Thought I'd share my email/letter to Disney about our upcoming trip. I think it sums up everything that's going on (or not going on) at
Disneyland next month:
"Hello,
I am writing you as a out-of-state traveler that has been planning a trip to Disneyland for Sept. 8-14 for my birthday. My wife and I purchased our Disney vacation package in May and have put a lot of planning into our trip (one of the few vacations we get per year).
For our second trip to Disneyland (our first was on our honeymoon in 2013), we planned and purchased a 5-day park hopper, intending to give ourselves the most time in the parks to experience everything that Disney has to offer. We are also ONLY planning to go to Disney this trip.
However, during the planning process, several unforeseen circumstances have arisen. The first, was the "delay" in Halloween time at Disneyland. I write delay in quotes because I know that there was never an announced date, but based on past park history, Halloween time begins the 2nd Friday in September. That was not the case this year. Missing the decorations, etc. is disappointing, but what was most disheartening was that it would also include the closure of Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain during our trip. These are two attractions with FastPass that are unique to Disneyland. In addition, this announcement was made months after our trip planning had begun. In addition to these two rides, Monster's Inc. is also closed, a ride only available in Disneyland.
Separate from rides, we knew that the Main Street Electrical Parade was going to close on August 20. We knew their was an extension of closing date well in advance. However, when I looked at the calendar in August as it was published for the days on our vacation, Pixar Play Parade was listed as only on the weekends. A week later, Pixar was removed from the schedule and removed from the calendar without notice. We are now only able to experience the Mickey's Soundsational Parade during our trip as daytime entertainment and World of Color and Fantasmic/Fireworks on the weekends only, if the weather permits. This leaves us with very limited, unique entertainment on our visit. If the weather is not good, we will only have one parade as daily entertainment in 5 days at 2 parks.
With all of these closures of rides and entertainment only recently announced, it was even more upsetting to find out that two dining reservations we had made, would also be cancelled after our reservation window opened and reservations were made due to restaurant closures. The Riverbell Terrace will be closed and we had to rebook for Café Orleans, which is a suitable, if not better replacement and we look forward to it. What we did not foresee, was the temporary closure of the Plaza Inn. This is our favorite restaurant/character meal and I planned to begin my birthday celebration with this meal. My wife even called to note that it was my birthday to add to the celebration. With less than a month to go, the restaurant announced the closure and we had to reschedule again. Since it is our favorite restaurant, we rescheduled for one of the two days that we were in the parks that it would be open. But this left my birthday (which you can see in my profile), with no special meal to reserve on the actual day. We already had no choice but to book Plaza and Café Orleans Fantasmic meal on the weekend since that is the only time when it was offered. To replace my birthday meal, we booked Critter breakfast, which was a meal that we were not planning to do and will now cost us even more money (we are spending over $300 in dining reservations alone on this trip as it is a reason we love Disney). In addition, we had to book a pre-park opening slot to be able to get to the parks at opening, which we weren't going to do at the Plaza because we'd already be in Disneyland.
The reason I write this email, is not necessarily to complain, but to voice my displeasure with the many cancellations that have taken place during the planning process that are affecting our trip. As I mentioned, we don't often have the chance to fly from NY to Disneyland and take 7 days off from work, paying a lot of money, and putting in a lot of planning, only to find out that a lack of advanced planning on Disneyland's part (or at least the announcement of said planning), can significantly alter our plans. If we were able to find even some of this information with advanced notice, would could plan accordingly and perhaps move our trip to a different point in the year.
Please know that we will no doubt have a terrific trip and enjoy everything that is available at Disneyland, but it is very difficult to have one thing after another being cancelled only one month or less prior to our trip.
Thank you for hearing my concern and we look forward to being a part of the magic next month at Disneyland Resort."