Amazing job reporting back how your day went!
As has been pointed out most definitely false and I hate that this is the level of service you received, ESPECIALLY with paying now for this (I could maybe get if it’s a free service they don’t want to help so much, but when you’re paying extra for it, the better service when things go wrong should come included, ESPECIALLY at Disney where they built a brand on being once upon a time known for that service, but maybe that’s just crazy-talk in these Chapek days).
Only ok? I guess I just have a lot of nostalgia from it being so ground-breaking when DCA first opened, but I rank it as one of my faves and will take every chance I get to see the Over California version as I can.
As someone who wears hiking flip flops regularly and is also a Soarin’ fan, I will slip them off and leave them on the floor in front of my seat (I don’t think anyone needs or wants the germs from the bottom of my shoes touching whatever they put into their basket later. And for the record I do agree that if being barefoot entails taking off socks, then common courtesy demands you keep those shoes and socks and whatever odors may be lurking within them to your own self and feet).
Once upon a time, I used to sometimes be daring and wear my flip flops while air-borne but it was always stressful trying to clench my toes to keep the flip-flops from flinging off (I have an immense distaste for being barefoot on a public floor so sometimes I would opt to keep my flip flops on to avoid having to face the potential scenario of the minutes I was away from my shoes resulted in them getting moved somehow). And the last time I did this, as we were coming back down my shoe flew off in spite of my efforts to clench & keep it on. I was VERY lucky it flew onto the edge of the floor on the side of the railing I could access and NOT on the other side of the black nethers in the curve of the screen. After that stress, I don’t chance it. I leave the flip flops and CM’s have always been happy for me to do so (and also no one’s ever asked me to do it, it’s very much been an opt-in choice).
On the contrary, while there was a lot of moaning about the loss of DCA’s California soul in its theming by the ride makeover, most of the moaning was put to rest with the awesomeness of the ride it became. I was very upset to lose the California aspect, but the Guardians version delivered. But like @Jeff_AZ, I’m grateful for the option of Twilight Zone in a Disney park on the other coast.
In case you ever are back, this isn’t the case and I’m sorry that if this was the straw on the camel’s back that deterred you from venturing that way. When you get to the edge of where Downtown Disney meets the DLH hotel grounds, you are exiting the security perimeter surrounding the two parks and Downtown Disney, but you don’t have any security to access the DLH hotel grounds. You do have to do security (the one time) to get back towards Downtown Disney and the parks.
The only scenario where I can envision you having to do security twice is if you are putting the Grand Californian hotel in your path AND you are coming straight from the Harbor Blvd side. So if you start outside the Disneyland resort sign in your first pic > do security past the bus loop > enter DCA via main entrance > exit DCA via the GCH dedicated entrance > walk through the lobby & out the other side of the GCH to the breezeway to access Downtown Disney > then you would be met with a 2nd round of security, but all other paths to Trader Sam’s you at most do security the one time. If you are coming from the Harbor Blvd side after you go through security it’s a straight shot through Downtown Disney towards the other end for Trader Sam’s. It is a long hike though, I’ll give you that.
I find it interesting that this was your experience. The food booths do take up space on DCA’s normally wide walkways and I do heartily agree that having them plus the crowds they tend to bring makes it harder to navigate BUT even then it’s usually still so much better than many of the chokepoints across the way at DL (Frontierland, anything in New Orleans Square after 10:30am, Fantasyland from 9am-9pm and Tomorrowland from front to back).