Magical Express and Extra Magic Hours Terminated Permanently From 2022

[DisneyFoodie]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

I can see why Disney are making this decision as there are now far more options to get from the Airport to Disney than ever before. Uber will step up and take this extra business from MCO.

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Sadly not kid-friendly options. You can’t get an Uber with more than one car seat, and the seats they do have aren’t suitable for babies.

[Elodie]

It looks like we lied to our girls last year then 😔 We’d booked our first ever family WDW trip for Aug 2020, and when things started looking doubtful, we reassured the children that if it got cancelled, we would do everything we could to rebook our dream trip for the future.

We’d saved up for a three week trip, staying in Beach Club with free deluxe dining etc, and had planned our days around EMH etc. I’m honestly feeling that booking an identical trip will double in cost* (especially since DD9 will be a Disney adult when / if we rebook, which will totally change our dining costs and plans, even if free dining was a thing).

Hopefully we can still take the girls one day, but I think we’ll have to let go of our Beach Club dream and drop most of the restaurants we’d planned to eat in. I’m so sad that all the plans we’d made were for nothing - I wish we’d left the girls out of the planning and just told them at the last minute. Luckily they don’t know about our April Disney cruise that I’m just about to cancel, but I wish they hadn’t known anything about the WDW holiday they’ve lost.

*I’m guessing they’re counting on people like us accepting the price increase to get the holiday we’d promised our children in 2020, and agreeing to pay extra for the perks that we thought were going to be included.

[Derbydave4]

Although we love French Quarter and being in the Disney bubble if these changes take place and free dining doesn’t return that will be the end for us of staying on site
We will now just stay over at Universal and maybe just book an after hours event😢

[NewtoOrlando]

It’s a bye bye to Disney onsite for us. Literally no incentive for us anymore. In 2019 we did 5 nights with no DDP, it was lovely - I don’t mind that, but the lack of decent extra magic hours is a big no no for us. I have a one day ticket left from 2019, so will have one day and that’s it. Slowly stripping away everything that made it unique and special to everything else! Add to that the price of tickets and onsite hotels, when you can stay at Sapphire Falls (yes no fast passes but the hotel is beautiful and a million times better than a Disney budget hotel) for the same money - I know where I will spend my hard earned cash!

[Mr Andy]

I will only stay at Disney if we get Free Dining again.

[sunjue100]

Well we won’t be staying on site again then, EMH and DME were the draw for us.

[Tco200]

I know it may seem minor but there was something comforting about after wrestling the cases through MCO and getting through immigration once you plonked yourself on DME you start to feel home.

The cheesy videos on the screen and all.

For me it’s more symptomatic of the direction things are going, little things here and there being stripped away with no new incentives added.

On site always feels like home to us, starting to feel less welcome though!

[neatfrk]

I assume the elimination of Extra Magic Hours paves the way for Disney to offer a broader suite of hard ticket after hour events? Not a huge shocker - just seems Disney is pivoting and monetizing the park hours instead of offering them as on-site perk.

I really struggle with returning at this point. Universal is simply more fun and relaxing at this point; for less $$.

[catherinesian]

Think that'll be the end of onsite stays for us then. Will just stay offsite and spend our money elsewhere. Poor move Disney!

[YorkshireT]

Renting DVC points will look ever more attractive; a lot cheaper, free parking, no free DDP now anyway.