Concerned about tour groups

[BrinkofSunshine]

I am here in WDW now and was told that the sidewalk was closed outside Fantasmic at 6:30pm because hundreds of students from the Brazilian tour groups were lined up already. The cast member told me to come back for the 10:30 show. I told him that with a 5 & 7 year old I would not be back.

To me the tour groups should be asked to attend the later show. They groups are all young teens who can handle the later time.

For the first come, first served crowd... There is no way to compete with 2.5 hours ahead. What's next, 3 hours?

It's unfortunate, but there's not much they can do about it (except maybe insist on not lining up so early?). If the tour groups want to wait that long before the show I guess they're free to. Nobody can be forced to go to a certain showing when everyone has paid the same price to get in.

 

[Bluer101]

It's unfortunate, but there's not much they can do about it (except maybe insist on not lining up so early?). If the tour groups want to wait that long before the show I guess they're free to. Nobody can be forced to go to a certain showing when everyone has paid the same price to get in.

I agree with you. There is a difference in being disruptive and rude from standing in line for a show or ride. They all paid just like everyone else there.

 

[truck1]

This past stay for the 9 days had a lot of tour groups again. But this year I'm proud to say that they seemed not as rude. Both DW and I commented on what we saw. The only thing that was still a problem was the laying all over the place right outside rides and the chanting in lines. I understand the excitement but chanting is a little much.

Believe of or not Disney as a whole is cracking down on tour groups to in general. ( i cant speak for USF though i would wager that there are now similar rules) There have too many instances if guests bring inconvienced for lack of a better term that Disney took notice. There are rule that tour groups have to abide by. Sitting at Fantasmic 1 night actually saw cms run over to several groups that tried to start a chant war with other groups and stopped it within seconds. Another thing I've noticed is that there doesn't seem to be as many groups in general as in years past. Working pt in a dive shop on I drive I was talking to one of our regulars and they mentioned that the recession is hitting Brazil and South America also which is playing a part in it.

 

[rowan555]

I think any time you have a large group of teenagers (or adults, really) traveling together, it can get ugly, and they can tend to "take over" an area. We went to Gatlinburg with our young kids for Christmas and New Years several years ago, and we happened to be staying at a resort right next to the convention center, where some big teen Christian convention was taking place. It ruined a good bit of our vacation. We did most activities on foot, and these kids were everywhere. Standing in groups blocking the sidewalk, pushing and shoving, and being all-around nuisances. My son actually got smacked in the face with a bible as one of the kids was goofing around, swinging his arms back and forth as we tried to get past him and his group.

Living in New Orleans, we've seen the same sort of thing when huge convention groups are in town. It always seems worse when it's youth groups of some kind, and nationality doesn't seem to make much difference.

 

[hydrotony]

This past stay for the 9 days had a lot of tour groups again. But this year I'm proud to say that they seemed not as rude. Both DW and I commented on what we saw. The only thing that was still a problem was the laying all over the place right outside rides and the chanting in lines. I understand the excitement but chanting is a little much.

I agree with this. I was at WDW July 7, 8 & 9 and TWICE we were in line (IIRC Space Mt. & RnRcoaster) and wound up in the middle of a S.A. tour group and the people ahead of us asked us to move forward so their group could join up. The blatant rudeness seemed to be less and I saw LOTS of groups over that time. At Epcot on the 9th, the walkway between Mexico and Canada pavilions was covered by sitting tour group people prior to IllumiNations. We (5 of us) found a spot one person row from the railing in the midst of a group and didn't have any last second pushing by the group to stand in front of us. The chanting occasionally happened but wasn't overly obnoxious but the mass sitting down anywhere they felt like was common.

During the 3 days we spent at Universal, I didn't run into any tour group problem. Must have gotten lucky.