darthwarren
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
I don't normally do this but after two days of steaming and not getting over it I thought I better just write this down. On Monday 4/27/15 my family and I went to the Disneyland Passholder "event". After receiving our invitation in the mail a few weeks earlier (which is the only contact about any special activity we have received since being Passholders starting in 2011, but that is another story) we were all excited about attending. I set my alarm to the date given to register and eagerly awaited the day. The description of the "event" was cryptic at best with few details and this lead me to believe there were surprises and fun to be had that Disney just could not contain in a simple email! It mentioned a preview of what was to come in this special 60th year! Very exciting!
So the day arrives and my family and I trudged through the LA rush hour traffic for almost 4 hours. The Disney Movies soundtrack CD blaring the whole way has a way of making that part of the trip at least bearable. On arriving we were directed to the special entrance and were very excited to see what was in store. Then we received the nights schedule flyer. I saw my family's collective jaws drop but not in the good way. Only Frontierland and Adventureland were going to be open. The special activities were a jazz band in New Orleans square, one on the Mark Twain boat and a flash back performance of the original Golden Horseshoe Review. What? That's it? Oh and you got free photo downloads of pictures you took with character. Goofy as a cowboy, two bears from Bear Jamboree and I think Pooh. So if you wanted to wait over an hour that was Disney's gift to you.
Now this being an "event" for Passholder's who are coming up for renewal, wouldn't you expect a little VIP treatment? Wouldn't you want to show off the absolute best the park has to offer? There wasn't even a $30 Kinkos banner saying "Welcome Passholder's!". Indiana Jones was closed for refurbishment so why choose that part of the park to show off? Splash Mountain broke. Barely any CMs had pin lanyards and the ones that did had the same old scrapers. Again if you are trying to convince people to drop another $800 a piece for passes wouldn't you want to put your best out durning an "event" like this? It was so bad even the CMs there that night ranges from grumpy to rude. Very unusual because they are always so nice so I can only put it down to them not wanting to be there because the park would normally be closed at that time and they had to stay late for the "event".
Where were the video presentations of what was coming this year? It's the 60th anniversary for goodness sake! Show us something! Pump us up! If I had brought someone who had never been there before I would have been embarrassed and could not have made a good case on why they should be a Passholder.
If it was necessary to only have part of the park open that night why not the best part? Main Street and Fantasyland with the castle and all the classic rides is magical and has great photo-ops, great shopping, it's the heart of disneyland! Why shove it all in the corner with broken rides and old bar bands?
Watching my family wander around in disbelief all night was hard to do. We kept walking around corners expecting a surprise or something new that never came.
We stayed until the end hoping there would be a presentation, show or even and announcement over the PA saying... I don't know, ANYTHING. Like "Thanks Passholders see you next year!" Or "Looking forward to a magical 60th with our loyal Passholder's!" NOTHING! They hearded us out the back door, literally, slapped some lame Xerox copy of a painting and we left. Even this "lithograph" they gave out at the end was a missed opportunity! Why not a message of thanks and some highlights of the real events coming up? It was like someone said "Hey we got a ton of these stupid prints we couldn't sell let's give these to those suckers!"
All night I just kept thinking, "this isn't Disneyland, what is going on?!" The whole night was such a loss. My son and I got off early from work, my girls did homework in the car and it was so not worth it!
Disneyland rarely disappoints but this failure was epic... #Disneyland #disneylandpassholder #dissapointed
So the day arrives and my family and I trudged through the LA rush hour traffic for almost 4 hours. The Disney Movies soundtrack CD blaring the whole way has a way of making that part of the trip at least bearable. On arriving we were directed to the special entrance and were very excited to see what was in store. Then we received the nights schedule flyer. I saw my family's collective jaws drop but not in the good way. Only Frontierland and Adventureland were going to be open. The special activities were a jazz band in New Orleans square, one on the Mark Twain boat and a flash back performance of the original Golden Horseshoe Review. What? That's it? Oh and you got free photo downloads of pictures you took with character. Goofy as a cowboy, two bears from Bear Jamboree and I think Pooh. So if you wanted to wait over an hour that was Disney's gift to you.
Now this being an "event" for Passholder's who are coming up for renewal, wouldn't you expect a little VIP treatment? Wouldn't you want to show off the absolute best the park has to offer? There wasn't even a $30 Kinkos banner saying "Welcome Passholder's!". Indiana Jones was closed for refurbishment so why choose that part of the park to show off? Splash Mountain broke. Barely any CMs had pin lanyards and the ones that did had the same old scrapers. Again if you are trying to convince people to drop another $800 a piece for passes wouldn't you want to put your best out durning an "event" like this? It was so bad even the CMs there that night ranges from grumpy to rude. Very unusual because they are always so nice so I can only put it down to them not wanting to be there because the park would normally be closed at that time and they had to stay late for the "event".
Where were the video presentations of what was coming this year? It's the 60th anniversary for goodness sake! Show us something! Pump us up! If I had brought someone who had never been there before I would have been embarrassed and could not have made a good case on why they should be a Passholder.
If it was necessary to only have part of the park open that night why not the best part? Main Street and Fantasyland with the castle and all the classic rides is magical and has great photo-ops, great shopping, it's the heart of disneyland! Why shove it all in the corner with broken rides and old bar bands?
Watching my family wander around in disbelief all night was hard to do. We kept walking around corners expecting a surprise or something new that never came.
We stayed until the end hoping there would be a presentation, show or even and announcement over the PA saying... I don't know, ANYTHING. Like "Thanks Passholders see you next year!" Or "Looking forward to a magical 60th with our loyal Passholder's!" NOTHING! They hearded us out the back door, literally, slapped some lame Xerox copy of a painting and we left. Even this "lithograph" they gave out at the end was a missed opportunity! Why not a message of thanks and some highlights of the real events coming up? It was like someone said "Hey we got a ton of these stupid prints we couldn't sell let's give these to those suckers!"
All night I just kept thinking, "this isn't Disneyland, what is going on?!" The whole night was such a loss. My son and I got off early from work, my girls did homework in the car and it was so not worth it!
Disneyland rarely disappoints but this failure was epic... #Disneyland #disneylandpassholder #dissapointed
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