Subsonic Radio

Has anyone else seen the new Disney After Hours ticket that they will be having in April and May of 2016?

Here is a link to the article ~ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/a ... story.html

Anyone else concerned that this could be a trial to see how tickets sell and if they sell well, the EMH perk may no longer be offered?

Saw this yesterday. Here's the WDW site page for it: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/event ... ter-hours/

It's basically Extra Magic Hours with a $150 entry fee.

Yea.. no. Just.. no.

To put that into perspective a bit, that's $150 for three hours in the park with a only handful of attractions open. For around the same price* you can get three DAYS in Tokyo Disney Resort's parks. It's also MUCH more expensive than the other hard ticket events (MNSSHP/MVMCP), and doesn't come with the extra parade and fireworks you get with those.

*slow clap*

Let's just not, eh?

* A three day ticket at Tokyo Disney Resort is currently listed as ¥16,600 on the website which at the time of writing is $147US according to Google.

That's what I found amazing ~ it's only select attractions and no evening entertainment? Sorry, can't eat enough ice cream novelties and bottled pop to justify that price ~ ugh!
Didn't realize TDL/TDS was that reasonable for tickets yet. Nice!

acp wrote:Saw this yesterday. Here's the WDW site page for it: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/event ... ter-hours/

It's basically Extra Magic Hours with a $150 entry fee.

...

Let's assume you're going to WDW and staying off-site. It might be worth it to book a night in a Disney park on the day you want to go for this type of thing in order to use EMH, which would be included in your resort stay.

I wonder if it's a ploy to get people to stay on-property more and off-site less. "Well, sure, you can stay off-property, but you'll spend $150 for EMH on one night instead of having all of the EMH opportunities for your entire stay."

cy1229 wrote:

acp wrote:Saw this yesterday. Here's the WDW site page for it: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/event ... ter-hours/

It's basically Extra Magic Hours with a $150 entry fee.

...

Let's assume you're going to WDW and staying off-site. It might be worth it to book a night in a Disney park on the day you want to go for this type of thing in order to use EMH, which would be included in your resort stay.

I wonder if it's a ploy to get people to stay on-property more and off-site less. "Well, sure, you can stay off-property, but you'll spend $150 for EMH on one night instead of having all of the EMH opportunities for your entire stay."

But it costs more than the entire rest of the day in the park cost and only gives you three hours and a handful of attractions - no parade, no evening shows, etc. Even if you factor in the smaller queues and included snacks/drinks, I just can't see it in any way as good value for money.

I wouldn't mind the idea so much if it was at least a reasonable price. At $150, it's just a joke. There's no way it's worthwhile - especially if you factor in having to buy tickets for an entire family/group. The price should be at least $100 lower IMO.

To use the Tokyo example again, an After 6pm ticket (lets you into one of the parks from 6pm until closing) costs ¥4200, which is around $37US. That gives you 4 hours in the parks (assuming 10pm closing time, which is fairly normal in my experience there). Granted it's not "exclusive" time, but you can at least see the nighttime entertainment (parade, fireworks and Once Upon a Time in TDL, Fantasmic! and fireworks in TDS) and get a choice of the full range of attractions.

No matter how I look at it, this $150 thing at WDW is just seems like a complete rip off to me. Way overpriced for what it is.

Kind of an odd price point to test it at, unless they are going for an ultra exclusive audience where everything open is walk-on. I would not be fully shocked if they were going to try making overnight events, similar to 24 hour ones, a hard ticket with limited attractions.

And now I am seeing they will be doing it for morning hours too! Early access to Fantasyland but just for the Mine train, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh is what I think I saw. $69 for an adult. This is crazy!

jlpeaches255 wrote:And now I am seeing they will be doing it for morning hours too! Early access to Fantasyland but just for the Mine train, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh is what I think I saw. $69 for an adult. This is crazy!

That is NUTS. Insane. Ca-razy.

acp wrote:But it costs more than the entire rest of the day in the park cost and only gives you three hours and a handful of attractions - no parade, no evening shows, etc. Even if you factor in the smaller queues and included snacks/drinks, I just can't see it in any way as good value for money.

I wouldn't mind the idea so much if it was at least a reasonable price. At $150, it's just a joke. There's no way it's worthwhile - especially if you factor in having to buy tickets for an entire family/group. The price should be at least $100 lower IMO.

To use the Tokyo example again, an After 6pm ticket (lets you into one of the parks from 6pm until closing) costs ¥4200, which is around $37US. That gives you 4 hours in the parks (assuming 10pm closing time, which is fairly normal in my experience there). Granted it's not "exclusive" time, but you can at least see the nighttime entertainment (parade, fireworks and Once Upon a Time in TDL, Fantasmic! and fireworks in TDS) and get a choice of the full range of attractions.

No matter how I look at it, this $150 thing at WDW is just seems like a complete rip off to me. Way overpriced for what it is.

Oh I agree. I was trying to figure out why it was introduced in the first place, the excessive price tag notwithstanding.

Sounds to me like someone in the "New ways to charge more admission and draw people in" office at WDW have spent time in Colorado, taking in the sights, sounds, and, uh, smells.

jlpeaches255 wrote:And now I am seeing they will be doing it for morning hours too! Early access to Fantasyland but just for the Mine train, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh is what I think I saw. $69 for an adult. This is crazy!

Really? Oh, that makes me sad. I'm wondering if the free EMH hours might be drawing to an end soon then

Amy wrote:

jlpeaches255 wrote:And now I am seeing they will be doing it for morning hours too! Early access to Fantasyland but just for the Mine train, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh is what I think I saw. $69 for an adult. This is crazy!

Really? Oh, that makes me sad. I'm wondering if the free EMH hours might be drawing to an end soon then

I think there would be a major outcry if that happened. EMH is one of the major benefits of staying on property.

I'm thinking they probably won't discontinue it in that capacity, but rather make it a more open event (anyone can buy time). But I suspect they may make it either an upgrade perk for tickets (similar to DQ) where base level only gets normal hours, but those who pay slightly more get the EMH. Either that or they are just trying something new to see how non-themed party events work.

Here are a few things that cost less than the $150 Disney is charging for the After Hours ticket at MK:

MNSSHP: Max price is $87 for an adult on Halloween
MVMCP: Max price is $82 for an adult
Epcot Seas Aqua Tour: $149.10 (discounts available)
Keys to the Kingdom: $78.81 (lunch included...significant discounts available)
The Undiscovered Future World: $58.58 (discounts available)
World Showcase DestiNations Discovered: $116.09 (lunch included...discounts available)

Worst case scenario, a one-day ticket to MK is $125. That gives you 12-14 hours of access to MK. Why anyone would consider paying more than that...for only 3 hours in MK is beyond my understanding. If anything...Disney should have offered this at no more than a $49 upgrade to your MYW ticket or AP. Another thing, in reference to the tours and experiences listed above, is that you get a great deal of "extra" stuff when you do those tours or parties. From what it appears, all you get for your $150 is shorter lines, desserts, and bottled drinks. There is nothing extra there...just an extension of what you already get with your standard MK admission.

The sad thing is that this wasn't part of a survey...it's something they are currently selling...which means it's here to stay.

Part of the price may simply be to keep it exclusive, similar to that second park that Sea World Orlando has/had. By limiting the number of people, it means they have a hard limit on how much they can make but have a fixed floor they need to pass to cover the costs of such a thing. The only solution being a super high priced ticket. While you are noting it isn't on a survey, odds are it was (do they have the blue shirts that take people to the backrooms WDW?) and this is still the testing phase, similar to the tests they did at DLR for short term events in specific lands.

This may only last the summer and never be seen again, if they can't get enough people to buy in then it won't be a major problem to shut it down. Though it would probably suck for the staff getting laid off/hours cut.

I have a what-if thought going and wondered what you all think:

Say, for sake of argument, you make a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest for a half hour after park closing, roughly. So, if the park closes at 8 that night, 8:15 or 8:30. You go to dinner, enjoy, and then leave. Is there any way of knowing whether you're one of the silly people who paid extra? In other words, will they tie it into magic bands or issue a wrist band like they've done for EMH?

And, I know exclusivity is a thing for people with lots of money to spare, but how many people would really pay this much for that little exclusivity? I know we've all had our fantasies of winning the lottery big and being able to rent the park to ourselves (wouldn't ever happen, but we've all dreamed about being able to do it). But how many people would REALLY pay whatever price for exclusivity? In terms of their own, real, hard-earned (presumably) dollars? I think you hit on something Wiz, that there's a minimum number of people that have to buy it for it to be worthwhile, and the only losers if it doesn't work are the CM's who were counting on the hours.

The whole thing has me baffled.

cy1229 wrote:.... Say, for sake of argument, you make a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest for a half hour after park closing, roughly. So, if the park closes at 8 that night, 8:15 or 8:30. You go to dinner, enjoy, and then leave. Is there any way of knowing whether you're one of the silly people who paid extra? In other words, will they tie it into magic bands or issue a wrist band like they've done for EMH? ....

Yes, I'm sure they would put the ticket on your Magic Band, or your ticket if you still had one of those instead of a Magic Band. You would likely be able to linger and wander around and take in the sights, but you wouldn't be able to ride any attractions without having the ticket. Not sure if they would scan bands/tickets at the free food sites, but possibly.