I’m curious as to what everyone’s tipping point is for when you decide to go to guest services to lodge a complaint.
For example, this morning (leaving this afternoon) we got up to do ETPE for HS.
Got in line for TOT at 7:45. Five minutes later they announced a “delayed opening”. So we rushed over to SDD, stood in line for 15 minutes, then the ride broke down for an “extended delay”.
I’m pretty furious that I dragged my kid outta bed to come here and basically do nothing.
On top of that ROTR is also closed.
I’d like to (politely) express my frustration to guest experiences, but really am I the asshole for doing so?
I guess I wouldn’t be so angry if I had got to ride them earlier in our trip, but we didn’t.
Now it’s well past park opening and the lines will build up to the point where we just won’t have the time to wait for them.
Before reading further, I will say - never. I have never once lodged a complaint at guest services. Perhaps I’ve been lucky that nothing “catastrophic” occurred to upset my trip. But I also feel that largely, it’s not worth it
After reading, I don’t think it’s worth it. It’s nobody’s fault and unpredictable that ride breakdowns happen. It may even be in the fine print. It’s frustrating, absolutely. But for me I would imagine that the CM team at GS and umbrellas will hear about it all day long, and really at the end of the day it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to be part of the pile on.
But, all that said, it’s well within your rights to speak with them. It’s your vacation. It’s your time and dollars.
Personally, I wouldn’t. I’ve worked in customer service before and if it was an issue where an employee or maybe something that was entirely preventable caused an inconvenience, sure. This just sounds like bad luck.
Yes I’m definitely hesitating. It would be nice to know I’m getting a survey to at least so I can put my thought there. I’d much rather do that then randomly complain to a person who really has no control of the situation.
Keep in mind that several hundred, maybe several thousand people had your same luck. It is not just you.
Remember that the folks in Guest Serv probably WANT to do something. I’d guess that there’s already been a standard type of “offer” they are authorized to make to guests that ask for some kind of compensation, if the issue has been reported enough. Treat them with the respect that many humans deserve - they probably WANT to make your day better, if they can. If you have the ability to empathize, and you have encountered the very special people at the parks - the ones that do not have the ability to understand that they are not the only people in the world that are at Disneyworld - you’ll completely understand that the guest serv cm’s probably deal with those ppl a LOT. You know - the ones that only believe that their family paid for a vacation, and that their stroller making your ankle bleed is YOUR fault, or their kid is the only kid that deserves to be “next,” or their food order HAS to be next, so they block the counter? Yeah - THOSE people.
I’d go to guest serv asap, and speak to them like a human being. You might get nothing, you might get something. If you get nothing, cart an email off with a CLEAR description of the issue, and a completely reasonable and clearly detailed request for them to appease your situation.
We went to DHS for Early Entry, and both TOT and RNR were down. We giggled. Murphy’s law. Sh*t totally happens. We went to guest serv AFTER the am scurry, and had a laugh with the CM, who made it right. Had a wonderful day. Good luck to you.
Also - good chance (IMO) to show your son how to handle such things, and interacting with other humans in a reasonable manner.
If the Guest Service line was short I might stop by and politely explain your morning and ask if anything can be done. I’m thinking if they can give you Lightning Lanes for the downed attractions that is a fix that makes you very happy and is a timely solution that saves your day.
And given TOT, SDD and RotR were all down I’m not sure it is an unreasonable request as DIS charged you $100-something to get into a park running at half capacity or less. After the fact, I might write an email or answer a survey expressing the frustration at spending so much and getting so little just to see if Disney attempted to make good or not.
Framing it as “complaining” puts a negative spin on it. You could nicely tell a CM your story and see if they propose a remedy. I wouldn’t call that complaining if you do it without anger or an attitude of entitlement.
I’ll offer one more perspective. Given the maintenece issues and downtimes described by Len in some of the Disney Dish episodes, this is an ongoing issue. I think it is important for Disney to know that their choice to spend less on ride maintenance is impacting guest experience. To this end, I would consider going to the main GS when convienient and let them know you aren’t looking for compensation (if you aren’t) but that you felt it was important to share how these downtimes impacted your experience. Without this feedback, they won’t rexamine their priorities.
I would maybe write an email once you get back, saying that it was disappointing. But I think usually once you get back, it doesn’t seem worth it. If you’ve had a fantastic trip but a couple of rides broke down, it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. If it still seems worth it once you get home, go for it.
This is a really good point. The fact is, while an “occasional” ride being down is unavoidable…frequent and on-going rides being down is a sign of them NOT doing their job of proper maintenance. As guests, we are just expected to be “okay” with this, while they charge an arm and a leg for us to be there and don’t invest that money back into the parks.
At this point compensation isn’t going to do much, since we are leaving this afternoon, but you do make good points regarding letting them know how it affects our experience.
I’m sorry this happened to you, and at a point in your trip that you can’t really recoup the missed rides. I agree that GS will likely have more than a handful of people complaining to them, and many in unkind ways. I would definitely find a way to let them know how your experience was impacted. Whether it’s through a survey or email, I agree with those who said Disney should know. If no one speaks up, they have no data to compile. I mean, other than the obvious ride downtime if they track that
This x1000. Every time I want to complain, I realize if I just go in there guns a-blazin’, the only way anything will work out for me at all is if I go full on “karen” and for an extended period of time (which is EXHAUSTING). Especially when there’s nothing in their control of what’s bad that’s happening. So doing that seems daunting.
But if you have an attitude to want to work with the CMs to rectify and/ore improve your situation, you’ll get much better results.
A great example was on my one trip, my phone charger got wet due to rain and wouldn’t charge my phone (which was at 5% power left). However it was still early evening and I had bought Genie+ but I clearly couldn’t make any more selections because Disney now needs your phone 80% of the day.
My inital plan was to go into the GS booth and just rant that I shouldn’t have to be on my phone this much. But, as I said, I realized that’ll pretty much get me a “I’m so sorry for you.” and that be it. MAYBE a gift card reimbursement for the cost of G+, but that was a long shot (and if I’m honest, not enough of a restitution for having to deal with this BS).
Instead, I went in with the question of “how do I work around this?” I asked the CM exactly that and should it happen again, what could I do to circumvent the problem? No anger, trying my best to avoid any air of entitlement, just a stance of “This is my problem, what do you, the Disney experts, suggest how I can solve this?”
…They went and gave me one of those charger things they sell, for free. To keep. Which was a better outcome than any plan i had devised in my head outside of “your entire trip has been comped.”
I do want to say that sharing your experience via email or survey is important. They do need feedback. I just wouldn’t bother with this kind of issue in the moment.
At this point I will just send an email. Both rides did open up (ROTR did but it’s closed again) and we got to ride both with a very short wait.
(Disney inflating numbers a lot- 45 posted for SDD and we waited 10, 40 posted for TOT and we waited 5)
An email with our experience will suffice at this point. I will also mention just how the cost of LL/G+ had an effect on our trip this week as well.
I agree with those saying that it doesn’t hurt to stop by Guest Services if there’s no/only a short line to explain calmly what happened and ask kindly if anything can be done (maybe even ask specifically for a LL for one of those two rides).
We did something similar on our DHS day, where we had an LL for ToT, waited for quite some time in the LL queue because it was down, and eventually bailed but couldn’t recoup the LL later in the day because we had scanned in just after our 15 min official grace period (and so the LL had disappeared).
There happened to be a blue umbrella opposite Dockside Diner where I was getting a snack, and my husband walked over to explain nicely what happened and made a specific suggestion (in our case, it was to move forward the LL of another ride/ASS because the only time window left was too late for us since we had a train to catch that evening). It was not a huge ask, and they were super friendly and agreed to it immediately. He thanked them profusely for their cooperation, and I think everyone involved walked away happy with the resolution.
Ah great, just seeing that you did get to ride in the end - indeed, then probably no need for action and great to hear it worked out for you on those rides. An email is a good idea as I also agree with others who said it’s important for Disney to hear how frequently downtime is affecting guest experience.
Which was a better outcome than any plan i had devised in my head outside of “your entire trip has been comped.”