Big Hero 6 Character Meet and Greet Review 

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Tagged: Big Hero 6, Disney, Disney California Adventure, Disney News, Disney Parks, Disneyland, Disneyland Resort

Published on November 09, 2014 at 2:00 am with 9 Comments

MiceChat staffer, Bob Hooper, visited the new Big Hero 6 meet and greet located in the old Tomorrowland Starcade on Friday. While he loved Baymax and thought the meet and greet was cute, the Fastpass implementation during the preview on Friday, November 7th, was a mess. Even with a valid Fastpass, he still had to wait over an hour. He shared the following photos which we thought you would benefit from seeing.

I got my FastPass at about 9:15 am, which had a return time of 11:25.

Got in line at 11:25 and stood in an unthemed queue for about an hour. When the gentleman who had assisted in check-in popped his head into the inner queue to ask how long I’d been waiting, I still had a ways to go and a few people behind me complained to him. He shook his head grimly and popped back out.

The character interaction was worth it, and the free backpack was a nice gift…upon leaving, there was a shelf of BH6 toys literally in the walking path. You had to go around it to get out.

A woman asked me how I liked it. From her accoutrements I could tell she was management. I said I loved it and guessed that they had been surprised at the success. She VERY ENERGETICALLY denied this. “Nope! We knew this would be big.” I clarified this with her, and she very firmly repeated that this was exactly how they’d planned it to be.

They planned for people to use FastPass only to have to stand for another hour? Seems like pretty poor planning.

Award Wieners already had themed food offerings ready to go.

Were you able to visit the Big Hero 6 meet and greet? Did you experience a long wait with your Fastpass? Was it worth it for you?

In better news, some of our staff have seen the film and loved it. This should prove to be an enormous hit for Disney. Move over Anna and Elsa, there’s a new hero in town.

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There are currently 9 Comments on Big Hero 6 Meet and Greet at Disneyland. Perhaps you would like to add one of your own?

Wow! FastPass for another character meet and greet? I guess that’s going to be standard practice from now on. I suppose it’s a good idea. Cuts down on hours and hours of waiting in line. But man…you’ll never see more angrier guests than the ones who show up and are told the return tickets are gone. Walk by the Frozen meet and greet and it’s common to see a guest screaming at the CM, almost to the point of physical violence.

And starting December 12th when Fantasmic goes FastPass only, those blanket toting “campers” are going to blow a fuse for sure.

They could solve this problem by having more “rooms” to meet the characters so you don’t have to wait so long. This is ridiculous! They “planned” this to be a burdensome wait for paying guests? I think Disney takes pleasure in torturing their guests with long waits. Makes it look like it’s a huge success.

Thanks for the idea! Your comment made me realize how ironic it is that these meet and greets always take place in the former carousel theater building, which was KNOWN for processing multiple people and scenes at once. Surely they could mock-up at least 3 or 4 rooms for the meet and greet, especially during the next few months of the film’s debut crush of traffic. I think a 15 minute wait would be just enough “build-up” but just tolerable too. Personally, there are very few actual rides I will wait an hour for, let alone a meet and greet.

On Saturday they got rid of the fastpass and it was just a wait in line to meet the characters. Line started when park opened but characters did not show until 10:30 am. Line went out the door and down by Space Mountain. Not sure you get all the characters. CM came by about 10 and said we were getting Hiro but maybe not baymax. Disappointing. But when 10:30 came, all the characters showed up. I was hoping they would and got my pictures. Line moves very slow with everyone wanting a picture by themselves with the characters. I was 10th in line and didn’t get done until 11:05. Maybe it should be a fastpass attraction.

That was the main reason the old Frozen standby line was 3-4 hours long. EVERYONE wanted to take individual photos. First with Elsa, then with Anna, then with both, then combinations of this person with that character, etc.

Because Big Hero 6 involves two characters as well, I’m sure that “practice” is happening. Very annoying, very time consuming. And unfortunately, the Character Hosts (and characters) can’t tell people to move along.

And I understand Big Hero 6 is supposed to have six – count ‘em – SIX main characters. This may be only the beginning.

Just go to the tire store and take a photo with the Michelin Man. No wait

Marko50, “Frozen” also has other main characters, but we all know who the two main ones are, and I think it’s clear that Hiro and Baymax are the “Anna and Elsa” of BH6. If their popularity as meet and greet characters continues, this might motivate the company to introduce some of the other characters to the park. That could actually help things. But then again, we need to keep in mind that this is the FIRST WEEK, actually one of the first days that these characters are in the park. Of course it’s going to be crazy, we’re all starved for something new. I have NO DOUBT that these characters will endure, but I don’t think it will always be as crazy as that first day.

Typical Entertainment department management response “No, we planned it this way!” Totally clueless.

This is a story about capacity. Entertainment is notorious for slurping up huge amounts of money and labor hours and resources to operate locations that only have the capacity to handle 100 to 200 people per hour. And that’s exactly the capacity of a meet n’ greet like this, 200 or less people per hour. In a Resort that routinely sees 75,000 or more people per day visiting the two parks.

Most major E Ticket attractions are designed for 2,000 or more people per hour. A few get over 2,500 per hour or close to 3,000 per hour (Small World, Pirates, Steam Trains). But Entertainment thinks they can get away with doing little meet n’ greets “planned” to handle only a few hundred people per hour. Again, they are totally clueless in Entertainment and are dealing in guest numbers that are miniscule for the real theme park industry.

You wouldn’t believe how few people can actually watch shows like Fantasmic!, World of Color, or the average parade. It’s not much more than a couple of good hours at a big E Ticket.

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