WEG, the good & the bad

[Release_First]

Ticket Holders Are Ticket Holders

[QUOTE=slp;7747867]
……

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……[/QUOTE]

My friends were some of those people that got treated rudely by some people in your group. I don’t understand why you thought that the tour owned a section. We bought our tickets at the same price and time that you did through Equestrian Tours. Just because we chose to rent a house and a van so that we could be more independent does not make us anymore deserving to be seated IN THE SECTION WHERE OUR TICKETS SAID WE SHOULD BE. My friend and I sat in a different section because I could not climb all those stairs so that actually gave you two more seats that were paid for and not used. I couldn’t believe it when my friends came home and said that they had been yelled at by tour members. And it wasn’t just the first day it continued until the last day. The behavior of some of the tour group members certainly made WEG a less enjoyable experience than it should have been for my friends. :no:

[slp]

[QUOTE=Release First;7755211]
My friends were some of those people that got treated rudely by some people in your group. I don’t understand why you thought that the tour owned a section. We bought our tickets at the same price and time that you did through Equestrian Tours. Just because we chose to rent a house and a van so that we could be more independent does not make us anymore deserving to be seated IN THE SECTION WHERE OUR TICKETS SAID WE SHOULD BE. My friend and I sat in a different section because I could not climb all those stairs so that actually gave you two more seats that were paid for and not used. I couldn’t believe it when my friends came home and said that they had been yelled at by tour members. And it wasn’t just the first day it continued until the last day. The behavior of some of the tour group members certainly made WEG a less enjoyable experience than it should have been for my friends. :no:[/QUOTE]

I had no grudge with those that bought the tickets, my problem was with Equestrian Tours that presented to us in the group that all of the seats with the big Equestrian Tours stickers on them were exclusively for the tour group. If they had been straight-forward with us that this wasn’t the case there wouldn’t have been any misunderstanding and it would have avoided the conflicts that occurred. However, even when directly asked the question about their ticket sales we never got a straight answer from them. There is no excuse for those that were rude to you and your friends but if Equestrian Tours had been on the up and up with the tour group people and admitted that additional tickets had been sold outside the tour group there most likely wouldn’t have been a problem.

[ozjb]

We were with Equestrian Tours (first week) and never got the impression that the stickers meant a thing! LOL We knew that the WEG organisers had chosen to NOT sell assigned seating and instead just assigned sections. The tour organisers tried very hard to get that changed.

We were there for the dressage and eventing and were in a great section on the long side behind B. There was a German tour group on the end and a huge Australian group in the next section. They also had stickers on their seats. But the tickets clearly state only the section. I heard one of the volunteers telling a couple of girls who asked that they could sit anywhere so no wonder there were problems. So, the Germans moved very quickly into the better seats, but still within the section. Tour people did get mad and wave their name tags around, but no one moved, just got out their tickets and pointed to the section and shrugged.

We live in Australia (been here for almost 20 years) and chose Equestrian Tours over the Australian one (there were lots of Aussies on our Tour). We had a great time, even with the total chaos that the WEG itself turned into.

One thing we noticed . . . as soon as the comp was over the American group got up and left, not bothering to stay for the medal ceremonies. We got in BIG trouble on our bus because we (my daughter, a nice lady we met on the tour and me) stayed and the bus waited for about 15 minutes for us. I could not believe how rude our fellow bus mates were to us. My daughter, who is 19 and has grown up in Australia, was horrified by the nasty looks, the shaking of fingers, the refusal to move their stuff off the empty seats forcing us to the back of the bus. In our defence, we were told the buses would leave 30 minutes after the medal ceremonies and we did NOT stay till the end. Our particular bus just was full of people who rushed off. The other busses did wait, so we started taking a bus from a different hotel and walked back to our hotel when we got to Bayeux.

But why didn’t the Americans wait for the Medal Ceremonies? It was pretty obvious. A friend (Australian) went to the Reining Finals and commented on the same thing. She was surprised because the US won and still they didn’t stay.

But still, we had a great time. Met a LOT of really nice people from all over the world while waiting in the queue to get in, get out, get food, get to the loo!

[JGHIRETIRE]

Agree about the seating - it was a bit chaotic.
Sorry you had such a rough time on the bus coming back.
Someone did get left and had difficulty finding a ride back to Bayeux.
I think it was a bit confusing what time the bus was actually supposed to leave.
I was surprised that so many people didn’t want to stay for the ceremony.

[QUOTE=ozjb;7757268]
We were with Equestrian Tours (first week) and never got the impression that the stickers meant a thing! LOL We knew that the WEG organisers had chosen to NOT sell assigned seating and instead just assigned sections. The tour organisers tried very hard to get that changed.

We were there for the dressage and eventing and were in a great section on the long side behind B. There was a German tour group on the end and a huge Australian group in the next section. They also had stickers on their seats. But the tickets clearly state only the section. I heard one of the volunteers telling a couple of girls who asked that they could sit anywhere so no wonder there were problems. So, the Germans moved very quickly into the better seats, but still within the section. Tour people did get mad and wave their name tags around, but no one moved, just got out their tickets and pointed to the section and shrugged.

We live in Australia (been here for almost 20 years) and chose Equestrian Tours over the Australian one (there were lots of Aussies on our Tour). We had a great time, even with the total chaos that the WEG itself turned into.

One thing we noticed . . . as soon as the comp was over the American group got up and left, not bothering to stay for the medal ceremonies. We got in BIG trouble on our bus because we (my daughter, a nice lady we met on the tour and me) stayed and the bus waited for about 15 minutes for us. I could not believe how rude our fellow bus mates were to us. My daughter, who is 19 and has grown up in Australia, was horrified by the nasty looks, the shaking of fingers, the refusal to move their stuff off the empty seats forcing us to the back of the bus. In our defence, we were told the buses would leave 30 minutes after the medal ceremonies and we did NOT stay till the end. Our particular bus just was full of people who rushed off. The other busses did wait, so we started taking a bus from a different hotel and walked back to our hotel when we got to Bayeux.

But why didn’t the Americans wait for the Medal Ceremonies? It was pretty obvious. A friend (Australian) went to the Reining Finals and commented on the same thing. She was surprised because the US won and still they didn’t stay.

But still, we had a great time. Met a LOT of really nice people from all over the world while waiting in the queue to get in, get out, get food, get to the loo![/QUOTE]

[lorilu]

I was there with Bob. He had two types of groups - the “escorted” tour (I was on that), and, because he was the exclusive ticket agent for the US, lots of other folks too. The only problem we had with the seats was on the last day (for us), the Freestyle - some Germans sat down and put up a stink when we asked them to move down ONE seat so a friend could join us (who had been sitting with us all week).

[lorilu]

We didn’t stay for the medals because we (1) wanted to be on the first bus out to Bayeux, and (2) didn’t want to fight the crowds.

[ise]

I went to France for the WEGS and used Equestriantours. I had attended the Aachen WEGS eight years ago. I have friends and several people in our group had been to Kentucky. So my comments about WEGS Normandy do compare to those other two WEGs.
I will NEVER use Equestrian Tours again but that’s another thread completely.
I would note from the time I arrived in Paris we never saw ANY advertisements for the WEGS until we were in the city of Caen. Nothing on the TV either. When I cleared customs and told them I was there for the WEGS - they asked what that was…
The Opening Ceremony for the WEGS has frightening. The stadium is a large concrete soccer stadium. When we arrived - it was already dusk, there were literally thousands of people, no security and they only had one area open to get into the stadium. People were pushing and I and a friend were almost flipped over metal fences which were serving no purpose at all. The stadium had NO railings, steep concrete stairs and seats with no backs. It was a free for all with seating even though some areas were designated for groups such as ours. The people working in the stadium offered NO assistance. We did see one woman fall the length of steps and she was seriously hurt and was taken out on a stretcher. The bathrooms were a horror - holes in the floor that quickly became stopped up with Toilet paper, with urine and fecal matter all over the floors and also no TP. This never got better. The food vendors in the stadium were very understaffed. And those 7000 smiling volunteers they kept talking about had very cute outfits but had clearly not been trained and just stood around talking to each other.

For God knows what reason the city of Caen didn’t block of parking around the stadium AT ALL. So cars were parked, double parked, parked on the sidewalks - you name it… and no tickets. The HUGE parking lot next to the stadium was filled with horse vans, trailer, campers, cars. They put the village with vendors and food a 35 minute walk away. Compared to Aachen which had the vendors and food surrounding the arena. During the breaks we could shop, eat and be back in our seats quickly. I felt so sorry for the vendors at Caen- the booths rarely had more than a few people in them. The Food vendors in Caen had service like Paris, slow and you can sit all day. When we only had limited time to get there, eat and get back to the stadium we had to search for our bill to pay and get out. Shuttle buses were crammed full of people. After day one we brought our own food so the vendors lost out.

The situation at Haras du Pin for Eventing was worse. They clearly had made no plans as to how they would handle buses and cars for parking. The rain made the walk in and out a slick mud mess (I guess they couldn’t figure out to put straw down. Wires for sound, video and electric were just all over the ground. The bathrooms were outhouses … not port-a-potties. There were 2 food trucks(the kind we would have at local horse show!) for the Dressage days and 3 for Cross Country (they had sold 7000 tickets for that day). The leaderboard was inside a tent with 5 average size TV screens on the back wall. You had to squeeze through crowds of people to even see the screens We heard on the news that thousands of ticket holders never made it to the CC due to traffic jams - some people sat in their cars for 4 1/2 hours and never made it in ! It was a tough technical CC and then the horses had to be trucked back up to Caen for the Stadium the next day. Many were obviously tired.

One other note about the announcers who should be neutral. One was a French man doing the commentary in French, the other was a British woman handling the English. The French announcer would speak very loud and twice as long when it was a French rider. Then quick short comments for the other competitors. I thought it was just tacky.

One comment by the French Announcer struck me… he said that the WEGS Normandy and their 7000 smiling volunteers (his words) had been working tirelessly for the past 15 months to make the WEGS happen. The Normandy WEGS had 48 months to put this event together!!!

It was worthwhile to see some of the rides and the riders and their horses but a mess as far as logistics and service.

All in all the comparison for me for Aachen to Normandy was an A for Aachen and a D for Normandy. Many of the people on our tour who went to Kentucky felt the same way. I am very concerned about Bromont as to logistics, facilities, transportation and hotel accommodations.

[FalseImpression]

Well, I totally understand your point of view from what I have read on the WEG FB pages both French and English. It was a disaster the first week, slightly better the second week.
There was a one hour review on F3 every day that my mom watched religiously.
But I can assure you that, should you land in Toronto in 2018, they won’t know what WEG is either… and I really wonder if a customs officer at JFK would have known about WEG Kentucky…
I hope Bromont learned a lesson and they intend to have everything very close. I agree that the hotel/b&b situation may be interesting… It is a ski area and there should be lots available…if you plan early.

[oldernewbie]

I am not excusing the disorganization in any way but… we had problems in Lexington - look at the 2010 WEG threads on COTH and see what people had to say about that. Clearly the French made some mistakes, but ya know what? We just rolled with the punches and had a great time. I don’t like peepeeing in a hole either, but it sure made for some great stories and a way to bond with everyone. Did you know that the toilets at the reining venue were marked in a weird way so that no one knew what was the men’s or the women’s - so everyone just went into both? Some Brazilian reiner somewhere had a few years taken off his life when my sis and I walked in. If everything were perfect, we wouldn’t have any great stories to share with each other. (But I do agree that conditions at Haras du Pin for the eventing were awful.)

From all I’ve heard, Bromont is going to have its shortcomings too - the hotels nearby are the resorts and they will be expensive and possibly taken up by WEG staff, judges, etc. How they will manage the rest of us, I have no idea. We are already planning to go to the RV repo auction in Cincy and buy a camper.

I’d do it again in a minute, warts and all!

[JGHIRETIRE]

I was with Bob as well. I remember the German thing - the volunteers wouldn’t ask them to move because they were German. I noticed the volunteers got bigger as things went on.

[QUOTE=lorilu;7758590]
I was there with Bob. He had two types of groups - the “escorted” tour (I was on that), and, because he was the exclusive ticket agent for the US, lots of other folks too. The only problem we had with the seats was on the last day (for us), the Freestyle - some Germans sat down and put up a stink when we asked them to move down ONE seat so a friend could join us (who had been sitting with us all week).[/QUOTE]

[lorilu]

Just wanted to add that this was the second time I traveled with bob. I went to Aachen CHIO in '13. It was wonderful! I have friends who have traveled with him many times…
and in all probability I will be going to Bromont with him as well, since as mentioned above the hotels are mostly far away, and I would rather not have to deal with the hassle of finding a place and then figuring out transport.

ALL THAT SAID, IMO Aachen CHIO FAR outclasses WEG in ALL respects. (I have been to WEG KY and now WEG Normandy). Compact setting, amazing vendors and food, lovely town. It only misses some of the 8 disciplines…

[ozjb]

I sat next to a really funny Canadian lady at the dressage. She said not to expect much at Bromont! LOL But no matter what they do, it would have to be an improvement on the Normandy experience. In saying that though, we had a great time in France.

This was our first time with Equestrian Tours. We did the PreTour, met some lovely people and had a great time. Our issues had nothing to do with the Tour itself. Can’t blame Bob for the WEG chaos or some of the people on our bus. I chose the hotel, which we loved!

If we decide to go to Bromont, we will probably go with Bob. I decided on a tour for Normandy because of how hard it was to book for Kentucky from overseas.

The French announcers at the XC were pretty over the top. It seemed that the Australian riders followed several of the French riders and so we did not get to see too much of the Aussies on the Jumbotron thing. We had a pretty good spot on the XC and whenever a French rider came along, the crowd would mass up where we were and then disappear to follow along. Serious fans!!

We were standing in line (or course) to get into the shopping village when the French team showed up. The ladies in front of us went mad . . . crying, getting photos, etc. It was fun to watch.

[ise]

I don’t feel anyone goes to these events expecting perfection. But I do believe the FEI sanctions this event and they should have had people participating in making sure that the logistics, safety and accommodations were adequate months before the games.
I would also note that France does not have any national requirements for providing for disabled people. It was obvious in Caen. There was a designated area for disabled people but that information was not known to the volunteers, nor indicated anywhere. The bathrooms for disabled were locked so assistance was required to access them. That’s just wrong.
And to those who were on the Equestrian Tours - I would note to you that you probably weren’t at the hotel we were sent to in Pont L’Eveque. The owners did go above and beyond for us and we were so grateful to them. But BOB never told any of us that there was no transportation at the hotel ahead of time or we would have rented cars in Rouen. Unlike those in Bayeaux and Lisieux - we could not walk to restaurants. It was a 3K walk into town on the shoulder of a road with a very high speed limit. Our hotel served breakfast & dinner only. Bob never saw the hotel until we had been there for several days. And thank God we were not in the horrendous bus situation that had people in our group were on a bus for 3 hours due to mix ups with scheduling. We had no way to contact Bob and when we spoke to him in person he would immediately light up a horrible smelly cigar which was his way of dismissing our conversation.

[Coreene]

[QUOTE=lorilu;7759576]
Just wanted to add that this was the second time I traveled with bob. I went to Aachen CHIO in '13. It was wonderful! I have friends who have traveled with him many times…
and in all probability I will be going to Bromont with him as well, since as mentioned above the hotels are mostly far away, and I would rather not have to deal with the hassle of finding a place and then figuring out transport.

ALL THAT SAID, IMO Aachen CHIO FAR outclasses WEG in ALL respects. (I have been to WEG KY and now WEG Normandy). Compact setting, amazing vendors and food, lovely town. It only misses some of the 8 disciplines…[/QUOTE]
True, but Aachen is a purpose-built location with endless years of experience. Nothing else will even come close.

[ozjb]

I agree that the communication on Equestrian Tours wasn’t great. The English woman who was with us a bit was good and did her best, but Bob seemed to be in a world of his own at times.

It’s such a disappointment when you pay a lot of money for something and it’s not even close to what you expected.

[ise]

Regarding the tickets and seating in the Stadium. I quote this from one of Bob’s letters not long before we left for France “Also - a real surprise - There will be no reserved seats within tickt blocks or in the stadium. We have a block reserved on the long side of the stadium, but there will be no individual seating assignments”. I think that’s pretty clear that he said we had the block reserved. The block letter was on our tickets. We were directed to that block by the stadium employees. Every ticket holder had a block indicated. So when our group had to deal with people from Germany & other tours sitting in that block - Bob should have been there to handle it. He did not. Also with the number of people on the Tour (almost 200 total) - he should have had more representatives from his company to facilitate providing current and correct information. Not just him and 2 other people. It was pretty darn obvious the issue of where the buses COULD stop to unload and pick up people in our Tour was not established until the Games were already happening. And far too many times - the pick up times changed and those on the tour had no way of knowing that. I think that’s why some people opted not to watch the ribbon ceremonies and head to the buses. For those of us in Pont L’Eveque - we had no other option for getting back to our hotel.

[Crockpot]

Speaking as someone who watched on line and did not have to deal with the on site issues, it was WONDERFUL.

Loved it.

[PaulaM]

I absolutely loved our hotel in Lisieux… They did a fantastic job accommodating all of us and had the cutest dog! I did absolutely abhor the shuttle rides… The level of complaining that went on was truly wearing…

[JGHIRETIRE]

There were so many bad pictures of the eventing venue, I opted not to go out there. I sat in a Pub with a bigscreen in Bayeux with some New Zealanders - had a great time.

[FalseImpression]

ON COTH FB page…
Did you attend the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy? Do you want to talk about your experience (good or bad) for an article in the Chronicle? If so, we want to hear from you!
Email lisa@chronofhorse.com with your contact information, and she’ll reach out to you shortly.