News Roundup: Reorganization & Disney World Capacity Still Capped at 25%?!
We’re back for another Walt Disney World news round-up! This one begins with a handful of smaller topics, including the delayed reopening of Coronado Springs Resort, an AP pop-up shop, and restaurant closure. From there, we turn to the ‘main event’ which is Disney’s corporate reorganization and CEO Bob Chapek’s ensuing television interviews that touched upon Walt Disney World park capacity.
First up, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort has had its reopening delayed from today until Friday (October 16, 2020). We assume this is either a matter of removing the NBA infrastructure or low weekday occupancy the first few days the hotel is open. In any case, we’d expect it to open for the weekend, when Walt Disney World hotels tend to be busier. The few dozen guests with check-ins today or tomorrow will probably be relocated to Caribbean Beach or upgraded to Deluxe Resorts if they push for it.
Next, a new Annual Passholder pop-up shop has opened at Der Teddybar in the Germany pavilion of EPCOT’s World Showcase. The AP pop-up shop will be open Mondays to Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to park close through November 17, 2020. It opened today to long lines and a virtual queue, but we’d expect some of that to die down over time…
This pop-up shop is exclusively for Annual Passholders and you will need to show your annual pass card and government-issued photo ID to enter. Once inside, Passholders will discover exclusive merchandise, new World Showcase products, and more. (There are already reports that a lot of this merchandise is 50% off.)
Annual Passholders should check the Walt Disney World AP Specials page for additional info. Walt Disney World also extended the 30% discount until October 29, so that should make for some good deals. (It seems likely that discount will be extended again into the holiday shopping season.)
As one thing pops up, another long run comes to an end. Wolfgang Puck Express has permanently closed at Disney Springs, after a long run that saw the location go from one of the few operating restaurants at Downtown Disney to one of dozens at Disney Springs.
We’ve praised Wolfgang Puck Express as a great value-for-money (or Disney Dining Plan credits) option, and also called it a hidden gem due to its tucked away location. Unfortunately, it would seem that proved a bit too literal; as development shifted away from the Marketplace side, the district’s dining scene was largely congregated on the exact opposite side of Disney Springs.
Next, the Walt Disney Company announced a broad structural reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses, in a move to ramp up and streamline its direct-to-consumer strategy. This involves the creation of the new Media and Entertainment Distribution group, which will oversee content monetization and streaming operations. It will also have sole profit & loss accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.
In addition to the new Media & Entertainment Distribution group, there will also be three creative groups responsible for producing content for film, television, and streaming services: studios, general entertainment, and sports. Under the reorganization, the top leadership at studios, general entertainment, and sports still remains the same.
Also remaining the same is Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, which is the theme parks division. It will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by Josh D’Amaro, who continues to report to CEO Bob Chapek. The broader implications for theme parks is potentially being deemphasized, but that wasn’t an explicit statement in the announcement.
“Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek in a statement announcing the reorganization.
“Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best–making world-class, franchise-based content–while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service.”
The impact seems to be more in separating monetization from creative responsibilities, consolidation, and emphasis than anything else. It’s essentially Disney signaling the importance of its streaming and other media businesses, and indicating further efforts will be taken by the new group in terms of distribution, sales, advertising, data, and technology functions for all of Disney’s content engines.
Thus far, Disney+ has been exceptional in terms of growth, but there are still questions about long-term profitability in the evolving media landscape. This has been underscored by the PVOD release of Mulan and upcoming regular Disney+ release of Soul. There are also lingering concerns about consumer retention; activist investor Dan Loebs called for Disney to divert the company’s annual $3 billion dividend to new Disney+ content creation.
I find the so-called streaming wars fascinating. I also really don’t think there’s much of a war at this point. There’s Netflix in a league of its own, Amazon buoyed by its Prime subscribers, and Hulu rounding out the big three. Pretty much everything else is niche. People reading this niche blog may disagree that Disney+ is a niche streaming service, but it is. At least, for now.
I worry about Disney focusing too much on streaming. I say this not just as a theme park fan who does not want those forgotten, but also as a long-time Disney fan who has witnessed spectacular boondoggles when the company emphasizes technology. From Go.com to Disney Interactive Studios to My Disney Experience, it’s been one costly failure after another. Disney+ obviously will not be a boondoggle, but it’s still concerning that a legacy media company with many successful divisions is putting so many of its eggs in the basket of a nascent streaming service.
Like the vast majority of American households, we watch more hours of Netflix than anything else. HBO Max would be next, although their stubborn refusal to release an app on the Fire Stick means we only watch that upstairs on the Playstation 4. Prime and Hulu follow that. After forgetting we even had it for approximately 7 months, Apple TV+ recently reemerged in the #5 slot for us thanks to Ted Lasso (highly recommended). We haven’t even opened Disney+ in over two months.
Ironically, pretty much the only content we watch on Disney+ is the stuff that literally could not be made right now without movie theaters: blockbuster action movies. There will undoubtedly be attrition in the movie theater industry, some of which was always inevitable and some of which is being accelerated by current events, but the simple truth is that Disney’s tentpole strategy is only viable with theaters plus streaming.
So either Disney will need to revisit its current approach and focus more on “singles and doubles” like during the Eisner-Katzenberg regime, find a way to coexist with theaters, or create more Disney+ original series. Literally all of these approaches are fine by us. We enjoy blockbusters but not to their current outsized extent, we prefer budget-friendly story-driven films, and like binge-watching shows on streaming services.
Speaking of which, we are looking forward to the Mandalorian and WandaVision, but otherwise the Disney+ original programming slate is significantly lacking. Keep in mind that those are only two (potentially) good shows in the span of a year–or half of what Netflix offers any given week. Perhaps that helps explain the restructuring?
Shortly after this announcement, Disney CEO Bob Chapek appeared on CNBC to discuss the reorganization. During that segment, he was asked about theme park attendance and capacity at Walt Disney World.
Chapek stated that Disney has kept attendance at Walt Disney World capped at 25% of total capacity in lieu of physical distancing requirements. He went on to indicate that this number has not and would not be increased, and these limitations will exist until the CDC and other health experts indicated that they were no longer necessary.
This is a bit disingenuous, but not surprising. Outside of CNBC interviews, Walt Disney World has denied that park capacity has been increased over the course of the last several months. Claiming that instead capacity had been reallocated from resort and theme park guests to Annual Passholders and Cast Members. Early on, this was definitely true.
In July and August, there was a ton of surplus capacity for theme park ticket holders and resort guests that went unused because capacity was not reallocated to APs. If Walt Disney World is at 25% of capacity now, it was probably at 10-15% most weekdays back then.
However, there have been dates in September and October when some parks were previously unavailable across all three categories of guests, and then became widely available. That couldn’t have been a reallocation–it was a refill. We crunched the numbers and, come to find out, if you have zero apples in your bucket, you cannot give any apples to someone else!
It’s unclear what kind of semantics shenanigans Walt Disney World is pulling to deny that park capacity limits have been increased. One thing is undeniable: a higher number of guests are entering all four parks this month than in July, August, or even September.
As is emphasized in our 40% Crowd Increase at Walt Disney World analysis or September, wait times and attendance were up across the board. While there is a disparity between posted and actual wait times, both are up. One way or another, attendance is up and has only further increased in October.
Even if you take Chapek at his word for some reason, it’s also worth pointing out that the statement about a 25% cap on attendance is pretty meaningless without additional information.
We don’t know if that 25% is of the pre-closure theoretical park capacity, or based upon post-reopening operational realities. It’s entirely possible that attendance is limited to 25% of pre-closure number, using the same attendance levels to determine phased closures that sometimes occur between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
There are some significant differences between a normal New Year’s Eve and right now. For one, a lot of things are not operating. Countless shows, restaurants, stores, play areas, meet & greets, and more all remain closed. Those would be a factor in determining a park’s normal capacity, but should be excluded now.
For another thing, attractions are operating at a fraction of their normal hourly throughput. Same goes for restaurants, stores, and more. This means that even what’s open has a lower capacity than normal. In short, EPCOT’s normal ‘full’ capacity might be 100,000 guests, but its current ‘full’ capacity might be 50,000 guests. Is the 25% limit of the former or the latter?
We don’t know the answer to that and never will, but my guess is that the math is fuzzy. Walt Disney World has reopened more restaurants and shops in recent weeks to help soak up the crowds, and each time that or a park hours extension occurs, more Disney Park Pass availability it released.
The bottom line is that the number of guests entering the parks has gone up each month since reopening. How Walt Disney World is justifying that while claiming capacity caps are the same is somewhat immaterial; they’re never going to pull back the curtain on those calculations. What’s important is that you know crowd levels and wait times have not remained static. They’ve gone up and will likely continue increasing until we reach a point where there is truly no ‘available space’ left to accommodate physical distancing. If you’ve visited recently on a busy weekend, you might argue that point has already been reached.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the closure of Wolfgang Puck Express, delay of Coronado Springs Resort’s reopening, or the pop-up AP store? What about the organizational changes to the Walt Disney Company? Concerned that this could mean stagnation for the theme parks, or think it’s a non-factor? Happy with Disney+ or wish more would be invested in content growth? Thoughts on the 25% capacity cap on attendance at Walt Disney World? Do you anticipate Walt Disney World will further ‘fine tune’ park capacity as appropriate? Will you be visiting Walt Disney World in late 2020? Do you agree or disagree with our advice and commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We were there from Sep 28-Oct 11. That second week was DRASTICALLY busier than the first. There’s absolutely no way that both weeks were operating at the Same capacity. No way! There was absolutely some sort of bump in capacity.
The first week was bearable and exactly what we had expected but I felt blindsided by the amount of people Disney allowed into the parks during our second week. I’m not a big stickler with social distancing and whatnot but there was no way to even TRY to distance in some circumstances. MK was shoulder to shoulder in a lot of the park.
Mask enforcement was very inconsistent and rules were taken out of context by some of the CMs. We felt harassed at times. The rules state that we must be stationary while actively eating and drinking. We 100% followed this rule only to have some CMs yelling at us from across the way while we ate and drank. We were told multiple times that we HAVE to be chewing and swallowing with our masks on. Not once have I read anywhere that this was part of the rules. I spoke with a group of management who confirmed that numerous CMs are taking the rules out of context and they are working on getting things consistent across the board. They also said that no, we don’t HAVE to wear our mask while chewing and swallowing. As long as we were stationary and following the distance guidelines, we were fine to eat and drink with masks off.
Between the heat, long lines, crowing in walking areas, CMs being rude and having to wear masks, it was just too much. My daughter and I had a horrible encounter with a man in line for a ride. I can’t imagine working in that environment right now. We really do feel for these CMs. Some guests were just horrible. I believe Disney is trying very hard to do what is best right now but we will be staying away until things calm down. There’s just no way they can maintain all these rules and add more people to their parks. They are in a very tough situation and for their sake I hope things get better with this virus.
**Adding that the resorts did a fabulous job and were very enjoyable. We stayed at OKW, Poly and Riviera. All were wonderful. We had a blast hanging at the pools. Kids were getting to be kids. I felt the Disney magic at the resorts for sure!
I’m confident the “25% capacity” is in reference to their full (Christmas-time) capacity. It’s something easy for them to define — they have well established capacity numbers on which to base it.
And that also explains why lines are starting to feel like normal crowd periods: Outside of Christmas, Easter, etc.. the parks typically actually operate at 50-70% of capacity.
So 25% is half of normal crowds. But with shows shut down, physical distancing requiring empty rows on rides… the park is only operating at half capacity. So you have half of normal crowds in a park operating with half the normal capacity…. which would make wait times pretty normal.
Tom, from one Muppet/Henson fan to another, give Earth to Ned on Disney+ a try, it’s delightful. Also, big Sonny Eclipse energy!
We left Disney Sunday after a week visiting. I was told by a few employees that the crowd was at 40 percent and I believe it. The weekend crowds felt the same as normal. Weekdays were much better. Disney Springs was packed. I understand Disney Springs was at capacity this past weekend.
We tried to get in this past Friday for a reservation and had to cancel because DA was at capacity!
My coworkers have asked for a full report of our trip as some are thinking of going to WDW for the holidays. We enjoyed it (a bad day at Disney is better than a good day anywhere else), but I will definitely be telling them that it isn’t worth it, not until something changes with the masks or the lines.
Motley Fool, of all places had an interesting article about this a couple of days ago. Using the Themed Entertainment Association guest figures from 2019 and an estimate of what each park’s legal capacity is they came up with analysis like Epcot on average entertained 31% of its capacity in 2019, so not very different from the 25%. The also had MK at 39% of capacity in 2019. I think Disney started with numbers way lower then 25% and have been bumping them up slowly but surely. Hopefully we truly have hit a peak of attendance for awhile.
I also think whatever that magical 25% calculation is actually based on, that they probably started at what they considered 5, 10, or 15% capacity in July and August out of an abundance of caution. They probably keep increasing capacity closer to that 25% metric. So both can be technically true, that they are quietly increasing capacity, and that capacity is still limited to 25%. A little disingenuous of a spin but not quite a lie. I’m sure they have the numbers to back it up if ever required to.
People should also keep in mind that 25% capacity doesn’t mean short waits. If they are at 25% capacity, and capacity is considered NYE levels, and rides are at less than 50% capacity, restaurants at less than 50%, there are no shows/fireworks, the hours are at 75% of what it was pre-pandemic… it will just feel like a normal day pre pandemic. Especially if we as a society are more sensitive to crowds or physical distancing (which we for the most part are). All things you’ve covered, but always worth re-iterating.
The family and I just spent a trip at WDW from September 28th through October 5th.
25%? Really Bob?
No way. Magic Kingdom felt as busy as it normally does with the typical bottleneck in fantasy land and the tangled restrooms. Hollywood studios was outrageous with wait times the same as pre-pandemic.
Epcot was out of control on the weekends, just as Tom has indicated. Stay away on the weekends. I’ve never seen so many drunk adults in my entire life. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but it did feel like I was in college again. My eight year old did ask a couple times why some people were having trouble standing up.
I’m concerned as well the focus and resources will be taken away from the parks and instead into the streaming service. Seems like Disneyleadership only has a 90 day view of the company’s future.
People love the parks. Period. Look at how busy it is these days.
We were there that week as well. We had gone on the trip with the mindset of “if it feels too crowded or unsafe, then we’ll leave”. While we almost never felt unsafe (Sunday afternoon at Epcot in the World Showcase was the only time we left because of the inability to social distance – and we would have LOVED the option to go to another park, Disney), we would often check the app for wait times and not find anything under 40 minutes. And this was throughout the week and between three different parks.
The BEST show on tv right now is Magic of Animal Kingdom. It’s interesting to see the animals and park operations and it makes me feel like I’m at Animal Kingdom.
Great watch- .
Erin, I would agree wholeheartedly, Magic of Animal Kingdom is a huge hit for Disney+, the show is engaging and dynamic in that it shows the “behind the scenes” view of cast members and how they relate to what we do not see when we go to the parks or resorts. Disney would do well to keep looking to shows that bring real world action to those who support their theme parks – it keeps the avid Disney traveler engaged when they can’t be at the parks and shows those who are thinking of traveling what they are missing. Disney and National Geographic partnering will see Disney gain viewers that they might have missed before and vise versa for Nat Geo. Disney + must continue to be aware of the lack of new content that they promised when launching. The Mandalorian is holding the streaming platform up while we wait for new content, however viewers will not wait forever. All in all, Disney + has done the general public a huge favor in becoming a viable source for entertainment in a rather mondain streaming world.
I have teens. They can care less about Disney+. And if you are saying there will no longer be any Disney movies in theaters, that is rubbing me the wrong way. For one, I think Disney should support those who had a part in their success. It’s just not the same watching a premier at home!!! Secondly, the constant fear-mongering and doom and gloom over Corona is getting old. I, too, am concerned about lack of attention to the parks, which….again….pose more risk. There is no way parks are at 25% unless you count the fact that there are so many things closed, it shoves the crowd in certain directions! So safety doesn’t seem to be the priority. Saving money is.
Good luck in prison!
I agree with Drew, I think your view of Disney+ popularity would probably be different if you had kids in the house. It is our number 1 go to – and even my tween loves all the series. I take it you haven’t watched HTMTMTS ?? Its all the rage for 12 year olds!
I only want Star Wars content if Jon Favreau is involved in its production! I hope part of the restructuring includes moving Kathleen Kennedy as far away from Star Wars as possible.
I don’t have kids and rarely watch old Disney films. If it weren’t for Mandalorian coming back on 10/30 I probably wouldn’t keep my subscription, which ends in November. Well played Disney!
As always, appreciate the solid Disney commentary, but great call on the Apple TV+ Ted Lasso shout-out. Under-appreciated show for sure.
Disney+ has nearly twice as many subscribers as Hulu at 60 million vs 35 million. Also Hulu is owned by Disney.
What metrics were you using for placing Hulu above Disney+?
I would guess Disney+ is probably second in terms of hours of content watch. Prime has 112 million subscribers, but I’m not sure many watch much Prime Video.
“What metrics were you using for placing Hulu above Disney+?”
Monthly hours watched per household.
That’s a useful metric since many of the services have large shares of free subscribers (via their mobile phone provider or other purchases) or those who prepaid for multiple years.
Do you have a good source for that? I have trouble finding anything. Of course, most streaming services understandably keep that information to themselves. But I would think someone like Nielsen would attempt to collect this information other ways.
In his original post, Tom linked to an article about Nielsen’s “Total Audience Report.” If you’re willing to jump through quite some hoops (including giving Nielsen your email), they break out April-June 2020 streaming minutes by percentage of the top 5 major brands:
34% Netflix
20% YouTube
11% Hulu
8% Amazon
4% Disney+
I suspect Hulu has more hours than Amazon because they have, and are known for, TV shows. One thing I think Disney’s restructure will do is help them leverage TV shows across distribution channels (TV networks, streaming, what have you). Keeping the streaming TV series and streaming movies separate makes more sense if the former are going to lead to more hours watched than the latter.
Thanks for posting that. That really surprises me given how many more subscribers Disney has.
Of course, watch ratings don’t matter nearly as much with streaming services as with legacy TV. In the old business model TV ratings were directly tied to revenue. In streaming the ratings only matter to retain subscribers and have no direct connection to revenue. Of course, low watch hours would logically lead to low subscriber numbers in theory. But maybe not in practice?
Yes, a lot of Disney’s subscribers come from the Verizon promotion, but Disney is still getting paid for those. And yes, another chunk is people who prepaid for multiple years, but if you prepaid for multiple years your likely committed enough to keep the service after that.
One thing that may be in play is people in my situation. I don’t watch Disney+ all that often, maybe once a week on average. But of all the streaming services it would probably be the last one I drop, because having access to their library is very important to me even if I don’t frequently watch it.
Based on the timing of this announcement my guess is the Mulan launch went very well (or at least not any worse than they had anticipated). This plan has probably been coming together for some time, but there’s no reason they had to go through with it. If the Mulan launch had been disastrous they could have scrapped the plan.
This is the end of theaters as we know them, they’ll become more like Drive Ins are now. That has been the future of movie theaters for quite some time, and the pandemic just hastened this. If Disney can launch feature films on Disney+ they’ll be thrilled. Even if the gross is significantly less than what box office would be, Disney still comes out on top. While we know movie theaters made their money from concession sales, a good chunk of the revenue from ticket sales still went to maintaining the theaters business and supporting all the infrastructure that goes along with it. Disney would love to control the entire process from content creation to delivery. Disney+ allows them to do this.
Without actual theaters, there is no point to making movies. Not with any real effort, anyway. The details, quality writing, acting, special effects, all are meant to be seen large on a screen. And no, the ubiquitous 65+” tv we all have is NOT a big screen.
i’m heartbroken over losing WPE. it was THE best QS menu and value on property, something for everyone, and was always our go-to on DTD day. the chicken, the pizza, the meatloaf. 🙁 was this a disney decision or a Puck decision?
We need to form a support group. LOL
You are missing some good content on Disney+. The new series about Animal Kingdom is good, the Imagineering Series plus lots of the old stuff. I’m not sure what you find on Netflix that is fit for a decent person to watch. It’s so far down my list I’ll probably unsubscribe.
Netflix has definitely fallen far enough I am probably going to unsubscribe soon. GLOW being cancelled was my last straw. I am likely to replace it with CBS All-Access, which I was getting for free and then at a reduced price. (I love my Star Trek)
I love the new Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom show. Other than Lower Decks, it’s my favorite current show on any of the services.
Personally, I watch Hulu more than any of the others. (Mostly for familiar, comfort viewing) Disney+ has taken over the #2 slot from Netflix. I would love to have HBO, but it’s too steep.
Thank you, JTK. Totally agree about so much questionable content on Netflix. It’s disturbing that overexposure to fringe things normalizes it to so many people. I’m so glad I usually don’t have to worry when I watch Disney. Worth every penny to me! And I don’t even have kids in my house!
I have literally no clue what you’re talking about with regard to Netflix, but there’s a wide array of content–from classic movies to documentaries–that is perfectly fine for all audiences. Whatever the questionable content is, you don’t have to watch it.
It’d be sort of like saying, “there’s too much fringe content on the internet, so I’m not going to use it.” That’s one approach…but not looking at the fringe content seems more reasonable to me.
I understand what you’re saying, but it wasn’t an ordinary quick service place. Yeah, you gave your order at the counter and got your first drink yourself, but after that it pretty much became a regular sit down restaurant. They brought your utensils, brought you your food, brought you drink refills, so tipping wasn’t really unreasonable. But it’s gone, or soon will be, so a moot point. To bad you didn’t try it, the food was head and shoulders above other counter service places.
I’ve been to WDW three times since August and each visit was noticeably more crowded. It’s annoying to pay over $100 day for tickets to a park that closes at 6nor 7pm then have to wait in long lines and not get to see shows or fireworks. Do you think Disney will bring back shows and fireworks for the Holidays? I’m already dreading those crowds!
“Do you think Disney will bring back shows and fireworks for the Holidays?”
I hope they bring back at least one stage show to DHS (no inside info there–just a hope) but highly doubt we’ll see any nighttime spectaculars until Spring 2021 at the earliest.
One thing I’ve found interesting about Disney+ is how much my kids love it. I don’t think I’ve really watched it after the Imagineering Story or the Mandalorian, but it’s our kids go to now (they pick it over Netflix every time).
To your point you could call it niche, but it rapidly became their favorite service.
Re: crowds we are getting closer and closer to our dates and I feel like we have no idea what to do. I would love to give my kids a trip to their favorite space, but it’s so hard to figure out with how dynamic crowds have been. Please keep your reports coming!
“To your point you could call it niche, but it rapidly became their favorite service.”
Until there are regular series releases of Marvel, Star Wars, and other (non-documentary) high-profile content, I’d consider “small children who will watch the same movies or shows over and over” a niche. It’s a big demo for Disney, but still not enough to make Disney+ competitive with Netflix.
Our #1 streaming go-to is Amazon Prime. 2nd is Disney+ and 3rd is the Cartoon Network. Netflix was great for awhile, but it keeps getting rid of things we loved to watch to make room for things we don’t. I can still find my oldies but goodies (all the seasons of Monk, for example) on Amazon Prime. My kiddo loves the horror genre & finds more on Amazon, too. We used to have both Hulu & HBO Max, but don’t anymore. They just weren’t worth the cost for what they offered.
So I’m glad to see Disney+ doing so well. I can always find something to watch there & so can the kids. You may not agree, Tom, but there’s nothing like ending your day with a Johnny Depp/Capt Jack Sparrow marathon!
“You may not agree, Tom, but there’s nothing like ending your day with a Johnny Depp/Capt Jack Sparrow marathon!”
I love Captain Jack–even the later films that didn’t review as well are a lot of fun.
…but how late are you staying up if you’re “ending your day” with a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon?! 😉
Wow! Wolfgang Puck Express in the Marketplace was our favorite counter service place in all of WDW. Bacon wrapped meatloaf was my go to, but I have never had anything bad there. Many of the closures or changes in the past few years have been disappointing to varying degrees, but this one really hurts. We have had a few non-Disney trips to Orlando trips to Disney over the years, but WPE Marketplace was someplace we ALWAYS went… at least once. This is gut-wrenching.
We always spend all of our time in the Marketplace when we visit Disney World/Disney Springs. Unfortunately, though, we never dined at Wolfgang Express. It wasn’t the location that turned us off, it was being required to tip at a quick service restaurant where you order at the counter. We never carry cash, so this just didn’t fit in with the dining plan paying for the meal.