No More Monorail Extra Magic Hours

[alliekat]

Thanks wdwdriver and everyone for the feedback hopefully this is just a rumor.
Thanks,
alliekat

[DizneyRox]

I guess if Disney gets cancellations dueto the cuts they may take another look at it.

Not this

If everyone continues to book they may just not see the need.

This

[Aurora]

I'm sorry but I really don't think this is a minor inconvenience for those who are staying at a deluxe resort, even those who stay at the Contemporary. The EMH nights at MK are EXACTLY the time you want to take the monorail back to your resort or the TTC. You are beat. You don't want to stand in very long lines for a bus or boat after such a long day, and you're already paying for the monorail convenience. And it may be just a couple of theme park nights, but my vacations aren't that long. Also, we were far from being the only ones on the monorail on EMH nights.

Someone also please explain to me exactly how stopping monorail service two to three hours earlier has anything to do with maintenance and safety. Unless there are obscure OSHA laws I'm not aware of, I'd bet the backyard that it's a labor cost-cutting measure.

I do feel sorry for the folks affected by this who booked at a monorail resort. Depending on how long the change is in effect, this ABSOLUTELY will affect where we stay in the future (although it won't affect Disney's bottom line because we're DVC members).

[Tigger's Mom]

This just seems a way to discourage attendance at evening EMH at MK and Epcot. Could this be the ulterior motive? I would not be happy paying extra money for a deluxe room with monorail transportation only to come and find out that the monorail will stop working 1 hour after the regular hours. Like someone else said I won't let it ruin my vacation, but I'm disappointed with the decision. A little magic gone.

[DisneyDINK]

I have read about and seen first hand some of the disruptions in monorail service. My last trip there were 2 breakdowns on the Epcot line. I was taking a bus and saw a train in the middle of the line dark and going nowhere.

Ultimately I think it is about money, but I think they do need more time for maintenance of the trains and the line. It is probably getting harder to keep this aging system running for so many hours with not a lot of down time.

[waymickey]

We stay at the WL most of the time so the monorail has no effect on us. We personally love the boat back after a long day at the MK. It is so relaxing and being out on the water is always nice. Even after a EMH at EPCOT the bus isn't that bad.

But then again I have never had the opportunity to sit on a monorail and go right back to my resort. it does sound nice but I can't see spending the extra $$$$ just for the monorail.

[WDWdriver]

Someone also please explain to me exactly how stopping monorail service two to three hours earlier has anything to do with maintenance and safety. Unless there are obscure OSHA laws I'm not aware of, I'd bet the backyard that it's a labor cost-cutting measure.

The current monorail trains are about 20 years old and are facing serious maintenance issues. There have been a series of embarrassing incidents recently involving stalled trains.

The following is a quote from the Orlando Sentinel:

"Because of "Extra Magic Hours" — a key perk that Disney has used to drive occupancy in its roughly two-dozen hotels — the Magic Kingdom will on some nights not close until 3 a.m. and will then reopen again at 7 a.m. Disney says it takes 90 minutes for its monorail trains to cycle down at the end of the night and another 90 minutes to restart at the beginning of the day. The result: As little as one hour of downtime for the trains."

You just can't get much scheduled maintenance done in an hour, or even several hours.

[mommad]

To me what would make the most sense here would be to cycle the trains out. Rather than having them all run for the EMH cut it down to half and do the maintenance on them then switch to the other half. This way guests are happy and the repairs get done that need to be done. Really though WDW needs to step up and invest in more monorail trains and lay tracks to most of the resort IMO.

[Aurora]

The current monorail trains are about 20 years old and are facing serious maintenance issues. There have been a series of embarrassing incidents recently involving stalled trains.

The following is a quote from the Orlando Sentinel:

"Because of "Extra Magic Hours" — a key perk that Disney has used to drive occupancy in its roughly two-dozen hotels — the Magic Kingdom will on some nights not close until 3 a.m. and will then reopen again at 7 a.m. Disney says it takes 90 minutes for its monorail trains to cycle down at the end of the night and another 90 minutes to restart at the beginning of the day. The result: As little as one hour of downtime for the trains."

You just can't get much scheduled maintenance done in an hour, or even several hours.

Ron, that makes sense; however, extremely late EMH (closing at 2 or 3 a.m.) at MK happens only twice a week, and 7 a.m. openings are non-existent, but I suppose what they mean is the trains begin running again at 7 a.m.

If what you're saying is true -- that there are too few hours during the night for scheduled routine maintenance -- then this affects visitors only on the most crowded park days of the year, exactly when you would want the trains to be running. It also would explain why it's seen to be a temporary measure -- monorail EMH service would be expected to return when parks close earlier.

So the larger problem seems to be holding out the carrot of more park hours for resort guests while taking away the best transportation option.

[FiggyFan]

I have a feeling that they will be doing maintenance on the tracks. I'll be down there in a few weeks, and won't be surprised to see heavy equipment removing and replacing sections of the rails or replacing moving parts on some of the switches.

If they were only doing maintenance on the monorail cars, I would expect them to take one or two out of service at a time, with relatively minor impact to service. I would be surprised if they had the staff and capability to work on all of the monorail cars at the same time.

[Ian]

Heard from a little birdy I know that, " ... a proposal for a major overhaul of the WDW monorail system (including a new fleet of trains) is being discussed ... "

Seems like there are just some signficant maintenance issues hounding the system, which is probably the root cause of all the downtime we've all experienced lately.

Sounds like the new trains is a long shot, though. That apparently was the recommendation of WDI, but odds are TDO won't want to invest the dollars there. Look for some beamway and power system upgrades, though. Could result in some significant offline time for the monorail, but that's just me speculating ... didn't hear that from anyone with any knowledge. For all I know they could do it all off-hours.

[mommad]

Heard from a little birdy I know that, " ... a proposal for a major overhaul of the WDW monorail system (including a new fleet of trains) is being discussed ... "

Seems like there are just some signficant maintenance issues hounding the system, which is probably the root cause of all the downtime we've all experienced lately.

Sounds like the new trains is a long shot, though. That apparently was the recommendation of WDI, but odds are TDO won't want to invest the dollars there. Look for some beamway and power system upgrades, though. Could result in some significant offline time for the monorail, but that's just me speculating ... didn't hear that from anyone with any knowledge. For all I know they could do it all off-hours.

I'm all for the tracks being fixed/upgraded, but I also wish they'd upgrade trains and add tracks as well. Maybe they don't want to buy all the trains at once, fine buy one per month. It's not like WDW doesn't make the money to cover it, it's that the big wigs don't want the profit taken from their pockets.

[wdwfansince75]

Just returned...stayed at SoG, so we used Monorail, by walking to Poly, or by using the SoG TTC bus...at the TTC, the EPCOT buses were parking in front of the SoG and DHS buses...and there was a very active CM on the walkway, directing EPCOT passangers toward the buses. Say no impact
As a long time aircrew member, I fully understand preventive maintenance...and I know that the three main factors driving this action, the extended hours for EMH, the temporary out of service periods of the two crash trains, and the age of the fleet, all contributed to what I believe was a prudent decision. I do not believe that this was a financial decision, but instead was a wise and timely safety decision.

By the way, on two of the nights we were there, the closing for MK was an hour later than posted just last month...

[DizneyRox]

I'm all for the tracks being fixed/upgraded, but I also wish they'd upgrade trains and add tracks as well. Maybe they don't want to buy all the trains at once, fine buy one per month. It's not like WDW doesn't make the money to cover it, it's that the big wigs don't want the profit taken from their pockets.

WDW doesn't live paycheck to paycheck. There wouldn't be much incentive to buy the monorails one at a time. Bombardier would likely provide a significant financial incentive to produce an entire fleet of trains rather than one offs.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a real revenue number you could put on a new fleet of trains. I would consider a trip just to see them in person quite frankly. It wouldn't be the only reason, but it would be something to see.

[kaylamag]

Hopefully this is just temporary. I have late ADRs booked for Ohana in Dec. when MK is scheduled to close at 7pm. Not sure how i would get back to MK to get my bus back to Beach Club. Will they have busses running back to MK from the resorts? Is the Poly within walking distance to MK or the TTC monorail? I would guess that it may be running if Epcot is open until 9pm.
I will have the same situation with the Grand Floridian. We have an Adr scheduled at 1900 Parkfare after MK closes too.

[DizneyRox]

The TTC is a short walk from the Poly. You can walk through the Poly over to the Grand as well.

[Scar]

Is the Poly within walking distance to MK or the TTC monorail?

The walk from The Poly to the TTC is about 1/4 mile.

The walk from The Poly to MK is about 1.5 miles, and, despite what others may say, is easy and possible.

[DizneyRox]

The walk from The Poly to MK is about 1.5 miles, and, despite what others may say, is easy and possible.

You're talking about going by the Contemporary for the trip from the Poly to MK right?

[frozman]

Just returned...stayed at SoG, so we used Monorail, by walking to Poly, or by using the SoG TTC bus...at the TTC, the EPCOT buses were parking in front of the SoG and DHS buses...and there was a very active CM on the walkway, directing EPCOT passangers toward the buses. Say no impact
As a long time aircrew member, I fully understand preventive maintenance...and I know that the three main factors driving this action, the extended hours for EMH, the temporary out of service periods of the two crash trains, and the age of the fleet, all contributed to what I believe was a prudent decision. I do not believe that this was a financial decision, but instead was a wise and timely safety decision.

By the way, on two of the nights we were there, the closing for MK was an hour later than posted just last month...

SOG was the thing I was thinking of. That's probably the only resort I'll ever stay at that requires use of the Monorail--for those that don't know, their MK/EPCOT transportation ONLY takes you to TTC. I wonder if SOG will consider sending the bus to the actual parks during the EMH. The Monorails tended to be kind of crowded sometimes after an EPCOT EMH closing, hate to think what the busses would be like.

[alliekat]

I'm going in about a month to wdw and I am going to ask a cm about this and see what they say.