Well it's been a year since I've been to DLR and we recently decided to renew our annual passes and went to DLR Thursday-Saturday April 25-27.
Here are some observations that I've noticed in the past year since I've been gone.
There were 16,000 high school students there for an international DECA conference, add in the 1,000+ high school students there for Music in the Parks and Heritage Festivals that I know take place there that weekends (and the music t-shirts we saw) that's a lot of kids but oh well.
They screwed up our booking at Paradise Pier Hotel and we didn't get the appropriate discount, they said since we booked it there wasn't anything we could do. We are talking about a couple hundred dollar discount too.
We were on a floor with said high school students (I am not teaching this year so I am on a break from high school students) at 1:30am they were running the halls, yelling, laughing, knocking on their friends door which was across the hall from mine so we could hear it yelling housekeeping in a high pitched voice. So I finally went out there and yelled at them. I didn't cuss but used my high school teacher voice. I didn't hear from them the rest of the night. I reported them to security to notify their director/teacher when I take a trip 10pm is the curfew and parents and I take 2 hour shifts patrolling the hallways to make sure stuff like that doesn't happen. No idea what their teacher was up to. When I reported them I found out I wasn't the only person reporting them.
Our Glow with the Show ears only worked for one day then stopped working. I couldn't find our receipt (honestly if I kept a receipt for everything I bought at DLR I would need a separate backpack for that). So they said the only thing they could do would be switch the batteries which they did and it didn't work. Mine wouldn't turn on at all and my sons just glowed a dim red in each ear (so dim you couldn't see it except in total darkness and even then it was dim). I was pissed as that was $50 out the door.
Speaking of the Glow with the Show ears, no one was wearing any except the cast members. Both showings of World of Color we were at were crowded and seriously besides cast members maybe a handful of people were wearing them. Guess they aren't as popular as they had hoped, especially if they only work one day.
We ate at the Carthay Circle Theater Restaurant for the first time. I have mixed reviews about it. First off I have major food allergies, I'm anaphelactic, I can't have anything with nuts, almonds, walnuts, peanut butter etc, no fish any type of fish, no mushrooms and no olives. My son is also autistic and I don't want to make him sound like a brat because he isn't but he is picky about what he eats and even if it is something he does like to eat if it doesn't look the same he won't eat it. It took us a while just to get him to eat the mac and cheese at Ariels' because it came is shells as opposed to long straight noodles like in east mac.
Anyways first off the ambiance was nice. The place is gorgeous and beautiful and very fancy, I felt underdressed in shorts and a t-shirt.
We managed to manipulate things enough for my son and my hubby will eat anything. The only thing I could have was a the rib-eye (the most expensive thing of course) and they had to hold the sauce/gravy due to the mushrooms and zinfidel. Well my rib-eye was RAW and I mean RAW I had asked medium well done. PLus about 30% of it was nothing but grizzle/fat as in non edible. They took it back and brought it back and it was still raw, only the two bites I had cut off were done right, still the grizzle was still there, we tried again and it came back the same way. I said I was done the third time. They were nice enough to take it off the bill and still allow us our world of color tickets. My husband had something that I forget (I think it was lamb and chicken or something) but said there was very little meat and he was still hungry. So nice setting but horrible food and we won't be returning.
OK world of Color we sit in the premier Carthay Cirlce seating in the handicapped section because of my sons autism he can't be in a crowd so this allows him space should he need to walk around or make a quick exit. They ask us to stand since we are physically capable of doing so and reserve the benches for those who can't sit. No problem I totally understand. So we stood behind the benches. However we couldn't see the show. I seriously don't ever remember having this problem before. But my son could barely see over the people seated on the bench in front of us (normally the area we sit in isn't that crowded so we often sit on the benches.) PLus the crowd in front were all standing (why can't they make them sit like fireworks or fantasmic?) PLUS in the crowd had several people with kids on their shoulders!!!! NOw not even my husband nor I could see. There was a small seat on the bench where just my son could sit or even stand. I talked to the cast member and complained to him that we couldn't see and he kind of shrugged his shoulders saying there wasn't much he could do that seating was first come first serve which I totally understand so I asked if they could make the people take the kid off their shoulders so others behind them could see to which he said no they can't ask that. Seriously??? So those beinhd them those handicapped just can't see, even after appending the money we did for dinner??? I asked if my son could stand on the bench he said no because it is a safety hazard, and I said well isn't it a safety hazrd for a child to be on their parents shoulders. He again smiled and shrugged his shoulders. They claimed with our park view room at Paradise pier that we could see it from there and the TV channel plays the music. well we could see the back of it, the projections weren't clear at all and we couldn't see the water effects in front of the screen because we were seeing the back of the water screen.
Now World of Color, when are they planning on a refurb and redoing of the park area where people watch from? The projections on the water screens the cartoons and that are looking really blurry to me, my husband and person standing next to us commented on it too.
Plus those water half globe things that come out of the water and display things on it still aren't coming out of the water.
I'm still also waiting for a CD on the music of World of Color. BUT WOC needs a refurb....badly.
Radiator Spring Racers is still having the breakdown problems as from when it first opened. Remember my rant when we first went on it how we had to come back 3 hours later only to have it break down right as we were about to enter the car? Well guess what I kid you not same thing happened except we didn't have to wait 3 hours, it was early morning entry but right as we were about to get into the car it broke down. The power cut out. They have to everyone off of the ride. Reset and power each car back on separately, and each track section back up separately and it is a mile and a half track and then cycle through all the cars. 45 minutes later we were on the ride. That's how we spent our early morning entry. A former student of mine is a ride operator lead on that ride and she says it breaks down anywhere from 10-20 times in a three day period, not good.
I have been dying to ride in the front section of the monorail for years. OUr second magic morning entry after the first train went off we were first in line for the next monorail train and I asked to ride in the front section and he said if it was avaialbe we could, and I thought no problem because the park just opened. Well it turns out someone was in there from inside the park and they selfishly decided to ride in the front back to the park. Seriously they couldn't just switch sections since they already got to ride? They should seriously think about making people have a one way ride only to make it fair.
I know this sounds really negative and I'm sorry but I love DLR and that's why I hate to see things so bad.
The Iron man exhibit at Innoventions was great and they had things very well organized in terms of letting so many people in and out of the exhibit. That was a good thing to see.
Space Mountain was still closed with no explanation, not even to cast members.
Everything else was positive.
Sorry if this sounds like a negative rant I didn't intend for it to. I just hold DLR in higher regards.
THanks for listening.
anyone else noticing the problem with the glow with the show ears? World of Color?
Here are some observations that I've noticed in the past year since I've been gone.
There were 16,000 high school students there for an international DECA conference, add in the 1,000+ high school students there for Music in the Parks and Heritage Festivals that I know take place there that weekends (and the music t-shirts we saw) that's a lot of kids but oh well.
They screwed up our booking at Paradise Pier Hotel and we didn't get the appropriate discount, they said since we booked it there wasn't anything we could do. We are talking about a couple hundred dollar discount too.
We were on a floor with said high school students (I am not teaching this year so I am on a break from high school students) at 1:30am they were running the halls, yelling, laughing, knocking on their friends door which was across the hall from mine so we could hear it yelling housekeeping in a high pitched voice. So I finally went out there and yelled at them. I didn't cuss but used my high school teacher voice. I didn't hear from them the rest of the night. I reported them to security to notify their director/teacher when I take a trip 10pm is the curfew and parents and I take 2 hour shifts patrolling the hallways to make sure stuff like that doesn't happen. No idea what their teacher was up to. When I reported them I found out I wasn't the only person reporting them.
Our Glow with the Show ears only worked for one day then stopped working. I couldn't find our receipt (honestly if I kept a receipt for everything I bought at DLR I would need a separate backpack for that). So they said the only thing they could do would be switch the batteries which they did and it didn't work. Mine wouldn't turn on at all and my sons just glowed a dim red in each ear (so dim you couldn't see it except in total darkness and even then it was dim). I was pissed as that was $50 out the door.
Speaking of the Glow with the Show ears, no one was wearing any except the cast members. Both showings of World of Color we were at were crowded and seriously besides cast members maybe a handful of people were wearing them. Guess they aren't as popular as they had hoped, especially if they only work one day.
We ate at the Carthay Circle Theater Restaurant for the first time. I have mixed reviews about it. First off I have major food allergies, I'm anaphelactic, I can't have anything with nuts, almonds, walnuts, peanut butter etc, no fish any type of fish, no mushrooms and no olives. My son is also autistic and I don't want to make him sound like a brat because he isn't but he is picky about what he eats and even if it is something he does like to eat if it doesn't look the same he won't eat it. It took us a while just to get him to eat the mac and cheese at Ariels' because it came is shells as opposed to long straight noodles like in east mac.
Anyways first off the ambiance was nice. The place is gorgeous and beautiful and very fancy, I felt underdressed in shorts and a t-shirt.
We managed to manipulate things enough for my son and my hubby will eat anything. The only thing I could have was a the rib-eye (the most expensive thing of course) and they had to hold the sauce/gravy due to the mushrooms and zinfidel. Well my rib-eye was RAW and I mean RAW I had asked medium well done. PLus about 30% of it was nothing but grizzle/fat as in non edible. They took it back and brought it back and it was still raw, only the two bites I had cut off were done right, still the grizzle was still there, we tried again and it came back the same way. I said I was done the third time. They were nice enough to take it off the bill and still allow us our world of color tickets. My husband had something that I forget (I think it was lamb and chicken or something) but said there was very little meat and he was still hungry. So nice setting but horrible food and we won't be returning.
OK world of Color we sit in the premier Carthay Cirlce seating in the handicapped section because of my sons autism he can't be in a crowd so this allows him space should he need to walk around or make a quick exit. They ask us to stand since we are physically capable of doing so and reserve the benches for those who can't sit. No problem I totally understand. So we stood behind the benches. However we couldn't see the show. I seriously don't ever remember having this problem before. But my son could barely see over the people seated on the bench in front of us (normally the area we sit in isn't that crowded so we often sit on the benches.) PLus the crowd in front were all standing (why can't they make them sit like fireworks or fantasmic?) PLUS in the crowd had several people with kids on their shoulders!!!! NOw not even my husband nor I could see. There was a small seat on the bench where just my son could sit or even stand. I talked to the cast member and complained to him that we couldn't see and he kind of shrugged his shoulders saying there wasn't much he could do that seating was first come first serve which I totally understand so I asked if they could make the people take the kid off their shoulders so others behind them could see to which he said no they can't ask that. Seriously??? So those beinhd them those handicapped just can't see, even after appending the money we did for dinner??? I asked if my son could stand on the bench he said no because it is a safety hazard, and I said well isn't it a safety hazrd for a child to be on their parents shoulders. He again smiled and shrugged his shoulders. They claimed with our park view room at Paradise pier that we could see it from there and the TV channel plays the music. well we could see the back of it, the projections weren't clear at all and we couldn't see the water effects in front of the screen because we were seeing the back of the water screen.
Now World of Color, when are they planning on a refurb and redoing of the park area where people watch from? The projections on the water screens the cartoons and that are looking really blurry to me, my husband and person standing next to us commented on it too.
Plus those water half globe things that come out of the water and display things on it still aren't coming out of the water.
I'm still also waiting for a CD on the music of World of Color. BUT WOC needs a refurb....badly.
Radiator Spring Racers is still having the breakdown problems as from when it first opened. Remember my rant when we first went on it how we had to come back 3 hours later only to have it break down right as we were about to enter the car? Well guess what I kid you not same thing happened except we didn't have to wait 3 hours, it was early morning entry but right as we were about to get into the car it broke down. The power cut out. They have to everyone off of the ride. Reset and power each car back on separately, and each track section back up separately and it is a mile and a half track and then cycle through all the cars. 45 minutes later we were on the ride. That's how we spent our early morning entry. A former student of mine is a ride operator lead on that ride and she says it breaks down anywhere from 10-20 times in a three day period, not good.
I have been dying to ride in the front section of the monorail for years. OUr second magic morning entry after the first train went off we were first in line for the next monorail train and I asked to ride in the front section and he said if it was avaialbe we could, and I thought no problem because the park just opened. Well it turns out someone was in there from inside the park and they selfishly decided to ride in the front back to the park. Seriously they couldn't just switch sections since they already got to ride? They should seriously think about making people have a one way ride only to make it fair.
I know this sounds really negative and I'm sorry but I love DLR and that's why I hate to see things so bad.
The Iron man exhibit at Innoventions was great and they had things very well organized in terms of letting so many people in and out of the exhibit. That was a good thing to see.
Space Mountain was still closed with no explanation, not even to cast members.
Everything else was positive.
Sorry if this sounds like a negative rant I didn't intend for it to. I just hold DLR in higher regards.
THanks for listening.
anyone else noticing the problem with the glow with the show ears? World of Color?
Persist and let them know that it matters to you. I have total faith they will fix it for you.
