DCA Extended Hours for APs

[€uroMeinke]

Hey I got an email about this - Thursday's in February DCA is open for 2 additional hours, you just have to get a wrist band the day of the event. I think I might go for this one, anyone else interested?

[Stan4dSteph]

That's a nice AP perk!

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, does that mean they'll be open as late as Disneyland?


I think I still live too far away for this to be worthwhile, personally. And I'm going to the Resort on Saturday - regular opening is 8am* - so the early entry to DCA is at 7am. I'm going to try and make that, and it's all the extra, less-crowded DCA I think I will need.

But if there's a particular Thursday where a gaggle are going, and it would seem almost like old times, I suppose I might drive down after work if I could arrive in time to get a wristband.


* It appears 9am is the opening most other weekends in February, so this weekend is an especially early opportunity. I'll have to head down before dawn. Yikes.

[katiesue]

Depending on job status I'd love to.

[€uroMeinke]

So we went last night. It was nice to have the extra 2 hours, but honestly the 8:00 PM normal closing time seems the main problem with that. Plenty of AP's took advantage of the event, which meant wait times for the main attractions were 't all that much shorter, if at all. We had a 30-40 minute wait for the Racers going single rider. No idea if that's good or not but I did finally ride Tow-mater and Luigi's for the first time so that was nice.

The thing that really soured the experience though was leaving. With everyone heading out at the same time and the inexplicable closing of the flyover exit from the parking garage we got an extra third hour of magic sitting in our car trying to get out.

My lesson learned from this is if I want to stay late, go on a Friday, I'll experience the same crowds, but more stuff will be open a s it'll be much easier to leave when I'm done. So if this was Disney's experiment to see if you could reduce APs visiting on Fridays I'd say this was a big fail. Now if they just kept the park open later normally, that might be a bigger win for everyone.

[innerSpaceman]

I would suggest taking advantage of the early hour available through, I think Mid-April, on weekend mornings. (Saturday for DCA, Sunday for Disneyland, or is it the other way around?). We got on Racers twice (single rider) and rode Luigi's in that one hour. Sure, it's more difficult to get there at 7:00 in the morning - but that's the point. Relative emptiness. And certainly no hassle leaving the Resort when you're tired of it at, like, 1pm.


But there were some cute pics of you guys crammed on a tram!

[katiesue]

Well that's a bummer. Maddie is on break next week and we were thinking of doing the Thursday night. Sounds like it's not worth the trip up.

[€uroMeinke]

Depends, if you're there for the days the extra hours might be nice, but I'd plan on hanging out at Downtiwn Disney afterwards to avoid the parking issues, of course maybe you can resolve that by avoiding Mickey & Friends - that was the thing that really spoiled the trip for us.

[katiesue]

We usually park in Toy Story - from the south it's easier to get into. We were planning on going up after work. She's on vacation I still have to work. So hassling with traffic for a couple of hours of only a wee less crowded doesn't seem worth it.

We went last Sunday and it was really crowded. We did about an hour and fifteen minutes RSR single rider. Carthay lounge was at capacity so we couldn't go in. Saturdays seem to be better lately.

[RStar]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

We had a 30-40 minute wait for the Racers going single rider. No idea if that's good or not

I went there an hour after opening on a Thur morn two weeks ago and got on single rider in 8 min. for reference. To be fair, it was a wet drizzly morning as well.