Bad Service Stories from DL

[spidey_99]

Just got back from DL today (second visit in one week- sweet!) and I had what has to be my first ever terrible Cast Member experience at any Disney owned business.

Me and my two kids went to the Bur-r-Bank Ice cream shop at the head of the Zephyr train in California Adventure and I tell you what: the staff was clueless and didn't seem to care that they were clueless (the waitress had no clue if my season pass granted us a discount (('Yeah, I don't think so, I don't think that gives you a discount....yeah, I dunno')), the same waitress seemed to have no clue what kind of food they offered there (('Uhm, you want the cookies and cream or something on top of your...wait, what is it you wanted?"))...she seemed stoned if you ask me.

And then ,when we were served our ice cream by another member of the same staff, gobs of ice cream were dripping over the side of the cups making it a sticky, annoying task to get the ice cream to our table outside. A cardboard tray would have neen nice to help us port the food...but not having it served with the melting ice cream pouring over the side would have been even better!

Maybe it's cause I've been reading a bunch of books lately on the way Disney runs things and how service is key (and in my many years of experiencing Disney, this has been proven out...which is one of the reasons I love Disney so much....heck, I've walked into the Disney Store in a small suburb of San Francisco and gotten the same, great service Disney is known and loved for )...but today? Man, it was like that whole store missed the Disney training when it came to...well, heck, ANYTHING/EVERYTHING! There was nothing remotely Disney about the experience and I almost laid into them for soiling the good name of Disney...and popping the bubble of the fantasy that I give myself over to whenever I walk thru the gates of DL...but then I thought better of it. Life's too short and end of the day, it was just some ice cream. But it still annoyed me; not the experience so much (I mean,it's not like I'm some prima donna jerk who DEMANDS great service wherever I go)...but I think what annoyed me was having such a pedestrian, typical (for the outside world) service expereince within the walls of a Disney theme park.

Anyone else have any BAD service stories from Disney? I'd be surprised if there were many as this is the first I've exeprienced in almost 40 years of consuming Disney magic.

 

[jenpace]

...she seemed stoned if you ask me.

From your description I was thinking the same thing as I was reading through your post

While we usually have really great experiences at DL and DCA with the CMs I have to say that our experience at Burrbank was also pretty sad. Just like when you were there the CMs seemed clueless, rude and generally resentful of the guests.

I've never gone back and will continue to avoid it after reading your post...

 

[love2go2disney2]

We were at Dl on Friday April 24 and Mickey and Minnie were in front of the Mad Hatter for pictures. Minnie kept pointing to her wrist to the CM indiciting it time to go. This was done in front of guest who have their little children waiting in line to see Minnie and Mickey. This was VERY disappoiting.

 

[disneynerd420]

...she seemed stoned if you ask me.

I believe it... through my years of experiance in the restaurant industry, I would not be surprised.

I have no problem with a little bit of the green stuff, obviously However, I am a firm believer that it should not be brought to work. From years of managing restaurants, I can say that in the position of the manager, I would have wanted that waitress brought to my attention. If she cannot answer simple questions regarding your purchase and appears to be under the influence of an illegal substance, then management needs to know. Not only to determine if she was under the influence and needs to be released of duty, but also to determine if it may have only been a lack of training. This can be a very hard thing for a manager to do. However, if she was under the influence of marijuana, she is a liabilty to Disney and should be let go. I always displayed a ZERO TOLERANCE policy. Because of this, my employees knew not to test me.

I am so sorry to hear about your bad DL experiance. I'm sure it will be better next time

 

[LavenderPeach]

Well, this wasn't that terrible of a thing but still annoying. When we were at DL today we saw Pluto dancing to the music of one of the main street bands so we stopped to watch as several other characters came out and danced. I was holding DS up so he could see better and a CM decided to walk up and stand right in front of us (inches away) completely blocking DS's view. I'm not sure why the CM felt he needed stand in that particular spot because there was plenty of other places he could have stood without blocking someone's view. And this was more of an executive looking CM. He wasn't wearing a suit but had on dress pants and a nice shirt. He wasn't in a costume so he didn't really have anything to do with the show going on. If he really did have to stand there I don't know why he couldn't have said excuse me or something. I thought it was rude and odd but like I said, not the end of the world or anything.

 

[PryncessChrysty]

We have never had a pleasant experience at Burrr-bank Ice Cream. I don't understand why, but their staff seems to ALWAYS act that way. It's quite frustrating and we don't go there anymore.

 

[dragonflycurls]

I have to agree with the Brr-bank ice cream issues. The last time I went there, I had the same problems (they also told me they don't take season pass discounts- why is that?)

The one time I ate at Cafe Orleans was pretty awful too. It was off-peak and there were maybe only 6 other parties on the patio. It took forever to get our drinks, the waitress never came to offer refills, etc. Just stood inside talking with two other CM's! When she finally came out to ask if everything was okay, it was like we were asking her to walk miles to get us a refill.

 

[bumbershoot]

No, the burrbank place does NOT participate in the AP discount. The bakery right there does, but not the ice cream place. (neither does Royal Street Veranda, for that matter, though someone on mouseplanet says she's always gotten it there) They aren't listed on the AP discount list, by the way.

And we got our ice cream all melty too.

So one was correct info given in a vague way and the other seems to be commonplace, LOL.


However, the attitude needs to have been shared with the higher-ups. Did you go make an official complaint?

 

[Albort]

We were at Dl on Friday April 24 and Mickey and Minnie were in front of the Mad Hatter for pictures. Minnie kept pointing to her wrist to the CM indiciting it time to go. This was done in front of guest who have their little children waiting in line to see Minnie and Mickey. This was VERY disappoiting.

you do have to understand that if something isnt going right for the CM playin Minnie, its even more rude for them to just walk away. At least, she tried to get out by giving a signal. I know a lot of time on the parade, the performers would signal if they are in distress so they can be helped off stage for support.

 

[mechurchlady]

For me I love ice cream but saw at the cone shop a CM banging the hot fudge ladle on the side of a waffle cone. I could not get it through her head that she had just cross contaminated all the hot fudge. No I am not eating there again as I am at high risk of a week or more off suffering if some airhead cross contaminates anything.

WORST SERVICE and AIRHEAD AWARD
Riverbelle Terrace. They whip out the gluten free list and have NOTHING gluten free. Bacon, sausage, fruit, everything apparently has gluten. This is the ONLY restaurant that I have come across where the food it totally not gluten free and I did not even dare try to go soy free. I ate two packs of sugar and a pack of ketchup so that I could keep going. I cannot believe that they had absolutely nothing gluten free other than beverages. Go to Plaza Inn which is a STUPID suggestion for persons on a budget or wanting a quick bite to eat because that is priority seating and costs over $20 for a meal.

http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/men_rbb.htm

 

[PinkBudgie]

Wow, I am so surprised at the problems people had at the ice cream place! That is our favorite! We have never had a problem with any of the CMs there. If I had a CM not really paying attention I'd be annoyed too. But never had a problem with that or drippy cones. I can't say they were overly friendly, but not rude or odd. The last time we went there was last summer so maybe it has gone down hill since then. How sad.

When you get your APs they give you a little list of all the places that you can get a discount. We keep that with our card for reference at the park.

 

[LavenderPeach]

The one time I ate at Cafe Orleans was pretty awful too. It was off-peak and there were maybe only 6 other parties on the patio. It took forever to get our drinks, the waitress never came to offer refills, etc. Just stood inside talking with two other CM's! When she finally came out to ask if everything was okay, it was like we were asking her to walk miles to get us a refill.

Hey, that sounds like the waitress we had at WCT a few weeks ago!

 

[wazowskiLOVER:)]

I usually LOVE the CMs and almost always gush about the customer service at DL, but of course everyone has to deal with rude people everywhere.

In January, I bought 2 aprons and had them embroidered with our names on it (me & my cousin). The CM working acted like we were inconveniencing her the WHOLE time. I wanted to put nicknames on our apron and she coldly said, "NO, we can only do names, no nicknames." Fine, fine. No biggie. Then my fiancee got his next and he always messes up on spelling his mom's name because there are different ways she spells it because of legal documents as opposed to being casual. He also was recovering from brain surgery so things got jumbled up easily for him. He was trying to spell her name out and she said to him, "are you sure this is how you spell her name, or are you giving me a fake nickname?" UHH ? What? How can she just assume and be rude like that? Then she and said, "fine. It'll be ready in 3 hours." Again, no biggie. We go back there and another CM is with her this time and she puts on a big smile and puts on a show for her co-worker. I'm sorry to say but she was a total *****. She acted like we were below her the WHOLE time and talked down to us like we were children. By far the WORST CM experience I've ever had.

 

[chatty catty]

Our family just returned from our latest trip and have to report the grumpiest CM manning the turnstiles at the gate. We stayed onsite and were trying to enter DL for our 2nd magic morning. I had our both our tickets and room key cards out and available for the CM. The CM turned us away stating that we had already used the MM offered with our park hoppers. I stated that we were staying onsite at PPH. CM's response was the same. No go.

A CM at another turnstile was trying to tell our turnstile's CM that guests are allowed entry as long as we have a valid key card. "Our" CM refused to listen but finally decided she would check with another CM who told her that we are allowed entrance. Finally...

The story doesn't end there though. On the next MM available during our trip, we get another CM that does the same thing and tries to deny us entry to MM. What are the odds?!

Oh, back to Brrr Bank Ice Cream, we've never had great service there. Maybe Disney uses the ice cream shop as a training ground. The CM we had couldn't figure out how to add a peanut topping using the cash register, asked for help, and then went on to take my order and entered it wrong so I had to send it back...

Not the best trip at DL, but can't complain too much. How can you when you're at DL?

 

[pixiewings71]

Huh, the one time we went to Brrbank it's was fine, the service wasn't the best but it wasn't horrible either. Our ice cream cups were all messy and gross but we just wrapped napkins around them and carried them that way.

Our rude CM was during pin trading. We were trading from the books and the woman working this one book wouldn't let anyone trade a "smooth" pin for anything in the books. Which was ridiculous really since the "smooth" pins we were trading were from the Disney Store. She was just rude and snippy about it when she told us, if she had been nicer about it it wouldn't have been a problem, I just didn't appreciate the way she was talking to my kids, one of whom was only 8 at the time and she just got really sad and said "Mom, she won't trade with me" and I asked her "what do you mean?" She said "She told me she can't trade for my pins because they are bad and no one wants them" which of course ticked me off so I went to see what the issue was. Well she was rude and snippy with me too which ticked me off even more. So I told her, "you don't need to have an attitude, we are regular visitors coming by about once a month and this is a very new rule so we were unaware. If you simply informed us or if the rules were uniform with everyone it would be very nice and we wouldn't have been confused". We made our trades and left but man, she was rude. lol Oh and the other 2 CM's manning books, they let us trade our smooth pins with no problems and it's only been that ONE time that anyone said that. lol We even went to City Hall and asked and they has NO idea what we were talking about. We didn't go in to complain, we just went in to confirm what she had said. Anyway, I'm sure everyone has an off day here and there, luckily we haven't run into many people experiencing that problem while we are at DL/DCA.....or if we do we just blow it off. lol

 

[DisneyLover111]

Hope I don't encounter any rudeness, I hate stories like this

 

[eatmypixiedust]

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I had a bad experience a few years ago. My boyfriend and I went to DL on my birthday. We both had not been on the Winnie the Pooh Ride and I just wanted to check it out. I missed the Country Bears and wanted to see how the Pooh ride was. The CM who asks how many are in your party looked at the both of us. I told her there were 2 of us. She said: "Don't even think about making out. We have cameras you know! I can see you!" At first I thought she was joking but her facial expression was dead serious with a bit of annoyance. My bf and I were taken aback. We're grown adults and we're not about to make out in public! All we did was walk up to get on the ride as there was no line. I don't know what the CM's problem was.....maybe she was having a bad day? I honestly don't know what compelled her to say what she did. I wish I had said something but I guess I was too shocked at the time.

When I got home I sent an e-mail to guest relations. I received a phone call from one of the park managers, apologizing for what happened. They agreed it was uncalled for and an unecessary remark and that the CM would be dealt with. The manager also apologized if the comments put a damper on my b-day celebration.

 

[calicat]

Last year we bought mickey mouse ears for me and my daughter. We told the cast member my daughters name and she refused to to put in on the ears because she said it was a nickname. We showed her my daughters drivers license that had her name on it to prove it was not a nickname and she accused us of having a fake ID so we could get her nickname on the ears.

 

[pixiewings71]

Oh gosh, the ears! lol When we got our DD's Pirate Princess ears we had their names done. DD9 wanted her first and middle name put on them so we asked the CM if they would do that. I asked "will you put her first and middle names on these or just the first name?" She said "we do names only, no nicknames" I said "she doesn't want a nickname, she wants her first and middle names" she repeated what she said so I said "so what you're saying without saying it is no, we can only do her first name" and I turned to DD and told her and she said that's "Ok Mom, Jxxx is fine" so I told the CM her name and the CM said "I told you we only do first names and no nicknames!" I said "that IS her name" and then she tried to argue with me! lol She kept telling me she couldn't do nicknames, only her "real" name so I finally had DD spell her name for the lady so she'd believe me. I told her if she didn't put her name on them I wanted her manager right now, she finally wrote down DD's name to put on the ears. It was insane!!! As if I don't know my own child's name...uhhh ya lady, whatever!! And the same CM told me "we will NOT embroider on YOUR hat, YOU have to go to the *insert shop name here* because we don't do regular hats". The kicker there, I hadn't asked her about putting a name on my hat (I bought myself a Tink bball cap) and the CM who rang me up told me that already. lol I had no intention of getting my name on my hat but she just felt the need to be rude. DD said to me "geez Mom, someone's having a bad day" LOL

 

[PinkBudgie]

Wow, what is it with the hat people?? I can see why they wouldn't want nicknames to open up the door to all kinds of crazy things on the hats that you know some people would want. But to argue with someone about their own name is just astonishing! It sounds like they were taught just that one rule without the reasoning behind it.