Magic Kingdom Gift Shop Policy Fail

[EaglesfanNJ]

They were holding a MVMCP that evening and they had every right in asking you to come back another time to shop. If you would have walked up at 6:45 then most likely you could have walked right in but since you were 15 minutes AFTER they were clearing people out without a party pass, then you really have no right to complain.

6:45??? You don't say! You mean, take accountability for your vacation and don't try and bend the rules? Preposterous. Muse, it's easier to blame the giant.

 

[muse1983]

6:45??? You don't say! You mean, take accountability for your vacation and don't try and bend the rules? Preposterous. Muse, it's easier to blame the giant.

:lol: Of course it is!

 

[draybook]

After reading through all of the replies, one does have to wonder...



Thank you for not only reading the posts, but also for understanding them.

If others don't understand why guests would be surprised by their inability to make a purchase at a Main Street gift shop 15 minutes after a park's posted closing time, something that I'm sure many of us have done at some point during our visits, so be it.

So your colleague has no problem with it but you felt the need to bring it here for discussion? Are you bothered by it? And yet again you dismiss the fact that I've pointed out that 7pm is NOT the park's closing time. It's simply the end of the regular park hours. On a normal night you're free to shop after the PARK CLOSING HOURS. Am I articulating this clearly enough for you?

So what about the guests in the park who paid a full day ticket while party guests having paid a reduced ticket amount enter the park early and "intrude" on the time they paid for?

It's hard to "intrude" when Disney themselves tell people that entry for the event starts at 4pm. I remember hearing it on the tram and monorail as well as throughout the park before the event started.

 

[muse1983]

The party starts at 7pm, a party which people purchase a separate ticket for and your complaining that you're not allowed to stay in the park 15 minutes AFTER the party has started so you can shop....I don't understand the thought process of people sometimes...:shrug:

 

[Mickey_777]

What's the point of having special event attendee's wear bracelets then?

 

[muse1983]

What's the point of having special event attendee's wear bracelets then?

To make sure that people who didn't purchase an event ticket have left.

 

[Mickey_777]

To make sure that people who didn't purchase an event ticket have left.

Exactly. It's easy to see who's staying for the event and who isn't by just checking their wrists. Personally I think these bracelets are more for impeding people from getting back on rides and sipping on hot cocoa meant for the event guests. Not shopping. I say let them shop. Let them shop and be merry! Of coarse I have no say in the matter. Next subject.

 

[ddbowdoin]

Wow! That's exactly what I would have expected an entitled person (not you, but others.) to say. To minimize their role in the issue and to exaggerate other's roles.
If I understand you correctly you feel that it is wrong for Disney to shut out those who did not pay to stay later than 7pm from the shops, even though they were offered the opportunity to buy a ticket, and they were told the closing time before they went in, and they were told the closing time multiple times over the speakers. But because they ignored all of the signs and comments overhead they ought to be allowed to shop because Disney is losing money. Really? I hope you're not serious. Disney isn't going to miss that person's sale much. But by allowing people to stay in the shops later then it would create more chaos than they already have in trying to get people without a party ticket out of the parks. The best solution is to shut down all access and filter these people as fast as they can to the exit. Why should Disney worry about people that decide that "It's all about me" and let them shop at the last second? That person had 10+ hours to make their purchases but they want to wait until the last 30 minutes and you think Disney is wrong? LOL Good luck selling that one.



The festivities do not start until 1AM?? Where did you read that? The party "festivities" start at 7pm

That was a typo, I meant to say 9PM... which is also wrong :shrug::brick:

 

[Timekeeper]

The party starts at 7pm, a party which people purchase a separate ticket for and your complaining that you're not allowed to stay in the park 15 minutes AFTER the party has started so you can shop....I don't understand the thought process of people sometimes...:shrug:

No, no, no. :brick:

Anyone who read the entirety of the relevant posts understands that the guest in this situation has no complaint whatsoever about "not being allowed" to do this, or that, or the other thing. Disney's rules are Disney's rules. Period. Instead, her complaint is (essentially) that Disney did nothing to sufficiently put guests on notice that they would not be permitted to do something that guests are typically permitted to do over 90% of the time, and were in fact being permitted to do in the other three parks on that same evening; that is, purchase items at the gift shops on the way out of the park. If she felt entitled to be an exception to a rule, she would have put up a fuss. Instead, she left. Done.

I know that this was made clear because a couple of people above correctly reiterated this point. There's no "trick question" here, there aren't any hidden Mickeys ...just a "hidden" policy that in all my years of carrying an Annual Pass, even I was unaware of. And based on earlier posts in this thread, others were apparently unaware of it too. I thought it was worth sharing. If all of the Disney experts on this board already knew about this policy, great. We didn't.

 

[disneyrcks]

No, no, no. :brick:

Anyone who read the entirety of the relevant posts understands that the guest in this situation has no complaint whatsoever about "not being allowed" to do this, or that, or the other thing. Disney's rules are Disney's rules. Period. Instead, her complaint is (essentially) that Disney did nothing to sufficiently put guests on notice that they would not be permitted to do something that guests are typically permitted to do over 90% of the time, and were in fact being permitted to do in the other three parks on that same evening; that is, purchase items at the gift shops on the way out of the park. If she felt entitled to be an exception to a rule, she would have put up a fuss. Instead, she left. Done.

I know that this was made clear because a couple of people above correctly reiterated this point. There's no "trick question" here, there aren't any hidden Mickeys ...just a "hidden" policy that in all my years of carrying an Annual Pass, even I was unaware of. And based on earlier posts in this thread, others were apparently unaware of it too. I thought it was worth sharing. If all of the Disney experts on this board already knew about this policy, great. We didn't.

Maybe the guest in this situation was not complaining but it sure seems like you are :brick:

 

[EaglesfanNJ]

:brick:

I've got to go... It's almost 5:15 here on the East Coast... I need groceries and the store closes at 5.

It's reasonable to think they'll let me in right? :animwink:

 

[marni1971]

Don't they make 2 or more park wide PA announcements?

Hard ticket event is just that. As the signs outside says the park closes at 7.

Ambiguous maybe, but both sides could argue the toss.

 

[s8film40]

I don't see this so much as complaining about not being able to do something, but rather discussing a policy that Disney chooses to implement. There are a lot of very valid reasons why Disney could do this differently and I can tell you from experience this does indeed catch a lot of people off guard and create a really negative experience for some average park goers. Saying simply that this is the policy and Disney has every right to enforce it contributes absolutely nothing to the discussion as the original poster stated this from the very beginning.

 

[PyroKinesis]

...create a really negative experience for some average park goers.

So the average park goer, someone who wouldn't know that much about Disney, would expect to be able to shop at the stores after the park closes?

 

[Timekeeper]

Don't they make 2 or more park wide PA announcements?

Hard ticket event is just that. As the signs outside says the park closes at 7.

Ambiguous maybe, but both sides could argue the toss.

We know that guests who are in an attraction, or even in an attraction queue, cannot typically hear PA announcements. If a guest is in an attraction that they're allowed to be in, we can hardly expect for a PA announcement to be sufficient.

As for sign, yes, a lot of people have mentioned signs and posted closing times. The thing that we need to remember, though, is that there were also posted closing times for AK, HS, and EPCOT on that same day, and to the best of my knowledge, guests were allowed to make purchases in their respective gifts shops while making their way out of the parks after the posted closing times ...because that's obviously the daily practice. I've seen the Main Street gift shops remain open for shopping well over one hour past the posted closing time.

If Disney went through the effort to make signs and post them around the park, it would not have cost them anymore to articulate that both attractions and shops would be closed, being that is the more unusual scenario from the norm. (The "usual" scenario being that shops remain open beyond the posted closing time.)

I would hope that a day guest exiting Big Thunder at 7:20 (due to the standby wait time) would not be denied access to a restroom between Big Thunder and the park main gate, but who knows. That just doesn't seem very "Disney" to me.

 

[PyroKinesis]

The thing that we need to remember, though, is that there were also posted closing times for AK, HS, and EPCOT on that same day, and to the best of my knowledge, guests were allowed to make purchases in their respective gifts shops while making their way out of the parks after the posted closing times ...because that's obviously the daily practice.

Do you know why they were allowed to purchase stuff in those respective shops after closing time? Because there were no hard ticket events in those parks!

It's obvious the policy is that on hard ticket nights, you need to get out as soon as possible. I'm sure if we asked a higher-up CM they would relay this same policy.

 

[EaglesfanNJ]

We know that guests who are in an attraction, or even in an attraction queue, cannot typically hear PA announcements. If a guest is in an attraction that they're allowed to be in, we can hardly expect for a PA announcement to be sufficient.

As for sign, yes, a lot of people have mentioned signs and posted closing times. The thing that we need to remember, though, is that there were also posted closing times for AK, HS, and EPCOT on that same day, and to the best of my knowledge, guests were allowed to make purchases in their respective gifts shops while making their way out of the parks after the posted closing times ...because that's obviously the daily practice. I've seen the Main Street gift shops remain open for shopping well over one hour past the posted closing time. If Disney went through the effort to make signs and post them around the park, it would not have cost them anymore to articulate that both attractions and shops would be closed, being that is the more unusual scenario from the norm. (The "usual" scenario being that shops remain open beyond the posted closing time.)

I would hope that a day guest exiting Big Thunder at 7:20 (due to the standby wait time) would not be denied access to a restroom between Big Thunder and the park main gate, but who knows. That just doesn't seem very "Disney" to me.

All kidding aside... You hit the nail on the head though... People WERE able to make their purchases at their respective parks because, yes, that IS daily practice.

I think what you're failing to realize is that it was not an average day at MK. It was not just "daily practice" or "Status Quo" at the Kingdom that night. That's what people keep trying to tell you here Time. MK was the only park out of the 4 that had a special engagement. So you're comparing apples to oranges here.

It's beyond reasonable to expect MK employees to shut it down to normal park guests at 7 PM.

 

[s8film40]

So the average park goer, someone who wouldn't know that much about Disney, would expect to be able to shop at the stores after the park closes?

Absolutely that is correct go into any main gift shop in really almost any park anywhere right after closing and you will see this for yourself. It's just a part of general theme park operation anywhere.

 

[PyroKinesis]

Absolutely that is correct go into any main gift shop in really almost any park anywhere right after closing and you will see this for yourself. It's just a part of general theme park operation anywhere.

Ah, so you mean the average ignorant park goer then. When I go to an amusement/theme park, I leave well before closing, because I actually have respect for the employees.

 

[s8film40]

It's beyond reasonable to expect MK employees to shut it down to normal park guests at 7 PM.

It's also just as reasonable for them to leave them open after 7PM. The gift shop isn't an exclusive part of the party.

It's already been established and we all understand why they are doing this and the person described in the first post understood and accepted this as well. The real question to this though is why not leave it open a little later, maybe not the usual full hour but a half hour or so to give those on the way out a chance to pick up something real quick if they want.