However, when the story broke on Monday about no standby line at Toy Story Midway Mania this week, and that only FastPass+ (FP+) reservations were being honored, I wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents. Spoiler alert: Disney World dropped the ball.
If you haven't read the story, or heard about it, check out an article HERE from the Orlando Sentinel. The basic gist is - - this week, October 6-11, they are ONLY allowing FP+ holders to ride on Toy Story Midway Mania (TSMM). There is no standby line. According to the other Disney World fan sites, this could be a test to see whether only allowing FP+ on some of the more popular rides is feasible. Another idea floating around is that Disney is adding a 3rd track to TSMM and wants to measure traffic and guest use on a more popular ride. Disney has said they are issuing additional FP+ onto their My Disney Experience site to allow more guests to ride this week, but as of this writing I can't tell you how successful that has been, or if people are able to get FP+ at the eleventh hour.
I can understand Disney thinking that they don't want people waiting in 3+ hour lines at some of these popular attractions. That's bad for guests (who would rather be doing other things, than wasting their life in lines) AND bad for Disney (who wants guests out spending money on food, merchandise, etc.). And kudos to them for trying to come up with a solution to shorten wait times. I can also understand needing to measure guest traffic if they are thinking of adding a 3rd track to this attraction, thereby allowing more guests to go on at once.
However....why TSMM, which is arguably the most popular ride at Hollywood Studios? And, perhaps most importantly - WHY did they not announce this BEFORE today?
I feel bad for the guests, who have spent a good chunk of change to come to Disney World, and cannot ride one of the most popular attractions on property unless they got a FP+. A FP+ that, by the way, they had to get at 60 days out. (This bringing up another point of tension with guests - that increasingly, we are being asked to plan every nuance of our trip far in advance.)
I feel bad for the front-line cast members, who this week get to deal with really angry guests, many of whom undoubtedly will not have heard of this update unless they follow a Disney fan site or are as obsessed with Disney as some of us are. Imagine 200, 300 times a day, having to say to someone as they come strolling up to get in line, "Sorry, we're closed" and dealing with that backlash all day long.
Of course, any time that Disney makes changes some people will be upset. That's the nature of the beast - they are never going to make a decision that will be popular with 100% of their visitors. But COME ON. Pick an attraction that is not *quite* so popular. Pick a time of year that is not crowd-heavy.
Or for the love of all that is good and holy - PLEASE give us a head's up.
It reminds me of something my parents used to say to me when I was younger. Before they would go to Back to School night, or conferences, they would ask us kids - before I go there and talk to your teachers, is there ANYTHING you want me to know now? Because it's going to be a heck of a lot better for you if I know beforehand, vs getting blindsided by the fact that you're failing geometry or you've had detention the last four days.
Would people still be upset and annoyed? Sure. Would it be all sunshine and unicorns? No, but at least people would know before their vacations, vs the day of. Better for Disney, better for the guests.
Unfortunately, Disney is notoriously bad at dispensing information, and giving people (including travel agent people) a heads-up as to changes and updates. Often we find out the information when you do; we all dream of a day when we get information at least a few hours or days before our clients. If it weren't for fan websites and blogs, quite often we would not know of changes or new information. So that begs the question - what if you're not someone like me, whose Facebook news feed is approximately 80% Disney information? What if you hadn't read the news being broke on Facebook today by fan sites, and NOT by Disney? I guarantee you there are droves of people walking up to TSMM yet this morning, ready to ride, and have no idea that it's not open this week.
If you're at Disney right now (or are arriving this week) and being affected by this, what can you do? First, please be kind to the cast members. They are not making the rules, they just get the unfortunate task of having to pass them along. Being rude or nasty to them does nothing, and makes you look like a lunatic to boot.
Second, write Disney an email, talk to Guest Relations at the park and/or ask to speak with a manager at your resort. They will pass along your comments and even though they will not be able to change it or fix it for you, making Disney aware of our dissatisfaction is VERY important. If you happen to get an e-mail invitation to an online survey once you get home, be sure to fill it out and write about your experiences and how this affected your trip.
The only way that fiascos like this will get corrected and (hopefully) not happen in the future is if everyone makes their opinions known. I am hoping that Disney gets an avalanche of comments this week that will give them pause before doing this in the future.
What are your thoughts on unannounced closures like this? If you were in charge, how would you handle it?
No comments:
Post a Comment