Has the Global Supply Chain Crisis Impacted Disney World? Here’s What We’re Seeing

You’ve likely noticed the shelves at your local stores looking emptier than usual over the past several months. The global supply chain crisis has resulted in dwindling stock across a wide variety of industries, resulting in your favorite items potentially being low in supply.

While this may be resulting in low inventory in your hometown, has the global supply chain crisis impacted Disney World at all?

While Disney itself has not come out with any sort of statement regarding how the global supply chain crisis has impacted its operations, there are a couple of observations we have made over the past few moths that indicate the parks could be impacted.

In the fall of 2021, Beverly Sunset Shop in Disney’s Hollywood Studios closed its doors, citing low inventory. At the time, we were told by Cast Members that the store would hopefully reopen in a couple of months.

While we’ve seen Disney World merchandise appear in Disneyland and vice versa over the years, it’s usually few and far between. But we have noticed Disneyland products showing up on the east coast more and more.

There are several other signs that the global supply chain crisis could eventually impact Disney World’s food service. We learned that chicken tenders were in jeopardy of running low in supply nationwide, though as of this writing we have not seen a direct impact on the parks’ inventory.

In general, food operations at Disney World seem to be stable. Supply was limited initially when the parks reopened in July of 2020 due to social distancing measures and limited operations overall. But the global supply chain crisis, if it is impacting Disney, hadn’t seemed to reach the shelves of their gift shops until just recently.

Perhaps the most glaring example of the supply chain issue impacting Disney World has been felt at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Over the past few months, we had noticed that some of the legacy lightsabers would come in and out of stock, but nothing major.

In recent days, we noticed that Galaxy’s Edge was running low on the carrying cases that guests would receive along with their custom-built lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop. The $220 experience typically includes the case with the cost of building the lightsaber, but Disney changed the policy due to the shortage.

Now, guests had to pay an additional $50 at Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities if they wanted a carrying case for their lightsaber — otherwise, guests would be given a plastic bag for the lightsaber on the way out.

Since this first happened, Disney has offered guests impacted by the shortage a 10% discount off the experience (which is $219.99) until the carrying cases are back in stock — but the upcharge for the carrying case remains as of this writing if you still wish to purchase one.

More recently, we noticed that the cardboard box carrying cases given out at Droid Depot were also out of stock. Instead of the box, guests would receive plastic shopping bags to place their newly-built droid in at the time of purchase. Note that as of this writing, Droid Depot is not offering any discount from the lack of carrying box availability.

We will of course keep a close watch on the continuing crisis into the new year, and we will let you know if we hear of any additional updates or announcements!

How much does a day in Disney World cost with Genie+? Click here to find out!

Are you planning a Disney World vacation for 2022? Let us know in the comments!

Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!

Comments (1)