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Park Hours: Updates and Discussion

djtruefitt said:
If it’s a 10-4 day you are hardly going to be wasting your time watching a show on the lawn or even looking out for he Krewe across the park. I’ve noticed even recently some 4pm closes queues have still been 60 mins plus for the likes of wicker man and smiler. So all of these 4pm closes are certainly not dead.
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Indeed not! Most the queues for the coasters today were between 25-50 mins, so relatively busy for a 4pm close
 
With regards to the 4pm mid week closes, this is just for the queues isn’t it? So am I right to assume that Mardi Gras entertainment, restaurants and the pop up food stalls will be remaining open for a bit longer? I hope so because a 4pm curfew on everything is just depressing, especially with 6 hours of daylight left in the height of summer.
 
s_g_k said:
With regards to the 4pm mid week closes, this is just for the queues isn’t it? So am I right to assume that Mardi Gras entertainment, restaurants and the pop up food stalls will be remaining open for a bit longer? I hope so because a 4pm curfew on everything is just depressing, especially with 6 hours of daylight left in the height of summer.
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There has been nothing to suggest the entertainment and food will be available beyond ride close. So I believe it will all finish at 4pm midweek.
 
AT86 said:
There has been nothing to suggest the entertainment and food will be available beyond ride close. So I believe it will all finish at 4pm midweek.
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Such a shame. I can just about understand 4pm queue closures due to high ops costs but if people are spending money on food and drink by having an early evening meal there ... why not keep things going for a couple of hours? Also, if you’re in a party where not everyone likes the thrill rides, it would mean that those that do could queue for their last ride of the day at 4pm and the others could have a few drinks and watch a bit of entertainment.
 
Not really been confirmed much, the website hasn’t really had anything added since the event was announced, except they have removed the “ride in to the sunset” when people started to kick off that a 4pm close is not a sunset

All that will happen is people who want to experience the event and get on more rides, will book weekend visits as you’ll get more time, which in terms just makes the weekends busier.
 
djtruefitt said:
All that will happen is people who want to experience the event and get on more rides, will book weekend visits as you’ll get more time, which in terms just makes the weekends busier.
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Well this is the problem. It's just a nonsensical argument to suggest that being quiet is an excuse to have such poor opening hours when poor opening hours are making the park more quiet! This week has indeed been busier with 45 mins queues all over the place, next week there's a new event on top of this which is costing a lot to put on and they have no idea how well it could potentially go down, and if they stick with 4pm closes they probably never will. If it is quiet next week I'm sure they'll see it as a vindication but the short hours are a self fulfilling prophecy.

I get that people want to applaud longer weekend opening hours, but at the expense of week day experience? It really is the definition of a 2 tier park experience. In real terms, with SD still in place making queues longer and new entertainment and rides, these 6 hour weekdays next week are more insufficient than they've ever been, worse than 2017.

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Thank the lord. Was dreading Thursday 4pm closure with some of the queues this week, makes it that little bit more of a relaxing trip now. Still don't think there's quite enough time to enjoy Mardi Gras though.

8pm all next week too. Guess they're expecting a busy one.
 
Whilst I'm relieved that common sense has prevailed for Friday, I see they're still persisting with absurd 4pm closes as they have done on Monday and Tuesday. The show on the lawns is half an hour long and Thirteen reached 70 min queue today.

It's insane to spend so much and put so much effort in to holding an event and still have 4pm closes. They may as well have saved the cash Mon-Thurs and not bothered. How many thousands of people looked at the park hours and didn't book this week?

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Ethan said:
Clearly didn't put that many people off looking at the queue times!
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That's not clear at all. There's no way of knowing who would've been enticed to visit with the allure of a new event yet decided not to go due to opening hours. If anything, today's queues make the 4pm closes even worse as they knew how many people were likely to visit yet still went ahead anyway.

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The problem currently is that the queue time for Th13teen in no way really resembles the actual crowds. I am in no way condoning the place closing at 4pm. but they are looking at the physical number on park and making a decision based on that rather than the fact that Th13teen had a 70 minute queue at 1pm and WM hovered around 45 all day or whatever.

Th13teen gets 2 1/2 hour waits at the weekend currently. It's not the benchmark for the rest of the park - thank god.

Next week, I can only assume they are now confident of achieving 12,000 + daily and have a healthy hotel occupancy level. The 4.00pm's that are currently scheduled in June must be sub 5,000. At least today's changes to hours demonstrate that this is something they are constantly monitoring.
 
I booked for the 12th and have fast track platinum for that day, the only Saturday that isn't a 8pm close in June :(
 
Ethan said:
It'll get changed most likely I wouldn't read into it too much
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Being a summer Saturday, you'll probably be correct. But therein lies the problem, that most people who visit will read into it. If the park advertise a set of opening hours, most people will expect that's what they're buying. Spending thousands every day putting on an event to get people to visit but only offering a 6 hour day is insane. They can afford the event but can't afford a 6pm close? Rediculous.

This also leads us back to the chicken and egg debate at the heart of this. They'll give a good experience but only if people buy enough tickets for the crappier one? What other business of this scale runs day by day like this? This is the stuff a local Burger van would do, not a major theme park operator. It raises worrying questions for me.

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