Moonlight Magic - EPCOT 2022

[SleeplessInTO]

Maleficent was not there. I asked. But loved the villains they did have. Gaston, Queen of Hearts, Sheriff of Nottingham, Oogie Boogie, Lady Tremaine, Drizella and Anastasia, Pain and Panic, Old Hag, Evil Queen (from Snow White), Honest John and Gideon, Kronk, Captain Hook and Smee. I think there was a Big Bad Wolf? But I didn’t find him. Overall, absolutely fantastic.

 

[CraigInPA]

I'm not alone in my feelings about this event. I just saw two other groups complain to dvc staff members about what a sh*t show this moonlight magic has been.

EPCOT is under construction. Zigging and zagging around construction walls is no fun during the day, and less fun at night with minimal lighting.

Popcorn buckets: 3 places to get them, also selling drinks. Limited staff behind the counter at each. ONE HOUR PLUS wait to get a bucket of popcorn at 11pm.

Ice cream: wait in the same line to get ice cream as a popcorn bucket.

Rides: "technical malfunctions" kept Remy off for 75 minutes, although they allowed us to get in line for when it was fixed. Spaceship Earth down as well. We didn't try for frozen or 3 caballeros. Soarin' and Living with the Land were operational when we rode them.

Eats: 3 coupons. Best use is to use them before 9pm at a festival location, because Sunshine Seasons, the ONLY location open after 9pm (except for the popcorn and ice cream) ran out of virtually everything the coupons could be used for by 10:30 and some of the staff literally closed their registers exactly at 11pm despite people waiting in line for up to 10 minutes lined up at their register!

Transportation back to resort: another disaster. Let's not keep the monorail open. Let's put all the monorail resorts onto one bus and see how well that works!

There were so many easy fixes that could have been applied if someone at DVC thought about this for even five minutes! How about separate lines for ice cream and popcorn? How about prefilled popcorn buckets in their own line? How about getting multiple regular locations to stay open past 11pm? Surely, none of these are expensive and would have yielded a SIGNIFICANTLY better customer experience!

As it is, I have to agree with my fellow DVC members: this was a sh*t show.

 

[iheartglaciers]

How did check-in work? Does everyone in your party need to be present to pick up the bands and vouchers? I have one friend who will be meeting me at Epcot, but it would be nice if I can go in and come back out to give her her band when she arrives.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Maleficent was not there. I asked. But loved the villains they did have. Gaston, Queen of Hearts, Sheriff of Nottingham, Oogie Boogie, Lady Tremaine, Drizella and Anastasia, Pain and Panic, Old Hag, Evil Queen (from Snow White), Honest John and Gideon, Kronk, Captain Hook and Smee. I think there was a Big Bad Wolf? But I didn’t find him. Overall, absolutely fantastic.

We were able to see everyone. The Big Bad Wolf rotated with Captain Hook and Smee.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Everything went well for us except the popcorn, coupons and merch. We found out the hard way that not all countries were accepting coupons and ended up with 4 unused ones. Everything we ate was amazing and I wish we could've used them all. The popcorn lines were very very long. DW waited while I took the kids to the Oogie Boogie line. The popcorn ended up being pretty bad but we got a couple free buckets at least. No moonlight magic merch was for sale unfortunately.

The rides were good and wait times were 30 minutes or less. The number and variety of characters was amazing and the lines moved quick.

 

[DianaMB333]

Did they run a fireworks show?

 

[CraigInPA]

Everything went well for us except the popcorn, coupons and merch. We found out the hard way that not all countries were accepting coupons and ended up with 4 unused ones.

I forgot to add this to my previous post. The flyer handed out said that the coupons could be redeemed for anything with a Disney snack logo. However, France didn't take them. A DVC employee outside the bakery there said they were not being accepted in Italy and another country (which I can't remember), either. I ended up using my coupons for drinks at sunshine seasons, literally the last guy in line there when the cashier put up her closed sign at 11pm.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We were able to see everyone. The Big Bad Wolf rotated with Captain Hook and Smee.

That makes sense. I saw Hook twice, must’ve missed the rotation!

 

[CvilleDiane]

We had our trip booked for months flying in after work April 1 (doing the ToT Ten Miler on 4/3) and staying at Bay Lake. We registered for 3/31 and now trying to decide if it is worth completely disrupting our plans to come in early to attend Thursday night.

We are on SW so can change our flight although it will cost way more than our $44 flight we booked months ago. There is nothing available on points or anywhere on property so we would have to stay offsite and rent a car. And we would need to come in Wednesday night so I can work all day on 3/31 and I would need to work all day on 4/1 too which will be more difficult since we would be checking out of our offsite hotel and moving to BLT.

So, question: Is attending 3/31 worth the extra effort and $$? I am squarely on the fence.

**Note: we have AP’s and are at EPCOT all the time with recent trips in November and January.

what have you decided? We have a very similar situation, arriving 4/1 for 10 Miler. We have tickets to 3/31, and we are also APs so the rides are only compelling if the lines are very short. I’m curious what this popcorn bucket that requires a 1 hr wait in line (for some part of the night) looks like!!

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I'm not alone in my feelings about this event. I just saw two other groups complain to dvc staff members about what a sh*t show this moonlight magic has been.

EPCOT is under construction. Zigging and zagging around construction walls is no fun during the day, and less fun at night with minimal lighting.

Popcorn buckets: 3 places to get them, also selling drinks. Limited staff behind the counter at each. ONE HOUR PLUS wait to get a bucket of popcorn at 11pm.

Ice cream: wait in the same line to get ice cream as a popcorn bucket.

Rides: "technical malfunctions" kept Remy off for 75 minutes, although they allowed us to get in line for when it was fixed. Spaceship Earth down as well. We didn't try for frozen or 3 caballeros. Soarin' and Living with the Land were operational when we rode them.

Eats: 3 coupons. Best use is to use them before 9pm at a festival location, because Sunshine Seasons, the ONLY location open after 9pm (except for the popcorn and ice cream) ran out of virtually everything the coupons could be used for by 10:30 and some of the staff literally closed their registers exactly at 11pm despite people waiting in line for up to 10 minutes lined up at their register!

Transportation back to resort: another disaster. Let's not keep the monorail open. Let's put all the monorail resorts onto one bus and see how well that works!

There were so many easy fixes that could have been applied if someone at DVC thought about this for even five minutes! How about separate lines for ice cream and popcorn? How about prefilled popcorn buckets in their own line? How about getting multiple regular locations to stay open past 11pm? Surely, none of these are expensive and would have yielded a SIGNIFICANTLY better customer experience!

As it is, I have to agree with my fellow DVC members: this was a sh*t show.

The ice cream and popcorn were separate lines by imagination, ice cream moved super fast over there. The bakery in Norway was also open past 9pm has a long line when we went past.

Food in past events have had issues the later you went also. We have learned to always do it earlier on.

I agree some tweaks to make better. Popcorn should Just be for 6pm on, though Canada handed out early.

Thinking that next ones will go a bit smoother.

Food vouchers were confusing for sure and hopefully the spell out more clearly where they work and on what.

 

[huskies90]

what have you decided? We have a very similar situation, arriving 4/1 for 10 Miler. We have tickets to 3/31, and we are also APs so the rides are only compelling if the lines are very short. I’m curious what this popcorn bucket that requires a 1 hr wait in line (for some part of the night) looks like!!

As of now, we going to just come in 4/1 as planned. That still may change last minute but we are leaning to "not worth the hassle" of switching everything.

 

[JAM9842]

Were the photpass people with the characters to take pictures?

 

[The Jackal]

Wow, this is not good. Usually at Epcot due to its size, MM events are fantastic. Looks like skipping 2 years they forgot how to hold these events.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

I forgot to add this to my previous post. The flyer handed out said that the coupons could be redeemed for anything with a Disney snack logo. However, France didn't take them. A DVC employee outside the bakery there said they were not being accepted in Italy and another country (which I can't remember), either. I ended up using my coupons for drinks at sunshine seasons, literally the last guy in line there when the cashier put up her closed sign at 11pm.

Italy said no to us also but France took them for us. We were disappointed about Italy as the kids were hungry and would've eaten what they had there.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Were the photpass people with the characters to take pictures?

Not that I saw

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

I’m curious what this popcorn bucket that requires a 1 hr wait in line (for some part of the night) looks like!!

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Hopefully they work out the kinks.

I have only been to one MM event but at MK a few years ago and there were no food vouchers. They had multiple locations with fixed menu food options. So, you'd (for example) walk up to the counter at Tortuga Tavern and they'd ask you if you wanted chicken nuggets or hot dogs and what kind of fountain drink. It was already made, sitting there, waiting... literally no time lost. Before the party actually started, there were no free food options. You had to pay for anything you ate.

I'm sure people complained about this. The food was very basic. Even though the food did not thrill me, I do not want to waste my time on food at a special event. I thought it was more than sufficient. We had maybe a 4 pm dinner outside the park and went in "not starving" anyway.

So, now you get vouchers and can choose from "regular" menu items but it is limited and there are long lines. But you can eat before the party starts. People will complain about this also.

I've also paid for DAH events. Where you get ice cream and popcorn only. Often with long lines. For about $100 per person.

People need to remember this is free. To me, the benefit is admission and lower wait times / lower crowds. I can see disappointment when rides go down, but that happens every day. Remy goes down a lot and there aren't a lot of rides at Epcot. I'm sure 2 rides down created a problem.

If there's an hour line for a popcorn bucket, don't get one and don't care. lol

I am personally disappointed with the lack of fireworks, but whatever.

I've had bigger Disney disappointments that I paid a lot of money for.

It will be interesting to see my kids take on this. My 2 DD's and one's boyfriend and maybe another friend will be attending 3/31. One DD is blocked out of the parks completely that day as a CM (DCP) and the other and her boyfriend are freaking out over the $1000 in park admission and all the other money they're blowing for the rest of the week. I'm pretty sure they'll appreciate a free evening in the park.

 

[lollidrop]

I have been to many, many paid and free Disney events and last night was by far the worst event I've been to. I feel like they didn't think anything through (that popcorn bucket situation was embarrassing), and it still felt fairly crowded/lines were pretty long. There weren't enough extras, especially since everything they promoted as one was a let down.

Disney is good at reflecting on things and making inprovements, so I assume moving forward things will be better- but it's sad for those who went last night. I was just a guest of someone, but if they were trying to make DVC people feel special, they missed their mark.

 

[fab1976]

Hopefully they work out the kinks.

I have only been to one MM event but at MK a few years ago and there were no food vouchers. They had multiple locations with fixed menu food options. So, you'd (for example) walk up to the counter at Tortuga Tavern and they'd ask you if you wanted chicken nuggets or hot dogs and what kind of fountain drink. It was already made, sitting there, waiting... literally no time lost. Before the party actually started, there were no free food options. You had to pay for anything you ate.

They changed it for the next year. We did an Animal Kingdom night in 2018 and it was the same, walk up and get a hot dog basically. In 2019, we did the Magic Kingdom and it was a choice of a meal at select restaurants. Lines weren’t bad at all for that. Last night….insane lines even before the event started. I’m sure changes will be made before the next because last night was just not enjoyable.

 

[GAN]

Hopefully they work out the kinks.

I have only been to one MM event but at MK a few years ago and there were no food vouchers. They had multiple locations with fixed menu food options. So, you'd (for example) walk up to the counter at Tortuga Tavern and they'd ask you if you wanted chicken nuggets or hot dogs and what kind of fountain drink. It was already made, sitting there, waiting... literally no time lost. Before the party actually started, there were no free food options. You had to pay for anything you ate.

I'm sure people complained about this. The food was very basic. Even though the food did not thrill me, I do not want to waste my time on food at a special event. I thought it was more than sufficient. We had maybe a 4 pm dinner outside the park and went in "not starving" anyway.

So, now you get vouchers and can choose from "regular" menu items but it is limited and there are long lines. But you can eat before the party starts. People will complain about this also.

I've also paid for DAH events. Where you get ice cream and popcorn only. Often with long lines. For about $100 per person.

People need to remember this is free. To me, the benefit is admission and lower wait times / lower crowds. I can see disappointment when rides go down, but that happens every day. Remy goes down a lot and there aren't a lot of rides at Epcot. I'm sure 2 rides down created a problem.

If there's an hour line for a popcorn bucket, don't get one and don't care. lol

I am personally disappointed with the lack of fireworks, but whatever.

I've had bigger Disney disappointments that I paid a lot of money for.

It will be interesting to see my kids take on this. My 2 DD's and one's boyfriend and maybe another friend will be attending 3/31. One DD is blocked out of the parks completely that day as a CM (DCP) and the other and her boyfriend are freaking out over the $1000 in park admission and all the other money they're blowing for the rest of the week. I'm pretty sure they'll appreciate a free evening in the park.

THIS….