Stephanie V

Review of Disney's El Capitan Theatre

The location definitely needs some refurbishment f...

The location definitely needs some refurbishment for the seating and ventilation. I've done a movie marathon and two movie screenings so far.

So far I've seen Avengers Age of Ultron, Cinderella, and recently did the Captain America Civil War movie marathon. The price is definitely more than your average movie theater, but luckily they always try to include something extra with your purchase. So far every movie purchase has included popcorn, a bottled drink, and entry into the movie exhibit downstairs. For the Cinderella movie we were able to get a huge movie poster! Luckily the cast member at the ticket window was kind enough to give us one just because it wasn't part of our $16 movie ticket.

For Age of Ultron, they had more ticket options for purchase. Either $16 just for the movie ticket or $26 for their VIP ticket. We purchased the VIP ticket which included a bottled drink, a small Age of Ultron popcorn bucket, a limited edition comic book, and reserved seating. The Age of Ultron exhibit was open to anyone with a movie ticket.

I recently visited El Capitan for a movie marathon for the Captain American Civil War screening. I don't know if I'd do it again because the seats aren't meant for a movie marathon. I know El Capitan has been hosting movie marathons lately, personally I think they should make the seats bigger if they're going to be continuing with the marathons. After 16 hours of being seated at the same seat, elbow to elbow, my back and neck were killing me. A lot of other theaters now have reclining seats or just wider seats in general. El Capitan seats are about the same size of stadium seats, so they're extremely uncomfortable after a couple of hours. After a couple of hours the theater had a smell of sweat and garlic bread, not pleasant. The marathon was $40, which included reserved seating, a comic, medallion, a large themed popcorn bucket, souvenir cup, and your food. As far as food goes, for breakfast we got a fruit bar, pop tart, a rice krispy treat, and apple slices. After the first movie they provided garlic knots and breadsticks from Pizza Hut, thus the nasty smell of garlic within the theater. After the second movie they served pizza and wings. They had 4 different flavors of boneless wings and you were only able to pick 2, booooo. After the 3rd movie they served a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie. Before the premiere of the actual movie nothing else was served, but our popcorn bucket and souvenir cup had unlimited refills (Popcorn tasted stale btw).

As far as parking goes, they do validate but you always have to pay some balance. When we did the movie marathon, which we paid $40 for, we still had to pay about $16 for parking! What's the point in offering validation for parking after a movie marathon if it's not going to be complimentary. -.-