The Soiree was obviously popular. People blindly threw money at it before they ever knew what it was or entailed, or who would even be there. That said,
@patrickpiteo must have turned a blind eye to city hall during his 2 parties or he went to parties towards the end of October where it was well known by that time what to expect at the party. As I said, I was at the Sept. 9 party. The line for refunds started early in the night and stayed long all night, well after the party had ended. Not everyone uses these messages boards and such and that would leave them unknowing of the changes/additions to the party. I still remember the message boards from the people that were edgy about what was happening because they were heading on vacation for late Sept. parties and such and they wanted to know how the changes effected things.
Videos from past BTY parades does NOT have the villains as the last float in the parade. This year they were. There were other subtractions as well (can't think of them off the top of my head right now), but the parade was shorter. The fact that Disney was unable to compensate for pulling villains (cause it's Halloween and that's who you pay to see at these things) by at least putting other ones in their places, well, they pulled a bait and switch on customers and the customers weren't stupid. They called them out on it right away.
Also, don't think that everyone WANTED to go to the Soiree. I didn't. I wasn't wasting what little time (4-12 is 8 hours, but with the flow of the party it goes quick) there was, to go to a 45 minute dessert party and pay $99/head to do it when the characters who were in it, were advertised to be OUTSIDE and there be no Soiree at all. That's a bait and switch.
As for
MVMCP, I think there are those of us in agreement that yes, Disney learned quickly. There were people lining up online and probably via phone to throw whatever insane amounts of money Disney wanted at them for a Frozen Soiree, but Disney doesn't have a solution for pulling Anna & Elsa at this time. Villains you can replace with other villains, the "hot ticket characters" Anna and Elsa, they don't have anyone that comes close to a fair replacement right now, so there would've been mass chaos and we'd still have lines at City Hall from those parties.
Disney needs to come back from all the $$$ to see that the customer experience is where all the $$$ comes from. If the customer has a good experience, they'll pay more, but if it's a bad one, the customer will pay less and in Disney's case, demand refunds, which were given. You can say the Soiree made up for it all you want, but again, as pointed out... There was not one at the MVMCP and it's been discontinued this year. The complaints outweighed the $$$ and the people with deeper pockets who were able to afford and get into, the soiree.
