Magical Express and Extra Magic Hours Terminated Permanently From 2022

[Shooby doo]

More cost cutting, next you will have to pay for transport to the parks! Maybe as a result we all will take our Disney tinted glasses off & realise that they are nothing special & just the same as everyone else...Sad but I think true. DMe allowed us to either have no car or a car for a portion of our stay & fortunately like other DVC'rs we don't pay for parking at DVC resorts. It does make you wonder at what point Disney (onsite) Guests will go "Enough is enough"? They have a lot of beds to fill, at a premium, with little to no incentives.
Free Dining has allowed a lot of Guests to "sample " Disney & trick us all into believing that it's onsite or nothing but I don't ever remember having bad experiences/stays at the $29/night Comfort Inn when we first started going!
As far as the train, I'm led to believe that not a single part of it has started (US Vlogger)& we are currently only 11 months away from '22.
SD

[aprilshack]

I think if you had a free dining plan you were paying full price for your room. Could be wrong?

[aprilshack]

I think Disney will end up being a little shocked when people vote with their feet. A recession is coming/here and people will need to tighten belts even on holiday. The incentives will then be back. I know someone on here mentioned that their friend used to work for Disney and they make a fortune from us Brits as we stay longer and are bigger spenders. Like I said with the recession, people will tighten their belts even if Disney is involved.

[aqualiv]

Originally Posted by aprilshack

I think Disney will end up being a little shocked when people vote with their feet. A recession is coming/here and people will need to tighten belts even on holiday. The incentives will then be back. I know someone on here mentioned that their friend used to work for Disney and they make a fortune from us Brits as we stay longer and are bigger spenders. Like I said with the recession, people will tighten their belts even if Disney is involved.

See more...

I don’t think this will happen
There’s a lot of pent up demand and they will be busier than ever

[aprilshack]

Originally Posted by aqualiv

I don’t think this will happen
There’s a lot of pent up demand and they will be busier than ever

See more...

Pent up demand and people actually booking past 2022 will be 2 different things after people who have postponed holidays from 2020 are done.

[babbymint]

interesting take

disneytouristblog/di...-dining-dates/

[miked1e]

Originally Posted by aqualiv

I don’t think this will happen
There’s a lot of pent up demand and they will be busier than ever

See more...

I believe the only thing which will stop people travelling are either 1. price or 2. worry about the current COVID situation, here, in Florida or potential transmission on flights.

But other than that... I agree that those voting with their feet will be the minority, and there will be increased demand for the 50th celebrations!

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by miked1e

I was only just into my teens in the late 90s and tbf we always stayed offsite as a family.

But I mean the general theme park experience on site or offsite. Was completely different back then. Possibly more relaxed and maybe less busy also...

But I also expect there were people complaining back then... maybe long q’s, or poor entertainment or something.

Things change and you will never be able to please everyone as every person is different with different priorities for their holidays.

But with a lot of the perks (and yes the inflated cost too)... people have been spoilt imho over recent times. That’s not to say that other things wont be round the corner which will be even better (or worse) than what is now.

I will continue to stay at Disney as I enjoy the experience in the bubble and the resorts. I have no doubt that Disney want to get as much money as possible out of me... but for most cases the experience I have means it is money well spent.

For what it’s worth I feel exactly the same about Universal.

Offsite hotels Disney area or not would do nothing for me and my family...

See more...

Fair enough. We're all different and all have different priorities. There will be plenty of people who stayed onsite and never used the Magical Express or never used EMH and so won't care a bit about these changes.

When I first started going to Orlando we stayed offsite because onsite was too expensive. I've only stayed onsite twice. We had a fantastic time offsite. So staying offsite again is not an issue for us.

I was due to do a split stay in 2020, staying onsite for 9 nights. But that got cancelled. With all the current changes in place, I'm not sure we'd choose to stay onsite when we next come to plan a trip to Orlando. But that's just us.

Mind you, for me, the biggest issue is the lack of the "free" dining plan. With the 'free' DDP I could justify to myself the increased cost of onsite stay at Disney; that additional money was paying for my food.

The Magical Express also helped justify the cost though. For example, we've travelled with Thomson before and paid around £100 extra for transfers from Sanford to our hotel. Using ME from MCO meant that cost was negated, so, again, it helped slightly to justify the increased cost to stay onsite.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by willmatt

Yes so it’s a train instead of bus. Like I said not much difference really.

See more...

But for 2022 it's nothing. Well, an Uber or a hire car, I guess. There will be neither a bus nor a train in 2022.

After that it'll be a paid train plus a bus instead of just a free bus. You'll still have to get some sort of bus from the train station at Disney Springs. So it'll be a little more inconvenient and probably cost a little more.

The whole point of having the dedicated bus was to make things easier for people. People like and appreciate that. They will pay extra to stay onsite for the convenience. A bit of that is being removed.

Also, we don't yet know how often that train will be running. It's going to be on a main route from Miami. What happens if the train is only once an hour?

[Nimbus]

You know what I feel sad about though? The fact that Disney's replacement for EMH is not being given a "magical" name. Disney used to be good at branding and making things sound more 'special' than they really were. It wasn't just extra time in the parks for onsite guests, it was "Extra Magic Hours". It wasn't just a transfer bus from the airport to your hotel, it was "Disney's Magical Express".

Whereas now it's just "onsite guests get let in 30 minutes early into the parks".

It's like they aren't even trying any more.