Fax from Disney re: Surprise Mornings

[PJesse25]

Hi, All.

I work at a travel agency and we just got a fax from Disney announcing the discontinuation of the Surprise Mornings program. I just had to share the language with you. The fax begins with an announcement of the Character Caravan. It goes on to say:

"Many of our Guests chose not to take advantage of our Surprise Mornings (early Theme Park entrance) program. They told us they wanted more of the Disney Characters. We took it as a wake-up call. So we've replaced Surprise Mornings with a new kind of magic - now the friends your clients have come to love are coming to them."

Oh, brother! Take an amenity away from the guests and then tell them it's their fault!

Now, let me say that I love Disney World and took all of the recent cut-backs in stride. I was there October 26-30 and can honestly say I've rarely had a more pleasant trip to WDW. We saw everything we wanted to and were still able to stroll through the parks and linger over meals. I just find it amusing that they chose to word this announcement this way.

 

[All Aboard]

As fast as that email was spinning, how did you slow it down to read it?!?!? This is just absurd. The folks that didn't take advantage of EE are the ones that are sleeping in and are not going to be up early enough to see the Character Caravan. What a load.

 

[YoHo]

Why, it seems perfectly reasonably worded to me. I've seen numerous people report here that they either have never used Surprise mornings, or went to another park on those days. in both cases Surprise mornings wasn't being utilized. Surely there is more to it then that, but I wouldn't be surprised if lack of use wasn't part of it.

 

[Carl]

Every time that I've been to Disney there have been long lines waiting for whatever early entry park was going to be open that morning. And I also disagree with the statement that people going to the NON early entry parks were not making use of early entry. They WERE making use of the early entry by going to the park which did NOT have the early entry crowds.

 

[All Aboard]

Carl is absolutely right about EE crowds. Especially at MK. Folks were utilizing it and thus the outcry against this cut. I don't recall any change that WDW that has been met with this kind of criticism (at least here on the DIS). The caller said that they were getting lots of emails about it. It was being utilized. But it was an expense that was not matched with revenue (unless you try to determine how much of the room rate could be attributable to EE) That is, "we get $124 a night for this room, but without EE would could probably only charge $119".

Of all the folks that say "we never used EE anyway, so we won't miss it" how many do you think will be setting the alarm in order to see Mr. Smee in the food court?? My guess is somewhere in the neighborhood of zero. The groups that were getting up early to get a jump on Test Track, Tower of Terror, RnR, etc. are likely not interested in seeing characters in the morning. So, WDW has replaced a "used amenity" in their case with a worthless one.

For the groups that were getting up early to get a jump on Dumbo, Pooh, Pan, etc. MIGHT and I repeat MIGHT get up early to see Smee. I'll speak for that group and say you took away a very valuable amenity and replaced it with a near-worthless one. We can see characters just about anywhere in WDW. At all times of the day at all parks. Getting an hour and a half jump on the crowds at MK was fantastic.

No matter how you slice it, this was purely a financial move and had nothing to do with guest preference. Everyone falls into one of three categories. 1) Don't care about either one, 2) prefer EE, 3) prefer Character Caravan. Those who fall into category three could probably all fit comfortable on that double decker bus.

 

[YoHo]

But gcurling, you don't know that. And that's the point.

As to what Carl said, I agree. But does disney see it that way?

Avoiding the Park with EE may be utilizing it, but to Disney's way of thinking it may not be. I'm not sure. I'm willing to bet there was more thought to this then throwing darts at the board.

I might be willing to get up earlier to see the characters. Disney will certainly find out if it is a valuable perk.

 

[All Aboard]

I don't think it was "darts" I think it was "stones." WDW needed something to cover for the fact that they were cutting a great guest perq. AND, the union of which the characters are members had been promised more hours (per MKTiggerman). Two birds, one stone.

Honestly YoHo. I believe you've said that you did not take advantage of EE. Are you just jerking my chain when you say that you might get up earlier just to see three characters at the resort, but not to go to the parks??

YoHo, the EE issue is my proverbial straw just like Seven Seas Lagoon boat transporation was yours.

 

[YoHo]

I know, and I'm not jerking your chain. It depends on which characters. (You can always go down to the lobby on your way to breakfest.

 

[DeeP]

One point that I have yet to see mentioned in relation to the EE ending, is that very often many non Disney resort guests were also using EE. The times I used EE I was never checked for a resort ID. We are DVC members at BWV and many times I see people that are not staying at a Disney resort park at BW and take Disney transportation into the parks to use EE and to avoid paying the parking fees. So really Disney did not take a perk away from their resort guests they took it away from everyone including a lot of people that had no right being there in the first place! Maybe now with the added security at the resorts it will not be possible for non Disney resort guests to park at other resorts to gain access into the parks and avoid the parking fee. I hope so, being a DVC owner I spent a lot of money for my membership and I pay yearly dues to DVC, and it really burns me up to see non Disney resort guests using our facilities/perks and then having the nerve to brag about it! I know with the BW it is harder because non Disney resort guests can come to eat at one of the BW restaurants or to just enjoy the BW, but it was starting to get really out of hand with people using BWV parking lot as a free for all and never even stepping foot on the boardwalk or in one of the restaurants.
I think when attendence picks back up EE and E nights will be back in place, it only makes sense. Now there is no need for them with attendence down, so why pay extra wages for CMs to work an empty park? Once attendence is back up, Disney would be foolish not to institute EE and E nights--it is more hours of a lot of people in the parks eating more and buying more. I just hope when they do institute EE again they monitor is more closely so that it is really only Disney resort guest who are admitted. Why not have each guest show a resort ID at the turnstiles of each park along with their admission ticket? Then it will truely be a Disney resort guest perk!

 

[cindyfan]

I agree this is an absurd way of "announcing" the new Character Caravan!!
Doing away with EE is a huge mistake......IMHO!!
We DID tade advantage if it.......not always, but we did. We would get there early for the EE spend 3 to 4 hours at that park then move on to another. I really made it easier to "hop" Yes it did make the EE park more crowded, but that was because they let anyone in regardless of wether they were WDW resort guests!! I think that is where they made a mistake.

Anyway, how is this caravan thing going to work!!!!
What characters will go where!???? We usually get to see who we want by checking with the guide maps or asking a Cast Memeber and we plan it around the long lines and hot afternoons.

I just don't see where they think you can see more characters in the caravan !!!!!! Especially when you have so many character meals to choose from, and there are so many places in the park to see them.

Actually there were times we would see alot of characters at EE, BUT that isn't why we went to them!! We went to EE to avoid the long lines on the popular rides. Doesn't WDW realize that !!!

 

[Peter Pirate]

Very nicely said. I don't think anything is cast in stone, but I'm sure Disney doesn't want to "Give things" away, especially to non-Resort guests as they have been doing. I think that if the hue & cry is sufficient we could easily see a return of EE with more restrictions from abuse...Or dae I say it, a truly restrictive EE...For a fee (like E night).

 

[wdw4us2]

A lot of Florida residents (us included) have always used EE when staying on-site. We normally don't take one or two week trips, we take 3 day weekend trips. If you've ever tried to enjoy MK on a Saturday without EE, you know what fun it is to try and get your kids through Fantasyland without waiting 30-45 minutes per ride. When you use EE, the wait time is generally no more than 10 minutes!!! I would love to know who Disney "polled" for the info on the character interaction, but it has certainly never appeared on any poll I've taken. I understand that Disney is a business and that they have a bottom line, but people keep forgetting that they started cutting off "perks" BEFORE the 9/11 tragedy. I have emailed WDW Resorts about my displeasure about the elimination of EE and received a short email from them to acknowledge receipt and promised a more detailed reply at a later date. I hope it is a positive response!

 

[Captain Hook]

I just returned back from a wonderfull week at WDW, We never used EE in the past (we always avioded the park that had it on that day), I did get to see the Character Caravan at OKW. It came monday, wensday, and friday three characters for about an hour. Monday was Hook, Smee, and Gildeon: Wensday was Minnie, Pluto, and ? : Friday was Tweddle dee and dum, and the rabbit. The only people who where stopping to see them where parents like ourselves with children under 5. I hope in time the parks will regain the EE days and more important MK sees the rerurn of E night for all of us who are over 5.

 

[Bob O]

This is typical disney BS!!!! They discontuined the program to save money but for pr reasons are blaming the guests for its demise. I know my self that without early entry i wont stay on
site anymore!! And besides the loss of hotel revenue its also going to cost them less meals and souvenirs etc. From what ive read on this site and Deb's wdw site the caravan is a joke with only a couple of charachters for a short period of time and no proper replacement at all for EE. We alsways used EE and found it the best reason to stay on site and without it the rooms are overpriced for the value received,escpecially when you then eat most meals on site which are higher priced then off site. Disney can pull the wool over some eyes apparently but not all!

 

[KMovies]

The one I saw was "Baloo", "Rafiki" and "King Louie". It was very crowded with tons of families.

 

[cindyfan]

So let's put this in perspective:
A typical family staying on site for let's say 6 days, Sat through Friday, can "possibly " if they get up early and go down to the main lobbey, get to see at most 9 different characters.
Instead of: If they were able to go to EE for 5 of those mornings at 3 different parks and ride how many of the attractions? I'm guessing at this one.........maybe 20 rides. PLUS seeing how many characters before the "main" crowd shows up? Let me try to add this one up.......Once at MK EE we saw 4 of the dwarfs outside the entrance, then Alice in Wonderland's group, 3 of them that day, and Mickey, Minnie and Goofy before they headed to Toontown. It was a good morning! Then the next day at Epcot, we saw Pooh, Piglet and 3 other characters on our way in for EE.
Now that was 15 characters just 2 days!
And we don't even go to see the characters!! We were trying to avoid long lines!! Which we still were able to do!!!!

Hopefully, they will realize the error of their ways !!!! And go back to EE, and hopefully it will be long before we go in June!

 

[mktiggerman]

Originally posted by gcurling
I Two birds, one stone.

actually, I feel it's more of execs @ WDW adding 2+2 and coming up with 3. WDW execs have no say over characters, but they do have a say over EE. The NY execs that have control over the characters made this decision. I have known about the character caravan at least 10 days prior to the cancellation of EE.

 

[All Aboard]

I take Tiggerman's response as further evidence that the Caravan was not a conscious decision to find a suitable replacement for EE. Rather, a convenient "right place at the right time" item that mgt could point to as the replacement.

I'm not going to open another poll (my last two got locked - they don't seem to like polls much around here) but I have to suspect that the vast majority of folks who care about either EE or CC, would say that EE is much more valuable to them.

 

[Eeyore2U]

But how many, like me don't care about either?

BobO ~ If you don't like the BS don't go. It's that simple.

I think that Disney mistakenly tried to use this as a postive when it was totally unrelated to the suspension of EE.

Let's look at it this way. If 1000 guests are at WDW and 85% use either the a) previous EE park strategy or b) any park but EE strategy.What is the need? Where are the numbers to substantiate opening early? If the guests aren't there and only Disney would know since they have the numbers, I choose to beleive them. I'm sure when the annual report comes out it will substantiate it.

Also, if by all accounts, my first hand included, are no waits why would the EE or E night be offered? Should Disney be obligated to offer something they lose money on? Would any of us pay to have someone stand to do nothing?

Someone early on in the thread stated something about the noise being made regarding canceling of EE. I think this falls into the silent majority category. If it doesn't bother you, why say anything.

 

[Bob O]

I think when all is said and done the elimantion of EE will cost disney more then they will save by cutting it. We always used EE and the crowds were their to justify its continuation. I think over time they will lose alot of rooms nights by cutting it and the resulting money from people staying off site in meals/trinkets etc. I found it to be the main perk of staying on site, the other convience of closeness at epcot/MK resorts. Bit without the perk it will be easier to stay at a suite hotel which offers more room/meals at a significant cost saving. Disney need to fill more rooms, not less and by reducing one of their main perks doesnt encourage people to stay on site.