Is Disney still as friendly as years ago?

[sbell111]

I don't think WDW is anywhere near the place it once was. It used to be that everyone there understood they were 'cast members' in someone else's dream vacation. They had a role, like an actor, to make everyone feel like they were transported to a magical place. But now most of that magic is gone. I noticed it right around the time the timeshares began to take off. Not only did WDW's corporate personality change but they stopped putting money into the parks to make them better. Instead of taking the money from the parks to improve the experience (more rides, new shows, new restaurant themes) they took all the income from there and started growing DVC, and the stores, and every other venture they could find.

Interesting. I don't see that, at all.

We go to WDW alot, considering the we don't live nearby. We probably average 4-5 times per year. On top of that, we have made occasional visits to all of the DLs. It seems that every time we go, we find something new. Either its something that is newly added since our last visit or a cool feature that we never new about. I wouldn't consider Disney to be a 'static' experience, at all.

Oh, and now 1/2 the people who answer he phones to make reservations have a nasty attitude. The other day I called to modify my room only reservation and the girl started quizzing me about my kids birth dates and ages not matching up. What the??? I told her I think it's over the line for them to go analyzing my kids personal information. She said it's so they don't make mistakes with packages. I said I'm not doing a package, and never do packages anyway so there is no need. Then I told her to take my kids personal info out of there. Who do they think they are? The gall is unreal. I used to get off the phone with them humming the Disney tunes... guess those days are gone.

No offense, but in your retelling of that call, you sound rather rude.

I believe that the increase in the general rudeness of the population is one of the things that may be negatively affecting cast member performance both because cast members are, in fact, members of the public and because dealing with rude people all day long has got to be incredibly draining.

Maybe its not the cm's that have changed but the public they have to deal with. Attitude and sense of entitlement from the person you are trying to help can really take the pixie dust right out of you.

We have always enjoyed every encounter we have had with any of the cm's and have never seen one not acting exactly the way we would expect. But we make sure to treat them just as "magically" as we want them to treat us.

Agreed. You have to give what you want to get.

I think expectations destroy perception.
So many people read message boards like the DIS, among others these days, and pull out the magical moments that happens to others, then expect that same magical treatment on their own vacation, from start to finish.
Perception then takes over, and when there is not an overwhelming rush of CMs to fawn over them, people interpret it as the CMs are not friendly, or the vacation is not magical.

I think that the opposite is also true. Many people come to the DIS and read about less-than-magical experiences and then key in on similar issues when they go to WDW. You read about how horrible the cheerleader and quinceañera groups are so you key on them on your visit, allowing any mildly bad behavior to ruin your day.

My thoughts exactly. I have never been to Disney and had an issue with a CM. I think they really work hard to make each person's day as magical as possible. Some guests do have an entitlement attitude and perhaps that interferes with the special feeling that so many enjoy at Disney.

I agree with this. Only one time did I have a mildly disagreeable conversation with a cast member. Honestly, All of the angst was caused by me and the cast member was great in resolving my problem.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Sadly, no

 

[Ashes8380]

I've had overwhelmingly good experiences while at WDW. I can only think of one CM who rubbed me the wrong way, and it was nothing major, just a little irritating. As far as other guests, they're hit or miss, but I'm not going to waste my vacation analyzing it. I've never had another guest impact my trip directly, so I just let it go. That's not to say I haven't seen obnoxious things.

I do think CMs bear the brunt of rude guests though. I'll never forget one trip I was in AK, and this was before everyone had digital cameras. I didn't realize my camera only had 2 pictures left on the one roll of film, so I opted to get another roll at AK. Obviously it was super overpriced, but I could have gone back to the hotel and gotten my film if I wanted. So I bought a roll from a cart and paid, thanked her like I would at any other store. Polite, but nothing out of the norm. The CM, who was the SWEETEST woman, proceeded to thank me for being nice and then told my mom I was the most polite customer she'd seen in months and told her she did a good job raising me and I think I was at least 20 years old at the time

Things like that make you think about how many rude people you must run into though...

 

[ols386]

But remember we (customers) have gotten outrageously rude also. How many of us go through the check out line, cell phone glued to ear and fling items at the cashier? And god forbid she has to interrupt us to ask a simple question or better yet God forbid people actually have to stop yaking long enough to figure out how the cc swipy thing works.
Then we get an attitude when some thing rings up higher and we didn't catch it.

I laugh when I read of all the vents on the dis about guest who didn't get the exact room view they wanted because I can only imagine how they reacted at the resort. Sorry, CM's have my full sympathy. I have seen guest explode because of room views (even though they only paid for standard view).
My neighbors daughter was (she just graduated) in the college program at WDW. then she became a mousekeeper at one of the deluxes. She tells us all the time about moms who literally curse her out why? NO towel animals.

I always tell her to leave the room filthy with a couple of towel animals on the bed.

And again, we get back to..'this is their job, if they do not like dealing with the public then they should look for other employment'. I'm not saying that the public should be rude to cm's, grocery-store cashiers, etc., but when dealing with the public, this is part of the job.

You tell your neighbor's daughter to leave the room dirty? Why would you tell her that? Unless you were just kidding her.

I do think people in general have a shorter fuse than in previous years gone by. I'm not sure if it's a sense on entitlement or just stress levels.

 

[bicker]

And again, we get back to..'this is their job, if they do not like dealing with the public then they should look for other employment'.

Why should they? Their priority should be to do what is best for their family. Period. If that means doing a job that they don't particularly like, or a job that they're not particularly good at, that's not an overriding concern. Some of us have the luxury of choosing a job based on parameters like that. I took a $30,000 cut in pay to go from a job I didn't like to one I did like, but not everyone has that kind of flexibility, or can afford to take that kind of hit to their family's bottom-line.

No: It is never the employee's responsibility to ensure that they're the best person for a job. It is the employee's responsibility to ensure that the job is the best job for them. So I feel your criticism is misdirected. The most logical direction to redirect your criticism is at the employer (and I have to wonder, for folks who are blaming the employees, only, why they don't blame the employer... but that's neither here nor there.)

With regard to the employer, they have many requirements and limitations to deal with, not just the one that you might care most about. They need to balance all of these various considerations, and make the decisions that best serve the long-term interests of their organization.

The term "best" often implies the need for compromise, which in turn often implies that not everything will be optimal... that sometimes the right decision does not resemble achievement of perfection with regard to an individual concern. And one of the most insidious aspects of this, from an employer's standpoint, is that there isn't a cadre of qualified, perfectly professional customer service agents standing by, ready to work for wages commensurate with what the customers are willing to provide sufficient financial incentive to the company to provide.

We consumers talk a good game, when it comes to service, but more often than we're willing to admit, we'll choose the low-cost provider, without much regard to customer service. That has put us on a downward spiral. Way too often, when a company cuts costs a lot and cuts prices a little, customers flock to that company's products or services. Its maddening to watch happen.

 

[Rora]

I still love it as much as always and have never in my 100+ visits have I had a bad experience with a cast member. I enjoy all of the new attractions that come along and seeing smiles on everyone's faces. In my opinion the only difference I have noticed is the unhappiness of the guests because so many people seemed determined to be in a bad mood.

This.

 

[ols386]

Why should they? Their priority should be to do what is best for their family. Period. If that means doing a job that they don't particularly like, or a job that they're not particularly good at, that's not an overriding concern. Some of us have the luxury of choosing a job based on parameters like that. I took a $30,000 cut in pay to go from a job I didn't like to one I did like, but not everyone has that kind of flexibility, or can afford to take that kind of hit to their family's bottom-line.

No: It is never the employee's responsibility to ensure that they're the best person for a job. It is the employee's responsibility to ensure that the job is the best job for them. So I feel your criticism is misdirected. The most logical direction to redirect your criticism is at the employer (and I have to wonder, for folks who are blaming the employees, only, why they don't blame the employer... but that's neither here nor there.)

With regard to the employer, they have many requirements and limitations to deal with, not just the one that you might care most about. They need to balance all of these various considerations, and make the decisions that best serve the long-term interests of their organization.

The term "best" often implies the need for compromise, which in turn often implies that not everything will be optimal... that sometimes the right decision does not resemble achievement of perfection with regard to an individual concern. And one of the most insidious aspects of this, from an employer's standpoint, is that there isn't a cadre of qualified, perfectly professional customer service agents standing by, ready to work for wages commensurate with what the customers are willing to provide sufficient financial incentive to the company to provide.

We consumers talk a good game, when it comes to service, but more often than we're willing to admit, we'll choose the low-cost provider, without much regard to customer service. That has put us on a downward spiral. Way too often, when a company cuts costs a lot and cuts prices a little, customers flock to that company's products or services. Its maddening to watch happen.

It is both the employee's and employer's responsibility to assure that the employee is doing their job correctly....which includes not being rude to guests (and I'm CERTAINLY not saying that ALL cm's are being rude, probably a very small percentage). If the employee is having a problem with any aspect of their job, then the employer needs to address that with the employee, and find a way to resolve it. But don't tell me that it is ok for the cm to be rude to a guest. If you beleive that, then I don't know what to tell you.

I happen to believe that customer service ranks right up there at the top. This includes being polite and helpful to guests.

 

[bicker]

It is the employer's sole responsibility to make sure that the job is done well. The employee's responsibility is to ensure they do well for themselves and their family, and typically that includes doing the job well, but as your second sentence clearly indicated, the employer is the proper target for unhappy customers, not the employee, and the employer's situation is as I described it above: It is not as simple as just saying "make it good". There are real complexities to this issue that cannot be trivialized.

But don't tell me that it is ok for the cm to be rude to a guest.

I wouldn't say that. However, we know that different people are better at making customers feel good about their experiences than others, and better than others at controlling their responses to customers when they're placed in a stressful situation. We're talking about human beings, not machines. It isn't just a matter of changing the programming, removing the "rudeness" sub-routine.

If you beleive that, then I don't know what to tell you.

And my point to you is that if you think the situation is as simplistic as you made it out to be, "then I don't know what to tell you."

I happen to believe that customer service ranks right up there at the top.

I think most people, when asked, would, but our actual behaviors, in the marketplace, belie that claim. While any one individual may exhibit the behaviors that would appropriately incentivize better service instead of worse service, the general case is clearly the opposite.

 

[devmer]

I was just at WDW this December and we had a great time but the one thing I noticed was at the beginning of the week everything was great. However by about wed I started noticing really rude people and started getting annoyed by all these rude people. I realized that most of the problem was me. By wed and later I was getting more tired. My feet were sore at the beginning of the day rather then the end with all the walking. The kids were a little more whiny than usual because they were tired too. Things that I didn't let bother me at the beginning of the week were bothering me now, and my attitude wasn't so good. Disney is a lot of walking and exercise and the more tired I got the worse my attitude got. Once I realized what I was doing it was easier to get my good attitude back and not let things bother me so much. All of the rude people I observed were other guests and not CM's though.

 

[landshark]

While I haven't been to WDW nearly as much as many people, the few times I've gone I've never seen CMs acting as badly as some people report. Maybe I have, but it's apparently not worth remembering. I remember some mediocre service from our waiter at Coral Reef this last trip, but it wasn't a big deal--we just tipped him less and went on about our day. There was also the TTA CM who reprimanded us for for stepping over a chain so we didn't have to walk all the way around (it was walk-on so we weren't cutting), but I can understand we were probably asking for that one. Otherwise, everyone I talked to over the phone or anywhere else on property has been incredibly nice and, where necessary, very accommodating and willing to help.

I think guests have incredibly high expectations and forget their manners. Disney is a great place and service is far better than a lot of places, but just think of all the people you interact with in your every day life. Many of the cashiers, etc. you encounter are just as nice as CMs and only have the power to do so much (also helps when you don't chew them out over something petty...). Don't take your problems to Disney and then take it out on CMs or other guests. CMs are there to help--not hand out stuff guests think they're entitled to just because someone else said they got something.

Yes, employees in the customer service industry should try to always present a nice front, but they're human and have bad days and have to deal with rude customers. If a CM is anything less than nice, there's no reason to be rude and then say that the service has gotten worse. It's a generalization and I can bet it's a very small percentage of CMs who are like that. It's human nature and I don't doubt that there always have been and always will be CMs who aren't "perfect", you likely just don't encounter them as often, if ever. Be polite when you do--you may never see that CM ever again, but a simple "thank you" or smile may turn their attitude around for when they interact with another guest. Unless this is behavior you encounter from every single CM you talk to, I seriously would not worry about it.

 

[GeorgeG]

I have to agree that much of the problem stems from guests expecting far too much from hard-working CMs. I'm sure it's almost impossible for even the best CM to maintain a great attitude in the face of some of the obnoxious guests I have seen. The Disney magic is a combined effort.

 

[eliza61]

And again, we get back to..'this is their job, if they do not like dealing with the public then they should look for other employment'. I'm not saying that the public should be rude to cm's, grocery-store cashiers, etc., but when dealing with the public, this is part of the job.

You tell your neighbor's daughter to leave the room dirty? Why would you tell her that? Unless you were just kidding her.I do think people in general have a shorter fuse than in previous years gone by. I'm not sure if it's a sense on entitlement or just stress levels.

So your saying that because they work with the Public they have to take abuse. Sorry no way. to expect any human being to tolerate abuse and mistreatment is one step away from slavery. Actually with the wages most of these jobs pay, I probably would call it that.

That's like saying it's ok to be shot and killed because your a cop. NO one should have to tolerate it.

I tell my neighbors kid that to highlight the absurdity and stupidity of some of the guest and yes a profound sense of entitlement of some guest. She was a Magna cum laude student, she pretty much had sense enough not to jepordize her job. Yes, I fully think that berating a housekeeper because you didn't get a towel animal warrants me leaving the towel animal in a dirty room and that might be one reason I would last probably 1/2 day at the job.LOL Because I am a maid does not mean under any circumstance will I allow you to abuse me or treat me like a dog and the first guest that did would truly have a trip to remember.

And you can't convince me these people are polite. I see it right here on the Dis.
Remember the dreams contest disney held. How many bent out of shape guest posted "I went to Disney 500 times this year and the prize patrol never awarded me a prize".
I can attest to seeing guest flip out because they cannot swim at the pool at teh beach club because they are not staying at the Beach club.
It Always starts with "I paid a zillion dollars for this vacation, why can't I swim here and usually involves language not postable here. Uhm because the rules state (very clearly) that pools are reserved for guest staying at said hotel.

I'm the girl who posted last week to give the airline workers a break. My friend works for American, she was dang near beat up by irate passengers who wanted to fly in the middle of a 'freakin blizzard. So she deserves that because she works with the public? Gimme a break. and yes we joked how it would be nice to put the idiots who "had" to get on a plane with 24 inches of snow, on the plane and let them fly. Unfortunately it's usually some poor service worker who has to bail out the lovely customer when they then need rescueing from their own stupidity.

 

[ols386]

So your saying that because they work with the Public they have to take abuse. Sorry no way. to expect any human being to tolerate abuse and mistreatment is one step away from slavery. Actually with the wages most of these jobs pay, I probably would call it that.

That's like saying it's ok to be shot and killed because your a cop. NO one should have to tolerate it.

I tell my neighbors kid that to highlight the absurdity and stupidity of some of the guest and yes a profound sense of entitlement of some guest. She was a Magna cum laude student, she pretty much had sense enough not to jepordize her job. Yes, I fully think that berating a housekeeper because you didn't get a towel animal warrants me leaving the towel animal in a dirty room and that might be one reason I would last probably 1/2 day at the job.LOL Because I am a maid does not mean under any circumstance will I allow you to abuse me or treat me like a dog and the first guest that did would truly have a trip to remember.

And you can't convince me these people are polite. I see it right here on the Dis.
Remember the dreams contest disney held. How many bent out of shape guest posted "I went to Disney 500 times this year and the prize patrol never awarded me a prize".
I can attest to seeing guest flip out because they cannot swim at the pool at teh beach club because they are not staying at the Beach club.
It Always starts with "I paid a zillion dollars for this vacation, why can't I swim here". Uhm because the rules state (very clearly) that pools are reserved for guest staying at said hotel.

Nope, don't think they should take abuse. There's a difference between a guest verbally abusing a cm....and a cm being rude or grumpy to a guest for no reason at all. Almost all of the cm's I've ever ran across, have been polite, friendly, and helpful. On the rare occasion that a cm might have been a bit rude, it wasn't because of anything I did. I didn't even make any kind of deal about it, I just went on my merry way.

Your statement about it being ok to be a cop and be shot, is hardly the same thing. You're taking it to another level when you make that statement. Just like your statement about slavery.

 

[ols386]

It is the employer's sole responsibility to make sure that the job is done well. The employee's responsibility is to ensure they do well for themselves and their family, and typically that includes doing the job well, but as your second sentence clearly indicated, the employer is the proper target for unhappy customers, not the employee, and the employer's situation is as I described it above: It is not as simple as just saying "make it good". There are real complexities to this issue that cannot be trivialized.

I wouldn't say that. However, we know that different people are better at making customers feel good about their experiences than others, and better than others at controlling their responses to customers when they're placed in a stressful situation. We're talking about human beings, not machines. It isn't just a matter of changing the programming, removing the "rudeness" sub-routine.

And my point to you is that if you think the situation is as simplistic as you made it out to be, "then I don't know what to tell you."

I think most people, when asked, would, but our actual behaviors, in the marketplace, belie that claim. While any one individual may exhibit the behaviors that would appropriately incentivize better service instead of worse service, the general case is clearly the opposite.

Of course some people are better at making customers feel good about their experiences than others. Yes, I know we're talking about human beings. But just because a cm has a bad experience with an irrate or demanding guest, doesn't mean that, if I happen to be the next guest that cm speaks to, that the cm should be rude or short with me, because of what just happened with another guest.

And you are making it more complicated that it actuallty is.

 

[bicker]

But just because a cm has a bad experience with an irrate or demanding guest, doesn't mean that, if I happen to be the next guest that cm speaks to, that the cm should be rude or short with me, because of what just happened with another guest.

No one said that the CM "should be" rude or short with you. Let's stick to replying to what folks are actually saying, please, instead of something easier to argue against. Thanks.

And you are making it more complicated that it actuallty is.

Well, no -- that's exactly what we're disagreeing about. I think I said pretty clearly in the message you replied to that the situation is not as simplistic as you made it out to be.

 

[ols386]

No one said that the CM "should be" rude or short with you. Let's stick to replying to what folks are actually saying, please, instead of something easier to argue against. Thanks.

Well, no -- that's exactly what we're disagreeing about. I think I said pretty clearly in the message you replied to that the situation is not as simplistic as you made it out to be.

Ok, I thought that's what we were discussing.

So if this isn't what we are discussing, please clarify exactly what we are discussing. You lost me. And BTW, I have to sign off for now, so if you reply, I didn't want ya to think I was just blowing you off.

 

[bicker]

Ok, I thought that's what we were discussing.

No; the folks arguing opposite your perspective are arguing for understanding why they do what they do, and for acknowledging the realities, and in my case, acknowledging the complexities -- we are not saying that the CM "should" do that.

 

[hedgehog2owl]

This was 10 years ago, so I don't know how it compares to today, but it was what was going through my mind as I read this thread.

Aug '99 we, my now-dh and I, went to the mk for a day. we didn't have a grand plan-didn't know people did that- but we did know we wanted to go to Frontierland first. Fastpass was brand new; in fact we just heard about it that very morning, on the Disney resort tv station at our non-Disney resort.

So rope drop..we are next to a woman and her boy (7). She is whispering frantic instructions to him. were to go how to do it which thing to grab. She was actually sounding like alot of the touring plans I hear about on these boards!
So the rope drops, she runs with her son chanting "fastpass fastpass FASTPASS!" over and over again in some sort of frantic frenzy. In fact my dh and I often say "fastpass fastpass fastpass!!!" to each other when we refer to somebody going off the deep end--this woman made that big of an impression
Well because of bottlenecks, we found ourselves next to them again. She tried to cut across something, I can't remember, and a CM blocked her way. She was quite rude to him. She actually shouted something like "This park is full of communists!" in his face before she ran on to Big Thunder to grab her fastpass presumably.
We went to Splash, glad to lose sight of her. We rode them headed to Big Thunder. Well somehow we ended up behind them in line. She was again talking frantically to her son about how they would do this this this and this, head to this water park, head to the resort for nap, return and exactly this time for parade.....

I remember thinking "wow they get to spend more than 1 day, how lucky!" Then, as if she'd read my mind, she turned around and faced me. I was thinking don't hit me! I thought I'd gotten too close to her or something and she was going to tell me to back off. But to my surprise she looked at me and gave me a pleasant smile and asked me if I was having a good time. Wow I almost fell over!
We did see them at evening parade time. Walking down the middle of main street with her whole family RIGHT before they closed it, and everybody was already lined up. I know she had some super secret place to watch that allowed her see perfect!

Well what's my point? I don't know but I wrote it all out so I guess I will post it. She seemed unhappy, yet she wasn't. I guess?

FTR the CMs at Universal on that trip were 1 million times less magical than Disney. Disney was awesome and magical...even if the thing I remember most was the scary woman.

 

[Planogirl]

I don't think that they are overall as friendly as they were at one time. But how could they be? Morale is bound to take a hit when people lose their jobs and also the public in general is getting ruder and ruder. I don't blame them for the change unless something happens that's extreme.

As for Universal, I personally find them to be as nice as Disney CM's nowadays. I keep in mind that many of those who work for Universal worked at WDW at one time. It could have something to do with expectations though. I expect nothing so when they are nice or amusing it's wonderful. Some people see rudeness everywhere or only at certain places however and will never even notice the nice people.

It's still fun to go though. I personally just keep more to myself.

 

[eliza61]

Nope, don't think they should take abuse. There's a difference between a guest verbally abusing a cm....and a cm being rude or grumpy to a guest for no reason at all. Almost all of the cm's I've ever ran across, have been polite, friendly, and helpful. On the rare occasion that a cm might have been a bit rude, it wasn't because of anything I did. I didn't even make any kind of deal about it, I just went on my merry way.

Your statement about it being ok to be a cop and be shot, is hardly the same thing. You're taking it to another level when you make that statement. Just like your statement about slavery.

On the contrary, I think the premise is very much the same. We use the excuse "will they should expect XXXX" because they work at XXXX to justify the bad behaviour.

Why do you think people go into retail stores and act up. Because we as a society tolerate it. Most people know if they go to a retail store and scream and holler 90% of the time regardless of store policy they will get their way.

People know if they go to Disney and even if the paid for a standard view, they will march to the front desk and the fun begins and pity the poor CM who stands up and says "I'm sorry, you got exactly what you paid for" (a bit more diplomatic than me of course)

NO one, no matter what your occupation, doctor, lawyer, butcher, baker maid or Indian chief should expect any thing but respect and decency when they step into their job.

And I'm not buying the "you shouldn't be in customer service if you don't want to be abused" line. That's bull.