Well I have to say for the first time in my life I had a real bad trip to DL.
First of all we went down for the Halloween Party and to our surprise instead of the 3,000 guests that got to go into the Halloween Party last year there was about 10,000 guests in there! There was no feeling of being at a special event at all and there were no where near enough cast members there in the park to handle the event. Every line was long and everywhere you went there was a crowd!
There were lines 30 deep at each candy stop and it was impossible to get in for a picture with most of the characters. Once you did get to the front of the line the cast members were giving you 1 or 2 pieces of candy at a time... guess that is why they switched to the little bags this year!
Last year only 4 of us went and we filled the larger bags to the top before 10:30 that night and put them in a locker. This trip we went with 8 people and we could not even fill the smaller bags they gave us throughout the entire event and brought home less then half of what we did last year. Last year we got to ride all of the rides time and time again and enjoy the night and this year we could hardly get onto the rides let alone be able to ride our favorites a few times that night.
The bottom line to it is there was just way to many people in the park for the Halloween Party and for them to raise the price of the tickets on us from last year to this year without giving us something in return is not working for me. The only thing I saw from last year to this year is out with the Snickers and in with the Kissables. Nothing else!
Now over to DLP itself. We spent the day over there on Saturday and yes IJR was down as it was on Friday as well without warning or explanation from a cast member at the park as to why and how long. Lines at the park were not to bad for the rides, but for some reason food service at the park was a joke. People were complaining and upset at the lack of care or service in the park all day long. We were over at the Hungry Bear at lunch time and it took almost 35 minutes to order and get our food. Once we did some of it was cold, how I can not figure out since it comes right from the back and onto our plates, but nevertheless it was.
Next was over at the Pizza Port later that night when we decided to go ahead and eat there since we were in the area as Space Mountain shut down for technical problems while we were in line. We go into Pizza Port to find a bunch of people just standing around looking lost because there were no trays for the food. Once they did bring "some" trays over we got our food and then found out that there was no soda because they were having a problem with the machines. OK... we water it up, pay for our food and go sit down outside to eat since that was the only place left to eat there and find that those who got pizza got a half cooked slice of pie since they were trying to rush food out instead of cooking it the right way the first time. Back in they go to get it replaced and guess what... they were not the only ones as the line for pizza took 30 minutes to resolve the matter.
It was just one bad thing after another it seemed on this trip. We normally go for 4 or 5 days so this trip was a quick in and out for us. But I have to say overall it was a very hard trip to come home happy about. We all know things happen from time to time, but on this trip everything just got compounded and it took away from the fun we normally would have and all of us always wanting to go back a few months later. You know when the trip goes good and you feel special even though there are thousands of people right there with you, you don't mind paying the VERY high prices to be in the park and experience it. But when things went as they did on this trip and you sit down and look at what it cost you to go there you start to think about your options. Very sad when you are the kind of family that makes 3 or 4 trips a year down to the park.
First of all we went down for the Halloween Party and to our surprise instead of the 3,000 guests that got to go into the Halloween Party last year there was about 10,000 guests in there! There was no feeling of being at a special event at all and there were no where near enough cast members there in the park to handle the event. Every line was long and everywhere you went there was a crowd!
There were lines 30 deep at each candy stop and it was impossible to get in for a picture with most of the characters. Once you did get to the front of the line the cast members were giving you 1 or 2 pieces of candy at a time... guess that is why they switched to the little bags this year!
Last year only 4 of us went and we filled the larger bags to the top before 10:30 that night and put them in a locker. This trip we went with 8 people and we could not even fill the smaller bags they gave us throughout the entire event and brought home less then half of what we did last year. Last year we got to ride all of the rides time and time again and enjoy the night and this year we could hardly get onto the rides let alone be able to ride our favorites a few times that night.
The bottom line to it is there was just way to many people in the park for the Halloween Party and for them to raise the price of the tickets on us from last year to this year without giving us something in return is not working for me. The only thing I saw from last year to this year is out with the Snickers and in with the Kissables. Nothing else!
Now over to DLP itself. We spent the day over there on Saturday and yes IJR was down as it was on Friday as well without warning or explanation from a cast member at the park as to why and how long. Lines at the park were not to bad for the rides, but for some reason food service at the park was a joke. People were complaining and upset at the lack of care or service in the park all day long. We were over at the Hungry Bear at lunch time and it took almost 35 minutes to order and get our food. Once we did some of it was cold, how I can not figure out since it comes right from the back and onto our plates, but nevertheless it was.
Next was over at the Pizza Port later that night when we decided to go ahead and eat there since we were in the area as Space Mountain shut down for technical problems while we were in line. We go into Pizza Port to find a bunch of people just standing around looking lost because there were no trays for the food. Once they did bring "some" trays over we got our food and then found out that there was no soda because they were having a problem with the machines. OK... we water it up, pay for our food and go sit down outside to eat since that was the only place left to eat there and find that those who got pizza got a half cooked slice of pie since they were trying to rush food out instead of cooking it the right way the first time. Back in they go to get it replaced and guess what... they were not the only ones as the line for pizza took 30 minutes to resolve the matter.
It was just one bad thing after another it seemed on this trip. We normally go for 4 or 5 days so this trip was a quick in and out for us. But I have to say overall it was a very hard trip to come home happy about. We all know things happen from time to time, but on this trip everything just got compounded and it took away from the fun we normally would have and all of us always wanting to go back a few months later. You know when the trip goes good and you feel special even though there are thousands of people right there with you, you don't mind paying the VERY high prices to be in the park and experience it. But when things went as they did on this trip and you sit down and look at what it cost you to go there you start to think about your options. Very sad when you are the kind of family that makes 3 or 4 trips a year down to the park.
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