We had 7 people (6 ticketed plus a two year old in a stroller). We had our at home printed tickets in hand. There was a CM working the gate and another CM with the camera phone in front of the gate. We were a few people back in line and I motioned to the camera CM that we had new, print-at-home tickets. Thinking he could come do our pics while the people ahead of us went through. He said that the CM working the gate will check to see if we need pics. I'm thinking "I'm holding printed 5 day tickets. It's obvious we need pics." So, we get up to the gate CM and she scans the first ticket and then looks at the front CM and says "Oooh, they're going to need pics?" He says "They do? Really?" She says "Yes" He says "Oh ok, I guess you do need pictures." I'm like "Yes, we sure do"
So, I had purchased 4 of the tickets with my credit card. They print my ticket first b/c my name was on the order and my name automatically printed on my ticket, then I go through the gate (I went through the swing open gate rather than the turnstile b/c I'm pushing ds) I stand on the inside of the swing open gate while the photo CM stands on the outside and takes my pic and scans the ticket. Then, he gives the ticket back to the gate CM and she scans it for entry. Then they ask DH for his license. He shows his license and then they ask him to spell his name out loud. He spells it twice, she repeats. Finally they print his ticket. He goes through the turnstile, then around the turnstile to stand behind the swing open gate where the camera CM takes his pick from the other side of the gate, then the camera CM gives his ticket back to the main CM who scans it. He then stands there and spells my daughter's name twice, CM repeats, once they have her name, they print her ticket, she goes through the turnstile, around by the gate and takes her picture, gives ticket back to be scanned, and again for my son.
Here's a pic I snapped when DH is spelling DD's name. This is our whole group's first time ever in
Disneyland, we had just been singing and dancing on our walk in. Look at everyone's faces... You can kind of see the camera CM behind the gate CM.
So our crew is through, and DH is complaining to me about what a ridiculous system they have. We've moved a little bit away so as not to clog the walkway while we wait for my parents. And we realize that something is not right. My mom is on her scooter, so my dad had handed the CM their tickets. I have a credit card of my parents issued to me in my name. I was supposed to use this card to buy their tickets. However, I'd read here that the credit card name is printed on one ticket. So, I called my mom to find out exactly how her name read on her card and put her name on the order instead of mine. Well, since my dad handed them the tickets, they gave him her ticket and took his pic for it. So, he had to wait for a manager to come over and reissue his ticket with his name. All this time everyone who was in our line, AP, people with 1 day tickets, people who'd already had their picture taken, etc had to wait.
That was Saturday evening. Sunday we sight-see in LA. Monday we head to DCA for rope drop. We get to the front of the line, hand our tickets over to the turnstile CM, and she hands ticket to photo CM and says "Looks like it's these guys first time in the parks! They need their photos taken!" So, DH says no, we took photos Saturday, and she says "Well it looks like you need them again!" Everyone had to retake their pics except for my dad, somehow his reissued ticket had his pic. So, we've already used a day off of our ticket, we already have our names printed on them, but the CM didn't realize that we'd already been in the parks. And, then just reattached new pics to the tickets without doing any verification. DH's ticket could have said Marty McFly and she'd just have taken his pic and let us go on our way. I know a fraudster can't count on that glitch, but we could have rented/borrowed/stolen anyone's tickets and gotten in that day. We were never again asked for ID after the first day.
Once again, people behind us who were APs or had already taken pics had to wait through the whole thing.
Then Tuesday right as MM is starting (we were a little later than we wanted to be that day), we walk up to lines crossing the plaza. The DL lines were butting into the DCA lines (which were very small b/c DCA wasn't opening for another hour). I walk up to a CM at a exit only gate to the side before we enter the crowds with our crew and ask her which line we should be in for MM. She says "Hmmm... I think Magic Morning is 2 or maybe it's 16. Um yeah. 2 or 16." So, DH takes off into the crowd to go look at the signs at the gate. (there were signs above the gates, but the lines were so long that you couldn't see them from the end of the line) He comes back and says this line had a Magic Morning sign and we should get in that one. (I think it was 22) Once we get in line, there are irate people everywhere. All had stories of waiting in the wrong line when that's the line a CM had told them they should be in. Well, the line is moving, but it is SLOW. At one point a CM passes by and the man behind us asks "I've changed lines 3 times already, is this the line for Magic Morning" Response "You know that is a good question... I'm not sure about that." DH goes to the front to see what's going on and comes back, says that most people in the line do not have Magic Morning, so we're standing there waiting while they argue with CMs b/c they can't get in. We had been the only moving line, but barely moving. Two CMs start coming through the line and we see them forming another line to the side of us. When they get to us, we see that they're trying to sort out the people in the line who don't have MM and forming another line of those people. So, the line is still crawling, but we're much closer to the gate. Meanwhile, there's this random line on the side of us and people who are just getting to the plaza are very confused and have no idea where to go or even how to get there through the sea of lines. Well, all of a sudden all the other lines start moving quickly through the gates and we're still crawling. I guess they started letting in the regular entry guests at this time. We finally make it through the gates 45 minutes after getting in line, and 45 minutes into our "Magic Morning"
On Wednesday, we didn't have problems but our line was moving very slowly. The line next to us started flying, and we realized that our section had 2 lines, one for each turnstile, but the line next to us had one line that was feeding two turnstiles. The tall gate was closed as if the second turnstile wasn't open, but a CM was working it and pulling from the other turnstile's line. Our CM was also taking a very long time studying peoples faces and pics. It took us about 20 minutes to get in. Probably wouldn't have been a big deal, except we'd already really soured to the process.
This was 2 weeks ago. Things might have changed, but it seems the process was less efficient for us than it was when they first started doing pics in January rather than more. I was thinking that when we got there, they'd have smoothed out the process, but that wasn't the case.
