Why Disney’s Special Events aren’t so special

An unpopular opinion

Being a local, I don’t want to say I get “bored” of the parks…because that’s just not accurate. However, there are times when I get too used to the way the parks are. After months of going nearly every day, I catch myself pushing past the hundreds of families setting up for a picture in front of Cinderella’s Castle, skipping the early morning Spaceship Earth line or running through Dinoland USA to be the first one on Expedition Everest (EE > FoP). It’s particularly bad when you see a 30-minute wait for ANYTHING…so you skip it. With on-site guests getting a jump Fastpasses and Extra Magic hours, it’s hard for an AP who’s seen it all to get his (or her) fair share of the world.

Fortunately, Disney started putting out more and more special events as I was growing up. The dead period in September was the perfect time for Night of Joy. Instead of dreading the crowds that came with the holidays’, I started to look forward to them because they brought Mickey’s Not so Scary and MVMCP.

But as time goes on, prices go up, and/or offerings go down. Now holidays are a time for resort hopping, advance reservation dining and 3-hour jungle cruise lines. The fun events that were a staple for a holiday trip to WDW are now either a second mortgage or a memory.

NIGHT OF JOY:

For those of you who don’t know, this was a two-day Christian musician festival that took place in the Magic Kingdom. The first one started in 1983 and was $11.95. While I wasn’t born for the first, I went to the last one in the Magic Kingdom (2015) and it set me back $115 bucks! That’s almost 1,000% inflation.

It might have been the most expensive concert ticket I’ve ever bought, but it also included a one day pass to the parks. One trick (to take full advantage) would be upgrading it into a year pass. You can go into the parks as early as 4pm on the two days, so you really got 9 hours of theme park action, in the dead of September, for $40/day. If you ask me, this was a great deal for us AND the mouse.

Not only was this a great deal, but Disney brought in artists (on both nights) that catered to every subset of the Christian community. With the harder rock (Skillet) coming later in the night, I was free to ride the major attractions for half a day (with less than half the lines of a normal visit). While I was getting in my thrills, my parents were listening to Jamie Grace and King in Country (along with most of the occupants of the Kingdom). One way to really take advantage was to make the end of your Fast Pass time right after your favorite band finished (plus 15 minutes to fight the crowds), stacking the beginning time for the next fast pass to the tail end of the first. You could go concert, ride, ride, concert!

But if you’ve read my Unpopular Opinion pieces before, you know that everything’s not good in the Christian concert hood. In 2016 and 2017 they moved the venue from the Magic Kingdom to Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Personally, I didn’t hate moving away from the Kiddy Kingdom, unfortunately they moved it to the worst possible spot! With nothing to do before my bands came on, and without bringing in 6 hard rock Christian bands, I’d be left walking football fields and gymnasiums for hour after pointless hour. I clearly wasn’t the only one who thought this way because the tickets went from $119 in 2016 to $69 (including a water park ticket) in 2017.

While the concert would fit Hollywood Studios (and God knows they need the attendance), I don’t know if they have enough park occupancy accommodate everyone. Epcot and Animal Kingdom are both 300+ acres, but neither have a venue big enough to hold all ticket holding guests for major Christian artists. If it were up to me, I would have moved the event to Animal Kingdom.

Dinoland USA and (in 2017) Pandora are perfect nighttime lands. Kali, Everest and Kilimanjaro can be run at night; meaning all rides are open. The nighttime safari has different animals, so it could be a draw (along with the concerts). Who wouldn’t go on Flight of Passage with a wait under 30 minutes? One question you might have is, “where would the musicians go?”. I’d have them playing on floating barges in the middle of the lake! This way, even without getting a seat, all guests could see (and hear) the music. If Rivers of Light is quiet enough for the animals, the music could be played at the same volume and direction.

Back to reality, with the event no longer viable, there will be no 35^th anniversary. Whoever’s job it was to slaughter this cash cow succeeded because Universal will be the only one putting on a Christian music festival in 2018.

MICKEY’S NOT SO SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY:

FULL DISCLOSURE: I DO NOT DO SCARY. So, when we decided to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, it appeared to be the right thing to do.

As with most specially ticketed events, I like to start the night hitting the major attractions hard. Usually this is the best time to ride, as day guests are leaving while event guests are slowly arriving, getting wristband, checking out the itinerary, going to special shows, etc. For the first one I went to, mountains were walk-on attractions, candy lines were small and characters were plentiful.

Flash-forward to today and the Magic Kingdom is over-packed for the duration of the event. Unless you have small children, you’re not going to be going to the Magic Kingdom to get candy you can get for free. While we don’t get any attraction overlays, the west coast gets Guardians of the Galaxy: Monster’s After Dark, Ghost Galaxy, and a Happy Haunts Tour!

And all of these negatives are mentioned before the price. If you want to go on October 2^nd, (over four weeks before Halloween) it’ll set you back $89 for adults and $84 for KIDS! To make matters worse, while the rest of the world is giving out free candy, it’ll set you back $133.13 for 5 hours on Halloween; that’s $26.63 an hour per person. How many of y’all make $26.63 and hour? Add in a significant other, or God forbid a family, and you’re setting yourself back a rent check.

MICKEY’S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS PARTY:

My former yearly event! Come hell or high water, my Dad and I had a tradition of going to Mickey’s Very Merry.

If I’m being completely honest about MVMCP, this event offers almost nothing special. When I did go, it was the one time of the year where I got to run around a half empty Magic Kingdom for 5 hours while ingesting all the Snickerdoodle’s and Swiss Miss I could handle.

On a more personal note, many people say they get the ‘Christmas Feel’ on Black Friday or on December 1^st. Unfortunately, the heat and seasonality of South Florida ensures our separation from the traditions that are held in the colder parts of the country. What really opened the can on the Christmas season was getting out of school, going to MVMCP every year and feeling the ‘snow’ falling on Main Street USA.

If I remember correctly, 2005 was our first year, and it was $32.95; a great deal to be honest. From 2014 to 2015 the price jumped from $62 to $70! With the event over double what it was 10 years previous, there was no way that cookies and hot chocolate were worth the $40 price hike. Thus, 2014 was our last year at this event.

What about the price today? They’ve added more than snickerdoodle cookies, hot co-co, apple slices and apple cider; but you’ll pay out the nose for it! The cheapest ticket you can find for the CHRISTMAS PARTY is $95 on the week before THANKSGIVING.

BACKSTAGE MAGIC

To be completely honest, I’m not sure how this tour is still around.

As I said before, there are times when locals get used to the way the world is. Around ten years ago, it was one of those times, so I naïvely thought that a tour might spice up the trip.

Prior to this tour, I had done several other tours, but they were all unavailable for the masses. I don’t know the name of them (as they aren’t tours for the general public), but:

1) On one tour, we got to go behind the scenes in Epcot.

2) On another tour, I saw the dining room scene in Haunted Mansion from under the doombuggy’s.

3) On the last (and best) tour, we got to ride Space Mountain with the lights on AND off.

These three tours were, hands down, the most amazing adventures in the parks I had ever been on; but they were only available to students going with their class. For a quick side note, if these tours ever became available to the rest of the world, they’d sell out faster than the Rock n’ Roller Coaster launch!

After combing through the list of tours and reading all the descriptions, the only tour that I thought that might come close to the above tours was ‘Backstage Magic’. It said that we might get to ride the rides, and for $200, who would have thought you could go wrong?

What WAS Backstage Magic all about? It was marketed as a tour where they would take you through the ‘Utilidores’; the Disney’s cast member’s walkway. I remember the tunnel as vividly as the maintenance bay for the Tower of Terror, the changing of the scenes in American Adventure (like cartridges in a 6-disk CD changer) and the disappointment with the rest of the tour.

What else was a part of this $200 tour? I got to see cast members pick up their clothes at Epcot. I got to walk through a repair shop where everything cool was covered up. I got verbally abused at Whispering Canyon Café (still hate that place). Finally, I got to spend an hour watching laundry. Yes, you read that right: one hour watching LAUNDRY. This was why I had to look up the name of this tour, as my dad and I call it the, “$200 laundry tour”.

Quick side note here: they’re now taking $250 out of your pocket for this awful waste of money. While looking up tours, I saw something called the “Ultimate day of Thrills VIP Tour’. The tour is $100 more (keeping in mind I’ve never done it before), but this looks like the go-to tour. If your guide is half as knowledgeable about the parks as ours was about laundry, you’ll learn AND enjoy yourself.

In a place that thrives on separating you from your wallet as legally as possible, this takes the cake as the single worst monetary decision I’ve ever made on Disney property.

IF THE PREMIUM EVENTS AREN’T SPECIAL, WHAT IS?

Isn’t this the million-dollar question?

One thing that I think gets lost in Disney’s quest to money grab, is how well they do the free stuff. Disney’s public transportation system is great, and they’re very lax about parking at the resorts (for locals at least). Unless it’s Fort Wilderness or the resorts on the monorail loop (minus the Poly), I’ve never had an issue parking and letting Disney move me around for free. You can even use this trick to eat at a great place like PB&G (simultaneously dodging the valet parking charge). Not only can you see the architecture at all the hotels in the World, but they often have hidden spots you’d only know about if you went there (Walt’s Train Room is one of my favorites). Another top freebie is the free tours which some hotels offer.

The hotels (collectively) offer a wide variety of food. If I’m not in the parks and don’t know what I want, I’ll go to Art of Animation. If I want to relax and try a bunch of items, I’ll grab lunch at the (almost always vacant) Pepper Market. If I want quick American and I’m by Epcot, I’ll sit at the counter inside Beaches and Cream. You could make an entire day going to the hotels and shops on the Boardwalk, before seeing everything at Disney Springs in the afternoon and evening. With a little transportation, the variety is free.

If you have money to burn, but you don’t want to fight the lines during the holiday break, try the water parks. Florida doesn’t typically get cold until the calendar turns, so an early morning visit to Blizzard Beach might be the perfect start to your day. Take a lunch break at your resort (or any resort if you have a change of clothes), then spend the end of the day at Typhoon Lagoon (if it’s not under referb) or Epcot.

Visiting during the craziness of the holidays will give you the best ways to do ‘free’. The gingerbread house and monster tree at Grand Flo are staples of any holiday trip. The most elaborate ‘freebies’ are the thousands of Christmas plots by dedicated vacationers at Fort Wilderness. Pop Century’s tree is where we always take our Christmas shot; typically walking over to Art of Animation after. During the busy times, Wilderness Lodge offers hot coco and treats in the lobby. On a nippy night, you can rock in front of the Lodge’s fireplace and enjoy a Cracker Barrel Christmas.

Agree? Disagree? Don’t care? Pick your poison before writing a comment below. Also, feel free to follow the photo album from my adventures at vsco.com/albertawol