Is it possible and has anyone ever rented out a Disney theme park for a day or night

[iheartbelle87]

My brother in law works for sherwin Williams and he's mentioned that they jad like 3-4 hours of private park time when they had their last conference there!

SW employees also get room discounts !!

 

[redsbe]

I always wondering how I would feel (or others who have experienced this) if had paid for and planned a WDW trips months in advance only to see a park (or portion of it) closed during regular hours for one of these events, likely not to happy I suppose along with many other regular park visitors.

 

[wilkeliza]

I always wondering how I would feel (or others who have experienced this) if had paid for and planned a WDW trips months in advance only to see a park (or portion of it) closed during regular hours for one of these events, likely not to happy I suppose along with many other regular park visitors.

Usually if it is an extensive early closure they will give complainers free park hoping but most of these events mean the close happens at what would be a normal closure of 8pm or 9pm. You hardly see 6pm or earlier closers.

The ones that are super early are usually for CMs and to be honest they do so much for guests every single day they deserve the perhaps 2 closures a year that are for the service events. I think people can survive. The big corporate events are almost always before or after park hours. Heck even when the Saudi Prince rented Disneyland Paris for 3 days it was open dhring regular operating hours he just had it before and after regular hours.

 

[Delilah1310]

I attended a conference once that rented out the Seas at Epcot - we could explore the aquarium (food and drinks set up all over), I know we could have Turtle Talk sessions (which was very fun with all adults) and I'm pretty sure we could ride Nemo, too. then they walked us all over to a private area to watch Illuminations, with desserts and drinks. AMAZING!

Another conference rented out the Super Hero part of Universal .. catered food in the walkways, characters roaming, and we could ride Spiderman, the Hulk coaster and maybe one other. that was awesome too.

These are great if you are part of these kinds of events!

 

[baildrk]

[QUOTE="The ones that are super early are usually for CMs and to be honest they do so much for guests every single day they deserve the perhaps 2 closures a year that are for the service events. I think people can survive. The big corporate events are almost always before or after park hours. Heck even when the Saudi Prince rented Disneyland Paris for 3 days it was open dhring regular operating hours he just had it before and after regular hours.[/QUOTE]

I am just wondering if by complainers you mean people who have to save up for a long time to even get to Disney(since I know a family that had to save for 5 years for less than a week but I also know that there are people who will complain at anything), not everyone is as lucky as some people who go constantly. Just saying I know I would be bummed after planning for years/months whatever only to find out right before you go that you have to leave early.

 

[photogineer]

Way back when I was a student the FIRST Robotics Competition rented out Epcot for competing students. Unfortunately the event has since moved to less... fun locations.

 

[NS8VN]

I am just wondering if by complainers you mean people who have to save up for a long time to even get to Disney(since I know a family that had to save for 5 years for less than a week but I also know that there are people who will complain at anything), not everyone is as lucky as some people who go constantly. Just saying I know I would be bummed after planning for years/months whatever only to find out right before you go that you have to leave early.

You can't just show up at MK with a check and ask to rent the park that night. These events are scheduled before the park hours are released, which is usually 7+ months in advance. If someone is saving for years to go to Disney for a week I hope they are checking park hours before showing up that day. We are going in January and saw that MK is scheduled to close at 6 PM on the day we had intended to go. So we adjusted our schedule. We had plenty of warning before we could even book our ADRs, so there was nothing lost except not getting to do the park rotation we had originally planned.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

[QUOTE="The ones that are super early are usually for CMs and to be honest they do so much for guests every single day they deserve the perhaps 2 closures a year that are for the service events. I think people can survive. The big corporate events are almost always before or after park hours. Heck even when the Saudi Prince rented Disneyland Paris for 3 days it was open dhring regular operating hours he just had it before and after regular hours.

I don't believe they were being critical of these people. Just stating the fact that those who voiced there displeasure were compensated. At least that's how I read it.

 

[HopperFan]

As others have said large corporations or conventions are the ones who shut the park down for a party (other than Disney for Disney) but there are many private events that can be booked on a smaller scale. Look at the link below and roll your cursor over each location in the bar, a drop menu will come up and you can see some of the options to rent.

Universal, since it has shorter hours is rented out often by groups of all kinds. I went to a private event at US in May that involved: private viewing for the Night Spectacular, special speaker in the Fear Facttor that ended up the head of Universal Creative Entertainment, red carpet to enter Diagon Alley complete with buffet dinner, desserts, drinks, butterbeer frozen and reg, cash bar, entertainment, ice cream in the shop, ride was open as was the train, shops were open, outside was music entertainment and DJ, Mummy and Transformers were open. Maybe 1000 people, it was awesome. We walked on rides. On Mummy we went 3x in a row and once were only ones on car. I would in a heartbeat pay for private event nights in the parks like this.

http://disneyeventgroup.com/sections/disney-park-events/

Example of Typhoon Lagoon Event Buyout
http://www.wdwdvm.com/concepts/Typhoon_Lagoon_Buyout-EC.pdf

 

[wilkeliza]

I am just wondering if by complainers you mean people who have to save up for a long time to even get to Disney(since I know a family that had to save for 5 years for less than a week but I also know that there are people who will complain at anything), not everyone is as lucky as some people who go constantly. Just saying I know I would be bummed after planning for years/months whatever only to find out right before you go that you have to leave early.

I don't believe they were being critical of these people. Just stating the fact that those who voiced there displeasure were compensated. At least that's how I read it.

[/QUOTE]

By complainer I mean anyone who goes to guest relations over feeling like they were cheated about park hours. This is not something that happens over night or even day of. I've never seen hours cut with in the 60 day window. So for someone who has to save for 5 years I really hope they didn't just show up day of not even looking at the hours. If that happens then it isn't really Disney's fault. As Party.Of.4 pointed out they know now in August that one day in January Mk is closing at 6. I would hope thay with this much lead time a family could switch park days around so that they would be a full day.

I see it as no different then going during any of the holiday parties or back when there was the Christian concert event at the MK. The dates were posted a decent enough time and not back to back so unless you were only hoing for 1 day then you can make adjustments.

 

[DVC-Don]

The company I retired from has rented Hollywood Studios for a few conventions. It's in the evenings.

 

[AndreaDM]

My boyfriend went to a convention in Orlando a few years ago, they were given a comp ticket to any Disney park and then went to Universal for a private party. He said it was only the Harry Potter part of the park, but they rode stuff over and over AND had free butter beer and an open bar. Apparently butter beer with a shot of rum was a big hit.

 

[Aliceacc]

My school, and my husband's, each get an hour or two of private access to 2 rides after closing for their Senior Trips. (I never go, so I forget which. One year my husband's school got Toy Story Mania and ToT I think.)

His school brings down 400 kids, mine 600. And our travel agent is amazing.

 

[RachaelA]

I'm pretty sure my husband's company has rented out universal once. This was of course back before my husband went to their yearly trade show. Now they just get some d list musician to play at the hard rock that they rented out.

 

[Princesca]

You can't just show up at MK with a check and ask to rent the park that night. These events are scheduled before the park hours are released, which is usually 7+ months in advance. If someone is saving for years to go to Disney for a week I hope they are checking park hours before showing up that day. We are going in January and saw that MK is scheduled to close at 6 PM on the day we had intended to go. So we adjusted our schedule. We had plenty of warning before we could even book our ADRs, so there was nothing lost except not getting to do the park rotation we had originally planned.

Just to add, I'm pretty sure crowd levels on one of my days for MK just plummeted on Touring Plans (like dropped to a 2 out of 10) because the park just announced it was closing early that day for a private event (according to a DISer who called Disney to ask why the hours change), and I'm going in November, so the bit about being reserved before park hours are released may not necessarily always be true.

I do find it annoying, but that may just be jealousy talking!

An old company of mine would often send one of my coworkers to a conference that happened at Disney, at Coronado. I don't even care about having the place empty - I would just be thrilled for a free business trip to Disney!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I am just wondering if by complainers you mean people who have to save up for a long time to even get to Disney(since I know a family that had to save for 5 years for less than a week but I also know that there are people who will complain at anything), not everyone is as lucky as some people who go constantly. Just saying I know I would be bummed after planning for years/months whatever only to find out right before you go that you have to leave early.

Except that theoretical family probably wouldn't even know a corporate event was happening. They would only know that MK closes at 9pm every night on the week of their visit. Disney isn't going to advertise, "One of those nights is a corporate event."

It has nothing to do with how often anyone visits, or how long they saved. Epcot pretty much always closes at 9pm. If a company wants to rent it after 9pm, Disney World is private property. They have every right to set hours as they please. now other tiems, MK might close a bit early one night, but most folks won't know why.

WDW always has the right to close the parks, and they do close in the event of dangerous weather. If it is cold in winter, they also close the water parks on short notice. If there's a hurricane, they close. They always have the right to close the parks, close rides, or cancel events. Every time there is lightning, they close attractions and pools.

 

[busymommy2pink]

I won't lie. It's my dream to buy out a Halloween or Christmas party in full and just have my friends and family there. Winning the lottery is now plan a lol

 

[PSUGuy]

My SIL once worked for a pharmaceutical company and they held a convention at the Swan. One evening FW at Epcot was kept open for a few hours for just the conventioneers.

Bill From PA

 

[NS8VN]

Just to add, I'm pretty sure crowd levels on one of my days for MK just plummeted on Touring Plans (like dropped to a 2 out of 10) because the park just announced it was closing early that day for a private event (according to a DISer who called Disney to ask why the hours change), and I'm going in November, so the bit about being reserved before park hours are released may not necessarily always be true.

Which day? November 17th?

 

[Princesca]

I think that was it, yes...