A very disappointing visit - results of my email to DLR 7/9

[sharona]

Last week my dd11, my mom72 and I visited DL for the first time. We had only 1 day of our 10 day CA vacation to devote to DL. We knew we would not have time for everything and that it would be very very crowded so we had reasonable expectations and a well researched plan.

We arrived the night before and stayed at Embassy Suites South. On Thursday 6/26 we arrived at DCA 30 mins prior to the 8am opening and queued up on the right to head to TSMM via the Grizzly Falls route. We were in a crowd of about 40 and right at the front. On opening, my D&D and mom walked with the crowd and I broke off to grab Soarin FPs and quickly caught up with them before TSMM. We were among the first to arrive there and rode fairly quickly. We noticed several cars going out 1/2 empty and we asked the CM about it. Those screens were out of service. This was the beginning of a theme..

We rode CS and Luigis Tires walk on then headed to RSR to get our FPs. This was at 8:48 am. FPs were for 1:35pm. We went over to ride Soarin where a small wait had formed. We used our FPs but still ended up waiting about 20 minutes as they were "operating at 1/2 capacity" per the announcement.

Next we went to RSR to use the single rider line. RSR was down, it was about 10am. While mom and dd waited online at the bakery for cinnamon rolls, I hopped over to DCA and got FPs for BTMRR. We met up at the gate and got in line for POTC. Mouse wait and the sign said 12 minutes but it was more like 20. Loved the DL version of this ride so much more than WDW.

We hiked up to Splash to grab FPs but it was down so none being given out. DD was crushed as this is a favorite of hers. We rode BTMRR and then got lunch at the place on the water.

We grabbed another FP for BTMRR and then hopped over to DCA to use our FPs. RSR was down! Again or still? I don't know. They said they would honor our FPs later if the ride came back online. Walked over to Grizzly Falls but it was also not working! Refurb or technical issue?

DD and I went back to DL and rode BTMRR once more before meeting back up with mom on Main st and heading out to our hotel.

Checked Mousewait and Otto several times through dinner to find that RSR was still closed as was Splash. After dinner we went to DL as RSR was the only thing we still wanted to do at DCA. Again no FPs for Splash as it was down (again or still?). and IJ FPs were for 11pm. We decided that IJ was worth the posted 40 minute wait as that ride is unique to DL. After waiting 30 minutes, we were on that ramp heading toward the temple when they announced that the ride was having technical issues. Since we had already waited 30 minutes we decided to give it 10 more. After waiting even longer than that we gave up and headed up to HM which had a 15 minute posted wait.

On coming out of HM, about 9pm now, we heard a splash!! Yes, Splash had finally reopened! Posted wait was 30 minutes and it was getting cold out and I was annoyed about all the ride closing but Dd really loves Splash so we got in line. We waited well over 1 hour while seemingly hundreds of people returned with FPs from all throughout the day that we're being honored because the ride had been up and down all day. The icing on the cake was that at 9:30pm someone in the FP line remarked that RSR was finally working! Of course DCA closed at 10 that night so we had no chance of getting on.

All in all, a very disappointing day. We really wanted to love DL and to enjoy the differences to WDW but it was a hot mess. $450 for 3 one day PHs! I'm usually philosophical about money spent but I'm feeling bitter about this one.

We went to Universal a few days later and had a fabulous day especially in comparison with DL.

 

[stayfos]

That is so disappointing!! We love DL… I have been 5 times, hubby 10 times. We prefer it over WDW actually!! I have never had that many issues in one day in all the times we have been…. I am so sorry to hear this! Makes me sad to think that your opinion of the park(s) was less than it should be…. MUCH less. I hope you will give Disneyland and California Adventure another shot some other time… Hopefully you would have a much more Disneylike experience then!

 

[Drusilla99]

That sounds like a total bummer! I was there on the 25th & we didn't have any closures except the pre planned refurbs. That being said, Indy ALWAYS breaks down, so I decided not to jinx it this time & sent the kids in the single rider line & wait for them. There are odd ones & love meeting new people, so single rider is right up their alley, & it didn't break down.

 

[sharona]

I doubt we'll be back. I prefer not to be a fool twice.

 

[DharmaLou]

I doubt we'll be back. I prefer not to be a fool twice.

That's too bad. I would actually prefer that if there are issues with rides that they are taken care of properly than to allow guests to ride and chance them getting hurt.

 

[Gisele]

Definitely so sorry for your overall disappointing visit. With only one day, that can be super tough to visit both parks in my opinion.
Visiting Disneyland, due to various, normally uncontrolled circumstances, may make for a not so magical visit overall.
My last visit was similar with respects to something of a disappointment from having to deal with rude people, a zealous invisible eye CM at the HM and rides going down at different times of the day. Times like these I have to remind myself that visiting Disneyland just is not always going to be all that magical, and to just try to make the best of it. Believe me, it is not always an easy thing for me to do
There are always nice ways to spend time there, while waiting for whatever it may be.
I hope that you and your family will have an interest and opportunity to visit the DLR again and for a longer time frame. I suggest at least 3 days, 4 even better, that way one won't feel rushed or pressed to do everything that one may have in mind.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

can I ask why you only went for one day when you were in CA for 10 days? I know it was a bad day and I'm sorry. I have hiked the splash trail so many times to find it closed or down, and rsr seems to brake down so often I wish they would fix this. I am sorry you had such bad time but next time make it a priority to stay 2 days or more. I stay at least 3-5 days most trips just in case something like rsr or splash being down happens. I know it doesn't help but I really hope you will come back to DL some day

 

[ronandannette]

OP, I totally feel you. We also made an unwise decision to visit DLR for one day only as part of a trip to SoCal in May. The crux of the problem is that with only a single day, the stakes are very, very high given the ticket price. Things would need to go virtually perfectly to make it worth that much money, which of course they never do. It sounds like you actually had it a little worse even than we did. Sorry. If we'd never been before (3 previous very enjoyable trips) we would have left with an extremely low opinion just like you did. As it is, it left a bad enough taste that we're not anxious to go back.

P.S. We also loved Universal Studios Hollywood - I don't think it gets near enough credit compared to the Florida one.

 

[bumbershoot]

I doubt we'll be back. I prefer not to be a fool twice.

You know that people have had rotten days like that at WDW too, right?

 

[sharona]

Our trip wasn't centered around DL, we visited several areas of CA from San Diego up to San Fran. We had planned to add a day if we felt like there was more to see but frankly, I shouldn't have to pay for 2 days instead of 1 because they can't keep the attractions in decent working order. We would have had more than enough time in the 1 full day to see all we planned and had the rides not been in such a sorry state we could have easily hit all of our "must dos". I can understand a few hiccups but it seems from reading here and from speaking to other park goers during our visit that it's quite common for Splash, IJ, RSR and several other attractions to be down throughout the day. In all our visits to WDW and US Orlando, I've never run into anything like this. The only ride i ever recall being down at WDW is Fast Track.

I was going to stop at guest services to complain on our way put but I really didn't want to aggravate myself further. I'll be sending them my thoughts via email which I'm sure will fall on deaf ears. There's really nothing they can do to make it right.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

I am sorry you had a disappointing trip. All the closures would drive me batty. Having been many times, I can't imagine trying to do both parks in only one day. I feel there is too much to do in order to be successful or magical in only one day. Hope your overall CA trip was awesome!

 

[whoever]

That's unfortunate. Sorry. Hope you still had fun and were able to make the best of things. There's a TON of other attractions to do at DLR besides the ones listed.

 

[sharona]

You know that people have had rotten days like that at WDW too, right?

Yes I'm sure they have. And if someone at WDW ran into 4 or more down rides in the same day then shame on WDW too. Thanks for your input.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

That's definitely frustrating. I had a similar experience at Lego Land last summer. Everything I went on was not working properly. It really was a turn off (that and it had very little to do for those older than about ten), so I can understand how you feel. Here's hoping things are better when I arrive on Thursday.

 

[alvernon90]

a zealous invisible eye CM at the HM

OK, now you HAVE to tell us what this was about? It sounds like you feel you were unfairly reprimanded for something you were doing on HM? What happened?

 

[sharona]

I am sorry you had a disappointing trip. All the closures would drive me batty. Having been many times, I can't imagine trying to do both parks in only one day. I feel there is too much to do in order to be successful or magical in only one day. Hope your overall CA trip was awesome!

Thanks, yes, fortunately the rest of our trip was very good. DLR was the sour note on an otherwise wonderful Pacific Coast tour. I knew when I posted my complaint that many would point to the only one day as the reason for our bad experience but we were fully aware that we were limiting ourselves and I think our expectations were not unreasonable. We had a relatively short list of favorites and unique to DL must dos. If it had just been Splash or just RSR I would have been disappointed but not upset. I purposefully didn't post until I had time to look back and revisit the experience to see if I still felt cheated. I do.

Edit to add a thank you for all the sympathetic "ears". Much appreciated!

 

[hyperminimalism]

As shameful as it was to have so many rides down, I have to echo what other people have said. At this point, with how much there is to do at both parks, it's foolish to assume you can go on all the rides you want without issue. Considering how many people come through and ride the rides on a daily basis, and our love-hate relationship with the technology that controls them, something is bound to screw up for various reasons.

Yeah, it costs a lot of money and precious time to get into the parks, but this could have happened anywhere. It's all in how you handle it. I completely understand how disappointing it is to not be able to ride your favorite rides. If I couldn't go on Indy and RSR, I'd probably cry a little on the inside. In fact, I went the year Cars Land opened and only managed to walk around through the land since every ride had a ridiculous wait time and I refused to sit for 6+ hours to ride RSR (FP had gone out within minutes at that point).

But it's the way of things and I highly doubt DL/DCA wants the rides to be down either. Who wants to deal with pissed off, irritated park goers? Not saying this is you or how you reacted, sharona (so no offense!), but as someone who works in retail/customer service, I experience the brunt of customer complaints and disappointment on a daily basis. When something isn't working or going the customer's way--we hear most definitely about it. We want things to go just as smoothly as because it makes our job so much easier!

In a perfect world, DL/DCA would have no issues. That, however, is not the case and this one-day trip thing made it painfully obvious to you. Perhaps one day the problem will improve. If you do decide to give DL/DCA another chance, which I feel you should at least consider since this isn't an everyday occurrence aside from scheduled refurbs, you should go with a 3-4 day PH instead. Not only will it give you a chance to slow down and truly enjoy yourself, but it allows for more time to get on the rides you want in situations like this.

I know that I would never go to the parks for one day unless I was living within an hour. It seems more reasonable at that point to be an AP holder, but unfortunately I live in Oregon and that's a 16 hour drive. T_T

Best of luck next time!

 

[DHSbutcher]

Sorry to hear about your disappointment, it seems like you did a lot of unnecessary running around and things kept not working out, however there are SO many other attractions to go on, so many that are unique to disneyland, even if the headliners you wanted weren't available, I hope you reconsider visiting disneyland again. Our last visit was only 2 days, and during that time we never left the parks to return to our hotel, we ate quick meals, and I can happily say we rode so many rides, watched world of color, saw the fireworks, saw both parades, saw mickey and the magical map, aladdin, met quite a few characters, we could have done everything both parks had to offer had we been given about another 8 hours or so.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

On the bright side, you managed to ride 8 big ticket rides - BTMRR twice! - with a shocking level of park hopping (and with summer crowds to boot), and your mom is very spry to be able to scoot back and forth between the Parks so many times in one day!

 

[tarheelalum]

I'll be sending them my thoughts via email which I'm sure will fall on deaf ears. There's really nothing they can do to make it right.

I encourage you to tell DL about your experience. I go to DL quite a bit and I've seen the ride breakdowns become more and more common place over the past few years. Especially Indiana Jones. That thing breaks down at least three times per day when I'm there. But we go a lot so its not that big of a deal to us but I can understand how its a huge deal to someone just there for the day. If enough people speak up they might do something about it.