My 9 year old daughter and I got there at park opening. Wanted to be earlier, but buses were running slow. We went straight to Oaken by about 9:15 and the merchandise line was wrapped in front of Toy Story and easily 2 hours. I went down and talked to a manager who said the ice skating line would drop you into the store, so we did that. We were in and out of Oaken with 2 Elsa dresses, 1 Anna dress, and 2 Elsa/Anna flip dolls within 20 minutes. The check out line was ridiculous, but the snack line checked me and some other lucky customers out with a 1-2 person line. (I heard our quick way in may already have ended, and I'm really disappointed how Disney squirreled away all Frozen merchandise for today.)
Reading this makes me angry, so angry that it has probably done more to affect my future relationship with WDW. We were in the other line.
We entered the queue at 9:02. For the first 15 min, the line moved reasonably well. The next 15 min, the line moved about a third as fast as it had been moving, and shortly after that, the line stopped moving altogether. What followed was an approximately 30-40 minute period, the merchandise line allowed one group of 4 to enter Oaken's.
Streams of managers were continually exiting the building, at this point, we were in the final straight in front of the store. I should have counted how many exited. None were concerned with monitoring how long it had been that our line was not moving, therefore no steps were being taken to improve our situation. Eventually, the crowd put two and two together and realized that we weren't allowed to enter because the area was being filled by people entering through the Funland area. So then they started trying to get someone's attention.
The first person I talked to, gave the "this is an attractions issue, I'm merchandise." And then "We're doing the best we can." This was infuriating for 2 reasons. 1. One of the lessons Disney teaches to other businesses paying big bucks for their seminars is: "It's not my fault, but it's my problem to solve." No, you may not be responsible for the situation unfolding, but you have dozens of distressed guests FIND someone who can help, and verify that people are getting help. And the 2nd, if this truly was the BEST Disney can do, they have massive, operational issues. The type that lands smaller businesses on tv shows like Kitchen Nighmares, Restaurant Impossible and the like. If it was the BEST, the implication is there isn't room for improvement. Is that really the message you want to send to your guests? It wasn't the best, there were multiple failures all the people in line knew it, so don't claim this is the best. And these coming on the heels of Star Wars weekends and the 25th anniversary event where they would have recently had experience managing a merchandise line. And not that long after last year's Villans event. If there was any place that should have had the experience to handle that type of line, and resolve issues on the fly it should have been the Studios management group.
A few minutes pass, and the next group of people that get waved down by the crowd, seem to have recognized that something needs to be done about the line. So they happily announce they are working to shut down the other line, and all we have to do is wait for them to merge that line IN FRONT of us. Yes, we've been waiting since 9:02 and now we have to wait for later arriving guests that have been prioritized to enter before us. You can imagine how this went over with the crowd.
So during all of this, my Mother started feeling really poorly. She's in the middle of some major health issues, but she has been doing really well, and this was very important to her. But because of her issues, her situation can change more rapidly than if she was completely healthy. We started trying to flag someone down so we could get a wheelchair for her. First manager,
"you have to go to the front of the park." 2nd manager, "well, there are lots of people suffering here." It took the 3rd manager who immediately recognized the medical distress my Mom was in and went after a chair. About 30 seconds after she left us, the logjam finally broke and we were allowed to enter the building. Just being in the AC, greatly helped my Mom, and the manager quickly appeared with the wheelchair. Once inside, we were able to fairly quickly make our purchases and exit. At that point, we just wanted to leave the park, but it was 10 min before the start of the parade, so there was no way to get to the exit from the side we were on. We went to Sunset Blvd to get some fluids and some food, and then when we figured it was clear on Hollywood, we left.
The worst part about the medical situation, was the day before I had read about a medical in Diagon Alley. The person was praising the Universal TM's because in the 45 second or so, between when his party member said they were going to the bathroom but then had to abrubtly sit down, a TM had identified she was in distress, reached her and called for medical responders, and about 2 minutes after that, the responders had reached them, and began escorting them out of the area. And it took the 3rd manager to properly assess OUR situation.
And to come home, and read that managers were intentionally telling people to effectively "cut" in line ahead of us instead of taking steps that would have improved our line situation. It's heartbreaking, because we've devoted a big portion of our hobby / vacation time and budget to Disney. And to see how Disney reacted in the middle of a deteriorating situation, surrounded by multiple layers of management was appalling. If the crowd had not become increasingly agitated, everyone was apparently happy with the situation of one line not moving for 30+ minutes, because the dollars were still flowing inside, albeit from a different group of guests. The biggest failure was identifying that there was a crowd flow issue in the first place. And once the proper people were clued in, other guests were still prioritized to have access before the people that had been waiting significantly longer. Disney failed at recognizing a medical situation.
I had planned on going back for the Fireworks and other entertainment, but right now, I don't feel like ever stepping back into a Disney theme park. Because I know that nothing will change. This unfolded in about 90 minutes, in a park's 12 hour day, and the dollars never stopped flowing. For the park, it was a blink of an eye, and in the middle of it, very few people were motivated enough to identify and solve the situation. Once it ended, it's out of site, out of mind. And I'm sure that in some corners, CMs were discussing how "unreasonable" we all were.
