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

[SSGNCNG]

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

The new show should have been about Walt’s vision and Roy’s execution in building the MK.

Nope. They were too Chapek/lazy for that, just throw random IP on the castle with bad music and call it “Enchantment”. Hard, hard fail.

 

[cheryl.UK]

We went on 31 December 1999. Was it busy? Too right it was. Did we wait 3 hours to eat? Nope. Breakfast at CP at 10, don't remember waiting any more than 15 mins. Dinner at CRT, waited about 5 minutes. Were there enough cast members? Didn't notice any difference from any other day in terms of crowd control for the vast majority of the day. We had a great day. We were there from 7am til 2am.

The Hub from around 9.30 (when we arrived) was CRAZY. Tensions were high and tempers thin. We saw 2 dads come to blows and several people were screaming in other people's faces. Granted most of this could have been avoided if some families had understood that there simply was no more room in the hub and that any 'gaps' were families sitting down. We ended up with a teenager who couldn't find her family and as it was 1999, didn't have a cell phone. We kept her with us til after the fireworks and managed to find her very worried family once the crowd thinned.

Just to add. Would I have gone on the 1st if I could have? You bet I would. Plan well; take it as it comes and expect it to be crammed.

 

[SSGNCNG]

The only issue with the crowds were issues the crowd created. And it came from the fact that almost no one on a normal vacation was there. It was all entitled Superfan adults that don’t know how to behave.

Oct 1 was a total failure from Disney. But not because of crowds or CMs. It was the fact leadership did not give it the justice or acknowledgment it deserved.

Lots of people were there for regular vacations. That was those of us who own DVC. That my wife and I had a perfect experience the prior 6 days with our 14 year old Specials Needs kid until the MK became a Fight Club the moment the eBay sellers started fist fights in the Emporium. There were nsufficient numbers of cast members present and quite a few of them said that to me on Saturday. The company failed to plan. Imposing a two count limit on merchandise purchases accomplished nothing. We never tried to enter any store on Friday because of the behaviour of the eBay sellers. Frankly, if park passes had been limited to resort guests there would probably have been no problem.

 

[vincep]

Oct 1 was a total failure from Disney. But not because of crowds or CMs. It was the fact leadership did not give it the justice or acknowledgment it deserved.

So from what I'm reading here all the 50th anniversary was about was a merchandise grab for ebay sellers. Way to go Iger and Chapek.
Wasn't there anything celebrating Walt and Roy and 50 years of WDW?

 

[18sprint]

Disney allowed guests into the parks by 6AM on 1 OCT.

We stayed at the Poly, before DVC/resort guests even realized what had happened, the 0800 opening at the MK was already a case of “too late”. The line to get into the Emporium spanned the whole of Main Street by 0700. That was as good as it got on 1 OCT.

Pete Werner relayed to us the contents of a conversation he had with an executive who said that the days of Disney packing the parks full was over. Pete was lied to. On 1 OCT, Disney opened the flood gates and they had neither the staff nor the logistics to handle the crowd. It showed. I felt so bad for the cast members, the situation was so bad that the cast members never had control of the crowd at the fireworks show. It was awful. Numerous cast members said MK was at 100% of the cap and most thought the cap was 70% or higher. One, ONE, cast member said he knew it was 100% at the 50% limit because they didn’t have enough cast members to handle even that.

The icing on this garbage cake was that the new show “Disney Enchantment”, is awful. There is no story to be told there. It’s random IP, with some woke virtue signaling, shown on the castle under equally random fireworks. It was its own train wreck.

Do not come here to see that garbage show. It’s not worth a free ticket. We’ve been here a week now, AK, EPCOT, andHS were fantastic. MK was garbage on 1 OCT, hopefully on 2 OCT it will be less awful.

John

Thank you for telling it like it was. I get blasted all the time when I make a comment that isn't full of pixie dust!

 

[18sprint]

Disney allowed guests into the parks by 6AM on 1 OCT.

We stayed at the Poly, before DVC/resort guests even realized what had happened, the 0800 opening at the MK was already a case of “too late”. The line to get into the Emporium spanned the whole of Main Street by 0700. That was as good as it got on 1 OCT.

Pete Werner relayed to us the contents of a conversation he had with an executive who said that the days of Disney packing the parks full was over. Pete was lied to. On 1 OCT, Disney opened the flood gates and they had neither the staff nor the logistics to handle the crowd. It showed. I felt so bad for the cast members, the situation was so bad that the cast members never had control of the crowd at the fireworks show. It was awful. Numerous cast members said MK was at 100% of the cap and most thought the cap was 70% or higher. One, ONE, cast member said he knew it was 100% at the 50% limit because they didn’t have enough cast members to handle even that.

The icing on this garbage cake was that the new show “Disney Enchantment”, is awful. There is no story to be told there. It’s random IP, with some woke virtue signaling, shown on the castle under equally random fireworks. It was its own train wreck.

Do not come here to see that garbage show. It’s not worth a free ticket. We’ve been here a week now, AK, EPCOT, andHS were fantastic. MK was garbage on 1 OCT, hopefully on 2 OCT it will be less awful.

John

Thank you for telling it like it was. I get blasted all the time when I make a comment that isn't full of pixie dust!

 

[Ninja Mom]

I heard people were getting into fights over the merchandise. Friggin so ridiculous. Sorry OP, I saw video from Oct. 1 and it looked like it sucked. Ignore the pixie dust snorters on these boards, they will defend Disney NO MATTER what evil thing that company does.

I also suspect that some of the rampant, sounding off in many different threads, pixie dust snorters may work for 3rd party marketing firms subcontracted to "influence" social media and message boards on behalf of the mouse.

Did you ever notice that these "Disney Defenders" are amongst the first responders to a negative opinion/experience post? That would be easy to do if your job would be to monitor social media and respond quickly to quash opinions/experiences that don't agree with the rosy picture a company wishes to portray. Yes, that's a real job and that's the way it works.

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/...cers-to-avoid-frozen-2-ad-disclosures/569055/

This is not to say that every opinion that is favorable to Disney is a paid social media influencer. It's just noticeable when the usual suspects are running from board to board singing Disney's praises EVERY chance they get, no matter how egregious the lapses are.

Perhaps most amusing of all was the way that certain defenders on the Dis stopped posting completely when Disney terminated subcontractors and 3rd party vendors due to Covid closures.

POOF!..

~NM

 

[jthornton94]

I also suspect that some of the rampant, sounding off in many different threads, pixie dust snorters may work for 3rd party marketing firms subcontracted to "influence" social media and message boards on behalf of the mouse.

Did you ever notice that these "Disney Defenders" are amongst the first responders to a negative opinion/experience post? That would be easy to do if your job would be to monitor social media and respond quickly to quash opinions/experiences that don't agree with the rosy picture a company wishes to portray. Yes, that's a real job and that's the way it works.

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/...cers-to-avoid-frozen-2-ad-disclosures/569055/

This is not to say that every opinion that is favorable to Disney is a paid social media influencer. It's just noticeable when the usual suspects are running from board to board singing Disney's praises EVERY chance they get, no matter how egregious the lapses are.

Perhaps most amusing of all was the way that certain defenders on the Dis stopped posting completely when Disney terminated subcontractors and 3rd party vendors due to Covid closures.

POOF!..

~NM

Funny because I feel sometimes all the Disney haters must work for Universal as much as some try and paint them as perfect in every way.

 

[luv2cheer92]

I also suspect that some of the rampant, sounding off in many different threads, pixie dust snorters may work for 3rd party marketing firms subcontracted to "influence" social media and message boards on behalf of the mouse.

Did you ever notice that these "Disney Defenders" are amongst the first responders to a negative opinion/experience post? That would be easy to do if your job would be to monitor social media and respond quickly to quash opinions/experiences that don't agree with the rosy picture a company wishes to portray. Yes, that's a real job and that's the way it works.

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/...cers-to-avoid-frozen-2-ad-disclosures/569055/

This is not to say that every opinion that is favorable to Disney is a paid social media influencer. It's just noticeable when the usual suspects are running from board to board singing Disney's praises EVERY chance they get, no matter how egregious the lapses are.

Perhaps most amusing of all was the way that certain defenders on the Dis stopped posting completely when Disney terminated subcontractors and 3rd party vendors due to Covid closures.

POOF!..

~NM

Lol, not sure if you're referring to me or not. But if Disney wants to pay me, I'll surely accept it! I may be a doctor, but some extra cash would sure help pay off all that student loan debt. I shouldn't have to apologize, but sorry for loving Disney.
Also, there were a few notable posters that were banned for reasons not related to what you mentioned.

 

[luv2cheer92]

But if there's one thing I've learned in the 10 years I've been on here its that I've always seemed to be much easier to please than most on here.
Sorry for trying to bring some positivity in a board full of negativity.

With all the crap I've had to deal with in the hospitals over the last 1.5 years, WDW has happily been my escape.

 

[jknc]

I remember how excited I was for Rivers of Light. Im a pathetic human.

 

[disneyseniors]

I believe that disney increased capacity and opened the flood gates for one reason only: So that the vloggers and guests and social media types would show a busy 50th at the MK.
They didn't care if they have enough CM's to handle things. The only thing, IMO, was making sure that those pictures showed a big crowd. I know I sound cynical but so much has happened that has colored my feelings about WDW, to the point we won't be back until IF, and only IF they go back to excellent customer service, but I think H-ll will freeze over first ,

 

[focusondisney]

We stayed at the Poly, before DVC/resort guests even realized what had happened, the 0800 opening at the MK was already a case of “too late”.

Most resort guests knew full well what was happening. I was a resort guest at the Contemporary. I knew that resort guest early entry was available at 7:30. If you were planning on arriving at 8 am, you were already gonna be behind tens of thousands of other resort guests who knew that too.

Anyone planning on being there at opening & didn’t do their research on how things like this have gone before or what others were planning has no one to blame but themselves for being unprepared.

 

[jknc]

Most resort guests knew full well what was happening. I was a resort guest at the Contemporary. I knew that resort guest early entry was available at 7:30. If you were planning on arriving at 8 am, you were already gonna be behind tens of thousands of other resort guests who knew that too.

Anyone planning on being there at opening & didn’t do their research on how things like this have gone before or what others were planning has no one to blame but themselves for being unprepared.

lol, I was even kind enough to post how many were planning to leave early from BLT

fortunately for everyone else, many over slept

 

[Funfire240]

I've been reading through. IMO I agree that Enchantment was underwhelming. I felt that way Friday and thought maybe it was because we were so tired and had been in the park since about 7:45 am and didn't watch from Main Street with all of the projections. I just watched it on youtube and I still feel the same way. Then I watched HEP and there is just something about that show that makes me smile and tear up - fellow guest we were near even commented Friday well at least I don't have to worry about crying when watching this show the way I have for past ones. Even watching Wishes I felt something different. Maybe the new one will grown on me.

As for the whole day - we got a much later start then I had hoped for after park hopping Thursday. My kids didn't wake up until almost 6:30 and we got down to the bus around 7 at Movies which was already backed up then ended up in the traffic jam getting there. I wasn't really willing to fight the crowds for merchandise and we only came for 2 days with just backpacks so I knew I couldn't take a lot on the plane (Although DH was willing to purchase a suitcase if I did shop lol).
We arrived and the kids saw 7DMT was low so they wanted to run there as once inside we had already just missed the opening show. We ended up spending the day hitting all of the rides and enjoying the low wait times. Ended up on Splash, BTMRR, space and pirates twice with 7DMT 3 times.
We lucked out with food. On Thursday I happened to find a Tony's for dinner so grabbed it to have a place to sit down at least. We actually enjoyed it. Earlier in the day, we got really lucky with Pecos Bill. We put in an order about 10:30 for the 11:40 - 12:10 time frame. As soon as 11:40 hit we hit we were there. We got held up just after in from of Diamond Horseshoe with the 50th Calvacade but by the time we walked by Pecos we received the notice our food was ready. I was surprised to see all the people standing around and complaints of food not being ready. CM"s had to keep asking people to not block the door so those with orders could get in, then there would be more complaints about where there food was.
The only true complaint I had was DD just wanted popcorn - but we didn't get for awhile because of the crazy lines. Finally in the afternoon we got some in tomorrowland and just got the standard looking bucket which was fine for us.

We didn't watch the fireworks from Main Street - push notifications starting going out about 6:30 so find other places and one point even came out that the hub and Main Street were filled up, but we had already decided at that pointwe weren't going to be in the crowds so that didn't really affect us.

 

[LSUmiss]

I've read through ....

OP has every right to come on here and post about HIS experience that was impacted by Disney decisions. I think he was prepared in that he listens to Pete's conversations, took the info he had from Disney as fairly reliable, he booked at Polynesian to if at worst he could walk to the park. He's been there on holidays and he expected large crowds.

What he also expected is that Disney properly staffed given they now control IN ADVANCE how many people will be in the park, he expected the technology would have been fine tuned to not crash, he expected Disney to uphold their selling "rules" to manage the merchandise chaos ... and he, along with many others, expected a 50th Anniversary/Birthday celebration given that was the point of the entire day.

Disney also failed on letting guests in 2 hours before they claimed they would. There is no reason for it. You slow the buses, you slow the boats, you don't open the monorail or the ferry boats until it's calculated to do a smooth entry to the parks. Not rocket science.

Yes, it was a perfect day for those just wanting to be there and wanting to do attractions. It was the perfect day for those committed to spend hours waiting for a generic firework show with no expectation it would be a celebration. It was perfect day for those who didn't want to shop, see any special shows or dedications and could snack through out the day in lieu of meals.

If you wanted to shop, wanted to dine more than a churro or pretzel, wanted a celebration that was woven throughout the park, wanted a fireworks show that was dedicated to the WHOLE POINT of celebrating the most visited theme park in the world ......... yes, Disney failed.

What I took away from all this is that Chapek & sons used the Magic Kingdom's 50th Birthday to create an insane supply and demand situation to sell as much product as possible right down to popcorn buckets - no surprise because Chapek's ONLY resume is retail and distribution. I mean there is like six different "collections" - great marketing to those who have to have it all. Their hope is this continues for months to come. In that he succeeded. They had no special parade (no more is it a safety issue, obvious by the way crowds are handled), there was no special firework projection show, there was no castle stage celebration but hey here is your slick advertisement photograph to take home. The firework show was a long advertisement for Disney Plus which while profitable is way below projected subscriptions and needs a boost.

The 25th we each got a large FREE beautiful lithograph with embossed seal. This year they are selling them for $150 each. AND being reported most opened them to bent edges - so if you buy, open in front of them to make sure it's good before you walk away.

Some people just wanted a fun day of saying they were there and it was great ............. but we shouldn't attack those who went hoping for a legit special day of celebrating the park, special moments, special shows with organization and good planning from Disney.

I wasn’t there but I remember thinking “that’s it?” when I read about the day. Seemed like just speciality merchandise & snacks that will probably be there for 18 mos.

 

[LSUmiss]

More staff would have resulted in more order. Fewer guests would have resulted in more order.

BOTH of these issues are 100% on Disney.

It's easier for more staff to control fewer people. Staff can maintain lines and call security when people start misbehaving. Disney knows how guests behave (or don't). It's on them to staff accordingly.

And if you don’t have adequate staff, you don’t create a demand for something you can’t provide.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I dunno I just felt like the 50th had no actual pizazz…

Should have had the stage BOOKED for that day interviewing cast members who were there for the opening day.

For that day had a special parade that was exclusive for that day even if it was festival of fantasy just for the day bring a parade out to make it feel good.

give the guests all 50th pins for that day

Have a fun game guests could have played where they ride all the Opening day attractions a cast member could stamp their book and at the end get a 50th pin or card or something

I know it hurts Disney but maybe had a HUGE 50th cake and all guests could have enjoyed a slice and birthday hats with the 50th logo as they all sung happy birthday before the fireworks show…

a stage show involving the history of disney for this day only showing Walt’s journey and maybe some little tribute to him…

I don’t think anything I listed would have broken the bank and it would have made the day feel special they did NOTHING to make that DAY feel like an event. Sad.

 

[Lilylogan]

But if there's one thing I've learned in the 10 years I've been on here its that I've always seemed to be much easier to please than most on here.
Sorry for trying to bring some positivity in a board full of negativity.

With all the crap I've had to deal with in the hospitals over the last 1.5 years, WDW has happily been my escape.

I feel the same way -- I'm at home on quarantine with my child, I'd have loved to be at the MK that day instead......

 

[Ninja Mom]

Lol, not sure if you're referring to me or not. But if Disney wants to pay me, I'll surely accept it! I may be a doctor, but some extra cash would sure help pay off all that student loan debt. I shouldn't have to apologize, but sorry for loving Disney.
Also, there were a few notable posters that were banned for reasons not related to what you mentioned.

I was not referring to anyone specific with my post. The personas that I am referring to were not banned. They simply went from posting constantly to zero activity. These were people that would post everywhere, on every topic, offering their opinions and most notably correcting people's opinions or actual experiences . Then around March their activity simply stopped.
~NM