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

[mom2rtk]

I think one of my favorite memories is just sitting on a bench in front of Starbucks with my Iced Carmel Macchiato, enjoying the street entertainers, and watching all the families walking by.

I totally get that. But would you pay $150 a head to do it?

 

[CAFarmerGirl]

Maybe they pulled all the IT staff off to work on MyMagic at WDW?

And seriously, I'd love to stay a full week. But they will only sell me a 5 day ticket.

Lol...their IT department does need a revamp, eh?

5 day ticket and a day or 2 at the beach! Even as AP holders, we like to do 4 days Disney and 1 or 2 days elsewhere. That way, we have 2 days at each park.

 

[lk2500]

I totally get that. But would you pay $150 a head to do it?

Absolutely! $150 for a park that is open from 8AM - Midnight and has shows, rides and atmosphere?? Heck yeah!!

Look at how much you pay for a MLB baseball or NFL football game. We're talking $50+ for a good seat to sit in a hard chair for 3 hours and watch a bunch of millionaires duke it out on the field? And (especially at football games) the side entertainment is watching people get drunk and make fools out of themselves? It's wonderful having to explain to my young child why this certain person is stumbling and falling down the stairs. I love sports, but I'll watch it on my tv, thanks. We do usually go to one baseball game a year though.

I would suggest once again, you simply step back, count your blessings and re-consider being bitter about that day. I could see being a bit disappointed, but bitter?

You got to spend some quality time with 3 generations of family at Disneyland. My kids will not ever have that opportunity because their grandparents passed away when they were very young (My boys are 17 and 20 now).

Even though you didn't get to ride all the rides you still got a lot done, and everybody came out happy (well, not really happy I guess ) and healthy. Sounds like a pretty good day to me.

 

[mom2rtk]

5 day ticket and a day or 2 at the beach! Even as AP holders, we like to do 4 days Disney and 1 or 2 days elsewhere. That way, we have 2 days at each park.

Once you've been to the beach in Sanibel, FL it's pointless to go anywhere else.

We did 5 very full park days last December, and as I anticipated, we left feeling like a couple more days would have been ideal. We would have loved to pop in on our arrival day, or maybe gone in for a couple hours the day we left.

We fly half way across the country to get there. It's just frustrating to leaving when we still want to do more. Of course, I'm sure that's tempered with the fact that we usually do 10 days when we do WDW. And spend less.

 

[sharona]

Sounds you just had a run of bad luck that day.

We were there that same day from about 12:15 - Closing and thought we had a good time. What time was IJ down? We rode it at about 8:30PM.

As others have said, if you step back and look at your trip you really did get a lot done. Reading the boards here a lot I know that rides do go down, so if I miss something I miss something. Like yourself though, I'd be pretty bummed about RSR being down all day. We just love the atmosphere more than anything else so we'll definitely be back. I think one of my favorite memories is just sitting on a bench in front of Starbucks with my Iced Carmel Macchiato, enjoying the street entertainers, and watching all the families walking by.

If you rode about 8:30pm then you must have walked up just as it came back online or been in line while it was being fixed. I know we waited over 40 minutes and I know we went from there to ride HM and then got in line for Splash just before 9.

 

[LizzyS]

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

That makes me sad, because I love, love, love Disneyland.

I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed in your trip, but with only one day (which I also did on my first trip), I knew after reading these boards that I better prioritize a few attractions and anything else was gravy. We also only did Disneyland because California Adventure was a mess at that time with Cars Land and Buena Vista Street still being under construction.

I do, however, understand how Disneyland is a different experience for people who just can't make it there as often as I can since I live fairly close in the grand scheme of things. If you have to fly in and there are lots of attractions down, it's very disappointing (and expensive).

 

[Malela9]

I am sorry you had a bad day. Visiting Disneyland can be tough in the summer with the busy crowds. I don't always get to ride what I want due to the crowds.
I have visited WDW many times with the same kind of experience. Next visit, have multiple days available for your visit, and come with an open mind.
I don't enjoy WDW as much as Disneyland, but I try and find the best of those parks during my trips.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I knew when I saw the title that this wouldn't go well for you OP. So sorry. You spent $450 and were met with ride issue after ride issue. That's just not right. If it's unreasonable to expect to pluck off some favorites in both parks in a single day, then Disney should cease selling one day park hoppers immediately. Instead what did they do? They raised the price to $150 this year.

You have to understand that many here have APs and cannot appreciate the point of view of a single day visitor, both in terms of the cost wrapped up in that day and the frustration of knowing that you can't just pop back over to the park next weekend or next month for a do-over (at no additional cost).

I'd be disappointed too.

Please don't speak for me as an AP holder. You have zero idea how fiscally easy or difficult having APs and visiting DLR might be for me or others. My money is just as important to me as OP, you, or anyone else. Some APers like me live thousands of miles away, making DLR trips as high-stakes in terms of cost and not being able to come back "next weekend" as OP. I and others have criticized OP's strategy and attitude, and that has nothing to do with the size of anyone's wallet or their address.

 

[Mariep26]

Please don't speak for me as an AP holder. You have zero idea how fiscally easy or difficult having APs and visiting DLR might be for me or others. My money is just as important to me as OP, you, or anyone else. Some APers like me live thousands of miles away, making DLR trips as high-stakes in terms of cost and not being able to come back "next weekend" as OP. I and others have criticized OP's strategy and attitude, and that has nothing to do with the size of anyone's wallet or their address.

Thanks for this...there seems to be an assumption sometimes that AP holders are either in close proximity to WDW or DLR or have resources to make a multitude of trips that will make up for one bad experience. I live in MA and am an AP holder for WDW. For how often we go, the AP is a money saving proposition but a disappointing experience can be even more disappointing because we are far more invested than the one day purchaser. It will hurt more for me to just say forget it and plan a trip elsewhere for my next vacation. Just another perspective to consider.

 

[mom2rtk]

Please don't speak for me as an AP holder. You have zero idea how fiscally easy or difficult having APs and visiting DLR might be for me or others. My money is just as important to me as OP, you, or anyone else. Some APers like me live thousands of miles away, making DLR trips as high-stakes in terms of cost and not being able to come back "next weekend" as OP. I and others have criticized OP's strategy and attitude, and that has nothing to do with the size of anyone's wallet or their address.

Doesn't matter. Your POV is still different from that of a single day visitor.

 

[bumbershoot]

I was totally empathetic until the comment about being fooled.

My son is angry with wdw because we got soooooo sick there last January. We were in fl and the vicinity for four weeks and enjoyed part of the last week. Three weeks were misery and the first half of the last week was just exhaustion and catching up on sleep once we could breathe again. His anger with wdw makes as much sense to me as feeling fooled by a themepark because rides were down.

And as I was reading I was insanely jealous of all the FPs because it's so sadly different at wdw now. Choose your rides 60 days out. Three rides per day and hope there's something worth a FP after your third to schedule that day. Make a change to your resort reservation right now and lose those FP+s! Exciting!

I started my Disney addiction with a one day, thought it was the only day ever, visit to Disneyland while on a longer is it to see my brother. We didn't even hop. We didn't use FP. My extended family didn't want to plan. We did baby swap without realizing that the waiting parent and child should do something while waiting. I would bet good money that you did a ton more than we did on that visit. Disneyland isn't poplar because they purposely make rides break. It was an aberration. Someone a bit in front of you or awhile behind you would have a totally different experience than you. You got bad luck this time. Sounds like you were due if you've never had a day like that at wdw!

 

[whoever]

When your plans don't work out, you have to freestyle. Trying to only freestyle E-tickets was a losing proposition from the start.

 

[momof2n2]

I and others have criticized OP's strategy and attitude, and that has nothing to do with the size of anyone's wallet or their address.

But her plan would have worked great if the rides were working.

Doesn't matter. Your POV is still different from that of a single day visitor.

Yes.

When your plans don't work out, you have to freestyle. Trying to only freestyle E-tickets was a losing proposition from the start.

Why? There ARE folks who get a huge kick ( or used to) from bouncing through all 4 WDW parks for two E-tickets rides per park. And in lesser seasons, using old FP this was accomplished by some.

Her willingness to vigorously hop would have been rewarded IF ONLY the rides had worked.

Why is it wrong to only want a handful of great rides over a dozen okay rides? If you are willing to do quality over quantity (in the eye of the beholder) why shouldn't you?

OPs only "mistake" was preferring frequently broken rides.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I too was empathetic with the OP until the "being fooled" comment. Disney didn't try to fool you, they didn't purposely make rides go down just to upset you. It happened and it sucks, but nothing is perfect.

I know you didn't have expectations to do everything, but I do think if there are MUST do's on your list, giving yourself one day is setting yourself up for disappointment. If you can go in with the attitude we "hope" to rides these, you aren't left so upset. I will also agree, that while yes a lot of rides went down, making the decision to leave lines is on you. They were working on getting things running again, but you made the choice not to wait. I also will agree with others that unless there was some extenuating circumstances, if you had so much left on your to do list, I don't understand why you took such a long midday break.

That all said, I do get your frustration. But I don't think judging the entire DLR on this one day is fair and I hope you'll give it another chance, with the time it deserves. Like was said before, there are as many rides in these 2 parks as there are in the 4 at WDW. And there is so much to atmosphere and shows that make for a complete visit.

As for the AP discussion, I have to agree with Mike. I don't live close; I can't just pop back in another time. Anybody with longer than a 1 day ticket has a different perspective, not just AP holders. And I do think we have an appreciation for what the OP is feeling - on both of our DCA EMHs TSMM (how's that for abbreviations!) was down for the entire hour. It did take us a minute of disappointment and honestly feeling a little lost before we regrouped and moved on. So while I don't think the OP's attitude made the rides go down, I do think it is her poor attitude that made the trip (or day at Disney) so bad.

 

[wenrob]

When your plans don't work out, you have to freestyle. Trying to only freestyle E-tickets was a losing proposition from the start.

This.

We were there that day and yes, everything in DCA was down. A 15min wait for TSMM ended up taking 40 because it kept breaking down. But. As the above poster mentioned, we "freestyled." Quite obviously our original plan was not going to work out so we hit up a couple characters and then went over to DL. We did not experience a bunch of breakdowns there but as someone mentioned up thread, a little behind/ahead of the OP we didn't have those issues. Staying on top of "Call Otto" we did manage to ride RSR just as the fireworks were going off in DL. We did know we had another day and I suppose that helped us to remain chill about everything. Maybe because I've never gone for one day but I cant imagine trying to hit all the headliners in TWO parks in just one day.

 

[Barry Browning]

I was there a couple of weeks ago.I have to say the park is worse than ever about black outs, break downs, etc.What I love is when they tell you it isn't closed but temporarily out of service or something vague.I hear you loud and clear.I would consider doing Universal in Florida next year lots of new stuff.Sorry you had a bad time.But a one day trip is risky here to make sure you see everything.

 

[luisov]

Honestly? It sounds like you ran out of luck that day. I'm sorry to read your bad experience.

Last time I went to DL everything was working perfectly. The only closed ride was BTMRR due to refurbishments.

DL is wonderful, but the rides receive tons of people per day, and they work almost non-stop. Malfunctions are to be expected. That's no excuse considering the price, but yeah, it happens.

 

[Mouser172]

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.

Yeah I'm pretty sure the OP would too. That's not what her post is about.

 

[lovebug33]

Just have to add that you can't blame the park for having mechanical issues and ride breakdowns. Stuff happens. We had never been to California Adventure, so DH and I planned a trip to go since it was the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. Our main goal was to ride California Screaming and Indiana Jones. California Screaming had a horrible accident THE DAY BEFORE and people were injured. Needless to say, it was shut down the whole three days we were there. Then, something happened to Indiana Jones and it was shut down too. That is the whole reason we went. We could have been bitter and angry and never come back. We were disappointed but we just saw this as a reason to come back at some point and get to ride those two rides at some point in our lives. We just then figured out how to make our trip magical and forget our disappointment. I think the whole issue is attitude. We didn't get to go back for three years, but we eventually did get back and those two rides were operational (although Space wasn't and then I seriously regretted ever wanting to ride CS, lol).

 

[sharona]

I fail to see where some of you are getting that I have a bad attitude or am a negative person. Is everyone who has a different opinion than yours negative? Should I have been happy about the ride breakdowns? Do you allow yourself only happy feelings?

We are blessed with the time and the money to travel frequently and I'm appreciative of that. In the grand scheme of things, a bad day at DL is something most people would love to have as their biggest problem and I get that. My post was not meant to be anything except a factual account of our disappointing day. If only positive reviews are wanted here on the DIS forums then make that clear in the rules.