Brazilian tour groups??

[Sparrow624]

DW and I always go to Disney at the end of June (the week of the 24th is our wedding anniv). We just got back from our most recent trip and there were TONS of these kids.

I can tell you, the Yellow, Blue, and Green groups were very well behaved and seemed nice. I spoke with a few of them and they were excited.

...The group in red...not so much. I watched them cut some lines, push their way into the front at parades, yell loudly at people who they thought were in their way.

As a teacher, I can tell you that this stems to the people running the group. They honestly did very little watching of the group and behaved much as they did.

Again, it was just this one group...The other goups were great.

 

[smidgy]

Not so sure about this one. I have read things here and also in the news about fights, expulsions, etc. for Pop Warner. A few years ago they kicked out 3 teams, I think, for a brawl that took place at their resort. We are going this year with 2 days overlap, not looking forward to it.

this was at all star music in 2007. we were there. didn't matter how many times I called to complain. they would NOT make the kids go to their rooms or be quiet.


at all star sports in july 2010, these kids were yelling , screaming, etc still at 1 am. we tried to complain (after hubby was almost accosted by one of the adult coaches) a "haughty" useless Cm on a segway told us July was "latin month" at WDW and "we" are their hosts. nope "we" are paying guests, NOT hosts.
they finally made them all quiet down about 2 am, and I actually heard a security guard say to a complaining mom that he could "understand BOTH sides of the issue".. huh? which side is there beside the sign that says QUIET after 10 pm!!?
now I don't begrudge some teens swimming after hours, having fun, etc. they were EXTREMELY loud, disrespiectful, kicking soccer balls into the windiows, walls, basicaly TOOK OVER the home rum Innn sectio at sports, and the CMS didn't seem to care.

 

[alby87a]

Disney has brought "super greeters" from Brazil to deal with the groups. (they have green shirts with their countrys flag on it) They work the summer and after the summer they go back home to Brazil. One of the reasons why the groups are better behaved is communication so there is not a language barrier because of the greeters! So that makes our job as CMs easier and for a better guest experience without hassle! If there was ever a problem I would find a Super Greeter and instruct that Greeter to speak to the group and calm them down. So far it has been a smooth summer with the groups.

 

[Angelia'sthree]

In Brazil, due to the Law of Directives and Bases of Brazilian Education, the academic year must have 200 days, both at schools and at universities. The school year usually begins during the first week of February. There is a 3-week long winter break in July. The Brazilian school year ends in December, summer in Brazil.

This was copied from a Google search. I also didn't know that Brazilian kids only attend school from the age of 6-14. From the looks of the kids pictured above, they all seem to be kids who look like they may have finished school.

 

[MonCostivelle]

Actually, this information is not quite correct.
Brazilian kids SHOULD go to school up to age 17/18; which is sort of the Brazilian equivalent of High School (from 14/15-17/18).

It's not like we would normally have 15-year-old kids in college.

The teaching we have from 6 to 14 years of age is what we call Fundamental. They should stay in school after that.

 

[Disneykidsdad]

They do one heck of a wave at Fantasmic!

 

[BDL]

1) As mentioned before, their maners improved a lot in the past years. I don´t know if it because of fast pass or they have been advised not to cut lines anymore... It was AWFUL ten years ago...


2) I´ll be in the World from Dec, 10- Dec 17 2011 and I´ll let you know how it was...

:

1) Thank you for reiterating the point that I made before. For a while there, I was starting to believe that I was in the minority with my experience in the 80's. And I think we are both right about the FastPass. It would almost be counter productive to try to cut in line when you can get a FP and wait in another line for a different ride (or same ride if you want to do it twice), and when you're done, just get in the FP line.

2) I was there for those exact dates last year. There weren't much in the way of tour groups. If I had to say anything, I'd say the majority of the crowd consisted of adults (late 20's and up) or Grand Gatherings, which is usually a group of 8-20. Definitely smaller than a tour group. The only issue with GG's is when you are waiting to be seated for a meal, the GG may be tying up the host/hostess staff to augment and increase their existing res so the whole group can be together. I can understand that, but would still prefer if they woke up early 6 mos earlier to make the proper ADR's like the rest of us.

Ohhh... And to the person who questioned about Pop Warner in December, when I checked in on the 10th, the football players were already gone, but the cheerleaders had 1 more day. The people in front of me, that were checking out, had some choice words. I have yet to hear someone say anything about the footballers, but from what I can put together, the cheerleaders are like the tour groups. They stay together in massive groups, chant, yell and cheer LOUDLY to each other at all times of day and they can take over a food court. But that was mostly localized at the resorts and busses. I only had 1 day of it, but I can see where people might get on edge.

 

[xxliz28xx]

I believe POR is the one moderate resort they use, for overflow. they don't use pop.


last year, mid july, the brazilian groups were everywhere. we made the mistake of stating at sports for 2 nights, they took over the resortm the buses, with chating , screaming, soccer balls hitting our window, the coach of a soccer team starting a fight with my hubby becasue we were smoking in the dsa. boys would not move out of the way on the sidewalk, totally blocking it while we were walking with our luggage (when my boys were that age, they would have HELPED! with the luggage), tkaing our lounge chairs if we got up for ANY reason,e tc etc.

I can confirm this! We were there in the middle of July 2010 staying at AS Sports. When we went down one night to pay off our room charges, a manager happened to be there and asked us how our stay was going. We told him about the constant yelling & screaming late at night and that we were exhausted. We were then offered a free upgrade to the AKL for the last 2 nights of our stay. Normally, I would of just suffered through it but he asked and we told the truth!

 

[arbolita]

We saw the Brazilian groups back in mid-October and to a lesser extent during our most recent trip in early June. Aside from what others have said about just the size of their groups sometimes being an inconvenience on the walkways, we haven't really noticed them much.

 

[hookedonears]

In addition to the constant chanting, obnoxious singing and cutting in lines that has been posted on this board many times, we also experienced a tremendous Brazilian tour group, all wearing different tee shirts that all came together and filled the circle on Main Street during the night parade and fireworks. Nothing abnormal during the parade, but afterwards they left behind more trash on the ground then I'd ever seen in my life. It was at least a foot deep and covered every square inch of ground that spilled over into the street. It was incredible. It was like they had been there for hours waiting for the parade, ate their dinner and snacks, dropped it all on the ground and left.

 

[lpereira]

Should and compulsory are 2 different things.

 

[Jblust524]

We just came back from a Dis and Universal trip and I'll tell you, there were Brazilian tour groups there everywhere, particuarlly in the Harry Potter line at IoA. in their defense, only one group was copletely out of hand....the red group from happytour.com.br......these were awful. So much so that one kid got into an altercation with an American waiting in line because he had had it with all the line cutting. he decided that he wasn't going to let anymore of these kids cut line and a borderline brawl almost started.

I hosted a Brazilian exchange student of the last year and she'll tell you that Brazilians do not like waiting in line...period. I talked to one of the staff memebers of this group and said you have GOT to keep you kids from cutting line, for there own good. It was terrible. On top of that, about 2pm, this same group was literally laying in the walkways throughout the park napping....it was nuts.

 

[sabrecmc]

Just my own observations from our 4th of July weekend...yes, there were tour groups, but honestly, what we saw was just good fun, young kids off having a blast...no one was rude or pushy around us, at least. I'm sure this is partly b/c with a 5 year old, we were happily in line at Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan lots of the time, so not really butting up against the tour group menace, but they didn't seem that bad to me. When encountered, the kids were polite, made nice comments to my little princess (all dressed up as Aurora, heat be darned!) and were waiting in line like everyone else, though perhaps with more song and gusto!

Not saying there weren't some rude people, but I've encountered rude people from all over the world, including groups of US teens, so the Brazillians didn't seem all that bad to me personally. Just young kids, generally not trying to be mean, but also typically self-absorbed. I vaguely recall what that was like...

 

[PrincessKelly86]

I was there last July, 7/19/10-7/24/10. Most of the groups were very well behaved, but I did have some pretty bad run-ins with the yellow group.

The yellow group was at IoA the day we went to see Harry Potter and as others have said, they really didn't want to wait in line, and they certainly didn't want to wait in line spread out from the main group. After the 30th or so teenager slipped past me, I planted my feet firmly apart and had one hand on each rail on either side of me (and gave a mean stinkeye to anyone who attempted to pass my one woman blockade!). No one else got through, and the family behind me thanked me! I made an attempt to find a chaperone for this group, but never found one.

Back at DHS we went into the Muppetvision theater and a row of yellow-shirted girls sat behind us, put their feet on top of our chairs and repeatedly kicked us in the head. I asked them nicely to stop, they didn't (I don't think they spoke any english, though, to be fair), and after the 10th jab in the head I grabbed the girl's foot from my chair and threw it on the ground and said "FOOT... DOWN." That was our last day at WDW and I'd really had enough. I think I scared the poor girl half to death, haha. When my friends saw the look on my face THEY got nervous...

Every other group I saw was extremely nice, friendly, conversational and pumped to be there, which made us even more excited! Happiness is contagious!

 

[asta]

On top of that, about 2pm, this same group was literally laying in the walkways throughout the park napping....it was nuts.

I have noticed this with different South American tour groups over several trips. They will just stop and lie down on the ground anywhere. In addition to just being nasty, it makes the parks harder to move through. You just don't see families or other groups plopping down on the ground to take a nap when they get tired. I think that this is the way they beat everyone to rope drop. Their guides get them up very, very early and get them to the gates where they all lie down on the concrete and nap until the gates open.

The worst behaved group we ran into was a group called "English at Disney" (don't make the mistake like I did and assume this meant British, I think they were South Americans learning to speak English). This group pushed, linked arms and cut line. Their tour guides were instructing them to do this. I know because we ended up in the middle of them in the single rider line at RNR and had a front row seat to this disgusting group. Their tour guide was instructing them in English on how to bust through the line but of course "didn't speak enough English" to understand what single rider meant.

 

[jazzielady]

We just got back on Monday the 4th, and they were at the French Quarter. It's actually really funny, we're friends with the bartender there (won't say who) and she said that they got an internal memo to batten down the hatches, they had 900 Brazilians checking in. We never experienced any problems with them. Idk if we just didn't follow the same time schedule as them or what, but we never even saw or heard them.

 

[buffettgirl]

I was there first week of June and saw none. July 09 they were in full force but MUCH more well behaved than we had experienced in the past. In years past we saw all sorts of crazy behavior (wet t-shirt shedding...was probably the worst) but in July 09 our entire family really thought that Disney must have laid down the law. In June this year though we noticed TONS more CM's from Brazil than ever before and I'm not sure if that is part of Disney's solution.

And like someone else said Brazilians love to talk, so it's fun to strike up conversations, and mostly they are simply people who like to have fun and sing and dance their way through most everything. Really, it's Disney. I wish 99% of the other people I run into in WDW have the same enthusiasm for being on vacation. And frankly, they're all good looking, one after the other of perfect looking people. I keep hoping that if I talk to them enough I'll learn that secret.

Anyway- years past, big issue. now, not as much.

 

[Andtototoo]

My coworker had horrible experiences with them on her honeymoon last year, including an incident where she was pushed.

I haven't had anything that extreme, but I have to say that their behavior has made me never want to visit Brazil.

 

[m-tinkerbelle]

These groups travel year round lately, but you have 100% chance to hit one from mid June-Mid august (July being the hell on earth). Also from Mid Nov-Mid February (December (after the 15th and January being the peak)

Also the week that hold Oct 12 will have a significant improve in the amount of brazilian groups.

All those periods above are school out periods.

I´ll be in the World from Dec, 10- Dec 17 2011 and I´ll let you know how it was...

Hint: Most groups follow a schedule so it´s a great idea ask the group guide (one with the flag and talk-about radios) about their plans for the day (and even for the week... Most brazilians love to chat and I think they will share this info with pleasure.

Also If you feel a group is behaving in such a way that is inappropriate or even disturbing you (or your family), please talk to the tour guide. He/She should be able to handle the situation quiclky and let him/she know that you ARE going to complain with a WDW CM if nothing is done.

My 2 cents as brazilian is: they should behave or should be kicked out. PERIOD.






Oh and BTW... Most of brazilian are nice, educated and easy going people
But teens...

Thanks for your reply! Also thanks for the others who answered my questions as well.
I sort of know the South American teen tour groups because I'm originally from Argentina (I live in Spain though). I went to WDW in 1996 in one of these groups myself, but we were a very small group (approx. 18 kids with 2 chaperones). We were assigned free time every day to enjoy the parks ourselves but I preferred to be at the parks by myself alone so I stayed away from my own group . My group was quite quiet and well-behaved but we liked chatting (and we're loud when we're happy or having a good time just as brazilians) and if we felt like it, we would sing a song (not too loud) to make queing less boring. Of course we would have never thought that was considered an impolite thing in the U.S. no travel book tells you that singing in public can be rude to others . But, if we inconvenienced anyone nobody let us know about it.

As I said I was more worried about Pop Warner week. I was choosing first week of December because summer holidays for southamerican kids don't usually start until the second week of December so I was trying to stay away from the tour groups as well... but now I see that Pop Warner is the first week of December so I'm kind of bummed. Also now I see that these "quinceañeras groups" stay at the moderate resorts as well?! Back in 1996 they would only go to the value resorts ...

Even when I was trying to avoid them I said that I could stand the tour groups because if I need to I can scold the kids in their own language XD so I'm not that worried about them. Still, we were hoping to choose a nice quiet hotel and the moderate ones aren't exactly cheap ;(. But, if Pop Warner isn't THAT bad then I'm relieved.

I'm with you, tour group kids should behave or they should be kicked out. Never be afraid to talk to the kids who are misbehaving. They might not understand what you say but they will definitely "get" the idea that they're being scolded for bad behaviour. Also, speak to their groups leaders and make sure you leave a complaint at Guest Services or at your hotel of choice if they disturb you in any way.

If they're doing something out of place or disturbing to you let them know. They might even try to start a conversation with you and start some cultural exchange (or at least they'll stop doing whatever they were doing)

Also, if you get the website or the travel agency they're from you can always send them a complaint. the travel agency will care very little but, if the experience with these tours is being improved in any way then Disney (or these travel agencies) has to be doing something right .

Let's hope the experience for everyone keeps improving more and more over the years. Seeing that they get a super greeter sounds like a very good idea!



Have a nice week everyone!

 

[m-tinkerbelle]

I was there first week of June and saw none. July 09 they were in full force but MUCH more well behaved than we had experienced in the past. In years past we saw all sorts of crazy behavior (wet t-shirt shedding...was probably the worst) but in July 09 our entire family really thought that Disney must have laid down the law. In June this year though we noticed TONS more CM's from Brazil than ever before and I'm not sure if that is part of Disney's solution.

And like someone else said Brazilians love to talk, so it's fun to strike up conversations, and mostly they are simply people who like to have fun and sing and dance their way through most everything. Really, it's Disney. I wish 99% of the other people I run into in WDW have the same enthusiasm for being on vacation. And frankly, they're all good looking, one after the other of perfect looking people. I keep hoping that if I talk to them enough I'll learn that secret.

Anyway- years past, big issue. now, not as much.

The CMs might be part of the International College Program

And the rest goes for everyone reading my post

I'm not from Brazil but I have to say that singing, dancing and talking loud is not a sign of being exactly happy. But they like doing it, and it's just fine. Still, I sort of envy them because it seems to be like the natural "brazilian" way of behaving in many situations in public. I wish I could see life as bright and fun as to make me want to sing and dance wherever I go
We liked doing that when we were at WDW and didn't even know that could be rude to the locals.

Still, even when it's Disney it's YOUR country. If something goes against the local way of doing things. and of course, good manners... then it has to be punished

I'm kidding but I hope you get the point

And I have to say Brazil is an awesome place to go on vacation, it's full of pure paradisiac places, beaches and incredible people. Don't judge all brazilians because of what you see in teens at WDW.

And remember, there are brazilians reading this forum as well (and members from other parts of South America and the rest of the world). Be nice to everyone