Here now, broken MK

[crazedprincess]

What a horrible bummer of a MK day. I'm so sorry!

 

[perditax]

Under the sea; off line all day.
Peter Pan : down extended time
Splash: down mutiple times.
Tommorrowland speedway: down extended.
BTMRR: refurb
Stitch : closed


Just reality now! ......comments....

Park is also very crowded

I was reading a "WDW vs UO" thread on another forum tonight and there were quite a few posts about Universal Studios not being kept up well. I just kept remembering my trip to MK in Feb '15 and how it seemed like everything was down for refurb and half the park was under construction tarps.

(Going to try Universal in a few months. The WDW prices have reached "nope" level for me and it sounds like the crowds are unmanageable.)

 

[anniemae]

I think this is the new normal. It's strange, but no matter what Disney does, people come in droves. The higher they raise prices, the more people come it seems. Even if things are broken, people come. They are so busy building and expanding that I think they have problems keeping up the rest of the parks. They keep offering promotions, specials, discounts etc. when things are kind of in disarray and unfinished. But you know what? People keep coming, so why not? From a business point I bet they are very very happy. I feel like they are in a transition period.

 

[kamik86]

Well, yeah. What would you want her to say or to do? It is not like they shut all of the rides down, most of them broke. I wouldn't be happy either, but it is not like they are all down on purpose.

Did you ask if you could get a 1 day ticket with so many rides down? I'm not usually one to hop on the I Must Have Compensation bandwagon, but that is an awful lot of stuff not working.

The manager at SM I would expect to manage her FP and standby line so that the standby line is NEVER shorter to get though then the FP line. If that means you take 50 people from FP for every one standby becasue so many have FP so be it.

Disney management in the short term
1) Not give so many fast passes
2) Lower the capacity of the park if so many things have to be down that the park can't handle that many without additional problems.
3) Be ready to provide alot of compensation for their failures to maintain equipment causing these problems

Disney management in the long term
1) Maintain their equipment better so so many things don't break. One or two things breaking is "things break" if most of these really are down due to breaking its a management problem.
2) Not to put off maintenance again like they have in previous years now that they have definitely seen the issue they created.
3) Add more rides that take high capacities of guests to help manage crowd distribution

What I expect from the customers that find this unexceptable
1) Let management know and complain even if you don't think there is anything they could do to fix it now they should be made aware of the problems and how it is affecting guests
2) Make it affect their bottom line by asking for compenstation or not going back. I like the community here for the discussion and to keep up on news of the parks so I know when it gets better again. But I haven't been back in years because of the issues that occured on my last few trips. I even sold my DVC. It isn't hurting them yet which means they apparently are still doing things right. Until customers make it hurt their bottom line it won't get better.

 

[kamik86]

I think this is the new normal. It's strange, but no matter what Disney does, people come in droves. The higher they raise prices, the more people come it seems. Even if things are broken, people come. They are so busy building and expanding that I think they have problems keeping up the rest of the parks. They keep offering promotions, specials, discounts etc. when things are kind of in disarray and unfinished. But you know what? People keep coming, so why not? From a business point I bet they are very very happy. I feel like they are in a transition period.

I agree one of two things are going to happen.
1) People will complain but not enough will stop going to make up for those that are going. Nothing will change because disney keeps making money, the parks will get worse and worse until eventually...
2) Enough people stop going, they go to other places and Disney either dies as a park or they spend the money fixing it to make it good again and win people back.

Many businesses have taken the attitude of "It doesn't matter what we do people will buy it anyway". That works for a while, but not forever.

Its like the movie series where there are a few really good movies, two absolute crap ones, then a good one again. That first bad movie is where they didn't care because they just wanted to push out a movie to make more money. People all flock to it on the reputation of the first few. It doesn't do as well becasue those that saw it early tell people not to go and a few listen, but alot still go to see for themselves since the others were so good, maybe it isn't bad its just not as good?

The second bad movie comes out because again why should we care that movie did really well still. However this time people know the last one was bad so they wait for reviews, they don't go immediately, they are more cautious, when they hear that it is still bad they don't go at all.

So the movie makers have to care again.

Disney isn't as discrete as movies being a themepark though... that person that had a really good visit 2 years ago is still talking it up and people saying it sucks now aren't goin to stop people that have trips booked in 3 months, so the fall will be much slower.

 

[Missyrose]

Disney management in the short term
1) Not give so many fast passes
2) Lower the capacity of the park if so many things have to be down that the park can't handle that many without additional problems.
3) Be ready to provide alot of compensation for their failures to maintain equipment causing these problems

Given that Disney's most go-to form of compensation is a set of extra FP+ reservations, I'm not sure how No. 1 and No. 3 can be true IRL.

 

[xipotec]

It just kept getting worse as well......I do not know whats going on here............

At 4:30am music began blaring across Seven Seas lagoon.....and I mean LOUD !!!!! I cannot imagine the complaints they will get about this.... It went on for about 30-45 minutes. It sounded like a live stage show concert. It was loud enough to hear easily with our balcony door closed in Boca At GF...

We are recovering from yesterday by sleeping in and doing a short AK day. With Dinosaur off line....we do not want to end up in another situation like yestserday. So we are going ....using our FP (praying they actually function like an FP should) and having our Y&Y dinner and leaving.

And praying Friday they will get it together at MK.

I agree with everyone suggestions......but as stated it was packed......so it really does not affect most people......yet.

There were alot of first timers there......(I talk to alot of people if they are willing) the few Veterns I did meet were all complaining about one aspect or another. Also the foriegn tourist was very much in large supply. If I went to a major attractiom in another country , I doubt I would have any idea what would be considered "normal". They seemed to be fine with the lines.

Look for my trip report.....hopfully yesterday will be an outlier in an otherwise fun trip......

The pics will speak a thousand words......

 

[kamik86]

Given that Disney's most go-to form of compensation is a set of extra FP+ reservations, I'm not sure how No. 1 and No. 3 can be true IRL.

Someone asked what we wanted them to do... I have no delusions that its going to happen. Just thought I would answer what I wanted them to do.

As for fast passes being the go to compensation of course it is... they are free. It does not cost disney any money to print more fast passes.

 

[MaizeRage25]

Non-party day = very crowded. Not sure when people will figure this out.

For this week, according to Touring Plans, both non-party days at MK have been a 10. Other parks are all like a 2. PLAN SMARTER.

 

[JimmyBean42]

Hahahah! Now we are stuck on the People mover inside Buzz......

Bright side: Better to be stuck inside Buzz instead of inside a dark Space Mountain for that long of a time. Although if SM was down and the lights were on it wouldn't have been that bad (Ha!).

 

[JimmyBean42]

Non-party day = very crowded. Not sure when people will figure this out.

For this week, according to Touring Plans, both non-party days at MK have been a 10. Other parks are all like a 2. PLAN SMARTER.

Crowds are on thing, but all those rides being down you can't expect or plan for. And that is what OP is saying. Not sure how anyone could PLAN SMARTER for rides malfunctioning.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Non-party day = very crowded. Not sure when people will figure this out.

For this week, according to Touring Plans, both non-party days at MK have been a 10. Other parks are all like a 2. PLAN SMARTER.

This is why we will avoid Disney during party times unless it's a F&W trip. We wanted to do Jersey week but with 4 parties in one week I can't even imagine how insane MK will be on a non party day.

 

[ujpest_doza]

Stitch being closed is a gift.

It was closed for the entire 2 weeks of our visit in October with just a little sign saying "closed today".

Nothing about being closed for good or for a refurb.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

It was closed for the entire 2 weeks of our visit in October with just a little sign saying "closed today".

Nothing about being closed for good or for a refurb.

Officially, it will now only be open at holidays. Which seems not festive to me but I get it.

They can't staff it and have it running on 10 minutes notice, though.

 

[GillianP1301]

I've never experienced this type of outages across the park, but then I travel at a less busy time, I guess that's why.

The high crowds are definitely a contributing factor and I'm not sure what can be done about that. Lowering park capacity numbers could be one option for the busiest of days. Charging more is another option, that's basic supply demand stuff. The offering of EMM at a surcharge is one way of charging a premium to a lower demand of crowd.

The other thing to note here is people need to stop complaining when rides are closed for regular scheduled refurbishment. I have no doubt that they cut costs to finish those refurbs as quickly as possible and all that really does is put a bandaid on the overcrowding situation. MK and many of those attractions are nearly 50 years old, they need to be properly maintained to minimize unscheduled outages/closures.

 

[hiroMYhero]

At 4:30am music began blaring across Seven Seas lagoon.....and I mean LOUD !!!!! I cannot imagine the complaints they will get about this.... It went on for about 30-45 minutes. It sounded like a live stage show concert. It was loud enough to hear easily with our balcony door closed in Boca At GF...

xipotec, the Cast was in rehearsal for the Cast Service Celebration stage show for tonight's event. Their rehearsal began at 1:00a and only because the Celebration can't be held at DHS this year is it taking place at MK. Unfortunately, you'll be hearing the stage show music again tonight.

 

[xipotec]

xipotec, the Cast was in rehearsal for the Cast Service Celebration stage show for tonight's event. Their rehearsal began at 1:00a and only because the Celebration can't be held at DHS this year is it taking place at MK. Unfortunately, you'll be hearing the stage show music again tonight.

Ill find aome ear plugs... it was LOUD hiro..... maybe they should practice at half volumr at 4am...



As for the "plan better" comment.....

I have been planning WDW trips for 20 years....I know the parks backward and forward.

This week is usually a quiet week, as ut has been for the past 10 years....if that day is a 10 as you claim, what will next WED be?

A 20? 50?

You cannot claim this week as a 10 then say next week will be a 10 as well....that makes no sense as anyone who knows this place will tell you TG week is one of the busiest of the year....

We did not plan on slaying the park riding mutiple times, we just wanted to ride each major attraction once......

Thats kinda hard to do when several are down for hours and hours......

Plan better ? I doubt anyone could have planned better that day.....the only better plan would have been not to goto that park at all.....and that was not an option for us.

 

[IrishNYC]

The SPACE MOUNTAIN DEBACLE.

FP at 5:45.....35 minute wait on FP line while standby blew on by.....no line at all in standby....
People start complaining......By the time we left SPM FP line was out to Astro Obiter....and still no standby line at all...
they Said they would make standby wait an hour so the could clear all the FP....that never happened as FP line remained out to about 50-100 people until Wishes.....
i finally got a hold of the manager and asked them what was all this about? After alot of blaming the system and other ride failure she gave us another paper FP. ( but not for PP or 7 dwarves).

Why would you (or anyone) get on a FP line when the standby line is shorter? Every time I've seen a manageable SB line at the same time as I have FP, I go SB, so I can ride again with FP, or change to a different FP. If you see the FP line is 35 minutes and there's no standby line, why would you get on the FP line?

 

[PeterP]

We had similar experiences in late October. We were there with people who had not been to Disney since 1991. I believe it made a bad "near-first" impression.

 

[crazedprincess]

Non-party day = very crowded. Not sure when people will figure this out.

For this week, according to Touring Plans, both non-party days at MK have been a 10. Other parks are all like a 2. PLAN SMARTER.

Going on a non-party day is the only way that a person can watch Wishes. For many, this is high priority.