Big Changes for Ears at MK!

[BetsyinFL]

The Chapeau on Main Street in the MK will be closing for refurbishing for about 1 month while they remove the handstitching machines for ear personalization and replace them with the computerized versions. In the mean time, the handstitching machines will be located across the street in the Princess Room in the Emporium during the refurbishment, and then removed entirely. So the $2 personalization is disappearing and being replaced by the $7 version

The new Chapeau will feature the new "Build a Hat" which allows the guest to choose a "dome", then ears, and finally stickers to embellish. The new Ears will run between $15 - $20 each. The original $9.95 black ears will still be available, but not sure about the rest of them.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Wow -- so "basic" ears will now be almost $20 with tax and personalization! That's a bummer.

 

[Rora]

Good to know!! Thanks for the info.

 

[Feralpeg]

The personalization at Days of Christmas has gone up from $7 to $8 plus tax per hat. I would imagine it will be $8 when Le Chapeau reopens. The people who do the computerized embroidery are not Disney employees. They are an outside company that simply works at Disney's locations.

 

[JulieNMM]

We were at DisneyLAND at Christmas and DS got an ear hat with little lights in the ears that lit up. A machine wrote his name on the back (not a person). The cost was $15 (that included the tax, so really it was like $13.75) and I remember thinking that it was a little more because it had the lights in the ears. Oh and I'm pretty sure that the guy who sold us the hat (and put it in the machine for the personalization) was a regular CM. It was a little kiosk in the middle of the park where lots of other things were sold and he was the only one working there and he had on a CM uniform and nametag.

Just FYI.
JULIE

 

[SuziQZee]

Thanks for the info!

Do you know when will The Chapeau be closing?

 

[BetsyinFL]

I believe (from a CM that works there) the Chapeau will be closing this Monday, but you'll still be able to get hand stitching done for $2 across the street in the Princess room of the Emporium. The Chapeau CM's are being trained on the new equipment, but they aren't sure what the new pricing will be for embroidery.

 

[hickchick]

Do they still have handstitching at the Judge's Tent (County Bounty?) in MTT? We had the best conversation last year with the 2 CMs that handstitched our ears...

 

[CampbellScot]

that's kind of a bummer...the hand-stitching was really neat to watch. Why oh why does technology have to stick it's greedy little fingers into EVERYTHING?!

oh well...time marches on...it's probably what Walt would have wanted...Progress and all!

 

[Karmel96]

When I took my DD when she was 5, she got a set of pink ears in DTD. The next day, a CM in front of store in Fantasyland offered to put her name on it.

Cost? FREE!

I seriously don't remember paying for it to be done. She caught us around 8:30am on a MK EMH morning.

Those were the days I guess...

 

[logansmummy]

I am so glad that I have bought my son his ears that had by-hand personalization on them. That is the way Walt wanted it done, why not keep them???? that is so sad....

 

[mmcguire]

That's a shame. We liked the hand-embroidered hats. My DD's first hat was embroidered by a lady who took extra time to make several fancy little curlicues at the end of her name. Very pretty. Now they'll all be exactly the same, spit out of a computerized machine.

 

[Feralpeg]

Trying to see it from Disney's point of view, there are several reasons to do this. It takes a lot of training for the CMs to do the hats. CMs come and go. When they loose one of the people who know how to do the embroidery, they are not easily replaced. Turning it over to an outside company with people trained on the equipment, takes it out of Disney's hands and just makes things easier for them.

Also, a lot of the equipment is old. It needed to be replaced. Rather than spend money on the new equipment, they just brought in a company that has the equipment.

It's like the engraving machines. They are wearing out and are expensive to replace. If Disney doesn't think they will make enough off them, they will do away with them. It is just a good business decision for them.

 

[BetsyinFL]

The 2 cast members I know at Magic Kingdom have been doing the hand stitching for 10 plus years each and are not too thrilled about being retrained. The new stitching will take about 4 minutes each, so there will be times when the wait may be several hours to get a name on a hat. It's really a shame. But for the time being, they have moved to the Princess room across Main Street and expect to be there for at least a month. Stop in and say hello!

 

[disney[xo]sweetie]

wow! thats a BiG change! 2 dollars to 8!!! woah! but, you know, maybe the computerized machines can do some pretty cool stuff! theres gotta be a reason for that huge price increase. and remember, walt always wanted progress!

 

[logansmummy]

Ok I am having a hard time understanding why they would take something like this out? This hand embroidery makes them so unique? It sorta lacks the Magic if you will. I really have no intentions of buying ears anymore, we have 3 pair, 1 (original black) 1 gold pair, 1 lighted YOMD, and all 3 are hand embroidered, my hubby & I searched out the ears and purposely took them to get them done. What a bummer for future Dreamers.

 

[TLSnell1981]

The Chapeau on Main Street in the MK will be closing for refurbishing for about 1 month while they remove the handstitching machines for ear personalization and replace them with the computerized versions. In the mean time, the handstitching machines will be located across the street in the Princess Room in the Emporium during the refurbishment, and then removed entirely. So the $2 personalization is disappearing and being replaced by the $7 version



The new Chapeau will feature the new "Build a Hat" which allows the guest to choose a "dome", then ears, and finally stickers to embellish. The new Ears will run between $15 - $20 each. The original $9.95 black ears will still be available, but not sure about the rest of them.

I wonder who came up with this bright idea?

 

[logansmummy]

Can't they do both? This is so sad!