Early Morning Magic Fantasyland Fail

[kkendle]

I was at emm this morning as well. No one had a choice for the fast pass thing...they just announced to show your bands and you would get in. Problem is...we all had fast passes booked for other things later that morning so had to rearrange those fp. Of course then the selection was limited. The fp lines did take longer and then to top it off...pan was down and still is. It has been down for the past 2 hours. Just reporting what happened. Wasn't worth it to ud.

 

[kkendle]

An experience like that where TWO of the rides are closed (as well as the only restroom) should be a partial or full refund in my opinion. Yikes.

Getting a "until noon" fast pass isn't that great as you may have other plans for that morning (maybe even in a different park).
If it was ALL day .. maybe.

Exactly...and to top it off, pan also went down.

 

[deserrai]

We have done EMM twice and we had a similar issue the first time. They told us as we went into the park that the mine train was down, but that our bands would work as a FP until noon. Mine Train finally opened around 8:30 and we rode it several times along with pooh and PP so I was happy. The problem with using the band as a FP until noon is that we made other fastpasses in different sections of the park that morning assuming we would have gotten our fill of the EMM attractions. If the mine train had not opened in time for us to ride it, the entire day's schedule would have been messed up if we chose to hang around fantasyland in order to ride the mine train. If they would make it available as a FP all day, that would solve the problem, I think. Disney makes us schedule everything far in advance so it does create a problem when the attraction is down.

 

[anomamatt]

Breakfast was kind of a bust too. 15 minute line just to get to the buffet. No bottled drinks or cold tea. Had to drink gross tap water. Definitely wouldn’t do again.

I'm curious what time you ate? I wonder if there have been changes to the breakfast -- were there two sides to the buffet?

I don't recall any bottled water, but I know they had cartons of milk, juice boxes, drinkable yogurt, etc when I have been.

 

[dlavender]

Also did EMM today and didn’t have a good time. 7 dwarves was down, and the unlimited FP til noon isn’t that great. I waited ten minutes just to get into the FP line and 15 minutes more just to ride. Not the same as being able to ride with little to no wait.

Breakfast was kind of a bust too. 15 minute line just to get to the buffet. No bottled drinks or cold tea. Had to drink gross tap water. Definitely wouldn’t do again.

Yeah, I'd request a refund. At least a partial one.

 

[Kevin Chalmers]

As I said before, an extra 2hours of FP for the rides is more than adequate compensation, in my opinion. That said, if the rides continued to be down, I would most certainly contact GS and request additional compensation, regardless of whether you took advantage of 'some' of the extra uses. Look, let's be completely honest, the ONLY reason people pay for this is 7DMT and PP and if either of them are still down after park opening, full refunds should be requested. Definitely more than just adding until noon, as who knows when the ride will open back up.

 

[AngiTN]

Also did EMM today and didn’t have a good time. 7 dwarves was down, and the unlimited FP til noon isn’t that great. I waited ten minutes just to get into the FP line and 15 minutes more just to ride. Not the same as being able to ride with little to no wait.

Breakfast was kind of a bust too. 15 minute line just to get to the buffet. No bottled drinks or cold tea. Had to drink gross tap water. Definitely wouldn’t do again.

I don't recall them every having/offering bottled water. Just tap (in the dispensers like they have out at the TS locations in the summers)
OJ, coffee, apple juice and milk.
I think that's it.
You could ask for a fountain beverage and they would get it from behind the counter (DH asked for and got coke)

Wonder when you ate? Each time we did EMM we ate last, like in the last 30 min of the event. But with rides down I bet that impacted the entire thing. It is a huge drawback to having only 3 rides operating, when something goes down, it's going to be significant.

 

[SarahC97]

I would not be happy with that experience or the FP line being offered at all. I'm doing this event on 1/28 and if this happens, I'll be down at guest services having a conversation, even if it's just to voice my opinion about what they offered as compensation. We're paying $335 for my family of 5 -- if the attractions I'm paying to ride exclusively are down, then I wouldn't want to do the event. I don't think it's ridiculous at all to approach guest services about it.

 

[Tomh]

I don't recall bottled water either, but they had hot tea for sure, which made me a happy guy.

OP, sorry you had a bad experience. While the fp until noon was plenty enough for me, I'm not you. In your situation, I think you should contact GS and see what they might be able to do for you.

 

[SarahC97]

I was also there this morning for this disaster of an event! I went to Guest Services, explained what happened & they gave me a full refund. The bonus FP+ until noon were nice, but not what I paid for. That said, it was nobody’s fault. These things happen. Disney usually does the right thing when they do.

Whew - glad to know you got a refund! I agree that things can happen and it's nobody's fault, but totally not what you paid for!

 

[pugbug]

I'm curious what time you ate? I wonder if there have been changes to the breakfast -- were there two sides to the buffet?

I don't recall any bottled water, but I know they had cartons of milk, juice boxes, drinkable yogurt, etc when I have been.

8:30. I think everyone went to eat at the same time.

Question: if I wanted to go to guest services, could I do it at any park? Already left MK and won’t be back for a few days.

 

[kkendle]

I was also there this morning for this disaster of an event! I went to Guest Services, explained what happened & they gave me a full refund. The bonus FP+ until noon were nice, but not what I paid for. That said, it was nobody’s fault. These things happen. Disney usually does the right thing when they do.

I also received a full refund. At first they offered me fast passes but I told them I was not satisfied with that.

 

[AngiTN]

8:30. I think everyone went to eat at the same time.

Question: if I wanted to go to guest services, could I do it at any park? Already left MK and won’t be back for a few days.

Or your resort.

 

[fiasco32]

My experience has always been that it's a good idea to politely ask for what you want in compensation. Usually, if you're being fair (and not being nasty...it's not Guest Services fault the ride went down), you'll get it, like the person above who asked for a refund. Mega-billion-dollar corporations are not in the business of handing out refunds automatically.

I agree that until-noon FP seems like fair compensation, especially if the ride was back up and running at 8:30. But I also wouldn't fault anyone for asking politely for a refund. Sounds like it worked out well for those who asked.

 

[anomamatt]

8:30. I think everyone went to eat at the same time.

Question: if I wanted to go to guest services, could I do it at any park? Already left MK and won’t be back for a few days.

The breakfast was likely due to the two rides being down. 2/4 rides and the most popular two make everything else fall apart.

I would talk to the concierge at your resort (if staying on property) and if that doesn’t work when you go back to MK. MK GS will likely be ideal.

 

[tlmadden73]

I also received a full refund. At first they offered me fast passes but I told them I was not satisfied with that.

Glad to hear it, I would have been happy with a partial refund (since you were able to eat the breakfast, even though it had issues too), but getting a full refund is customer service above and beyond! Definitely shouldn't feel bad asking for a refund in this situation. They could only say no.

Disney does have issues with these "early morning magic" events by only limiting it to 3 rides .. if any one ride breaks down the event becomes somewhat lackluster and questionable on its value then. I am surprised they don't beef these things up a bit with some exclusive meet and greets. I am sure some people would go to these events for those and would help satisfy the participants if a ride breaks down. Meet and greets can't break down. What a magical way to start your day -- with a fun meet and greet that isn't rushed because it is mobbed full of people. I mean .. how many times do you need to re-ride Pooh or PP or 7DMT anyway?

So .. for those who have attended these .. about how many guests do you think are participating? I've been curious to how many people attend these things (as that helps determine the value of it for my own future reference).

 

[pugbug]

Update: I talked to my resort and was given a half refund. They said no one is getting a full refund. Seems like that isn’t true.

 

[fiasco32]

So .. for those who have attended these .. about how many guests do you think are participating? I've been curious to how many people attend these things (as that helps determine the value of it for my own future reference).

I'd love to know this as well. We're booked for 1/21.

 

[GillianP1301]

Sounds like you had a bad bit of luck and I can understand your disappointment. I have done EMM 4 times and 1 of those 4 times 7DMT was down at the start of EMM, but it did come up by about 8:30, so it wasn't too horrible. The other 3 times, I was able to ride Mine Train 10 times and do Pan and Pooh once each by 9:00 and then hit a headliner at RD and then buffet breakfast before 10:00. Each of those times, it was well worth the $79 and even the one with delayed 7DMT, we still got on it 5 times.

 

[GillianP1301]

Glad to hear it, I would have been happy with a partial refund (since you were able to eat the breakfast, even though it had issues too), but getting a full refund is customer service above and beyond! Definitely shouldn't feel bad asking for a refund in this situation. They could only say no.

Disney does have issues with these "early morning magic" events by only limiting it to 3 rides .. if any one ride breaks down the event becomes somewhat lackluster and questionable on its value then. I am surprised they don't beef these things up a bit with some exclusive meet and greets. I am sure some people would go to these events for those and would help satisfy the participants if a ride breaks down. Meet and greets can't break down. What a magical way to start your day -- with a fun meet and greet that isn't rushed because it is mobbed full of people. I mean .. how many times do you need to re-ride Pooh or PP or 7DMT anyway?

So .. for those who have attended these .. about how many guests do you think are participating? I've been curious to how many people attend these things (as that helps determine the value of it for my own future reference).

I read somewhere that it's a few hundred, but I have no idea the accuracy of that. I do know that the times that I have been there have only ever been there were very few people eating breakfast with me, maybe 1 or two others in the buffet line with me and a dozen or so tables with people sitting at them. The line to 7DMT has only ever had 1 train full of people in front of me (I think that's 40ish people?) during the 8:00 - 9:00 hour. We usually spend 45 minutes or so just on that ride and the line is consistently a train load. The only exception was the time 7DMT had a delayed opening, it got backed up to 2 - 3 trainloads and I'm assuming that's because everyone put it off and then all wanted on at the same time and had less time to get their rides in. Pan and Pooh rarely have had more than a handful of people in front us in line, immediate walk ons. So based on that, I think the estimate of a few hundred people is probably not that far off.