at dark…but they seem to rarely have the park open late enough to ever see it at night!!
Purchase delivery would definitely increase revenue. I believe people would be much more apt to purchase things in the parks if they didn’t have to schlep them everywhere.
AK for sure. Pandora is meant to be beautiful at night and it’s wasted.
Longer hours is my biggest wish. Especially for later evening hours - on par with Disneyland for instance. We are not early morning people and have rarely rope-dropped since LL became available again after Covid. But we would love later hours at night as that is when the parks are most beautiful, less crowded and for about half the year, temperatures are more comfortable. This might boost attendance especially during the summer months when the heat is contributing to lower crowds.
My other pick, resort package delivery, is actually not in my best interest because I would buy more merch if carrying it around was not a concern.
DME - I love the idea of it coming back but honestly even if we signed up for it, we rarely used it. The extra time it took was never convenient.
Resort airline checkin - Again like the idea but I’d rather take my own luggage to the airport, less chance of it getting misdirected.
OG EMH - These seemed more beneficial than the new 30-min variety, but being night owls, doesn’t much matter to us. ETA - if they were to resume the old-old late night EMH til 2 AM-ish in summer I’d love that.
Free magic bands - Yes, I’d love this to return, but it appears they are on their way to obsolescence.
I don’t think longer operating hours will be more profitable than the After Hours!
Resort package delivery will definitely be profitable! If I could have a Dole Whip for every time I passed up on a purchase because I didn’t want to carry it around, I would have a lifetime’s worth of Dole Whip by now!
On the episode they made a really good case for Disney continuing DME. Just think of the marketing potential by having a captive audience for the first and last hour they are in Orlando! “Don’t forget to book your bounce back stay!” They never quite maximized the value. And guests love it, too — it was an end cap to their vacation.
I also voted for MBs. I get that it doesn’t make sense now that they have more expensive / functional bands, but it was a nice gesture to have something that is free. And my family still wears our bands — they are more convenient than phones, even if you also have your phone in your pocket. The whole “$15 off a MB” thing I guess wasn’t enough of a sell for them to keep that perk.
We tried using MagicMobile on our iPhones last month a few times. It worked seamlessly the first time for entrance! But it was inconsistent for LL and later park entrances . The photographers also much rather use our MBs!
For no good reason I liked getting free MBs. I can see I’m not alone.
I wish all the parks were opened earlier and later like DLR. This 9AM-9PM is lame. I wish they were all open 7:00AM-12:00AM.
I’m pretty sure the whole reason we don’t see these things anymore is they save money by cutting them.
Having done a recent trip with a rental house for the first time in a few years, I can see I strongly prefer having a whole house to staying on property. I would consider in property with a small group 2-4, and the perks I’d like would be true earlier and later access.
I never did Disney before covid. I did one covid era trip (Feb 2021), and a trip with 1 halloween party ticket and two nights at the hotel. At the time I had a universal pass with free parking, so I did that arrival day and departure day. I voted for various forms of extra time.
I’m not sure I care about package delivery to hotel rooms, but I do love Universal’s send to the front of the park packages. That would be cheaper and much easier logistically than hotel delivery. For park goers, it gets much of the benefit (not lugging things around the entire day) and for Disney, the guest solves the last mile issue by taking it to their hotels/cars/rental houses.
This is practically a necessity at UOR since you can’t take merch on half the rides and they don’t fit in the regular sized lockers! We had to pay $6 to rent a locker for DS’s Niffler while we rode Escape from Gringotts.
I think the free MBs would be a nice gesture, and contribute to a magical feeling. In many ways, I feel like Disney has been eliminating the need for Magic Bands more and more, instead depending on Magic Mobile, etc.
However, I heard an interesting thought. With the tightening up on access to using resort transportation, it could mean more “random” tap points which could make the MagicBand become more necessary. (Or, at least more convenient.) Tap your MB at the DS buses, or at the boats, or maybe (forward looking) to access the resort monorails or the Skyliner, etc, you could see how providing a free magic band becomes the “key” to easy resort access.
So, maybe MBs will have a renewal of life, depending on how far Disney goes with the limitations on using resort transportation. Provide free basic MBs, and allow guests to pay for the upgrades again!
Fully agreed despite my prior comment, we still use MB every trip. It’s always available and easy to use. Kids may or may not have their own device, but they really enjoy being able to tap for themselves with the MB. And, there was nothing to build excitement for a trip better than receiving that box of MB’s in the mail! Couldn’t they revive the older, simpler, cheaper MB or make a new less fancy version that could be provided free?
I picked the extra magic hours and Magical Express. Although the survey is for the “precovid magic hours” I want the 2005-2012 hours. I loved the three extra hours in HS where my son and I would loop around RnR and ToT for two of the three hours. I had to also pick Magical Express because, quite frankly, that ride was magical,
The truth is, I did not think at all about Disney making money. I frankly, don’t care. In looking at the list I realized I don’t care about many of the items on the list because I have changed how I spend my money at Disney in response to their cut backs. Resort Airline Checkin? I only do carryons now. Longer operating hours? I would prefer the extra magic hours. I know Disney is now charging hundreds of dollars for this and will not give it up. Disney offered a MK after hours event while I was at GFV last month and I did not buy a ticket. Resort package delivery? I am not their target, I have spent about $50 since Covid, a majority of that has been on car magnets and Fairy Godmailer postcards. Free magic bands? I recently looked at the resort buying options and I am not convinced that Disney is committed to the current Magic bands.
None of these will make or break my decision to book a WDW vacation. Obviously. And that may be the problem: they know they can still sell vacations without any of these things.
But I think Magical Express, while not my top choice, could be profitable because it keeps people from wandering outside of the bubble. Since that went away and people became comfortable with ride share and private car services I have had many more inquiries about working in a side trip to Universal and occasionally Sea World. Because folks are either renting a car or don’t mind using ride share or car services now that they have been forced to look at those options.
Regarding which parks need later hours, honestly all of them (except MK which you can get a fairly late closing time at for much of the year). Hollywood has no reason at all to close so early, nor does Epcot. And the parks are at their finest in the nighttime. I would love AK to stay open later but I get that it’s disruptive to the animals and there’s not enough there to extend the hours by much. I think extended hours could also be profitable as people buy merchandise and food. But heck that means they have to offer food later and they aren’t so great at that in general. I was very impressed by how late one could get actual food at DLR (hint: it’s right up u til closing!!).
But it was inconsistent for LL and later park entrances 
. The photographers also much rather use our MBs!