WOC debacle and other adventures!

[modmama]

So we went to DL last week. It already feels too long ago!

We stayed at the Anabella (kind of an old, worn-out room, but had a door that closed to the kids' room and two nights were only $140 total!). Spent 1 day at DL and one at DCA.

A couple things - it was packed. The AP-holders we went with were shocked. Even with the crowds, it was awesome overall. Who can complain about shoulder-to-shoulder happy people?!

The one terrible experience we had revolved around WOC. We got our FPs after 45 min in line, which we were thrilled about. Our passes were for yellow. So, 85 minutes before the show, we were the first to line up in the yellow queue! Victory! Or so we thought.

After a longggg wait, lots of chatting with CMs, hanging out with the crazy growing line behind us, it was finally getting to get-in-the-door time! So imagine our surprise when one of the CMs who had been chatty moved 2/3rds down the line, and yelled "Come with me if you're in yellow!" so all of the people in the middle and toward the end of the line followed him to the yellow area. We yelled, "Wait, what about the line?" And the CM shrugged and gave us the snidest smile. I was IRATE. Then as they took the FPs, they didn't even take ours. I think at that point they didn't care who was in there. And all those people who waiting 10 or 15 minutes were in our spots. I wrote a politely-angry letter to Disney and received a canned response. Go figure. Was I wrong in assuming they would lead the queue from the *front* of the queue?!

Then as we waited behind a bunch of people for the WOC show, guess what? It didn't start. And it didn't start. Then it started a few times (we were laughing so hard every time it started the song "COLOHHHHHH" and then cut it off and turned the lights up). Then it would stop, and so on. We had joked about the show breaking since we saw people working on the fountains all day. The show finally started, 18 minutes late. You can imagine how excited I was to wait longer after our ridiculous wait we already had.

But you know what? What we did see, after all that annoying crap, was INCREDIBLE. Loved it. LOVED IT.

But my advice: don't bother queuing up. Just don't. It could ruin your time.

Other random things: WOW, I had never been to DCA, and I adored it. Really. I'm not sure why it's gotten such a "meh" reputation. I thought Paradise Pier was charming, we spent about an hour on the Up Challenge Trail with our boys, it was all just lovely!

Overall, the CMs we interacted with wanted to be somewhere, anywhere else. Surly service allll over the place. We liked the CMs at the WOC line, but you know how that turned out. We also waited in a 4-person line on the "inner" Dole Whip line for 17 minutes. Seriously, we were the 5th person in line. SE VEN TEEN MIN UTES.

One thing I noticed different from previous fall trips is that the last 2 years, we were accosted by Photo Pass people all over the place, and this year we didn't see a single one. It was more crowded, though.

So I guess to wrap up I've got to just say...when can we go back?!?

 

[PatMcDuck]

All i can say is, that we have had similar experiences, usually at WDW.

I am dating myself, but once we lined up and got a spot SUPER early for a Dinosaur parade at MGM Studios. My kids ADORED that TV show. We sat down, camping out, we were very early. CMs saw us, chatted to us, etc. then 10 minutes to show time, they said they had to clear our area. By this time, people were all lined up, 10 people deep, and we had no where to go (we had 2 young kids in strollers). We could not see a thing, and for whatever reason it was the only day we had a shot to see it. I forgot about it until I read your post, then it all came flooding back.

I complained at guest relations, and wrote a letter, too. I just could see no reason for what happened, SO many CMs SAW us, chatted with us, etc. We had another nightmare at the Studios one time when there was a thunderstorm for 2 hours and the boats to yacht and beach, etc shut down. We wandered around for over an hour, guest relations, security, all had no clue how we could get back to our hotel. They suggested walking (if the lightning is too dangerous for the boats, is walking by a canal safe?) or finding a cab (I said, this is a deluxe hotel, I need to pay for a CAB too?) After 90 minutes they finally had an AK bus take us and other refugees back to our hotel, all drenched to the skin........ Again, I was incensed, why have NO procedure in place for the boats shutting down for lightning? ARGHH.

The WoC show is really tricky, and very confusing. It is hard to figure out where to line up, when to line up, etc. I saw the same behavior, so many people ran in, they did NOT collect the FP. I have can't really come up with a good solution myself, but I would hope the smart guys at DL could figure out a better way. Starting with the front of the line sure seems logical to me!

 

[Bashara]

Firstly I'd read Hydroguy's WOC thread so I knew we had to be there early to get a good spot so our kids could see. Unfortunately I forgot which spot our queue was supposed to line up at.

We had the same problem ourselves with WOC as a reserved dining family. No one would tell us where to stand. Asked at least 5 CM's before one said "Yeh the entrance is here, go off and have fun and come back at 7.30". I said I'd prefer to queue now and he said sure, so my hubby took the kids off and I stood round chatting to him. Other people joined in behind us as time went by. About 15 mins before the show another CM came along and told us we had to move as we were blocking the path there. We said we're queuing for preferred dining, she said the queues down there, way back behind us. My hubby checked it out and yes there was a massive queue back there, right where we'd asked earlier, being run by CM's we'd tried to find out about the queue from earlier lolz!

In the end we just merged in with the official queue as it started to enter so we got decent viewing spots but seriously they need to sort out the queuing for all groups and have all the CM's know and tell people the locations of queue beginnings, not sending people on wild goose chases or come back at ridiculously late times when you haven't got a chance at a good viewing spot. If we'd listened to any of the CM's instead of following my gut feeling after reading Hydroguy's WOC thread, we'd have spent a pile of money on what was just an ok meal only for the kids to not be able to see the show.

 

[rentayenta]

Love your attitude!

I agree about the WoC being a total cluster of chaos. I really think they just didn't put the attention into seeing the show as creating the show. Such a bummer too because it truly is spectacular.

 

[smiles33]

I agree-- you have such a positive outlook despite having received very poor/frustrating service. Just one of those situations could have made most people so cranky and annoyed that they would be reluctant to return.

I hope you get to return soon and receive much better service!

 

[gabsandalex]

I don't get the grumpy CMs. You kind of have to expect to work with a big crowd of people if you apply for a job like that and need to leave your attitude at the door. We encountered a few during our trip 2 weeks ago (one didn't even answer us with words, just a glare as she pointed us in the right direction!). Regardless, I love that you didn't the CMs or the WOC issues ruin your trip!

 

[cyclenut]

I agree with virtually everything you've said.

1) WoC viewing is completely broken. Horrible. Awful. Worst Disney experience ever (well ... second worst ... worst was the character dining aboard the Disney Wonder cruise ship).

2) WoC is an amazing show. Totally worth most of the hassle (not all of it ... but most of it).

3) CM are generally clueless about WoC queing. It's almost like they are not "supposed" to know. They know but they don't want people camping out at 10am for the show at 9pm. Nobody could be that clueless on accident. :

4) CM at DCA are generally not as friendly. We had one who was downright rude to use at Goofy's Sky School. We were in the queue trying to read some of the new signs. He wouldn't let us go read the sign "early" and when it was our turn to pass by the sign, he didn't want us to stop to read it. He was managing the queue ... period. We tried to talk to him but he just ignored us. I mean literally ignored us. He was two feet away and I asked him a question ... by name ... and he just looked right past me. I finally got his attention when I turned to my wife and said that we needed to be sure to remember his name when we made our report to guest relations. I have kids the same age and they are/have been CMs themselves. I would never treat a CM harshly, but I don't expect them to be rude to guests either.

I can only hope that when Disney is done with DCA they will have a new method for WoC queuing.

 

[nbliss]

We went to WOC on Wednesday the 26th. got our FPs that morning around 11am, yellow.
Went to line up around 7:15, an hour before show time. I was talking w/a CM about how it all works. She admitted normally there aren't lines, that it's kinda a free for all, but that on that evening, they were trying to be more organized. That lasted for about 15 minutes. Then they started "filling in the lines" with people. Somehow we ended up front and center, don't know how. We were literally on the rail by the water. It was sooo cool! BUT, it just seems crazy to me they haven't gotten this more organized by now.

 

[Niebz]

UGh. Lining up for WoC is awful and it pains me to hear it has not gotten any better since our last trip. It took us several evenings and multiple tries before we finally got a decent view(the first time we had a wall of people in front of us despite showing up very early, another time we had the perfect spot and the show got cancelled due to technical difficulties! ). When we did finally see it, it was spectacular but I'm not sure if it'll be worth all that trouble to see it again on our next trip despite it being 2 weeks long! I think we'll take what we get on the first try and be done with it. Hopefully we'll get lucky!

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Lining up for WOC is definitely frustrating and takes some practice. I saw the 8 pm showing last night and we were probably half way down our line for the blue section. We ended up getting a railing spot, but it is seriously a free for all kind of method. If you go to later showings, the line-up system seems much more organized, giving specific locations to go to to line up for the next show. They then have a CM escort the line to its respective section.

Generally, I've found that if you see that there are a lot of people ahead of you, they tend to go closer to the water. If you find yourself farther back in the crowd, try to go the opposite direction of the people in front of you, you should have a better chance at getting a good spot.

My show debacle yesterday came with Fantasmic, though. I like Fantasmic, I think it's great and fun, but it's not my favorite. We saw the 8pm WOC, so we headed over to DL to see the 1015pm F!. They had already blocked off Adventureland access from Main Street, so we really could only go through Frontierland. But when we came to the end right before turning towards NOS, there was a rope and CMs preventing us from going to the area. They did this to make sure all of the people from the previous F! showing could leave easily, which makes sense. The only problem was that they were allowing people from the other side of Frontierland/Fantasyland to go to the ROA seating for F!, so by the time we were all allowed to go claim our spots, the seating was already full. Kind of a mess, and definitely very frustrating after a long day in the parks

 

[HydroGuy]

I am sorry to hear about your experience. I had hope that the changes they made in August - which seemed to me to work much better - would stick. Based on your story they have relapsed. Such an awesome show. And a terrible viewing system...

 

[scrappinbear78]

All these stories are scaring me about our trip in December. I already have everyone prepped for the massive crowds, but if I have to "fight" for a decent spot to see something I would just rather not see it. I have been to way too many things where there are massive crowds and it is a free for all to get into something popular and the pushing and shoving is too much for me to handle. If I decide not to rent an ECV (which I am seriously considering with the crowds and wanting to make sure the girls aren't hindered by all 3 adults being in them) then at the end of the day I won't have the energy or strength to "fight" for a spot at any show. I would probably opt to just return to the hotel room and go to bed...but then I wouldn't want to ditch the family.

 

[HydroGuy]

All these stories are scaring me about our trip in December. I already have everyone prepped for the massive crowds, but if I have to "fight" for a decent spot to see something I would just rather not see it. I have been to way too many things where there are massive crowds and it is a free for all to get into something popular and the pushing and shoving is too much for me to handle. If I decide not to rent an ECV (which I am seriously considering with the crowds and wanting to make sure the girls aren't hindered by all 3 adults being in them) then at the end of the day I won't have the energy or strength to "fight" for a spot at any show. I would probably opt to just return to the hotel room and go to bed...but then I wouldn't want to ditch the family.

"Fight" is not the right word IMO regarding WOC. "Dedicated focus" is more like it. There are a lot of people and you need to put yourself in position to have a successful experience.

Whether it is worth it for you is hard to say. The show is spectacular and unlike anything you have ever seen. From that point of view it is worth it. The queueing continues to have organization issues which can be frustrating especially if you are not aggressive.

 

[PatMcDuck]

it also appeared to me that the WoC CMs misdirect guests about lining up for the early show on purpose. We were completely confused the first time, and we had the preferred dining. First we were told to hang out by the lighthouse. Then we saw people sort of lining up, so we lined up too. 15 minutes later, we realized we were in the yellow queue. I ran back and forth asking CMs what was going on, and them they were letting people in. We then found out OUR queue was WAY down from that lighthouse. We sort of dashed down and got in very early, because all the other preferred people were just as confused.

Another time we had the blue section, and we knew by now to be very alert as to what was going on, where we should be. I would say, you need to be very "proactive" in getting your WoC spot. And it is stressful. And while the waiting and standing, or sitting on the ground is tough on most people, it seemed to be very hard on many seniors. I am not sure how these folks got around the PARKS all day, but they seemed to be complaining the loudest. (I am 50+, not a kid myself, I mean guests in their 70s+)

Great show, and so worth it.

 

[cyclenut]

"Fight" is not the right word IMO regarding WOC. "Dedicated focus" is more like it. There are a lot of people and you need to put yourself in position to have a successful experience.

Whether it is worth it for you is hard to say. The show is spectacular and unlike anything you have ever seen. From that point of view it is worth it. The queueing continues to have organization issues which can be frustrating especially if you are not aggressive.

I like your characterization. I think that is more correct than to say "fight" for a spot. There really isn't any pushing or shoving, at least not when I've done this and not according to my kids who have done it far more than I have.

I really think they could do a lot better if they tried a little harder. For example, they could put folks into the unused portion of the GRRR line queue and then feed everyone into the show in more of a single file approach, but they don't.

They could also have more "areas" (like splitting yellow into sections) that would reduce the size of each group.

I've had the same experience with F! as the PP mentioned as well. It seems a bit inconsistent. I stood over by the Mark Twain while I waited for the CM to drop the rope. Right near the front and by the time I got to F! all the spots were already full, presumably because they let people come over from other areas and fill in the spots first. Just the breaks I suppose, but it really seems like these shows have become "out of reach" for the casual tourist at this point. You've got to know the "strategy" to be able to see them.

 

[mydisneymoney]

When we were there in September, we didn't get FP for WOC. We were not sure if we wanted to watch it or not but we ended up being in DCA when it was about to start. We found a spot againt the stone wall right next to the Golden Zepher and had a great view. My sister and her family did have FP tickets and got in line early and they said their view wasn't anything to get excited about. We were happy that we didn't spend a bunch of time waiting but rather spent time riding attractions my DS wanted to see.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

The queuing and viewing problems seem to be a function of dropping a major show into a park that wasn't built for it. Some people don't seem to like the dedicated stadium for Fantasmic at DHS. I will admit that I like DL's version of F! better. However, I also have to admit that it was more comfortable to sit in stadium that was built expressly for the purpose of seating a large number of people to watch F! Once we got in and found decent seats, it wasn't a problem to sit and wait for the show to start. Jockying for position to see DL's F!, sitting on the ground, fending off squatters, etc. is not my idea of fun.

We haven't attempted to see WOC yet and probably won't during our trip next month. My 16-year old son has sensory issues and gets very anxious if he's touched or bumped by strangers. In July, we sat at the Riverbelle Terrace to watch F! to avoid putting him in the middle of the crowd. With all the reports I've read about WOC, I can't imagine that he would have an easy time in the crowd. I guess we'll skip it for now and hope they come up with a better system in the future.

 

[Disluvney]

We were there in September (weekday) and experienced same things. Every CM in the WOC area had different instructions (I approached about 8 CM's in the area) about where to line up and it caused a lot of confusion for guests that didn't know much about how WOC is set up. Luckily, we had read all of the WOC threads here and had an idea of what to do since it was our first time. We ended up with the blue fast past and hung around the Red Tower near the entry point for Blue.

For the guests that had been waiting at least an 1.5 hours prior to the show, they started a nice little line in the area which we entered. We were the 3rd or 4th family there at the blue line. As time drew closer for entry time, more people started crowding the entry point for blue area and disregarding the line that was created. As a result we all got pushed back and then we were all squeezed in like sardines(shoulder to shoulder with others) in the so called queuing area. We literally had to wait like this for about 30 minutes...this was really hard on the kids (17 month old and 4 year old) and my senior parents.

Once they started letting people in the viewing area, people just rushed to whatever spots in the blue area. There was no order as a surge of people moved into the viewing area and my older parents got bumped and pushed. Despite all of this, we still managed to get a railing position, but it certainly made me rethink if I want to experience the aforementioned ever again. The show was great and we liked our spot, but I would hate to think what kind of madness happens during the peak season. There is definitely a need for a better queuing system.

 

[cloudconnected1039]

It seems that most of the problems come from not knowing where to line up and the initial rush of people into the respective sections. Could DCA just not get rid of the return time on the FP for the first show and leave it more similar to the seating that F! has?? Kind of a first come, first serve basis?? Obviously, this wouldn't work well for the later shows, but the system for them works a bit better. I personally sort of cringe at the idea of the first come, first serve as I don't like waiting around for hours for a show (even WOC). But, it is fair enough of a system that would probably be liked better.

For those who don't like the idea of bothering with a FP or don't want to deal with the confusion and crowds of the system, you could easily stand right by AG and see the show with a GREAT view. There's also a stand-by roped off section they've added now that is right in front of Little Mermaid which gives a really good panoramic view as well. And I'm sure there's plenty of other awesome spots as well!!

 

[PatMcDuck]

Could DCA just not get rid of the return time on the FP for the first show and leave it more similar to the seating that F! has?? Kind of a first come, first serve basis?? I personally sort of cringe at the idea of the first come, first serve as I don't like waiting around for hours for a show (even WOC). But, it is fair enough of a system that would probably be liked better.

I am torn about this choice myself. While I would hate camping out for a good spot hours before the show, you basically have to wait about 2 1/2 hours for WoC under the current system, with no guarantee of a good spot.

But the alternative system would also make me crazy, people would have the blankets and beach towels out all day long, "saving" their spots by the railing. Some would perhaps park Grandma there to hold the spot for the possible large family group, others would just leave the towels and tour the park, etc. (I was amazed to see the towels and blankets at DL holding fireworks spots one trip.... I was like, "they DON'T allow THAT at the MK!")

And it is hard to think of where the large crowds COULD line up effectively. I don't know, but it seems like people who line up early are often not "rewarded" for doing that, and that might be what Disney wants in way.... if lining up early, does not help guarantee the good spot, people will stop lining up or something? But for me, coming in to DL from the East Coast once a year, if I am lucky, I want to line up early so I can really see the show once a year, once per trip I mean.