Social Media turning on Disney's Magic Key?

[tarheelalum]

Yesterday in the social media world, one that Disney has enjoyed countless hours of free press for years, started to take a rare turn against TDA's new Magic Key program. I casually watch social media related to Disneyland from time to time and it's clear the pressure is coming to a head as of late. These social media types are normally ridiculously positive concerning all things Disney all of the time but Adam the Woo who has over half a million followers on YouTube states in the video below he regrets buying it. But even in his critique he is apologetic. But it appears Disney's scam, aka Magic Key, is turning out to be a ridgid self-serving flop for Disney, at least in the eyes of some of its greatest promoters. I could not be happier that anyone in social media takes a well deserved jab at the greedy mouse. Hopefully more will follow suit.

https://youtu.be/Df1at_4TX1E

Even David from Fresh Baked Disney thinks the Magic Key, " sucks to have to work so hard to make reservations". Go to 7:00 of the below video to listen to how much he dislikes it in a rare moment where even Disney's biggest promoter shares his discontent. Hopefully others will share their feelings on social media so the pressure increases to get rid of this rip off and hopefully Chapek can go with it.

https://youtu.be/oBtG6SrGnrE

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

I think people are rightly peeved at the program. Even if there are plenty of one-day reservations available, sometimes the Magic Key reservations are filled up for even the highest tiers. Sometimes Disney is able to call in enough cast members to handle the crowds, but other times they don't. (And remember, Chapek loves the reservation system because it helps make sure he never overstaffs the parks again).

It all depends on where Disney goes from here. If they make improvements to the system over time and offer more freebies, most people will accept it as improvements on the status quo. But if Disney decides they can open up more reservations with fewer cast members, and things become more difficult over time, you can bet people will leave the program. It might not be super visible when the Disney bloggers and vloggers are always there, but the regular joe who opts not to renew (like I did) will unfortunately be lost until things improve.

[Stormy]

I get the frustration on having days booked out. But how many of those reservations are from their fellow M-Keys booking out future dates simply because 'they may want to go' but don't really have firm plans? It's got to have a snowballing effect.

Tourists and even locals with 'regular' tickets book specific days because they know those are the days they will be there. They don't have the luxury of snatching up every Friday for 2, 4, or 6 weeks in advance on the off chance they may decide to go. M-Keys are being their own worst enemies. If they used the reservation system as it should be used (when they have firm plans) I have a feeling the number of booked out days would drop dramatically.

[Captain Andy]

While it's telling that hardcore Disney vloggers are now voicing their discontent, it's minuscule still compared to the amount of good press Disney receives via TikTok, a leading social media platform. You could scroll for hours and see no real criticism... It took a couple of days before I scrolled upon a video rightfully criticizing the company for not running the outdoor trams, but packing people into their stifled buses.

Specific to the Magic Keys, if anyone had any experience with the Flex, the truth was right in front of us. I think Signature pass holders were blinded by FOMO when they purchased these new memberships, and they didn't do any research when it came to Flex reviews and experiences. As I mentioned in previous posts, pass holders were going to experience some growing pains if they hadn't previously purchased a Flex pass. As an ex-Flex AP, I knew that the reservation system would get clogged up by the number of people who were now part of the system, and the so-called "deal" was not a deal at all -- in fact, it was an upsell.

I think Disney is still safe despite the criticism, because unfortunately the criticism is not loud enough, and these same people who complain have already laid their money down. Maybe we will see real feedback next year, but for now, Disney has the cash.

[Mr Wiggins]

"The Yield is strong with this one..."

[Eagleman]

Yesterday in the social media world, one that Disney has enjoyed countless hours of free press for years, started to take a rare turn against TDA's new Magic Key program. I casually watch social media related to Disneyland from time to time and it's clear the pressure is coming to a head as of late. These social media types are normally ridiculously positive concerning all things Disney all of the time but Adam the Woo who has over half a million followers on YouTube states in the video below he regrets buying it. But even in his critique he is apologetic. But it appears Disney's scam, aka Magic Key, is turning out to be a ridgid self-serving flop for Disney, at least in the eyes of some of its greatest promoters. I could not be happier that anyone in social media takes a well deserved jab at the greedy mouse. Hopefully more will follow suit.

https://youtu.be/Df1at_4TX1E

Even David from Fresh Baked Disney thinks the Magic Key, " sucks to have to work so hard to make reservations". Go to 7:00 of the below video to listen to how much he dislikes it in a rare moment where even Disney's biggest promoter shares his discontent. Hopefully others will share their feelings on social media so the pressure increases to get rid of this rip off and hopefully Capek can go with it.

https://youtu.be/oBtG6SrGnrE

HAPPY- Since Capek......There one Bad Press after another....
Just following the most other poster's ,here on Mice Chat........share discontent ,who got the KEY AP's
They not alone...........there many other's out there !
YES= social media takes a well deserved jab at the greedy mouse. Hopefully more will follow suit.
and I share there Will !
For there MANY Issue than The AP's program.........

I AGREE
IMO

[Eagleman]

"The Yield is strong with this one..."

Sorry....IMO
This man needs to know were EXIT sign is.......and go out the door!

[ravencroft]

Adam the Woo expresses buyers remorse: https://youtu.be/Df1at_4TX1E

My opinion is that the popularity of Disneyland is the reason. Management has no choice and the global pandemic both forced them to make changes and allowed them to make the change. #NewReality

[tarheelalum]

Adam the Woo expresses buyers remorse: https://youtu.be/Df1at_4TX1E

My opinion is that the popularity of Disneyland is the reason. Management has no choice and the global pandemic both forced them to make changes and allowed them to make the change. #NewReality

They were making an, "embarrassment of riches" under the old way. They totally had a choice.

[Eagleman]

They were making an, "embarrassment of riches" under the old way. They totally had a choice.

I AGREE
Disney -always have choice, how to take care of there Consumer !
But Leadership ,rather be over line of Creed.
In this case with the key AP'S program ,
I do not buy in pandemic concept......
For this Company been on the wrong road of Creed ,for many years before the pandemic !
IMO

[ravencroft]

They were making an, "embarrassment of riches" under the old way. They totally had a choice.

You don't think the state of California told theme park operators that Disney needs to control how many people are allowed on the property?

[Mr Wiggins]

You don't think the state of California told theme park operators that Disney needs to control how many people are allowed on the property?

The State of California didn't tell Disney to turn a day at Disneyland into an exercise in frustration with a convoluted reservation system. The State of California didn't tell Disney to slash DLR products and services to the bone. The State of California didn't tell Disney to pay new employees so little and treat established employees so poorly that the parks went understaffed. The State of California didn't tell Disney to not provide tram service. The State of California didn't tell Disney to not properly clean its bathrooms. And the State of California didn't tell Disney to pay obscene amounts of money to its executives.

[ClownLoach]

You don't think the state of California told theme park operators that Disney needs to control how many people are allowed on the property?

The State of California established how many people are allowed on the property one building at a time. It's called a fire code. And the actual fire code capacity of Disneyland is far beyond anything they would ever allow in the parks, in fact far beyond anything they physically could provide parking for on all of the lots combined. Full capacity would have 3 hour entry lines that reach the parking garages. The fire code capacity is far beyond 100K just for DL itself and they will never let that many people in because it would be impossible gridlock, sales in stores would be next to nothing and they would be shoplifted out of business. (Sorry but I've interviewed Disneyland Loss Prevention personnel and there is a lot more theft than you might think in the Happiest Place On Earth, but that's another subject). Remember that when a fire code is established they're just looking for a couple of square feet per person. Imagine if there was a person through every inch of the park, every two or three feet.

This is why Disney was laughing all the way to the bank when the state allowed a reopening with what looked like a low capacity percentage. All the COVID restrictions were based on percent of fire code capacities which were preposterously high. Since it is based on the fire code you were looking at 25% overall park capacity being more than they would have on the average pre-pandemic Summer weekend day. The only real limit when they reopened under the so called limited capacity was the fact that they had to implement social distancing. So Disney had to restrict attendance under social distancing far below the 25% number because the lines were taking over the walkways plus the waste of having to dispatch ride vehicles with only one family on them. Once social distancing went away so did any real "limit" on attendance from the government. The only limit is the one Disney has determined works best for their profits and it is far less than fire code capacity.

Remember again that a "packed" day at Disneyland may only be about 35% to 40% of the actual fire code capacity. The sharp pencil guys do know the point at which they start to sell less merchandise and make less money because they have too many people, have to staff too many Cast Members for crowd control, etc. During the times of 20% capacity limits most major big box retailers lined up customers to a far lower number for SALES DRIVING purposes - they figured out that if the customer had to wait in line they would likely do all their shopping at that Walmart or Costco - and average retail ticket skyrocketed. The outlet mall stores used to do these artificial capacity lines Pre COVID to drive sense of urgency and sales plus make the experience in the store less crowded. Nobody would wait in a line just to browse, shoplifting declined, and profits went through the roof. None of these stores were close to only 20% of true fire code capacities except tiny mall stores which are a bit of an anomaly as they usually had low capacity under CA codes due to the limited number of fire exits. Now that these lines are gone you're hearing stories every day about how shoplifting is through the roof because the career criminals hadn't been hitting stores previously due to the lines - they probably were running out of drug money.

If you want a better understanding of how crowding is an illusion at times just look at Main Street USA during fireworks and Pre parades. Everyone sits down and takes up far more space than what would be the fire code capacity. Then they ask everyone to please stand up and suddenly you realize that there is 75% more open space to pack in more people to watch the show (and that space is vacuumed up quickly). If the entire park was like that - every walkway - every ride queue - every store - every hallway and yes every bathroom stall - then they would be at the real capacity. They would need a crowd control Cast Member about every three feet to run that way as you see in stadiums for example.

There is zero limit being set by California. You will start to see the tide turn more. Today all Virtual Queue positions were full at exactly, and I mean exactly 7:00:01AM IF you had a Magic Key. But not for paid tickets! They're already doing separate buckets for Magic Key vs Paid Daily tickets. I wouldn't be surprised if they are going to start limiting virtual queues to as few as a couple hundred Magic Key passes, plus 5,000 paid tickets or so in the hopes they can charge the rest of the Magic Key pass holders for Genie+/Lightning Lane access going forward to get more money out of them.

[Thumperrrrr]

The State of California established how many people are allowed on the property one building at a time. It's called a fire code. And the actual fire code capacity of Disneyland is far beyond anything they would ever allow in the parks, in fact far beyond anything they physically could provide parking for on all of the lots combined. Full capacity would have 3 hour entry lines that reach the parking garages. The fire code capacity is far beyond 100K just for DL itself and they will never let that many people in because it would be impossible gridlock, sales in stores would be next to nothing and they would be shoplifted out of business. (Sorry but I've interviewed Disneyland Loss Prevention personnel and there is a lot more theft than you might think in the Happiest Place On Earth, but that's another subject). Remember that when a fire code is established they're just looking for a couple of square feet per person. Imagine if there was a person through every inch of the park, every two or three feet.

This is why Disney was laughing all the way to the bank when the state allowed a reopening with what looked like a low capacity percentage. All the COVID restrictions were based on percent of fire code capacities which were preposterously high. Since it is based on the fire code you were looking at 25% overall park capacity being more than they would have on the average pre-pandemic Summer weekend day. The only real limit when they reopened under the so called limited capacity was the fact that they had to implement social distancing. So Disney had to restrict attendance under social distancing far below the 25% number because the lines were taking over the walkways plus the waste of having to dispatch ride vehicles with only one family on them. Once social distancing went away so did any real "limit" on attendance from the government. The only limit is the one Disney has determined works best for their profits and it is far less than fire code capacity.

Remember again that a "packed" day at Disneyland may only be about 35% to 40% of the actual fire code capacity. The sharp pencil guys do know the point at which they start to sell less merchandise and make less money because they have too many people, have to staff too many Cast Members for crowd control, etc. During the times of 20% capacity limits most major big box retailers lined up customers to a far lower number for SALES DRIVING purposes - they figured out that if the customer had to wait in line they would likely do all their shopping at that Walmart or Costco - and average retail ticket skyrocketed. The outlet mall stores used to do these artificial capacity lines Pre COVID to drive sense of urgency and sales plus make the experience in the store less crowded. Nobody would wait in a line just to browse, shoplifting declined, and profits went through the roof. None of these stores were close to only 20% of true fire code capacities except tiny mall stores which are a bit of an anomaly as they usually had low capacity under CA codes due to the limited number of fire exits. Now that these lines are gone you're hearing stories every day about how shoplifting is through the roof because the career criminals hadn't been hitting stores previously due to the lines - they probably were running out of drug money.

If you want a better understanding of how crowding is an illusion at times just look at Main Street USA during fireworks and Pre parades. Everyone sits down and takes up far more space than what would be the fire code capacity. Then they ask everyone to please stand up and suddenly you realize that there is 75% more open space to pack in more people to watch the show (and that space is vacuumed up quickly). If the entire park was like that - every walkway - every ride queue - every store - every hallway and yes every bathroom stall - then they would be at the real capacity. They would need a crowd control Cast Member about every three feet to run that way as you see in stadiums for example.

There is zero limit being set by California. You will start to see the tide turn more. Today all Virtual Queue positions were full at exactly, and I mean exactly 7:00:01AM IF you had a Magic Key. But not for paid tickets! They're already doing separate buckets for Magic Key vs Paid Daily tickets. I wouldn't be surprised if they are going to start limiting virtual queues to as few as a couple hundred Magic Key passes, plus 5,000 paid tickets or so in the hopes they can charge the rest of the Magic Key pass holders for Genie+/Lightning Lane access going forward to get more money out of them.

Wow. So we’re not getting our boarding passes during visit after visit even though we’re trying before/at 7am because we are KEY HOLDERS..?!

Count me in with the discontented crowd about these Keys.

Here’s the sad truth: All of this could be fixed by Disney, electronically. The language in the contract is awful concerning the restrictions Key holders COULD face. Contractual we do what we wants is pretty standard because the laws allow it. But Disney is straight up assing-out their Key holders by blocking them out using virtual reservation and queue caps. F that

[ravencroft]

This is why Disney was laughing all the way to the bank when the state allowed a reopening with what looked like a low capacity percentage.

Thank you for making my point. You seem quite knowledgeable about this business. I think you should work for Disney to help solve the *problem*.

[Thumperrrrr]

This is obviously a huge problem. I hope there’s steam in this engine. Disney is flat out wrong.

Disney needs make it right. Solution suggestion: don’t cap reservations for Keys. Period. Then, add the number of calendar days that this problem existed for each Key holder, and add those days beyond the expiration date of their Keys,,, extend the Keys at no cost.

[Thumperrrrr]

….and as a nice gesture of good will, upgrade every Key to Dreamer for that extension period. Bet they’d win over lower level Key holders to upgrade on renewal, and might even get upgrades from lower tier Key holders immediately.

[rld275501]

Not me, I really enjoyed it, Just went again for the first time since the pandemic with family on Monday, September 20th the crowds were so much lighter. This has to do with the Reservations, right? Or is the capacity still lower than pre-pandemic levels, and that is why? The only issue is digging through email and being expected to access the app on Disney Wifi. Not to derail the thread, but DisneyWifi is horrendous.

[Eagleman]

The State of California didn't tell Disney to turn a day at Disneyland into an exercise in frustration with a convoluted reservation system. The State of California didn't tell Disney to slash DLR products and services to the bone. The State of California didn't tell Disney to pay new employees so little and treat established employees so poorly that the parks went understaffed. The State of California didn't tell Disney to not provide tram service. The State of California didn't tell Disney to not properly clean its bathrooms. And the State of California didn't tell Disney to pay obscene amounts of money to its executives.

AGREE......
One Need to look at the - Big-Real Picture.........and Issue's.

[ClownLoach]

Not me, I really enjoyed it, Just went again for the first time since the pandemic with family on Monday, September 20th the crowds were so much lighter. This has to do with the Reservations, right? Or is the capacity still lower than pre-pandemic levels, and that is why? The only issue is digging through email and being expected to access the app on Disney Wifi. Not to derail the thread, but DisneyWifi is horrendous.

There are zero restrictions. Mondays through Thursdays unless there is a holiday it seems that most pass holders can get same day reservations if needed. That is because there is not nearly enough demand at this time. The parks being empty is because there are no conventions, big business trips etc. happening as most of those were postponed (by the planners choice) until 2022. Disneyland usually depends on tourists on weekdays to keep the park full and locals on weekends. Since the weekdays are so dead they had no choice but to bring back annual passes. Based on what PhotoMatt and others have said the original plan was to come up with a much more restrictive program to replace AP, but I think the ongoing lack of tourism and conventions forced Disney's hand. They would have been happier to keep having every person hand over $154 a day but the well was running dry.