Back from a horrible Disney experience.

[stemikger]

Hey folks. This Dsney freak is no longer a Disney freak.

To give you a frame of reference, I am known among my friends as the Disney freak. I take it personally when someone says something negative about Disney World.

I just got back today from my 11 day vacation and all I could say is. What happened? 98% of the CMs were so rude and unprofessional, I felt like leaving after my third day.

I don't have time to write the specifics now, but I will when I have time. I am also going to write a letter. I kid you not, it was a horrible vacation due to all the unhappy faces and rude attitudes I encountered.

I go every year, but to be honest I probably won't be back for a long time after this trip.

Walt would be so ashamed on how these people are representing his legacy.

 

[mistydoodles]

I'm really sorry to hear that. Each of our trips have been nothing but wonderful. It's too bad that your trip wasn't what it should be. I would be upset as well.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Did you tell anyone while you were there? I feel so sad for you!

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully you did mention some of the problems while you were there.

 

[KyDerbyMan]

I know I'm kind of looking forward to hearing what happened. I can't imagine something so horrible and that almost all CMs were that bad over a week and a half.

Sorry your trip was a bad one.

 

[lin7]

I can honestly say from my first ever trip in 2001 and my trip last year, there is such a difference in customer service at DW. I was soo impressed first time I went and when I go year after year, it keeps getting worse. I would say the CM's now are just not that helpful or informative or all that much friendly as they used to be.

 

[SLK1]

We have lived in Orlando for 14 years now and have been annual passholders since we first moved here. We have felt that the service/attitude at WDW has declined steadily over the years. At first we thought it was just us getting used to Disney and maybe the novelty wearing off, but we really do feel the attentiveness of the staff, the willingness to help, and even their behavior and interactions with each other, are not what we had first encountered. Unfortunately, people keep flocking here and paying the outrageous fees, so nobody is getting the hint!!

 

[Mickey_Man]

DW and I went to the World back in July, and I will agree that there are more CMs that don't seem to have the Disney spirit like they used to. I haven't finished my trip report (read along using the link below!!) but I can give you a preview for what's upcoming - our check in at the Wilderness Lodge was probably the worst experience in all my trips to WDW. Unbelieveable how rude, unaccomodating, and dismissive the check in guy was. He let us sit around for over 6 hours in the lobby with him leading us on to being able to check in!! Then every time I checked back, he treated me terribly and wouldn't give us a room!! I wanted to strangle this guy!!! We had some awesome experiences too - Devon on the KTTK tour, Rick the waiter at bluezoo, the woman who checked us in at Beach Club - so I won't say everyone is awful, but there was a time when there was NO rude service at WDW. Those times are gone.

 

[dreamer17555]

Oh I am so sorry but don't let one bad trip kill your Disney Spirit! There are not enough Disney Freaks as it is. We can not afford to lose another

-Becca-

 

[disneylooper]

We too have noticed the decline in customer service, cleanliness and attitude among the cms in WDW. Each time we go, which is two to three times a year, we notice a slight difference. What a difference from my first trip there in the 70s and I will really show my age when I say that my first trip to Disneyland was the year it opened. We stayed at POFQ this past June and encountered problems and difficulty resolving them because of the extreme lack of concern of the cms.

 

[stemikger]

Hi folks I have a little time so I will just give you a few examples of why we were so disappointed. To make it easier, I will number them and try to be as brief as possible:

1. Pop Century CM gave me the oppossite requests. Jungle Book Side, pool view, first floor or second and as close as possible to Classic Hall. They put me on the play doh side, parking lot view on the 4th floor. As far from Classic Hall as possible.

When I went down to see what they could do. The CM was not nice and very nasty. They finally gave me the Jungle Book side, 4th floor all the way at the end. Pool view, I guess, I barley saw the kiddie pool. I called this request about 6 times and I called the resort a week before to confirm them (My original requests were six months before the trip and called every couple of months). When I got to Pop they said they only got the pool view request. None of the others were there?

2. My family and I were on TSM and were told to move forward, about 3 second later the same CM asked us why we cut in front of the family in back of us. The family in back of us looked just as confused as us. When I went to ask her what she was talking about, she went into an exit and switched to the other side of the line. After the ride I contacted a manager from the ride and he really could care less.

3. On line at Goofy's candy shop in DTD, my 13 year old daughter asked the CM about the special they had listed. The CM rolled her eyes and told my daughter she didn't know what she was talking about.

4. A CM on SM was very rude when I asked him how long of a wait. They didn't have it posted outside.

5. I actually got yelled at on the Race way in tomorrow land because I didn't get my foot off the gas at the precise second they asked. I also saw one of the CMs make a face to the other CM about another guest.

6. A CM in Cosmic Rays, got very nasty because she got my order wrong. She gave me Chicken Soup instead of the Chili. When I brought it back she was nasty and very unprofessional.

Also, I saw this one several times. The CMs were laughing amongst themselves and ignoring the guests. It really seemed like it was an us against them attittued.

These are just a few, we literally encountered this every day. When we did meet the 2% that were nice, we were surprised.

Oh well, more to come. By the way I worked in the public and I'm always very cool with people who have to work for the public or tips. Not to brag, but I'm a dream customer. I treat people the way I like to be treated, but in order to do this on this trip, I would have had to act nasty. Very strange Disney experience. I probably won't be back in about 5 years or so.

I could honestly said they lost my business on this trip.

Hope I didn't bore you guys.

 

[KyDerbyMan]

Did you contact Disney at all about all these encounters while you were still down there (or have you since you've been back)? If so, did they have any kind of response?

 

[disneylooper]

I understand completely what you are saying, we had problems at POFQ, we found prescription pills on our bed upon arrival, we had two rooms with dirty sinks, no soap, we ran out of toilet paper because they did not leave an extra roll, the cms at POFQ could care less, housekeeping either did not answer their phone or if they did, put us on hold. When they finally said they would come to our rooms, they never showed up. We had to go to the lobby and wait at least 45 minutes for the housekeeping manager . The attitudes of the majority of the cms there were not what you expect from Disney. There is a definite decline in customer service and cleanliness .

 

[WDW Fan]

We also had some rude CM experiences on recent trips but the attentive CM's made up for the bad ones. I'm sorry you had such a bad time because I know how much planning goes into these trips, and you always have such high expectations before leaving for WDW. I would definitely write a letter to Guest Services giving specific instances where you felt the magic wasn't there, and that you've been a loyal guest of theirs for many years, but due to the way that you were treated on this trip you probably won't be returning to WDW for a while. They need to hear when a guest's expectations were not met due to circumstances that were in their control.

 

[disney4evr]

To all of you who bad experiences, I am sorry. We just returned from the World this past Saturday and I have to say we only encountered one bad experience the whole week and that was our mousekeeper did not leave us any wash cloths, everything else was done, sweeper ran, sinks/tub/toilet cleaned, etc....no wash cloths, so DH saw a cleaning cart down the hall and just took a few.

On two separate occasions at dinner, two different places (Coral Reef and LeCellier) both our waiters were very helpful with our dining plan and trying to accomodate our 8yo with food choices and our two 11yo with their choices and substitutions, they both explained the plan very well to us.

I can honestly say that we will definately be going back and stay at the same place (CSR)

I do have to add, though, that I believe some of the magic is gone, I am thinking just because I am getting older and the kids are getting older too.

Can't wait to go back.

 

[mickeyfan1]

Room requests are just that, requests. No guaranty. There may not have been any rooms where you wanted to stay. Other guests may have already been in the rooms that met all your requirements. WDW can't kick people out of a room to put someone else in.

 

[rockdancer]

We went to WDW as a couple in 2002 and 2003 and had no issues with the CM’s at all. We went last year with our DD who turned 3 at WDW and everyone treated her wonderfully and made a big deal of her birthday. We have noticed that the general cleanliness of the parks have gotten worse over the years and that the CM's are of a much wider cultural diversity (nice way of saying they don't speak English well) But overall it's still "The Happiest Place on Earth"

As far as granting special requests for rooms, I believe if you call every month or two for six months, there is little excuse not to get what you asked for. Maybe not exactly but at least not the opposite.

 

[stemikger]

Posted by Mickeyfan#1
Room requests are just that, requests. No guaranty. There may not have been any rooms where you wanted to stay. Other guests may have already been in the rooms that met all your requirements. WDW can't kick people out of a room to put someone else in.

I totally understand that. However, there is no excuse for being unprofessional and rude when I asked if they had something better then a parking lot view. Also, they claimed I never made any other requests, however, I made several phone calls and they claimed they didn't receive them.

I almost didn't want to put this there because I knew I would get the room request debate going. I'm not a newbie on the fourms so I kind of know what gets some people into debate mode.

 

[stemikger]

Posted by KyDeberyMan
Did you contact Disney at all about all these encounters while you were still down there (or have you since you've been back)? If so, did they have any kind of response?

I just got back Thursday the 21st (yesterday) so I didn't write a letter yet.

When I was there, the only time I asked for a manager was on TSM and I was so turned off by his attitude that I didn't feel like it would make a difference. I don't want to turn into the guy who complains about everything, so I just dealt with it while I was down there.

 

[stemikger]

Posted by rockdancer
As far as granting special requests for rooms, I believe if you call every month or two for six months, there is little excuse not to get what you asked for. Maybe not exactly but at least not the opposite.

That is the way I felt. Believe me, I didn't expect to have every request granted, but at least give me one of the four I asked for. I feel six months is enough to accomodate at least one of the requests.

However, they gave me the opposite of every one of those requests. It was just like they didn't care. I have a hard time beleiving that with all the rooms at Pop they could not accomodate at least one of my requests. I even did what they asked for when I called up all those months prior. I called the resort directly two weeks before and a week before.