Did Disney fire all it's bathroom attendants?

[nd2fl]

I actually commented last night how well kept I thought the bathrooms were. Granted it's the new, "hot" place but there was a CM who stood in Be Our Guest and was picking every small piece of toilet paper off the floor.
We commented several times on how clean everywhere was. Maybe we just didn't notice "off" places?

 

[Queuing4Disney]

A Modest Proposal (a la Jonathan Swift) for solving the Filthy Restrooms at WDW Problem:

We all know how much the Disney management team HATES to spend REAL money on, well, anything, no matter how much the service, repair, or product is needed to improve, or even simply maintain the level of enjoyment and satisfaction that is supposed to be provided to guests who visit the Disney parks. So, I propose the following program for both reducing the filth in the restrooms and potentially increasing the "fun" factor for those guests who choose to participate in the program - all without requiring Disney to expend any real money!

Disney just need to set up a "cleaning station" in each of the restrooms in the parks. These stations will be monitored by a CM, and be stocked with all the accoutrements of cleaning - gloves, cleaning solutions, mops, etc. But the most important item that needs to be at the station would be the all encompassing "Disney Waiver" form. This waiver form would "release Disney from all liability and the participating guest assumes all risk of possible injury...blah, blah, blah." Once the guest signs such a form, she will be given the gloves, cleaning solution, etc. and assigned, let's say, 5 restroom stalls to clean. After the stalls have been cleaned, the CM would check the cleaning work done and if the inspection shows an acceptable level of cleaning has been accomplished, the guest would be given one of the highly valued anytime Front-of-the-Line passes to any attraction at any park (with the exclusions of Meet & Greets, parades and nighttime entertainment like Wishes and Fantasmic).

Now, come on, ladies, many of us end up having to clean sometimes truly filthy bathrooms at home anyway, so cleaning a mere 5 small stalls should be a breeze once we set our minds to it. And let's say it takes us an average of 5 minutes per stall; that would mean we would be earning one of those great passes for our child (or ourselves) to use at TSMM or 7DMT after just 30 minutes of work!!! Wouldn't that turn each of us into the greatest heroine to our child as we whip out that pass and our child can jump to the front of the TSMM line! Do a few more 30 minute cleaning sessions and we can get our whole family of 4 onto Soarin'!

And the Disney management team - well, they'll be as happy as can be, of course. No need to hire additional custodial staff or to increase paid hours to the current staff. Sure, it's not a program that will appeal to every guest, but surely there are enough guests willing to work at some chores that they do at home already in exchange for those wonderful passes. And, heck, Disney can even promote this whole program as a "Fantastic New Attraction" where the guest gets "The Cinderella Experience - You, too, can do things that Cinderella did before she became a Princess!!!"

*** Anyway, just wanted to try to inject some levity into this board.***

 

[yankeepenny]

every time I find a bathroom in dire straits, I exit, and go to the nearest restaurant, and ask for a manager. I tell them which bathroom. They get right on the horn and get someone there to clean up. did it 3 times in sept. alone.

 

[Luckybee]

Dh and I have a small office with 2 employees in our own building. We've now leased an office to another person who also has an employee. Since we've done that we've increased the number of times we have outside cleaners come in since there is more foot traffic etc. Isnt the answer sort of obvious. Doesn't really matter whose "fault " it is that the bathrooms are dirty. If they are then Disney should be hiring enough people to clean them. Imho this one is about as simple as it gets.

I did notice a messy bathroom in Sept. It looked clean in that the toilets and sinks weren't gross, it was messy though... garbage was overflowing and on the floor , and paper towels were empty

 

[Luckybee]

A Modest Proposal (a la Jonathan Swift) for solving the Filthy Restrooms at WDW Problem:

We all know how much the Disney management team HATES to spend REAL money on, well, anything, no matter how much the service, repair, or product is needed to improve, or even simply maintain the level of enjoyment and satisfaction that is supposed to be provided to guests who visit the Disney parks. So, I propose the following program for both reducing the filth in the restrooms and potentially increasing the "fun" factor for those guests who choose to participate in the program - all without requiring Disney to expend any real money!

Disney just need to set up a "cleaning station" in each of the restrooms in the parks. These stations will be monitored by a CM, and be stocked with all the accoutrements of cleaning - gloves, cleaning solutions, mops, etc. But the most important item that needs to be at the station would be the all encompassing "Disney Waiver" form. This waiver form would "release Disney from all liability and the participating guest assumes all risk of possible injury...blah, blah, blah." Once the guest signs such a form, she will be given the gloves, cleaning solution, etc. and assigned, let's say, 5 restroom stalls to clean. After the stalls have been cleaned, the CM would check the cleaning work done and if the inspection shows an acceptable level of cleaning has been accomplished, the guest would be given one of the highly valued anytime Front-of-the-Line passes to any attraction at any park (with the exclusions of Meet & Greets, parades and nighttime entertainment like Wishes and Fantasmic).

Now, come on, ladies, many of us end up having to clean sometimes truly filthy bathrooms at home anyway, so cleaning a mere 5 small stalls should be a breeze once we set our minds to it. And let's say it takes us an average of 5 minutes per stall; that would mean we would be earning one of those great passes for our child (or ourselves) to use at TSMM or 7DMT after just 30 minutes of work!!! Wouldn't that turn each of us into the greatest heroine to our child as we whip out that pass and our child can jump to the front of the TSMM line! Do a few more 30 minute cleaning sessions and we can get our whole family of 4 onto Soarin'!

And the Disney management team - well, they'll be as happy as can be, of course. No need to hire additional custodial staff or to increase paid hours to the current staff. Sure, it's not a program that will appeal to every guest, but surely there are enough guests willing to work at some chores that they do at home already in exchange for those wonderful passes. And, heck, Disney can even promote this whole program as a "Fantastic New Attraction" where the guest gets "The Cinderella Experience - You, too, can do things that Cinderella did before she became a Princess!!!"

*** Anyway, just wanted to try to inject some levity into this board.***

Im prepared to do throwaways for fp's..but I hate cleaning at home so nahh....but geez will it get me the 60 day fp's ?

 

[Queuing4Disney]

Im prepared to do throwaways for fp's..but I hate cleaning at home so nahh....but geez will it get me the 60 day fp's ?

Nope, much better than that. You get the Use-It-Whenever-You-Want/Front-of-the-Line paper passes. You just give the pass to the CM at the attraction/ride of your choice at whatever time you want and, boom, you get to the front (or at least immediately into the FastPass lane). It's one of these:



(BTW, these were real Priority passes. We had a truly unacceptable incident at our Disney resort on our last visit and these passes were given to us to compensate for the bad experience.)

 

[Ninja Mom]

I'd have to give the best bathroom award to Universal for their inclusion of "Moaning Myrtle" in the ladies room at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-Hogsmead.

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Myrtle

The worst bathroom is at Epcot right by the "Refreshment Port" just before you get to Canada coming from Future World. It's got maybe 2 stalls and the line to get in to the ladies room is always as long as the one for the Mine Train.

~NM

 

[CarolynU]

The thing is the parks are packed. They are busier than ever with no slow times if folks are to be believed. Disney won't care unless it hits their bottom line, only if park attendance lowers because people have had enough will things improve.

 

[pampam]

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.

I was going to say something similar. I always take my used paper towel to wipe up around the sink. I even use it to pick up a paper towel someone may have dropped on the floor. Of course there are CMs to do this, but until they get there, the restroom is a little cleaner for the next person.

 

[Suvadoo]

The thing is the parks are packed. They are busier than ever with no slow times if folks are to be believed. Disney won't care unless it hits their bottom line, only if park attendance lowers because people have had enough will things improve.

I'm sorry but that may be true for other parts of WDW, but I don't think the theory holds true for cleanliness. Guests will not tolerate overflowing trash cans and dirty restrooms. People complaining at guest relations and social media will spread the word. WDW will have to act on this one.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

every time I find a bathroom in dire straits, I exit, and go to the nearest restaurant, and ask for a manager. I tell them which bathroom. They get right on the horn and get someone there to clean up. did it 3 times in sept. alone.

And this is something that will help. One thing I love about the managers at Disney is that they are trained and qualified to do most positions in their area. So, for example, the first part of my college program was spent as a custodian at Hollywood Studios in the icon area (as I mentioned earlier). My managers knew how to do everything I did and were willing to step in if necessary to help out. Along with that, they were also able to do the positions at GMR, Star Tours, Muppets, and help run Indy (obviously they couldn't step in as Indy, but you get the idea). One day, a manager might be in charge of custodians and monitoring our work and the next day assigned to GMR. A phone call from Mama Melrose, though, stating that their restroom needed attention went straight to the managers of the area. Usually, a manager in charge of custodians would go check it out, but it also could be a Muppets manager because he would be right there. If they go help out to clean a restroom and see that the custodian was there 45 minutes ago, they will likely go check the other restrooms (after cleaning up Mama's, of course) to see what the custodian has been doing. When they see that the custodian was cleaning the Muppets and Sci Fi restrooms all this time, they start to get the importance of more workers. They will then talk to their managers and so on and so forth. So, if you do tell a manager of a restaurant, it will go straight to management for custodians which is definitely the place to start if you want to see the changes. Plus, they don't want to be taken away from what they are doing because one of their employees is swamped.

And really, doing it right then will work better than waiting until the end of the day to tell guest services. And it helps to tell a manager rather than a regular employee because more often than not, they will tell one of the custodian assigned to sweeps that day about the bathroom needing attention. That custodian will go tend to it, but they have no pull. The managers are the ones who need to be made aware of the need and having them see it dirty rather than being informed of it later in the day is really the best way to get your point across.

 

[Mome Rath]

The way to change it is to contact Disney during or after a trip if you've ran into a problem. But, we have to realize not everyone had bad experiences, so they will be reporting the other side of things as well, in the end Disney will crunch the numbers and see where the statistics lead, because they are concerned with the general question, "Are the bathrooms staffed well enough to keep them clean enough for guests in general," they are not concerned with the individual question, "Are the bathrooms staffed well enough to keep them clean enough for Mome Rath."

For, as I mentioned earlier, when sent my post-trip survey bathrooms were never specifically mentioned because I never experienced an issue with the bathrooms, and was pleasantly surprised to see them constantly staffed. It takes guests reporting the good and bad in order for the number crunchers to flag an issue. It has happened before when enough people spoke out, and will happen again.

 

[PrincessV]

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.

^^ Nailed it.

I'd have to give the best bathroom award to Universal for their inclusion of "Moaning Myrtle" in the ladies room at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-Hogsmead.

Totally agree!

 

[CarolynU]

I'm sorry but that may be true for other parts of WDW, but I don't think the theory holds true for cleanliness. Guests will not tolerate overflowing trash cans and dirty restrooms. People complaining at guest relations and social media will spread the word. WDW will have to act on this one.

I really hope so. I'm skipping WDW for a while and just doing DCL and California Adventure, a park which I visited for the first time this year, and loved. Maybe next time I return to WDW things such as this if they are as bad as described will be fixed.

 

[MsThumper]

We just returned today from 4 nights at WDW. On the drive home, I was commenting to DH how lucky men are to be able to use urinals. I used bathrooms at the various parks at least once each day. In several of the bathrooms, I had to "by-pass" several stalls before I could find one I would use. I don't know what it is that people try to flush, other than toilet paper and human waste. I don't know if the toilets "spray" the seats when they flush, but every seat I went to use, I had to wipe it down with toilet paper first, then I wouldn't sit on it without one of the paper protectors. Wish I had taken disinfecting wipes with me.

 

[bumbershoot]

I went in November also and it was our first trip and I was surprised at how clean these public bathrooms were and I too always saw someone cleaning.

That was my experience in November as well.

It reminds me of thoughts I had on our *second* (edited the timing of this) big family trip to Disneyland. On that trip, I noticed chipped paint, dusty attractions (I found myself looking at all the dust and dirty ceiling tiles, how does THAT happen, on my fave ride, Small World), lack of cleanliness, etc. Because I had been really stressy on that trip and DH and DS wanted me to have fun, I got a solo trip a month later. On that trip, the paint was nice, things were clean, they had done up Small World.

And I realized that when I was noticing the paint problems, a CM might have been 5 minutes behind me. Someone walking 10 minutes behind me would have seen a "wet paint" sign, and the paint would have been sparkling and lovely. Sometimes we are the ones in front, and sometimes we are the ones behind.

THIS. i'll never understand why some people think hover peeing and spraying like a feral animal is better than using a paper butt gasket and having a comfortable sit down. it's a RESTroom, not leg day at the gym.

I've never understood the issue with putting the back of my legs onto a seat. If something ELSE is touching that seat, you're doing it incredibly wrong.

that's a great side line: outside of every restroom there can be a merchandise cart with stuff for sale: rubber gloves, bleach wipes, TP, soap... Disney can snaz it up by putting Mickey faces on it!

And people would buy two. One to scrapbook and one to use. A real collector would buy 3 sets. One to scrapbook, one to keep to sell later, and one to use.

Yes, Univeral's rest rooms were clean when I visited. But most of them had those newish weird Dyson hand dryers, all of which were labeled Not In Service. They still had paper towels. What's with installing those hand dryers and not putting them into use?

They *were* using them. Something must be changing.

I never quite understood the Dyson dryers, an interesting concept, but it's never an even airflow so your hand has to hit the sides as its pushed.

I like the Dysons, though the noise is atrocious. (if the other dryer you mentioned are the ones used at Ikea, those are louder and I cannot handle those) And I have never had my hand moved around by it. Skin moving over the bones, yes, it's an interesting anatomy lesson, but I follow the instructions exactly and it dries my hands very thoroughly and I never hit the side of it at all.

We stayed at the Contemporary, and on one of the elevators there was a random baggie full of leftover pasta that was on the floor, in the same spot, for two days.

That's the kind of thing that becomes an experiment of sorts after a bit. You don't want to report it because you just want to see what happens. The one and only time we stayed at Grand Californian, there was a fork in the middle of the hallway from our rooms. It stayed for over 2 days. And then it was simply moved to a decorative table up the hall. We checked out before it moved from there.

Only went to IOA back at the end of January. Bathrooms were immaculate, but the park was empty.

The end of this January? During the HP Celebration event? Empty? Maybe it was after the event; I keep forgetting that we left Universal before the *last* week of January.

I'm amazed that people are excusing Disney for having "Gas Station Bathrooms"! Regardless of who is to blame for the mess, DISNEY is responsible for cleaning it up! There is no excuse for this!

It's possible that some people just aren't seeing what the others are seeing. That maybe the CMs are working their tushies off, but some people have the luck of coming into a bathroom just before the CM gets there, while others of us are seeing it just after the CM leaves.

Many people who go to Disney are entitled pigs.

Disney is understaffed in their restrooms.

Poop smells.

Universal is the mecca of all theme parks.

8 pages in a nutshell.

But WDW must be getting different deals on different types of dispensers at different times, because they're all different iterations and I often find myself waving at machines that you're supposed to tug on the snippet of towel hanging out, lol!

Ugh that drives me nutty. Or different sorts of touchless faucets; some with the sensor right in front, some to the side, etc. THAT is one bathroom thing I remember from our last trip, that I kept feeling foolish because I was waving in the wrong spot to get the water to turn on.

I'd have to give the best bathroom award to Universal for their inclusion of "Moaning Myrtle" in the ladies room at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-Hogsmead.

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Myrtle

And it became better after they got rid of the Dysons in that bathroom that kept you from *hearing* Myrtle for the first several months. (our first visit was December 2010 and you could hear a moment of her and then the hand dryers would come on and you couldn't hear her anymore...)

In several of the bathrooms, I had to "by-pass" several stalls before I could find one I would use. I don't know what it is that people try to flush, other than toilet paper and human waste. I don't know if the toilets "spray" the seats when they flush, but every seat I went to use, I had to wipe it down with toilet paper first, then I wouldn't sit on it without one of the paper protectors. Wish I had taken disinfecting wipes with me.

See...I get tired of bypassing them. So I'll go in and flush. If things go down, I use it.

And if I walk in to a stall that has liquid on the seat (unless it's yellow, of course), then once I'm done I wait to see how that toilet flushes. I want to know, because I'm curious and nosy and possibly really interested in wasting my time, why it was like that. And yep, most of the time that toilet is just really rambunctious, and is now slopping water up onto the seat.

Since I don't want the next person to think bad thoughts about me, I'll then wipe the seat really quick and drop the TP in, and since the toilet is finishing up flushing, it takes the TP with it.

 

[Laketravis]

I just replied to another post about Disney customer service in regards to this very same topic.

We just left this morning after a couple of weeks at WDW, and I had been reading the threads about poor customer service and nasty restrooms and I had really tried to shrug it off......

But then I was in a couple of restrooms (one at Epcot and the other at Narcoossee's) that were so bad I took pictures; I had overheard the CM outside the one at Epcot telling another CM that he was "supposed to be on streets today but they put me on restrooms so (F) them..."

The thing is, I can understand the restrooms getting bad during a crowded week like Thanksgiving, and last week I actually did not notice any messy restrooms. It was this week, a much slower week, when I started to notice how bad they were getting. And what bothered me the most was that in every single case, there was a CM in the restroom. But frankly, it did not look to me like they were working very hard at all. In fact, it actually appeared like they were doing the minimum to qualify as doing something at all.

So yeah, I noticed this as well.

 

[Luckybee]

I'd have to give the best bathroom award to Universal for their inclusion of "Moaning Myrtle" in the ladies room at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-Hogsmead.

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Myrtle

The worst bathroom is at Epcot right by the "Refreshment Port" just before you get to Canada coming from Future World. It's got maybe 2 stalls and the line to get in to the ladies room is always as long as the one for the Mine Train.

~NM

My second time in the U ladies restroom I thought it really neat. The first time not so much cause I actually jumped while I was....well...lets just say it surprised me at an inopportune time

 

[metzgardesign]

I have been here for almost a week now and I am SHOCKED at the state of the bathrooms, everywhere! They are filthy and disgusting and I have never experienced this before, ever. We come 2x a year and we always have been impressed with how clean the bathrooms were and that there always seems to be someone cleaning them. Now this trip there has either been nobody in them or someone is there but they are still gross and the person does not seem to be doing much.

I do intend on contacting someone about this, but who? Should I just go to guest services or is there someone I should email?

You probably didn't the memo....many folks just pee in the bushes now.

Go for it. It may be awkward the first time. But, just wave over to the fellow tourist doing the same on the other side of the walkway to take the edge off. Maybe share interesting anecdotes from your respective home locales.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Bumbershoot--not sure what event you speak of, but we were there on January 31st or whatever the last Friday in January was. No FOTL required and my kids rode HP rides several times a piece.


Back on the bathroom topic--I did notice full trashbags next to a trash can in an animal kingdom bathroom. I thought that was odd as no attendants were around. My guess is that a task was started and then they were called to something else.. But during the whole day, it was the only problem I noticed. (This thread sort of created a new experiment for me to look at bathrooms more critically. A way to kill time due to not being able to ride most rides. )

For those wondering--Legoland bathrooms were mostly immaculate. But the cars in the parking lot would barely fill one character at the MK parking lot. Hardly anyone there.