Our first moonlight magic event tonight so not impressed

[Littlelulu01]

Was so excited for this special event tonight. We took a couple days off work, flew down here, got a cash room at grand Californian hotel.

Idk - we felt like we got invited to a party that was accidentally way overbooked. The letter and explanation of how we should eat a light dinner because we’d be getting credits? Ha! We’re going to bed hungry and we still have all of our vouchers- the lines were so long that we couldn’t even get anything to eat. We waited over an hour for guardians and over an hour for cars. Stood in line forever for a bottle of water to find out they were out.

I’m tired and hungry and disappointed. Will visit Disneyland tomorrow for a couple hours before we fly home. Not feeling very magical.

 

[holden]

Wow. That is so disappointing. I'd definitely express my thoughts to someone in charge. Not sure who that would be, but maybe someone here will know.

 

[heathpack]

We went. Rode Mater, Luigi, Toy Story, Carousel, incredicoaster, Radiator Springs Racers, and Webslingers, plus saw WoC. Our longest waits were Radiator Springs 35 min and Webslingers 30 min. Everything else was 15-20 min.

We ate corn fritters, popcorn, and poultry palace chicken boxes. We got free ice cream and drinks with an approx 10 min wait.

At the end of the evening however we had vouchers left and very few food places were open, the few that were had long lines. My husband stood in line 45 min to use up our remaining food vouchers buying 7 Cookie Num Nums for folks to take home.

For us, it was “ok”. But the kick in the teeth was that they were selling LIGHTNING LANES! Yes, they were still monetizing the perk for DVC owners and increasing wait times as a result! Also- I never received my tickets in the mail. I received multiple emails that it was still ok to go but no instructions as to how to proceed if you didn’t get the admissi materials. So getting in was a hassle, it involved multiple lines and cut into our park time. They mailed the admission media out so late, that it was still plausible ours were in the mail right up until the day of the event.

We brought some friends: one with her young daughter who is Disney obsessed. We rented them two nights at VGC in October and now they want to know more about owning. They are the perfect people to but into the new DVC tower at Disneyland Hotel. This event could have been great- short lines for everything, a time to enjoy the park without checking every wait time on your app. When our six year old guest dropped her half eaten Mickey bar, it would have been way more impressive to say “don’t worry, let’s get another one” instead of “do you want to wait 15 min in the ice cream line again or ride Toy Story?”. Not to look free ice cream in the mouth, but you can sway folks into a timeshare purchase with little things like that- set the tone that you’d be buying a luxury product that makes Disney visits easier and more enjoyable. Rather than one that has its own set of hassles.

Our other friend has recently moved to LA. She grew up in the Midwest and never had been to Disneyland or Disneyworld. She is the potential Annual Passholder type, and has money to spend in the parks.

Overall we had a good time and had no complaints from our guests. This event was not DVC hitting a home run from the enjoyment perspective, but for us it was a solid double. Good but not great.

 

[Wedgeout]

I feel it did well for what the event was intended, as an after hours perk. Had fun. I do think they missed a huge opportunity to show DVC to the regular guests there especially from the 5pm to early 8pm closing time. The DVC kiosk was empty, no signage in the park showing guests what this event was. Would have been a good time to promote the new VDH tower and DVC in general to increase California interested in purchasing a timeshare.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I just don't get waiting more than 5 minutes just to use a voucher you got for "free" anyway. We used 5 of them to eat dinner at Boardwalk Pizza at 7:00, and a couple more for some Lunar New Year stuff later in the evening. We got on Incredicoaster, Radiator Springs, Web Slingers, Soarin', Goofy's Sky School, Monster Mania, and Guardians, and that's what mattered most to us. Sure, I have 6 of 7 vouchers left (out of 15), but I think our time was better spent riding rides. The fact that people feel a desperate need to use every voucher is exactly why lines get so ridiculously long later in the night. People lining up and grabbing 5 or 6 popcorns (not in the souvenir buckets either), just to use some vouchers, means fewer people can even get ONE popcorn.

In the survey we just got, I DID say my major complaint was too few complimentary snack locations. Only four meant long lines for those, no doubt about it (but we just skipped those anyway).

 

[nalabear]

Almost sounds like D23 event folk were in charge of some of the aspects of the event

One would think at least the DVC kiosks were manned and spruced up during the day and then a sendoff during the cutover to generate excitement.

 

[Littlelulu01]

So glad some were able to get so much out of last night party. Perhaps we were in wrong place at wrong time during the party.

We’re now at the airport and I’ve had a little time to digest the party last night. Today at Disneyland we had zero issues. We had great food, no food lines, relatively the same amount of people in park yet no long lines for rides either. Granted we did purchase genie for rotr and used it lightening lane for 3 rides but we generally had little waiting, a pleasurable day, had excellent character and cast member interactions, and all this without doing the early morning entrance.

This made the lack of member magic last night more apparent. I would totally have understood if they advertised it as free entry to a park for a couple hours but they hyped it up as a magical event that it was not.

I left last night with a bad taste for Disney. So happy we visited the park today before we left because we are leaving town feeling love for the parks again.

A side note- we ate lunch today at the red rose taverne. Gotta say, compared to our recent quick service at grand Floridian, red rose taverne was miles better. Unlike grand Floridian quick service, today’s food was served hot, quickly, fresh condiments and clean venue. A shocker was it was also quiet and peaceful inside. My last burger at grand Floridian was cold, condiments were missing and when I asked for some they gave me wilted lettuce and the burger had to be pretty low quality beef because it had a bunch of bone chips in it.

Our food at grand Californian was also really good with great service. If nothing else the party got us to visit Disneyland parks for first time in years. We have wdw aps and so tend to skip California parks even though they are so much closer.

 

[D-Trick]

I agree that last night was not as "magical" as the events held in Florida. My 3 main gripes are:

• The lines were too long for the complimentary mickey and fruit bars, and this is all because they also distributed the free bottled drinks in the same spot. IIRC, Moonlight Magics at WDW have only 1-2 stations, but never have I had to wait in a line since it's only dessert. You pick up and go. Some locations yesterday, like by the Emotional Whirlwind, had two separate lines for the drinks and the dessert. Others, like by Little Mermaid or Cars Land, had a single line for any/all. I didn't get my first mickey bar until 1030pm. Very disappointing. Also as they ran out of drinks and they did not replenish, including the bottled water.
• No DJ dance party with characters. This is probably my favorite thing to do at MMs.
• The dollar value voucher system. They definitely made the mistake of saying to "eat a light dinner" but we successfully used our vouchers everywhere that we tried to use them. We spent most of ours at Corn Dog Castle and Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and ate pretty hearty meals... although we did have to pay the few dollar differences. The only problem? Thirst. When 8pm hit, we and everyone else were parched at the same time and we all looked for the same thing.

Indeed, the attraction lines were also longer than I was expecting, but I'm not complaining about that per say... personally I enjoy the special event stuff.

The night did end well with World of Color One. Crowds were sparse the closer you went so for the most part there was no overcrowding and a great view for everyone looking to watch. I keep my mouth shut on how I feel about the show though.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I agree that last night was not as "magical" as the events held in Florida. My 3 main gripes are:

• The lines were too long for the complimentary mickey and fruit bars, and this is all because they also distributed the free bottled drinks in the same spot. IIRC, Moonlight Magics at WDW have only 1-2 stations, but never have I had to wait in a line since it's only dessert. You pick up and go. Some locations yesterday, like by the Emotional Whirlwind, had two separate lines for the drinks and the dessert. Others, like by Little Mermaid or Cars Land, had a single line for any/all. I didn't get my first mickey bar until 1030pm. Very disappointing. Also as they ran out of drinks and they did not replenish, including the bottled water.
• No DJ dance party with characters. This is probably my favorite thing to do at MMs.
• The dollar value voucher system. They definitely made the mistake of saying to "eat a light dinner" but we successfully used our vouchers everywhere that we tried to use them. We spent most of ours at Corn Dog Castle and Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and ate pretty hearty meals... although we did have to pay the few dollar differences. The only problem? Thirst. When 8pm hit, we and everyone else were parched at the same time and we all looked for the same thing.

Indeed, the attraction lines were also longer than I was expecting, but I'm not complaining about that per say... personally I enjoy the special event stuff.

The night did end well with World of Color One. Crowds were sparse the closer you went so for the most part there was no overcrowding and a great view for everyone looking to watch. I keep my mouth shut on how I feel about the show though.

The DJ dance party was at Hollywood Backstage. When we walked by, Goofy and Max were there.

 

[crisi]

Was so excited for this special event tonight. We took a couple days off work, flew down here, got a cash room at grand Californian hotel.

Idk - we felt like we got invited to a party that was accidentally way overbooked. The letter and explanation of how we should eat a light dinner because we’d be getting credits? Ha! We’re going to bed hungry and we still have all of our vouchers- the lines were so long that we couldn’t even get anything to eat. We waited over an hour for guardians and over an hour for cars. Stood in line forever for a bottle of water to find out they were out.

I’m tired and hungry and disappointed. Will visit Disneyland tomorrow for a couple hours before we fly home. Not feeling very magical.

We had a similar experience five years ago at AK....it just really wasn't worth the effort - and this was pre-Covid.

 

[jo-jo]

Per person, what could you get with the vouchers?

We have only gone to one at Epcot about 5 years ago. I don't even remember, if there were vouchers or what. I remember getting a hot dog, chips and a drink (maybe a cookie, not sure). I'm not sure if you had a choice of anything else. That was at the Land building. And then the great ice cream hunt. We kept seeing people with mickey bar but had no idea where to get them. We did find them near Nemo ride. We thought we try the frozen ride. The line went on forever. It was almost a game trying to find the end of it. We didn't join the line.

 

[Sunnyore]

Per person, what could you get with the vouchers?

We have only gone to one at Epcot about 5 years ago. I don't even remember, if there were vouchers or what. I remember getting a hot dog, chips and a drink (maybe a cookie, not sure). I'm not sure if you had a choice of anything else. That was at the Land building. And then the great ice cream hunt. We kept seeing people with mickey bar but had no idea where to get them. We did find them near Nemo ride. We thought we try the frozen ride. The line went on forever. It was almost a game trying to find the end of it. We didn't join the line.

We were able to use it for almost any food items up to $10 per voucher. This means the lunar new year booths, the quick serve restaurants and even churro/popcorn carts. People were getting the new 100 wonder popcorn buckets with the vouchers. I did think the lines for rides were longer than expected and stated so in my survey. I was thinking it would at least be similar to extended hours but maybe it matters which park too. Free Mickey bars/drinks line all looked long but I don’t think I ever waited more than 5 minutes. But they did run out of stuff near the end though. Next time I would just spend my time eating and looking for rare characters and not go on any rides. I am a keyholder though so I can imagine people coming farther away would want rides. Overall my friends and I had a fun night.

 

[SL6827]

Sounds like Disney wasn't planning for all the vouchers to be used.

 

[D-Trick]

Per person, what could you get with the vouchers?

We have only gone to one at Epcot about 5 years ago. I don't even remember, if there were vouchers or what. I remember getting a hot dog, chips and a drink (maybe a cookie, not sure). I'm not sure if you had a choice of anything else. That was at the Land building. And then the great ice cream hunt. We kept seeing people with mickey bar but had no idea where to get them. We did find them near Nemo ride. We thought we try the frozen ride. The line went on forever. It was almost a game trying to find the end of it. We didn't join the line.

Just to be clear, the voucher system for Moonlight Magic is different at DLR and WDW.

DLR: you receive (3) $10 vouchers that can be used at any quick service dining or snack location. Each voucher can only be used for a single item. If the items costs more than $10, you either use another voucher (but forfeit the remainder) or you can pay the difference. Churros are $5, and when we tried to get two with one $10 voucher we were told it could only be used for one and we'd lose the remaining $5. Bottled drinks are complimentary (from the same mickey bar locations)

WDW: you receive (3) generic vouchers than can be used for any snack or drink item at select snack booths. As a rough guide, the vouchers could be used on any snack item that was part of the disney dining plan (as the menus still had the DDP indicators). Bottled drinks required the use of one of your vouchers.

 

[KPeterso]

Just to be clear, the voucher system for Moonlight Magic is different at DLR and WDW.

DLR: you receive (3) $10 vouchers that can be used at any quick service dining or snack location. Each voucher can only be used for a single item. If the items costs more than $10, you either use another voucher (but forfeit the remainder) or you can pay the difference. Churros are $5, and when we tried to get two with one $10 voucher we were told it could only be used for one and we'd lose the remaining $5. Bottled drinks are complimentary (from the same mickey bar locations)

WDW: you receive (3) generic vouchers than can be used for any snack or drink item at select snack booths. As a rough guide, the vouchers could be used on any snack item that was part of the disney dining plan (as the menus still had the DDP indicators). Bottled drinks required the use of one of your vouchers.

Interesting. I got 2 churros and was going to use 2 vouchers and the cast member handed one back and said I was better off paying the difference of like a dollar. So I added a drink. So I got 2 churros and 1 drink for only 2 vouchers. And then later I got the 100 Mickey head popcorn bucket and was able to use 2 vouchers to pay for it.

we left with 2 vouchers left. And we never did get any free ice cream or drinks. But that was ok. We had a fun night. Rode racers with das before park closed, Luigi’s, saw philharmagic, monsters inc, webslingers, toy story, little mermaid x2 (let us stay on and go around a second time), saw world of color.

 

[nalabear]

Was DAS in effect during MM?

 

[ehh]

Was so excited for this special event tonight. We took a couple days off work, flew down here, got a cash room at grand Californian hotel.

Idk - we felt like we got invited to a party that was accidentally way overbooked. The letter and explanation of how we should eat a light dinner because we’d be getting credits? Ha! We’re going to bed hungry and we still have all of our vouchers- the lines were so long that we couldn’t even get anything to eat. We waited over an hour for guardians and over an hour for cars. Stood in line forever for a bottle of water to find out they were out.

I’m tired and hungry and disappointed. Will visit Disneyland tomorrow for a couple hours before we fly home. Not feeling very magical.

We had a very similar experience and were also disappointed. We ended up getting bags of Chex Mix and Doritos at the GCH gift shop for 'dinner' that night. We were already going to be at VGC for these dates and got 'lucky' with timing, sorry you made a trip out of it and had a bad experience.

Cynically, it felt like the plan was to dilute the quantity of experiences with wait times everywhere. In reality, it was likely simply too much attendance.

 

[nalabear]

Curious -- for those that have gone to both MM locations in WDW and DLR along with Oogie Boogie -- how was the attendance comparatively?

 

[vacay77]

Curious -- for those that have gone to both MM locations in WDW and DLR along with Oogie Boogie -- how was the attendance comparatively?

I've never done MM at WDW but I just did the one at CA Adventure and I've attended Oogie Boogie and I'd say that I had a better experience at Oogie Boogie. Like the OP, I flew in for MM and I think it's more of an event for locals. Some of the ride/character lines for MM and Oogie Boogie can get long, but I waited less time overall for the rides during Oogie Boogie.

 

[KPeterso]

Was DAS in effect during MM?

We did not use it as we found most lines short enough. But I was told to go to an umbrella and they could get it set up for the party if needed.