Brasilian tour groups?

[sseely40851]

I'm a little naive I guess, but I'm wondering, why is the thought of seeing a Brasilian tour group so objectional? The reaction on these boards seems to border on hysteria! Are they like the Mongol hoardes? Why are they an issue? Please enlighten me.

 

[WhateverLolaWants]

I think the main concern people have are they travel in a massive group, rather than breaking up into smaller ones. Kind of a pain to walk around a large group or have them all enter the fastpass line at the same time right in front of you, but that can be any large group regardless of nationality.

 

[LuLuO]

I'm not sure really. We saw a lot of tour groups during our vacation. The only bummer was if they beat us to a ride, just because of the increased wait time. But often we just did something else so for us it wasn't a big deal.

 

[Jennasis]

I'm a little naive I guess, but I'm wondering, why is the thought of seeing a Brasilian tour group so objectional? The reaction on these boards seems to border on hysteria! Are they like the Mongol hoardes? Why are they an issue? Please enlighten me.

This is a hot button topic.

The hoards (and that is an appropriate description) tend to be LOUD, rude, obnoxious. They cut in line, pretend not to speak English when confronted and will loudly chant, clap, sing songs while walking through the park, standing in line, waiting for a bus, and sometimes while riding a ride. They've been known to mow down unsuspecting people on pathways, and they are woefully under supervised. A bunch of unruly teens let loose in the parks. Many complain that the guides "clog up" FP lines gathering 50 or more FP's at a time for the group.

I generally just walk the other way when I see them coming.

Welcome to the DIS.

 

[NEW-B]

This is a hot button topic.

The hoards (and that is an appropriate description) tend to be LOUD, rude, obnoxious. They cut in line, pretend not to speak English when confronted and will loudly chant, clap, sing songs while walking through the park, standing in line, waiting for a bus, and sometimes while riding a ride. They've been known to mow down unsuspecting people on pathways, and they are woefully under supervised. A bunch of unruly teens let loose in the parks. Many complain that the guides "clog up" FP lines gathering 50 or more FP's at a time for the group.

I generally just walk the other way when I see them coming.

Welcome to the DIS.

Thats basically it in a nutshell. Its nothing against Brazilians. Its just that there are so many of them. The same thing occurs when there is a cheerleading competition.

 

[magicbob]

I've been to WDW during January and July when there were many tour groups from Brazil. Maybe we were just lucky, but we didn't really have an issue with poor behavior. The tour groups we encountered last July were mostly families. Lots of parents and not a sign of misbehavior.

The tours we encountered on our previous January visit were a tad bit more rowdy (mostly kids with fairly young "chaperones"), but we just zigged when they zagged and avoided them for the most part, so our wait times were not affected much.

I think we heard one group chant briefly while walking on the sidewalk. I would have been pretty ticked off if they were doing so IN the attractions and ruining it for everyone else. This is what many others have reported encountering and I can understand there dislike of the tour groups for that reason.

I think it's a good idea to avoid going when there are going to be a lot of tour groups (just like it's a good idea to avoid Pop Warner) because of the potential for rowdy teens to ruin your vacation. Some people inevitably try to turn this issue into a bigotry thing, but it's fundamentally about the crowds and inconsiderate behavior (primarily by under-supervised teens) that often go hand-in-hand with these tour groups.

Like I said, we've had only positive/neutral experiences with the tour groups. But the stories others have related here are enough to make me wary of going during those times of year again. Not because of where the tour groups are from, but because I don't want to risk encountering one of the "bad" tour groups that are apparently pretty common.

 

[recmouse]

I was just in the 'World' from 1/17 - 1/21/12. I lost track of how many different Brazilian groups we saw. They all have their own shirts, vests, and flags to differentiate each group.

Yes - they travel in hoards and we always made sure we were ahead of them in a line if possible.

Honestly - we didn't see any chanting or singing, and most were pretty well behaved.

What really bothered me was that their group leaders would run ahead and get 50 - 70 fast passes at a clip. Not that they aren't entitled to the fastpasses - but it closed out the popular rides, specifically TSM, by 10:30am. That left nothing for the average family coming into the park. JMO

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I think they are adorable.

 

[DisneysPrincess25]

i have been to disney a few times before and never saw them. i was there in october and they were there. loud and annoying

 

[disnut8]

I think the negativity comes if someone is stuck in a queue with a huge mass of people all chanting or singing or being loud. That can be taxing on the nerves and nothing that is said will be listened to. But then again, all that is subjective. What is obnoxious to Person A is fine with Person B.

We saw some tour groups in our trip a few weeks ago. We saw the flags, we saw the kids, we saw the chaperones. We walked around and it was no big deal.

Been to Disney World about 60 times. Have seen tour groups. cheerleaders, sporting groups, high school groups, middle school groups, elementary school groups. I have never seen anything that would make me so ticked off to complain to Disney World. Why? Because how do I know what I'm doing isn't making someone else upset? People in glass houses........................

 

[minnie mum]

I think they are adorable.

Well, pretty is as pretty does.... Yes, a lot of them are cute as a button. Just wish it was a mute button. I really dont give a rat's patootie what nationality they are- they could come from my home town for all I care. It's the size of the crowd, their rambunctiousness(is that even a word?), the noise level that ratchets up even higher when the chanting starts. SOME, but not all can be very rude by running into or over other guests/cutting lines/ sitting in large groups in the middle of the walkway and blocking other guests. They (and even their "tour guides" have been known to pretend not to speak English.
Basically teens with too much excitement, the crowd or gang mentality in full swing and tour guides who do not/will not/can not control their behaviour.

As I said at the beginning- I don't care what nationality they are (and PLEASE don't even try the "but it's a cultural thing!") Common courtesy in public is not too much to ask from any guest, no matter where they come from.

 

[gojoe]

I think the main concern people have are they travel in a massive group, rather than breaking up into smaller ones. Kind of a pain to walk around a large group or have them all enter the fastpass line at the same time right in front of you, but that can be any large group regardless of nationality.

So, so many of them. I've never had any issues with them. Happy and polite. But we've left rides lines because so many get into the Fast Pass line

 

[ScotsMinnie]

What really annoys me is that a few get in line and then more get in line a while later. The later bunch then pushes past everyone to get to their friends jumping lots of people in line They claim to not understand what people are saying and will physically barge past anyone (including small children) who gets in their way.

And the CM do nothing about it.

 

[sambisc]

Our biggest problem with the tour groups was when we were riding the buses back to the resort. We waited in line for a lengthy time and when the bus arrived, because the tour leader was in the front of the line, the whole group got on before us (even thought they were in line behind us). Then there wasn't enough room and we had to wait for a second bus! Even then, there were still some of the remaining tour group in front of us that went in front of us on the second bus and took all the seats, leaving older folks and mothers with small children standing, without even offering their seats. Other than that, although they were in large groups in the parks, I thought they were well behaved.

 

[joenan88]

This is a hot button topic.

The hoards (and that is an appropriate description) tend to be LOUD, rude, obnoxious. They cut in line, pretend not to speak English when confronted and will loudly chant, clap, sing songs while walking through the park, standing in line, waiting for a bus, and sometimes while riding a ride. They've been known to mow down unsuspecting people on pathways, and they are woefully under supervised. A bunch of unruly teens let loose in the parks. Many complain that the guides "clog up" FP lines gathering 50 or more FP's at a time for the group.

I generally just walk the other way when I see them coming.

Welcome to the DIS.

Perfect words....I had an incident where one of the "hoard" got on the fastpass line in front of us....about 10 min later the rest of the "hoard" showed up and tried to cut the line..needless to say it didn't work out for them...the line..including me flipped...very rude...they ended up going to the back of the fastpass line and waiting like everyone else...while they chanted

 

[kerplop]

The only run-in we had with them did kind of leave a bad taste in my mouth, but that's because they would queue in the single rider lines in packs. Then hold back when the CM tried to get one of them to get in alone so that they could go together, but then feign not being able to speak English when the CM would tell them they couldn't ride together in that car. It just jammed everything up and in the end they were letting them get away with it just to get them out of the way for people in the regular lines. It was our first time though so maybe I was misinterpreting how the line works?

 

[joanne312]

I think it's nothing particular about the fact that they are Brazilian. It could be a cheerleading group or any other large group, and there is the risk of them being misbehaved and annoying. When a group of 50-70 people gets in the single rider lane all at once, it can be pretty aggravating when you are behind them as they are fooling around and singing/chanting. I think the Brazilian tour groups just get talked about a lot because there are a lot of them every January. We encountered these groups last year, could they be annoying?, yes, but like I said so can any large tour group.

 

[hershey4]

Gosh, you guys are making me so nervous! We've never been in January before, but we are headed to Disney World tomorrow! I don't have any patience for people who cut lines, so I'm really hoping we can avoid these groups. I wonder why the CM's allow them to do this? I've been to other amusement parks where there are signs posted saying no cutting, or you'll be kicked out of the park (and once, at Six Flags, actually saw someone being escorted out!).

 

[Karl66]

We encountered one of these groups during our trip last June. They are harmless for the most part. Yes they travel in a large group, sing, and chant as they proceed through the park. They are just having fun as is expected in the happiest place on earth. They can be a little annoying though as they will all go on a ride at once and sing and chant through the queue. It can be a little intimidating. They were just in front of us on POTC and the CM was very nice and did not seat us with them, although he could have. Seemed to me that the CMs were used to them and made sure, to the best of their ability, that the tour groups did not disturb other guests.

 

[M5ward]

We're in the World now..have only seen a few tour groups that were made up oh a lot of kids..quite a few small groups. I haven't heard any chanting and they have all been very well behaved.