What you don't
realize is how subconsciously the excitement builds.
Getting up this morning... "We're going to
Disneyland!". Getting in the car: "We're going to
Disneyland!". Getting on the freeway, finally getting
to the exit! The long light you have to sit at before
the park! Paying for parking! Getting out of your car
and seeing all of the kids buzzing with excitement.
Your wife is pregnant! This will be you in a couple of
years!! Watching them all try to walk to the
tram. A day at Disneyland through their eyes is
magic. Getting to the tram! Riding the tram! Taking
your first instagram picture:
Then, because it's
a park-hopper pass... you get to pick WHICH park
to go to first! I've never been to California
Adventure so hell yes, that one first!!! What was a
chore for a year (trying to find a day to spend at
Disneyland before it expired on May 24th, 2012),
creeps up on you. Even though Talya was pregnant and
we couldn't ride too many things we both managed to
get legitimately amped. This was a glipmse into our
future with kids... all thanks to Michael Lowe, an
executive at Disney, who gave Talya's mother 2
park-hopper passes as a year-end present at the school
she teaches:
Yes we were
cutting it close coming on May 23rd, but again - very
hard to arrange your schedules and not go on a crowded
weekend. We did it! We got in yet another line to go
to California Adventure and when she scans the ticket
she says they've already been used. Considering
they've been in our possession the entire time, I
found that hard to believe. She says "Oh it happens
all the time with the employee tickets, they give them
out twice."
What?
So she calls
someone over and he pulls us aside and scans them
himself. One ticket was used on January 8th, 2012 and
the other was used on February 27th, 2012. He again
reiterates: "Yeah, this happens all the time.
The employee can print as many copies as he wants if
they're unused." Considering the May 24th, 2012
expiration date, that's quite a flaw in the system
wouldn't you say? No offer to help us out, work
something out (two park-hopper tickets would be well
over $200), or try and contact Michael Lowe.
I ask about at least getting our $15 for parking
back and he says to go to customer
service.
I stand in
THAT line and for the THIRD time the
employee says nonchalantly "Oh, yeah, this happens all
the time. The employee must have printed them twice."
Listen, do you know what DOESN'T happen all the
time? ME GOING TO DISNEYLAND. Or for
most anyone on the PLANET. So don't act like this
isn't a big deal. An hour drive to Anaheim pales in
comparison to what most people have been through to
get to Disneyland. I resisted the urge to go
"Griswold" and get into the park, deciding instead to
just get home as soon as possible and start working on
the house to forget this happened. So we got back on
an EMPTY tram as it was 10:30 in
THE MORNING, to go home...
We got back in
relatively good time and went to Home Depot to get
some drywall for me to continue the work on the house.
Talya joked that this would be the worst day of her
life as a child as she was forced to go to Home Depot
with her father for "errands" and had she thought she
was spending the day at Disneyland and instead went to
Home Depot, her cerebral cortex may have split in
half. LOL. I certainly wasn't intending to add insult
to injury, but I needed to get back to
work.
Of course the day
processed a bit more and after speaking with some
people on Facebook about it... I'm really annoyed. The
fact that there was no way for me to call ahead (had
it even occurred to me this was possible) to see if
the tickets had been used REALLY upsets me. They
have to fix this system. "Happens all the
time"? Are you serious? THEN FIX IT. We
didn't do anything wrong. We didn't photocopy the
tickets. We didn't scam anyone. The Disney employee
made a mistake that apparently is very easy to make,
and we get screwed? From my perspective it looks like
every damn ounce of fault is on Disney. Be it a bad
system for printing employee passes, to having NOTHING
on the ticket itself that says this could happen, to
even having an EXPIRATION date that is
worthless... Disney did everything wrong. And it will
happen again and again and again.
So I'll pass this
video along and write a letter to Disney linking this
entry. The goal is to change the sytem, not get free
passes. I dare them to do THAT. LOL. "Hey, here's
a free pass that you're welcome to use and hopefully
we don't accidentally give it to someone else and
waste your day AGAIN." I would never accept that. Fix
the system and give us season passes with an actual
CARD. Something tangible that is linked to our NAMES.
