Just Back, My Thoughts

[jnjusoioa]

Hi Everyone, just returned on Monday from four days at the parks, so thought I would hit on a few things. First of all the parks were crowded, and I was overwhelmed by the amount of rudeness from cast members as well as guests, this was not a very magical Disney experience this time around.

First off, the hotel, I picked The Tropicanna and actually have no complaints about the place, I was very happy with them and there staff, the walk to the parks is short and I loved the little store right across the way, it was nice to be able to stop in there and grab some water everynight.

Disneyland, don't really have a lot of negative to say about this park, all in all most people were nice, however cast members were rude. My friend and I went to BBB, I have always had a wonderful experience at WDW with this, however the Fairy Godmother's all seemed very rushed and not in the mood at all, which was sad because I had told my friend what a neat experience this was. Photopass photographers were not anywhere, well at the main spots, front of castle, out front by the turnstiles, that is about it. It was sad. Lines were all long, we did do a MM and were able to do all the FantasyLand rides with little or no wait and Star Tours, so that was very nice. Was able to do Toontown Morning Madness and that was also very cool, loved that as part of the characters are what make the Disney experience. Loved this and do recomend it to anyone if you are able to stay someplace that offers this.

California Adventure, hopefully when everything is done over here it will be a much different experience but the construction walls make it a total pain, didn't really even enjoy this park except once you got over the bridge and down to the games, etc it was nice then. World of Color is totally amazing, do not miss this show, one of my favorite parts of the trip, loved it and was actually able to get some good photos of it. Hope they soon come out with a soundtrack to it because I love the opening song and would love to have that.

Also Fantasmic, wonderful, first time in all my trips that I have seen this show and it was worth the wait. Very cool show. We also did the reserved seating, highly recomend that. It was nice, granted you still have to wait a bit if you want a good seat but all in all not too bad. The dessert tray they give you is yummy!!! Had very good service in the area we were in, it was nice, they offer you drinks, out gentleman came back with water, or anything else we wanted to drink, so this was a very good experience and well worth the wait.

All in all, an ok trip, not what I am use to from a Disney trip, but oh well. Think I will give it a few years before I head back. Hopefully the construction will be done and it will be a different experience. Because out of WDW and DLR I have always loved DLR.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Disneyland, don't really have a lot of negative to say about this park, all in all most people were nice, however cast members were rude.

Well, at least we know it wasn't just us. Our recent trip overlapped your dates. We too felt like we encountered an unusually high number of rude cast members. I found myself fuming about it at one point but realized that there was no point in letting this affect our trip. We decided to pay special attention to the really friendly cast members and appreciate those interactions more, and when we put ourselves into that mindset we realized that for every rude cast member we encountered, we met at least 10 to 20 that were just fine or even wonderful. In the end, we encountered far more extremely rude park guests than park workers, which just highlights how hard that Disney employee cheerfulness probably is to maintain in the face of some of the guest behavior we witnessed.

 

[HydroGuy]

Our trip picked up right where yours left off on Tuesday and mostly I am amazed at how short the lines are this week. As many of you know I am the king of FP but they have not been as necessary as usual. We had Indy walk-ons at 10AM and 10PM at night. Splash walk-ons at 9:30AM. I have been in the summer when Splash is 20-30 minutes by 9:30AM on a hot summer day.

Star Tours has calmed down and seems to top out at 50 minutes.

Yesterday at 1PM Tower of Terror was a 5 minute wait to get into the first show room. GRR was an 18 minute wait to ride at 11AM on an 89 degree day. Soarin was 35 minutes at 1:30PM.

For me when I think busy I think of lines twice as long as all of this. It is consistent with what we saw in late June this year - except for ST which has really gone down.

Mostly I have been trying to figure out how DLR annual attendance has grown and the wait times have decreased.

Regarding rude CMs, we have not had that many interactions but fortunately they have all been positive. We have had only one rude guest interaction otherwise guests have been positive and happy as well.

Please don't take my post as disagreeing with your experience or saying Disney can do no wrong. We just have had a good week this week and I was really amazed by the short wait times for rides whereby we have done a lot more standby lines than normal as a result.

 

[CrabbyPatty]

HydroGuy - ditto on many of your comments. This being our first trip, can't comment on the current lines vs. historical - but I was surprised how short many of the lines were. We got up early, got our favorite rides done right away, got FP for other events, and then in the afternoon, just took advantage of those rides/attractions that had short lines. Worked out very well, IMHO.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Our trip picked up right where yours left off on Tuesday and mostly I am amazed at how short the lines are this week. As many of you know I am the king of FP but they have not been as necessary as usual. We had Indy walk-ons at 10AM and 10PM at night. Splash walk-ons at 9:30AM. I have been in the summer when Splash is 20-30 minutes by 9:30AM on a hot summer day.

Star Tours has calmed down and seems to top out at 50 minutes.

Yesterday at 1PM Tower of Terror was a 5 minute wait to get into the first show room. GRR was an 18 minute wait to ride at 11AM on an 89 degree day. Soarin was 35 minutes at 1:30PM.

For me when I think busy I think of lines twice as long as all of this. It is consistent with what we saw in late June this year - except for ST which has really gone down.

Mostly I have been trying to figure out how DLR annual attendance has grown and the wait times have decreased.

Regarding rude CMs, we have not had that many interactions but fortunately they have all been positive. We have had only one rude guest interaction otherwise guests have been positive and happy as well.

Please don't take my post as disagreeing with your experience or saying Disney can do no wrong. We just have had a good week this week and I was really amazed by the short wait times for rides whereby we have done a lot more standby lines than normal as a result.

Sounds like you are having a very fortunate experience. We had a great time when we were there, one of our best trips overall because it was "new" to us in that we travelled with others. Being part of a big group for once was fun. Glad you're not encountering as much rudeness, but, like I mentioned, there's far more positive than negative if you make a point not to dwell on the negative.

Our wait times were definitely not so nice as yours, but we used fastpass and know how to do the parks after our many trips, so that didn't matter much. During our Wed-Mon visit, we saw Splash posted as 75 minutes once when we walked by; according to MouseWait it got up to 110 on at least one occasion but we didn't verify. Grizzly was 45 minutes at 1:30 or 2:30 on Sunday when DH and the boys went on with fastpass. It was up to 65 minutes when they got off. And it wasn't as hot. Grizzly was at least that long a wait on a couple of occasions when we walked by earlier during the trip (weekdays even). Star Tours was very often over 60 minutes, but we fastpassed on all but one of our rides. We rode an extra time on our last morning without fastpass because the ride had been down and we managed to walk back by as it re-opened and have less than a 1/2 hour wait. (Another fastpass wouldn't have been feasible as we were leaving within an hour, so that was a nice bonus to ride twice before 11 AM.) Toy Story had posted waits between 40 and 65 minutes, and we ended up riding only once with a 40 minute wait once everybody else in our group went home since they didn't want to wait so long for anything. Tower of Terror had waits of 10-20 minutes often, but Friday afternoon at 1:30 PM DH went to get fastpasses before the Aladdin show and ended up with fastpasses for after 6 PM. We never made it on Peter Pan this trip since the kids were all ST and roller coaster crazy, but my parents rode Pan with only a 15 minute wait after getting in line around 8:10 or 8:15 on Saturday morning. Fantasyland rides seemed to develop their long lines more slowly than in the past; we assumed it was the Star Tours effect. Never looked at the Space wait time late in the day; they rode with fastpass or before 9 AM, so their waits never exceeded 20 minutes.

Cool thing...we did see R2D2 rolling around Tomorrowland and posing for pictures. Neat picture with my sons and R2D2 made up for our paucity of pictures this trip. As APers who go a few times a year, we tend to go slower usually, but traveling with a bunch of people with 3-day hoppers changed our pace somewhat this time. Hardly any time for picture-taking!

 

[HydroGuy]

Sounds like you are having a very fortunate experience. We had a great time when we were there, one of our best trips overall because it was "new" to us in that we travelled with others. Being part of a big group for once was fun. Glad you're not encountering as much rudeness, but, like I mentioned, there's far more positive than negative if you make a point not to dwell on the negative.

Our wait times were definitely not so nice as yours, but we used fastpass and know how to do the parks after our many trips, so that didn't matter much. During our Wed-Mon visit, we saw Splash posted as 75 minutes once when we walked by; according to MouseWait it got up to 110 on at least one occasion but we didn't verify. Grizzly was 45 minutes at 1:30 or 2:30 on Sunday when DH and the boys went on with fastpass. It was up to 65 minutes when they got off. And it wasn't as hot. Grizzly was at least that long a wait on a couple of occasions when we walked by earlier during the trip (weekdays even). Star Tours was very often over 60 minutes, but we fastpassed on all but one of our rides. We rode an extra time on our last morning without fastpass because the ride had been down and we managed to walk back by as it re-opened and have less than a 1/2 hour wait. (Another fastpass wouldn't have been feasible as we were leaving within an hour, so that was a nice bonus to ride twice before 11 AM.) Toy Story had posted waits between 40 and 65 minutes, and we ended up riding only once with a 40 minute wait once everybody else in our group went home since they didn't want to wait so long for anything. Tower of Terror had waits of 10-20 minutes often, but Friday afternoon at 1:30 PM DH went to get fastpasses before the Aladdin show and ended up with fastpasses for after 6 PM. We never made it on Peter Pan this trip since the kids were all ST and roller coaster crazy, but my parents rode Pan with only a 15 minute wait after getting in line around 8:10 or 8:15 on Sunday morning. Fantasyland rides seemed to develop their long lines more slowly than in the past; we assumed it was the Star Tours effect. Never looked at the Space wait time late in the day; they rode with fastpass or before 9 AM, so their waits never exceeded 20 minutes.

Cool thing...we did see R2D2 rolling around Tomorrowland and posing for pictures. Neat picture with my sons and R2D2 made up for our paucity of pictures this trip. As APers who go a few times a year, we tend to go slower usually, but traveling with a bunch of people with 3-day hoppers changed our pace somewhat this time. Hardly any time for picture-taking!

FWIW the Touring Plans website - which I do not trust very much - had the previous few weeks rated as "9" and "10" days and starting Tuesday as "8" days this week. When I rate summer crowds I compare to 2005 and 2006 during the 50th celebration and what I have seen this summer is nothing like that. It does sound like there has been some luck involved on our part. I ain't complaining!

Oh, and with regard to the OP I agree about the PhotoPass photographers. It seems like they used to be everywhere but now I rarely see them.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

FWIW the Touring Plans website - which I do not trust very much - had the previous few weeks rated as "9" and "10" days and starting Tuesday as "8" days this week.

Yeah, I noticed that. I wasn't that fussed about crowds...we know what we want to do and do it. The crowds get wearing after a while, but then we take a break. DCA does feel a little worse because of all the walls and the loss of the central corridor, and that will get worse before it gets better, but it is what it is.

Oh, and with regard to the OP I agree about the PhotoPass photographers. It seems like they used to be everywhere but now I rarely see them.

I agree too! DH and I both found ourselves commenting on this throughout our visit. Numerous times, for example, we noticed characters out on Main Street doing meet and greets. While the handlers were out there with them, there wasn't a photopass photographer in sight. The castle, partner's statue, and Mickey floral were the only places we saw them with consistency and then only one in each location usually.

 

[dlander]

We were there yesterday as well and really enjoyed the short wait times! Many school districts have started this week, so I am sure that has a lot to do with it. On our trip two weeks ago it was packed! It was so fun to get in one last visit before we take DD off to college

 

[FlameGirl]

Re: rude cast members, would either of you care to elaborate? I'm really curious about what you encountered.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Re: rude cast members, would either of you care to elaborate? I'm really curious about what you encountered.

The ticket booth CM who we had problems getting our APs processed with. I tried to remain polite but firm, but I may have gotten a little heated when she kept arguing with me and trying to cut months off our APs. She eventually became very short with us and just shoved stuff through the window without talking to us except to give monosyllabic instructions. This was after a supervisor came through and apparently fixed the problem without ever speaking to us or even acknowledging our presence.

The DCA front gate CM who raised her voice quite loudly and chastised my 11-year old for not getting his picture taken for his AP. He had done so the previous night, but the picture still hadn't come through their system by the next morning. Fine, if you have a problem with it, talk to me who had gone through the turnstile first or ask my husband who was standing behind my son waiting to get his AP scanned in, but don't yell at my kid.

The CM in Westward Ho who acted all put out when my sons asked to trade vinylmation when their turn in line at the register finally came up. Was she miffed that they weren't buying something? They were very polite with their pleases and thank yous (I supervised), and there was nobody else in line behind them so they weren't holding up a big sale or anything.

The D-street CM who implied to my son that it was his fault that his school didn't provide school I.D.s and that she didn't believe he was really the person on the AP. This was his first attempt to buy something with the new AP. Even though DH was standing right there, the CM didn't ask to see DH's AP and I.D. which would have been sufficient since DS is a minor but basically almost refused to make the sale. Eventually a manager came over to see what was going on and overrode it but also refused to enter the discount as an AP discount, instead using a generic manager override discount. We figured out to be ready to help them out whenever our sons wanted to buy anything anywhere after that. Most of the CMs were more polite and helpful about the situation, and we understand that they can get in trouble if they don't follow the rules. We just felt instead of being so uppity about it, they could have explained or suggested an alternative or something. Anyway, no way to know what had been going on with that CM that day or week. A little more patience would have been nice though, especially since we were buying something and there was no line behind us.

Maybe in some of our experiences "sourness" might be a better word than rudeness. There were a few other instances. In all fairness though, I should emphasize again that we encountered many, many pleasant CMs and some who even went above and beyond with friendliness and service. These included the Disneyana cashier on Monday morning, the cashier at Minnie's breakfast on Thursday morning, the CM at City Hall that I spoke to about our AP processing problems, several CMs that we pin traded with, the CM one afternoon at Off the Page in DCA and many more. I recognize that it can't be easy to be in that Disney pressure cooker with the summer crowds and ride breakdowns and refurbs and new computer systems. It just spoils a little of the "magic" when you feel like people are being kind of rude to you. Indifferent doesn't bother me so much though, and very friendly or helpful definitely adds to the "magic."

 

[jnjusoioa]

Same here as far as rude CM's go, usually the CM's are part of making the Disney magic and most of the ones we encountered either didn't want bothered or were just very rude. Over my years of traveling to both Disney parks I have had many nice conversations with the CM's, this trip none of them wanted bothered.

 

[FlameGirl]

Wow. I'm not normally one to register complaints that could end in administrative action or worse, someone losing their job, but LRDL, I think I may have paid a visit to City Hall and spoken to someone about the various treatment you received. That's not right, and I agree that them giving your KIDS a hard time would have been my tipping point.

I might even still consider calling. That needs to be tightened up, STAT.

 

[jnjusoioa]

Wow. I'm not normally one to register complaints that could end in administrative action or worse, someone losing their job, but LRDL, I think I may have paid a visit to City Hall and spoken to someone about the various treatment you received. That's not right, and I agree that them giving your KIDS a hard time would have been my tipping point.

I might even still consider calling. That needs to be tightened up, STAT.

I have actually thought about calling Disney but I wasn't sure where to start and I am not one to complain but the cast members truly made this a non-magical Disney trip for us.

 

[FlameGirl]

I have actually thought about calling Disney but I wasn't sure where to start and I am not one to complain but the cast members truly made this a non-magical Disney trip for us.

Try 714.781.4000

 

[Sammy Cat]

Well, at least we know it wasn't just us. Our recent trip overlapped your dates. We too felt like we encountered an unusually high number of rude cast members. I found myself fuming about it at one point but realized that there was no point in letting this affect our trip. We decided to pay special attention to the really friendly cast members and appreciate those interactions more, and when we put ourselves into that mindset we realized that for every rude cast member we encountered, we met at least 10 to 20 that were just fine or even wonderful. In the end, we encountered far more extremely rude park guests than park workers, which just highlights how hard that Disney employee cheerfulness probably is to maintain in the face of some of the guest behavior we witnessed.

We just got back from WDW, and I personally encountered a handful of rude cast members that really didn't need to be rude, and they were a downer during our trip. But I agree, for every rude castmember there were probably 3 that were perfectly nice. Just some people aren't cut out for the job, IMO, but you will find that anywhere you go.

To give an example of the rudeness we encountered:
At Disney Hollywood Studios, the second day of our trip (which we had planned around Star Wars Weekends because my son is such a fan) we struggled to get the kids out of bed early, which was around 6 am with the time change, to make sure we got there in time for the Jedi Training rush. All pamphlets and even the Disney TV said the park was opening at 9 am, so we were trying to get there 30 minutes early. Of course, it was hard to get the family going but we made it just in time for park opening at about 5 to nine. Then we realized everyone was already being let in, and the guys at the gates said they opened the park one hour early because there were so many people waiting outside. We rushed to the info station and were told, at 2 after 9, that all the Jedi training spots were gone. I asked one cast member if there was any chance of getting in on last minute cancellations and he was rude in saying, I don't know, you will have to come back 30 minutes before every show and then its not likely. Then I said disappointedly that I didn't know the park was going to open one hour early and that we chose our vacation around this time just for our son to do this. His only response was, "well are you coming back at all?" I said "Maybe on Sunday" and he smiled and said in a snooty manner, 'then just make sure you get here an hour before the park opens." Nice.

 

[CkDedmon]

Any thoughts on how crowds might be next week (Monday, Aug 22 - Thursday, Aug 25)? That's when we'll be there.

I was hoping school would be in session for many...but it also looks like the AP blackout period will be over, with could be bad.