Disney Angering Fans With Mickey Memories And New Parking Charges
News 18-Mar-2018
Disney are really ticking off their fans this week. Firstly, they announced that they were taking away the free resort parking for guests staying at a Disney resort and now charging for it (up to $24/night). Any post they make on social media (on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) all comments seem to be people expressing their disgust and this apparent money grabbing move no matter what the post is about. Are they listening or even care? Who knows. The Disney World Facebook page has been flooded with 1 star reviews, too.
Secondly, they are receiving huge backlash over their beautiful Mickey Memories collection. Today marked the 3rd in the collection, and the plushies sold out in less than 2 minutes. Many, many fans didn't get chance to buy one, and some even reporting they were cut off while in the middle of making the payment saying they had all gone. Even people who have a Disney store near them are telling me they have no more than 50 in each store, and there are huge queues waiting outside before opening.
The February Mickey Memories sold out in record time, and the same negative outbursts happen then, but you could buy up to 20 of them. Disney did listen and reduced it to 2 per guest, but that didn't seem to make them last any longer this month.
The store page for the plush amusingly says:
Limited to 2 per guest, 4 per household for the first 48 hours after release.
They don't last 5 minutes let alone 48 hours! In response to this, fans have taken to social media to express their outrage. Disney usually make a Facebook post promoting the fact the new Mickey Memories plush is available, but hasn't at all this time. Although their visitor posts are full of angry fans. People are also leaving 1 star reviews, and their average score has been reduced from 3.6 to 3.4 due to this.
I'm sure Disney are happy they have a collection which is selling really well and geting fans excited and passionate, but all its doing is pushing people who are not fans to buy as many as they can to resell on Ebay for profit, and angering the legitimate fans who can't get their hands on one.
In this age of social media, companies cannot quietly get away with anything like this without repercussions. I'm not sure what the solution to this Mickey Memory problem (other than the obvious MAKE MORE, but they don't seem to want to do that), so it will be a fight for those who want to keep collecting. This is only reply I can get out of Disney:
"... Mickey Mouse Memories Soft Toy has sold out and won't be re released as only a limited amount were produced. Please stay tuned for next month's release in the next few weeks. Apologies for any disappointment caused."
