How Does a CM Not Know What the Food and Wine Festival Is?

[disneyfav4ever]

I was talking to a CM, and they did not know what the Food and Wine Festival was. They said they never heard of it before. I thought this was one of Disney's biggest special annual events! How is it that a CM has never heard of it before?

 

[Disney Princess]

Wow! That is surprising. Are they new? Maybe they haven't been there long enough to know about it. And if they haven't traveled during that time or played on boards such as this, they just don't know? I hope they take a day off to eat and enjoy!

 

[TDC Nala]

I have a friend who called on the booking date for the Food and Wine festival to book events last year and got a CM who did not know what the Food and Wine Festival was and could not locate the events for booking - instead of booking for the California Grill signature dinner, for example, this person thought she just wanted a regular reservation at California Grill. By the time they got it worked out the popular events were gone.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I have a friend who called on the booking date for the Food and Wine festival to book events last year and got a CM who did not know what the Food and Wine Festival was and could not locate the events for booking - instead of booking for the California Grill signature dinner, for example, this person thought she just wanted a regular reservation at California Grill. By the time they got it worked out the popular events were gone.

I would be so annoyed if that happened to me! At least the person I was talking to knows about the Festival now.

 

[ElizabethB]

The CM's answering the phones these days seem to suffer from a severe lack of training in my experience.

 

[DanaAustinChelsea]

The CM's answering the phones these days seem to suffer from a severe lack of training in my experience.

Yes, some defintely do I have talked to a few that are outsourced & obviously working from home. Maybe this was the case?

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I think Disney may need to train their CMs better.

 

[kayla87]

Yes, some defintely do I have talked to a few that are outsourced & obviously working from home. Maybe this was the case?

The problem with the ones who work from home is that some of them are not Disney freaks. It is just a job for them. I don't know how extensive the training is, but could you imagine starting from scratch, knowing nothing about Disney?

Unfortunately, this may be a trend in all CMs, as Disney may be struggling to find people who don't just want a job.

 

[GenieCat]

Some are more knowledgeable and friendly than others. If you happen to get a CM who seems unable or unwilling to help, The Unofficial Guide suggest that you politely end the call, and call again. CRO (Central Reservations) is very large. It is unlikely that you will get the same person twice.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) It happens.
2) New, inexperienced CM's don't know things.
3) In fact, there are longer-term CM's who don't even go to the parks. *

* There were several CM's in a Concierge Training (Sales) Class. When one of the students asked what restaurant to recommend if the guest asks them their favorite eatery. The student said she has never eaten at a sit-down restaurant in WDW. The instructor said to simply pick one from the list and use it all the time. So, even the people recommending things do not know everything.

 

[kaybird]

We had a CM just a couple of weeks ago that remarked on our nametags and asked where we got them. We said Dining with an Imagineer, and she said "What is an Imagineer?" I would have thought that was required knowledge!

 

[ImprovGal]

Some are more knowledgeable and friendly than others. If you happen to get a CM who seems unable or unwilling to help, The Unofficial Guide suggest that you politely end the call, and call again. CRO (Central Reservations) is very large. It is unlikely that you will get the same person twice.

Sadly, when it comes to the food & wine reservations for things like Signature Dinners, Exquisite Evenings, and some Food & Wine Pairings, hanging up and redialing is just not an option. The queue ends up being waaaay too long to have a chance at the limited seating events.

Yes, I was the friend who had a heck of a time with CRO on Food & Wine Festival day last year. The rep sort of knew what the festival was but at first kept insisting that reservations weren't being taken yet and tried to refer me to the website for more information.

And in all fairness, she kept trying to help. The problem was every time she put me on hold to consult with a supervisor, precious moments were ticking away and there's too much competition for some of the events to dawdle like that. She put me on hold before I could say, "Skip it! Let's just try the next one!"

I'm hoping this year karma will give me a break and send me to a CM more in the know.

 

[just another guy]

Its fully believeable. Disney will hire anyone. They have job fairs monthly which consists of them begging people over the radio to come get a job. Don't speak a word or english, no problem! Doesn't matter, they'll give you the most basic job anywhere. Be it a dish washer, taking fast pass tickets, etc. They force everyone to attend a 2 hour "traditions" class which teaches you a little about the history of Disney, and the disney way of doing things. After thats, its off to your little microscopic spot in a HUGE company.

FL has a lot of new residents, and also a lot of poor people who can't afford disney. So, take either of those, give them a job at disney, and if they work outside of Epcot, its easy to believe they've never heard of the food and wine festival.

 

[Paul in CT]

Yes, some defintely do I have talked to a few that are outsourced & obviously working from home. Maybe this was the case?

I have an idea for Disney. They should recruit for Disney Dining CM's on the DIS restaurant board. If they are now working from home anyway, I would bet there would be many skilled applicants to choose from.

 

[disnut8]

Dining reservations are up because of free dining and the dining plan. It's almost impossible to get a reservation these days. And how many of us have complained that we had to wait on the phone for a half hour to make a reservation? The demand for reservations is high. Very high. The demand for a stress free phone call to Disney World to get dining reservations is high. Very high.

So what do we live with? Cast Members who are put on the front line too early just to get phones answered? Or long waits on hold to make our reservations? Also remember that we on this board are a very small percentage of people who do call Disney World for dining reservations. We are too demanding for perfection.

 

[Hook's Girl]

The CM's answering the phones these days seem to suffer from a severe lack of training in my experience.

Ouch. I hope you are talking about some, not all. I answer the phones and am very well trained.

 

[Hook's Girl]

I think Disney may need to train their CMs better.

Again, some Cast Members are trained better in some areas, please don't lump every single Cast Member and trainer together.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, sure - but we can't all get YOU on the phone (or can we?) In all the years, and all the times, I've called Disney - mainly for dining reservations, dining reservations changes, more dining reservations changes, still more..., I've never spoken with anyone who wasn't extremely helpful, even if they didn't know the actual answer. Well, there was that one time that I thought I was booking Boma but it turns out the CM made me a reservation for Boatwright's... but even that was resolvable, in part because I kept changing my dining plans right up through the middle of my trip

 

[towerrat]

While WDW does hire thousands and thousands of people a year (to replace the thousands who quit), they should ensure they know something about the parks. While I can somehow understand that a new CM may have never heard of things such as the Surprise in the Sky show or when the castle was a big cake, to not know the Food & Wine Fest is simply unacceptable.
One fun test that I like to put CM's through is when I got over to the Imagination pavilion, I will ask the greeter (with an open map and confused tourist look on my face) where Captain Eo is located. Majority of the time the CM will say that it left a long time ago, every now and then I will get someone. The worst time was when I asked a middle aged CM and he didnt know to the point he asked his manager, embarrassing himself. Also, a CM actually sent me to the MK to see it!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I do think some CMs know more then others, and I'm sure a lot are very well educated and knowledgeable, but Disney does need to train better, if even a few of the CMs don't know about stuff like the F&W Festival.

It's the same way at my job, we train new cashiers all the time, but depending on who does the training, they still have a lot they don't know about when they get into a register.