Back from Xmas Trip - What I noticed!

[PlutoTheDog89]

Hey everyone

First - an apology. I've been around long enough, I should have known about the Yeti post. But, I was excited and jumped to conclusions. Honestly- I've never seen the Yeti. It's never been "working" - no strobe lights or anything. When I tried the ride last year, it broke down right before the yeti. We had to walk down about 8 flights of stairs... so my memory was a bit foggy and I was excited to "break" the "news."

Anyway.. I have a full-blown trip report coming soon, but I wanted to touch on a few points. I got back on January 2nd. We went from Dec. 24th through Jan 2nd. Normally we only stay until Jan 1st, but we decided to extend it this year. We definitely enjoyed the additional day. The trip ending stung a bit more this year. Maybe because it FLEW BY (it always does.) Maybe because we had another family with us for the first time and really had a lot of fun and laughs... or maybe because I wrote the book, so the trip was on my mind all year long.

So a few things..

The construction is definitely.... noticeable. Our usual go-to in front of the Plaza ice cream parlor is now inexistent. During very crowded times, the area around the hub is impossible to move through. CMs do a great job of trying to keep people moving, but some people just DO NOT listen. If they say keep moving, keep moving. It's a little selfish that people want to stop and snap pictures or think that they could stop and watch the parade. I'd love to rant on the CMs, but they really do try.

I also found it interesting that construction at Disney Springs takes place during the day. This is not Disney-esque. They also don't hide the scaffolding. In talking with a CM, they said that because Disney Springs is such an important project, Disney has thrown out its normal protocol for construction. They start at 2am and finish at 5pm. I found this really interesting from an Operations standpoint. Maybe Disney has actually taken a new approach to construction. Get it done on time - no matter what it takes.

The CMs have definitely gone a bit downhill. I read a post about this a couple of weeks ago and decided that I would reserve any judgement until my trip. Now, there are still some great CMs. There was a server at 50's who was a real bright point. But some servers at quick services just do not care. There was a time when a job at Disney was a lifestyle. Everyone was happy and cheerful. Disney didn't hire people, they hired personalities. But it seems like there's more and more people who are there for the paycheck.

One example... My sister and mom ordered some fries from the waffle fry quick service in Adventureland. Let's say the order came out to 15.03. My mom originally gave the lady a $20 bill. She quickly found a dime, making it $20.10. Easy enough - give back $5.07 rather than $4.97. The lady looked confused. My mom politely said "does that help? I'd rather not carry around all that change.."

The lady entered it into the register as "$2.10" rather than "$20.10." She slammed down the change and said "Now I need to get a manager." She was rude and disrespectful. When she gave my sister the order, it was the wrong food. My sister told her and she returned a lack-luster plate of food. These are $8 fries and she gave my sister a noticeably smaller portion than other customers. Oh well. - but you'd expect better from Disney.

We also noticed this at the Confectionary. A lot of the CMs just DO NOT know how to work the registers.

THis was also the first year we tried REAL FP+. We tested it last year while it was in beta. It was seamless - but we still had paper FPs. I didn't see anything truly negative about the FP+. BUT - the tiering makes it very difficult to repeat many of our favorite rides. For a short trip, I could see this being a problem. For example, we booked R'n'R one day and Toy Story another (due to the tiering.) In past years, we'd get to the parks early and get a FP for R'n'R and then ride it again later - either with another FP or with EMH... or we'd book multiple FPs for R'n'R over a few different days. For the first time ever, we only rode RnR once - during the entire trip. The crowds were definitely noticeable this year and with FP+, we were lucky to ride our favorite rides once. If we wanted to ride again, we'd have to wait at least 90 minutes to get onto the ride. For one-day guests, I just didn't see the value. Imagine this - you spend $100+ and spend three or four hours of your day JUST waiting to get onto a two-minute ride. I think this has a lot to do with construction and the amount of rides. Hollywood Studios only has three GOOD rides right now. EPCOT only has two! As a result, there's astronomical wait times and if you don't get a FP+, you're in trouble!

Anyway, just a few things I noticed. Look - I can rattle off about 50 things I LOVED about this vacation. If there's only two or three complaints, I'm happy.

 

[Shaden]

Hey everyone

First - an apology. I've been around long enough, I should have known about the Yeti post. But, I was excited and jumped to conclusions. Honestly- I've never seen the Yeti. It's never been "working" - no strobe lights or anything. When I tried the ride last year, it broke down right before the yeti. We had to walk down about 8 flights of stairs... so my memory was a bit foggy and I was excited to "break" the "news."

Anyway.. I have a full-blown trip report coming soon, but I wanted to touch on a few points. I got back on January 2nd. We went from Dec. 24th through Jan 2nd. Normally we only stay until Jan 1st, but we decided to extend it this year. We definitely enjoyed the additional day. The trip ending stung a bit more this year. Maybe because it FLEW BY (it always does.) Maybe because we had another family with us for the first time and really had a lot of fun and laughs... or maybe because I wrote the book, so the trip was on my mind all year long.

So a few things..

The construction is definitely.... noticeable. Our usual go-to in front of the Plaza ice cream parlor is now inexistent. During very crowded times, the area around the hub is impossible to move through. CMs do a great job of trying to keep people moving, but some people just DO NOT listen. If they say keep moving, keep moving. It's a little selfish that people want to stop and snap pictures or think that they could stop and watch the parade. I'd love to rant on the CMs, but they really do try.

I also found it interesting that construction at Disney Springs takes place during the day. This is not Disney-esque. They also don't hide the scaffolding. In talking with a CM, they said that because Disney Springs is such an important project, Disney has thrown out its normal protocol for construction. They start at 2am and finish at 5pm. I found this really interesting from an Operations standpoint. Maybe Disney has actually taken a new approach to construction. Get it done on time - no matter what it takes.

The CMs have definitely gone a bit downhill. I read a post about this a couple of weeks ago and decided that I would reserve any judgement until my trip. Now, there are still some great CMs. There was a server at 50's who was a real bright point. But some servers at quick services just do not care. There was a time when a job at Disney was a lifestyle. Everyone was happy and cheerful. Disney didn't hire people, they hired personalities. But it seems like there's more and more people who are there for the paycheck.

One example... My sister and mom ordered some fries from the waffle fry quick service in Adventureland. Let's say the order came out to 15.03. My mom originally gave the lady a $20 bill. She quickly found a dime, making it $20.10. Easy enough - give back $5.07 rather than $4.97. The lady looked confused. My mom politely said "does that help? I'd rather not carry around all that change.."

The lady entered it into the register as "$2.10" rather than "$20.10." She slammed down the change and said "Now I need to get a manager." She was rude and disrespectful. When she gave my sister the order, it was the wrong food. My sister told her and she returned a lack-luster plate of food. These are $8 fries and she gave my sister a noticeably smaller portion than other customers. Oh well. - but you'd expect better from Disney.

We also noticed this at the Confectionary. A lot of the CMs just DO NOT know how to work the registers.

THis was also the first year we tried REAL FP+. We tested it last year while it was in beta. It was seamless - but we still had paper FPs. I didn't see anything truly negative about the FP+. BUT - the tiering makes it very difficult to repeat many of our favorite rides. For a short trip, I could see this being a problem. For example, we booked R'n'R one day and Toy Story another (due to the tiering.) In past years, we'd get to the parks early and get a FP for R'n'R and then ride it again later - either with another FP or with EMH... or we'd book multiple FPs for R'n'R over a few different days. For the first time ever, we only rode RnR once - during the entire trip. The crowds were definitely noticeable this year and with FP+, we were lucky to ride our favorite rides once. If we wanted to ride again, we'd have to wait at least 90 minutes to get onto the ride. For one-day guests, I just didn't see the value. Imagine this - you spend $100+ and spend three or four hours of your day JUST waiting to get onto a two-minute ride. I think this has a lot to do with construction and the amount of rides. Hollywood Studios only has three GOOD rides right now. EPCOT only has two! As a result, there's astronomical wait times and if you don't get a FP+, you're in trouble!

Anyway, just a few things I noticed. Look - I can rattle off about 50 things I LOVED about this vacation. If there's only two or three complaints, I'm happy.

Good mini-report. Glad you had a good time.

 

[cckp72]

Thanks for the great info!

Re: CM. Last year when we were on our annual visit to WDW, we sat in an offsite restaurant beside someone who was an ex-employee of Disney. He was chatting to the waitress about how things have gone downhill at Disney in terms of employee satisfaction because of the way upper and middle management behave and that any front line employees aren't treated well any longer. He went on to say that it used to be that people were happy to work there, but the problems with the management team have led to this and that many of his friends have also left Disney.

Now, this is simply hearsay, I realize that. And of course, I don't know what position he held and I don't know the context or details around what is happening and it could also very well be that he is disgruntled. But, in any event, I found it interesting and keep it in the back of my mind when I encounter a rude or disengaged CM and try to see it from another perspective.

Just my 2 cents

 

[kristainohio]

Was your waiter at 50s named Tim? We had him on Dec 23 and he was seriously awesome!!

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Plutothedog...thanks for the informative report. Glad you all had a good time!

We just have five months to go before our next visit!

 

[hoosll]

THis was also the first year we tried REAL FP+. We tested it last year while it was in beta. It was seamless - but we still had paper FPs. I didn't see anything truly negative about the FP+. BUT - the tiering makes it very difficult to repeat many of our favorite rides. For a short trip, I could see this being a problem. For example, we booked R'n'R one day and Toy Story another (due to the tiering.) In past years, we'd get to the parks early and get a FP for R'n'R and then ride it again later - either with another FP or with EMH... or we'd book multiple FPs for R'n'R over a few different days. For the first time ever, we only rode RnR once - during the entire trip. The crowds were definitely noticeable this year and with FP+, we were lucky to ride our favorite rides once. If we wanted to ride again, we'd have to wait at least 90 minutes to get onto the ride. For one-day guests, I just didn't see the value. Imagine this - you spend $100+ and spend three or four hours of your day JUST waiting to get onto a two-minute ride. I think this has a lot to do with construction and the amount of rides. Hollywood Studios only has three GOOD rides right now. EPCOT only has two! As a result, there's astronomical wait times and if you don't get a FP+, you're in trouble!

We canceled our Feb trip for this exact reason, we like to be able to go for 4-5 days and ride our favorite rides multiple times ... the new system just does not support the way we like to visit Disney ... not sure what I will do with my VISA reward $$ ...

 

[momsavealot]

Just got back myself and I have to agree with you about the CM's. I had to wait on line at the gift shop near Splash Mountain to buy a few rain ponchos and so I had plenty of time to observe our cashier CM. He was so unfriendly that it actually took me by surprise. The woman in front of me did the right thing when her daughter accidentally dropped her snowglobe and broke it. She was going to pay for it anyway but she did not speak English very well (Spanish). Instead of helping her or acknowledging her or anything, he just was so condescending and rude that I almost said something in her defense. He didn't charge her for the snowglobe but he was clearly disgusted and didn't say a word or look at anybody. I wish I had gotten his name or kept the receipt so I could report him later, but definitely not happy to be there at all. On the plus side, there was a lovely CM who danced with my daughter in AK during one of those spontaneous dance parties so I really can't blanket all CMs as bad. She was really sweet!! I guess there's bad and good everywhere and with all of my trips I guess I was due for one bad experience.
And I definitely agree with your assessment of FP+. Didn't get to ride many of my favorites and I know I would have under the old system.

 

[Laz]

We canceled our Feb trip for this exact reason, we like to be able to go for 4-5 days and ride our favorite rides multiple times ... the new system just does not support the way we like to visit Disney ... not sure what I will do with my VISA reward $$ ...[/QUOTE]

Save them up and go to DLR! The magic is still there!

 

[ols386]

I noticed at quick service at Pop Century last week, some of the food servers didn't seem very happy to be there, but there were others who were the complete opposite.

I guess I can't blame them about not being happy, it's not something I would want to do for a living, BUT if it IS their job, they can make an effort to pretend to be happy and friendly towards guests.

No complaints at all regarding housekeeping. They were great!

Thanks for the mini trip report, OP.

 

[Suvadoo]

We canceled our Feb trip for this exact reason, we like to be able to go for 4-5 days and ride our favorite rides multiple times ... the new system just does not support the way we like to visit Disney ... not sure what I will do with my VISA reward $$ ...[/QUOTE]

Save them up and go to DLR! The magic is still there![/QUOTE]

Not for long. MB and FP+ are going to be implemented at DLR too. YUCK!!!

 

[lugnut33]

One of my biggest internal conflicts is how I'm so upset with the way Disney treats their employees, but I'm a DVC owner. So, essentially I'm complicit with Disney's actions against their employees. What I don't like is the low pay, how they use the college program to have cheap labor, how they keep many employees right under the full benefits level, and how many hours they work them (and the times that they work them). Then I look at what Iger makes and it really bothers me, but I'm not selling yet.

 

[lborne]

Bad and rude CMs are the result of bad managers. When I worked at MK, we were told how important it was to make people feel welcome and make their vacation important. That some of these people save all their life for one visit, or fly half way around the world and so we should make every effort to make sure they had a great time. We were told not to come in if you were having a bad day. There were also managers roaming the areas where I worked and if you were ever caught being rude, it was grounds for immediate dismissal. I don't know anyone who was fired for being rude and all my co-workers were happy to be working at Disney.

 

[lyndeah]

Just got back from trip on Saturday and I definitely felt that the CM's werent nearly as "chipper" as the past as well.......this was our 3rd trip.

It seemed that they hired anyone instead of people who really wanted to be there. It was a little disappointing. We also has less than impressive wait staff at a few restaurants which disappointed me as well. The other thing I noticed this year over last year (at the same time - holidays which is crazy busy) - is I felt like there were less CM everywhere "directing" people - which is very helpful when you have a million people trying to shove themselves all in to a small space at the same time. Ill still continue to go back every year at the holidays but I definitely have noticed slight declines.....

 

[larryz]

One example... My sister and mom ordered some fries from the waffle fry quick service in Adventureland. Let's say the order came out to 15.03. My mom originally gave the lady a $20 bill. She quickly found a dime, making it $20.10. Easy enough - give back $5.07 rather than $4.97. The lady looked confused. My mom politely said "does that help? I'd rather not carry around all that change.."

The lady entered it into the register as "$2.10" rather than "$20.10." She slammed down the change and said "Now I need to get a manager." She was rude and disrespectful. When she gave my sister the order, it was the wrong food. My sister told her and she returned a lack-luster plate of food. These are $8 fries and she gave my sister a noticeably smaller portion than other customers. Oh well. - but you'd expect better from Disney.

I hear you. I don't even bother to offer up change anymore unless I have exact change -- anything else seems to throw the cashier off. The cashier, who was likely embarrassed at her confusion, blamed your DM for her mistake.

For $8.00, I'd expect most of a box of fries... but again, she blamed your DM for the whole encounter (weird overpayment, then complained about getting the wrong food!?!) and apparently retaliated the only way she knew how -- a smaller (but still within "standard") portion.

 

[larryz]

One of my biggest internal conflicts is how I'm so upset with the way Disney treats their employees, but I'm a DVC owner. So, essentially I'm complicit with Disney's actions against their employees. What I don't like is the low pay, how they use the college program to have cheap labor, how they keep many employees right under the full benefits level, and how many hours they work them (and the times that they work them). Then I look at what Iger makes and it really bothers me, but I'm not selling yet.

I sold my stock because of what I saw happening. I don't want to be a stockholder in a company that does that to its employees.

 

[emmakatbaby]

We also just returned from Disney on Dec 29. I also noticed many rude CM's during this trip and we have been 11 times. My niece ordered some toasted almonds at a cart near Kali in AK, she went to touch her magic band to Mickey to pay for them and the CM GRABBED her arm and said "I asked you if you wanted anything else!!". My niece apologized that she did not hear the CM and paid for her order and left---crying. When she returned to us and told us what had happened, I marched right up to that cart, asked the CM why she grabbed her arm and noted her name. I later visited guest relations and told them what happened. I seriously can't believe that actually happened.

 

[TillyMarigold]

Thanks for the great info!

Re: CM. Last year when we were on our annual visit to WDW, we sat in an offsite restaurant beside someone who was an ex-employee of Disney. He was chatting to the waitress about how things have gone downhill at Disney in terms of employee satisfaction because of the way upper and middle management behave and that any front line employees aren't treated well any longer. He went on to say that it used to be that people were happy to work there, but the problems with the management team have led to this and that many of his friends have also left Disney.

Now, this is simply hearsay, I realize that. And of course, I don't know what position he held and I don't know the context or details around what is happening and it could also very well be that he is disgruntled. But, in any event, I found it interesting and keep it in the back of my mind when I encounter a rude or disengaged CM and try to see it from another perspective.

Just my 2 cents

I was a front line CM in the late 1990s and had a blast--just after I left, all the managers (whom the front line CMs loved) were fired for being "too close" with their employees. Everyone I worked with was gone within a year or two--friends in other areas hung on longer but also left for the same reason, upper management firing lower-level supervisors for being too nice to the front line CMs and putting in supervisors who would crack down hard. So I'm not at all surprised to hear this.

 

[Subrbnmommy]

We just got back from a Universal/Disney trip.. We stayed 1 night at Unversal and 7 nights at WDW.
We also noticed that lackluster service throughout the Disney Resort.

Transportation: Bored looking Bus Drivers - no good mornings, smiles or acknowledgement not a huge deal but still…

Restaurants:
We had problems being seated as a group at Chef Mickeys. We were a group of 9 with reservations at 7:30am. They refused to seat us together but the restaurant was more than half empty at that time. There were large tables of 9 or 10 set up but empty but they kept insisting that they had been assigned. We kept asking why did the other groups get assigned together and not us. Never got an answer and we finally sat at a table of 8 and squeezed in. Our reservations had been made at 180 + 4 days.
Bored service everywhere else including Artist Point and California Grill
Notable exceptions were at Prime time Café, Monsieur Paul and Shula’s where we had amazing service.
Theme Parks:
Staff chatting amongst themselves in ride loading area instead of placing guests.. At Soaring, one lone cast member was “working” and getting really frustrated and complaining to us about the rest of the staff. We have never before witnessed that at WDW.

Just overall bored looking staff, barely any smiles, “Have a Nice Day” or “thank you”s. We are always polite and friendly with the staff so it felt more like being at the local mall instead of Disney.

Universal, surprisingly (for us anyways) had great service everywhere. From the counter service telling little jokes or teasing to the ride attendants making small talk with guests while waiting to load.

I agree also with first poster, only rode Soaring and TSM once in a week long trip.

Let’s not even talk about the quality of the food at Disney, that’s a whole other thread….

 

[agame2323]

Hey everyone

First - an apology. I've been around long enough, I should have known about the Yeti post. But, I was excited and jumped to conclusions. Honestly- I've never seen the Yeti. It's never been "working" - no strobe lights or anything. When I tried the ride last year, it broke down right before the yeti. We had to walk down about 8 flights of stairs... so my memory was a bit foggy and I was excited to "break" the "news."

Anyway.. I have a full-blown trip report coming soon, but I wanted to touch on a few points. I got back on January 2nd. We went from Dec. 24th through Jan 2nd. Normally we only stay until Jan 1st, but we decided to extend it this year. We definitely enjoyed the additional day. The trip ending stung a bit more this year. Maybe because it FLEW BY (it always does.) Maybe because we had another family with us for the first time and really had a lot of fun and laughs... or maybe because I wrote the book, so the trip was on my mind all year long.

So a few things..

The construction is definitely.... noticeable. Our usual go-to in front of the Plaza ice cream parlor is now inexistent. During very crowded times, the area around the hub is impossible to move through. CMs do a great job of trying to keep people moving, but some people just DO NOT listen. If they say keep moving, keep moving. It's a little selfish that people want to stop and snap pictures or think that they could stop and watch the parade. I'd love to rant on the CMs, but they really do try.

I also found it interesting that construction at Disney Springs takes place during the day. This is not Disney-esque. They also don't hide the scaffolding. In talking with a CM, they said that because Disney Springs is such an important project, Disney has thrown out its normal protocol for construction. They start at 2am and finish at 5pm. I found this really interesting from an Operations standpoint. Maybe Disney has actually taken a new approach to construction. Get it done on time - no matter what it takes.

The CMs have definitely gone a bit downhill. I read a post about this a couple of weeks ago and decided that I would reserve any judgement until my trip. Now, there are still some great CMs. There was a server at 50's who was a real bright point. But some servers at quick services just do not care. There was a time when a job at Disney was a lifestyle. Everyone was happy and cheerful. Disney didn't hire people, they hired personalities. But it seems like there's more and more people who are there for the paycheck.

One example... My sister and mom ordered some fries from the waffle fry quick service in Adventureland. Let's say the order came out to 15.03. My mom originally gave the lady a $20 bill. She quickly found a dime, making it $20.10. Easy enough - give back $5.07 rather than $4.97. The lady looked confused. My mom politely said "does that help? I'd rather not carry around all that change.."

The lady entered it into the register as "$2.10" rather than "$20.10." She slammed down the change and said "Now I need to get a manager." She was rude and disrespectful. When she gave my sister the order, it was the wrong food. My sister told her and she returned a lack-luster plate of food. These are $8 fries and she gave my sister a noticeably smaller portion than other customers. Oh well. - but you'd expect better from Disney.

We also noticed this at the Confectionary. A lot of the CMs just DO NOT know how to work the registers.

THis was also the first year we tried REAL FP+. We tested it last year while it was in beta. It was seamless - but we still had paper FPs. I didn't see anything truly negative about the FP+. BUT - the tiering makes it very difficult to repeat many of our favorite rides. For a short trip, I could see this being a problem. For example, we booked R'n'R one day and Toy Story another (due to the tiering.) In past years, we'd get to the parks early and get a FP for R'n'R and then ride it again later - either with another FP or with EMH... or we'd book multiple FPs for R'n'R over a few different days. For the first time ever, we only rode RnR once - during the entire trip. The crowds were definitely noticeable this year and with FP+, we were lucky to ride our favorite rides once. If we wanted to ride again, we'd have to wait at least 90 minutes to get onto the ride. For one-day guests, I just didn't see the value. Imagine this - you spend $100+ and spend three or four hours of your day JUST waiting to get onto a two-minute ride. I think this has a lot to do with construction and the amount of rides. Hollywood Studios only has three GOOD rides right now. EPCOT only has two! As a result, there's astronomical wait times and if you don't get a FP+, you're in trouble!

Anyway, just a few things I noticed. Look - I can rattle off about 50 things I LOVED about this vacation. If there's only two or three complaints, I'm happy.

Thanks for the report and I'm happy to hear that, for the most part, you and your family had a pleasent time.

That said, the part of about your mom... why didn't she just leave a tip? The total is $15.03. Why not just give the waitress $20 and ask for $2 back in change? Thats roughly 20% in gratuity.

I mean... I understand what your mother was trying to do but perhaps the waitress was also pissed off over the fact that she actually had to give someone the complete difference on a $15.03 bill. And then to hear the person say... "I'd rather not carry around all that change..." really?

These CM's go through a lot putting up with people and their request for convenience all day. I realize that's their job but it wouldn't hurt to sometimes help make their day a bit easier, instead of thinking about ourselves all the time.

 

[larryz]

That said, the part of about your mom... why didn't she just leave a tip? The total is $15.03. Why not just give the waitress $20 and ask for $2 back in change? Thats roughly 20% in gratuity.

That's a nice thought, but I'm not sure the QS kiosks are tipped positions -- can any CM with kiosk experience weigh in on that one, please?