First I just want to say that I did have fun. But some things that would help for the next time...
I really really feel like difficulty should be a per character thing. Either that or games should not allow groups of varying level/gear to mix.
Me and 4 friends got grouped with a random guy who seemed to know every DM by name and had every item possible. He offered to share but we are too new to figure all that out on the spot. Cool guy, did his best to not spoil things for us, etc. Helped with items, helped with clues for the puzzles.
But because he was there we did way too hard a difficulty for our party. He could have soloed the difficulty we should have been playing on. As the Rogue, I hit once the entire dungeon. For 2 damage. And that was only after the DM dropped the DC to hit for us a little when he realized this.
It doesn't help that I'm frustrated because I hit like 2 times the entire first game I played at Pax West (Dwarven hurled insult was my only weapon) as well. Never once have I hit a sneak attack in either game, the entire combat focus of my class.
If the baddies need more HP to balance it, fine. But to hit DC's are too high if you are not playing with all the items in the world. Missing every single attack is extremely frustrating, much better to hit most of the time and just not get through it's HP and lose that way. This is why a lot of video games have all but discarded the idea of misses altogether. In my D&D campaign I DM, I take this approach of more hits, but also more HP to offset. Nobody likes missing.
Puzzles were surprisingly good though, some difficult, some not, but still fun though, especially the elements one. Thought it would be more of a pain dealing with the restrictions of the golem.