Near daily morning Extra Magic Hours added at Disney's Animal Kingdom May through June

Dutchy73Apr 26, 2018

Thanks I will have a word with myself!! Ha ha

IanDLBZFApr 26, 2018

Looks like this is being done to handle crowds more than anything (likely due to the popularity of Pandora).

rodserling27Apr 26, 2018

Ahhh darn, so much for my "sleeping in a little bit" day on my upcoming trip. I'm doing a two-day trip in June with a friend who's never been to Pandora (and in fact only been to WDW once). I guess we will be up at the crack of dawn to brave the giant EMH crowds into Pandora if we want a shot at getting on FoP without a FastPass! (Or waiting 4 hours.)

gorillaballApr 26, 2018

Liked, but under the assumption this is extreme sarcasm. If serious then....

Tony the TiggerApr 25, 2018

But if it’s almost every day, it won’t have the same effect as when it was much less frequent. So this should be good for you. Undisappoint yourself.

Dutchy73Apr 25, 2018

Really fed up about this, we have specifically planned our holiday so not to clash with EMH that way we have a reasonable chance of minimum queues at Pandora! no FP left either! Disappointed Disney

GhostHost1000Apr 25, 2018

I agree with that - seems like their new strategy is to open a new "land" (or multiple attractions) each summer now Also what you said about FEA I think this is why we are seeing MK-like attractions move out elsewhere (Epcot, etc.). pros and cons to that for sure but I understand why they are doing what they are as well. MK can't hold everyone I think they also miscalculated how popular HEA fireworks shows are too... now it is chaos for that showing. I wish they could do 2 shows a night but I know there is costs involved there

CaptainAmericaApr 25, 2018

There are lots of ways to increase crowd size. It's not just bringing in a brand new family who's never visited. It's about getting a one-time visitor to come back a second time. It's about convincing the family who's coming in 2019 to come in 2018 instead. It's about getting an every-four-years visitor to accelerate to every-three years. It's about getting passholders and DVC members to visit more often and spend more time in the parks when they're there. I think you underestimate the fervor of Disney parks fans. New Fantasyland was intended to do exactly what you're describing. Absorb capacity without drastically increasing demand. They miscalculated and demand was greater than ever, making the most crowded land in the most crowded park even more crowded. Even the freaking quick service restaurant had hour-long lines to get in. I have no inside knowledge of this, but I think Frozen Ever After represented a shift in thinking in this regard. Rather than try to add capacity the the Magic Kingdom generally and Fantasyland in particular, Disney built an attraction to take some of the Fantasyland crowd and shift them into Epcot's World Showcase. It's the same logic behind Avatar and Rivers of Light, it wasn't about easing capacity issues at Animal Kingdom, it was about giving crowds somewhere else to go in the evenings in addition to the other three parks. The final piece of evidence in this line of thinking is removal of the nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom. It was controversial, but in my opinion it was clearly an operational decision to reduce crowds by deliberately lowering demand that was otherwise highly concentrated. You can't have that many people who want to be in the exact same place at the exact same time without creating major bottlenecks, which is a guest satisfaction problem at best and a major safety issue at worst.

monothingieApr 25, 2018

FTFY

GhostHost1000Apr 25, 2018

which is scary (raising prices more) but I see it coming I'm not always of the belief that adding attractions increases crowd size. I doubt the Pandora brought in a new set of Disney visitors that haven't been there before.... now Star Wars land... this will be another dimension of crowds at DHS I believe. time will tell attractions aren't always rides either... shows... like the theater they canceled at MK (for now) would eat a good bunch of people up as well when the show is going on but I don't think having that would bring in new MK visitors

CaptainAmericaApr 25, 2018

Yup. I've never seen a group of people with the cognitive dissonance to complain about something and then complain about that thing's exact opposite. Remove extra magic hours? Complain Add extra magic hours? Complain Too much traffic? Complain Charge for parking? Complain Nothing new? Complain Close old stuff to build something new? Complain Build quickly? It's cheap and rushed. Build slowly? What the hell takes them so long?

GhostHost1000Apr 25, 2018

I didn't say it's terrible or a bad thing... just not what it once was... and they are dropping the ball IMO

monothingieApr 25, 2018

Maybe if they just kept raising the cost of admission it would thin out the crowds.:cautious::cautious::cautious:

CaptainAmericaApr 25, 2018

Doesn't work. As a matter of fact, it has the inverse effect. When you add an attraction, you: A. Increase capacity. B. Increase demand, which increases crowd size. If B > A, the crowding problem just got worse. Right, and when you add loads of stuff, crowds are going to be at an even higher all time high. There's one solution to crowds and one solution only. Raise prices (more).