The Happiest Place On Earth
Disney Whines, Complaints, Gripes, & Other Observations
Not so fast Walt, nice place you have there, but we have a few things to get off our chest....
Around the Parks:
Not that I ever tried it but a guy at work I know, Bob, whose wife works at Disneyland, said if you get a popcorn from a cart, get out of sight, eat it really fast, you can go back to the cart vendor and give him a story about spilling it and he might refill it - no charge. Again personally, I would never try that. Which brings me to Joseph, my great nephew, 3 years old. He wanted popcorn. He gave the popcorn man at the Main Street hub his money and proceeded to walk to an empty bench just across from popcorn cart. In the act of jumping up on the bench to sit down, he spilled his full box of popcorn in plain sight of the popcorn man not more than 20 feet away. So a dejected Joseph and I walked back to the popcorn man and told him that we spilled the popcorn which he could easily see and asked if we could get a refill. "I'm not allowed to do that" was the reply. Popcorn, maybe the cheapest form of food in the world, costing Disney pennies to fill whatever size container, and they wouldn't refill it for a 3 year old.
How is that it takes soooo long to serve counter service food that is, for the most part, already prepared????
Disneyland isn't alone with this but how is it that you can get away charging about 3 bucks for a bottle of water in Southern California where it is perpetually summer? It doesn't need to be Dasani. Why can't you get some knock-off water company to pull some purified water out of the L.A. Aqueduct and sell it for a buck? I can go over to the grocery store and get a case for like $4.00. Come on....everyone needs water but you don't need to charge and arm and a leg for it.
You probably don't need to FastPass Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters anymore, but a FastPass for Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage might be a pretty good idea and maybe Peter Pan's Flight along with it. Peter Pan is a FastPass attraction in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
For the price, how does Ariel's Grotto serve such consistently bad food - not just typical Disney food which just isn't great - but just plain bad (Janeen's comment: "This place is jack nasty")? Go for the characters - stick with the salads. A new menu was put in place September 2008. It just has to be an improvement....
Wastes of Space - Disneyland itself is space challenged but two of the biggest hogs of space are Innoventions (does anyone go in there?) in Tomorrowland and the Fantasyland Theater. If it is a theater, use it that way with something along the lines of DCA's Aladdin show. From what I've heard and read, the Fantasyland Theater is now used for meeting Princesses and letting kids color. Huh? Other than Mickey's House and the Roger Rabbit attraction, is all of ToonTown a waste of space? Just asking.
Do rides have to exit into gift shops?
So this typical Southern California "dude" gets in the seat in front
of use for a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean . In his ear is a wireless
bluetooth device with a blinking LED light that was bright enough to use in a
lighthouse. About half way through the ride, the girl that was sitting
next to him thankfully told him to shut it off. What kind of phone
reception were you expecting to get down there anyway? That's it....I'm
writing to Disney. Something should be posted to shut LED devices off out
of courtesy.
Around the Hotels and Downtown Disney:
Hotel Character Meal Buffets - paying your 15% tip before you even sit down is not the way it works. What if you get stiffed by Goofy and the guy who is supposed to bring you orange juice?
You book your Disney trip 8 months in advance with Walt Disney Travel and specifically request adjoining rooms for your group. At check-in, you here the words "Sorry, we currently have no adjoining rooms available". After an hour of using very valuable Disney time going round and round with the hotel manager and the lady at the Front Desk, the adjoining rooms magically appear.
Speaking of reservations, on the trip you are booking through Walt Disney Travel you may be able to request a certain floor or view or tower in your hotel but it can't be guaranteed. Why not? Your usually doing this months in advance. I'll bet if Nicholas Cage (who was seen by people in our group) requests a certain room or view, he's going to get it even if he booked a trip yesterday.....(I think I answered my own question).
And the Grand Californian......a wonderful hotel with a serious design flaw.....It could have been designed to exit out into the esplanade steps away from the Disneyland front gate but No. You have to walk in the opposite direction down a long corridor and hallway, past convention rooms, and into Downtown Disney conveniently by the World of Disney store. Funny how you always get directed to places that have cash registers in the Disney World. Oh, and that private entrance to Disney's California Adventure, very nice but a lot of good it does you when the park generally opens later and closes earlier than Disneyland. The only time it's any good at all is if you just happen to be in California Adventure and you need to take that afternoon nap because you have simply had - enough.
With
the current economic recession, you can get deal staying at a Disney property
hotel (as low as $140 a night at the Disneyland Hotel in January) but the deal
breaker remains a $13 and change per night "resort" fee on top
of the taxes & room rate. What the $%^^&*? They tell you its
for newspapers, internet service, pool towels, parking, and stuff like
that. But if you used none of those things, you will still get nailed with
a $52 resort fee on a 4 day stay. Rip-Off.