Was anyone at SDC yesterday during the power outage? How was it handled by the park?
It wasn't handled well at all.
Negative experience?
Arrived at the city with Brother and Sister in Law with Buddy in tow. Pulled in 10 min to opening. Paid for 2 showed 2 seasons passes and stopped in the breezeway between the HH and SDC to the anthem. EVERYONE stopped and put their hands over their hearts. I was impressed, not a soul in sight moved during this few moments. Maybe during our times of national and world tribulations trials we are taking our liberty and freedom seriously.
Walked in into the park and decided to get the OR out of the way. Walked down and see people leaving from the path near the ride. They said " Its all down, every ride in the park is down, having electrical problems." At this time I looked over at the Lost River to see it was not running at all. I decided we would wait it out so we walked around and looked at the crafts, talking to the vendors about their wares. It was very enjoyable. 12:00 PM, no rides running and now shops are saying that they are being told to turn down the registers as the power may go out 100%. We continued to walk and look and enjoy present company. 1:05 Lets eat. Stopped at the rib house and ate lunch lingered and finally heard the whistle blow on the train. I said 'Guys lets go see if they are firing up OR. None of our guests had been on the ride and this was the main reason ( and crafts festival) that we were there. We walked up and met 2 employees at the entrance to the walkway and they said 3 rides are up, they are slowly bringing the rides up on line, I asked if OR was going to be up they said no"
We decided that 3.5 hours of waiting was enough. The train and riverblast were running, That was all.
Call me a mastermind but I would think to open a kids ride and then open the ride most people had as #1 on their list, in fact the ride voted #1 best new ride would be second, but that was not the SDC plan. We were not not happy and decided to leave the park, the coments were,' they got my preferred parking money, they got my lunch money and I got nothing in return.'
On our way out we stopped by the Lye Soap booth and I asked how long ( in the season they would have lye soap, The response was " Probably the end of this booth in 2 weeks" “There are only 3 people that know how to run the booth and after the main lady ( retiring in 2 weeks) is gone that will probably be it, closed for good.”
You better buy your Lye soap now!
It’s really nearing the end of the SDC I know. It has become so corporate that they are losing their roots.
After buying a few logs of lye soap I talked to the Guest relations. They said they did what they could and the power outage caught them by surprise. I asked why when I was entering the park I was not warned. 2 of us had passes and the others had paid. They said they were just really in a jumble trying to communicate and they didn't know what was happening at the time. They were notably displeased with my questioning to their less than valid excuses. I asked where the signs were that told what would and would not be running that day and they said at the front where the tickets were sold, I asked why they were not up that day. Again they said " we will try to do better next time, " This made me feel dismissed. The person behind the counter said '" well bring me your receipt for lunch and I will give you a coupon for a replacement meal, I responded I didn't keep my receipts from meals. She wote me up a Good Neighbor Policy Coupon that said " Power out, was unhappy, was told right away" I have no idea who was told right away or how she even thought she would know but I walked away thinking I know this park is changing quickly and not for the better. Frankly the folks in Customer relations didn’t have their heart in it, there was no empathy at all.
I said ' you know you took our money and did not say a word and at 10 min to park opening the rides were or should have already been firering up and had had the trial runs.' Somebody; many people knew of this problem at that time but you took our money and didn't say a word. They looked at me in confusion, I explained that where I am from when you are taking the money for the movie ticket you tell the customer that the speakers do not work in the theater.
This was a badly mishandled problem that I think showed that the morale and trying to do the right thing by the customer is really down at SDC. I am not feeling the love.
Not one time this year have I gone to the park to ride the new coaster that there hasn't been a problem with a ride, every time there has been a significant disruption with OR if it has run at all. If they are changing the park to a 6 flags format they better figure out how to keep the rides going, without the lye soap lady ext. they will have nothing to offer.
So the seasons pass I have held for the past 15 years are in doubt. I am seeing a great departure from the things that made SDC special and made you feel like you were welcomed and taken care of. I am quickly losing interest in a once great experience.
