Are WDW parks really overflowing with trash?

[Heather07438]

It’s a notorious corporation tactic to keep workers on as part time. Could they solve a portion of their staffing problem by offering full time to staff currently working? There’s people who want more hours and would love to become a full fledged employee.

Remember custodial doing cute things like

 

[cakebaker]

Can confirm, the line at guest services for magic kingdom yesterday as i walked in was the longest I’ve ever seen it. Just a massive crowd. In the alternative, you could call to let them know that their trash cans are overflowing, wait times are only 90 minutes on hold.

On a good day the waits there can be awful. I can only imagine with all the issues going on now, just how bad they are. Most people probably go in totally unaware of all the limitations that exist in the parks and then head to guest services to complain. Rightfully so, if I didn't keep up with WDW constantly, and only know what it was like our last trip pre-covid, I'd be shocked walking into the parks. At least I know up front just how bad it is.

 

[KayMichigan]

If Disney is still packing in the crowds despite the overflowing garbage cans, they won't feel particularly compelled to fix the problem. They know they can get away with letting it pile up, they won't lose money over it and they'll just let the overworked custodial staff take the blame. Same with filthy bathrooms, fewer restaurants to choose from, fewer live attractions, and whatever else they decide to cut.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

This is so sad. I remember when CMs would walk around with their grabbers just looking for trash to pick up. My friend worked at the tomorrowland raceway in college and he said if they were seen walking past a piece of trash without picking it up they could be fired. Extreme cleanliness was one thing that put Disney parks above the rest. Now the parks look like this, experiences are much reduced and prices are skyrocketing. Disney World has taken a sad turn.

 

[Launchpad_Mcquack]

Disney is like trying to navigate and turn a huge tanker ship. It takes a long time to see the reverberations of their misconduct and lack of planning as it relates to staffing.

If you own a small pizza shop, you are going to figure out in about a day or so that you are understaffed, your product is suffering, and your customers are angry. For Disney, it's just such a monolith that is afforded so much goodwill and pricing elasticity that you will first start to see it bubble up on niche enthusiast online boards like these weeks if not months before they actually do something about it.

It just seems like the execs want to blame everything on Covid, meanwhile they opened the floodgates on capacity knowing full well staffing was not sufficient. The livestream crowds I have seen on off Tuesday/Weds nights have been insane. Choke points in the parks that are so crowded it's like you are waiting in line for haunted mansion just to move from point A to point B.

I swear, I have never seen a company take advantage of a pandemic the way this one has. From the stratospheric success of Disney+ fostered by a population in lockdown, to gutting all major programs(FP, AP, EMH, Dining Plan, Magical Express) not in name of efficiency but purely profit margin. This company is absolutely ruthless and savage and the juxtaposition between it's cute friendly mascot characters and the mega corporation behind it is nauseating at times.

 

[FastPasser.]

I remember when CMs would walk around with their grabbers just looking for trash to pick up.

If you're referring to the non-costumed CMs, they weren't looking for trash, they would pick it up if they saw it while walking around.

My friend worked at the tomorrowland raceway in college and he said if they were seen walking past a piece of trash without picking it up they could be fired.

During my 22 years there I was never told that. If you see it pick it up.

 

[Nabas]

I would think the part-time nature of the custodial job openings, with fewer hours and essentially no benefits, would be a limiting factor.

Maybe someone who is retired but wants to pick up some added cash?

But still, you don’t have control over your work schedule, perhaps making it difficult to fit into the lifestyle of someone who wants only part time work?

Many of the retirees I speak with seem to prefer working at the stores at Disney hotels. It’s indoors, air conditioned, and relatively slow paced.

Experienced Cast Members should know: What’s the preferred pecking order of CM jobs?

 

[Nabas]

I swear, I have never seen a company take advantage of a pandemic the way this one has. From the stratospheric success of Disney+ fostered by a population in lockdown, to gutting all major programs(FP, AP, EMH, DP) not in name of efficiency but purely profit margin. This company is absolutely ruthless and savage and the juxtaposition between it's cute friendly mascot characters and the mega corporation behind it is nauseating at times.

CEO Bob Chapek has publicly stated:

We took the opportunity to revisit sort of our legacy operations to improve the yield because it is the ultimate in a capacity-constrained environment but also to improve our guest experience where we've had an opportunity to look at things like pricing and ticketing outside the constraint of an ongoing concern and ongoing business when we shut down for a year. So that really gave us the opportunity to say, when we emerge, how do we want to emerge and how does that fit our yielding strategy and our guest experience strategy?​

I suspect he's mostly focused on "our yielding strategy" and less focused on "our guest experience strategy".

 

[disneyseniors]

The next one was even worse 5:15pm Kali River

I hope you are posting them on disneys twitter site and facebook and everywhere else that the exec's might see this. Disgusting!

 

[disneyseniors]

It's not like they can't see the trash cans overflowing. CM's follow procedures. They are doing their jobs, it's management that gets all the blame here for not properly staffing. It won't do any good to complain to a CM in the parks. They can't do a thing. Guest services is where the complaint goes and I imagine that's a pretty long line at the parks right now.

I was just going to say that
I know you don't want to waste time while in the parks. I wouldn't either. But maybe stopping at guest relations on your way out of the park would work? I wouldn't waste time in a long line for that either, because I am usually exhausted by then.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Man, you know something I don't understand though, is how disgusting tables can get. I mean, if I drop a blob of ketchup on the table, I will at least wipe it up with a napkin. Sure, I don't have cleaner to use, but I at least don't leave the thing an absolute wreck. I'll try to make it presentable and dust the crumbs off. The same goes for a toilet if I am the culprit, you know what I mean? People can be such animals!

THIS! I try to leave a place as close to how I saw it when I got there. What infuriates me is seeing that people just leave trash or not cleaning up after themselves. Like if this is how you act in a giant well known public establishment, I would hate to see how you are at home.

 

[notatallmagic]

And right there is the problem. It isn't that they can't find anyone to work, it's that they don't want to pay them a decent wage AND provide benefits that will allow them to survive working there. As much as they need custodial people, they aren't even hiring full time. They'd rather have filthy parks and higher profits. Their choice I guess.

I agree. Pretty simple common sense supply and demand.

I live 20 miles (maybe 35 minutes) from a large amusement park. For re-opening this year, they initially tried a "typical" salary offering for park workers, and it was a mess. They had to close the park 2-3 day/week and shrink hours, and then the Season Pass lawsuits were filed and the press was terrible. And I should note that the staff they had were very unhappy and the parks were dirty.

It took about a week for them to course correct. They sent out HUGE press to announce starting pay of $18-20/hour (lifeguards were $20+) with a $1000 additional bonus if you lasted 90 days. And so my kid called up (out of curiousity) about a week later, and they said that all the jobs had been filled.

There are plenty of folks who could DO these jobs and would, they need to find out what the market requires. And Disney isn't willing to do that.

 

[cakebaker]

I was just going to say that
I know you don't want to waste time while in the parks. I wouldn't either. But maybe stopping at guest relations on your way out of the park would work? I wouldn't waste time in a long line for that either, because I am usually exhausted by then.

Reportedly the line at guest services is very long. I think it's asking a little much to expect guests who have been standing in long lines all day to end their day standing in another long line, in the heat, just to report something that is so clearly and obviously wrong. CM's walking past see it. Why aren't the calling to ask for it to be taken care of? My guess is they know there's no one to do it. But this is just not in any way the responsiblity of guests who are already sacrificing a lot while still supporting Disney by visiting right now.

 

[cakebaker]

THIS! I try to leave a place as close to how I saw it when I got there. What infuriates me is seeing that people just leave trash or not cleaning up after themselves. Like if this is how you act in a giant well known public establishment, I would hate to see how you are at home.

But none of the pictures in this thread are caused by guests not picking up after themselves. They did, there was just nowhere to put it. The question I have is if you are a business who prides themselves on cleanliness and a high standard regarding park appearance and you let this go on, what else are you letting slide?

 

[disneyseniors]

Reportedly the line at guest services is very long. I think it's asking a little much to expect guests who have been standing in long lines all day to end their day standing in another long line, in the heat, just to report something that is so clearly and obviously wrong. CM's walking past see it. Why aren't the calling to ask for it to be taken care of? My guess is they know there's no one to do it. But this is just not in any way the responsiblity of guests who are already sacrificing a lot while still supporting Disney by visiting right now.

Yes that's why I said I wouldn't wait in a long line for it. The whole thing is just so disappointing. But if the poster wanted to try to wait in the GR line, that's up to them. I would just write disney myself.

 

[FastPasser.]

Experienced Cast Members should know: What’s the preferred pecking order of CM jobs?

I never felt there was much of a pecking order, AFAIK after the top two costumed positions of bus driver and security CM, there's not a noticeable difference. Bus drivers because of the responsibility and Security because of the experience now required.

 

[Launchpad_Mcquack]

I never felt there was much of a pecking order, AFAIK after the top two costumed positions of bus driver and security CM, there's not a noticeable difference. Bus drivers because of the responsibility and Security because of the experience now required.

I know a guy who was the driver/conductor? of the monorail. That seems like an awesome job, he had to give it up because he moved to a new state. He has all kinds of stories.

 

[starry_solo]

I guess the time has come for us to bring Hefty garbage bags with us...

 

[Tigger's ally]

I swear, I have never seen a company take advantage of a pandemic the way this one has.

LOL, Disney was closed on both coasts for long periods of time (not to mention overseas). I travel for a living and if you don't think all the fast food companies have taken advantage of the Covid more than Disney then you are nuts. McDonalds kept shoving food out the window the whole time with minimum staffing. So much so they still haven't opened their dining rooms in many places. Raking in $$$$ the whole time.

 

[Launchpad_Mcquack]

LOL, Disney was closed on both coasts for long periods of time (not to mention overseas). I travel for a living and if you don't think all the fast food companies have taken advantage of the Covid more than Disney then you are nuts. McDonalds kept shoving food out the window the whole time with minimum staffing. So much so they still haven't opened their dining rooms in many places. Raking in $$$$ the whole time.

You realize Disney was closed by order of law? and that Mcdonalds and other fast food were considered "essential" business's and allowed to stay open? I think you kinda missed the point of what I was saying.