Disney Enchantment is a hard fail and 1 OCT was a disaster

[Boopuff]

All this is the main reason I refuse to go back until people get re-hired and the full experience is available. I'll wait.

 

[Slapshot1188]

Still here. Have ressies for MK and currently deciding if we should go or hangout on the Boardwalk.

They are obviously understaffed. Dining reservations are booked solid but in the restaurants they are at least half empty. We did Yak and Yeti yesterday and we had the whole upstairs window room to ourselves. Yes it was AK but all dining was booked solid. Tried to switch and zero availability. Same for EPCOT last night. Place was packed. Lines for stores... Tutto Italia dinner and they were definitely less than half full. I’d say 30%. But zero availability for dinner reservations in the park and they were turning folks away at the door.

I’m sure these restaurants would like to make money and would gladly fill the tables if they could... so it has to be staffing. Nothing else makes sense.

PS: For EPCOT how can they have all that construction blocking most of FutureWorld on the 50th anniversary? Not like this snuck up on people... the whole area is a construction zone...

That said... on the plus side. AK was a great place yesterday. FoP was literally a walk on. Not a single minute waiting. And it’s probably my favorite ride now!

 

[quandrea]

Its the special, limited edition buckets they are after, not the popcorn lol.

It’s still just a silly, plastic bucket made in China.

 

[Kimpossible1]

My daughter rode every ride in MK yesterday so wait times were great!

 

[Kms943]

I was thinking the same thing. Christmas, Spring Break, happen once a year. 50 year anniversary happens, well, only once.

This is another sentiment that makes no sense to me. They control how many paying customers they let into their park. Especially now with the mandatory park reservation system. There is no excuse for them to be unprepared to handle their park at full capacity, whether that’s on the 50th anniversary of just a Tuesday in February.

 

[luv2cheer92]

It’s still just a silly, plastic bucket made in China.

Oh I totally agree. I don't get the fascination with them either.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

All this is the main reason I refuse to go back until people get re-hired and the full experience is available. I'll wait.

I would go just to people watch on days like this. I'd make sure I was properly lit up first. I'd enjoy the craziness with an enhanced dole whip. Just too lazy this year, masks and all.

 

[luv2cheer92]

My daughter rode every ride in MK yesterday so wait times were great!

I did the same! Even three rides on BTMR, and twice on Splash and SDMT! As much as I dislike Speedway, I even got on that since it was an opening day attraction.
I did also spend about an hour at the Emporium in the morning (like 6:30-7:30), and then I did go to Big Top, but I spent maybe 15 minutes in there.
It was a great day!

 

[SSGNCNG]

it makes no sense to have been in MK on 1 OCT for the low wait tIke’s on rides. That was true for all of September.

There were fights at the Emporium, the lines for the popcorn stalls, the Emporium, et al, clogged gotta traffic needlessly because there were insufficient cast members present to control the crowd.

Several table service restaurants this week had menu items they could not serve due to certain things not being available. Some stores ran out of bags while others removed merchandise racks for lack of product. The logistics are not reliable, Disney is having staffing/hiring problems, and they did not manage the park well at all. They issued “X” park reservations and they were unable to manage “X”. This was NOTHING like Christmas or Spring Break.

Top it off with a very poor show replacing Happily Ever After and yes, it was not worth being in MK on 1 OCT.


The posters they handed out are already on eBay listing between $50 and $100. The poster is worth more than the mere “I was there” sentiment.

 

[Yensid67]

I am genuinely happy for those that knew not to take Disney at their word that the park would open to resort guests at 7:30. But I agree with the OP that they dropped the ball hard with their virtual q’s for merch. We got there at 7:30 and by then the first qr code for accessing the virtual q for day of anniversary merch was no longer available. But we were told another qr code would be released later in the day. As luck would have it I was standing at one of the qr code spots when they released the new code around 10:30. Maybe 10 other people were there with me and we all snapped a pic of the code to access the virtual q. Not one of us got into the q. We heard similar stories from others at different qr code spots. Merch seems to be the one thing everyone wanted yesterday and Disney‘s virtual q system was an epic fail. Again, congrats to those who were able to access it the first go around. The rest of us weren’t that lucky.

 

[Wdwfan2016]

The park was not busy yesterday unless you wanted to stand in a merchandise line for limited merchandise or on Main Street to watch the fireworks. The rest of the park was dead. Several attractions were sending through empty ride vehicles leading up to the show. All attraction waits were walk ons hours prior to the show. Today the park is also not very busy by Disney standards. so the complaining that main street was full on A premier fireworks show night is to be expected. To complain about it is ignorant. Anyone with a brain new it was going to be like that.

 

[DWillowBay]

You know....I'd love to blame Disney for all the bad in the world. That would be easy and efficient in dealing with what the OP reports. However, what this REALLY comes down to is each individual's personal responsibility to manage their own behavior. I've been at WDW during Christmas, Spring Break, etc and there have been large crowds. However, the behavior displayed openly and freely, without apology, lately is so unregulated, so unaware, and so without regard for others. Really??? For a backpack or a sipper cup? You compromise your integrity yourself and then demand respect. Please! Can we just admit that we're all a little on edge (understatement) from the past 18 months, and interact with a degree of respect and compassion. If you're in WDW, please remember that 99% of the world's population ...never will be. Be grateful. Be joyful. and above all, Be kind. Sorry...rant over.

 

[disneyholic family]

Horrible is being kind to enchantment.
It didn't even rise to the level of horrible.
Disney should consider firing the imagineers responsible.

 

[Neon Cactus]

I wish I could have been there. I’m going in 3 weeks but to be there on the anniversary day is amazing. I was surprised how low the ride waits were. I was at Disneyland’s 40th anniversary and they did the rededication that morning. Eisner and Roy Disney spoke, Fess Parker and Annette Funicello were there. Randy Travis sang Happy Birthday from the top of the Matterhorn. I cut through a restaurant to avoid crowds and Eisner was there waiting for some other execs. He was very nice and we talked for a couple of minutes. That was 26 years ago, the park was packed and I couldn’t tell you what I rode but I’ve never forgotten it.

it’s too bad about all the crazy experiences with merchandise. It seems to be all about reselling it for a profit. It would be nice if they identified the instigators and banned them from the parks. But I hope most guests had a great time. As for the new show, I watched it on live stream and wasn’t crazy about it but the shows are always so much better in person, so I’ll reserve judgment.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Oh, I also got a selfish (ish) with Josh! He was walking down Main Street right before the first running of the new calvacade.

 

[ChanaC]

Idk, I’m not sure I can take the word of anyone who used the term “woke virtue signaling” as a valid criticism. Seems like a person who already has a chip on their shoulder about something other than Disney.

 

[Slapshot1188]

Did I just miss Mickey and Minnie from Enchantment? Or are they really missing? How could a 50th anniversary show not focus on (let alone even mention) them?

Our updated plan is to head over to MK now. Dinner at Skipper and then decide on staying for the show or heading out to another park.

If no Mickey then that decision is easy.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Did I just miss Mickey and Minnie from Enchantment? Or are they really missing? How could a 50th anniversary show not focus on (let alone even mention) them?

Our updated plan is to head over to MK now. Dinner at Skipper and then decide on staying for the show or heading out to another park.

If no Mickey then that decision is easy.

Its not a "50th Anniversary show", and was never marketed as such. It just happened to premier on that day.
They weren't in HEA, and I'm pretty sure they weren't in Wishes (could be wrong about that one). Not sure why they would be expected or make or break the show.

 

[Violet Parr]

Because apparently Disney’s new leadership is placing more importance on the social media image that they want to portray instead of actually providing great guest experiences. I’m not saying that I still don’t love WDW, but it’s clearly a shell of it‘s former self. Think about it, Chapek is on stage talking about how technology innovative Disney is, then the very next day the have to shut down WiFi in MK because their infrastructure can’t handle a full parks worth of guests using their phones. How’s that gonna work when they roll out Genie+? Over at EPCOT, Harmonious debuts with no projections on it‘s main feature and at AK, Kite Tails gets shut down because of overturned jetski‘s and malfunctioning kites. My point is, Disney’s Marketing/Social Media portrayal of the current Disney experience is not living up to actual guest experience. I know people keep saying “ But we’re still in a pandemic, cut them some slack”. Honestly, I’m over that sentiment because they are charging full service prices and it’s not wrong for people to expect all services/shows to work.

I've actally considered that Christina Aguilera and the rededication were meant to be for the actual day-of. (Why hire Christina for just a livestream?) but they changed the plan because they seriously feared Chapek getting booed. Maybe that's a little out there, but it's the only thing that makes logical sense to me about why they would do the rededication the night before.

 

[Slapshot1188]

Its not a "50th Anniversary show", and was never marketed as such. It just happened to premier on that day.
They weren't in HEA, and I'm pretty sure they weren't in Wishes (could be wrong about that one). Not sure why they would be expected or make or break the show.

Sure. Just happened to premier on that day... amazing coincidence.

Not sure why it would be strange to expect some Mickey or Minnie when honoring the 50th anniversary of “The House the Mouse Built”

OK guess that at least answered my question. Thanks!

Added: The 50th is billed as a year and a half celebration. I think it was natural to assume the new show would be part of that. Just like it would have been strange to launch new merchandise on the 50th and gave none of it say 50 on it.