Concerned about tour groups

[MDer2FL]

Over the past few days I've been reading about large tour groups, primarily of S. American teenagers, that have caused some disruption & problems in the parks, according to some Disney visitors. I started looking into this because I got an earful from a neighbor (who is a DVC member) when she found out we're going for 4th of July week. We've made two prior trips to WDW and I don't recall ever seeing groups like this (our last trip was in June 2010). Is this a newer phenomenon? Has it been an issue at Universal too? Would appreciate your insights, thanks.

 

[RMulieri]

Its not new and yes there are ALOT of them.Both in July and January and at both Universal and WDW and even Seaworld .Last Jan we were amazed at how many were in the parks.The good news is they don't stay onsite at Universal so by staying onsite and getting the resort guests express pass you can avoid them in the lines.

 

[Bluer101]

We stay each year onsite for 9 days over 4th of July week. Yes there are tons of tour groups mainly from Brazil and Argentina. With express you should have no problem. But if they get to the front at the same time as you then you are in trouble. They are very loud and rude. They are normally chanting. If you ride like Hulk where they merge the express line with the regular line you can get put right in the middle. We try to walk away from whatever ride they are camped out at.

I wish someone would teach them some respect. If you are in line with then they bunch up real tight and keep pushing.

 

[Metro West]

We stay each year onsite for 9 days over 4th of July week. Yes there are tons of tour groups mainly from Brazil and Argentina. With express you should have no problem. But if they get to the front at the same time as you then you are in trouble. They are very loud and rude. They are normally chanting. If you ride like Hulk where they merge the express line with the regular line you can get put right in the middle. We try to walk away from whatever ride they are camped out at.

I wish someone would teach them some respect. If you are in line with then they bunch up real tight and keep pushing.

They can certainly be a pain but they bring in a lot of cash into the Orlando area and I can't see any of the parks management trying to sway them from coming. It's just an unfortunate thing we all have to deal with now.

 

[mjohnson96]

Worst I ever saw was not at the parks but at the airport this past weekend. Leaving for the conference a group of 90 from China decided to push past everyone waiting for security. Security did not do a dang thing but made for some pretty mad people waiting to go through the check point.

At the parks, we have gone many times in July and just head the opposite direction from any of the tour groups

 

[goofyredraider]

Yep, we won't go in July again because of it. They were bad at Disney, but downright RUDE and line-cutting in IofA when we were there in July of 2011. Never, ever again. LOL

 

[MDer2FL]

Not getting a warm fuzzy feeling here, folks...

Are we talking real in-your-face, "violent" kind of stuff??? We'll have 3 little girls with us. I don't want to have to spend the kind of money we're spending (esp. on-site at UO) only to feel we have to "run away" at the parks! And trust me, I'm not the type of mama who will run away quietly! Should I be looking into a date change???

 

[Bluer101]

They can certainly be a pain but they bring in a lot of cash into the Orlando area and I can't see any of the parks management trying to sway them from coming. It's just an unfortunate thing we all have to deal with now.

I glad they are here spending money and expect management not to do anything. But you would thing their tour guide supervisors would tame them down to human being status. I cannot believe this is how they act in their own environment.

 

[Bluer101]

Not getting a warm fuzzy feeling here, folks...

Are we talking real in-your-face, "violent" kind of stuff??? We'll have 3 little girls with us. I don't want to have to spend the kind of money we're spending (esp. on-site at UO) only to feel we have to "run away" at the parks! And trust me, I'm not the type of mama who will run away quietly! Should I be looking into a date change???

It is not that bad or we would not go each year. Just be prepared for some rude people. They are not in your face violent. They normally play the no English card and don't understand. You should see the TM's when putting them in rows on the coasters. They don't listen and go where ever they want. After a few times it gets comical.

We ran into one issue last summer on hulk. Most of the group was ahead of us when about 10 others were trying to cut all the way up to the rest of the group. Well the guy in front of me and myself blocked the line and they got pissed. They kept yelling up above to rest of the group that we won't let them by. We told them they can wait for you. After a few minutes the group ahead waited. When we past them I'm sure they were saying nice things to us in their language.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

Not getting a warm fuzzy feeling here, folks...

Are we talking real in-your-face, "violent" kind of stuff??? We'll have 3 little girls with us. I don't want to have to spend the kind of money we're spending (esp. on-site at UO) only to feel we have to "run away" at the parks! And trust me, I'm not the type of mama who will run away quietly! Should I be looking into a date change???

They're not dangerous, they're just rude/pushy/loud. It's a different culture and they seem to not know what personal space is. Although, I'd imagine large groups of teens from any country with limited adult supervision would get pretty unruly too.

If you see a mountain of backpacks in front of a ride, skip it!

 

[macraven]

i haven't run into any tour groups at the darkside but have at the motherland.


last year i was on Soaring/motherland, and was there solo........


i was the extra on that ride with the tour group.

it was horrible!
just being in the line standing on my number before entering for the ride, drove me nuts.


and that was my last experience with being around a tour group.

when i would see the flag, hear the chanting, i would turn and go in the opposite direction.

 

[Sprockie]

My husband got in a shouting match with one father from a South American tour group last year at Disney. Two people got in line, then 10 or 12 others decided to join them in line ahead of us. I am glad it didn't get out of hand, but they were very rude, but called us rude (and many other names) for not letting them in line. He was a cocky little man and my husband is a giant. The staff did nothing, which is wrong IMO. I hope it's better controlled at Universal. This time we'll be visiting in February, not January, so that may make a difference.

 

[RMulieri]

They are not violent..Just loud and pushy.If youare staying onsite you are FINE..They do not stay onsite and generally do not have express pass so you can avoid them on the lines.We just used our express pass and made sure to walk in the other direction when we could..Florida will NEVER tell them they can't come.They bring in millions in Revenue.

 

[KorbensMomma]

I was there in January at US/IOA there were lots of groups. They seemed pretty well behaved at Us/IOA there were worse behaved at WDW.
We only had one instance were they started chanting in a ride which was JPRA. My favorite.

 

[DryCreek]

They're not dangerous, they're just rude/pushy/loud. It's a different culture and they seem to not know what personal space is. Although, I'd imagine large groups of teens from any country with limited adult supervision would get pretty unruly too.

If you see a mountain of backpacks in front of a ride, skip it!

It's not so much as not respecting personal space as it has to do with their "caste". Remember, these are the offspring of the very upper class of their country, and they are a spoiled bunch - very used to being catered to. An international trip to a well known destination is so far out of the reach of the common person in their home country that they may never set foot in a destination we take for granted (i.e. WDW, DL, USO/IOA, Seaworld, etc.).

We usually run into the large, chanting teen crowds at WDW when we travel in February (their summer - Southern Hemisphere). We were standing behind a group that wouldn't be still or be quiet while attempting to watch IllumiNations. My wife said to me "what are they chanting? You speak Spanish (native Texan)". I laughed and told her "honey, they speak Portuguese, they're from Brasil, and aren't smart enough to speak Spanish". That's when I learned that they really do have a pretty good amount of English comprehension.

 

[RMulieri]

It's not so much as not respecting personal space as it has to do with their "caste". Remember, these are the offspring of the very upper class of their country, and they are a spoiled bunch - very used to being catered to. An international trip to a well known destination is so far out of the reach of the common person in their home country that they may never set foot in a destination we take for granted (i.e. WDW, DL, USO/IOA, Seaworld, etc.).

We usually run into the large, chanting teen crowds at WDW when we travel in February (their summer - Southern Hemisphere). We were standing behind a group that wouldn't be still or be quiet while attempting to watch IllumiNations. My wife said to me "what are they chanting? You speak Spanish (native Texan)". I laughed and told her "honey, they speak Portuguese, they're from Brasil, and aren't smart enough to speak Spanish". That's when I learned that they really do have a pretty good amount of English comprehension.

Which is why I learned some basic comments in Portuguese and Spanish for our trip last Jan.." No you may not cut in front of me" was the most useful. MANY of them speak perfectly good English but pull the " No english " card when they want to pretend they don't know what you are saying..I will say that my experience with them at Uni/IOA was not that bad.Uni Tms are far more willing to correct them and call them on their bad behavior than Disney is.I witnessed a few instances where the guide/chaperone tried to cut 50 of them up the line in front of people waiting and the TMS turned them around and escorted them to the back of the line.I also saw a group of them chucked off the line for chanting, yelling and not paying attention to what the loading Tms were saying.

 

[macraven]

not too long ago i read a thread on the motherland side about tour groups.

the poster talked about the issues of tg moving ahead of a line ride to 'catch up with the others.'
not one person cutting ahead, but about 20 doing this.

in that thread, someone said to the cutting ahead of the line tg teen, "you have a spider on your shoulder" to her.


apparently the girl understood english as she reacted to thinking there was a spider on her shoulder and shrieked and was flapping her hands on her shoulder.

my bet is the girl understood english.

 

[aubriee]

not too long ago i read a thread on the motherland side about tour groups.

the poster talked about the issues of tg moving ahead of a line ride to 'catch up with the others.'
not one person cutting ahead, but about 20 doing this.

in that thread, someone said to the cutting ahead of the line tg teen, "you have a spider on your shoulder" to her.


apparently the girl understood english as she reacted to thinking there was a spider on her shoulder and shrieked and was flapping her hands on her shoulder.

my bet is the girl understood english.

I used to have a young Brazillian couple as neighbors. The wife came from an upper class family. Once we got to talking about the bad rep that the Brazillian tour groups have in Orlando. She laughed and said she was ashamed to admit it, but she was one of those rotten teens a few years ago. She said the tour group leader won't dare say a word to any of them. His job is to make sure those kids have a good time, so the kids parents will refer other people to him. He encourages them to do whatever they want to do and they basically treat him almost like a slave. He would not do anything that even might cause them to complain about him to their parents. She said it is almost a right of passage to send your kid to WDW the year they turn 15 y/o (at least I think she said it was 15 y/o). Anyway, she admitted that she was one of the worst and purposely acted up, just to see how much of a pain she could be, to show out for her friends. She said they know the chanting, laying around on the sidewalks in big groups, line cutting, etc are wrong, but they do it for attention and to irritate the Americans. She also said that in her group, at least most of the kid spoke not only Portuguese, but were also fluent in English and Spanish, and some even German.

 

[Bluer101]

I used to have a young Brazillian couple as neighbors. The wife came from an upper class family. Once we got to talking about the bad rep that the Brazillian tour groups have in Orlando. She laughed and said she was ashamed to admit it, but she was one of those rotten teens a few years ago. She said the tour group leader won't dare say a word to any of them. His job is to make sure those kids have a good time, so the kids parents will refer other people to him. He encourages them to do whatever they want to do and they basically treat him almost like a slave. He would not do anything that even might cause them to complain about him to their parents. She said it is almost a right of passage to send your kid to WDW the year they turn 15 y/o (at least I think she said it was 15 y/o). Anyway, she admitted that she was one of the worst and purposely acted up, just to see how much of a pain she could be, to show out for her friends. She said they know the chanting, laying around on the sidewalks in big groups, line cutting, etc are wrong, but they do it for attention and to irritate the Americans. She also said that in her group, at least most of the kid spoke not only Portuguese, but were also fluent in English and Spanish, and some even German.

This makes me want to puke!!!

 

[kmc]

I used to have a young Brazillian couple as neighbors. The wife came from an upper class family. Once we got to talking about the bad rep that the Brazillian tour groups have in Orlando. She laughed and said she was ashamed to admit it, but she was one of those rotten teens a few years ago. She said the tour group leader won't dare say a word to any of them. His job is to make sure those kids have a good time, so the kids parents will refer other people to him. He encourages them to do whatever they want to do and they basically treat him almost like a slave. He would not do anything that even might cause them to complain about him to their parents. She said it is almost a right of passage to send your kid to WDW the year they turn 15 y/o (at least I think she said it was 15 y/o). Anyway, she admitted that she was one of the worst and purposely acted up, just to see how much of a pain she could be, to show out for her friends. She said they know the chanting, laying around on the sidewalks in big groups, line cutting, etc are wrong, but they do it for attention and to irritate the Americans. She also said that in her group, at least most of the kid spoke not only Portuguese, but were also fluent in English and Spanish, and some even German.

Wow, just wow I have had many run ins with these groups- so much so as to not travel at those times of the year anymore.
It's easier to avoid them at universal if your a resort guest as you have express, but at Disney it's a huge challenge of your patience just to stand in the same line.