Disney World Ending Magical Express Airport Shuttle
Walt Disney World is ending its Magical Express shuttle service to resorts from Orlando International Airport. This comes after the company “temporarily suspended” Extra Magic Hours, FastPass+, the Dining Plan, and more.
All of this is still top of mind for many Walt Disney World vacation planners, which is clear to us based on the number of questions we receive asking when the Disney Dining Plan, FastPass+, Extra Magic Hours, etc. will be brought back. In most cases, our expectation is that Walt Disney World will restore these things this spring and summer.
When it comes to resuming normalcy at Walt Disney World, it’s clear that this won’t be a simple matter of reverting to the status quo, pre-March of last year. Instead, Walt Disney World will use this period of abnormal to retire and transition away from various offerings to new things, and offer a “soft reset” on the guest experience. We now have our next glimpse of what that means for later in 2022…
Walt Disney World will end the Disney’s Magical Express service for airport transportation starting with arrivals on January 1, 2022. Disney has attributed this to the expansion of options for guests, including the rise of Uber and Lyft. “Vacationers have more options to choose from than ever for transportation, including ride-share services that save time and offer more flexibility to go where they want, when they want.”
Disney’s Magical Express will continue for arrivals and departures through 2021, but anyone planning a Walt Disney World vacation in 2022 will need to rent a car or plan on using Uber, Lyft, or whatever other options are out there. (Although not yet confirmed officially, it’s entirely possible that Minnie Vans have been permanently retired.)
Note that complimentary transportation options within Walt Disney World — such as buses, monorails, boats, and the Skyliner gondolas — will continue to be available without changes. This only impacts Disney’s Magical Express, the airport-to-hotel transportation service, and does not have any bearing on internal or resort-to-park transportation.
It’s worth noting here that the Disney’s Magical Express airport shuttle service is operated by Mears, not Disney itself. Mears is a transportation company with coach buses and taxis that enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the Orlando market for years…before Uber and Lyft debuted.
Last year, Mears furloughed 83% of its workforce and ended up permanently laying off nearly 200 workers. Even prior to that, the company had run into trouble–Mears has been extensively involved with ride-share lawsuits and other litigation over the past few years.
It’s also possible that the relationship between Disney and Mears soured when Minnie Vans were rolled out a couple of years ago. Up until that point, some guests were reticent to use Uber and Lyft due to horror stories, and still opted for the overpriced Mears taxis. From then on, Walt Disney World had a monopoly on overpriced private transportation–it made almost no sense to pay triple the price of ride-share for a taxi when Minnie Vans offered a more polished and “magical” experience.
This is all to say that there might be more to this story than meets the eye. Disney could see the writing on the wall for Mears, or the relationship between the two companies might’ve been irreparably damaged to the point that they could not negotiate a new contract once the current one ends.
Basically, we have a tough time taking this cut at face value–or being entirely due to the reasons given by Disney. As discussed in our Guide to Disney’s Magical Express, the “free” service is incredibly valuable to Walt Disney World because it makes tourists a captive audience, less likely or able to dine off-site, visit other theme parks, or spend money elsewhere.
Long ago, Walt Disney World determined that the increase in average per guest spending with Disney’s Magical Express plus the perceived convenience and goodwill obtained from offering the service outweighs the average per guest cost of offering the service. It’s unlikely that has changed, especially as on-site food prices have increased and Central Florida theme park competition has become more fierce.
Beyond that, this change is being announced at a time when hotel occupancy at Walt Disney World is abysmal–and that’s even with several resorts still closed. With no convention business, minimal outside events, and a travel recovery expected to take until 2023, cutting Disney’s Magical Express will only exacerbate that problem.
We’ve been discussing Walt Disney World’s Disappearing On-Site Advantage for years now, and the elimination of Magical Express only makes that worse. The airport transportation service has been routinely cited by on-site advocates as one reason to still stay in a Disney-owned hotel. Uber and Lyft are great, and we’ve taken them instead of DME several times, but this is still a big blow for consumers.
It’s also potentially going to be detrimental to Walt Disney World. We’re anticipating a ton of negative feedback about this change–likely on par with the addition of resort parking fees a few years ago. As with that change, we can’t help but wonder if Disney will come to regret this move as being one that pushes more guests off-site and ends up costing Disney money in the long run.
We’ve also long been asking Is Walt Disney World Eroding Fan Goodwill? with previous decisions like this. We maintain that they have, but the booming economy has insulated Disney from the negative short-term consequences of so many cuts and guest-unfriendly decisions. Unfortunately, the current hotel woes are pretty easy to hand-wave away given all that’s happening in the world. But we nevertheless question whether occupancy remains low even as park attendance is rising because more guests have already determined staying on-site is simply not worth it.
Finally, while some Walt Disney World fans might point to the Brightline train station at Disney Springs being the eventual replacement for Disney’s Magical Express, that’s still several years away. (The South Florida to MCO link has a scheduled 2022 opening date, but that does not include the Disney Springs station.)
Moreover, that route from the airport to hotels will be convoluted and time-consuming, so it’s not really a viable alternative. To the contrary, the whole reason the Brightline station is being built at Disney Springs instead of the more logical location by the ESPN Wide World of Sports is because Disney did not plan on the train serving as airport transportation for many guests.
We still would not be surprised if Walt Disney World announces a replacement for Disney’s Magical Express before 2022. This just seems like a really ill-advised and short-sighted decision. As discussed above, it’s also potentially a decision that’s out of their hands…
In other breaking news, Walt Disney World announced a permanent replacement for the temporarily-suspended Extra Magic Hours, and has confirmed that EMH will not return. Dubbed Early Theme Park Entry, the new perk will allow Walt Disney World resort guests to enter any of the four theme parks 30 minutes early each day.
Disney indicates that the new Early Theme Park Entry benefit helps better spread visitation across all four theme parks, while providing added flexibility by giving guests extra early park time on each day of their vacation and in the park of their choosing. Please note that guests need valid admission and a park reservation made via the Disney Park Pass system to enter a theme park.
The new Early Theme Park Entry offering will debut later in 2021 and will be promoted as part of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary offerings. No specific start date has been provided; our assumption is that move is deliberate. Walt Disney World can hold off on rolling it out until hotel occupancy and attendance levels dictate, with the latest debut date being October 1, 2021.
While we’re incredulous about the Disney’s Magical Express news, this announcement we do take at face value. In that same “Disappearing On-Site Advantage” article, we derided Extra Magic Hours as a mostly illusory benefit. Prior to the closure, we actively avoided Evening Extra Magic Hours due to the noticeable spike in crowds as compared to non-EMH evenings.
There are a number of reasons this has happened, but is primarily because the pool of Extra Magic Hours-eligible guests continues to increase. Walt Disney World has cut deals with third party hotels and also built several new Disney Vacation Club properties and otherwise added to its hotel room inventory.
For us, the jury is still out on this new Early Theme Park Entry benefit. We have every reason to believe this will do a better job of spreading out crowds, and could end up being a net positive for guests. Thirty minutes per day is obviously less than than the previous hour, but it’s better than nothing.
There’s also the reality that 30 minutes times 4 parks is a total of 2 hours per day across all of Walt Disney World, which is a net gain as compared to Extra Magic Hours. Obviously, a single guest without the resources for time travel cannot take advantage of that 2 hours, but the point is that this may not be a simple cost-cutting measure by Disney.
It could end up giving on-site guests more time before the wave of crowds hit–or it could amount to being pretty similar to the current unpublished policy of quietly opening the turnstiles before official park opening time. We’ll withhold judgment on this one until experiencing it ourselves.
While the specifics here are not exactly what we anticipated, that Walt Disney World would choose now to make these announcements is not unsurprising. As we covered months ago in What Will Replace FastPass+ at Walt Disney World? we expected these “temporary suspensions” to be a natural transition to new systems.
Ultimately, we expect plenty more announcements in the coming months about other, similar changes. As discussed in that article, we’d be shocked to see FastPass+ return without any changes. We’re also expecting the Disney Dining Plan and other experiences will have modifications once they return later in 2021. Then there’s the potential transition from My Disney Experience to Disney Genie (or whatever it ends up being called) which is another can of worms. In short, brace yourself for plenty more changes announced between now and October 2021…
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Walt Disney World ending Disney’s Magical Express? Upset that you’ll have to rent a car or use Uber/Lyft, or did you find DME too inefficient, anyway? Thoughts on Early Theme Park Entry v. Extra Magic Hours? Disappointed that the amount of time is being cut, or optimistic that it’ll be less crowded during that time? Other thoughts on this? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Whats next ? Over the past five years the average ticket price has gone up more than 20 percent. WDW now charges to 25.00 t0 45.00 per day to park your car while staying at their hotels. The price of the average room is $350.00 per night and even more at some of their high priced hotels. Food prices on location have risen over 35 percent in the same time period. Now they are taking the few perks that were left away. Our family has made over 20 trips to WDW over the past 30 yrs I am not sure how much more we can handle.
I just looked at a very nice Hotel a mile from the main gate, and it was $145.00. It had a living area with a separate bedroom. Plus a full breakfast, large pool with a nice bar and they had hot food you could order there. It shuttle to WDW 4x a day which was nice. The money I save for 1 night will pay for a car rental and we can check other things around the area.
The parking fee alone will pay for a rental car. There are so many great hotels close to WDW at half the price and with more to offer.
Unless your offsite location has free transportation to the park you will need to pay to park at the theme parks once per day.
Very disappointed in Disney! Always loved going to Disney World but now….? We have been planning a big family vacation for years and the pandemic hit and now we were going in 2022. We are rethinking that now with all the changes, they have really taken away the Magic and perks of staying on site. We hope Disney reconsiders these changes, they are really hurting their image.
I agree. This is enough for me to consider selling my DVC membership. They say one reason is that they are putting a train station from the airport to Disney springs. I don’t want to take all my luggage on a train to Disney springs.. Lug it to the bus station and board another bus to my hotel again… Carrying all my luggage
The reason I pay more and stay on site is because of the Disney’s Magical Express. It is so easy to just hop on the bus and not worry about calling anyone and paying for it. Plus when you are staying at a resort you can check your bags and get your tickets the morning of your Disney’s Magical Express ride. This was great and I would even pay a little extra for it. There are many very nice hotels around Disney at about 1/2 the price. This is where I will be booking in the future.
What I do NOT understand is why then are they building all of these new roads just for busses if they are getting rid of Magical Express- a MAJOR bus system? I get that there will still be the need for the internal busses, but seems like a waste unless they are anticipating the increased passenger car traffic and are wanting to keep the busses completely away from that pending nightmare.
We were just there at the end of January and needed an Enterprise pick-up person to get us from AK to the rental car station to grab a car for the rest of our road trip down thru the keys. Our driver had been a Disney bus driver for 15 years prior! I actually remembered him from a previous trip because he interacted with our kids and told funny jokes! All of the bus drivers used to be that way and made the time on the bus so much better. He said that the highlight of his days were when he got to tell kids on the bus that they had reached the Magic kingdom and to tell Mickey “hi” from him. It broke his heart when corporate changed the rules and stated that drivers were no longer allowed to talk to guests. There is so much that I feel we are “losing” at Disney, that it’s getting harder and harder to justify spending that much more for so much less.
I totally agree its a bad decision with Disney getting rid of Magical Express. Being a family that travels, its a huge perk of not having to wait for our luggage. It also means we get to the resort sooner and start money, so I cant see Disney Reasoning of getting rid of it.
The idea that there are plenty of other options is crazy on Disney’s end, it is going to be a lot of added traffic to the roads not to mention not to great for the enviroment.
I hope they change their mind
Two years ago we took our entire family, 12, to DisneyWorld and are considering another trip next year. However with all the changes, no Magic Express, less ear.u entry time, no fast passes, no park hopper, we are giving serious consideration of not going or, if we do, to staying off park. Disney has become more and more caring less about their guests and more about the money. Walt would be very sad about their current culture.
As a long time fan of Disney World I am disappointed in all the changes. Perks are taken away and the prices continue to rise. I had a reservation for March 2021 and had to cancel because of Covid. Now rescheduling for 2022 will be missing all the conveniences that we as a family have enjoyed and treasured for so many years of going to Disney World with my grandchildren and now my great grandchildren. It’s too bad that a place of magic has turned into a money machine. So sad this is what has become of such a once special place. I hope Disney World will return some of the magic someday.
I agree, also a long term Disney traveler and their is less and less Magic with each of these changes
Its a big mistake to end magical express. It takes away from the whole experience that we have been use to. The luxury of getting on the plane and everything was taken care of. Using a hotel not on site would be just as convenient? It would be cheaper. I was told that most off site hotels have shuttle service to the park, but paying the extra made the experience worth it. Now I have to rethink staying on property or not?
I agree!!! I loved getting my checking in at the Disney resort and took care of everything until we got to our airport at home. I sent a message to WDW to let them know this was a mistake. I would even pay extra just for the convenience, after all it is a vacation!!!
I was just looking at the swan/dolphin and I can stay there for $139 a night and still walk to Epcot and Hollywood studios. The yacht club is $295 a night for the same dates that i already have reservations for. I will probably switch my reservations to the swan/dolphin. I am using the slash because I cannot remember which hotel is open. One is open now and the other is scheduled to open in July.
Remember that you’ll pay a resort fee at S/D; if you have a car, you will pay to park (no in and out privileges).
that’s still only 176.00 a night with the 37 a night resort fee. the parking fee is basically the same as Yacht Clubs parking fee so it is still a significant savings.
My guess is that Disney will reinstate these member perks as soon as Covid-19 is substantially beaten back and we can return to some form of normal. If I’m wrong then I will be very disappointed.
I agree, I see some of this as short term crowd management solutions. As for DME, I say that the original announcement was just to state that Disney was parting ways with Mears Transportation. I still say that in the near future there will be an announcement saying that DME is going in house. That is unless they are going to another vendor that is giving them a better deal. There may be some legal issues that they may have to hammer out before an announcement is made.
This is going to be a HUGE THORN in Disney’s side.The idea of the Magical express to bring you to your Disney hotel without a worry and have your bags delivered was a plus.Now canceling this perk will cost Disney with less people staying on property.I for one will not stay on Disney property without this perk,why bother.I have to Uber or rent a car? Where is the Magic?
Could be as some people point out its all temporary and then will become in house. If not I think Disney is going to lose a lot of on site people.
We are sad to see so many benefits of staying on property dissapear.
1. No magic bands for hotel guests (as of Jan. 1, 2021). We will miss the ease of everyone being able to get in the hotel room with them, pay for food, and fastpass.
2. No fastpasses- as a disney hotel guest, we had the use of these down. Our longest wait times in line ever (including busy holidays) were during covid minus fastpass. We came beginning of December 2020 (somewhat offtime) and still the longest waits we have ever done! Disney hotel guests were able to book these earlier than those staying offsite. To us, this was THE greatest benefit to staying onsite.
3. No extra magic hours. No replacement has been put in place, just a promise of the extra 30 minutes to come for disney hotel guests sometime in the murky future. How will they differentiate between disney hotel guests and non-Disney? No magic bands. How long will the verification process take? Will there even be a verification process? How will they make it relatively touch free and maintain social distance?
4. No transfer of luggage for disney hotel guests. Already guests must claim their luggage at the airport and bring it with them onto the magical express.
5. No magical express (January 1, 2022)! Leaving guests to either uber, ride share, or rent a car. Remember, there is no free parking for disney hotel guests. Not only will guests incur the cost of the rental car, but also they will have to pay for parking daily. The hotel parking lots were already pretty full. I cant imagine how much worse it will be with the discontinuance of magical express.
6. No luggage tags were provided. A very small point, but we missed them our last trip! These used to be included with the magic bands.
7. Disney hotel guests are not given the option to book dining earlier for staying on property. Now, they book at 60 days away from vacation, just like everyone else (off property).
8. No dining plans. These were exclusive to guests that booked a vacation package. We always purchased these. The ease of prepaying and not having to worry about it was part of the disney magic.
9. Purchases in park being delivered to your room for you will be a thing of the past. Who wants to carry purchases around all day? We also frequently dont leave until the stores are already closing. We will be less likely to purchase bigger items in park or anything at all really.
Conclusion, we are unlikely to stay onsite again. Most of the benefits have completely disappeared. We are more likely to rent a car, and stay at a non-Disney hotel with free parking. We will limit our disney trip to a small portion of the visit. We will only eat while in park and bring some snacks and drinks. It was difficult to just get an ice water. Lines were long even for snack carts. Instead of making an entire trip in the disney bubble and spending hundreds of dollars a day on food and items, Disney will be relegated to a few days (at best). I imagine that this will be 75 percent less spent at Disney World!
I really think at least half of those will come back. Free MCO transport-most likely not. Who knows though.
Disney Resort guests can still book 60 days, plus ten more for dining. Offsite guests can only book 60 days out. You can use any old magic band just like before. I have tons in many colors. Or you can purchase a fancy one (or the plain vanilla ones like they use to give out for free – now $5). And I thought that I read that you can still send your purchases to the front of the park and pick them up as you leave. If you want the luggage tags, you just request them when you check in. Put them on your bags before you leave and use them on the next trip before you get new ones again.
Yes, you can reuse a previous magic band. However, Disney services stated that batteries typically dont last more than 2 years. You may still purchase one. The cheapest I saw in park was $19.95 for the plain ones. The point was that the magic bands were a benefit given for staying onsite. It is no longer any different for a person staying offsite!
When we booked our vacation (Dec. 2020) everyone booked dining 60 days from arrival. Whether staying onsite or offsite. There was no extra benefit for staying onsite.
The post was a real look at why should I spend more to stay onsite? What extra benefits have been taken away to the point that the cost savings of staying offsite are well worth it?
Personally, under current benefits, I would not choose to stay onsite again.
Actually only the first generation Magic Bands have a battery. All other have a RFID chip that the system reads. All your previous bands are on your My Disney Experience account page. Any previously registered band can be used.
Disney hotel guests can still get Magic Bands at a discount, just not free for the plain colored ones. They’re $5 now, and $15 – 20 for the themed bands.
No one is getting Fast Pass now, and that actually makes the stand by lines go much faster. We were there over Christmas – Dec 20-30 – and the lines were not horrible, except on Christmas Eve at Magic Kingdom. We didn’t go on Christmas Day. Timed right, the waits are manageable. I checked the wait times for today, and the longest I saw at 2:00 was 65 minutes for Slinky Dog. Most everything else, including Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, was 30 minutes or less, and the actual wait time is much less.
Not having Magical Express included sucks, however Mears has stated that there will be a similar bus service continuing after ME is gone. Disney may well be replacing the service with an in-house service, as well.
On site guests have always had the same ADR window as off site guests, only they can book for their entire length of stay, instead of a day at a time for off site guests. The only change is instead of 180 days for everyone, it’s 60 days.
Dining plans are convenient, but there is a price for convenience. And right now, with so many restaurants closed, and especially the ones that can make the dining plan worthwhile – character dining – it would be next to impossible to manage. Blame Covid for this one.
While packages aren’t being delivered to resorts, they will still hold them at the front of the park for guests to pick up at the end of the day.
I’m not defending Disney on this – I completely agree that paying the on site premium is not worth it now. Much of it is due to Covid precautions and/or lack of staffing. But I am correcting the information.
Actually I think Henry is only half right. Your magic band DOES have a battery and RFID, and the battery will probably only last a couple of years. After the battery dies it will still work when you use the tap function, but it will not work for other things like ride photos recognizing you are on a ride. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but that’s what I read. And I have to say I’m with Kerry. Sure I can still buy magic bands at a discount and sure Mears says they’ll still offer a shuttle (for a fee), but the bottom line is with all the perks missing for whatever the reason (covid or cost cutting) while room rates still stay considerably higher on-site than offsite, why stay on-site anymore? I ran the numbers for my family and the only way staying on-site comes out ahead is if we score free dining. With dining plans currently off the table, no ME, no EMH, no early fast pass bookings, no magic bands, no luggage service, it begs the very very big question, why stay on-site when you can get a better offsite for cheaper?
Amen. There’s always universal and sea world etc
Agree with absolutely everything Kim – so well put and comprehensive. And yes, as was commented on, I could use one of my many old magic bands, but I think I should be “given” a new one for paying outrageous on-site deluxe hotel prices.
There are many nice hotels near Main Gate and by Old Town at a very lower price and Many will shuttle you to Disney. If I do stay at a hotel off site and it does not shuttle to WDW I will rent a car and park it at Disney Springs and take the bus to the park. There are also many good restaurants close to the main gate an are half the price of a Disney restaurants!! Actually staying off site will let you do a lot more things!!!
Ben Sweeney: If you park at Disney Springs, you need to take a bus to a resort since there are no buses to the theme parks until much later in the day (unless they have been discontinued or the schedule changed). They used to run to from the parks to DS after 4PM. If you take a bus to a resort, you may have to take another bus to the theme park. I don’t think the buses start running to Disney Springs until about 9AM or so.
I agree!!! Shame on Disney ! My whole family ( adults) loves DME and consider it the very exciting start of the Magic!!! I rely on it when I treat my senior parents to Disney ! I agree with all your points! Disney can you hear us? I’ve been seriously considering purchasing more DVC points but why bother now? The joke is on us bc the Magic has disappeared!
Great post as always Tom. In case this hasn’t already been mentioned, there is a Change.org petition going on right now for the Magical Express.
https://www.change.org/p/walt-disney-world-guests-save-the-magical-express
I just sent this off to 12 people. I hope everybody jumps on the band wagon!!!
Two cents from a Universal Studios pass holder…the changes Disney is making seem to align with Universal’s current practices. Universal’s reopening has gone significantly better than Disney’s. I’m wondering if they are looking at Universal’s model, seeing vacationers are willing to accept less inclusions, and adapting their offerings accordingly. However, Disney and Universal are two very different resorts at significantly different price points. Interested to see how this turns out. I am returning to Disney World at the end of January for the first time since 2007. We’ll see how it goes!
Agree with this 100%. I have never been to Universal, and now that Disney is offering less while charging the same or more $$$, this is pushing me to spend 1/2 my vacation time at Universal instead, especially seeing as to how Universal is significantly less expensive.
Disney will either need to offer more incentives OR lower their prices for on site stays, otherwise, I could see many vacationers deciding (like we are) to spend their money elsewhere.
I got way more for way less for my Universal stay even before Disney cut these perks. For instance when we stayed at Cabana Bay we had two massive swimming pools (One with a water slide), a lazy river, a super cute splash pad, sandy beach areas, and hot tubs. All of these were open until 10-11pm at night. We had theme park views including Hogwarts. We could literally just walk around the building and into Volcano Bay. We got an hour early entry for a few rides at one park each day that let us ride the most popular rides. the rest of the day was not crowded so we went on multiple rides many times in a row with negligible waits. The bus system was top notch. We never had to wait more than 10 minutes to get a bus to or from the parks. There was an arcade, a gym, a bowling ally, a Starbucks, and massive cafeteria on site at the hotel. We stayed in a family suite with two king beds and a pull out couch, one bathroom, and a kitchenette. This cost 170.00 a night. Then we went to AOA at Disney. We also had a family suite there. Three beds, two bathrooms, and a kitchenette, They had three pretty small pools (and apparently the big blue pool is the largest for any hotel?), an extremely mediocre splash pad. All the pools closed at 7 or 8pm. There were no hot tubs, no theme park views, no walking to any parks, the food court was blah. The bus system was horrendous, and they did not tell us that buses were running only once an hour now that the skyliner had opened. In fact they didn’t tell us about the skyliner at all leaving us stuck at a bus stop for an hour one day. The information on the tv still said buses ran ever 15 minutes. I will admit one we knew about the skyliner that was a fantastic perk. What we did get was the option for the magical express, early choice for fast passes, early booking for dining, and EMH (when we were there they were doing a number of 2 hour evening EMH). The crowds in the parks were extreme, and without our fastpasses and EMH we would have ridden almost nothing. For all of that I paid 430.00 a night. That 430.00 was, for us, the opportunity to actually go on the rides. It definitely wasn’t for a room that we could get for a fraction of the cost anywhere else with much better amenities. That’s just my two cents on this whole fiasco.
Wow Shasta! What time of year? I am just really hoping a lot of these amenities come back when more availability comes back to the parks in general. Then with crowd capacities up I only go on really off peak seasons. Crowds are out of control!
This was February 2020. Right before Covid really hit.
It seems like Disney used to think a lot more about what could make the guest experience better “magical”. That seems to be less of a priority as the years go on. They have slowly been moving to nickel and diming you for more money. It was already an expensive vacation without that. They have also been taking away more perks. I am not certain what the future holds but I hope enough people speak up about this that Disney leadership takes notice. If Disney keeps getting rid of the things that make a vacation there unique, then people can go elsewhere and spend less money.
I do agree with another comment that if Disney just said we lost a lot of money and this is a temporary change than I could live with it, but if it’s permanent I am not satisfied with that.
Disgusting change. Disney should be ashamed
The idea of ending ME is a terrible decision.
We have been members of the DVC since 1997. It was always a special experience. Slowly, the many special touches have been disappearing. The extra flower/ landscaping at the resorts help to put you in the Disney bubble for our vacation.
I just can’t imagine what a nightmare the traffic is going to be on the roads getting to the park and getting to your resort. The roads were busy with the buses moving lots of people. Now all those people will be in cars. If you travel by plane, the first problem would be the lines to rent cars or waiting for Uber or Lyft possibly with little anxious children. What a happy picture–I don’t think so! When you have travel by car for 2 or 3 days and then you hit the resort findIng a moving parking lot of cars it is not a happy time. The resort parking lots are not prepared to handle the number of cars that will be trying to use them. I guess Disney plans to park cars-who know where and shuttle people, luggage and groceries to the lobbies of the resort and then you are on your own. Is this the best way to start a vacation? I don’t think so.
At this point selling our points is certainly a possibility. As we age-as everyone does– the convenience of traveling by plane, having your luggage delivered and having a bus waiting to take us to a resort is very attractive.
I guess the Disney greed has reared its ugly head!
Art. Been going twice a year. Now never going to Disney
How bad is the traffic around Disney going to be once DME goes away. I estimate that about 54,000 trips from the airport to Disney will occur each day. DME was about 1,080 bus trips each day. I will probably not return to Disney once my annual pass expires.
I really can understand why Disney is making this move, they are trying to cut costs to stay open and cover the costs of not being open in DisneyLand. If they would just come out and say, “Listen, we have to do this to keep the business running. Once things get back to normal we will look at bringing these services back.” That I could live with. And Early Entry is just terrible, we hardly ever get up early on vacation. We like to hang out and swim, then head to parks after lunch and stay until close. It’s the only way my kids ever stay awake for fireworks… I’ve learned my lesson… even 10 year olds will fall asleep during fireworks if you’ve been there since park opening. And moving a 100lb kid is literally impossible.
Becky,
Can’t agree with you on the cost savings. Disney has $23 BILLION in cash.
@Carl – that 23 billion in cash is money they borrowed and are holding on to in case things get worse. They took out several loans at the beginning of the pandemic, all totaled up to 23 billion. When you are bleeding 3 billion quarterly just from reduced theme park revenue your going to see services get cut.
I agree completely with Patty. Everything they are changing or cancelling defeats our reason to stay on site. It was the “ all inclusive “ version of Disney and made the trip and staying on site effortless and enjoyable even if you had to pay a little more We too would visit but stay off site. More planning involved and inconvenience for sure but what Incentive is there now to stay on site and pay so much more? Cheryl.
So sad to see all the wonderful reasons that we loved staying on site going away. After years of staying offsite with our family of 5 due to cost we were finally able to afford to stay onsite for the last 10 years. We used fast past, dining plan, extended hours, ME , and everything else that seems to be going away. It was a wonderful and magical experience. Well I guess we will revert back to staying offsite due to there is absolutely no benefit from staying onsite anymore except for 30 minute early entry. Big deal. I loved the magic the parks held late at night
I agree Patty – we also used and loved all those things all the time. If all these things we loved are gone, then I’m asking myself “why still go”? Yes, my family and I are just people who love disney, but this is just getting to be too much.