Cast Members Going Downhill

[Timmy Boy]

Ok, so I tried posting this in the Trip Reports, but I didn't see a "New Thread" button, so I posted it here.

I'm a big Disney fan. I believe Disney has set the standard for what theme parks nowadays are. I work part time at Universal, and I'm still seasonal with Disney. I attend the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, so I know what is good and what is bad when working in theme parks.

My friends and I went to Magic Kingdom for a little bit (there were 5 of us) just from 6pm to 9 (closing).

Everything was good til we got to Big Thunder, and the hostess at the train was literally yelling at the wheelchair guests on the other side to stand clear of the yellow line. There was no train in the station, but the Cast Member on that side of the plaform should have politely informed them to please roll back a few. The lady who wa syelling then walked past me and mutted "damn" as she walked by. Then when the train pulled up, she asked how many they had, and they said 5, and shes like "you're in the first 2 rows". These folks were pretty big, and they were crammed in there. I dunno, it just felt like she was annoyed that they were there. I mean, yea, after a hard day of work, you do sometimes get frustrated, but you can't let the guests see that side of you.

Exiting we went to Mansion, and a girl on a food cart in front of Splash has her phone out and was texting. HUGE no no in the theme park business. We went to Country Bears and the host inside was leaning over doing counts for the show and we asked him how long til the next show, and he didn't look up and said "look outside to the left" so we did, and it said 16 minutes. So we went and got ice cream, ate it, and came back, and he was out at Greeter, leaning on the wall, foot up against the wall, arms crossed. Not inviting, whatsoever.

Went to Mansion, the host in the stretch room did not even speil at all. No "drag your bodies to the dead center of the room." He just let the door slide shut and stood there. The audio cut out a lot too on that attraction. The entire Hitch Hiking Ghosts had no audio at all, as well as the library scene. I know it's going down, thankfully.

Went to TTA, audio cut out on that as well. No "Skyview Hovercraft 1" part.

Please don;t hate me for posting this. I just thought I'd let you all know. You all can say all the bad things you've seen at Universal to get back at me, if you want.

 

[Maria311]

No bad flames from me. I totally agree! It's getting bad.
They are sacrificing the original dream for $$$$$$$$$$$.
We live nearby so we go a lot. 4 cruises, many many wdw visits etc.
We have a trip planned for a week 5/27 but I think that's it for a while.
"It's a Small World After All" and I think it's time my familiy sees it.
I hope they are listening. Oh, by the way...I think you might be in for it on these boards!

 

[nbodyhome]

Not all cast members are great. I wish they'd pay the cast a little more money, I think they'd have a larger pool to hire from (Disney cannot be choosy anymore). That said, there are still a LOT Of wonderful cast.

I've never had as many issues with cast (like seeing any of them texting, etc.)

 

[Timmy Boy]

Why would I be in for it? I'm not lying. I promise I saw those things. If the Disney folks say "no, that's impossible. It's Disney. That never happens." Then well, time to open your eyes. I've been both guest and cast.

 

[agentpleakley]

No flames from me either. We have never had a bad experience at Disney with CMs (well -take that bad -- one extremely rude server at Marrakesh)...but that's not to say it doesn't happen --

 

[traviesojmt]

I hope that you do not get flamed for your post. Everyone is entitled to their own experiences. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I would probably assume that you are more inclined to notice CM mistakes due to your job. I am sure that we have encountered CMs that were not doing things the way that they should, but I have to say that I am hard pressed to remember any of them. Truth be told, I am happy to say that I have rarely encountered a CM that was rude or unprofessional. In all our trips to Disney, our experience have been opposite of yours. For the most part, I have found the CMs to be helpful and friendly. I will say that since I am not in a theme park service industry, I am also not looking too closely at how they are doing their job either.

 

[MouseDaddy]

After getting permission to ride in the front of the monorail and moving up to the front entry as instructed, a CM with an attitude told us to get back. When we said that we had asked the CMs that were running the monorail entry and they instructed us to go there, she informed us “Well you didn’t ask me. I don’t know you!”. Nice.

Disney World is the largest single site employer in the US. They have great results a majority of the time, but there are bad eggs in every labor pool and Disney is not immune. Also, Disney has had its share of union and labor disputes lately.

 

[alloyd1170]

Ive found the younger cms (college age) are far worse than the retired cms. I was getting the photopass cd and the girl never acknowledged me with a friendly hello. She also didnt tell me that I could preview our photos (which I inisisted on doing). Instead she was more interested in talking with another college aged cm about someone who had done something. Then at the Epcot pin station, one girl was very helpful while the other one was chatting with her off duty cm friend. She never acknowledged me either-just rang me up, took my card, and bagged my stuff. Then there was the young cm who checked us in to Ft Wilderness. She failed to tell me where my campsite was, give me a map, or inform us about the dining plan. She gave me the wrong pamphlet and said all the info was in it. WRONG!! And instead of answering a simple question that she shouldve known (other front desk cms have in the past) she sent me over to the conceirge line, where that cm told me the other girl shouldve known that.

On the other hand, I had a wonderful conversation with a retired cm who drove a bus in Ft Wilderness. Wish that bus ride had been longer. Had another nice chat with the boat captain, and many more (wait staff, etc) who were older. I was asked to do a survey, and I did mention the poor service and the good cms by name.

alison

 

[holcomb-mania]

The entire Hitch Hiking Ghosts had no audio at all...

IIRC, those ain't really CMs.

 

[Feralpeg]

There are bad CMs. Luckily, there are more good than bad. I saw a CM texting at the Contemporary on Sunday. He was working the monorail. He'd look up from his phone long enough to open the gate when the monorail arrived. The CM at the Grand Floridian monorail station was wonderful! It's true in any business. A certain number of employees will be less than stellar, but most will be very good.

 

[terribm]

To OP, I thank you for your observations. I too have run into less than stellar service from CMs at WDW. It is soooo disappointing for so many reasons. Everyone has certain expectations when visiting Disney. Please, please, please share your concerns with Disney. They need to hear it. I know they can't control 100% of what is happening all the time but we need to keep reminding them that we the customer see it and we don't like it.

 

[LilGMom]

Luckily we have encountered less than a handful of less than "Disney-ish" CM's in all of the trips we've taken. I know that there is no way that I could be a CM because of the stupid comments, actions and unwanted verbal abuse they probably receive all the time from guests who feel entitled to do as they wish. Hopefully you won't run into that they next time you are at WDW.

Hopefully you won't get flamed because the good and the bad need to be put out there for all to see.

 

[LadyDulcinea1]

I agree, there's always one, and I think we tend to notice them more at Disney because we don't expect it from them

I would definitely express my concerns with the Disney, maybe if more people did that, instead of just complaining later something would be done to correct it

That being said, the VAST majority of the CMs I've encounted over the years have been very helpful and friendly

 

[missypie]

On the way to the MK one morning, we were pretty much the only ones on the bus and DH chatted up the driver, who was an older man. The guy was pretty bitter when comparing now to how it used to be. He said folks used to work full time at WDW, get benefits, advance, stay there and consider it a carreer. The guy said now Disney's priority is to get a bunch of low paid workers.

 

[perdidochas]

Everything was good til we got to Big Thunder, and the hostess at the train was literally yelling at the wheelchair guests on the other side to stand clear of the yellow line. There was no train in the station, but the Cast Member on that side of the plaform should have politely informed them to please roll back a few. The lady who wa syelling then walked past me and mutted "damn" as she walked by. Then when the train pulled up, she asked how many they had, and they said 5, and shes like "you're in the first 2 rows". These folks were pretty big, and they were crammed in there. I dunno, it just felt like she was annoyed that they were there. I mean, yea, after a hard day of work, you do sometimes get frustrated, but you can't let the guests see that side of you.

On a March trip, I found the BTMRR cast members to be grumpy, too (but then again, it was 1130 pm Saturday night.....)

Exiting we went to Mansion, and a girl on a food cart in front of Splash has her phone out and was texting. HUGE no no in the theme park business. We went to Country Bears and the host inside was leaning over doing counts for the show and we asked him how long til the next show, and he didn't look up and said "look outside to the left" so we did, and it said 16 minutes. So we went and got ice cream, ate it, and came back, and he was out at Greeter, leaning on the wall, foot up against the wall, arms crossed. Not inviting, whatsoever.

I didn't see that.

Went to Mansion, the host in the stretch room did not even speil at all. No "drag your bodies to the dead center of the room." He just let the door slide shut and stood there. The audio cut out a lot too on that attraction. The entire Hitch Hiking Ghosts had no audio at all, as well as the library scene. I know it's going down, thankfully.

We went to the Mansion on two different times during our MK day. We got the spiel, etc. (and a little different both times).

The Mansion itself does need work, but it is about to undergo major refurbishment.

Went to TTA, audio cut out on that as well. No "Skyview Hovercraft 1" part.

TTA needs refurbishment. It broke down on my ride of it.

 

[KelleyGirl]

I have to join in on this one since we just returned from WDW on Sunday and we were having this same discussion!

We always expected less than perfect service at US, but not WDW.

Some examples we saw:
1. Unable to find anyone in the MK Camera center that could actually answer a digital camera question for me. EPCOT Camera center people VERY helpful.

2. 2 CMs at the Laugh Factory complaining about having to move the strollers. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't know why people ignore the stroller parking and park wherever they please, but I don't want to hear a loud CM saying to her coworker "I'm going to start charging $5 bucks a stroller for parking". Think it, don't say it.

3. CM at a food court, "We don't have any salad left (at 11:30 am) and then while waiting on the same customer, "We have salad now". Personally, I would have preferred a statement like "We're out of salad at the moment, if you would like to wait we will have some shortly."

4. CM at World of Disney when I said I wanted to ship "OK, whatever you say. I don't know how to do that, but whatever you say." I swear, 30 minutes later I was still standing there as they voided my entire purchase and we're starting over with the help of her very knowledgable manager, but at my expense! He said to me "This is a good learning experience for her." Maybe if I wasn't on the way to the airport I wouldn't have been so tense about this, but can't she learn on Disney's time and not mine???

I know this sounds really picky. It didn't ruin my trip at all, it was just noticable how the quality of the staff is just not the same as it used to be. All my family keeps saying is that we can't believe that the CM staff is so much like Universal's now!

 

[k5thbeatle]

No bad flames from me. I totally agree! It's getting bad.
They are sacrificing the original dream for $$$$$$$$$$$...

I agree too and submit this has been a (bad) trend for a few years now.

 

[holcomb-mania]

Maybe this'll help cut down on crowds.

 

[diddldonna]

On my two holidays i never came across and bad experiences with cast members but on the other hand a more experienced friend who has been going to disneyworld each year for 15 years or so said the standard of soe of the cast members have gone right down. He said once aopon a time all cast members had to know everything about disney, this included park info, characters, movies etc. if you had a question they would answer at the drop of a hat. He said now it didn't seem to be like that any more.

Remember though we get good and bad where ever we go, even disney has its fair share of tired and stressed out people or on the other hand just grumpy people.

Donna

 

[Hook's Girl]

As a cast member I know that I tend to be pickier than the average guest when I'm out in the park. There might be a few bad one's out there and I'm not making excuses for them. I wish every cast member cared about this place as much as I do. (I'm a college age CM who provides great guest service *gasp*) I would have to disagree about the quality of cast members going downhill. I had some friends last week visit and we went to all four theme parks.

We met a wonderful custodial host who overheard us talking about Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. He made sure that we knew when it was and a great place to watch. Or, since we'd seen it before he suggested going on a few attractions when the crowds would go down. He was going out of his way to make our vacation better!

There is the older man at Small World who always smiles and waves and everyone, brightening their day.

A photopass Cast Member on Main Street was extra helpful taking pictures. She didn't even take any photopass pictures, they were all on our personal cameras.

Not to mention all the wonderful attractions cast members who helped my permanently wheelchair bound brother!

I keep a list of great cast members whenever I'm in the park and always make sure to stop by Guest Relations to compliment them! Last time I was there, I heard many cast member compliments. Don't forget to mention a Cast Member who is doing a great job! They deserve it!