One “Bad Show” can taint the entire experience.

Just to whine a bit more about my recent trip.

One issue that I’ve had since birth is really bad feet. A couple hours of standing on concrete and they are trashed.

The final day of my trip to Disney we ended up spending 8 hours in the park.Within a couple of hours my feet were aching. By afternoon my “karate hips” were kicking in to the extent I was limping along from Star Wars land back to Frontier Land, etc.As our final day at Disney we had reservations at one of the most expensive restaurants on property.

This one in the Grand Californian Hotel.Well, I made the mistake of moving the car from the main Disney parking (Pixar lot) to the Grand

Californian Hotel so that we would’t have to walk back to the shuttles then blocks across the parking spot even from “preferred” parking.Well, that turned out to be a mistake.

The gate at the Grand Californian basically said you can drop your party off but you need to go park at the other parking lot. Now, objectively it’s not that far away – just behind the Pixar Place Hotel – but, for me – just over being in the park. In pain from the hips down. Feet throbbing it seeming like a 10 mile hike at the wrong time, wrong mood.Not one to take no for an answer I tried to leave the car with Valet only to be told the same thing. Not a Grand Californian guest (we were staying at the other Disney Hotel) then can’t leave it.

Finally after insisting and, going through another tier of management they ended up taking the car - $80 for first hour, $10 each additional.Well, everything could have been perfect for the entire trip (it wasn’t) and a service failure, even if only in the perception of the customer torpedoes the whole thing.

Then we go to the restaurant. By then nothing looks good. In my estimation a mediocre menu.I end up dropping $200 for Dinner for an Iced Tea and a Cheeseburger. Chase had a Grilled Cheese. And, after hassling with parking – and, of course the other restaurants validate parking this one doesn’t.

Again, a lesson is that one thing (or, two) at the wrong time can ruin the perception of the full experience. That’s especially true is the customer is just ready to be annoyed (as I was.)