I posted this in the capacity thread but it might apply here better... it's a copy of the email sent to GS
"Hi, we just wanted to communicate to you our experience at Disney World from which we just returned home from.
Overall, the trip was great. Myself, my wife and our son traveled from Syracuse, NY and stayed at Pop Century 9-8-13 thru 9-14-13. Disney Magical Express was great and handled our transportation and luggage perfectly.The staff at Pop Century was great and we had no issues with the Magic Bands. We were well informed about MM+ prior to arrival and had nothing but a positive experience with it. Having a young one (4 years old) it was great to have the Fastpass+ options set up ahead of time and had no problem switching them on the fly as our vacation plans changed. Everything went smoothly until Friday (our last day of our trip)...
We had planned on going to Hollywood Studios on the 13th due to Villains Day as it seemed like a great Limited Time Magic. The morning went great, the park was slow and we were able to do a lot more than we had originally planned on accomplishing. After our afternoon nap however things took a turn for the worst. We were picked up at Pop at 6pm. We were dropped off at the Boardwalk at 9:15pm. Our bus had (I believe) two trainers and a trainee bus driver. They all did a pretty good job in my opinion. We weren't really given much information but I don't know how much information they had to give us. We had a few guests on board that were getting pretty out of hand early on. One individual caused a scene at about 7pm demanding to be let off the bus because his wife was having an anxiety attack. While I felt for him as I have suffered anxiety attacks in the past, he certainly wasn't making the situation any better as numerous guests up front offered their seats to his wife as it was more open towards the front of the bus. Around 8:45pm this same guest caused another scene on the bus and ultimately forced open the handicap doors on the bus and left to walk on his own across traffic. This caused the bus to go into a safety mode so that it only went approx. 10 mph until the bus was turned off and rebooted (at a traffic light I believe). I totally understand the need for a safety mode and applaud that such measures are in place. My concern was in the lack of planning by operations/transportation that led to these circumstances.
Again, all the CMs that we dealt with handled it the best they could and at no time did I feel that they provided anything other than great service.
Upon finally arriving to the park at approx. 10 pm after walking from the Boardwalk we had realized that our son had peed his pants on the bus. Chad from Oneida NY was a great help to us. Chad was at the ticket entrance to the park, I believe he was a 2nd level CM as he was not a ticket taker but seemed to be overseeing them. Seeing as how he was also from central NY I began talking to him about our experience and Chad comp'd us a pair of shorts for our son while informing us on how to contact Guest Relations. There was already a long line at Guest Relations in the park so I decided to email when we got home.
Once in the park we had a great experience. The park was obviously very busy but we were able to move around pretty easily with our stroller as long as we stayed away from the sea of humanity in front of the stage. Even tho we were not able to meet any of the villains we were ok with that as we were prepared for long lines there which would be beyond the patience of a 4 year old so we snapped some nice pictures from afar.
The fireworks were amazing and easily beat Fantasmic, Epcot, and Hallowishes which we had managed to catch during our week.
All of the CMs we encountered yesterday were great and while they may have seemed overwhelmed, both my wife and I understood it wasn't their fault.
This morning we relayed our experience to the front desk at Pop Century before we left and they comped us a night. I certainly appreciated it but being in retail management, I wonder how much in comps they had to give out for issues caused by the poor planning of operations/transportation. It certainly wasn't Pop Century's fault that we were stuck on a bus for over 3 hours but it was a very nice thing for them to do to try and fix the situation.
In closing, I thought the event was a great concept and I would happily pay for a similar hard ticket event during our next trip to Disney World/Land in the next few years. I was ultimately disappointed with the planning and logistics by operations/transportation and feel that that was the cause to the problems related to this event. I wanted to convey to you the experience of a family that had both parents have their 1st visit in 15+ years and their child having their 1st visit overall.
Thank you for your time,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Syracuse, NY"
