Why the bad reviews?

[onlyoneash]

I was so so careful with our stroller, but I noticed people (mostly teenagers) would just randomly stop in a walkway to Snapchat or whatever while everyone else was going full speed! It was happening everywhere! People would run into them and these teens would be so rude even though THEY were the ones who abruptly/randomly stopped to stare at their phones. Walking and texting should have the same rules as texting and driving in Disneyland.

And yes, my stoller accidentally hit a couple of these aforementioned people.

 

[Linkura]

Rides go down and you can be stuck on them for 20+plus minutes have to walk off and don’t get any sort of FP for another ride anymore.

Really? We weren't even on Space Mountain when it went down a couple weeks ago- we'd used our FP and were close to getting on though- and got a FP for it. And not just any FP, but the one that lets you on non-FP attractions.

 

[audrianna890]

I was so so careful with our stroller, but I noticed people (mostly teenagers) would just randomly stop in a walkway to Snapchat or whatever while everyone else was going full speed! It was happening everywhere! People would run into them and these teens would be so rude even though THEY were the ones who abruptly/randomly stopped to stare at their phones. Walking and texting should have the same rules as texting and driving in Disneyland.

And yes, my stoller accidentally hit a couple of these aforementioned people.

See, I have more adults step in front of me than teenagers. But yes, I'm with you on following the rules of the road!

 

[peterpanandwendy]

WE have been going every 2-3 years for the past 15 years (coming from Canada). For the past 5-6 years I've been visiting Disboards before our trips I always read about how horrible the crowds have gotten and how rude the people are. It always freaks me out and I think to myself "Oh no! Is it going to terrible? Are we going to have an awful time?" But then we go (always in peak season because my husband and I are both teachers) and it is never any worse than the previous trips. It is always busy, there are always waits, but it hasn't, in my opinion, felt like it's gotten any busier in the past 12 years. It always feels consistently busy to me. We always expect it to be so, and have a wonderful time.

 

[mummabear]

Really? We weren't even on Space Mountain when it went down a couple weeks ago- we'd used our FP and were close to getting on though- and got a FP for it. And not just any FP, but the one that lets you on non-FP attractions.

Yeah, we were walked off Winnie the Pooh, nothing. We have been stuck on Pirates for over 20 minutes, my toddler started saying she needed the bathroom and I was getting a little worried we wouldn’t make it off in time and in neither case did we get any sort of FP, and the RSR incident I really feel we should have been sent for a reride (there was another time on RSR where we sat for a longtime outside Luigi’s before going in and then did race anyone but I didn’t feel that effected the enjoyment of it so don’t think a reride was warranted in that case)

 

[Linkura]

Yeah, we were walked off Winnie the Pooh, nothing. We have been stuck on Pirates for over 20 minutes, my toddler started saying she needed the bathroom and I was getting a little worried we wouldn’t make it off in time and in neither case did we get any sort of FP, and the RSR incident I really feel we should have been sent for a reride (there was another time on RSR where we sat for a longtime outside Luigi’s before going in and then did race anyone but I didn’t feel that effected the enjoyment of it so don’t think a reride was warranted in that case)

That stinks. Maybe because they're not FP rides? They should still provide them anyway IMO for the loss of time.

 

[ExcitedMama]

I'm really sad about the big change in our experience from our previous trips. For the most part it's really people causing the problem and not Disney. People are just being rude and/or oblivious of others. It was shocking how often people just stopped in walkways. We had so many rides stop while riding them that even DS complained. On HM after the ride DH had told me it had stopped because of someone taking photos. I was annoyed by the flash photography but he was in a car ahead of me and could hear them being admonished when the ride was stopped. I couldn't hear it so I wonder how often the rides were stopped because of issues with people instead of it being what I had thought was some sort of mechanical problem. Everywhere we went people were being rude with their cameras and tablets. At Mickey and the Magical Map two people seated together both held their devices up over their heads to record it without caring about the people trying to watch behind them.

The crowds were ridiculous and very poorly managed. On the way to Fantasmic someone tripped my DD. She fell down even with me holding her hand and catching her quickly. Obviously this could happen anywhere with so many people but the crowd was very poorly controlled. After Fantasmic I needed to take DD to the bathroom but found myself in a stampede. DD was crying and very upset. It was just a crush of people going through Adventureland with no attempt at all to manage the crowd. It was our last night and DD was very excited and wanted to stay late but she was upset at the crowd pushing in all around us that I had to get her out of there. We were supposed to meet back up with my DH and DS but I had to text him later that we left because it wasn't safe for her. I can't believe this was the first time it was such a madhouse so I do blame Disney for such poor crowd control. Even during the day New Orleans was impossible to move through. POTC ran out of FP really early and the lines were crazy.

There was no perk at all to the EMH which seems to me they should change the hours. When FP are gone for rides so early it seems to me they need to fix something. Most rides had 60 minute wait times which is just too much for kids to handle. DD cried because the Toy Story ride at DCA kept running out of FPs by the afternoon so we could only ride it by going there first thing in the morning. Guardians kept running out FPs so I had to splurge on MP on our last day to ensure DS could finally ride it but it was impossible to get through on the app.

DS is really sad about how many rides we didn't get to do at all. We were there for 5 days which should have been plenty of time to do everything, as it has been on our last two trips, but with the crowds it was impossible. I hope they have some plan for when Star Wars land opens because I can't even fathom what a disaster the place will become with that many more people going.

 

[Linkura]

I'm really sad about the big change in our experience from our previous trips. For the most part it's really people causing the problem and not Disney. People are just being rude and/or oblivious of others. It was shocking how often people just stopped in walkways. We had so many rides stop while riding them that even DS complained. On HM after the ride DH had told me it had stopped because of someone taking photos. I was annoyed by the flash photography but he was in a car ahead of me and could hear them being admonished when the ride was stopped. I couldn't hear it so I wonder how often the rides were stopped because of issues with people instead of it being what I had thought was some sort of mechanical problem. Everywhere we went people were being rude with their cameras and tablets. At Mickey and the Magical Map two people seated together both held their devices up over their heads to record it without caring about the people trying to watch behind them.

The crowds were ridiculous and very poorly managed. On the way to Fantasmic someone tripped my DD. She fell down even with me holding her hand and catching her quickly. Obviously this could happen anywhere with so many people but the crowd was very poorly controlled. After Fantasmic I needed to take DD to the bathroom but found myself in a stampede. DD was crying and very upset. It was just a crush of people going through Adventureland with no attempt at all to manage the crowd. It was our last night and DD was very excited and wanted to stay late but she was upset at the crowd pushing in all around us that I had to get her out of there. We were supposed to meet back up with my DH and DS but I had to text him later that we left because it wasn't safe for her. I can't believe this was the first time it was such a madhouse so I do blame Disney for such poor crowd control. Even during the day New Orleans was impossible to move through. POTC ran out of FP really early and the lines were crazy.

There was no perk at all to the EMH which seems to me they should change the hours. When FP are gone for rides so early it seems to me they need to fix something. Most rides had 60 minute wait times which is just too much for kids to handle. DD cried because the Toy Story ride at DCA kept running out of FPs by the afternoon so we could only ride it by going there first thing in the morning. Guardians kept running out FPs so I had to splurge on MP on our last day to ensure DS could finally ride it but it was impossible to get through on the app.

DS is really sad about how many rides we didn't get to do at all. We were there for 5 days which should have been plenty of time to do everything, as it has been on our last two trips, but with the crowds it was impossible. I hope they have some plan for when Star Wars land opens because I can't even fathom what a disaster the place will become with that many more people going.

Actually, it does seem like a lot of the blame falls on Disney per your own post. Are they responsible for all of it? Certainly not. But they could do a much better job than what they are currently doing.

Also, you mentioned POTC running out of FP. It doesn't have FP at DLR.

 

[ExcitedMama]

Actually, it does seem like a lot of the blame falls on Disney per your own post. Are they responsible for all of it? Certainly not. But they could do a much better job than what they are currently doing.

Also, you mentioned POTC running out of FP. It doesn't have FP at DLR.

True, I blamed people for their own misbehavior which I don't know that Disney can control but Disney does deserve blame for their crowd control issues for sure.

Oh my bad about FP for POTC. The only day we had MP I got a FP for HM and I didn't see POTC listed so I thought they must have run out. NO was such a crush of people that I didn't get close enough to POTC to see there wasn't a FP machine there.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

WE have been going every 2-3 years for the past 15 years (coming from Canada). For the past 5-6 years I've been visiting Disboards before our trips I always read about how horrible the crowds have gotten and how rude the people are. It always freaks me out and I think to myself "Oh no! Is it going to terrible? Are we going to have an awful time?" But then we go (always in peak season because my husband and I are both teachers) and it is never any worse than the previous trips. It is always busy, there are always waits, but it hasn't, in my opinion, felt like it's gotten any busier in the past 12 years. It always feels consistently busy to me. We always expect it to be so, and have a wonderful time.

I think part of the reason your experience is feeling different than some people's is that "peak season" hasn't really changed - in fact, if anything, crowds are proportionately LOWER in a lot of the "traditional" peak times.

The real change has happened to the traditionally lower-crowd times, which don't exist anymore, yet the park hours, staffing, refurb schedule, etc. have not really adjusted accordingly. People who've heard/seen online that their visit will have "ghost town" conditions are in for a bit of a shock when they end up with only 10 hours of open park time and have giant crowds all day.

The people who get blindsided by crowds are the ones I feel for, and I ran into a LOT of those people this past February. Soooo many people who were like, "oh my gosh, we've never been here and everyone told us to come in February because it would be empty so we pulled the kids out of school and came and now IT IS MADNESS and it's 4:00 and we've only done four rides and had lunch so far and the park closes at 8 and wow!"

Side note: give me an 8am opening with 9/10 overall crowds over a 10am opening with 8/10 crowds any day!

 

[peterpanandwendy]

^^^^^

Ahhhhh, yes, this makes perfect sense. I can see how that would be frustrating. Yes, for us, only going at peak times, the expectation is just "there will be a billion people. Get over it and have fun" lol. I can see how if you expect different it would be a bit of a shock.

I wonder what Disney can really do about that though? I mean, part of what we all love about the park is the cleanliness and how everything is maintained. And for safety reasons the rides "must" be checked and refurbed regularly.... so what choice do they have? I guess longer park hours, but then that means more wear and tear on rides and infrastructure.... a lot if you add up four extra hours/day of park use over the course of a few months. Which would means rides would be down even more, with less time to maintain them.... increased garbage, increased bathroom use... all that stuff. It's a conundrum....

 

[mummabear]

True, I blamed people for their own misbehavior which I don't know that Disney can control but Disney does de

Disney can control things like park hours and staffing though, a fortnight ago it took us 40 minutes to get through the security line because they only had a couple open, the line went more than halfway back to the road.
It is totally unacceptable for Disney not to have staffed that properly.

^^^^^

Ahhhhh, yes, this makes perfect sense. I can see how that would be frustrating. Yes, for us, only going at peak times, the expectation is just "there will be a billion people. Get over it and have fun" lol. I can see how if you expect different it would be a bit of a shock.

I wonder what Disney can really do about that though? I mean, part of what we all love about the park is the cleanliness and how everything is maintained. And for safety reasons the rides "must" be checked and refurbed regularly.... so what choice do they have? I guess longer park hours, but then that means more wear and tear on rides and infrastructure.... a lot if you add up four extra hours/day of park use over the course of a few months. Which would means rides would be down even more, with less time to maintain them.... increased garbage, increased bathroom use... all that stuff. It's a conundrum....

A lot of it would be to stop acting like there is peak and off peak anymore, stop doing 0 refurbs in July/Aug and doing them all in Sept or Feb when the parks are as crowded as they were in July.
Stop doing fireworks/F! Every night during summer and only 3 times a week during Fall when you are charging people them amount to get it and it is just as packed.
On that note during Fall you are charging people the same to get in while having already reduced hours decemated by closing early for parties 3 nights a week.
Look at your staffing and keep it even to visitor numbers all year round.

 

[KBinCO]

we went to LegoLand in FL for a day a couple years ago and the park was insanely crowded... it hit capacity on a day they thought very few people would show up. We were leaving at closing time and a staff member told us they were staying open an extra hour because they were so surprised and unprepared for the crowds that day. We got more done in that last hour than the entire day. Disney would never do something like that. I imagine it's not that easy but man did we appreciate the effort and owning their miscalculation.

 

[mummabear]

we went to LegoLand in FL for a day a couple years ago and the park was insanely crowded... it hit capacity on a day they thought very few people would show up. We were leaving at closing time and a staff member told us they were staying open an extra hour because they were so surprised and unprepared for the crowds that day. We got more done in that last hour than the entire day. Disney would never do something like that. I imagine it's not that easy but man did we appreciate the effort and owning their miscalculation.

You know what on our last trip (last month) there was a day DL was meant to close at 8 but they closed at 9, I didn’t hear any announcement, I don’t know when it was decided I just know that before I left I printed the park hours from their site and it said it was closing at 8 that day

 

[Linkura]

^^^^^

Ahhhhh, yes, this makes perfect sense. I can see how that would be frustrating. Yes, for us, only going at peak times, the expectation is just "there will be a billion people. Get over it and have fun" lol. I can see how if you expect different it would be a bit of a shock.

I wonder what Disney can really do about that though? I mean, part of what we all love about the park is the cleanliness and how everything is maintained. And for safety reasons the rides "must" be checked and refurbed regularly.... so what choice do they have? I guess longer park hours, but then that means more wear and tear on rides and infrastructure.... a lot if you add up four extra hours/day of park use over the course of a few months. Which would means rides would be down even more, with less time to maintain them.... increased garbage, increased bathroom use... all that stuff. It's a conundrum....

They can increase hours and increase staffing, which they refuse to do. Disney's refusal to do this is causing a huge mess and actually causing people such as me not to return.

 

[KBinCO]

You know what on our last trip (last month) there was a day DL was meant to close at 8 but they closed at 9, I didn’t hear any announcement, I don’t know when it was decided I just know that before I left I printed the park hours from their site and it said it was closing at 8 that day

ah well that's nice, maybe them not doing it was just a poor assumption on my part.

 

[audrianna890]

You know, this is all so interesting to read because I hardly am ever in the parks after 3 so I don't see a majority of the crowds.

Out of curiosity, has anyone called guest services and complained directly?

 

[mummabear]

ah well that's nice, maybe them not doing it was just a poor assumption on my part.

It may not have been a reaction to the day directly I don’t mnow, I just know that in the time between me printing the info and the day it changed and either way that’s a good thing

 

[Skyegirl1999]

^^^^^

Ahhhhh, yes, this makes perfect sense. I can see how that would be frustrating. Yes, for us, only going at peak times, the expectation is just "there will be a billion people. Get over it and have fun" lol. I can see how if you expect different it would be a bit of a shock.

I wonder what Disney can really do about that though? I mean, part of what we all love about the park is the cleanliness and how everything is maintained. And for safety reasons the rides "must" be checked and refurbed regularly.... so what choice do they have? I guess longer park hours, but then that means more wear and tear on rides and infrastructure.... a lot if you add up four extra hours/day of park use over the course of a few months. Which would means rides would be down even more, with less time to maintain them.... increased garbage, increased bathroom use... all that stuff. It's a conundrum....

I agree that it's a little more complicated than just "extend hours" or whatever. I am also bothered by people who are online here and know what to expect, yet continue to make multiple trips and then whine and complain each time - I don't understand that mentality at all! If you're blindsided/misinformed, that's one thing. I feel bad for those people. If you go in prepared to be annoyed and critical before you even get there, and you can't put aside your annoyance about security lines to realize you're at Disneyland and suck it up and find some fun, well... I feel bad for whoever you're with that day.

I also do understand that at the end of the day, Disney is a business with shareholders to answer to, and if enough people are coming that the parks are "overcrowded" even with the current complaints, then why would they really feel the need to change?

I think one relatively easy thing that would help would be if they would eliminate 10am openings and publish hours farther in advance. For instance, maybe they could change to 11pm closings rather than midnight for much of the summer. Sure, summer people would be a little disgruntled, but if they advertised that change WELL in advance, maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Then they could pick up those hours by opening at 9 instead of 10 for much of the year. Maybe they could even switch off between 8-11 or 9-12 for the summer, shaving an hour off but letting multi-day trippers still take advantage of the "extra time" that suits them best.

Things like that would help even out the experience a bit, without a whole lot of "cost" to Disney. And if they'd simply release hours and scheduled refurbishments sooner, people could plan in advance and not feel blindsided by what they get.

I love Disneyland, but I wish they'd address some common complaints to make the experience more enjoyable and equitable for everyone. I also completely understand people who visit Disneyland and decide it's not for them! There are legitimate reasons for a lot of people not to enjoy Disneyland, and that's ok. I just hope people know what to expect so they can have the best experience possible!

 

[mummabear]

you go in prepared to be annoyed and critical before you even get there, and you can't put aside your annoyance about security lines to realize you're at Disneyland and suck it up and find some fun, well... I feel bad for whoever you're with that day.

People can suck it up and enjoy their day, we certainly had a great time after we were through waiting 40 minutes but at the same time when you are spending $130 to enter should you have to suck it up?