It's kind of awful this week.

[AprilsZoo]

They were explained in great detail in an article Dusty did in Mice Chat

I’ll look for it — thanks.

 

[gelatoni fan]

OP here.
After the hotel break yesterday (and an abysmal late lunch at a dirty dtd place we’ve dubbed Tortilla Pukes, because we split nachos there and we both ended up throwing up later last night), we decided to go back for the night hours and tried to psych ourselves up that we’d have a good attitude and fun.

We got on Winnie the Pooh, which broke down at half past a heffalump and we had to be escorted off. If I put my most positive mom spin on it, I guess I could say it is somewhat interesting to see so many rides up close and personal with no lighting and music. And we got to see the Star Wars employee break room, which made my daughter chuckle when I said that’s where Darth Vader heats up his leftovers and watches TikTok on his lunch break. But then she said, “Mom, if they can’t make Winnie the Pooh work, are we actually safe on the guardian ride tomorrow?” This was something I hadn’t even considered but now I’m thinking I want to avoid incredicoaster and such. I did get to redeem an earlier pass for ROTR, though, and it is really an impressive ride. Worth the $20 when it works, for sure.

I will definitely complain re the hotel and the ride breakdowns. Not looking for a freebie, just want it to be better. We just went on a Disney cruise in April and had to spend the night before the trip in Orlando. We stayed at a very affordable universal hotel that I’d thought would be meh (I hate those yellow minion things) but it had wonderful service and yeah, the food was cafeteria-esque, but there were a million choices (wine! Sushi!) and everything was pretty good. The pool area was huge and fun and clean. It’s hard to understand why DLH can’t pull that off even at three times (!) the nightly cost.

Anyway, today is California Adventure day. The last time we were here my daughter was so excited to see that a Jessie carousel was coming soon. Then Covid happened and she’s no longer obsessed with Jessie and Bullseye, but we’re both still excited to see it. Time to pick up my mobile coffee and breakfast order (crossing fingers, they are always out of whatever I order) and hit up DCA. Wish me luck!

Universal works with Loews to run their hotels in Florida so they put in management with actual hotel experience. Disney gets a bunch of imagineers to design their hotels and then a bunch of people who only have experience with "Disney hotels" but no broader hotel experience to run things. Disney hotels aren't bad per-say but most of those people have little idea what other hotels of that price point do so there isn't really a push to be better despite the high prices.

To give Disney credit, their food offerings in club lounges and buffets are still excellent for the Disneyland area even though general service for hotel guests is lackluster for the prices. One of my friends who owns DVC at the Grand Californian also noticed that lately, there have been more cutbacks so there's just fewer staff at places like the check-in counter which shows the direction the company is going.

 

[Geemo]

I'm a local and won;t head to the park until improvements in the guest experience are made.

I'm not a local but I have the same feelings as you.

I had just finished a full week at the parks with my DGD-24 & her BFF when covid hit.
In fact we were in the lobby waiting for our ride to SNA when news hit the parks were closing-due to covid.

I had been a long time AP holder with 3 to 5 trips a year from PDX.
I took a post covid 3-day birthday trip in Feb 2022 and it wasn't the Disneyland I knew.

There is something to be said about being "Flexible" but current comments are pushing it PAST the limit.

I feel bad for those traveling to the parks and having the current experience.

Disney get your act together!! We know you can do better.
Walt would be embarrassed how CM's and Guests are being treated.

 

[Aspencreek]

OP here.
After the hotel break yesterday (and an abysmal late lunch at a dirty dtd place we’ve dubbed Tortilla Pukes, because we split nachos there and we both ended up throwing up later last night), we decided to go back for the night hours and tried to psych ourselves up that we’d have a good attitude and fun.

Sorry to hear about the experiences so far. Nothing worse than some food poisoning to kill a vacation day (had it on a cruise once - soooo not fun.) We were almost right there in the parks with you, but I'd been seeing so many bad reports a few weeks ago that we decided to postpone a bit and see how the fall looks.

So sad because we went last July for five days and while a few things were unavailable (shows and whatnot) overall we had a fantastic time. There were low crowd levels, no breakdowns to speak of (only delay all week was once for BTMRR), mobile order food worked perfect, weather was not hot, mostly short lines with no Genie+/Fastpass system in place, mask/distance mandates were gone, etc. We had hoped to recreate the great week again this July but looks like we would have been in for a big letdown. Really hoping they get things going smoother by fall!

 

[Aurora0427]

If it’s any consolation, the Fantasmic show was better than ever and was still truly magical. It would make for a lovely anniversary event. And I have never seen more characters roaming around—we saw Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Belle, Alice, Chewbacca, and Elsa within like a 10-minute time span yesterday.

I’m sorry it’s been so poor…. And I appreciate you posting because even though we’re local, we’ve been considering doing a staycation at the DLH in the fall and will now do the GCH instead.

We had two great days in mid June. We were there yesterday and it was just so crowded….

I do agree with you about the characters. It’s been one of the highlights of the summer. We had a wonderful encounter with Merida yesterday. She talked to my girls for almost ten minutes. It was unreal. And then we had a similar experience with Red over in New Orleans Square. We saw lots of characters when we were there July 4…. Between our two days in June and July 4, my youngest filled up her autograph book.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Sorry to hear about the experiences so far. Nothing worse than some food poisoning to kill a vacation day (had it on a cruise once - soooo not fun.) We were almost right there in the parks with you, but I'd been seeing so many bad reports a few weeks ago that we decided to postpone a bit and see how the fall looks.

So sad because we went last July for five days and while a few things were unavailable (shows and whatnot) overall we had a fantastic time. There were low crowd levels, no breakdowns to speak of (only delay all week was once for BTMRR), mobile order food worked perfect, weather was not hot, mostly short lines with no Genie+/Fastpass system in place, mask/distance mandates were gone, etc. We had hoped to recreate the great week again this July but looks like we would have been in for a big letdown. Really hoping they get things going smoother by fall!

The days before Genie+ came out were sooooooooooooo nice.

 

[LeiaOfAlderaan]

Sorry you are having a rough trip. We left on the 11th and while it was busier than I would have liked, we managed to avoid any major problems. I did notice a lot more rides intermittently breaking down, even rides that don’t usually seem to have issues.

We had breakfast our last morning at Tangaroa Terrace, about 9:30, and the noise from the construction was AWFUL. I couldn’t imagine spending a day at the pool with that in the background. I was surprised because I had seen a few people say they didn’t notice any construction noise, but maybe it’s getting worse as they go more vertical?

I really hope things turn around and the rest of your trip is better.

 

[Bossy22]

The days before Genie+ came out were sooooooooooooo nice.

Being here, experiencing the madness to me this is the key. Free fast pass and paid me pass seemed to give everyone a better experience. Genie plus seems to make the parks a hot mess!!!!

 

[Aspencreek]

Being here, experiencing the madness to me this is the key. Free fast pass and paid me pass seemed to give everyone a better experience. Genie plus seems to make the parks a hot mess!!!!

Fastpass paper ticket system was great because very often, sometime multiple times in a day, we would get handed a bundle of passes from some stranger saying "Have some free fastpasses, we can't make it."

Maxpass system was great because I loved scanning in the pass to get in fastpass line, then immediately opening the app and getting the next fastpass booked before riding the first one.

No pass system (like last summer when we were there) was great because everyone was on the same playing field and all the lines seemed reasonable and cycled through pretty quickly. Nobody got to jump ahead and mess up the standby times. (Aside from the couple of virtual queue rides).

Genie+ ????? Haven't been to the parks since it launched but from all reports (as Bossy22 says) it is a mess with it and loads of people seem to be wishing for the old days pre-Genie.

 

[KPeterso]

Gosh - sorry to read your issues. I will say the parks were crazy busy though. I swear Sunday was by far the quietest of the 4 days we were in the parks which is crazy since it was the anniversary.

We were just at VGC for the last 4 days (got home last night). Overall, our experience was positive. VGC is such an amazing place though! We did have issues in the parks with rides down. I swear it was every time we tried to go to Racers or Webslingers that those were down. And Soaring was only partially loading the sections (one day only the sides were loaded as the middle was broken, another it was one of the sides that was down). It was crazy - I was on the end and those sections did not lift up into the air, so I guess they truly were broken. And with the theaters only being partially filled, it was making the waits long (even in the lightening lanes).

We did the dining for the parade through Plaza Inn and overall had a great meal there. I asked if I could pay the adult price but get the childrens portion for my Mom since she really does not eat much and I did not want to waste a ton of food. They said of course and it would only be the child price, so some awesome pixie dust (but seriously was willing to pay the higher price).

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

One question I have, is what's the point of the "reservation" system for park entry when clearly there is no sensible cap on numbers? Most of the coming days are still wide open. If there are CM staffing issues they should really limit the numbers more, but I guess all they care about is $$$$$$$$$ these days. Really sad.

I've wondered that myself! I mentioned it on my last post-trip survey AND in an email to the Bobs. I was like, so now you *know* how many people are going to be there, so what's the deal with the inaccurate (and in nearly all cases, inadequate) staffing, etc.?

 

[DLgal]

Fastpass paper ticket system was great because very often, sometime multiple times in a day, we would get handed a bundle of passes from some stranger saying "Have some free fastpasses, we can't make it."

Maxpass system was great because I loved scanning in the pass to get in fastpass line, then immediately opening the app and getting the next fastpass booked before riding the first one.

No pass system (like last summer when we were there) was great because everyone was on the same playing field and all the lines seemed reasonable and cycled through pretty quickly. Nobody got to jump ahead and mess up the standby times. (Aside from the couple of virtual queue rides).

Genie+ ????? Haven't been to the parks since it launched but from all reports (as Bossy22 says) it is a mess with it and loads of people seem to be wishing for the old days pre-Genie.

The Genie+ has absolutely ruined the park experience for the guests who don't purchase it. That was not the case with Maxpass. G+ is a horrible, horrible system.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Gosh - sorry to read your issues. I will say the parks were crazy busy though. I swear Sunday was by far the quietest of the 4 days we were in the parks which is crazy since it was the anniversary.

We were just at VGC for the last 4 days (got home last night). Overall, our experience was positive. VGC is such an amazing place though! We did have issues in the parks with rides down. I swear it was every time we tried to go to Racers or Webslingers that those were down. And Soaring was only partially loading the sections (one day only the sides were loaded as the middle was broken, another it was one of the sides that was down). It was crazy - I was on the end and those sections did not lift up into the air, so I guess they truly were broken. And with the theaters only being partially filled, it was making the waits long (even in the lightening lanes).

We did the dining for the parade through Plaza Inn and overall had a great meal there. I asked if I could pay the adult price but get the childrens portion for my Mom since she really does not eat much and I did not want to waste a ton of food. They said of course and it would only be the child price, so some awesome pixie dust (but seriously was willing to pay the higher price).

I was looking at the app and wondering why Soarin' wait times were over 100. This explains it.

Last trip to the parks, I was first in line when Hyperspace Mountain went down and the guy behind me was like "this happened to us at RSR and the Star Wars ride". I don't even go on that many rides and am constantly running into downtime and people saying they experienced multiple rides go down.

I actually think the fact that it was the anniversary made it less busy. All the dream key holders that know it's the anniversary and are going in just to see the anniversary cavalcade, not go on rides. With the reservation system, keyholders who were less informed and just wanted to go into the parks because it was a weekend would have been blocked from getting reservations assuming the reservations actually sold out.

 

[DLgal]

I've wondered that myself! I mentioned it on my last post-trip survey AND in an email to the Bobs. I was like, so now you *know* how many people are going to be there, so what's the deal with the inaccurate (and in nearly all cases, inadequate) staffing, etc.?

Well, the reservation system falls apart when a bunch of CMs call in sick...because now the people ARE COMING and you can't exactly turn them away at the gate. Previously, they could simply cut off park access and cite "capacity has been reached."

 

[Aspencreek]

Well, the reservation system falls apart when a bunch of CMs call in sick...because now the people ARE COMING and you can't exactly turn them away at the gate. Previously, they could simply cut off park access and cite "capacity has been reached."

That's a good point I hadn't thought about. If you've let 50,000 (or whatever) people have reservations you simply cannot turn them away on their day no matter how many staff are out sick.

 

[deedubb]

Sorry to hear about your experience. On the flip side, we just got back and had one of our best Disney vacations ever. Spent the first night at DLH Club level as we have never stayed there, and have never stayed club level. Had a wonderful experience. We then switched to GCH for the next 8 nights. 5 park days. Despite early entry not having returned yet, we rope dropped RotR with almost no wait, and roped dropped Web Slingers which was a walk on, as well as Radiator Springs with about a 10 minute wait. With G+, we were able to ride everything we wanted multiple times over the 5 days. There were days where many rides were down at times throughout the day, but they always came back up and we were able to ride them. Despite reading negative comments about CMs, I found every single one we encountered to be wonderful and so friendly. If this is the "new" Disney, I will happily take it.

 

[DLgal]

Sorry to hear about your experience. On the flip side, we just got back and had one of our best Disney vacations ever. Spent the first night at DLH Club level as we have never stayed there, and have never stayed club level. Had a wonderful experience. We then switched to GCH for the next 8 nights. 5 park days. Despite early entry not having returned yet, we rope dropped RotR with almost no wait, and roped dropped Web Slingers which was a walk on, as well as Radiator Springs with about a 10 minute wait. With G+, we were able to ride everything we wanted multiple times over the 5 days. There were days where many rides were down at times throughout the day, but they always came back up and we were able to ride them. Despite reading negative comments about CMs, I found every single one we encountered to be wonderful and so friendly. If this is the "new" Disney, I will happily take it.

Sounds like the stars aligned for you. Glad you had a great trip!

 

[Dolewhipt]

DCA has been smoother today; we have only had 2 rides break on us. Ended up with a 40 minute ILL wait on RSR due to the breakdown but that’s better than the folks who were at 2 hours in standby. Can’t believe it used to be free and better but oh well. Gave up on trying to ride monsters inc and just used the pass they gave us from it breaking down to go on grizzly river again.

Overall DCA has been cleaner than DL, though, and the crowd has had better personal hygiene, which is weird because you think it’d be the same crowd at both parks. Food service has been better here—cars land is always enjoyable aesthetically (I stand by my opinion that some of the park has a real suburban strip mall vibe) and has some yummy quick food. Lunch at Carthay (sp?) was really good. Going back to the hotel now. Maybe we’ll check out GCH for dinner because I really don’t want another sweet teriyaki mushy with mayo type dish at tangaroa. So my overall verdict is DCA is still ok, but if you’re traveling from out of state, postpone your vacation until Disney can get the problems under control. Or go on a Disney cruise, which despite going full phone app like everywhere else, still offers exceptional service.

 

[deedubb]

Sounds like the stars aligned for you. Glad you had a great trip!

Thanks. I was really worried as this was our first trip since the pandemic, and after reading so many negative things, I was worried that Disney was ruined forever. Not so it seems, at least at DLR. We will be at WDW next month. Hopefully we will have the same experience there.

 

[dieumeye]

The Genie+ has absolutely ruined the park experience for the guests who don't purchase it. That was not the case with Maxpass. G+ is a horrible, horrible system.

I agree that somehow Genie+ isn’t working as well as FP/MP did, but I don’t understand how. FP was free. Aren’t fewer people using paid Genie+, and if fewer people are using it, shouldn’t it have less of an impact? How does it seem to be working worse than FP did?