Did Disney fire all it's bathroom attendants?

[JennaDeeDooDah]

Never seen any 'dirty' restrooms in Disney. However it is totally Disney's responsibility to keep them clean.

No matter how icky the customer's habits are the fact is that any business that has a bathroom should be monitoring it and cleaning it as necessary.

I don't know that having an attendant is cost effective and honestly I find the whole attendant thing creepy, but there should be janitorial services making rounds at least every hour or two.

Oh and just on a personal experience note. I work in a public library...men have way worse cleanliness standards than women...around here short straw gets to deal with the men's room in between the times our cleaning service is in. The one in the kids area with the diaper changing station....well sometimes we just put the out of order sign up there as the only way to make it usable again is a full on mopping/cleaning/deodorizing scrub down with hazmat suits. LOL Luckily the changing station in the lobby has better ventilation.

When I worked at DHS (MGM at the time), when we were assigned to rest rooms, we had to be at the restroom at least once an hour. There was a sign in sheet in the custodian closet by the restroom with a checklist of everything that might need to be done in the restroom (sweeping, changing paper towels and toilet paper, filling soap, changing trash and sanitary dispensers, etc.) and you check off everything that you did during that visit and the time that you were last there. Often during the busy times, this meant you had time to go from one restroom to the next with no stops in between to get the restrooms clean and inspected every hour. Now, I doubt that they changed the policy that they need to be checked every hour, so I'm guessing that the increased number of guests has really just made it so that once every hour isn't enough. Sounds more like they need to be checked once every half hour which would mean that Disney would need to increase their custodial staff by at least 25%. Probably more, though, because I'm guessing that the parks would be cleaner if they had more sweepers and people to do trash runs besides just more restroom workers.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Now, I doubt that they changed the policy that they need to be checked every hour, so I'm guessing that the increased number of guests has really just made it so that once every hour isn't enough. Sounds more like they need to be checked once every half hour which would mean that Disney would need to increase their custodial staff by at least 25%.

In your experience would a half hour be enough time to get everything done you needed to?

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

In your experience would a half hour be enough time to get everything done you needed to?

It would be enough for you to get one restroom taken care of with no real problem. The problem is, you are assigned multiple restrooms. For example, I worked at DHS in Area 4. That area started at the blue hat and extended down Commissary Lane (not into Streets of America, though), into Muppets Courtyard, and all the way back to Mama Melrose. It also included everything around Star Tours and Indiana Jones. Now, for sweepers, it was divided up into three sections, but restrooms were divided into 2 sections. The front section included the restroom at Superstar Television Theater near the exit of GMR (this restroom was called ABC when I was there), the restroom that looked like a shed near the exit of Indy (called Shed), and the restroom inside Backlot Express (backlot). The back section included the restroom shared by Sci Fi and SBC Commissary (called SciFi), the one in Muppets, Mama's restroom, and the small one upstairs in Pizza Planet that was rarely ever used.

Now, ABC was a popular restroom and required a lot of attention. Shed could also get a lot of traffic, especially when Indy let out. Because of this, we were encouraged to make sure we refilled everything, took out all of the trash, and had the place sparkling before Indy let out. It's really hard to clean up when there is a line out the door because you are waiting for people to get out of the restroom to check toilet paper levels, sanitary bags, and cleanliness of the stalls. It's also hard to check soap levels, clean the counters, and refill paper towels when there are lots of people at the sinks. So, obviously, it made sense to do a thorough cleaning prior to the big rush. ABC didn't offer the luxury of knowing when a big rush would come so you monitored it a bit more. Backlot was a restaurant bathroom and tended to stay cleaner than the others so it tended to get the least amount of attention of the front set restrooms. You could clean ABC completely within 30 minutes easily and the same for Shed. So, you would likely be able to do these two and still check each one every 30 minutes. That wouldn't be the case, though, if you added in Backlot.

On the back set, Muppets and Sci Fi always needed the most attention. Sci Fi was bad just because it is such a small restroom to be shared with the largest counter service restaurant in the park and one of the most popular table service restaurants. Muppets is a huge restroom and is very prominent at the exit of Star Tours and the entrance of Muppets and Streets of America. Plus, you could also enter this one from the Pizza Planet arcade downstairs. No one ever used Pizza Planet (upstairs) and Mama's stayed clean. So, again, you could do two of these checking in every 30 minutes, but that leaves 2 other restrooms that won't get attention.

During the extra busy times, they did have another restroom attendant who took over Backlot and Sci Fi and that really seemed to help. Unfortunately, when I was there, this person, who was called a "mid", was only there for a few hours in the afternoon and was often a high school student who wasn't the most reliable. They need to get reliable workers and go to having more people who are able to work on the restrooms. If they want them to stay clean with the added guests, they will have to be checked more often than once an hour. In order for that to happen, they custodians need a smaller area which means more employees are required.

 

[lugnut33]

Never seen any 'dirty' restrooms in Disney. However it is totally Disney's responsibility to keep them clean.

No matter how icky the customer's habits are the fact is that any business that has a bathroom should be monitoring it and cleaning it as necessary.

I don't know that having an attendant is cost effective and honestly I find the whole attendant thing creepy, but there should be janitorial services making rounds at least every hour or two.

Oh and just on a personal experience note. I work in a public library...men have way worse cleanliness standards than women...around here short straw gets to deal with the men's room in between the times our cleaning service is in. The one in the kids area with the diaper changing station....well sometimes we just put the out of order sign up there as the only way to make it usable again is a full on mopping/cleaning/deodorizing scrub down with hazmat suits. LOL Luckily the changing station in the lobby has better ventilation.

I worked at a gas station through high school and the women's restroom was always way worse than the men's. That was just my observation.

 

[MrKnight]

You should most definetly express your concerns, there are two ways to do this:

1) If you are still at WDW you can place a complaint at Guest Relations in each park, they may or may not pass this on to management though as they deal with thousands of complaints daily and most guests just want something in return.

2) If you already left WDW, you can place a formal complaint by sending a letter or email to the following addresses, this goes to WDW corporate offices and the chances of your concerns being communicated to upper management are much higher:

Walt Disney World Guest Communications
P.O. Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040
wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes and if WDW responds.

 

[Tonyz]

Like most of the problems in the parks these days, it's party due to Disney not hiring enough cast members, and also party due to how disgusting and self-centered your fellow human beings are.

 

[Kona65]

I don't care who's to blame for the messes in the parks or in the bathrooms, it Disney's job to make sure they're clean. I cannot prevent people from leaving messes, but Disney is responsible for making sure they're cleaned up.

Also, the OP said a CM was in one of the dirty bathrooms and wasn't doing very much. Just because a CM is assigned to clean up, doesn't mean they're doing their job.

It appears that Disney is filling their parks with guests, but not providing enough support staff to keep the parks clean. My friend was there last week and there was trash, including a dirty diaper in the HM on the walk from the elevator to the Doom Buggies. Yes some people are pigs, but I'm not going to go around on my vacation cleaning up after them. Not my job.

I agree. Very good response. Get ready, you just made a negative comment about the Disney people.

 

[Sparkly]

I thought Universal restrooms were the same quality as Disney- acceptably clean, plenty of soap and paper towels.

And yes, I'll settle for acceptable. As long as the stalls lock, the toilet seat is clean and there's paper seat covers available, there's soap and running water to wash my hands and paper towels to dry them, I'm good.

Universal's often a lot quieter (and smaller in total resort size) then Disney, so no surprise that less guests= more TMs available to clean restrooms. Some Disney ones get so much traffic it's a wonder that the CMs can keep up! And it only takes a few gross guests to make a horrific mess. Case in point= the loos by Pirates that had paper ALL over the floor and the bathroom in England that had water everywhere. (to be fair, it was POURING with rain)

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

It would be enough for you to get one restroom taken care of with no real problem. The problem is, you are assigned multiple restrooms. For example, I worked at DHS in Area 4. That area started at the blue hat and extended down Commissary Lane (not into Streets of America, though), into Muppets Courtyard, and all the way back to Mama Melrose. It also included everything around Star Tours and Indiana Jones. Now, for sweepers, it was divided up into three sections, but restrooms were divided into 2 sections. The front section included the restroom at Superstar Television Theater near the exit of GMR (this restroom was called ABC when I was there), the restroom that looked like a shed near the exit of Indy (called Shed), and the restroom inside Backlot Express (backlot). The back section included the restroom shared by Sci Fi and SBC Commissary (called SciFi), the one in Muppets, Mama's restroom, and the small one upstairs in Pizza Planet that was rarely ever used.

Now, ABC was a popular restroom and required a lot of attention. Shed could also get a lot of traffic, especially when Indy let out. Because of this, we were encouraged to make sure we refilled everything, took out all of the trash, and had the place sparkling before Indy let out. It's really hard to clean up when there is a line out the door because you are waiting for people to get out of the restroom to check toilet paper levels, sanitary bags, and cleanliness of the stalls. It's also hard to check soap levels, clean the counters, and refill paper towels when there are lots of people at the sinks. So, obviously, it made sense to do a thorough cleaning prior to the big rush. ABC didn't offer the luxury of knowing when a big rush would come so you monitored it a bit more. Backlot was a restaurant bathroom and tended to stay cleaner than the others so it tended to get the least amount of attention of the front set restrooms. You could clean ABC completely within 30 minutes easily and the same for Shed. So, you would likely be able to do these two and still check each one every 30 minutes. That wouldn't be the case, though, if you added in Backlot.

On the back set, Muppets and Sci Fi always needed the most attention. Sci Fi was bad just because it is such a small restroom to be shared with the largest counter service restaurant in the park and one of the most popular table service restaurants. Muppets is a huge restroom and is very prominent at the exit of Star Tours and the entrance of Muppets and Streets of America. Plus, you could also enter this one from the Pizza Planet arcade downstairs. No one ever used Pizza Planet (upstairs) and Mama's stayed clean. So, again, you could do two of these checking in every 30 minutes, but that leaves 2 other restrooms that won't get attention.

During the extra busy times, they did have another restroom attendant who took over Backlot and Sci Fi and that really seemed to help. Unfortunately, when I was there, this person, who was called a "mid", was only there for a few hours in the afternoon and was often a high school student who wasn't the most reliable. They need to get reliable workers and go to having more people who are able to work on the restrooms. If they want them to stay clean with the added guests, they will have to be checked more often than once an hour. In order for that to happen, they custodians need a smaller area which means more employees are required.

Wow, thanks for the details. Sounds to me the real solution would be a minimum of 1, likely 2 more CMs on duty at the same time in each Area. Doing that in all 4 parks, in each area, would probably cost Disney somewhere around $1000-$1500 per day, or roughly 10-15 park tickets. Seems like the cost shouldn't be so prohibitive for them to do it.

 

[mom2rtk]

I thought Universal restrooms were the same quality as Disney- acceptably clean, plenty of soap and paper towels.

And yes, I'll settle for acceptable. As long as the stalls lock, the toilet seat is clean and there's paper seat covers available, there's soap and running water to wash my hands and paper towels to dry them, I'm good.

Universal's often a lot quieter (and smaller in total resort size) then Disney, so no surprise that less guests= more TMs available to clean restrooms. Some Disney ones get so much traffic it's a wonder that the CMs can keep up! And it only takes a few gross guests to make a horrific mess. Case in point= the loos by Pirates that had paper ALL over the floor and the bathroom in England that had water everywhere. (to be fair, it was POURING with rain)

Disney's restrooms only have as many CMs assigned as Disney is willing to pay for. If they have more paying guests, they should be willing to spring for more cleaning staff.

And if it only takes a few gross guests to trash a bathroom, then I'll ask again why they don't seem to have that problem at Universal.

 

[Sparkly]

Disney's restrooms only have as many CMs assigned as Disney is willing to pay for. If they have more paying guests, they should be willing to spring for more cleaning staff.

And if it only takes a few gross guests to trash a bathroom, then I'll ask again why they don't seem to have that problem at Universal.

I don't know!

But why does it matter? It's just a restroom! Not a hill to die on!

 

[ArwenMarie]

It would be enough for you to get one restroom taken care of with no real problem. The problem is, you are assigned multiple restrooms. For example, I worked at DHS in Area 4. That area started at the blue hat and extended down Commissary Lane (not into Streets of America, though), into Muppets Courtyard, and all the way back to Mama Melrose. It also included everything around Star Tours and Indiana Jones. Now, for sweepers, it was divided up into three sections, but restrooms were divided into 2 sections. The front section included the restroom at Superstar Television Theater near the exit of GMR (this restroom was called ABC when I was there), the restroom that looked like a shed near the exit of Indy (called Shed), and the restroom inside Backlot Express (backlot). The back section included the restroom shared by Sci Fi and SBC Commissary (called SciFi), the one in Muppets, Mama's restroom, and the small one upstairs in Pizza Planet that was rarely ever used.

Now, ABC was a popular restroom and required a lot of attention. Shed could also get a lot of traffic, especially when Indy let out. Because of this, we were encouraged to make sure we refilled everything, took out all of the trash, and had the place sparkling before Indy let out. It's really hard to clean up when there is a line out the door because you are waiting for people to get out of the restroom to check toilet paper levels, sanitary bags, and cleanliness of the stalls. It's also hard to check soap levels, clean the counters, and refill paper towels when there are lots of people at the sinks. So, obviously, it made sense to do a thorough cleaning prior to the big rush. ABC didn't offer the luxury of knowing when a big rush would come so you monitored it a bit more. Backlot was a restaurant bathroom and tended to stay cleaner than the others so it tended to get the least amount of attention of the front set restrooms. You could clean ABC completely within 30 minutes easily and the same for Shed. So, you would likely be able to do these two and still check each one every 30 minutes. That wouldn't be the case, though, if you added in Backlot.

On the back set, Muppets and Sci Fi always needed the most attention. Sci Fi was bad just because it is such a small restroom to be shared with the largest counter service restaurant in the park and one of the most popular table service restaurants. Muppets is a huge restroom and is very prominent at the exit of Star Tours and the entrance of Muppets and Streets of America. Plus, you could also enter this one from the Pizza Planet arcade downstairs. No one ever used Pizza Planet (upstairs) and Mama's stayed clean. So, again, you could do two of these checking in every 30 minutes, but that leaves 2 other restrooms that won't get attention.

During the extra busy times, they did have another restroom attendant who took over Backlot and Sci Fi and that really seemed to help. Unfortunately, when I was there, this person, who was called a "mid", was only there for a few hours in the afternoon and was often a high school student who wasn't the most reliable. They need to get reliable workers and go to having more people who are able to work on the restrooms. If they want them to stay clean with the added guests, they will have to be checked more often than once an hour. In order for that to happen, they custodians need a smaller area which means more employees are required.

That's a lot of area to cover!

They definitely need to staff the bathrooms at a higher level from your description of that workload.

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't know!

But why does it matter? It's just a restroom! Not a hill to die on!

I don't think anyone is dying on any hills here. But it's not unreasonable to expect clean restrooms.

 

[Chuck S]

If someone is in there cleaning and they are still gross, then it is obvious they haven't fired all of the cleaning crew, isn't it? It just means your fellow park goers are a bunch of pigs. Some people behave like animals.

This reminds me of about 10 years ago, Mom and I were at Knotts Berry Farm (an amusement park near Disneyland) and she had to use the restroom. She came out somewhat disgusted because she was always in the habit of using some paper towels to wipe down the sink counters, as they were usually damp. Some other park goers gave her a crazy look an said "They have poor, minimum wage people to do that!" So yes, unfortunately there are those people that really don't care how bad they mess a place up.

 

[Suvadoo]

I don't think anyone is dying on any hills here. But it's not unreasonable to expect clean restrooms.

I hear what you're saying, the people at Universal are just as piggy as the WDW guests, so why are Universal's bathrooms cleaner? It's not because Universal is smaller. It's because Universal cares about their guest experience and therefore they have enough employees to keep their parks clean.

WDW on the other hand cares only about packing people in to the parks and then getting them to leave as quickly as possible. To achieve this goal they have:

1. Removed benches throughout the parks to discourage relaxing in the parks. Some posters have excused Disney by saying the benches were a liability, but if this were the reason, why do they remain plentiful in DLR?

2. Instituted FP+ tiers so that guests have to visit parks on multiple days if they want to ride more than 1 headline attraction at Epcot or DHS. This assures guests will be in the tiered parks for more than one 1/2day.

3. Maintained their recession employment levels, to assure the CM's that are working are really stressed out and overworked. Hence, there are filthy bathrooms and overflowing trashcans.

I don't see this situation improving unless WDW starts hiring enough CM's to handle the increased attendance.

 

[larryz]

Disney has had record profits there's no reason for them not to turn around and hire more custodial help.

I can think of one...

I think Suvadoo was using sarcasm. Suvadoo, next time remember to break out the sarcasm font.

Not possible. Sarcasm is not allowed on the DISBoards.

 

[Bullseye]

How about a Roomba in every bathroom...

 

[olwyngdh]

I hear what you're saying, the people at Universal are just as piggy as the WDW guests, so why are Universal's bathrooms cleaner? It's not because Universal is smaller. It's because Universal cares about their guest experience and therefore they have enough employees to keep their parks clean.

WDW on the other hand cares only about packing people in to the parks and then getting them to leave as quickly as possible. To achieve this goal they have:

1. Removed benches throughout the parks to discourage relaxing in the parks. Some posters have excused Disney by saying the benches were a liability, but if this were the reason, why do they remain plentiful in DLR?

2. Instituted FP+ tiers so that guests have to visit parks on multiple days if they want to ride more than 1 headline attraction at Epcot or DHS. This assures guests will be in the tiered parks for more than one 1/2day.

3. Maintained their recession employment levels, to assure the CM's that are working are really stressed out and overworked. Hence, there are filthy bathrooms and overflowing trashcans.

I don't see this situation improving unless WDW starts hiring enough CM's to handle the increased attendance.

I don't see it changing until stockholders understand that their demand for higher and higher returns is driving the business and creating the problems. Until the stockholders stand up at a meeting and say hire more people, you are screwing up, it isn't going to happen.

 

[trainingupmy4princes]

I agree. I'm here now and Disney can't employ enough people to follow everyone around. I have seen a lot of attendants cleaning parks and bathrooms, lots of trash thrown down. I am not above picking up a piece of trash and throwing. It inThe trash can. I carry sanitizer and wipes. It's just so crowded there's no way anyone can employ enough people to clean up after everyone who don't believe it's their responsibility to behave like considerate adults. Or teach their children how to behave.

There is a simple solution. Either hire more custodions or don't overcrowd the parks. It is telling that they are using MDE to crowd the parks even more but apparently didn't think to hire more staff to deal with all these extra people.

 

[epcotty]

Park guests should have some kind of say in how the company runs the parks, we all pay good money to go to the parks. And I'm saying that as a stockholder. Definitely the stockholders need to realize that Disney's driving people away with lower quality, not enough CMs at the parks and really inflated prices that have been way past inflation in more recent years. Newer guests will not come back as much due to this either, probably. I put all the blame on Iger, under any previous CEO this didn't happen