TiggerBouncy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2013
- Messages
- 2,885
Just recently got back. One of the unexpected consequences of COVID that I had not thought about, but makes perfect sense when explained.
in "normal" times, Disney makes a big deal about the staff in each area of EPCOT and also in places like Animal Kingdom and Kidani are staffed by people from that area / country.
I was a little surprised when in Kidani I was talking to a CM about the animals and noticed she was from the US. I usually love asking questions about their native land so it was immediately obvious to me. I did not think anything about it at the time, but later when we were in Le Cellier for Dinner, I did not get the usual spiel about what part of Canada we were in. It was not a part I had eaten in before and usually they tell us something about it. I also noticed the waiter was not from Canada. I asked, but he was not familiar with the area or what is significant about it.
He explained to me (quite reasonably so) that because of international travel restrictions, they can not have actual people from the countries in most cases. He said that since the first time since the park opened in 1982, they have it staffed right now mostly by Americans and mostly people who do not know about and can not be ambassadors to the area and culture.
This again makes TOTAL sense to me. I just didn't think about it at the time.
So if it's your first time going (or even your 1000's), understand that this is a little bit of a degraded experience from what you would normally receive and it's not really captured in the open / Closed lists. Please give the CM's in these areas a little extra leeway as they are really out of their element, but doing the best they can under the circumstances.
in "normal" times, Disney makes a big deal about the staff in each area of EPCOT and also in places like Animal Kingdom and Kidani are staffed by people from that area / country.
I was a little surprised when in Kidani I was talking to a CM about the animals and noticed she was from the US. I usually love asking questions about their native land so it was immediately obvious to me. I did not think anything about it at the time, but later when we were in Le Cellier for Dinner, I did not get the usual spiel about what part of Canada we were in. It was not a part I had eaten in before and usually they tell us something about it. I also noticed the waiter was not from Canada. I asked, but he was not familiar with the area or what is significant about it.
He explained to me (quite reasonably so) that because of international travel restrictions, they can not have actual people from the countries in most cases. He said that since the first time since the park opened in 1982, they have it staffed right now mostly by Americans and mostly people who do not know about and can not be ambassadors to the area and culture.
This again makes TOTAL sense to me. I just didn't think about it at the time.
So if it's your first time going (or even your 1000's), understand that this is a little bit of a degraded experience from what you would normally receive and it's not really captured in the open / Closed lists. Please give the CM's in these areas a little extra leeway as they are really out of their element, but doing the best they can under the circumstances.
