Brazilian Tour Groups 101

[Brer boy]

After 15 years of going in October, my son and I just returned from our first ever trip in July. He's been going since 3rd grade and this was his college graduation trip. Here is our advice on how to survive hundreds of teens from Brazil (cue theme song from Jaws):
Relax, enjoy your vacation. Have fun with them. (Cue song from Three Caballeros)
Really, after reading all the horror stories, we found them to be polite, fun, energetic, and part of the experience.
We stayed at All Star Sports, and it was really more like a Brazilian girls dorm, but all they did was have fun. We never found them rude. They seemed like any normal teenager. (I am a teacher, I deal with teens all the time).
While in the parks there were large groups everywhere with the flags, but they never cut in line, they never ran us over.
As we were heading home we talked about making it an annual event. They added a fun spirit to Disney.
We only wished we could speak Spanish and were curious why it was almost all girls.

 

[mademluc]

We only wished we could speak Spanish and were curious why it was almost all girls.

Portuguese, Brazilians speak Portuguese.

 

[L2DAVI]

I was in WDW from 6/26 - 7/3 and let me tell you we saw this group in the parks the whole time we were there and had really no problems only once in a while did we get some (20+) people cutting the line. But on our 2nd to last morning our hotel food court was mobbed. More like an ant hill with millions of ants on it. They didn't speak any English so it was hard to speak to them and when they asked a question (by gestures, like pointing to the chair) it was hard to get them to understand my answer. I will say overall they were not bad, just wayyyyy to many of them. I stayed at POFQ. How many of these kids were here? All Brazilian kids?

 

[TDSAXX]

The only things a little annoying is when they send 50-60 people through the fastpass line at one time. I realize that they're entitled to FP's just like everyone else, just saying it's a sort of a pain.

 

[MAH4546]

They didn't speak any English so it was hard to speak to them and when they asked a question (by gestures, like pointing to the chair) it was hard to get them to understand my answer.

They all speak English. Very well.

This is the only thing that really bothers me about the groups: the kids pretend like they don't speak English, allowing them to get away with things when CMs have difficultly explaining things to them (i.e. using the single-rider lines!).

English is a mandatory subject in private schools in Brazil starting at a very young age and is seriously drilled into students and taught for a few years (its entirely different than the horrendous second-language teaching in the U.S.). Just about any middle and upper-class Brazilian speaks excellent English, and these tour groups are made-up of middle and upper-class students.

So if anybody runs into trouble with them, don't buy their "no English" excuse. They speak English, they know what you are saying.

I personally find the chanting annoying, but they're just kids having a good time. It does not bother me.

 

[SnowandMittens]

I'm glad you had a positive experience with the tour groups. The only thing I find annoying about them is that they travel in large numbers, which means standing behind them in long lines can be avoided, and that they act like any typical mass group of teenagers... some polite, but most a little noisy, etc...

It's refreshing to have a positive reveiw of a brazillian tour group, and to the PP, no, not all of them speak English. Most do, but not all of them.

 

[Bearybear]

I lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil for about a year. Most of these kids should speak English, as they have enough money to travel to the US, then they go to a school where English is a mandatory subject, and they probably watch a lot of American TV and Movies, some without dubbing.

Whenever you have groups of more than one or two teenagers, there is the potential for annoying and outright rude behavior. I am glad the OP didn't see any of that.

 

[mattmommy]

I'm glad you had a good experience. Overall I don't have a problem. I worked at Disney for four years. I believe they have gotten much better, but still have trouble waiting in line for bathrooms and rides.

I've found that all the kids do speak Portuguese, but they play the, "don't speak English" card quite often. The parents on the other hand usually don't and have their kids speak for them.

 

[luckytobeme88]

Boy, do I have an issue with teens groups from South America!!
We stayed at Pop from 6/28 til 7/4(split stay) There must be at least 20 to 40teens and they were all staying at the same 60's building section. For 3 straight nights after we checked in our room, they came outside after 2:30am and for hours into the morning. I don't mind them singing and chanting in the parks. I can understand that. But @2, 3, or 4 in the morning, when all you want was a well rested night. Of course, yours truly, complained to the front desk manager then to the security office FOR 2 STRAIGHT NIGHTS. That went unsuccessful. On the 3rd night, as if they were on a schedule, the teens surfaced again. This time they stationed in front of our room out of all places. So I called front desk and told them that I will make the kids go away myself because they could not help us in any way. Kept telling us that if it happened again, call the front desk. How many more sleepless nights are we supposed to take? I wouldn't take this if the room was free anyway. Finally, 2 head securities came and moved us to a better location and gave us our room portion of our stay free.

Readers be warned. The tour groups are fine to deal with when they are in the parks. But if you see them staying at your resort, move!!!

 

[smylie1]

I, too am glad the OP had a good experience with the group. I, on the other hand.....well....Momma said if I don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.

 

[danceintherain]

I'm glad you had a good experience.
I found this last trip better as far as the Brazilian Tour groups went, than in January.
However, it does have much more to do with the fact it's a group of teenagers than anything else. Nevertheless, whenever we went on trips to places in high school we rarely traveled in that large of groups. We usually had multiple adult chaperons and were able to spread out with them, and we were allowed to break off from our chaperon as long as we met up with them later.
I find the major problem the fact that they move around in such LARGE groups. I'm very happy that we were never expected to do that on trips, because it makes the line that much longer, especially if you're in the back of the group.

 

[LisaInNc]

We were at the Pop 6-28 through 7-5 thankfully we never saw the groups at the hotel, we were in the 50's section. I would NOT have put up with a lot of noise late at night.

We saw them in the parks and just went the other way.

 

[Ga Girl]

Just returned today and I was amazed at the number of groups. I counted 10separate groups on Thursday at HS. Every group had at least 50+ kids. The only problem we had was in line for rockin rollercoaster....a group of girls came running past us. Luckily there was a CM at the start of the line going into queue, she turned them around and sent them to the back. Oh yeah, Monday, we were stuck in between 2 different groups in line for Haunted Mansion. They started singing and chanting to the other group. It got kinda annoying after about 10 minutes of it. Then we were with them in the stretching room....that was fun!

 

[luckytobeme88]

We were at the Pop 6-28 through 7-5 thankfully we never saw the groups at the hotel, we were in the 50's section. I would NOT have put up with a lot of noise late at night.

We saw them in the parks and just went the other way.

You were lucky to be in the 50's building. The group was in building #6, over-looking the lake which supposed to be the quiet part of the resort?? After the 3rd night, we were moved to the 50's at building 2. I meant to say that the group was in building 6, not 60's section. My bad!

 

[ZachnElli]

We just left this morning and for the most part I will agree they are just annoying. However, I did witness some bad behaviour by these groups. One group had rented alot of wheel chairs and standing up on them told me they weren't handicapped, I saw 2 kids fall on young children in strollers, my dh even helped one of the kids off the stroller, the chanting loudly in the queue for a ride shut down due to inclement weather, I'm sorry, but that's just rude. I mean the first couple of times, no big deal but 20 minutes with it getting louder and louder!

 

[edcarmo]

That's my favorite subject (just kidding).... unfortunately, all these comments are real (the good and bad ones). Everything depends on the tour group.
If you assume that every Brazilian teenager in WDW is able to talk in English fluently, you are absolutely wrong.
If you assume that a BTG is composed by upper class teens, you are redundantly wrong, middle class at most. Usually, Brazilian upper class would not use tour group services (not these clearly working in WDW).

Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm Brazilian and the BTGs are really annoying (as well as any other unmannered tour group).

As Brazilian, I can see many details on a BTG, to guess the level of "politeness".
Ok.... it's not discriminatory... just a hint... considering my country and the intrinsic details (multi-cultural federation, economy at each region/state, education level, etc), try to see what's the Brazilian state/region... usually is specified by two letters (e.g: Brazil / CE, Brazil / MG)....

We (my family and I) learned on the hard way... but to avoid discrimination I will not mention any Brazilian region/state.

There are specific really bad tour groups, all of them "specialized" in teenagers... we avoid them independently the origin / region.

Of course, there are many regular (good, I meant) BTGs, all of them are official Disney travel agencies (RCA, Agaxtour, just to mention two)...

Coincidence or not, we only had problems with those non-"Disney Select Tour Operator".

So, generalization will not work and there is no easy answer...

We are going again for Christmas/New Year's Eve & Marathon... (dec/12 - Jan14), the ideia is avoid "X"TGs and have good time (not an easy task at this period of the year).

 

[Shir Kahn]

We have seen a ton of them during this trip we're currently on and I must say, other than a bit of chanting, they've been much better than I've seen them on previous trips. I really hate the chanting though, but usually I only have to listen to it for a few seconds before we're far enough away.

 

[Amanda888]

Oh the Tour Groups...

I went one summer with my family and they were everywhere. Most were nice, loud, but nice. My little cousin who was 6 at the time kept referring to them as "flag people" Why are there so many flag people here? Are there gonna be flag people on this ride? I think he was kinda fascinated with them.

Does anyone know if they are there in September? Just want to be prepared

 

[teach22180]

I don't think anyone answered your question about why the groups are there. In the Latin American culture, it's traditional for girls to celebrate their 15th birthday with a big party. From what I understand, in Brazil, the kids take a special trip instead of the party. They are out of school in July and January, so that's when they head to Disney because, just like American parents, they would prefer not to miss school if they can help it.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

They all speak English. Very well.

This is the only thing that really bothers me about the groups: the kids pretend like they don't speak English, allowing them to get away with things when CMs have difficultly explaining things to them (i.e. using the single-rider lines!).

English is a mandatory subject in private schools in Brazil starting at a very young age and is seriously drilled into students and taught for a few years (its entirely different than the horrendous second-language teaching in the U.S.). Just about any middle and upper-class Brazilian speaks excellent English, and these tour groups are made-up of middle and upper-class students.

So if anybody runs into trouble with them, don't buy their "no English" excuse. They speak English, they know what you are saying.

I personally find the chanting annoying, but they're just kids having a good time. It does not bother me.

A friend of mine use to be a tour guide many years ago.. and FYI, they do not ALL speak and understand English very well. While most of them do, not all of them do & I am not going by your logic (middle & upper class students), but by what was told to me from someone who was their guide.