Unfriendly CM's at MGM

[SqueakyMouse]

What's up at the Studios? Many, many (but, of course, not all) of the CM's we encountered at MGM were unsmiling and rather unfriendly? We overheard a few comments (i.e., "I've been working here X number of years. What are they going to do? Fire me?") that really made us raise our eyebrows. Guests here did not seem any more impolite or unfriendly than at other parks, so why the disgruntled, stressed-out looking CM's? We found this very odd last week.

 

[PneumaticTransit]

Christmas stress? This is the most hectic time of year for WDW. Maybe they are forcing extra hours on people, I know they have hundreds if not thousands of unfilled positions. When I worked front desk, it was manditory 6 days a week for 8 months. By the time Christmas came around I thought a vein would pop in my forehead.

 

[eeyore45]

My experience in October was the CM's friendliness is what saved our trip - - the rude CM's at MK nearly ruined it for us!! If not for the CM's at MGM during our trip, I would've asked for refunds!!
Over and over again at MGM they would smile, and say and do the nicest things, esp the street actors - it really added to our trip - and usually I dont get a lot out of MGM, the muppets, the Movie Ride, and Fantasmic, and I'm done!! Not this trip!! So I give a shout out of THANKS to the AWESOME CM's we encountered in October!!

 

[outtonight]

That's interesting, because when I went this past summer with my best friend (who had never been to WDW!), on our first day we went to the Studios -- and before we'd even walked through the turnstiles, a CM was terribly rude to my friend (she had put her ticket in incorrectly -- and rather than just helping her, he started YELLING at her!)

I wanted to break down in tears right then because I was so embarassed -- all I'd done for the past few months was tell her how magical WDW is, and before she's even inside a park she gets treated like that!

That was the only less-than-amazing CM we encountered on our trip, however (all of the rest were absolutely wonderful), so I prefer to just pretend like it didn't happen -- but what a way to start someones first trip to WDW, huh?

 

[justmom]

This is what I found out when we were at Disney (Dec15-25). I spoke with people at the Boardwalk. They were the only resort that was not required to be working a 7 day work week. They were required to work 6 days.

I found out that Disney did not hire many for the Holiday Season this year. She said it that included the theme parks as well. When I was there I did see a few new hires that were being trained at the counter service locations but even those were few and far between.

Disney knows they are going to be busy but did not staff for the Holiday traffic this year due to the slow time (the reason for many discounts leading into December). Management's excuse was they did not want to have to lay anyone off after the 1st of the year, like I believe that.

It takes Disney at least 3 months to hire and train someone so they should have started back in September. Due to the many cancellations and changes due to the hurricane season they said they were not sure what to expect.

It is not an excuse for the employee attitude but it does explain it. Any body that has to work 7 days straight for an extended amount of time will be overtired and stressed out. They will not be able to provide that Disney Magic they are expected to maintain.

Just so you you know we usually go early December for about 10 days, yes we could tell the service was off. I could see changes to shows where they have made them about 5 minutes short of the years past. I could tell there were not as many on stage as in years past. (short 2 to 5 people) These are changes most people would not notice unless you know the shows very well from years past.


Sorry you missed some of the magic,
Justmom

 

[bicker]

There are too few quality service employees available in the LBV-area labor pool who are willing to work for theme parks. And as Justmom pointed out, it is so incredibly expensive to train new workers, that it makes no sense to do so for a short seasonal stint. I believe we'll continue to see variable service quality until community leaders take action to draw new, high-quality service workers to the region.

 

[snyderla]

We met 2 or 3 cranky bus drivers (one told a family who said they had been waiting 55 minutes for a bus to "plan ahead next time" in front of a bus load of people) and some less than friendly CM's at SSR. I chalked it up to them being new, because when we went to OKW for breakfast the CM's there more than made up for it. As a matter of fact, the CM's at Olivia's were first rate in every respect. We also heard a CM complaining about his job in front of a bunch of guests. I can't remember if that was at MGM or MK, but I'm thinking it was MGM. We were there the first part of Dec.

For the most part, the CM's make the trips very special for us! I guess that's why it stands out so much when someone complains about their job to us or makes a rude comment. We do it at home, but we don't expect to hear it at the happiest place on earth!

 

[Lord Fantasius]

There are too few quality service employees available in the LBV-area labor pool who are willing to work for theme parks. And as Justmom pointed out, it is so incredibly expensive to train new workers, that it makes no sense to do so for a short seasonal stint. I believe we'll continue to see variable service quality until community leaders take action to draw new, high-quality service workers to the region.

Sorry, bicker, wasn't going to post on this thread until I saw yours...are you running for local political office? BTW, LBV?

If Disney, Inc., can get away with requiring a continuous 7-day work week or required overtime for an extended period of time I would have to chalk it up to a pretty weak union...even though I'm not much of a union person, there are a few conditions in the contract that wouldn't be possible without them.

Anybody know whether CM's are consider hourly part-time or hourly full-time?

-R

 

[MickeyisanNDfan]

We have found the CMs at the turnstiles at the entrance of MGM to be the strictest, if that is the right word. They will make you repeatedly put in your ticket and do the finger thing until it goes through and not just pass you through. We have been asked for ID here and once were sent to guest relations. This is the only park this has ever happened to us.

 

[bicker]

are you running for local political office?

Gosh, no.

 

[Syrreal]

We met 2 or 3 cranky bus drivers (one told a family who said they had been waiting 55 minutes for a bus to "plan ahead next time" in front of a bus load of people)

I wonder if it's the same bus driver I complained about when I was down there in august? Do you remember his name??

 

[Mainestreetpixie]

This is what I found out when we were at Disney (Dec15-25). I spoke with people at the Boardwalk. They were the only resort that was not required to be working a 7 day work week. They were required to work 6 days.

I found out that Disney did not hire many for the Holiday Season this year. She said it that included the theme parks as well. When I was there I did see a few new hires that were being trained at the counter service locations but even those were few and far between.

Disney knows they are going to be busy but did not staff for the Holiday traffic this year due to the slow time (the reason for many discounts leading into December). Management's excuse was they did not want to have to lay anyone off after the 1st of the year, like I believe that.

It takes Disney at least 3 months to hire and train someone so they should have started back in September. Due to the many cancellations and changes due to the hurricane season they said they were not sure what to expect.

It is not an excuse for the employee attitude but it does explain it. Any body that has to work 7 days straight for an extended amount of time will be overtired and stressed out. They will not be able to provide that Disney Magic they are expected to maintain.

Just so you you know we usually go early December for about 10 days, yes we could tell the service was off. I could see changes to shows where they have made them about 5 minutes short of the years past. I could tell there were not as many on stage as in years past. (short 2 to 5 people) These are changes most people would not notice unless you know the shows very well from years past.


Sorry you missed some of the magic,
Justmom

If the people aren't applying, then they can't hire them. Our market down here is very strong..and like many positions, there aren't enough people to fill them. Plus, having been in retail many years prior, 7 day mandatory work weeks around Christmas was almost a guarantee

 

[makinorlando]

Sorry, bicker, wasn't going to post on this thread until I saw yours...are you running for local political office? BTW, LBV?

=

LBV = Lake Buena Vista

 

[PrincessKitty1]

We were just at MGM this past Saturday and Sunday (Christmas Eve and Christmas) and the CMs were wonderful. We hopped back and forth between MGM and Epcot, and were very impressed with the CMs at both places. Sorry you had a less-than-magical experience! CMs are just human, though--I would not take employee stress personally. Were the CMs personally rude to you?? I have seen some stressed CMs, but they were not rude, just stressed.

 

[SamRoc]

We met some really nice CM's at MGM on tuesday, especially George who works at the Great movie ride. He was telling everyone entering the ride where they could find all the movies playing on the big screen there.

 

[TSR6]

Sorry, bicker, wasn't going to post on this thread until I saw yours...are you running for local political office? BTW, LBV?

If Disney, Inc., can get away with requiring a continuous 7-day work week or required overtime for an extended period of time I would have to chalk it up to a pretty weak union...even though I'm not much of a union person, there are a few conditions in the contract that wouldn't be possible without them.

Anybody know whether CM's are consider hourly part-time or hourly full-time?

-R

It depends on the CM's status. Manditory 6 days is normal, but they cannot force you to work "Manditory 7 day" - the 7th days is voluntary. Although, there are times when a CM has more than 7 days between days off. For example, Monday & Tuesday off this week, and then Friday & Sat off the next week.

But, they have extended the length of a lot of the shifts this week, providing double coverage. Some CM's (like myself) were scheduled for double shifts during the Christmas week, others only received shifts that were an hour or three longer than normal.

I actually worked a double shift on Christmas day ( Thats 13 hours folks! ). It was scheduled, not voluntary.

 

[Lucky4me]

I believe we'll continue to see variable service quality until community leaders take action to draw new, high-quality service workers to the region.

I'm not quite sure what community leaders can do besides ask WDW to start paying higher quality salaries to draw these higher quality service workers. Since WDW is such a huge presence in LBV, I can't see them being pressured into it unless their bottom line is affected.

 

[AllyBri]

I say Bless all the CMs. Some are working 10am till midnight and then back on the job at 6am for another 8-10 hour day.

 

[bicker]

I'm not quite sure what community leaders can do besides ask WDW to start paying higher quality salaries to draw these higher quality service workers. Since WDW is such a huge presence in LBV, I can't see them being pressured into it unless their bottom line is affected.

There is no question that they need to team with large employers, like Disney, but a single company cannot do anything themselves. High-quality service workers are often second wage-earners in a family, so until the local officials attract other industries to the area, service quality is going to suffer.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

We did the "Lunch with an Imagineer" on November 28th, and one of the other guests at the lunch mentioned to our Imagineer that she'd noticed the CMs didn't have as much "Disney magic" as in the past, and that many seemed to not know much about WDW. Our Imagineer (yes, I think of him as MY personal Imagineer now) said much the same thing as the others on the list - that the unemployment rate in the Orlando area is so low that they find it impossible to fill all the positions they would like to fill. He added that it is frustrating when they hire and train someone, and then a few weeks later the person leaves because he wants to work where he can carpool with his brother or something.

Teresa