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

[SSGNCNG]

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

 

[Gehrig1B]

It seems if I am there for the attractions and not shopping and fireworks I'm OK?

 

[DavidNYC]

So you went to MK on a day that was predicted to be the most crowded in a long time due to it being the 50th anniversary and you sound surprised . . . . based on the other reports, it's pretty much exactly what everyone predicted it was going to be. I mean - what did you expect the line for shopping was going to be based on all of the reports of people lining up in droves for the 50th anniversary merchandise. And most of the reports said that the ride lines were actually far better than anyone was expecting them to be.

 

[SSGNCNG]

It seems if I am there for the attractions and not shopping and fireworks I'm OK?

Yes, but don’t plan on getting popcorn, for example. The lines to get popcorn was ginormous because of the 50th anniversary buckets. Between severe staffing shortages and logistics failings, you should expect problems.

 

[Kestryl]

I will take a free ticket to see Enchantment, if anyone is offering.

Sorry you had to deal with the messy morning crush, OP.

 

[bsmcneil]

Yes, but don’t plan on getting popcorn, for example. The lines to get popcorn was ginormous because of the 50th anniversary buckets. Between severe staffing shortages and logistics failings, you should expect problems.

So what were those problems? And if anyone is offering, I (too) will watch Enchantment for a free ticket. I'll even clap and probably ooh and aah (but that might just be my own woke virtue signaling, lol).

 

[Chrisizzle]

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”.

Since you are here on the DisBoards, you could have used it to plan rather than take the 8am opening time from Disney as gospel. There was a thread here dedicated to people and their plans to attend October 1st. It was ‘understood’ most people were leaving their resorts by 5:30am… latest.

One person said it well. Disney doesn’t want people to arrive before 8am but they don’t want an angry mob when the eager fans inevitably do arrive early.

Apart from the Big Top and other limited edition, today-only merchandise, the park and rides were empty.

All the goods in Mainstreet (including Starbucks and the Vault Collection) have been available the last week AND at Disney Springs stores too.

Good news is you have a 2nd shot at everything since it sounds like you will be there Saturday too.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

OP you are so lucky to have been there. Many would have given their eye teeth.

 

[Disneylover99]

It’s a good thing they let those crowds into the park at 6am, rather than make everyone wait until 8am. That would have been even more chaotic.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Since you are here on the DisBoards, you could have used it to plan rather than take the 8am opening time from Disney as gospel. There was a thread here dedicated to people and their plans to attend October 1st. It was ‘understood’ most people were leaving their resorts by 5:30am… latest.

This

sigh, I can never understand when people only post AFTER an event or visit and complain about xyz happening, when there is always tons of info and planning threads and info known before hand. Especially for something like October 1 at Walt Disney World, all it takes is even to check Disboards the night before and see oh, wow, people are planning to be there THAT early, maybe I should revise my plans.

 

[SSGNCNG]

So you went to MK on a day that was predicted to be the most crowded in a long time due to it being the 50th anniversary and you sound surprised . . . .

I’ve been here on Christmas Day, been here during spring break, never saw cast members loose control of a crowd at the hub. There were so few CMs relative to guests that, no, it was not like what “everyone” predicted. We can predict/anticipate crowds on certain days/events. This was something else, a fairly comprehensive failure by Disney.

The use of 3rd party contract buses has been an interesting sight due to the shortage of Disney bus drivers. Disney knows their staffing shortages and appeared to have had no plan to work

 

[mom2rtk]

It seems if I am there for the attractions and not shopping and fireworks I'm OK?

How do you feel about eating?

 

[mom2rtk]

So you went to MK on a day that was predicted to be the most crowded in a long time due to it being the 50th anniversary and you sound surprised . . . . based on the other reports, it's pretty much exactly what everyone predicted it was going to be. I mean - what did you expect the line for shopping was going to be based on all of the reports of people lining up in droves for the 50th anniversary merchandise. And most of the reports said that the ride lines were actually far better than anyone was expecting them to be.

Maybe OP should have been better prepared.

You wanna guess who else should have been better prepared? Disney. I know…. pandemic. But they’ve been at this long enough to know what they can handle. They have the systems in place to limit crowds to what they can handle. They apparently chose not to. They knew EXACTLY how many people were coming, far in advance.

 

[igrsod]

This is why we made the decision to avoid Oct 1. We were at the 40th by accident and it was the busiest/scariest day... not enjoyable to say the least. This sounds worse. I heard accounts of people waiting 3 hours for food.... that's into the next meal time. You can't do that. Disney dropped the ball on this. If they didn't have the staff, they shouldn't have allowed that many people into the park. Not wise. Hopefully, that chaos is over and things can go back to normal.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

Majority of the parking lots weren’t in use so it wasn’t at max capacity Unless everyone came like 10 to a car..

i knew about the early entry and I had zero plans to be there so it wasn’t a great secret. Majority of guests wanted merch and to squat for the fireworks which always happen. Most rides were 5 min waits the few times we peeked only like 4 had waits over 20 min which is unheard of for an anniversary..

 

[CanucksRock]

The crowds were only at the popcorn, food, merch lines! We had an amazing day - going on rides! Next to no lines. Many walk on. We arrived around 9, left at 11:30 and returned at 7 and stayed until 10:30. Went on 14 rides, including all headliners.

Merch was not our priority. But did go to Big Top in the evening and I was still able to get the spirit jersey I wanted.

We watched the Fireworks from Liberty Square bridge - so we could beeline to Haunted Mansion right after. We enjoyed it

 

[GymboAddict]

It seems if I am there for the attractions and not shopping and fireworks I'm OK?

Yes, you will be fine! I went yesterday to celebrate turning 50 - that is all I wanted for my birthday and my husband delivered! If you go with managed expectations you won’t be disappointed.

I went with the expectation of “I’m just happy to be here”! If I was able to buy merch, awesome! But I wasn’t waiting in crazy lines for it nor asking my family to do that. We came to enjoy the day, expecting long lines for rides and crowds.

We left BWV at 6:30 am, walked into MK and found a spot in the hub to watch the opening. THAT is what I was disappointed with. I did expect something bigger in my mind for an opening on the 50th. Maybe a speech, I don’t know but something more than what we got.

We went to ride after that and lines were awesome. With exception of Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise and Mine Train, we waited no more than 10 min all day long.

I would say be mindful of mobile ordering times. We looked at Columbia at 8:30 am and slots were already at the 11:30 pickup time. So we ordered very early.

As for popcorn, I wasn’t interested in the balloon bucket so waited until about 12:30 pm. Got behind about 5 people at the cart in Liberty Square and got my 50th anniv traditional bucket with minimal wait.

Only other big issue or disappointment I had was our dinner reservation. We had Liberty Tree for 5:15 pm. They were running behind they said and we weren’t seated until 6:15 pm. That put us way behind on getting to the hub to find a spot for fireworks. That was probably the only frustrating thing we experienced all day. The rest of the day was smooth! We even made it to the hub and found a great spot for fireworks.

I loved my day on Oct 1st - I thought it was magical. I felt very blessed to be in my favorite park with my favorite people celebrating such a special occasion. I think the park looks beautiful with all the decorations and the castle is gorgeous! I’m not sold on Enchantment just yet but I didn’t think it was horrible. I do agree the “story” isn’t there - or the flow just wasn’t right. I did enjoy parts of it. I really wanted to love it as much as HEA but I think HEA was just so special - I don’t know if that can ever be replaced!

I hope all of you planning on going today or this week have a magical day in MK. Make the best of it - your trip is what you make of it!

 

[howedaniel]

I'm in the UK and would have given quite a few things to be there. I would have been managing my expectations if I was, I hope those lucky enough to be there took some positives from the day.

 

[abja09]

Since you are here on the DisBoards, you could have used it to plan rather than take the 8am opening time from Disney as gospel. There was a thread here dedicated to people and their plans to attend October 1st. It was ‘understood’ most people were leaving their resorts by 5:30am… latest.

One person said it well. Disney doesn’t want people to arrive before 8am but they don’t want an angry mob when the eager fans inevitably do arrive early.

Apart from the Big Top and other limited edition, today-only merchandise, the park and rides were empty.

All the goods in Mainstreet (including Starbucks and the Vault Collection) have been available the last week AND at Disney Springs stores too.

Good news is you have a 2nd shot at everything since it sounds like you will be there Saturday too.

Well said! I was at the MK yesterday and did plan to get there early based on what I read here on the Dis. I was there at 6:15 am and left at 10pm. I had a fantastic time in the park and was so happy to be there on the 1st to experience it all. Other than an early issue in the Emporium that I heard about everything was amazing!! And the non existent wait times for rides was totally unexpected. The CM handle all the crowds well and I enjoyed Echantment and plan to go back tonight to watch it a better spot.

 

[Chrisizzle]

I’ve been here on Christmas Day, been here during spring break, never saw cast members loose control of a crowd at the hub.

Although I won’t say you are wrong, you don’t have the correct perspective either.

You’ve been here on Christmas?
Is that the holiday that happens every year like clockwork and that Disney has spent 49 years perfecting?

Well, yesterday was a once in 50 year event.
AND… it happened during a pandemic (with those countless considerations).

The only argument in this thread that holds up is that Disney should have balanced guests to the staff they had.

To that end, I personally didn’t see any mismatch. I walked into the park with no lines at 6:30am. I walked around a park with reasonable crowds. I got on most rides, had meals, and even got into the Big Top for exclusive merchandise.

I do take people at their word that there were occasions of overwhelming crowds. Short of that being the entrance, turn around and do something else. You are adding to the problem. “You’re not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.”