Splash and BTMR closed again this morning? [Thursday Feb. 22nd]

[mom2rtk]

I rope dropped it. DH was going to kill me. LOVE people mover.

That's funny. That will be us!

 

[Haley R]

I love Space, hate the unloading part. I'm not a spring chicken anymore and it does take me a little longer to get out of it. I don't think enough though that would cause it to shut down for hours at time though!

I do think that as paying customers we do have a right to reasonable expectations, especially for the amount of money Disney charges. Yes things happen that are out of their control, but it is how they react to it that matters. Rides are a huge part of the Disney experience, they should be a priority to keep in top shape. I'm sorry, but I just don't think that we should give them a pass when it's a continuous problem just because we love Disney. The rides and attractions do endure a lot of use from the high crowds, but Disney is enjoying the money those crowds bring in.

Hour long FP lines? Rides down not just for hours, but the entire day? Disney is not holding up their end of the expectations.

ETA: In reading other threads and the discontentment of several posters who have just returned stating the "sour taste" that Disney has left them with, I wonder how many of them have let Disney know that with an email or letter. Does Disney have people who read forums like this? Are they paying attention?

I won’t write an email until we visit next week. I want to experience it myself before I write to them. They were very efficient when the post office decided to destroy our magic band box which made the luggage tags fall out somewhere. I called Disney and they said they can’t send new ones out, but I also emailed guest services and got a personal phone call and received luggage tags the next week. They will listen if you contact the right people.

 

[friedela]

It’s not that it’s “trendy” to complain. And, frankly, I find that so dismissive of ppl’s opinions esp those who don’t have the luxury to visit often.

Yeah I totally agree. It's very easy to judge that people are being whiny and negative when you have the luxury of visiting on a regular basis. But for some of us WDW literally IS a once in a lifetime trip that we've been dreaming about since we were children ourselves. And so when things are shut down repeatedly that is extremely frustrating I am sure. Not everyone can hop on a plane or jump in a car and hit up the rides they missed last visit. I am hoping this won't be an issue when we go next week, this trip has been 2 years in the making and took us that long to save the money to be able to go without having to go into debt. We have no plans of returning because we have other trips planned and the budget isn't going to allow it from what we can see. I don't have an expectation that things will be completely perfect but I do have an expectation that I am going to feel like we got our money's worth for how ridiculously expensive it is to go.

 

[zillayen]

I do think that as paying customers we do have a right to reasonable expectations, especially for the amount of money Disney charges. Yes things happen that are out of their control, but it is how they react to it that matters. Rides are a huge part of the Disney experience, they should be a priority to keep in top shape. I'm sorry, but I just don't think that we should give them a pass when it's a continuous problem just because we love Disney. The rides and attractions do endure a lot of use from the high crowds, but Disney is enjoying the money those crowds bring in.

...

ETA: In reading other threads and the discontentment of several posters who have just returned stating the "sour taste" that Disney has left them with, I wonder how many of them have let Disney know that with an email or letter. Does Disney have people who read forums like this? Are they paying attention?

Yes! I don't expect an amazing customer experience at WalMart or Dollar General because I know that's how they keep costs low. If I go into Saks, I have different expectations. Disney has never been cheap, but at least you could always say that they provided great customer service and tried to make the guest experience magical. That seems to be slipping now in a number of areas, from rides, to CM interactions, to resort housekeeping, and so on.

If we have a bad experience when we're there I doubt I'd write an email because what would it serve? I'd already be planning to take my money elsewhere, and maybe I'm cynical, but I don't think they would really care. Plenty of people are willing to pay $$$ for extras over the "baseline" park experience. Until it starts to affect their bottom line, they have no incentive to do things differently. I'm not trying to sound crabby, just pragmatic.

 

[friedela]

If we have a bad experience when we're there I doubt I'd write an email because what would it serve? I'd already be planning to take my money elsewhere, and maybe I'm cynical, but I don't think they would really care. Plenty of people are willing to pay $$$ for extras over the "baseline" park experience. Until it starts to affect their bottom line, they have no incentive to do things differently. I'm not trying to sound crabby, just pragmatic.

Not cynical at all, I was actually thinking the same thing. Is Disney going to say, "oh! We are SO sorry you were disappointed, here is a FREE visit on us!"

I mean.. does that happen? I'm genuinely curious how they handle complaints when rides are shut down all day. Do they discount or refund or do anything at all?

 

[Mom2Stitch]

I won’t write an email until we visit next week. I want to experience it myself before I write to them. They were very efficient when the post office decided to destroy our magic band box which made the luggage tags fall out somewhere. I called Disney and they said they can’t send new ones out, but I also emailed guest services and got a personal phone call and received magic bands the next week. They will listen if you contact the right people.

Yes! I don't expect an amazing customer experience at WalMart or Dollar General because I know that's how they keep costs low. If I go into Saks, I have different expectations. Disney has never been cheap, but at least you could always say that they provided great customer service and tried to make the guest experience magical. That seems to be slipping now in a number of areas, from rides, to CM interactions, to resort housekeeping, and so on.

If we have a bad experience when we're there I doubt I'd write an email because what would it serve? I'd already be planning to take my money elsewhere, and maybe I'm cynical, but I don't think they would really care. Plenty of people are willing to pay $$$ for extras over the "baseline" park experience. Until it starts to affect their bottom line, they have no incentive to do things differently. I'm not trying to sound crabby, just pragmatic.

If our trip in May includes the issues that have been discussed recently on the forum, I will be voicing my concerns. Not for any sort of compensation, but that is so they know it's not ok. They may not care, it may not make a difference, but it will at least be better than the restrictive survey they send once you get home. And on the off chance they do care-if they hear from enough unsatisfied guests, who knows what might change.

 

[MINNIEANN MOUSE]

Not cynical at all, I was actually thinking the same thing. Is Disney going to say, "oh! We are SO sorry you were disappointed, here is a FREE visit on us!"

I mean.. does that happen? I'm genuinely curious how they handle complaints when rides are shut down all day. Do they discount or refund or do anything at all?

My cousin, her husband and 2 year old are there now. They have encountered some problems over the past week and their Disney trip has been challenging. They have been late to 4 of their dining reservations due to buses not coming for over 45 min; rides broken down; and their son’s hat falling off during the Triceratops ride and being told they would have to come back at park closing to claim it at lost and found. Finally, her husband went and nicely voiced his concerns about some of their experiences and lack of that Disney magic feeling. They were given 4 Minnie Van Service 1 way rides from French Quarter; $50 Disney gift card for a new hat and lastly, 6 fast passes that can be used for anything other than Frozen, Toy Story and Pandora rides. He said the manager was very understanding and willing to try to make up for some of their bad experiences. I think it comes down to the Disney cast member that you are dealing with and whether or not they care enough to either fix the problem or do something so the guest feels like they matter, even a little bit.

 

[Colleen27]

If we have a bad experience when we're there I doubt I'd write an email because what would it serve? I'd already be planning to take my money elsewhere, and maybe I'm cynical, but I don't think they would really care. Plenty of people are willing to pay $$$ for extras over the "baseline" park experience. Until it starts to affect their bottom line, they have no incentive to do things differently. I'm not trying to sound crabby, just pragmatic.

I'm the same way. I've sent exactly one e-mail to Disney over a customer service issue and never even received a response, other than the automated "thank you for your feedback" form letter, so I wouldn't be inclined to bother complaining after the fact. I don't think they care, frankly, and with Toy Story & Star Wars coming online in the near future I can understand why. People will keep coming for the new stuff even if they let the MK crumble.

 

[Mom2Stitch]

Not cynical at all, I was actually thinking the same thing. Is Disney going to say, "oh! We are SO sorry you were disappointed, here is a FREE visit on us!"

I mean.. does that happen? I'm genuinely curious how they handle complaints when rides are shut down all day. Do they discount or refund or do anything at all?

I don't think there would be anything offered aside from the already mentioned FPs.

The company I work for regularly surveys our customers, evaluations and bonuses for everyone from management to field employees are dependent on the results of those surveys. And on a scale of 0-10, an 8 is considered a failing score. The biggest question that will fail the entire survey is "would you refer us to friends or family?" Feedback does matter.

 

[WaterLinds]

I've just been watching it all day. The Carousel is also down now, which I don't think I've ever seen before!

Also, good thing there's no DAH tonight...

We saw some kind of minor issue with the carousel last week. It was just a few minutes, not sure if it even counted as "down", and we couldn't tell from where we were standing if it was a mechanical issue or if there was some kind of people problem (someone refusing to sit safely or a sick kid or...who knows, right?). It just sat for 2-3 times longer than normal between runs, with people on it waiting for it to start, and then it was back to normal.

I thought things were bad last week (I think we got 3 ME FPs from closures in our two MK days, plus had some problems with FOP while on it and had to redo the whole pre-ride experience), but now I'm glad we were there then and not this week! Crazy.

 

[Airb330]

Not cynical at all, I was actually thinking the same thing. Is Disney going to say, "oh! We are SO sorry you were disappointed, here is a FREE visit on us!"

I mean.. does that happen? I'm genuinely curious how they handle complaints when rides are shut down all day. Do they discount or refund or do anything at all?

Spent 3 days at Disneyland during grad nights in May 2013. After the fireworks there was a genuinely scary and dangerous time where the crowd was out of control. Cast members were shoved etc. I wrote a very detailed letter to Disney about it citing the cast member’s names and how well they did but that management needs to support them if they’re going to let the parks get that crowded. They called me, listened, learned we were going back to Disney anyways a few months later (were dvc) and they ended up giving us 4 day WDW hopper tickets for our next trip. They did care.

 

[Haley R]

Spent 3 days at Disneyland during grad nights in May 2013. After the fireworks there was a genuinely scary and dangerous time where the crowd was out of control. Cast members were shoved etc. I wrote a very detailed letter to Disney about it citing the cast member’s names and how well they did but that management needs to support them if they’re going to let the parks get that crowded. They called me, listened, learned we were going back to Disney anyways a few months later (were dvc) and they ended up giving us 4 day WDW hopper tickets for our next trip. They did care.

That’s an amazing thing to have happen! I honestly do think they care but like some have said you have to be in contact with the right people and usually it needs to be someone higher up. It’s not like I’m going to voice my frustration to a cm who can’t do anything about it anyway.

 

[friedela]

Spent 3 days at Disneyland during grad nights in May 2013. After the fireworks there was a genuinely scary and dangerous time where the crowd was out of control. Cast members were shoved etc. I wrote a very detailed letter to Disney about it citing the cast member’s names and how well they did but that management needs to support them if they’re going to let the parks get that crowded. They called me, listened, learned we were going back to Disney anyways a few months later (were dvc) and they ended up giving us 4 day WDW hopper tickets for our next trip. They did care.

That's a great story, thanks for sharing! It good to hear that there are some who really are concerned for their guests and want them to be happy.


On another note, does the MDE Ap state when a ride is down? Or will it just not show up on the wait times map?

 

[friedela]

My cousin, her husband and 2 year old are there now. They have encountered some problems over the past week and their Disney trip has been challenging. They have been late to 4 of their dining reservations due to buses not coming for over 45 min; rides broken down; and their son’s hat falling off during the Triceratops ride and being told they would have to come back at park closing to claim it at lost and found. Finally, her husband went and nicely voiced his concerns about some of their experiences and lack of that Disney magic feeling. They were given 4 Minnie Van Service 1 way rides from French Quarter; $50 Disney gift card for a new hat and lastly, 6 fast passes that can be used for anything other than Frozen, Toy Story and Pandora rides. He said the manager was very understanding and willing to try to make up for some of their bad experiences. I think it comes down to the Disney cast member that you are dealing with and whether or not they care enough to either fix the problem or do something so the guest feels like they matter, even a little bit.

That's great to hear! Maybe having "First Time" buttons will help our cause if we experience the same issues when we go, lol.

 

[Colleen27]

On another note, does the MDE Ap state when a ride is down? Or will it just not show up on the wait times map?

It shows up with a * instead of a number in its location pin.

 

[Eccle]

We were in MK yesterday morning and this afternoon evening. Yesterday we were intending to rope drop 7 Dwarfs, but it was down for the first 1.5 hours, we had fastpasses for Space but it was down at least 3.5 hours, and we also wanted to do Splash, down 2.5 hours. People Mover had a short down whilst we were waiting for it, the railroad wasn't running and everywhere was rammed, we waited 20 min for our Buzz fastpasses. We left at 12.30 as it just wasn't worth staying. Only some great character interactions gave us anything positive.

Today we went back around 4.30 with FPs for Space (extended from yesterday after we asked), 7 dwarfs and Splash. We did manage 7 dwarfs as it had just come back (they were only taking FPs, it took about 20 min), splash didn't come back whilst we were there, and Space went down just as we were heading there.

We also had a day at Epcot last week where we got two anytime FPs as TT kept going down for long periods.

I can accept things happen and one big ride may be down, but long periods for three of them two days in a row spoils the experience

 

[kandb]

Yes, and heaven forbid they shut it down for refurb. Oh, the horrors and injustices!!!

Look, none of us here have any idea why they're down. Could be mechanical, could be moronic guests, could be random luck. But seems we sure want to jump to conclusions and say "See, it's cost cutting". How do you know?? You can say I'm defending, great. I'm simply saying I...or any of us...really have no clue why they're down. There are plenty of possible explanations, of which we don't know that any are right or wrong. We've spent 35+ days in WDW over the past 9 months and have experienced very few ride closures, definitely nothing more than we've seen in years past. The only exception to that seemed to be PeopleMover, which we noticed was down a lot...but then again even that stopped this past Christmas trip as we never saw it down. Is it random luck? Were they not cost cutting on the days we were there? Who knows??

Yes, all of this may be true BUT when people are spending up to over $100 to be at a park and half the rides are down, there should be some sort of compensation. It's not right, the parks are super expensive to be in and guests should be able to go on the majority of rides. Disney has failed, no matter why, it really doesn't matter.

 

[Kathlita]

If our trip in May includes the issues that have been discussed recently on the forum, I will be voicing my concerns. Not for any sort of compensation, but that is so they know it's not ok. They may not care, it may not make a difference, but it will at least be better than the restrictive survey they send once you get home. And on the off chance they do care-if they hear from enough unsatisfied guests, who knows what might change.

I agree. I've been planning our trip since August and we leave next week. If we run into these same problems, I will definitely contact Disney. All that planning for nothing? One or two rides down, okay that happens. But this many? Not acceptable.

 

[Haley R]

I agree. I've been planning our trip since August and we leave next week. If we run into these same problems, I will definitely contact Disney. All that planning for nothing? One or two rides down, okay that happens. But this many? Not acceptable.

When are you getting there? We leave Tuesday.

 

[zillayen]

When are you getting there? We leave Tuesday.

Not that you asked me, but we also arrive Tuesday In the parks Wed-Sat.