Brazilian tour groups??

[nebo]

Just back last week! Tour groups everywhere! The chanting was so very annoying in lines and during wishes they made A LOT of noise and I wanted to hit somebody because I couldnt hear a thing but the thing that really got under my skin and aggravated the stew out of me happened at The Crystal Palace.

The Tour groups literally took up the entire right side of the restaurant and half of the left side where we were seated. We had eaten salads, main courses and desserts and still did not see one character. A CM came to our table and told us it was the tour groups on the other side refusing to let the character move on. An hour and a half later (we were long done eating) when the characters start to move over to our side of the restaurant the tour groups actually get out of their seats and mob the characters. I have never seen anything like it. Finally several cast members moved my family and about 4 other families into the middle of the restaurant and we met the characters there. The whole time the poor CM's had to fend of the tour group people! It was insane and I was mad to say the least!

see now, I would be speaking with a manager or guest relations about a refund, or at least a partial refund. you are guaranteed characters at a character meal.. that's what you are paying for. It is disn'ey's responsibility to make sure ALL the guests get ime with the characters, even if security needs to be called. "hogging" the characters should NOT be allowed.

 

[Sammie]

If you had negative experience with any large group please email Disney and let them know.

 

[WheelCEO]

eye-candy

 

[jandm]

Are they there in Nov? We are looking at the week after Jersey week. Or what about Jan?

 

[mdsoccermom]

We just got back yesterday and there were tour groups EVERYWHERE! Every single teenager in Brazil was in Disney last week. We didn't have problems with them cutting in front of us in lines, only because we are very flexible and adjusted our rides and plans according to where we saw the groups. We found them to be very disrespectful while walking through the parks - pushing, shoving, walking right in front of the PhotoPass photographers, etc.

Incidentally, the biggest problems with cutting were with just random families.

 

[50surgeries2012]

I've gone every year in January with my family except for a time in April of 2011, and they've been there both in January, and April. They seem to stay at the value resorts like the All-Stars as I've seen them at All-Star Movies, and Music. When I stayed at Old Key West in April with my significant other, and a group of our friends. I didn't see them there. I don't know if anyone else has who has stayed there.

I'll be in Disney World on Wednesday, and staying at Old Key West again with my family, and some friends.

 

[RicJ]

I see this is an old thread ressurected and all that, but as a Brazilian myself it is rather embarassing to see this...

on the other hand, this is pretty much the reason why i would rather travel with a small group of friends or by myself... no tour groups for me, thanks!

I honestly hope this is not so bad anymore... it's quite awkward to have to pretend you are not from your own country while travelling just to save yourself some embarrassment........

 

[Kellykins1218]

I wish we had been lucky enough to be there with the "well behaved" groups. They were everywhere when we went in July of 2011. They were loud, rude, had several fights in the courtyard in front of our building at ASMu, and kicked a soccer ball into our room door THREE different times. Then there was the group leader that was making out with 2 different young girls in his charge next to the pool. If the Brazilian groups have a bad rap, they have earned it.

 

[Michigan]

6 months of the year we live 8 miles from Disney and have AP so we are there a lot. I have to say that I have been impressed at how well behaved the tour group teens have been this year. On the other hand the Pop Warner cheerleaders are still very rude and obnoxious!

 

[WEDWDW]

I see this is an old thread ressurected and all that, but as a Brazilian myself it is rather embarassing to see this...

on the other hand, this is pretty much the reason why i would rather travel with a small group of friends or by myself... no tour groups for me, thanks!

I honestly hope this is not so bad anymore... it's quite awkward to have to pretend you are not from your own country while travelling just to save yourself some embarrassment........

Don't worry-I don't think most Guests judge a whole Country by the behavior of some.

I am at WDW a lot of years in July and have learned to "coexist" with the South American Tour Groups(unfortunately for your Country most guests refer to ALL SATGs as Brazilian Tour Groups) for the most part.

Many of them are actually very nice young people.

The one thing that "disturbs" me is when a Brazilian Tour Group and an Argentinian Tour Group see each other and begin pointing and saying unkind things in Portuguese and Spanish to each other!

I am also at WDW most every December when Disney hires about 1,000 Brazilian college students to work the Holiday Season.

These Brazilian CMS are always SO nice and courteous-they are absolutely AWESOME CMs!

So,when I think of Brazil,I don't think of the few that misbehave in the BTGs,but I thuink of the wonderful December CMs from your Country!

 

[RicJ]

Don't worry-I don't think most Guests judge a whole Country by the behavior of some.

I am at WDW a lot of years in July and have learned to "coexist" with the South American Tour Groups(unfortunately for your Country most guests refer to ALL SATGs as Brazilian Tour Groups) for the most part.

Many of them are actually very nice young people.

The one thing that "disturbs" me is when a Brazilian Tour Group and an Argentinian Tour Group see each other and begin pointing and saying unkind things in Portuguese and Spanish to each other!

I am also at WDW most every December when Disney hires about 1,000 Brazilian college students to work the Holiday Season.

These Brazilian CMS are always SO nice and courteous-they are absolutely AWESOME CMs!

So,when I think of Brazil,I don't think of the few that misbehave in the BTGs,but I thuink of the wonderful December CMs from your Country!

Well that's very kind of you to say, truly appreciate it.

For me is one of those things... i'm trying to save money while staying onsite so i'm on a value resort. If i knew a group of 50 or more Brazilians were in a tour group in the same Resort i was picking... you would think i would pick that one and mingle, make friends and enjoy right?

Nop, i would probably shell out the extra 400-600 to stay somewhere else.

might sound mean, but trust me... large tour groups can be very annoying here just as they can be at WDW.

I would imagine that any large youth group can be a bit like that... but pretty much all the stuff you guys said in this thread had me going ''yeah i can see that...'' and ''yep... sounds about right...'' so, yeah... rep is earned.

 

[d-r]

I had this really funny (to me) conversation with the nicest lady from San Paulo on the bus over MLK weekend.

She and her family had came to wdw last year at this time of year. They are on summer break. They are staying a month, 2 weeks at wdw and 2 weeks at universal.

She said "We were so surprised to see so many Americans in the park yesterday, last year it was just us Brazillians. So we looked it up on the internet and found out that Monday is a national holiday. Do you think it will be less crowded after that?"

I said it would go down. I asked her if she knew how MLK was and she didn't. Not that I know about Brazillian civil rights leaders. I kept joking with her boys to talk their parents into renting a car and driving north until they saw snow. A really sweet family. But it was so interesting to hear their different view of the experience.

 

[BrianL]

I see this is an old thread ressurected and all that, but as a Brazilian myself it is rather embarassing to see this...

on the other hand, this is pretty much the reason why i would rather travel with a small group of friends or by myself... no tour groups for me, thanks!

I honestly hope this is not so bad anymore... it's quite awkward to have to pretend you are not from your own country while travelling just to save yourself some embarrassment........

Well, Americans aren't always looked kindly upon in other countries either, but you can't judge everyone by their country of origin.

Honestly, I think big tour groups succumb to mob mentality and are not always misbehaved and rude. They just want to have fun too, and in a big group sometimes consideration of others outside that group is forgotten. It happens with all ages and countries of origin too. Everyone should think just a little bit more about those around them.

 

[chimilady]

They are there now. In full force. Gosh, they drive me bonkers. and they seem to follow Josh's recommendations.

 

[AliceandAriel]

I see this is an old thread ressurected and all that, but as a Brazilian myself it is rather embarassing to see this... on the other hand, this is pretty much the reason why i would rather travel with a small group of friends or by myself... no tour groups for me, thanks! I honestly hope this is not so bad anymore... it's quite awkward to have to pretend you are not from your own country while travelling just to save yourself some embarrassment........

Ahhhh but that's just it. You can't judge a person but their country of origin!

The only time I get upset at people, be it home or WDW, is when they act self-entitled and rude and unapologetic. That's it. Brazilian, American, Italian, you name it, I don't care. I've met fantastic and kind people from all over the world- I've also met plenty of rude and inconsiderate types. You have to go by person-to-person.

And honestly, I think a lot of issues with tour groups is the mob mentality that occurs. Some people think it's just an excuse, but it isn't. You can very easily get sucked into the chain behavior when participating in a group. It doesn't excuse it, but helps understand why it's happening at all.

 

[LucyBC80]

Well that's very kind of you to say, truly appreciate it.

For me is one of those things... i'm trying to save money while staying onsite so i'm on a value resort. If i knew a group of 50 or more Brazilians were in a tour group in the same Resort i was picking... you would think i would pick that one and mingle, make friends and enjoy right?

Nop, i would probably shell out the extra 400-600 to stay somewhere else.

might sound mean, but trust me... large tour groups can be very annoying here just as they can be at WDW.

I would imagine that any large youth group can be a bit like that... but pretty much all the stuff you guys said in this thread had me going ''yeah i can see that...'' and ''yep... sounds about right...'' so, yeah... rep is earned.

Isn't that sadly right? I try my hardest to distance myself from the groups, even telling my mom to not speak while we pass them so people won't think we're with the group.

We had good luck staying at POFQ. We saw many Brazilian families there but not one group and all families had really well behaved children. I'd never stay at a value for a few reasons, but one of them is indeed my fear of tour groups.

I had this really funny (to me) conversation with the nicest lady from San Paulo on the bus over MLK weekend.

She and her family had came to wdw last year at this time of year. They are on summer break. They are staying a month, 2 weeks at wdw and 2 weeks at universal.

She said "We were so surprised to see so many Americans in the park yesterday, last year it was just us Brazillians. So we looked it up on the internet and found out that Monday is a national holiday. Do you think it will be less crowded after that?"

I said it would go down. I asked her if she knew how MLK was and she didn't. Not that I know about Brazillian civil rights leaders. I kept joking with her boys to talk their parents into renting a car and driving north until they saw snow. A really sweet family. But it was so interesting to hear their different view of the experience.

Another Brazilian here and mostly I had no idea Marthin Luther King had a national holiday dedicated to him before I started to research the best dates to go to WDW! I knew of him and his ideals, but nothing more.

We had amazing conversations with other American families last year, we went in February during Mardi Grass and it was like NOLA central at WDW, lots of amazingly sweet Louisiana families. They all commented on how different it was to find a normal Brazilian family not travelling in a huge group.

We're also going close to a month to Orlando next November, we did 21 days last year and 25 this time around. We're staying 3 days at Washington, DC then moving to Orlando and doing 11 days at Royal Pacific and 12 days at WDW. It's cheaper to stay a month than to do several smaller trips since airfare is pretty expensive, even taking advantage of the random promotion we get.

 

[yogamom]

We just came home from WDW and Sea World and I can assure you the groups are there in full force. We visited all 4 parks at WDW and SW and they are everywhere. We had some luck avoiding them at SW, but there was no escaping the groups at Disney. My only issue with the groups is how rude some of them can be, specifically the lengths they will go to to catch up with other members of the group. My family felt invisible because of the continued disregard for our personal space. We still had a good time, but it would have been better without the groups!

I have to say, I always expect a diverse crowd at the parks, but as an English speaking American I am pretty sure I was a minority during this trip!

 

[Cyrano]

Closing old resurrected thread