Just back 1/22/23- a few observations about recently discussed topics

[Pooh's World]

If that is the culture, doesn't sound like a culture I'd want any part of. So fed up with polite, rule following people getting mistreated and low lifes getting rewarded for their poor behavior. Company leadership complains about staffing shortages - well duh! Why should anyone continue working at a place (theme park, restaurant, etc) that doesn't support them and allows customer to whine, get their bratty way, and treat staff like crap when there are so many other employment options? Just try pulling this crap in a hospital or doctor's office or bank.

Well Brazil has alot of corruption, inequality, and nothing seems to work, so if you follow the rules you often won't get anywhere. You have to be clever to beat the corrupt system.

It's kind of like the diving in soccer. Most uneducated Americans think everyone in soccer does that. But it's actually the Latin American and Latin European countries that do that for the most part. It's being clever/great acting to trick the ref into being awarded a foul or penalty. The Northern and Western European, African and Asian countries did not participate in that style for the longest time and most still don't do those diving theatrics.

Of course our country seems to be headed in that direction. You can already see it with all the people who jump the turnstiles without paying in subway systems across the nation. This has become a huge problem in the last year or two.

 

[Pooh's World]

Coincidentally there was a high percentage of South Americans in the park, there always is in January and there was a big soccer thing in Citywalk that week with a game on a big screen and a ton of people watching that I believe was some sort of separate ticket event so I don't know if that may have caused an upswing in the foreign visitors that particular week.

That was the NBC Premier League Fan Fest. It was a free event but there was a limited number of tickets that sold out.
Those at the fan fest were mostly American or live in this country.

 

[keishashadow]

Many WDW guests have jumped ship and morphed over to U for a myriad of reasons

Stands to reason the infamous tour groups would do the same

There are cameras everywhere. Not difficult to maintain order if adequately staffed and trained. It used to be line jumping in the parks was grounds for getting tossed, if not banned outright

Could be U was caught (literally) off guard over the recent holiday surge in guests.

For those that do encounter this, you really need to visit guest services and share your experience so that it is documented. Enough times and they’ll step it up, guests and employees deserve to have a safe experience in the parks

 

[ksdaveb2003]

I can tell you it is not just the theme parks experiencing these incredibly rude and entitled people who are being way over the top. I see it every month on my cruises. Does not matter which cruise line, which port, etc. I see those poor cruise ship workers who work 12-hours a day, seven days a week for 8-12 months at a time being screamed at and cursed at by people upset that their food isn't perfect or their drinks have too much ice. These cruise ship workers make as little as $700/month and are treated like dirt by so many of these passengers since the post-pandemic restart.

 

[Kellydelly]

Interesting to see the parks being crowded that long after the holidays. We are headed to Orlando the weekend of Easter for a college dance team competition and my husband doesn't understand why I have no interest in going to Universal. I'm assuming it will be crazy with spring break crowds. We were last there the week after Thanksgiving 2019 and the crowds were not bad at all.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

I can tell you it is not just the theme parks experiencing these incredibly rude and entitled people who are being way over the top. I see it every month on my cruises. Does not matter which cruise line, which port, etc. I see those poor cruise ship workers who work 12-hours a day, seven days a week for 8-12 months at a time being screamed at and cursed at by people upset that their food isn't perfect or their drinks have too much ice. These cruise ship workers make as little as $700/month and are treated like dirt by so many of these passengers since the post-pandemic restart.

Ugh. Soon it will be difficult to find who will even want to take these jobs because people won't want to deal with people.

 

[ruthies12]

We were there last week and felt the same way. Too many rude people everywhere - waiting in line to get into the park, waiting in the attraction lines, waiting for food, literally pushing to get ahead in line.

Our main goal was to ride Woody Woodpecker on its last day of operation Sunday, 1/15/23. We were able to ride it, but trying to navigate the crowds and parks left us feeling defeated.

We figured we'd give it a try again on Thursday hoping for a better experience (considering that we previously visited the Sunday of a holiday weekend), but we left after about 4 hours. Our passes expired this past Monday and we're not renewing them. We're going to wait until they finish building the new park, and visit a year or two after opening.

Well sorry to hear you had the same bad experience but glad to hear it wasn't just me being overly critical.

Navigating the parks was terrible but I mostly thought it was crazy that there were even lines for the womens bathrooms everywhere. Like there are usually lines in Hogsmeade cause that gets crowded and it's not that big of a bathroom, but there were lines at most of the bathrooms we tried to go to all throughout the park. I was in line at a bathroom in the front of the park on the US side, those ones in the tunnel by guest services, and a whole group of teenage girls cut the line. The lady in front of me told them that was rude and they all laughed at her. Then they kept saying things in another language (I'm not sure which language, I only took French and German in high school and I can say for sure it was not one of those) and kept pointing at her and laughing more. They had an adult with them who was also smiling the whole time and giving that lady a kind of smirk.

That was the NBC Premier League Fan Fest. It was a free event but there was a limited number of tickets that sold out.
Those at the fan fest were mostly American or live in this country.

Thanks, I don't know about soccer leagues so wasn't sure about that, just know it is a more popular sport outside of America so didn't know if that was something that would actually draw people in.

Its terrible to hear about the cruises being bad too. I think I will write to guest services about our experience but I'm not sure there is a whole lot they can do in these cases. Ride line cutting is one thing they can try to control but I can't see them feasibly being able to staff bathroom lines and food lines and all the walkways. The only thing they can do is limit ticket sales and admission but I doubt they want to. But they do need more security guards around, I so badly wanted to say something to those girls and the adult with them in the bathroom line but was too afraid that they were the type of people to take it to a physical confrontation level and wasn't willing to ruin my whole day (and possibly trip) over it.

 

[spewey]

I don't want to stereotype either ... and I know there's a ton of threads about the South American tour groups ... but thought I'd share my experience with them.

This was over 20 years ago, at Busch Gardens Tampa. My wife and I took a last-minute two-day January trip down to Florida to escape the Canadian cold. In line at Montu (one of their signature coasters at the time) we saw a group of 30 or so young people just walk right past everyone in the queue, hop over some railings, and head up to the line for the front row (where my wife and I were waiting). Several cut right in front of us.

Now, I've seen this before, but usually at smaller parks, and usually from people you would think twice about confronting (ie rowdy, or even drunken guests). But this group seemed otherwise harmless, happy and smiling. Although we were used to Cedar Point, where as others have mentioned this sort of behaviour is simply not tolerated. AT ALL. To the point where they (or they used to, haven't been in a few years) station a CP police officer or two on a catwalk overlooking some of their busier lines, especially at night, ready to haul any line jumpers out, right to the park exit.

So, I thought I'd say something. Politely, not confrontationally. I spoke to the young woman directly in front of us and pointed out we (and many others) were there before them, they cut right in front of us, and should have waited their turn. Her response - to both me and my wife - seemed 100% genuine. She looked confused for a second. Then she looked around at the queue. Then she looked contrite, and explained they were from Brazil, where everyone just sort of runs to the front of the line, and that's considered OK, as it's expected, and everyone understands. I said I get that, but here it's different, and you shouldn't jump over rails or walk past others already waiting.

Again, no animus, just a friendly conversation. But the next part is what is remarkable - she stood up on the queue railing (probably shouldn't have done that) and yelled at her friends (in Portuguese), and waved them all out to the back of the line. She then apologized to me, and said now they knew, and it wouldn't happen again.

We saw the same group several times throughout the day, and she always smiled and waved at us. So, for us anyway, it ended up being a nice memory.

 

[xipotec]

It's not just one group, it's more people in general acting more entitled and rude.
Kudos for being kind to the CMs, we try to thank each by name whenever possible. They make the experience and much as the rides and themes.

Retail worker will tell you people came out of Covid more self centered and entitled than ever….

 

[MousetersInc]

@Pooh's World I overlapped with your visit! We were in Universal the 14th-16th, and Disney 17th-18th. It was our first time at Universal and only our second at Disney, and our previous Disney trip was 2019 spring break. So I can temper your experience with our starry-eyed one; we had a great time!

I had been tempted to pull the kids out of school and visit on a week like this present one, probably very low traffic, but I just couldn't justify skipping that much school. But I figured that if we have to use a school break, MLK was going to be the best one—way lower crowds than spring break or summer. And our experiences throughout the trip hand me patting myself on the back and thinking I made the right choice. Our only other point of comparison is spring break at Disney, and this was so much better!

On Saturday the 14th it was really cold, like 40. We got the same "2 days free" promo; we had initially planned to arrive on the 14th and just relax in the hotel, but we got in at 7pm and went straight into Diagon Alley. It wasn't deserted, but it was very sparse. You could have waltzed your way through it! And I'm well aware that at times (including some times the following days) you have to crowd-surf. So although the HP lands were plenty cozy over the next couple of days, I'm glad we got those hours. We walked onto Gringott's (well, after waiting a bit while it was down). The downside was it was really freaking cold.

While the Sunday and MLK-Monday were heavier traffic, we had our ExpressPasses, and never really had to wait for anything except Hagrid and Velocicoaster. We rope-dropped them and got something like 45' for Velo and 90' for Hagrid, which seems pretty good overall. And while congestion in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley was a bit challenging, all the rest of the parks were much less concentrated, and it was all less than what we experienced in Fantasy Land in spring break 2019 (or at least, that's how I remember it). (Meanwhile, the Disney crowds on the following Tue and Wed were lighter as well, as the holiday was over.)

I certainly noticed the Brazilian tour groups in Disney; I didn't see them moving as an organism in Universal, but I think I saw individuals who had split off of them. I noticed a couple of backpacks marked with "NewIT" in Universal, and wondered what the connection was; once we got to Disney we saw them moving as a big parade, with group leaders, penants, and massive hills of backpacks outside rides with somebody watching them. Googling "NewIT Brazil," it makes sense—and note that you might want to avoid "Carnival in Orlando" Feb 16-25!

Meanwhile I'm happy to say I didn't notice any outstanding rudeness—or rather, the one time I did, I'm ashamed to say I was part of the problem. That should be its own post.

 

[tony67]

This exact same discussion has been going on for over a decade on the Disney side of the forums.

Same thing every January - the tour groups - sometimes its South America - some times its Pop Warner

Traveling around Europe I find it is any tour group German, American, English, Spanish, Italian - they are always a headache

In addition we have larger crowds at Universal now than ever before because they are skipping Disney or doing less Disney - and they are trying to cram everything in on a two day ticket.

Then there is Covid - people got generally ruder during covid IMO - driving worse acting worse... and there is less staff

So all this together in January the peek time for tour groups from SA and makes for an unpleasant experience I am sure

 

[disny_luvr]

I'm new to Universal and learning everything. Can you please explain a little more about the vouchers? I see you mentioned something about not needing one to eat breakfast at Leaky Caldron, but is there a chance I will need them for my trip in June and how do I go about getting them?

 

[ruthies12]

@disny_luvr So in the past you could just walk up and eat breakfast at Leaky Cauldron or Three Broomsticks. Then at some point around the time of the start of COVID, I'm not exactly sure when, they went to a pre-purchased voucher system. I've been on many trips to USO and only one time was I turned away at the door for not having a voucher. I want to say that was 2 years ago, it was right around when velocicoaster opened. It was an odd occurrence, we'd never heard of breakfast vouchers before and nobody in the restaurant including the manager and nobody at customer service could tell us how to get one and they absolutely refused to let us in for breakfast without one.

Fast forward to my next trip and I had found out from these boards that you can get a voucher at the vacation planning desk of your UO hotel. Ever since getting turned away I've gone to that desk and purchased the vouchers to make sure we get in. Sometimes they ask for it at the door of the restaurant, sometimes they don't, there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as far as I can see. Maybe somebody else has more info but if the breakfast is important to you then I would suggest you get vouchers when you get to your hotel. I believe if you've purchased a ticket/hotel package then you can purchase breakfast vouchers ahead of your trip, otherwise you have to do it at the hotel. Not going to swear to that info though, I could be wrong cause I never buy packages, I always do hotel and ticket separate.

I thought for sure being there on a holiday weekend they would be limiting seating at the restaurants and requiring the vouchers again, but nope, they were letting everybody in and asking at the cash register if you had a voucher or were using a credit card. hence why I say no rhyme or reason to the voucher system lol

 

[Smugpugmug]

I thought for sure being there on a holiday weekend they would be limiting seating at the restaurants and requiring the vouchers again, but nope, they were letting everybody in and asking at the cash register if you had a voucher or were using a credit card. hence why I say no rhyme or reason to the voucher system lol

I ate at Three Broomsticks for breakfast the week of Christmas + NYE and I didn't have a voucher. No one asked about it and they seemed to be letting everyone in. I didn't even know you needed vouchers to eat there.

As for the topic being discussed, I've definitely seen an increase of rude behavior everywhere, not just at theme parks. In terms of theme parks, I do see more rude behavior at Disney but it's also an issue at Universal. In May, I even saw someone push a kid (they were 11-12, if I were to guess?) out of the way to get to Hagrid's during early park admission. A ride is not worth shoving people out of your way.

 

[MousetersInc]

I'm new to Universal and learning everything. Can you please explain a little more about the vouchers? I see you mentioned something about not needing one to eat breakfast at Leaky Caldron, but is there a chance I will need them for my trip in June and how do I go about getting them?

Note: while the Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks are absolutely "must-sees," there could be cautions about dedicating the breakfast hours to them. We just had a visit that had two mornings, and we had unlimited ExpressPass (by staying at a premier hotel). The beautiful thing about Universal's ExpressPass is that it covers almost everything, and takes no effort, unlike Disney's offerings. The catch is that there are two rides it doesn't cover, and they're both a shame to skip (unless your party doesn't meet height restrictions or you just don't like coasters). If you rope-drop Hagrids, you'll need your breakfast plan to be "something you eat in line," because you'll be lucky if you stand a mere 90 minutes (and it's worth it!). (Note, for Velocicoaster, you might actually find shorter times later in the day).

But even if not dedicating rope drop to one of these two rides—and especially if you're not using ExpressPass—the morning hours are your best chance to do the most (as well as park close). A leisurely sit-down breakfast might be a missed opportunity, as a ride that would have had a 20-minute wait at 9:30 becomes an hour at 10:30.

Note, also, the line for the Three Broomsticks gets very long at lunchtime. The best way to minimize your wait there is to eat at an unusual hour—e.g. eat something at the start of the day while standing in line, then a light "pre-lunch," e.g. kabobs outside Hogsmeade, at 11:00, then a late lunch at Three Broomsticks around 2 or 3. (Then you set yourself up well for an early dinner, saving wait time again!) Even at midmorning we found a considerable line, but it was much longer at noon.

 

[disny_luvr]

@disny_luvr So in the past you could just walk up and eat breakfast at Leaky Cauldron or Three Broomsticks. Then at some point around the time of the start of COVID, I'm not exactly sure when, they went to a pre-purchased voucher system. I've been on many trips to USO and only one time was I turned away at the door for not having a voucher. I want to say that was 2 years ago, it was right around when velocicoaster opened. It was an odd occurrence, we'd never heard of breakfast vouchers before and nobody in the restaurant including the manager and nobody at customer service could tell us how to get one and they absolutely refused to let us in for breakfast without one.

Fast forward to my next trip and I had found out from these boards that you can get a voucher at the vacation planning desk of your UO hotel. Ever since getting turned away I've gone to that desk and purchased the vouchers to make sure we get in. Sometimes they ask for it at the door of the restaurant, sometimes they don't, there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as far as I can see. Maybe somebody else has more info but if the breakfast is important to you then I would suggest you get vouchers when you get to your hotel. I believe if you've purchased a ticket/hotel package then you can purchase breakfast vouchers ahead of your trip, otherwise you have to do it at the hotel. Not going to swear to that info though, I could be wrong cause I never buy packages, I always do hotel and ticket separate.

I thought for sure being there on a holiday weekend they would be limiting seating at the restaurants and requiring the vouchers again, but nope, they were letting everybody in and asking at the cash register if you had a voucher or were using a credit card. hence why I say no rhyme or reason to the voucher system lol

This is good to know. I'll keep a lookout on this forum for any information on the vouchers, and will also check with my hotel when I check in. We are planning on eating at either Leaky Cauldron or Three Broomsticks.

 

[disny_luvr]

Note: while the Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks are absolutely "must-sees," there could be cautions about dedicating the breakfast hours to them. We just had a visit that had two mornings, and we had unlimited ExpressPass (by staying at a premier hotel). The beautiful thing about Universal's ExpressPass is that it covers almost everything, and takes no effort, unlike Disney's offerings. The catch is that there are two rides it doesn't cover, and they're both a shame to skip (unless your party doesn't meet height restrictions or you just don't like coasters). If you rope-drop Hagrids, you'll need your breakfast plan to be "something you eat in line," because you'll be lucky if you stand a mere 90 minutes (and it's worth it!). (Note, for Velocicoaster, you might actually find shorter times later in the day).

But even if not dedicating rope drop to one of these two rides—and especially if you're not using ExpressPass—the morning hours are your best chance to do the most (as well as park close). A leisurely sit-down breakfast might be a missed opportunity, as a ride that would have had a 20-minute wait at 9:30 becomes an hour at 10:30.

Note, also, the line for the Three Broomsticks gets very long at lunchtime. The best way to minimize your wait there is to eat at an unusual hour—e.g. eat something at the start of the day while standing in line, then a light "pre-lunch," e.g. kabobs outside Hogsmeade, at 11:00, then a late lunch at Three Broomsticks around 2 or 3. (Then you set yourself up well for an early dinner, saving wait time again!) Even at midmorning we found a considerable line, but it was much longer at noon.

These are great tips, thank you! We have booked a throw away room at Royal Pacific so we will have the Express Pass for two park days. I was planning on rope-dropping Hagrids, but I've read it often does not open first thing, so I'm not sure what time to plan on riding it. Should we still try rope-dropping? Before park close? Just watch the app and go on it when wait times drop? I don't know. We'll ride Velocicoaster, too, so maybe rope-drop that, although I think my boys will want to ride it when it is dark.

Thank you for the information about the lines at Three Broomsticks. Is one restaurant better than the other - Three Broomsticks/Leaky Cauldron?

 

[ruthies12]

@disny_luvr Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks are pretty much the same food imo. They have some slight differences. For some reason I prefer breakfast at Leaky Cauldron and dinner at Three Broomsticks but that's just personal preference not any real reason lol. I will add morning hours are also a great time to do spell spots without a bunch of people, especially at Diagon Alley right at opening since most people who qualify go for the early entry at IOA.

My trip was 9 days long with express the entire time and a member of the party with a disability pass to use at Hagrid's and velocicoaster so we didn't rope drop any rides so we didn't mind a long time at breakfast but if you have a shorter trip and limited mornings I will say the food isn't anything to write home about at breakfast to be honest. It's scrambled eggs or pancakes pre-plated lol. You definitely want to go for the atmosphere but I personally think the lunch and dinner offerings are much better food-wise. Even though I was there on a holiday I have pics of us in Diagon Alley with absolutely no one else in the pics cause we got there early and waited at the gate for regular opening and everyone else was rushing to rides. I'm not saying don't do breakfast, I'm just saying pick your priorities wisely!

 

[ruthies12]

As far as the rudeness goes I've been on these boards a long time too and I know it's always a discussion every year but there was truly something different this time. I liked the story about the young girl not realizing we do things differently and I wish that had been the case here. But the teen girls that cut the line at the bathroom and then laughed at the lady who said something to them knew exactly what they were doing. The guy that physically pushed me forward with his chest and the people that got threatening with the TM's at transformers were just plain shocking. What I witnessed that week was definitely up a notch from past experiences over many, many trips to both Disney and USO.

I forgot to add one thing in case anyone was interested in shutterbuttons- We wanted to do the DVD and one of the green screen shots. We went on the Saturday afternoon and were told they were only doing reservations for the DVD but you couldn't make the reservation there. It was like the stupid voucher situation all over again. You apparently have to book a reservation online but can only do so if you have a package booked. I don't know if it was just because of the holiday weekend or if it is always like that, I didn't ask. We were told if we came back at 6 pm we could do the DVD then. We ended up not making it back until just after 7 and they were closing at 8 so they would only do greenscreen pictures at that time, they wouldn't do the DVD. We went back the next day and made sure we got there at 6 pm and they did the DVD for us. So just something to be aware of planning wise if you wanted shutterbuttons.

 

[mom2rtk]

@disny_luvr Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks are pretty much the same food imo. They have some slight differences. For some reason I prefer breakfast at Leaky Cauldron and dinner at Three Broomsticks but that's just personal preference not any real reason lol. I will add morning hours are also a great time to do spell spots without a bunch of people, especially at Diagon Alley right at opening since most people who qualify go for the early entry at IOA.

My trip was 9 days long with express the entire time and a member of the party with a disability pass to use at Hagrid's and velocicoaster so we didn't rope drop any rides so we didn't mind a long time at breakfast but if you have a shorter trip and limited mornings I will say the food isn't anything to write home about at breakfast to be honest. It's scrambled eggs or pancakes pre-plated lol. You definitely want to go for the atmosphere but I personally think the lunch and dinner offerings are much better food-wise. Even though I was there on a holiday I have pics of us in Diagon Alley with absolutely no one else in the pics cause we got there early and waited at the gate for regular opening and everyone else was rushing to rides. I'm not saying don't do breakfast, I'm just saying pick your priorities wisely!

We were eligible for rope drop at IoA but didn't get to the area until 8:30, so opted to line up for rope drop at Universal. We had EP so didn't need to hustle over to Gringotts even. We rope dropped the Leaky Cauldron. The place was nearly empty and we loved it. Then stepped out into a nearly empty Diagon Alley. Did spells and took photos. It was chill and so much different from the shoulder to shoulder crowds the day before. We really enjoyed it.