Nothing quite compares to having the luscious scent of melted chocolate lure you into the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop at Disney Springs. Upon arrival, you’d be greeted by a Cast Member offering seasonal chocolate samples, be it Peppermint Bark at Christmastime or Pumpkin Spice during, well, pumpkin spice season. Well, that has all but come to and end! That’s right, Ghirardelli is no longer offering samples at the door of their Disney Springs location (or any other location, for that matter.)
We went in to investigate and lo and behold, no greeter… and no chocolate. While you can still ask Cast Members for samples, it definitely takes away from the overall Ghirardelli “experience.” For many guests, passing by for a sample chocolate square made this store a sort of attraction in and of itself!
What do you think about the removal of the greeter position and the free chocolate samples?
Makes sense. Free and Disney never went together. That said, Disney Springs is the BEST property on WDW, Much better than Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom. I know, no attractions like rides, but everything else is so much better run because Disney doesn’t run it.
You’re making it sound like it’s Disney’s fault that’s they’re stopping the samples, then you’re saying you like Disney Springs because it’s not run by Disney. It’s either one or the other.
Go away, then. Stop trolling the comments.
That’s good, now you can actually look at the merchandise they have for sale.
I will be coming to Disney at the end of April. Sad that there will not be greeting costumes at the door with free samples. I love Ghirardelli Chocolate so this will not stop my husband and I from coming in to buy your chocolate.
We vacationed in Orlando for a week in September and stopped twice at the store and they were only handing out samples one of the two times we went. Might just be dependent on the day?
It’s not, it’s a policy change.
When I went a couple of days ago, the lady working there said they started this change Christmas week.
Is it gone from California Adventure?
I must say it made me a bit sad. I never walked out of the store empty handed after having a sample. It just awakens your craving. Now I don’t even want to walk in. It feels very weird. And it is not that I won’t buy it if there is no free sample, but honestly I can have any other chocolate, nothing pulling me to the store now. It was also nice to try new flavours I would not necessarily buy on my own.
That’s too bad. Back in Sept.2016, I had forgotten about the greeters and samples there, so it was a pleasant surprise to meet them and get some free chocolate (my heart was set on a milkshake, at the time). Will still visit it, when we’re there this September. But it won’t be the same.
It was originally a perk for DVC members – Show your membership card and get a free chocolate sample. Much later it became free to all.
I work at a Ghirardelli and would just like to say that A. You can still have a sample, just ask politely please. B. we have a new policy that calls for wanting to engage with guests more. The greeter position is still a valid part of our job position as an overall “chocolateer.” We still have to greet the guests and let them know of a promotion, so that Ghirardelli gets marked off for not having someone do that part, (but they may run their store differently since it is more of a theme park attraction store front vs. a regular outlet Ghirardelli store front). But, getting a free sample or not, shouldn’t be the end-all for people to enjoy the Ghirardelli experience or the factor that decides if they buy something or not. I don’t get why Ghirardelli gets hate for not giving out samples, when it’s basically the same thing at chocolate stores like Godiva & See’s Candies (where you don’t
even get a sample or you don’t even get a choice of which one you want). Also, you can just enage with the workers more. Ask for help instead of looking around and not seeing something and deciding we don’t have it. Let us know your favorite chocolate flavor and we can let you know what packaging you can get it in while also asking if you’d want to try it! Idk just an employee’s opinion.
Great input, blu. I have seen guests just shove their hands into the sample basket without so much as a “Hello” or “Thank you!” to the greeter. Also Cast Members are awesome, so asking for a sample or a recommendation surely can’t hurt.
See’s DOES give free samples and Godiva has a reward program where you spend something like 10-20$ a year and you get a free chocolate every month AND you get to select it
Sign of the times I guess. You can get a sample pack of healthy belgian chocolate at samplechocolates.com You could always bring it with to Disney.