Having been reading this thread for weeks, I'm still lost as to what people think Disney actually could have done to make it "special". I feel like people wanted bragging rights for something amazing, and Disney didn't provide anything "amazing" - despite the fact that Disney said well in advance that they were not going to do anything special at MK on 10/1.
I would challenge anyone in this thread to describe anything that Disney could have done to make it special that was actually logistically feasible under the circumstances.
Even the examples given here:
1) They gave out cake at Mickey's 60th.
That was November of 1988. The park wasn't busy, and it was 1988. Can you imagine the lines on Friday, just to give out cake? And the complaints? "Can you believe it was just vanilla?" "Can you believe they didn't offer a vegan or gluten-free cake?" "My piece was really small."
2) They should have given out pins or something nice.
It was a full park. Everyone here knows full well that people would have re-entered multiple times to get multiple items if they knew it was something special and valuable.
3) "I mean, they shipped 300 CMs over to Paris for the day of the 25th but for their own 50th there's nothing?"
DLP is a dead park by comparison. They need all of the attention they can get. The MK was already full. The special thing for CMs was the Friday night re-dedication ceremony and presentation of Enchantment.
The overarching problem - and full reason why there wasn't anything "special" - Disney was actively trying to dissuade people from going to MK on the 50th. They don't need a full-capacity park right now, thanks to the on-going issues with staffing. As we already know, things were chaotic enough as it was.
Every time Disney has done something out of the ordinary at a park, it's because they're trying to draw an audience to that park on that day. The last two Epcot anniversaries were big deals, given that it's historically been a dead park. DHS's 30th happened before Galaxy's Edge opened (and it was a Wednesday).
For most people, the special thing about Friday was being there. I don't get why it needed to be more than that, and why so many people expected it to be.
I beg to differ.
There were free cupcakes for all on DL's 50th with a much higher guest count in the park, I'm sure. They weren't very good, but everyone loved the gesture and posed for pics with their golden ears and cupcakes. And many people picked one up on the way to wherever they were going to stake out to watch the first ceremony. Compared to the cost of admission and resulting guest satisfaction of such a gesture the actual cost to them was peanuts. And if people wanted to leave and come back for more, then let them. They were still handing out golden ears in the afternoon at DL. When they're gone, they're gone.
As for DLP: were you actually there on the 25th? There was nothing dead about it, in fact the park was the busiest I've ever known it to be in the 23 years before then. They didn't
need to do anything special because the crowds were already coming. And this was without announcing anything special because they only hinted at the 100 characters a few days before the anniversary. With the exception of that DLP has not ever announced anything special happening on an anniversary to the general public. Not once. So any day-of anniversary events have never been used as a tool to draw in a crowd, not even on the 25th because the announcement came too late to have much of an effect. People just planned to be there with the expectation of something happening, but not knowing what. And everyone there was blown away by the events. For the 20th, again, not a single announcement. And yet the French air force flew over the park perfectly timed with a speech and drew a giant 20 behind the castle. CMs did a flash mob on Main Street, and then Tony Baxter was there to do a presentation for anyone who wanted to see it. And each land got its own little show to celebrate its anniversary. None of this was very high-tech or extremely expensive, but it made for a special day for the fans. Btw, DL
also didn't announce anything special for July 17, 2005 beforehand, yet they had a schedule of events with a separate ceremony and a rededication, even though the big press event for the 50th had already happened in May.
Btw, the 300 CMs were sent from the US to Paris to help with the entertainment for the day. It had nothing to do with a special event for CMs. IIRC they were sent out 3 weeks before the anniversary to prepare for everything and at least some of them had family members visiting to see them perform in DLP. And another note: the food situation was also disastrous on DLP's 25th because many of the restaurants closed a few hours before park closing time as they often do, except the crowds weren't leaving that day so we were left with 2 QS places with a 45- to 60-minute wait before you could even order. So that was a major fail, too, but the rest of the day made up for it.
The morning would have been more chaotic than it already was.
The evening would have been more chaotic than it already was.
I think I could give to the idea of doing some kind of surprise fireworks tag, like at Epcot's 30th. But an entire show? Not a chance in hell. To hard to program and test for a one-off. And what they're doing now are really "shows", not fireworks - it was technically and logistically a lot easier to program a bonus fireworks tag when the shows were mostly fireworks.
A fireworks tag would have been feasible, yes, but it would have had to have been a surprise - and I don't know if that would have been enough to satisfy people.
Disaster?
That's not an easy thing. I know it sounds easy to create new tech like that, but it would not be trivial for the scope of what you're describing. Testing that feature alone would be a logistical nightmare, and not worth the expense if they're only giving away 50 prizes on one day. (And I always have a little bit of a chuckle when people suggest "Disney IT could..." like they have a track record of successful projects.)
Take note that the merch VQs were handled by a third party. That's something Disney does on a quasi-regular basis, and they still don't have their own version of it.
Nothing would've been more chaotic than it already was because the crowds showed up and staked out just
because they were expecting something special to happen. If they had known nothing would be different from any other day for the next 18 months then I'm sure many of them would've waited for another day. They could've done a tag, or a little show, or a cavalcade with rare characters, or a speech, or simply have the ambassadors come out to sing happy birthday with everyone. None of these things would've been prohibitively expensive but they would've been appreciated by the guests. Yet they chose not to bother. It would've been one thing to use Covid as an excuse to avoid closely packed crowds but as was evident from the hub Friday morning, and Main Street and the hub at night closely packed crowds were not the deciding factor.
If crowding was a concern to begin with, whether it be over Covid or over staff shortages, then they created their own problem by continuing to open up park reservations for the 1st over the past few months and allowing park hoppers for at least part of the day. They were in full control.
That's not true at all. Unless something changed recently - security doesn't have the capacity to check for park passes on entry. You can otherwise take a bus or walk to the gate from anywhere in the area - including if someone drops you off at the intersection in front of the Contemporary. (Bus drivers don't have the ability to check for park passes, either.) Unless you're driving and parking, the first place to determine if you have a valid park reservation is the front gate.
I don't remember if it was here or somewhere else, but I read a post on Friday that said people hopping to MK from AK were checked for park reservations before being allowed to board the MK bus.