Is it just me?????

[nicole48040]

I booked my upcoming DW trip for November back in April. At this time no CM ever mentioned Mickey's Christmas party to me. I found out about it when looking up the parks monthly schedules, so that I could start putting together our general itinerary for adrs. I was shocked that I was not offered this option and that there is NO discount on these pricey tickets when you a package booked at that time. I feel robbed that I am paying full price for my park tickets and yet they are closing early for this party and in no way compensating us for that loss. I know that if I said to them "I'm not paying full price for my ticket because I decided to take that money and spend it at Sea World" that would not fly. So how can they say to me "too bad you paid full price, we are giving you the boot so we can get more money out of our already overspent customers.........this really has gotten my goat and writing to Disney as gotten me nowhere except a rather polite 'tough'! How very unmagical:(

[BrerSchultzy]

I understand your frustration...I do. But Disney's stance is going to be that they only close MK early every third or fourth day during November for the party, so you have a chance to visit other parks those nights. I don't mean to belittle your situation...I can tell you feel ripped off. But I think that maybe this is one of those situations where you might get so angry that it affects your vacation, and that'd be a shame.

[SBETigg]

I would prefer they didn't close for special parties and it really can mess up a trip schedule, especially when it does cut into EMH availability. I totally understand your unhappiness with this. But on the other hand, the parties are pretty special events with a lot of unique offerings, and they please a lot of people.

As for offering a discount on regular admission tickets, it would be nice but not happening. The park is open for regular guests until six, which allows a pretty full day. They don't charge less for nights when they don't have SpectroMagic or for nights when they close at 7 instead of 10, so we just take it as it comes and plan carefully. Having the hopper option helps. You could always schedule MK visits for other days to make the most of it. But it is inconvenient.

[kakn7294]

I booked a vacation in August - normally there are no special events scheduled and the parks are open late. However, this year they decided to hold the Pirate & Princess parties again in August. It just so happens that the days we scheduled to be at MK are ALL of the same days that they are holding the party during the week of our trip. I do feel a bit ripped off, but I don't have to stick to my schedule. I can go to any of the other 3 parks instead, or I can opt to purchase the tickets for the P&P party (which we are doing one night). Even the hours posted on the website are subject to change for any number of reasons and you do pay the same price for the tickets whether the parks are open until 7p or 12a. Unfortunately, there are no discounts offered for the party tickets to those who booked a package. You can get a discount for advanced purchase tickets (as compared to gate price) by calling or on Disney's website. The only other discounts offered are to AP holders and DVC members.

[Disney Doll]

Sorry for your frustration. When we booked last year for our Feb trip they mentioned the Pirate and Princess Party to us several times. We were planning to attend so we were happy to say "yes we have our party tickets and we can't wait." However, on party night we sat by a family on the bus that had no clue there was a special ticket event going on that night. I'm not sure if they decided to buy a ticket or just hop on a bus somewhere else. At the time I felt bad for them, but wondered how this family managed to miss all the signs and ads for the party. Anyhow, all this to say, it could be worse. At least you will be well informed when you arrive and can plan to visit another park on party days. It's irritating to have to change your plans I know, but I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

[JPL]

Disney has been doing this for years. They will never offer discounted admission since the 3 other parks are operating under normal hours for that time of year. My only suggestion would be attend the party it's a great time or simply schedule around those dates and go to one of the other parks.

[Ian]

Let me give you both sides of this argument ...

Disney's Side: All our park tickets say park hours are subject to change without notice (i.e. no hours of operation are in any way guaranteed with your ticket purchase), the other three parks are still open later, and you always have the option of attending the party for the extra admission. In addition, the hard ticket parties have special events, decorations, fireworks, parades, etc. which justifies the additional cost. I'm sure they also calculate revenue from these parties into their annual ticket pricing calculations, which means if they didn't have these hard ticket events, they'd just charge you more for your park hopper.

Your Side: You paid a big pile of money for admission to all four Disney World theme parks and it does seem pretty unfair that they then expect you to pony up even more just to get into a park you already have admission to. It would be nice if they offered like a 10% discount if you bought the tickets along with a vacation package, but I guess they don't really have to. Most of them sell out.

[FriendsofMickey]

I wish I could get to my prior trip information (but remodeling and everything is packed up); however, I have gone a number of times in November and December. From what I remember the parks always closed earlier during this time of the year than the rest. I want to say 7:00 Wishes and 8:00 Wishes (8, would be the days they had the electric parade).
I made my ressies in January for this upcoming trip and there was no mention of the Christmas party. I however, am excited to get a chance to do something different (did halloween party last year.) I will say when I saw 6:00 Wishes, I was a little taken back; however, I then noticed the park is still not closeing until 7:00. So, if my memory is correct the park hours are similar to what I have experienced in the past. Just a change in when the fireworks are.
That said, maybe I just was unaware that the parties were affecting me previously?
Regardless, I agree not to let it get to you too much. You don't want it to hamper your good time.

We've purchased the park hopper too, so when the MK closes early, when can hop to Epcot ... just an idea for you to think about.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

As Lori Ann mentioned, typically at that time of year, the parks take turns closing early because it's usually slower. So this gives people an opportunity to go to the parks and see special parades and fireworks and have less wait time for rides. I personally loved MVMCP. Yes it cost extra but it was worth every penny. And there are still at least 2 other parks to go to. Just plan accordingly and you'll be fine. I do understand your frustration.
If you go in the summertime, they keep the parks open really late, but they don't charge extra to let you stay later. So I guess they look at it as a trade off.

[nicole48040]

Here's the thing.....several years ago I came down to DW in Sept. with me two kids and 2 sister-in-laws 18yrs. and 20yrs. We traveled by mini van. We got to Georgia and had to hole up due to a massive hurricane hitting Florida. So Disney pushed back our reservations a couple of days. I have to tell you the beginning of this trip was quite traumatic. When we finally got to DW we made the best of it and tried to really turn the whole trip into a great experience. Our last day we went Animal Kingdom (which alot of the parks were closed for a good portion of our trip due to the hurricane, so this was our first opportunity there) and after we planned to begin our search again for cinderella at MK. My husband's mother had asked us for one souveniere only, a pic of my 3yr. old dressed up as cindy with cindy. Mom could not make the trip with us because she had terminal breast cancer. So we went back to MK only to find out it was closed for some christian night thing. We were staying at a deluxe resort and were never informed of this. I was so irritated, I explained everything to the CS and he sold me discounted tickets so we could get in to get the pic...........an hour and a half later we found out cindy was never scheduled to be there. I have never been SOOOOOOO irrate. The first cs would not even make eye contact with me and got a grumpy old man to deal with me instead. He told me it was my fault for not seeing the signs (I saw the signs promoting something special, what they did not say was park closing early), then it was "if it was SOOOO important why did we wait til last minute??" I thought I was going to be the first person to kill a DW castmember. But through my rage I managed to inform that wonderful man that I had been trying to find Cindy but we had no luck finding her and that how dare he insult me in that manner. By the end we got complimentary tickets for the next morning. But now with this latest item, I feel there is a pattern. If they want to close down early, fine so be it but inform your customers before they give you thousands of dollars of their hard earned money expecting a full trip. s 8 day trip is 25% of my trip being messed with so that they can look at me and say well just pay double and then you can attend. I will not be attending the party, because while I love DW I feel that Disney is getting too greedy and loosing alot of it's magic by doing so. I mean does Disney really need an more money? Could they not just have the party included with the regular tickets? After all, winter months the parks close alot earlier anyway, so why not give you that little extra. O.K., it's out of my system and thanks for putting up with the rantings of a middle class woman who is tired of it just never being enough.......enough I say, ENOUGH! Give working folks a break!

[Aurora]

I'm with you, Nicole! It would be nice if you didn't need a matrix to figure out park hours throughout the year. Special parties, extra magic hours, even individual attractions have various opening and closing times! It makes it so difficult to plan a vacation.

Now I will tell you this: My friend, who is going the first week in June, is ECSTATIC that on two nights during her trip, because of extra magic hours, she will be able to stay at the Magic Kingdom past 1 o'clock IN THE MORNING. So I guess there is some balancing on Disney's part during the overall year.

[FriendsofMickey]

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience last time. I hope your upcoming visit is much more magical.

Overall, I have only been 'really, really' upset over a Disney experience once (last September). It was only one of the days we were there, but it put me in such a bad mood (as well as DH) that I almost considered cancelling my plans to come this year. It was at Epcot and happened at the beginning of the day. It started out bad and never got better, we left early and never even watched the fireworks. It took some of the magic away. When I wrote Disney, I got a "you should have made an issue of it while you were there, sorry nothing we can do about it now." Worse part is that they knew we were unhappy at the time, but I am not a scene maker. I just figured I would 'let Disney know ' later. I cannot imagine having the whole week go wrong, so I can definately understand your feelings.

That said, I hope you can put the closing early out of your mind. I need to find my guide maps from my previous trips so I can verify that they are not closing much earlier than they normally do during this season.

Disney is so magical. Not sure what time in November you are going, but every time frame I have gone has been great and without any major crowds. We have sucessfully accomplished finishing the parks early (in fact being able to ride most rides twice or more if we wanted). The weather for us (PA People) was perfect ... much, much better than September - which was way too hot.

I hope you have a magical trip!

[disneymom2000]

I booked my trip in February for December and I wasn't offered tickets to the party either. I didn't think nothing of it because I have never been offered any extra special events when I have booked any of my trips. I don't believe Disney is required to offer anything other than what you call for. They also couldn't ask me because the times weren't even posted until the first of May. I called back when the dates were posted and requested mine. I appreciate the CM's who go out of their way to mention special events but most of the time they are so busy getting people their requests for the right resorts, tickets, info etc that they can't remember everything. I just appreciate the fact I get to go.:mickey:

[nicole48040]

I do still love Disney and plan on having a great time. This will probably be my last trip there where my son still stays with us. He will be going to junior high this year so I know my time with my little man is coming to an end. I have great hopes for this vacation and my DH really needs the break from work to get some quality family time. However, if something comes up during the trip I have no problem leaving the kids with my husband and finding someone's ear to bend. It's just too much money not too. Thanks for all the pep talks and understanding everyone:thumbsup: What does'nt kill us makes us stronger (and by the looks of things I'm well on my way to incredible hulk type strength:D )