Here Now. Is it just me or are cast members not as friendly?

[mickeyluv'r]

While posing for a photo with the Mother-of-the-Bride, the MOB leaned and licked Mickey's ear. She then told Mickey what she had done and "liked it." Kinda beyond rude: actually gross.

Slightly off-topic, but there is a WDW commercial airing right now that shows a little girl kissing Mickey (or maybe it is Minnie). It makes me cringe, because I think it encourages exactly the kind of guest behavior you described.

Even little kids innocently kissing characters is kind of gross. I've never seen Mickey's nose getting sanitized between guests.

 

[maxiesmom]

They are paid the going rate for non skilled labor. If you take the job do your job in the best way possible.

I understand how you mean non-skilled. But trust me, it takes a lot of skill to deal with the public. Any of us who have a job are paid to do it in the best way possible. And yet not one single one of us have done that 100% of the time.

 

[zaccaglin]

Slightly off-topic, but there is a WDW commercial airing right now that shows a little girl kissing Mickey (or maybe it is Minnie). It makes me cringe, because I think it encourages exactly the kind of guest behavior you described.

Even little kids innocently kissing characters is kind of gross. I've never seen Mickey's nose getting sanitized between guests.

I've actually asked before and believe it or not the "heads" are coated with microban. Still I would,not recommend it but nice to know.

 

[Burnedout]

I understand how you mean non-skilled. But trust me, it takes a lot of skill to deal with the public. Any of us who have a job are paid to do it in the best way possible. And yet not one single one of us have done that 100% of the time.

True. And Disney has managed to hire and train and maintain a good reputation with that job pool. It is slipping however in recent years. They've always paid crap and it has always been hot and there have always been crowds.

I couldn't be that cheery all of the time lol so I wouldn't ever take a job there.

 

[fadedglitter]

Well, we just got back from two days at Universal after a week at Disney. The Universal employees were nice, upbeat, and pleasant save for one ticket agent at the entrance. We experieneced so much yelling, screaming, and hearding from CMs at MK and HS (AK was lovely and Epcot was good), It wasn't at us specifically, but at all the guests as a group. It was noticably not like that at all at Universal -- the attraction employees there were about 100% more magical in very similar situations.

EDIT: I should note that the ToT cast members were never unpleasant. The food service workers at Rosie's were great. The was also a security guy at the Frozen show who sang and danced along and was hilarious. MK had some very pleasant and polite custodial workers and our waiter at LTT was nice. Otherwise, though, the cast members at HS and MK were pushy and it seemed their go-to strategy was yelling and being pushy even when it wasn't busy.. I find it sad that we remember the cast members doing their jobs at the minimum level but without yelling to be among the best in the park.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

Speaking as a former CM, I think the most important thing to remember is you get back what you give. Most people that I worked with were nothing but friendly and helpful until they were pushed to their limits. We are humans and sometimes its just impossible to keep your frustration to yourself! I like to think my customer service skills are pretty strong, but it's possible you could have witnessed me "behaving rudely" to a guest. Sometimes there is no choice but to "yell at people". For example, if I ask you multiple times to sit down on my ride and you don't, I could still get in trouble for operating the attraction unsafely. A guest once yelled at me because I stopped the ride as her child wouldn't sit down. I did have to speak a bit strongly to her just because it was unsafe.

A guest who appreciates that we can't control how long the line is, the weather, or whether the ride has mechanical issues really goes a long way Also, obviously there are some terrible seed CMs. but I would say we are trained to be friendly and great to the guests.

 

[DOOM1001]

I was at Disney Saturday and Sunday and at Busch Gardens on Monday,at Disney we encountered several CM's who looked like they were on edge,I guess the constant crowds does get to some of them,however the way a tram driver told a family to get their kid in between the adults was about as rude as rude gets,you needed to see it because if it were aimed at my family a complain would be a necessity,she obviously needed to get the kid sat between the adults for safety but the way she said it and the evil look she had was very unpleasant to watch.At Busch Gardens however,a park that sometimes gets a knock for not having the nicest employees,nothing was further from the truth.In fact after being at Disney the two previous days and comparing the two it was like night and day at how much more relaxed and nicer the Busch employees were.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

it's possible you could have witnessed me "behaving rudely" to a guest. Sometimes there is no choice but to "yell at people". For example, if I ask you multiple times to sit down on my ride and you don't, I could still get in trouble for operating the attraction unsafely. A guest once yelled at me because I stopped the ride as her child wouldn't sit down. I did have to speak a bit strongly to her just because it was unsafe.

A guest who appreciates that we can't control how long the line is, the weather, or whether the ride has mechanical issues really goes a long way Also, obviously there are some terrible seed CMs. but I would say we are trained to be friendly and great to the guests.

I hurrah CM's who tell guests to follow the rules for the enjoyment of all other guests. Like enforcing theater loading rules.

 

[2binak]

We've noticed that many CM's who stand at the entrance of a ride or attraction are now chit-chatting with each other instead of acknowledging guests as we enter the line. They're not discussing work, the line or the ride/attraction. I understand that we all chit-chat with co-workers from time to time, but if you're working in a customer-oriented position, you need to understand that a smile or a "hello" as customers pass by you goes along way to making a customer feel welcomed & appreciated.

 

[DiannaVM]

When we went in October I did feel like their friendliness wasn't as much as years past, but I didn't dwell on it since it HAD been a while since I was last there. I would say they were so-so for the most part. Not bad, but definitely not the greatest.

I was mostly disappointed in character CMs though. While most were awesome and totally engaging, there were two (four if you ask DH ) that were less than stellar and frankly, kind of pissed me off at their lacklustre interactions. I am trying to forgive them in thinking that they may have just been tired or had a rough day, but they barely tried to converse with us, like they were just looking to hurry up and take our picture so we could move on.

But not to make it all negative, there WERE two CMs that definitely were awesome. I just wish I could remember their names lol. But the first was, when we took a break one afternoon we went to get a pretzel at Tomorrowland and I realized the cashier at the counter was from the Bahamas from her name tag. So I made mention that we were from there too and she spoke to us quite nicely while waiting for our pretzel. When I went to get my Magicband ready to pay, she then told us this snack was on her. I thought that was really nice.
Then when we had dinner at BOG we had an amazing waitress. She was a highlight of our trip. She was very friendly and held conversations with us (as well as other tables she was serving) and just seemed in such a cheery mood, despite the fact that she looked really tired. She was also quite knowledgeable about the menu and tried her best to be accommodating (which was a plus).

 

[fadedglitter]

Sometimes there is no choice but to "yell at people". For example, if I ask you multiple times to sit down on my ride and you don't, I could still get in trouble for operating the attraction unsafely. A guest once yelled at me because I stopped the ride as her child wouldn't sit down. I did have to speak a bit strongly to her just because it was unsafe.

I completely get this, but what I witnessed/experienced was rarely about safety. It was just a general culture of yelling at guests as a group and treating them in a very pushy manner. This was mainly at MK and HS along with their associated table service restaurants that we visited (exceptions are noted in my last post).. I had a much better experience at AK, Universal, and even Six Flags Over Texas. Epcot was fine, bit we were only there for a few hours so it's difficult to really say.

 

[fadedglitter]

Oh, and as for expecting freebies...we never did even though I thought that a compensating paper FP might have been appropriate after we were stuck on ToT for 30min+. Maybe even an acknowlegement would have sufficed. Or maybe a reride when my blaster on TSMM was broken. I was gracious and never angry or complaining in these sitautions, but the cast members didn't seem to care. At all.

 

[Burnedout]

Speaking as a former CM, I think the most important thing to remember is you get back what you give. Most people that I worked with were nothing but friendly and helpful until they were pushed to their limits. We are humans and sometimes its just impossible to keep your frustration to yourself! I like to think my customer service skills are pretty strong, but it's possible you could have witnessed me "behaving rudely" to a guest. Sometimes there is no choice but to "yell at people". For example, if I ask you multiple times to sit down on my ride and you don't, I could still get in trouble for operating the attraction unsafely. A guest once yelled at me because I stopped the ride as her child wouldn't sit down. I did have to speak a bit strongly to her just because it was unsafe.

A guest who appreciates that we can't control how long the line is, the weather, or whether the ride has mechanical issues really goes a long way Also, obviously there are some terrible seed CMs. but I would say we are trained to be friendly and great to the guests.

I hate the statement "you get what you receive" It is bs when cm's take out their bad day on people who are following directions, are being polite, and are just trying to enjoy their vacation.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

I hate the statement "you get what you receive" It is bs when cm's take out their bad day on people who are following directions, are being polite, and are just trying to enjoy their vacation.

In some cases CMs are completely taking out their bad days on others. I don't deny it. It's even possible that I've done it. But I've had some interactions with guests who I'm sure went home and complained about me because I was following the rules and doing my job. I don't mean to sound nasty, but sometimes people totally believe they are in the right (ex- people who don't like how DAS works now and think I have the power to change it. LOL!) and therefore leave an interaction with a completely different view than what actually happened! On the flip side, there are certainly CMs who believe THEY are in the right when they were actually in the wrong!

I am only 22 years old and can't speak for how the service used to be "back in the day". But I do feel strongly about the fact that CMs are expected and trained to be courteous and put guests' needs first, only second to ensuring the safety of guests. I am genuinely sorry that you had a bad experience and encountered someone grumpy!

 

[Texas Mickey]

All i know is I smile and wave at CMs and they smile and wave back. Most of the time. I don't have many memories of bad CMs but i have alot of memories of friendly ones. My hats off to them and the great job they do!

 

[Vylette Rose]

For the most part we have had the most amazing interactions with CM. However it seems that every once and a while things are not so pleasant. I think this is common in any service industry, new hires come in, old hires have become disillusioned etc... and they just need to be weeded out. Once they are gone things return to normal.

 

[brinkley07]

I have been to Disney (like most on here) multiple times. Recently I went and watched my Dad interact with the various cast members as he is always a talker and loves to interact and joke with people. After the majority of interactions we had good things happen, so I agree that you get what you give. One cast member even called him over as she was going to move a post which would open up some curbside seats for the Electrical parade.

 

[AJA]

We just got back on Monday and yes we noticed the same thing. I even mentioned it on the guest survey. This sounds harsh, in my opinion, I would not refer to half of them as "cast members" to me they acted like average or even below average employees of any general retailer and that is what I wrote on the survey.

 

[dtstampz]

Just returned from a week-long solo trip, and found the CMs to be friendly.
On the rainy days in the park, I actually spent more time visiting with CMs
in Animal Kingdom & DHS and they were all wonderful.

 

[labattblue]

I don't need a CM to kiss my behind, greet me with a hello, or even a smile, as I enter an attraction, a store, restaurant, park, hotel, etc.., I just ask that when I need their help, they are willing and able.