Disneyland Cast Members

[Dakota_Lynn]

We just returned from Disneyland and we had a wonderful time! This was our fifth trip and my entire family feels is was the best vacation ever. The lines were short, the weather was perfect, and none of our favorite rides were closed. I really hated to leave, but we have some of the best memories of our lives to keep with us!

Anyway, I noticed something really different about Disneyland and I wanted to ask if anybody else had noticed this. I don't want to come off as though I'm complaining...we had a great time, and this certainly didn't ruin our trip, but it did sadden me some.

The employees were not their usual pleasant selves. In the past, when we went to Disneyland, the cast members were friendly, talkative, and very helpful. I noticed this time that there were a lot of cast members who looked irritable and exchanged as few words as possible with the guests. For example, in past years, when you get into a car or boat for attractions like "It's a Small World" or "Pirates of Carribean" the cast members would chat while we were waiting to take off. They'd ask how our day was going and they'd chit chat with my daughter. Now, many of them don't even acknowledge the guests. Sometimes they don't even direct people into the cars, they just let them do it themselves. Many times during our visit, the cast members would talk among themselves. Once at "It's a Small World," there was one cast member on both sides of our boat. The ride was backed up and we had to wait. These two girls hollered over us for more than a minute talking about what they were going to do on Friday night, who they were going out with, and this or that other gossip. I saw this sort of behavior happen many times. They ignore the guests and chat with themselves. This NEVER would have happened before!

This did make me start thinking, though. It is probably hard to do the same job day in day out. How many times can you strike up conversation with somebody's kid while they are waiting to take off in the ride? I guess I do understand why they would start to feel stale, but the thing is, this never happened before. We went to Disneyland in 98, 99, 00, 03, and 04. I noticed this a little in 03, but it was much worse this time. Has anybody else noticed this? Also, does anybody have any theories as to why things are so different? Like I said, it didn't ruin our vacation, but I did miss the way things used to be.

 

[Twigs]

We were just in DL for the first time this past July. Like you we had a geat time, and didn't let anything ruin it. But like you the one thing we left with was that quite a few of the CM's were not that friendly. We never had the situation where they didn't seat you, but they were usually not very approachable. Something we never experienced at WDW. We even had a monorail driver who was rude! We were first on line and asked if we could sit up front with the driver. His answer was a very curt no. We were taken back and then to explain why we asked, we said that in WDW they sometimes let you sit with the driver if there is room. The CM then replied in a nasty tone, well you are NOT in Florida, this is California! I really thought that was uncalled for, but we let it go, we just went on and had a good time. The thing that got us was that about 3 days after that episode, we saw people sitting up front with the driver all the time. We were there starting July 5th, so we presumed they weren't letting anyone up front due to security around the holiday. (Security was very tight there, they even checked inside the trunk of our car each time we went back to the hotel's parking lot.) But I really don't think the CM should have been that rude, its not like we were giving him a hard time, just asking a question.

 

[Feralpeg]

It may just be a sign of the times. Sometimes you get a great, friendly sales person. The next time, the person acts like they are doing you a favor to take your money. At our local McDonalds, I find that the older (not teen) employees are much more attentive and friendly than the teens. I think the kids just have too many other things going on and are just not interested. I imagine Disney is the same. No matter how hard you try, some of the folks you hire aren't going to be great. I don't know how it is in this type of business, but I know that I had to be very careful if I decided that one of my employees was not doing their job properly. You can't just fire them.