Is Disney still as friendly as years ago?

[disneydreamersx4]

My DH friend made a comment the other day that he feels Disney is not as friendly a place as it once was. He has gone 16 times. I hope he is wrong.

 

[eliza61]

My DH friend made a comment the other day that he feels Disney is not as friendly a place as it once was. He has gone 16 times. I hope he is wrong.

Some times I think Disney suffers from really high, unrealistic expectations. We really believe that once you pass those gates the pixie dust automatically makes every one happy. You have to remember that Disney is staffed by real live members of John Q. Public and that visitors that come to the "Happiest place in the world" often bring their very real "unhappy problems" with them.

Your friend probably ran across a few cm's having a bad day or maybe a few guest who were not so "magical". I'm a firm believer that I see way more guest behaving badly than employees.
I remember a guest calling the cm at Tony's TS a "Fat, immigrant $%$itch" and the poor women almost in tears. The reason? She couldn't get seated because she had no adr. I remember thinking to myself, Now how is this women supposed to have a good day?


I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Melrosgirl]

On our trip last month, we ran into many unpleasant CM's (and lots of unpleasant guests, too). Even my 12 year old pointed it out ( and that's saying something!).

 

[LuvOrlando]

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.

I've been to WDW about 14 times and now it is an uphill battle to get my DH to agree to go. We used to love to go. At this point I think I go because of how I remember it and, not because of how it is. My DH is only going for me and when I ask why he says it's because they NEVER EVER change, it's like living in the Groundhog Day movie.

I really wanted to buy the DVC but can't justify it any more because DH is sort of right. Realistically, I will not drag my poor DH off to a place he no longer enjoys for his limited vacation from work year after year. Even my kids are looking to other places, like the NJ Shore, instead.

It's a shame that they've made the place such a cash cow.

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.

 

[Angelhalo]

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.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I don't think going anywhere it is as friednly as it used to be. You go to teh supermarket and the cahsier dosen't make eye contact or speak to you at all anymore.

 

[rie'smom]

I love WDW and have been going since 1973. There is a big difference in CM's attitude. They aren't as friendly as they used to be. You would never ever see a CM not smiling. That said, guests have changed as well. You would never have seen an adult guest having a temper tantrum because something wan't going their way. People used manners and so were considerate of each other. Now, you might get mowed down. It's almost like road rage in some instances.

 

[luvsJack]

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.

I would think that Disney being Disney, they are trained the same way as they have always been but the public is a lot harder to deal with and gets harder every day.

And of course there is also the issue of the shear number of people they have to deal with--that's changed over the years too.

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.

 

[luvsJack]

I don't think going anywhere it is as friednly as it used to be. You go to teh supermarket and the cahsier dosen't make eye contact or speak to you at all anymore.

This is so true! I walk away from the cashiers all the time saying "your welcome!" hoping to remind them that they should say "thank you". Same thing in fast food, at the drive thru window you can't even get a "thank you" or "do you need ketchup"!

 

[eliza61]

This is so true! I walk away from the cashiers all the time saying "your welcome!" hoping to remind them that they should say "thank you". Same thing in fast food, at the drive thru window you can't even get a "thank you" or "do you need ketchup"!

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.

 

[Tink888]

In some ways I think it's a little less friendly. I think it's a combination of CMs and guests. It has never prevented me from having a great time there. I kind of think that if you go to WDW with the attitude that you're going to have a great time, you will because you don't notice the bad things as much.

I have definitely seen a difference in the CM interaction with guests and a CM who wasn't very magical but even with that observation we still come back from every trip with moments of how a CM made our trip even better.

WDW is such a magical place and it's easy to hold onto the idea that the people who work there are magical too (and sometimes they are) but at the end of the day, they're people just like us, doing a job. Rude guests and corporate changes sometimes take a toll. You might see an occasional CM who is just bad at what they do but for the most part, the majority of them are still pretty great. IMHO

 

[freckles and boo]

It's a shame that they've made the place such a cash cow.

And of course there is also the issue of the shear number of people they have to deal with--that's changed over the years too.

I think this has LOT to do with it. I am not always feeling all that magical when I am elbow to elbow with the rest of humanity. They have gone crazy with the marketing and trying to pack the parks at all times. When every aspect of your trip is a hassle the magic dries up pretty quickly. And as a shareholder, I don't see this paying off on the other end. While I don't take it out on other people, I have been frustrated by waiting an hour to dine even though I have a reservation, watching packed buses drive past me, standing in line for 75 minutes for rides. None of that is fun and having fun is why we go. Disney World is often a victim of its own success.

 

[bicker]

First, I think everything needs to be looked at in context. Disney's customer service has always be a significant portion better than the average, and that's still the case, though the average itself has indeed plummeted (for a variety of good reasons, not the least of which is that there has been too big of an increase in the number of consumers who don't value customer service as much, as has been the case in the past).

Second, I want to echo Eliza's point that expectations, and how they're applied, could be partially to blame. I remember a few years ago, in one of the descriptions of Whispering Canyon, someone realized that they needed to add something along the lines of, "Please don't expect that all of these great things to all happen for you during your visit." In a way, what happened with Whispering Canyon typifies the problem: One of the things that makes magic magical is that it is not routine, standard, consistent. Expecting every bit of magic to happen on cue, every time, reliably, is not magical. Another aspect of the expectations issue is that people tend to remember the good and forget the bad, so comparisons to what was, in the past, tend to be rosier than the reality was.

I don't think it is one or the other, but a combination of both.

 

[snapppyd]

We were just there in December, for probably our 30th time. I find if you treat the CM's as real people they respond in kind. Everyone we dealt with was wonderful. (We stay at the Beach Club, non DVC)

I think I had one bad experience, and that was with one of the boat captains. We ran down the dock at Hollywood Studios and he slammed the doors in our faces.

It's just my opinion, but I think boards such as this create all kinds of expectations that can't always be met. Someone posts about an upgrade, a towel animal, etc. and a lot of people go there "expecting" the same. It doesn't all always happen for everyone.

I think the magic has to be in your own heart.

 

[kimmar067]

Your friend probably ran across a few cm's having a bad day or maybe a few guest who were not so "magical". I'm a firm believer that I see way more guest behaving badly than employees.
I remember a guest calling the cm at Tony's TS a "Fat, immigrant $%$itch" and the poor women almost in tears. The reason? She couldn't get seated because she had no adr. I remember thinking to myself, Now how is this women supposed to have a good day?....

 

[kimmar067]

We were just there in December, for probably our 30th time. I find if you treat the CM's as real people they respond in kind. Everyone we dealt with was wonderful. (We stay at the Beach Club, non DVC)

I think I had one bad experience, and that was with one of the boat captains. We ran down the dock at Hollywood Studios and he slammed the doors in our faces.

It's just my opinion, but I think boards such as this create all kinds of expectations that can't always be met. Someone posts about an upgrade, a towel animal, etc. and a lot of people go there "expecting" the same. It doesn't all always happen for everyone.

I think the magic has to be in your own heart.

...nicely put.......guess THIS gets me out of sending you a home-made card now, eh???

 

[DisneyNutMary]

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.

The people I talk to who go to WDW without ever having read a message board, or who do read message boards, but carry low expectations, always seem to come back and brag about what a great vacation they how, and how helpful and nice thge CMs were. Yet, oddly, they also seem to note how rude other guests were, or how other guests seemed to walk around with an over inflated sense of entitlement, which caused them to have more empathy for the CMs and to appreciate them more.

 

[alamode]

Personally I think a lot of this has to do with selective memory. All the rides that Disney removes instantly become "classics", even though there were never lines at them to begin with.

This isn't just for Disney, people in general want to believe that "the good old days" were perfect. Every family was like the Cleavers, Brady's or Huxtables.

I say enjoy what you have now and embrace the future. You can have fond memories of the past, but most of the time you make you memories fit whatever feeling you want them to have.

Just my 2 cents (Canadian).

 

[snapppyd]

...nicely put.......guess THIS gets me out of sending you a home-made card now, eh???

 

[Lionqueen2]

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.

I would think that Disney being Disney, they are trained the same way as they have always been but the public is a lot harder to deal with and gets harder every day.

And of course there is also the issue of the shear number of people they have to deal with--that's changed over the years too.

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.

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.