at DLP last week and was amazed

[lilacgems23]

Ok you've convinced me that DLP is perfect and I have no right to complain. Case closed. (Your opinion isn't wrong, mine is just more right)

whats with the attitude

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Smoking isn't allowed in the park except in designated areas and that's since I think 2008 (will confirm) BUT it's not enforced.
Very few people read CM's want to get involved in asking people to stop smoking and I can sort of see their point as some people react very badly to this sort of intervention.

There should be more managers and security that deal with this and stamp it out systematically.

When you see people smoking while paying for their souvenirs or buying food from a cart you know that there's no hope to seeing it being dealt with in the near future.

I have seen some slight changes concerning people trampling all over the grass and flowerbeds to get up on the mounds to see the parade. 3 weeks ago there were CMs up on the top of the mounds stopping people climbing unfortunately yesterday afternoon was buisness as usual with people all over the place getting ready for the 7.00 pm show

DLP has a severe staffing problem, there are not enough of them, and until they are prepared to put more money into staff and security these type of threads will come up time and time again

 

[chrisf1961]

Smoking isn't allowed in the park except in designated areas and that's since I think 2008 (will confirm) BUT it's not enforced.
Very few people read CM's want to get involved in asking people to stop smoking and I can sort of see their point as some people react very badly to this sort of intervention.

There should be more managers and security that deal with this and stamp it out systematically.

When you see people smoking while paying for their souvenirs or buying food from a cart you know that there's no hope to seeing it being dealt with in the near future.

I have seen some slight changes concerning people trampling all over the grass and flowerbeds to get up on the mounds to see the parade. 3 weeks ago there were CMs up on the top of the mounds stopping people climbing unfortunately yesterday afternoon was buisness as usual with people all over the place getting ready for the 7.00 pm show

DLP has a severe staffing problem, there are not enough of them, and until they are prepared to put more money into staff and security these type of threads will come up time and time again

Carrie i sort of see things but again ENFORCING these things has to be part of their jobs, Do Disney not take any notice of peoples feedback for im sure this is raised numourous times?

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Many years ago I worked in a bookshop here in Paris, we had a major pb with a certain group of people who used to come in and steal the expensive atlases as they could sell them on.
We all stopped saying anything to them when a colleague got punched in the face one day, we were used to verbal abuse but physical was something else, we had no managers on the shop floor and no security so no back up.
Same went for the people with stanley knives cutting out pages of books or magazines ...

For a (some)of the CM at DLP it's a bit the same sort of thing. You are not going to go and ask people to stop smoking as if and when it turns nasty you are on your own out there. Same thing applys to a lot of situations over there that could and should be stopped.

I think that DLP only takes notice of what they want to take notice of and I don't think smoking is a priority.

 

[Brina]

Well not everything and every where can be perfect. But for DLP I can say I have never been pick pocketed and had my wallet stolen or had my hotel room broken into. Both of these things have happend to me at other Disney Resorts.

Well, I have never had any of those things happen to me at any Disney location, so perhaps that leaves me free to complain about 'inconsequential' stuff like a a lack of cleanliness. I don't think that guests at the US parks are any neater, I think that DLP does not hire sufficient staff to stay on top of the issue.

My other big complaint was the way people behaved with the characters - all pushing forward, nobody willing to wait their turn. I called one woman on it when she was pushing and encouraging her daughter to step right in front of my children. She defended herself by basically saying that she just wanted her daughter to get a turn and all the others were being rude as well. Yeah, that's a good rationalization.

 

[Ms Poppins]

My other big complaint was the way people behaved with the characters - all pushing forward, nobody willing to wait their turn. I called one woman on it when she was pushing and encouraging her daughter to step right in front of my children. She defended herself by basically saying that she just wanted her daughter to get a turn and all the others were being rude as well. Yeah, that's a good rationalization.

That's my biggest annoyance about DLP too. I can put up with anything else, but I cannot stand rudeness and lack of manners. We avoid all characters now unless they are organised meets. We also enjoy our time at the hotels to meet characters and make sure we have a least one character meal each visit.

Unfortunately it seems to the norm at DLP - although you will find many people who visit regularly just as upset about it as you and me. Regular visitors simply try to avoid it, as I've said above. I still love DLP but I try to ignore these things. I don't want to spend my precious holiday time focussing on things I cannot change - but some incidents do anger me at the time.

 

[Michael623]

I believe this statement is being misinterpreted. This is how I feel most times when I post on this board. Every response I seem to get gives me this type of attitude.

 

[mommy2ash]

This to me is the main problem with DLP and the reason it is not considered (and in my opinion never will be) a world-class vacation destination. Guests accept mediocrity.

Ridiculously short park hours-oh well, we'll do something else.
Filthy restrooms-oh well, we'll keep looking until we find a cleaner one.
Insane amount of simultaneous refurbs-Oh well, we'll just wait longer in line for whatever is open.
Kids getting pushed and shoved when meeting characters-Oh well, that's just the way Europeans behave.
Very few park restaurants open for dinner-Oh well we'll go to the Village/resort and wait 90 minutes to eat.

Doesn't this seem a bit unreasonable? What does it take for you to start to question things?

i don't have a problem with the park hours, they suit me just fine.

in six trips i haven't seen overly dirty toilets and more often than not when i go in i see people cleaning them.

dlp can't win, if they don't refurb people complain, if they do, people complain. i would rather see them doing the place up than leaving it to rot.

character scrums is my one big pet peeve with dlp. my daughter was hit in the face by a man who was trying to get to stitch before her even though there was only like five people waiting. that is one subject you don't want me to start a rant on lol. its gotten to the stage now where she picks and chooses the scrum,if its too big or she sees people pushing she walks away even if its a character she really wants to see.

i also have no issue with the park dining hours. if the park is only open until seven it doesn't bother me that they close earlier. i have never waited 90 minutes for a meal but then again i eat off peak times and make reservations.

 

[Ware Bears]

I believe this statement is being misinterpreted. This is how I feel most times when I post on this board. Every response I seem to get gives me this type of attitude.

Probably because the majority on here don't share your sentiments?

Everyone's entitled to voice their opinion on here whether it's positive or negative, but you can't expect everyone to agree with you. For example, I'm a fairly frequent poster on the UK Trip Planning and Community boards where the majority of posters don't share my love for DLP and sometimes a thread comes up that bashes DLP. Even if I wasn't a moderator (thus expected to display exemplary behaviour I wouldn't criticise others for their opinions, I just accept we all have different ones. As this is a DLP planning board I guess it's pretty much a dead cert that the majority of posters will view DLP in a favourable light.

My opinions for what they're worth - early park closing doesn't bother me as I tend to visit in high summer when the park's open until gone 11pm. I actually did recently visit in low season when the main park was open until 10pm one night and 8pm the next, and the 8pm closing didn't worry me. There's plenty of places to dine after early park closing and and many of these can be pre-booked, thankfully at very short notice and not 180 days out like at WDW!

Dirty toilets - I've been to DLP six times over the last six years and apart from our last trip where we used to go back to our room (gonna miss this next time ) never found the toilets any worse than anywhere else. So unless things have really gone downhill in the last three years, I don't think DLP has the monopoly on unclean loos.

Smoking - we've been lucky and never had anyone smoking right next to us but I can appreciate why people get so annoyed about this, I would too if it happened right by me.

Queue jumping - again it's happened a few times but I'm on holiday and just let it go, I'm not going to let someone jumping the line bother me, if it's that important to them to get ahead of me then let them. Again, I don't think DLP has the monopoly as I've experienced it at WDW a few times too.

Character scrums - this doesn't really affect us anymore because my DDs are long past the age of collecting autographs but I despair as to why DLP management really don't sort this out. Last month we were in the Studios when Elvis Stitch appeared and was immediately completely and truly mobbed. No one could get a photo with him, in fact I kept expecting a rugby ball to be thrown out of the scrum! I really, really can't understand why the CMs don't exercise better control all I can suggest is people continue to complain about this to DLP and hopefully one day people power will win through.

I love DLP and certainly don't think it's perfect, there's much that could be improved however I also feel this way about WDW and am sure I'll be saying the same after I've visited DL too.

 

[**Clare**]

Smoking isn't allowed in the park except in designated areas and that's since I think 2008 (will confirm) BUT it's not enforced.
Very few people read CM's want to get involved in asking people to stop smoking and I can sort of see their point as some people react very badly to this sort of intervention.

There should be more managers and security that deal with this and stamp it out systematically.

When you see people smoking while paying for their souvenirs or buying food from a cart you know that there's no hope to seeing it being dealt with in the near future.

I have seen some slight changes concerning people trampling all over the grass and flowerbeds to get up on the mounds to see the parade. 3 weeks ago there were CMs up on the top of the mounds stopping people climbing unfortunately yesterday afternoon was buisness as usual with people all over the place getting ready for the 7.00 pm show

DLP has a severe staffing problem, there are not enough of them, and until they are prepared to put more money into staff and security these type of threads will come up time and time again

We seen kids trampling all over the flowerbeds at the Princess meet and greet a few days ago and were amazed that the parents didn't intervene. The CM's with the Princess shouted over to them to get off but were completely ignored and they eventually climbed the fence themselves to shoo them off.

The complete lack of manners and disrespect for property and surroundings just amazes me. The parents should be ashamed of themselves.

As I have mentioned in another post, I was pleasantly surprised with some improvements I seen this week compared to our trip last year (which was great too). We didn't see any filthy toilets (nor did my DH) and I felt the cast members were more friendly than I found them to be last year.

The more I go to DLP the more I love it, and I admit, I wasn't its biggest fan after my first visit years ago. Based on my trip this week, I honestly couldn't fault the park & CM's, other than the rules re smoking aren't enforced and the character scrums are ridiculous. As others have said though, unless there is just a small crowd at unorganised meets, we avoid these and have a character meal instead and meet the characters at the hotel.

I completely agree with Mummytoash re park hours & refurbs.