back highs and lows

[daiseyirl]

hi all,

LOWS

smoking in the parks!!! how its not ilegal to smoke around children ill never know!!

princess pavillion, think it so unfair they dont tell you which princess is in there, we qued 4 times and met 4 diffrent princess yay!! but we could easily have ment belle 3 times!! esp as it very young little girl who want to meet them whats the harm on letting us know

rapunzel my 5yr old worships her and we didnt meet her we did see her twice in the park and she wouldnt even wave at her, the 2nd time leaving my little girl in tears

the que jumpers

The rudeness of the staff in general

HIGHS

THE weather it was fantastic really made our trip, refirmed why i will only visit from late may until augs anymore. after 2 winter trips and 2 summer trips i really feel the parks are so much nicer in the sun.

seqouia lodge, lovely hotel and every staff member we met was so helpful and friendly, the pool was fantastic and the kids luved the slide.

meeting so much characters.

cowboy cookout had a lovely lunch here the girls met loads of their favourites but no jessie tho


all in all we had a gud time, do i want to return maybe not, dont know is because the girls are older nearly 7+6 now but it def has lost the magic, the rude staff didnt help!! would the girls return in a heart beat. dd1 is already talking about our nxt trip

 

[DLPdaft]

when were you there daiseyirl, have you just got back?

shame that your DD never got to meet Rapunzel, but great that she got to meet so many other characters/Princesses .

which staff were rude to you, and did you complain to City Hall?

 

[DLPDreams]

Sorry to hear about the issues you experienced.

I am dreading the smoking as I've honestly not noticed that much before - twice in the past stays. I hate people smoking around my children esp in close confinement/inside. Outside I can't get too funny about it as they could do that in the UK!

As for rude staff - you mention it as a high and low. I guess it's like everything, you get good and bad ones! Really wish it wasn't that way - we have come across some rude CMs before (particularly in Cafe Mickey) but then some great ones in the park itself. It's so hard to lump them together.

It will be interesting to see on our next trip re children being too old, my DD1 is now 7 (just turned) and was 4.75 when we last went. I think this year she will still love it and I'm really looking forward to introducing her to some of the rides and bits she was too young for - BTM being a priority! I do know what you mean though.

Hope you had a great time overall though. Did you not see Dreams?

 

[fizz13]

just curious, which characters were at the Cookout? looking at meals to book and was curious, thanks

 

[A Small World]

Im assuming the reason they dont let you know which Princess you will meet is because they change over every so often so when you start queuing it may be one Princess but by the time you got there it would have changed a couple of times.

And Im not sure really that you can class it as a low as you got different ones each time

 

[tinks_1989]

I don't understand why Rapunzel still doesn't have her own meet she is obviously still very popular! We were really disappointed when we didn't see her last time we only queued twice in Pavilion lucky we saw two different princesses but could of seen Tiana both times!

 

[lilacgems23]

The reason they wont tell you who is in the Princess Pavillion is because they change every 30 minutes and waiting is always over an hour so chances are the one inside when you join the que wont be the one you meet. We were told this by a CM there when we asked on our last trip.

 

[absolut_mandy]

We just got back last week and I agree totally about the smoking situation.

We were waiting for a meet with Mulan and the person in front of us literally blew smoke in Mulan's face. Mulan (with all the credit to her) handled it well and just scrunched up her nose, but it was so rude!

I apologized to Mulan b/c I was embarrassed that someone could do that and I'm not even a smoker!

Also, I totally agree with the Princess Pavillion thing. We asked when we were next in line to go into to meet the princess and the guy was so rude. We mentioned that we wouldn't mind waiting but we had already met Snow White and we were looking to meet anyone else. The guy was so rude that my DGD actually noticed and she is only 9. We didn't make a big deal about it but it was crazy to us. A little bit of pixie dust goes a long way for me!

Mandy

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back love the way you listed your lows first!

 

[daiseyirl]

thanks eveyone,

the staff in the seqouia were lovely (high)
the staff in the park werent (low).

As for the pavillion yes we were very lucky in meeting diffrent princess's but its the way it is organised is the reason i put it in as a low, i know they cant tell you at the door as the que is an hr from there. but they know at the top who is in there. to lie and tell you they have no idea who is there is wrong!! as i said we were v.lucky but we could easily have met belle 3 times!! if we had been one place ahead or behind in the line.

at the cowboy cookout we met woody, eeore (sp) , goofey, daisey and donald.

oh got back on the 27th

All in all we had a good time and the girls had a total ball, and if they put enough pressure on me we will be back nxt year

 

[DLPDreams]

I actually don't think we will do the Pavilion. I just can't see DD2 standing for hours on end to be honest. I would like to have a look around inside as from photos, it looks amazing.

I wonder if they would let me have a peek in without queuing? I'm not sure of the set up or anything so probably not.

We are doing Auberge and a few other character meals so we will make do with those unless there is a character without a queue (would like to meet Duffy though).

Thanks for the info, my DD2 would be made up to meet Donald & Daisy at Cowboy Cookout (another place we are eating). It's often quite difficult to meet them (or has been on previous trips - minus a scrum anyway!), so to see them there would be amazing for us.

You've got to take your hat off to Disney and the way they market the characters. It's almost like it is on rotation to make some more scarce than others. Means things like Halloween and other special events are popular as you get more unusual characters that people are willing to pay to meet! Previous trips Woody & Jessie have positively been bored and lonely when we've seen them at the Round Up area - it seems they are becoming scarcer to meet around the park now - lots of posts on here of people wanting to meet them but didn't manage it.

Agree that someone, somewhere knows who is doing what. If there is someone my girls are desperate to see we will go to City Hall and ask if we might see them out and about but I doubt it will do much good and I don't want to build up hopes .

Digressing slightly but we had an issue last trip where DD1 was desperate to meet Mulan - at the time she was rarely out for meets but was on Stars n Cars (time when it used to stop). I screwed up and had us on the opposite side to her area and we only saw it once as it was our last day. DD1 was dressed up as Mulan and was waving to try and get her attention. Her little face had so much anticipation I did something I would normally never do, and asked the nearby CM if there was any chance Mulan would come by, explaining it was our last day etc. He said he would try his best for us and gave DD a smile. He then walked off and did absolutely nothing at all . I watched him - he didn't even speak to her or anyone else! Mulan got back in her car and DD1 was heartbroken. As she drove past us she noticed DD1 and literally started waving and blowing kisses and gave a sad face for missing her - it brought a massive tear to my eye. But I was really angry at that CM. If he had no chance of getting her then fine, but why say to a child that you will try and then in front of her eyes just stand and do nothing!

On the flipside, I've had CMs bring a character back out when we've just missed them so that they can see my DDs. It is luck of the drawer - some CMs still feel the magic! Just wish they would spread it to CMs at the Pavilion .

 

[A Small World]

As for the pavillion yes we were very lucky in meeting diffrent princess's but its the way it is organised is the reason i put it in as a low, i know they cant tell you at the door as the que is an hr from there. but they know at the top who is in there. to lie and tell you they have no idea who is there is wrong!! as i said we were v.lucky but we could easily have met belle 3 times!! if we had been one place ahead or behind in the line.

)

This has always been the case though - The main difference is that you used to see the Princess and then would see them walk away - this used to really disappoint some children as theyd actually see their favourite walk away. So you could have queued for an hour and and got to the front to find it was the same princess like now. I dont think many people would walk away after queuing for an hour.
Im assuming the way it set up now is that you dont know which Princess is there until you actually meet them
It may be that the CM at the entrance doesnt know who is there inside as they may have change without them knowing or they may say one Princess who then leaves so there would be complaints as they had been told wrong.
I think the surprise element adds to it but thats just my opinion

 

[DLPdaft]

This has always been the case though - The main difference is that you used to see the Princess and then would see them walk away - this used to really disappoint some children as theyd actually see their favourite walk away. So you could have queued for an hour and and got to the front to find it was the same princess like now. I dont think many people would walk away after queuing for an hour.
Im assuming the way it set up now is that you dont know which Princess is there until you actually meet them
It may be that the CM at the entrance doesnt know who is there inside as they may have change without them knowing or they may say one Princess who then leaves so there would be complaints as they had been told wrong.
I think the surprise element adds to it but thats just my opinion

ah but at least when it was outside, if you saw the Princess you wanted to see walk away to be replaced by someone else when you were at/near the front of the queue, you could wait at the side (ie still in the queue but not going forward) on the steps of the stage until the Princess you wanted to see came back (ie after about 30 minutes).