We'll be at the HS DAH tonight, and I'll report back. Really hoping we don't have to spend a huge chunk of our time in the ROR line. I actually meant to buy ILL this AM, but we slept until 11 am. Ahh, vacation!
Well, we're back at our resort at 11:40 pm. Our HS DAH experience was not good. Let me preface this by saying I've done a half dozen or more DAH events at MK and AK. I've loved every one of them. I was just at MK DAH on Monday, in fact.
Tonight was terrible. With no buffer between the close of the park and DAH beginning, the lines were packed with day guests at 9:30 when DAH officially began. The only thing we could find with a minimal wait around 9:45 was Toy Story Mania, so we rode that. We walked over to SDD, which was posted 40 minutes. But the girl working the end of the line was telling everyone the wait was actually 55 minutes. Smuggler's Run was 65 minutes, and ROR jumped between 50 and 60 minutes pretty consistently. We finally made our way to MMRR and rode that with about a 10-minute wait. By now, it was 10:45, and the lines for the headliners weren't getting any shorter.
At that point, I gave up and went to Guest Relations. I was nice but firm in requesting a refund. It was about 11:10 while I was talking with the Guest Relations cast members, and they told me they'd just gotten the call that Toy Story Land was finally clear of day guests. I pointed out the DAH event was more than half over, and that just wasn't acceptable. The CMs were very friendly and, after some continued discussion, processed our refund.
I've been coming to DW since I was 3 years old, and my DH and I are DVC members and long-time AP holders. I believe this is the first time I've ever asked for a refund. That should tell you how disappointed I was in tonight's event. The Guest Relations CMs said the HS DAH events are not all like this - said tonight's crowds were driven by ride breakdowns during the day. I hope that's the case for future DAH guests at HS. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this event to anyone. It is concerning there are only eight rides open during DAH -- just not many places for people to spread out.
I was very pleased with the service from Guest Relations, though, and appreciated the cast members' willingness to hear us out.