I kid you not...one minute late...in line...turned away!

[nkereina]

I've noticed that most people holding a fastpass for a show will arrive well before the window even opens anyway. Which sort of defeats the purpose of giving a time window if people at the end of the window don't have a good chance of getting in.

Thats the downside of a FP for something that's not a ride. If you don't get there right as your FP window opens (or earlier), you could still end up with a bad seat or view.

 

[DisneyFive]

Not sure what to say. You admit you were late. They have to call it somewhere, and if I remember right, with such a dark show when the door opens to let people in it is distracting to others.

Sorry it didn't work out. Some CM's are more overzealous than others on the rules, but the rules are the rules.

Dan

 

[disnut8]

When anyone has a FastPass at Disney World, the times for return are stated. I totally agree that the OP should have used the time before The Little Mermaid to tour One Man's Dream and to use the restroom. But, there are no time "restrictions" on those (yes, I know, you can't know how long a bathroom break will take). But if the FastPass for The Little Mermaid ended at 11:00 AM and the OP was in One Man's Dream at 10:55 and then did a bathroom break (all times are used as examples!), my answer would be the OP should have exited One Man's Dream earlier, done the bathroom thing and been in The Little Mermaid with plenty of time to spare. Then, gone back to One Man's Dream and finished up since that's not a FastPass attraction at all.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If the show was at say 10am, usually the FP window is something like 9:30-9:50. I suspect the FP window opened up, FP people were allowed in, then stand by people were allowed in, and then OP showed up very close to 10am - after the standby people had already been let in and then cut off. Sounds like there were a couple seats left after they cut off the stand by line, which they let the FP people fill in, but not enough for OP & family.

The way I read it, I had assumed 9:51am as in late for the window.
But what you and others are describing make sense.

 

[LBIJim]

I would expect this kind of behavior from a Six Flags park.

Not WDW.

Nah, I expect this kind of behavior at a Disney park, not Six Flags. People who admit they were in the wrong don't usually whine on message boards about Six Flags. But there are hundreds of posts about perceived slights at Disney, mostly because the CMs failed to recognize how special the posters are.

Oh? You were referring to the "smug" CM at Little Mermaid? I wish more Disney CMs were smug...those entitled visitors need to be put in their place.

 

[tup1830]

i'm in the minority thinking that if i was given a window of acceptable times to reach the line (not the wait to get to the cast member trying to help people check fast passes with their magic band) then i hit the window i was given. With all the technology that Disney incorporates, it isn't rocket science to know how many seats there are, how many fast passes have been distributed and how many people will fit. I've seen many places where there are counters and should've known how many seats were available.

IF the OP got into the line before the time ended (regardless of if they made it to the cast member in time), its not their fault. If at the end of the night, people can enter the line at closing time (not reach the ride) and Disney honors it by letting them ride, then that same logic goes here.

I know i'll be flamed, but whatever.

 

[DisneyKidds]

That's a tough one, I would have been annoyed too. I guess the thing is, they have to close the door on someone. Glad it didn't ruin your day!

I would have been annoyed, too. For about 2 seconds at the CM.....and then for the next 17 minutes I had to wait in the FP line for the next show to start.

As others have said, shows are different from rides. They count people going into the pre-show. When capacity is reached (which seems wasn't until the last second of your FP window) or the doors close.....there is nothing the CM can do.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

In my experience they are pretty strict with return times on shows. There is a grace period with rides...but not with shows.

 

[bumbershoot]

IF the OP got into the line before the time ended (regardless of if they made it to the cast member in time), its not their fault.

But if there were no seats left, or the lights were now down and it wouldn't be safe to walk to the seat, or if it was about to start, it doesn't matter whose fault it is.

 

[Cormoran]

So here's my issue. why didn't the CM just expalin to the OP that the theater was full for the next show. Wouldn't this have gone a long way to difusing the situation? If guest recovery is paramount, why didn't the CM explain the situation? What would it have cost the CM if she had chosen to do this? You know what would've been prevented? The OP posting this negative experience on a chat board.

I'm sorry this happened OP, but I think the manner in which the situation was handled by the CM created the problem, not being denied access to the theatre.

 

[Networth]

Not fun for you indeed and sorry it happend. Yet their has to be a cut off at some point and you just happend to be that person.

 

[cakebaker]

I understand not letting them in late- they weren't held up by anything other than their choices, but the attitude of the CM shouldn't have been as described. Perhaps the OP's anger changed his perception or perhaps the CM was indeed as he described. The only option for the OP was to report it to guest services. I wish everyone would do this when they have an issue. While venting on a public forum makes you feel better, it really doesn't help fix what went wrong and prevent it from happening in the future.

 

[WhispyPixie]

It is really unfortunate that happened. Our experience is that the rides may offer a bit of grace (although we were turned away 4 minutes late at Splash Mountain, it was our fault, so whatever) but shows simply cannot due to the specific number of people in attendance. It sounds like the standby had already been filled and there was a limited number of seats and those were occupied by the people in front of the OP. Sad, yes. Late, yes. As for the CM, he should have explained politely.

We had something similar happen with CM's not taking explanations into consideration. We were in line for the Lion King show and we knew there were a lot of people in front of us. They kept ushering us in to a completely filled, standing room only theater. I felt that we should have been able to be given the opportunity to wait for the next show. Of course once you are lined up along the wall and the show is going, there is NO exiting without being rude to the other attendees so we stayed. A simple, "we are close to standing seats only" from a CM would have been nice.

 

[wareagle57]

This happened to us at Little Mermaid but with the standby line. I didn't mind that we were cut off, because we were technically late, and I understand it's a show. But the CM's were kind of rude about it. I didn't really understand why.

 

[ethanwa]

Here's the issue though OP.... they HAVE to stop somewhere. You just got unlucky. Those shows are EXTREMELY strict on timing because they are scheduled to do so many per day.

I hate to be the bad guy here, but from now on you should show up just 5 minutes earlier and it will never happen again. It's pretty much your fault that you were late, no?

I will side with you on one thing though: The CM's should never be rude about it.

 

[goofyernmost]

Well, that's how Six Flags does it.

Doesn't make it wrong!

 

[larryz]

Doesn't make it wrong!

You're right. It doesn't make it "wrong." It makes it "Six Flags." A very expensive Six Flags experience.

 

[larryz]

Nah, I expect this kind of behavior at a Disney park, not Six Flags. People who admit they were in the wrong don't usually whine on message boards about Six Flags. But there are hundreds of posts about perceived slights at Disney, mostly because the CMs failed to recognize how special the posters are.

Oh? You were referring to the "smug" CM at Little Mermaid? I wish more Disney CMs were smug...those entitled visitors need to be put in their place.

Personally, I can't justify paying Disney prices for a Six Flags experience.

If I want to see rude ride workers and Gestapo-like adherence to rules, I'll pay a lot less and go to Six Flags over Georgia. (And save even more with my Coke-can-printed $10-off coupon.)

 

[Angel Ariel]

I understand not letting them in late- they weren't held up by anything other than their choices, but the attitude of the CM shouldn't have been as described. Perhaps the OP's anger changed his perception or perhaps the CM was indeed as he described. The only option for the OP was to report it to guest services. I wish everyone would do this when they have an issue. While venting on a public forum makes you feel better, it really doesn't help fix what went wrong and prevent it from happening in the future.

I would agree that the attitude of the CM shouldn't have been as described, and even that the OP should report it to guest services. Perhaps the OP did, I don't know, he doesn't say one way or the other. If he didn't, I would highly suggest that the OP e-mail guest relations about it. The OP likely has the FP+ window time and the date this occurred, and where the CM was in the attraction - that should be all Disney needs to be able to figure out who the CM in question was.

 

[blabbermouth]

Maybe the CM didn't think it was a big deal because the LM show runs continuously and the next one would be in twenty minutes?