Bad Day at DCA: Do you think it's worth a complaint?

[GBBTomorrow]

I was at DCA on Sunday, and if that had been my only visit to a Disney park in my lifetime, I would certainly never go back. It was just such a disappointing day all around.

I could give a lot of examples (not least of which would be the one- to two-hour waits for counter service food), but here's just one small thing that really made me sad: my daughter wanted to see Loki, so she asked a CM when he would come out. The CM said it's totally random and you just have to hang around and take your chances. OK, that's cool. Except that a couple of minutes later, a Plaid escorting a group with two little girls went up to the CM and asked them the same question. This time the CM, in full view, pulls out a spreadsheet that appeared to have the full schedule of appearances and tells the Plaid when to bring the group back to see the character they wanted. They did this right in front of us, right after we asked the same question and they answered us with a flat-out lie.

That's just one small example of a bunch of things that led to the most disappointing Disney day I've ever had.

The question is this: is it worth a complaint? Or is this just adjustment to pandemic life for Disney and I should just be compassionate about the struggles? Maybe they know things are bad already?

And if it IS worth a complaint, anybody know a good address?

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

What is a Plaid?

edit: Answered my own question via google. VIP tour guide. Not surprised they have access to special information that a normal park guest doesn't get. The CM should have been more discrete about it but the fact that a private tour gets that info is not surprising.

 

[AndrewC]

I think more than anything that's just how operations need to run. If you say a specific time to everyone you'll have hundreds of people just hanging around crowding up walkways and stuff. However, the Plaid likely was on a tour with people that spent thousands. I'm a little surprised the Plaid didn't have an iPad or something they could access schedules on, or a cell phone to text a manager to get the schedule, but maybe that's the way it's done since the park is so large. The cast member likely needed to tell the Plaid when to return with their group so as not to waste the tour's time. Kinda sucks... but there are and always have been a couple different "classes" at Disneyland.

(I know when I've been at Universal Studio's on a VIP tour, not even a private tour, they've called back to the VIP tour office to ask about schedules or if there were any updates on anything filming on the backlot, etc)

 

[Mike_M]

I think it’s worth bringing up. We all know double standards exist, but they are trained to be discreet and that was not how to make magic happen.

I’ve seen CM’s at DCA be more relaxed and less disciplined, and IMO it hurts the show. They don’t call it ‘on stage’ for nothing. The CMs are there to put on a performance where, as best as possible, each guest feels special by their actions. When they put out lazy effort, it lifts the curtain and breaks the illusion.

I believe we should call them out on things like that.

 

[AndrewC]

Also, if you were local, you probably could have swung by the City Hall and politely explained that your day just didn't feel like it lived up to what Disney has been in the past for you, or what you thought it should be. I suspect they probably would have tossed you some fast passes back in the day to get you out there having some fun without cushing long lines or stuff like that. I'm not sure what they could do right now other than note down the experience... but I think Disney is aware of that. They don't want customers waiting hours for food or lines, those metrics are tracked really well with Disney. They might make some blunders on the customer facing side of things, but they absolutely know what's going on in the parks and I suspect they general want a great experience for everyone. Staffing is rough right now, COVID is still rough, crowds were probably way stronger from day one than Disney had planned. Not giving them a total break on all the shortfalls, but I really think they would have just apologized and asked that you understand it's still a difficult time.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

What is a Plaid?

Oh, I'm sorry...I should have explained that. It's a slang term for the cast members who guide the expensive VIP park tours. They wear blue outfits with plaid trim.

 

[DLgal]

Um...so, while that one example is definitely kind of uncool, that's just how it is with the VIP tours. They basically get whatever they want. The CM answered YOU correctly, as required by protocol. The CM ALSO handled the inquiry from the Plaid correctly, per protocol. You weren't really supposed to overhear that. Call it discovering how the sausage is made. Now you know. Avengers Campus is supposed to be mostly about discovery and spontaneity and, personally, I'm happy with how they do it because it feels much more natural.

Now, the food situation is annoying, I'll give you that, BUT it was a holiday weekend and this is par for the course when the parks are closer to capacity. They have opened up standby for lines at all places at DCA by now, so mobile order wasn't the only option, although waits can be long. That's been a struggle on busy days since the reopening and there has been a lot of advice online about placing your mobile orders way ahead of time. It's become necessary on most weekend days. We were at the parks Saturday and planned our lunch orders around 11 for pick ups between 1:30 and 3pm.

Other than those things (the first of which I personally feel doesn't warrant lodging an official complaint over), what else about the day went wrong?

 

[sjmac42]

guest.services@disneyland.com
This is the email address for contacting Disneyland with questions, feedback or concerns.
Whether you should or shouldn’t make a complaint is up to you but if you have concerns, you are free to do so. Just be polite and to the point.

 

[Malcon10t]

my daughter wanted to see Loki, so she asked a CM when he would come out. The CM said it's totally random and you just have to hang around and take your chances. OK, that's cool. Except that a couple of minutes later, a Plaid escorting a group with two little girls went up to the CM and asked them the same question. This time the CM, in full view, pulls out a spreadsheet that appeared to have the full schedule of appearances and tells the Plaid when to bring the group back to see the character they wanted. They did this right in front of us, right after we asked the same question and they answered us with a flat-out lie.

What is really strange is the "Plaid" is supposed to have the yellow "spreadsheet" on them. And if they can't find what they need, they generally call in for the info.

I'm curious if the question was different from yours as the Wakanda, Dr. Strange, and Spiderman do have specific times.

And I agree with an above poster who said they are trying to keep it spontaneous, so they don't want everyone asking "What time will Thor be out" or Ant Man or Captain Marvel or Loki.

As for food, not sure what time you were ordering, but we did not have the issues you did. Max wait for one location was 20 mins. (We were grabbing dinner from 3 different locations by Paradise Grill.)

 

[evilmommie]

follow up with feedback to guest services. It’s your money and experience. If your visit fell short of your expectations and you have legitimate concerns, which it sounds like you do - absolutely write or call.

 

[bumbershoot]

And if it IS worth a complaint, anybody know a good address?

I would have gone to city hall. "Hey, I thought this was kind of uncool that the CM did this. Even if the VIP tour people get access to more info, they shouldn't have done it in front of other guests who aren't allowed the info."

Not surprised they have access to special information that a normal park guest doesn't get.

The tourguide should have had the info, not the random CM.

 

[HashberryOTG]

This time the CM, in full view, pulls out a spreadsheet that appeared to have the full schedule of appearances and tells the Plaid when to bring the group back to see the character they wanted. They did this right in front of us, right after we asked the same question and they answered us with a flat-out lie.

I can definitely see why you were upset. However, it might not be that the CM knew when Loki was coming out, but that for a plaid, they need to SCHEDULE him to come out because of how private tours work. They may have just been checking the staff availability or something. However, should you decide to provide feedback to Disney, even if this were the case (and I have no idea, purely speculation), it should have been handled better. I don't think you should have been made to feel that way. They can do better.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Situations like your Loki incident are one of my biggest annoyances about Disney and I have brought up similar incidents to City Hall to no avail. Even pre-pandemic, it was common for character hosts to hide information from some guests while providing it to others. I regularly ask about character times and sometimes character hosts will condescendingly tell me to check the app which isn't accurate or say it's "random" like what happened to you. It's especially frustrating when I hear CMs say things like "you should have made meeting this character a priority" when you miss a character but at the same time, CMs don't provide the necessary information when asked. But I think that over half the time, they do answer more concretely, taking out the schedule if they aren't sure. On my last visit, I asked about Anna and got something along the lines of: Anna is in Arendale preparing for her wedding but she might take a break and stop by around 3 o'clock or so.

I think this looks particularly bad in your case because they answered a plaid but not you.

While I don't think another complaint about this will do much, I think this is worth bringing up because I would like Disneyland to become more fair for everyone. Another thing to do would be to go to City Hall and leave compliments for CMs who are forthcoming with information.

On a related note, in Hong Kong Disneyland during the Lunar New Year, some frequent visitors give red envelopes to CMs with money in them. These frequent visitors also tend to be more privy to inside information about schedules. In a different culture, this could be considered bribing CMs for information. Tokyo CMs say "random" a lot more often and rarely pull out their schedules so I actually think they are the most fair about it.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I have never ever noticed this in DCA when I used to go each year and what I think the smartest question you could've asked was "Where else can I find Loki in the park" and the cast member should've given you a list of places where Loki could be. Because the hardest thing is when you're trying to locate a certain character is having to chase down a character and when you know when the character is gonna show up you get there too late and that character is gone and replaced with another character. So the best thing you can do is call DCA and ask for Guest Relations and for your daughter try to go to Walmart or Target and get her a Loki figure as a consolation gift or try contacting Disney to see if they can send your daughter an autographed photo of Loki as well. I'm very sorry that your daughter was unable to see Loki and I would be very sad if I was in your daughter's shoes if the same thing happened to me
Hope you get it straightened out Gr8 Tomorrow,
Dodger

 

[Karin1984]

I had something similar in Disneyland Paris, there are different rules for different CMs. With my last visit, the CMs in red, for crowd control, would answer these kind of questions with 'this happens at random', CMs in blue, with characters, would get out a list.

Yes, it is annoying, but if this is the worst that happened in your weekend...
I would send a serious complaint about the 1-2 hours wait at counter service. That is an issue. You can put as a side note the character issue. But I wouldn't make that the main focus.

 

[fenrir58]

Honestly, with the first point, I personally wouldn’t, but it’s up to you if you’re still bothered. You overheard two employees talking, that convo was obviously not for you, and technically if you heard that you still got the answer you were looking for. They shouldn’t have to leave their post and go all the way backstage to answer a 5 second question.
As for the second point, I probably would encourage them that for the holiday weekends especially with table service restaurants being in high demand, to make sure staffing for the quick service is more present.
All up to you though.

 

[EmJ]

You're always at liberty to share your experience, good or bad. But as to the plaid, paying for exclusive/upgraded access is nothing new at any theme park. Fundamentally, that's what the dessert parties were, as well as the special parade seating, Magic Morning, and MaxPass though at a more accessible price point (now Genie+/LL). In that way, it's not surprising that the private tour was provided with non-public information, though the employee could have been a lot more discrete about it. As to the the food lines, I keep reading about making sure your orders are in early. Maybe that will help next time? We will probably do it while waiting for rope drop, if that early is allowed Was there anything else that really got under your skin?

 

[bwvBound]

FWIW, the line for City Hall on Monday afternoon was fairly long. We didn't bother asking for a time estimate ... but checked it a couple times and simply walked away. (I'm guessing it was a 45-minute wait.)

 

[DLgal]

FWIW, the line for City Hall on Monday afternoon was fairly long. We didn't bother asking for a time estimate ... but checked it a couple times and simply walked away. (I'm guessing it was a 45-minute wait.)

It probably wasn't that long. Depending on what you are there for, they funnel guests to 2 different places to get help (either inside or to the Tour Garden).

 

[cruisehopeful]

It sounds standard to me. They aren't allowed to tell when the characters are coming out because of crowd control. Someone else paid thousands of dollars for a VIP tour for a few hours and they get special treatment for that. If it was one of their requests to see a particular character, their Plaid will do whatever they can to make it happen. Could they have been more discreet? Possibly. Whether it's worth your personal time to file a complaint is up to you. I can't say that anything will come of it because it sounds like standard protocol to me. It just enormously sucks if that is what your daughter was most interested in.

I was at both parks the next day. I have to say most of the cast members seemed new or lacking in training. There were a few who stood out as having excellent customer service - the type I am used to at Disney parks. However, most were extremely disengaged and seemed to do the bare minimum like they were trained to do one thing and that's the only thing they can do. Most couldn't engage in a conversation. It was subpar in general, but I really didn't care because I was too busy focusing on what I wanted to do.