I have waited a few days to post my recent Howl-O-Scream / park day experience from Sunday 10/9. I have to say, this was by far the worst experience I've ever had. If this had been my first time attending, I would never go back. Let me start with the obvious issues we all have experienced and then continue to an event that caused an injury to my dad.
1) Long lines (food, drinks, rides)
2) Terrible tasting and presented food.
3) Dirty bathrooms with literal poop on the floor/walls. *Be better people*
4) Closed rides
5) RUDE non caring employees
My dad, who is 65, was in line with daughter at Le Catapult. The ride operator come over and told those in line that is they wanted to ride they had to go underneath the hand rail. My dad told him couldn't and the employee told him, "well if you can't just get outline and don't ride". My daughter went under to try and get on the ride and my dad attempted to go under and fell, ripping his pants and busting his knee open with a 2 inch long, 1 inch wide gash. As he laid on the ground the employee just looked at him, rolled his eyes and made a scoffing sound as he closed the gate. My dad got up sore and hurt and got out of line and called me as he got to a bench. I was walking over from Griffon and was there quick and went to the shop and told them what happened and had them call the medics; who were fantastic.
While they worked on my dad they called the ride supervisor and she was really rude and blamed the accident on my dad and told him, "you need to be more carful about falling" and "well what do you want me to do" I mean it already happened and is over". That had me fuming inside, I asked her to call another supervisor, which she did. The medics told him what happened and came to my dad and I, we told what happened again. He did apologize and told me dad he could get him a bottle of water and said I could rent an EV for the day and they would bring it over. I told him that was unacceptable and the treatment we are receiving has been rude and uncaring. The 2 supervisors then walked away, removed the employee from the ride but just swapped him with an Invadr operator, and came back with another bottle of water and an EV. Then proceeded to tell me, "This is the best we can do and you should be grateful we got you a free EV because they are expensive to rent.". I was not happy with that response and said I needed to speak to someone else and was told they were it and I could go to guest relations if I have more to say. At that time my daughter had to go to the bathroom and when I came back someone else came over and the other 2 walked away. I missed that conversation but my dad said all he did was check to see how his knee was and if he needed anything else. Before he left, my dad said hey about a free meal? The guy got defensive and said we don't do that, we stopped once we ran out of them. My dad joked and said well you have a printer print one. He looked at my dad and thanks sir have a good day.
My dad stuck it for as long as he could and for rest of the day my dad was sore, had to re-bandage his knee only tried to ride 1 other ride, Pantheon. We then had another bad experience with an employee and didn't ride. We did go by guest relations complained and asked to speak to someone and told managers don't speak to the public and only read the complaints at the end of the day. I asked to leave my contact information only to be told they don't do that and I should just go the contact section on the website.
Since then, my dads left knee is swollen, back and wrist hurt and moves really slow. I did receive a call from the health services nurse, who was very nice but, she told me she understood that he fell and not told how it happened. I said she would pass my message along to her supervisor and the supervisor/park ops manager. This has all been very frustrating and honestly has me highly considering canceling my 3 platinum memberships and buying them at Dollywood. That in itself angers me because I own a lot of stock in SEAS and if I had this experience, what are others experiencing.
buschgardens.com
