Do You Think DCA Will Ever Stay Open Until Midnight?

[WorldDisney]

You know its threads like this that shows how much more excited people are for DCA these days. I dont think anyone wouldve been interested in staying in the joint past 9 p.m. 5 years ago! Based on the crowd levels, certainly didnt feel like it. Now everyone wants to keep the place open as long as DL so they can stay in it all night. Unreal!

I would probably love for DCA to stay open up to midnight come 2012, but I dont see that as happening either. Like others said, no way do you want TWO parks exiting at the same time. It would be complete havoc. If both park had different parking lots, trams, etc, then maybe. But no I doubt that will ever happen.

That said, it does kind of suck DCA wont get longer hours because it really is becoming a worthy night time park. It should be open to 11 p.m. minimum by next year with BVS and CL looking like they will be amazing places to hang out at night in, WOC will keep people coming of course and we will have Electronica or some other dance event, it just FEELS right to keep the park open as long as possible.

I do like the idea someone mentioned and rotate the times, DL open til midnight some weekends, DCA others. Dont see that anytime soon, but who knows 5-10 years down the line.

[AwesomeM45]

But the parks DO close at the same times a lot during the off season. For a while they were both closing at 8. I don't see both of them closing at midnight being a problem, because all of the nighttime shows help stagger when people leave. Lots of people leave after fireworks, or fantasmic!, or world of color. As it is now, the crowd levels die down right before midnight.

[calsig31]

I think a midnight closing would be great. That way when the masses are exiting after World of Color, you could ride CA Screamin' as many times as you want with no wait.

As for the crowd problem caused by two parks closing at once, just having more trams in operation should alleviate some of it. Then of course, there is also waking back to the structure instead of the tram(which I usually prefer to do).

[WorldDisney]

But the parks DO close at the same times a lot during the off season. For a while they were both closing at 8. I don't see both of them closing at midnight being a problem, because all of the nighttime shows help stagger when people leave. Lots of people leave after fireworks, or fantasmic!, or world of color. As it is now, the crowd levels die down right before midnight.

Yeah true, but its still way less people at 8 and a good chunk of people stay in DCA to watch WOC at 8:15, so you got hundreds not leaving that park until 45 mins later.

Although now I think about it, I do agree though people do stagger out a lot more once the fireworks and shows end. On top of that MS usually stays open longer keeping a lot of people around. Now that you mention it, maybe it wouldnt be so bad lol. I'm going to give you a rep point for changing my mind! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

[Uncle Bob]

That is a good point. If both closed at midnight and BVS stayed open later like MS does, that would spread out the people leaving pretty evenly over 3 hours or so. I just really think DCA's going to be really great at night when everything is done. I do hope it stays open later more often next year.

[WorldDisney]

I actually envision BVS acting as MS at the end of the night and staying open 30-60 mins longer. Of course its still much smaller than MS so it wont be as nearly as many shops, but probably enough to keep people interested. So if that happens, MS stays open of course, it probably wouldnt be all that bad!

The other thing as well is DCA has GCH and so a lot of hotel guests and people who just want to walk go that way at closing as well. I guess when you factor all these options in, throw in extra trams, it wont end up as crazy as we are all thinking.

But even if it doesnt stay open until midnight, it really should stay open til 11 p.m. at least! I still think they should keep it till 11 this summer. WOC is not as demand this summer, but TLM and Electronica alone will keep people around. On top of that, I read now TLM WILL close during WOC shows (but open inbetween for like 30 mins or something). I think they can still do two WOC shows and open up TLM after the second show until closing. It sucks that the ride will basically be down at 8:00 in its first summer IF thats true.

[hyperskreem]

The crowd flow part makes sense. I wish DCA was open much later since it has the potential for a night life crowd along with cocktails. Maybe in the future

[WorldDisney]

So agree!! And remember we still not sure what CCT will have. We know it will be a restaurant, but there might be a bar/lounge just for drinks. PGG area will have drink options as well. Wouldnt it be great to be able to sit around in places like those along with wine in Trattoria restaurant and Cove bar where you can have some nice drinks until midnight and just enjoy the night? I'm guessing the 4 of those will be some nice places to sit and relax at night. Thats another thing that can set this park apart from DL, the more grown up atmosphere at night.

[calsig31]

I actually envision BVS acting as MS at the end of the night and staying open 30-60 mins longer. Of course its still much smaller than MS so it wont be as nearly as many shops, but probably enough to keep people interested. So if that happens, MS stays open of course, it probably wouldnt be all that bad!

In addition, they need to keep World of Disney opened later. If they allowed for an extra hour of shopping past the time the parks closed, that could alleviate some of the crowds.

[OC2Epcot]

CarsLand looks like it's going to be beautiful at night with all the neon. Disney also tends to do a great job lighting their mountains so the CarsLand range could be quite something to behold. It would be a shame to only have a couple of hours of that per night in the summer.

I was just thinking about that yesterday. I can't wait till it gets finished so I can create a new signature picture made up of a night view of the Carsland mountain range.

[DLandFansAZ]

After 2012... since it's likely they will never close at the same time but instead probably an hour apart, maybe they will alternate which park stays open latest. Sometimes Disneyland, sometimes DCA.

That's what I was thinking. As DCA adds more entertainment, attractions and other items that create demand to keep the park open longer, I can see Disney expanding the hours to accomodate the crowds. I agree that if they stay open later then they may want to stagger the closing times between DL and DCA to help crowd control returning to the parking areas.

Another thing for more hours is they could start opening earlier with DL. Right now people can get into DL for and hour or two before DCA opens and ride many attractions and grab fastpasses then head over to DCA and do the same. If they both opened at the same time people would have to make a choice as to which one first. If DCA with this first phase and the proposed (or at least mentioned) phase two it may make DCA more inviting to a morning crowd.

[mickdaddy]

i don't think so because the crowds of both parks closing at the same time is a big mess of crowds :/ the trams would be over packed

Most of the people that leave DCA go directly to disneyland anyway so I am not sure it would really change the amount of people in the plaza and tram areas all that much. Plus neither park does a hard close so people would trickle out at their own pace. I think the upside to both parks being open late outway any negative.

[Dustysage]

It is all about money. It is expensive to keep a park open. If there aren't enough guests buying food and merchandise after a certain point in the evening, they will adjust the hours downward over time until the math works out. As Cars Land, Little Mermaid, ElecTRONica, World of Color and other offerings keep people at the park later, we will very likely see the hours expand. The key is revenue. So if you want to see DCA stay open until Midnight, start buying those Tron cocktails and your favorite merchandise as late in the evening as you can. Oh, and bring about 30,000 of your closest friends with you and tell them to do the same.

[BrodyDanger]

It is all about money. It is expensive to keep a park open. If there aren't enough guests buying food and merchandise after a certain point in the evening, they will adjust the hours downward over time until the math works out. As Cars Land, Little Mermaid, ElecTRONica, World of Color and other offerings keep people at the park later, we will very likely see the hours expand. The key is revenue. So if you want to see DCA stay open until Midnight, start buying those Tron cocktails and your favorite merchandise as late in the evening as you can. Oh, and bring about 30,000 of your closest friends with you and tell them to do the same.

Easy for you to say:

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[Coheteboy]

I think you've all pretty much covered it. DCA's got a long road ahead to keep the park open later. Even with the addition of Carsland, I don't think it's enough to push the opening till midnight as the park still has a significantly lower amount of attractions than Disneyland.

I think it's got great potential though with World of Color (that always seems to be changing), Cars Land, and whatever night offering on the weekends (like ElecTRONica... but that ends september).

I think the key might be in what happens with Hollywood Land. With only two rides, 3D movie, and a kid's show.. it's not exactly a lot to keep folks around.



I think what they should do is use DCA as the local place to hang on non-peak hours in the evening. I never go to Disneyland on weeknights because it closes too early when it's not summer. I think they should open DCA later and close it later on those occasions.