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WEG, the good & the bad

Archives World Cup Las Vegas -- 2015
#1

Loved watching all the dressage that we could see, unfortunately, due to shuttle issues missed a few riders on both Monday and Tuesday (maddening as I missed seeing Isabel Werth go :frowning: ) The facilities in the stadium did leave much to be desired, but was bearable for the most part.

Got to take lots of pictures, wish I could have met more people that post here in person… I didn’t get any pictures of the freestyles as I wanted to be able to concentrate. I have a couple albums set up on Facebook. I know I cannot prevent, but feel free to share, but please do not steal. These are images I took… Thank you!

Team

Individual

#2

Very cool, thanks for sharing! You’re very fortunate to have been able to go see, even if there were some issues.

#3

It was truly a trip and opportunity of a lifetime for me… To think, during the shuttle ride on the way back to the hotel, I almost asked my husband if we could change our plane tickets so we could go home the next day… Glad we hung in though, seeing Valegro go was worth it!!!

#4

Im here and having a blast! Long days but I love France, so I feel very fortunate that my career has led me to a business trip that involves hanging around at WEG :slight_smile:

I was lucky enough to get a VIP pass to show jumping yesterday and watch from the company box. Ive stuffed myself with pan au chocolat and baguettes. :slight_smile: A bunch of our staff had a laugh over the bathrooms in the stadium-Im not sure I could use them without making a mess so I stuck to the portapottys outside.

I cant wait for the final four on Sunday!

#5

[QUOTE=Jersey Fresh;7745708]
Im here and having a blast! Long days but I love France, so I feel very fortunate that my career has led me to a business trip that involves hanging around at WEG :slight_smile:

I was lucky enough to get a VIP pass to show jumping yesterday and watch from the company box. Ive stuffed myself with pan au chocolat and baguettes. :slight_smile: A bunch of our staff had a laugh over the bathrooms in the stadium-Im not sure I could use them without making a mess so I stuck to the portapottys outside.

I cant wait for the final four on Sunday![/QUOTE]The bathroom for the VIP boxes is to the left of the elevator on the same level as the boxes themselves (the elevator in the Loge Presidentielle was not working one day last week and my knee pretty much makes stairs a nightmare, so one of the LP hostesses arranged my using that one as LP’s is at the lobby level). Have fun with the final four :yes:

#6

Do they have porta-potties right outside the main stadium now? For the general ticketed admission or just for VIP? If they have finally brought in ports-potties that people in the stands have access to, hallelujah! I’m home now, but being in the stadium six days last week I can say they were direly needed.

#7

[QUOTE=Badger;7745829]
Do they have porta-potties right outside the main stadium now? For the general ticketed admission or just for VIP? If they have finally brought in ports-potties that people in the stands have access to, hallelujah! I’m home now, but being in the stadium six days last week I can say they were direly needed.[/QUOTE]
They were on the side of the stadium before you came in.

#8

Besides the toilet issues I have comments but no real complaints. I can’t believe they ran out of official merchandise last week - they got more stuff in today but it isn’t the good stuff and is ugly. I love vaulting in all it’s glorious ness - have never seen it before. Driving looks to be good. Have had a fabulous time!

#9

[QUOTE=oldernewbie;7746710]
Besides the toilet issues I have comments but no real complaints. I can’t believe they ran out of official merchandise last week - they got more stuff in today but it isn’t the good stuff and is ugly. I love vaulting in all it’s glorious ness - have never seen it before. Driving looks to be good. Have had a fabulous time![/QUOTE]

It was very disappointing… I had really wanted to pick a few items and the ones I was able to find were only jumping related… There were no other disciplines represented on the merchandise that was to be found.

#10

[QUOTE=PaulaM;7747075]
It was very disappointing… I had really wanted to pick a few items and the ones I was able to find were only jumping related… There were no other disciplines represented on the merchandise that was to be found.[/QUOTE]

I seem to remember that happening in Kentucky as well. At the end of the first week, there was very little in the way of official merchandise and what was left was not very attractive and very small or very large sizes.

#11

The port-a-potties outside the stadium were a great help…simple to go in and out with your ticket and never any line. (They all had TP as well :wink: )

The non-reserved seats are a joke. There is no control as to who sits in what section so unless you get there really early and save seats you are SOL with getting anything high enough to see the whole ring.

To make matters worse, we are with a Bob Wyatt (Equestrian Tours) group and he must have had a bunch of extra tickets that he sold on the resale market…so now there are many people and their friends all sitting in the section that we paid big $$ for but they aren’t even with our tour group and then there is no where for the people in the tour group to sit. A few almost came to blows yesterday and there is nobody from Equestrian Tours around to even attempt to manage the situation. First and last time I ever travel with this organization. I have a whole list of complaints about them but won’t take up space on this post.

Not much food to eat at the stadium but we made ham & cheese on a baguette every day to bring along from the hotel so nobody starved. We also found a grocery store just down the street for water and snacks.

Exhibition village is about a mile and a half walk from the stadium and you can get there faster by walking rather than riding a shuttle bus. Lexington Brewery (Kentucky Ale) has a nice little venue right by the big screen (well, more like a medium screen) that live streams events.

Weather this week has been glorious, but I would still vote for Kentucky when it comes to overall organization.

#12

I was hoping someone would start a thread about some positives about their trip. I would have started one asking specifically about positives about Normandy, the area, any sightseeing people were able to do (ie landing beaches, Caen Memorial, etc.) and the food (cheese? cider? calvados?). I KNOW the WEG organization dropped the ball.
Interestingly enough, there are tons of comments on their two FB pages… Last time I checked, replies to the French comments with an apology and an email address to please contact WEG. Haven’t checked the English page (was away yesterday), but as of Wed., not a single reply or apology from WEG!!!

I am hoping, really hoping, Bromont is taking tons of notes!!

#13

Don’t get me started on Equestrian Tours.

#14

We have done a bunch of sightseeing both with the tour and on our own. If you are a history buff there are a ton of things to do. My husband organized a private tour for some of the guys and they saw more of the stuff with a local historian. The train bus and tram system are easy to use and well connected to WEG shuttles so we have traveled around Caen & Bayeux. It is easy to live on the economy here - lots of English speakers and tolerant French as we murderize their native tongue!

All in all, a wonderful trip. We came with Equestrian Tours and I’m glad we did for hotel and transportation support. We are pretty independent travelers so no complaints about them.

ETA: We tried lots of restaurants and almost all were very good. Tried all the local specialties. Went to farmers market in Bayeux this week for kicks. Some schlock but some good stuff too.

#15

[QUOTE=FalseImpression;7747884]
I was hoping someone would start a thread about some positives about their trip. I would have started one asking specifically about positives about Normandy, the area, any sightseeing people were able to do (ie landing beaches, Caen Memorial, etc.) and the food (cheese? cider? calvados?). I KNOW the WEG organization dropped the ball.
Interestingly enough, there are tons of comments on their two FB pages… Last time I checked, replies to the French comments with an apology and an email address to please contact WEG. Haven’t checked the English page (was away yesterday), but as of Wed., not a single reply or apology from WEG!!!

I am hoping, really hoping, Bromont is taking tons of notes!![/QUOTE]

Ive had a BLAST and I’m here for work not pleasure :slight_smile:

I love France to start so that helps but the people have been friendly, the food awesome and the weather great. I toured the US D day beaches on my day off and have been lucky enough to see several events and concerts. I here with my coworkers from all over the world so the long hours and the drinks in the hotel lobby long after we should have gone to bed add to the fun.

I hit the boulangiers in center city most days for lunch or breakfast.

The Kentucky Ale tent is super fun after hours-the French know how to have a good time :slight_smile:

I agree that we did it right in KY 2010 but Caen has been a pretty nice experience :slight_smile:

#16

besides watching the horses, I lived Mont St Michel… Equestrian Tours dropped the ball with the D-Day beaches, being a Canadian it would have been great to see at least one of the other beaches other than the American ones…

My husband and I went to the Caen Memorial on our own, it was a fantastic tribute to the events that transpired during WWII… We also explored Lisieux on our own… What wonderful bakeries, etc. the Hotel L’Esperance was wonderful and the hospitality better than I have seen in North America!

#17

I totally agree. I did go to the US beaches and cemetaries the first time, but after I made sure I visited Juno Beach (wonderful memorial there as well) and both cemetaries of Bény sur Mer and Bretteville. In Bretteville, we met a Cdn couple who had taken a train from Paris/rented a car to visit the cemetary so the lady could find her father’s grave! She asked my husband to take pictures and it really touched him. They were going back to Paris that evening and going on a tour the next day to the landing beaches. However, they knew it would be mostly US oriented, so they made the special trip on their own. But, a US based tour company will only take you to US memorials…

I went to the Caen Memorial twice. It is such a sobering experience to visit all these sites (Arromanches, Ste Mère l’Eglise, etc.)

Glad you did see some sites. Isn’t the Lisieux area gorgeous with all the horse farms?

#18

[QUOTE=PaulaM;7748743]
besides watching the horses, I lived Mont St Michel… Equestrian Tours dropped the ball with the D-Day beaches, being a Canadian it would have been great to see at least one of the other beaches other than the American ones… [/QUOTE]

We were in Normandy about 10 years ago, and the Canadian Museum at Juno Beach was by far the best one.

I found it annoying, earlier this year, when the news coverage of the D-Day anniversary acted as if it had ben an entirely US operation.

#19

I loved the Games Village. Shopping was fantastic, everyone was so friendly and welcoming. And found the most divine new bling helmet :yes: You know you are in Europe when you can buy earnets in every color of the rainbow, and each color has options too. My poor horse, he got bright yellow and bright purple :lol:

The level of competition was amazing. And for as much as a pissy chef moaned about the footing the first day of dressage, it was really, really good. I saw more rain that day than I’ve seen in drought stricken So Cal in the past few years, and each competitor did their thing without batting an eye. So nice to see South Africa fielding a team, and so nice to watching the next big stars arrive on the big world stage.

Para was fantastic, and so humbling as well. Face it, they could all kick almost all of our backsides. Reining was the happiest, friendliest group of people, and the reining spectators made every competitor feel like they were one of the favorites.

#20

I had heard nightmare stories prior to arriving in Caen on Tuesday (Sept 2) and was happily surprised by few of them being true! We parked by the Driving venue (PS renting/driving a car in France was a blast!) and walked to the Village then to the Stadium to watch the jumping. I hate waiting in lines and after walking all over Paris for 4 days the mile or so to the Stadium for jumping was easy peasy.
Granted this was my first WEG, so I have no point of comparison, but I loved every moment. The shopping was great and now I’m bummed you can’t buy horse boxes in USA. The jumping was amazing. Cortes C is a great big talented teddy bear. The only rude people we encountered was the lady at the Avis desk and the incredibly rude French fan sitting next to me who cheered every time a non-French rider pulled a rail.

My friend and I stayed at a B&B in Falaise and did some touring around there as well as most of our dining and we absolutely loved it. Great food, friendly people, plenty of vin.

It was disheartening to hear so many horror stories about the first week or so, hopefully Bromont did take lots of notes!

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