Mean Cast Members

[PlutoLuvr]

We had an experience with a bag checker at Epcot a few years back. It was one of those Septembers where FL was just getting hit with 'cane after 'cane -- and still recovering from the year before with many hurricanes. We did not report him, since stress levels were through the roof for all Floridians, but I do believe the guy behind us did.

What happened was he was not allowing anyone without bags/packs/strollers/wheelchairs to go around the line. DH carries the backpack and gets it checked, and usually I wait for him on the other side. When I started to go around the line (not through it, but through the area designated for folks with no bags), he started yelling at me, "Who do you think you are? Are you somebody special that you don't have to wait in line like all these others?" He was really, really loud, enough that the massive crowd behind me hushed. When I tried to explain I didn't have anything on me that needed to be checked, he really went off and got all red-faced, saying things like if I want to enter Epcot, I have to go through him. I'm a pretty quiet, non-confrontational person, was stressed over whether my own home was standing a couple hours away, figured he was either just a nut or a fellow stressed-out Floridian and just got back in the bag check line.

Well, a minute later, some massive -- think football player -- guy's mother or grandmother (she was a little old lady) did the same thing as me, attempted to go through the folks-with-no-bags entrance/area, and this guard started yelling at her, "Oh, we've got another special somebody in this group who thinks they're better than everyone else." The woman's son/grandson went ballistic, and they were both yelling at each other. It was definitely loud enough that other guards came over to see what was going on. By now, we're through the awful mess and having our pictures taken in front of the Epcot ball, but by the time we were finished, we took a look back, and the guard was gone, had been replaced, and the big man with his mother/grandmother were with several guards, over by that store where you can pick up your purchases, apparently making some type of statement.

This was probably one of our strangest Disney experiences.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Yikes! It never occured to me I should be checking smiles as I wander around. What if their smile is just not big enough?

"Hello..is this the CS? Yes...It's me again..."

I guess you missed my point entirely.

remember they are talking about a RUDE CM not every CM . I give them the chance to relise why they are there and what they a suppose to be doing.

There is just no excuse for rudeness in a customer service field unless it's warented by a rude guest. Even then it should be dismissed and a manager called to handle the rude guest while you attend to all others.

If it was every CM without a smile I would have to be doing alot of reporting at HM and ToT because they are good at not breaking character and giving a smile.

 

[disney junky]

DD is a temp seasonal CM and did the CP. I was amazed at the number of people who work there. In her off time as we'd walk around, she'd see other CM's who were violating policy. At the Poly, one girl left her post to go grab a coke, stuff like that, but as has been stated, barely minumum wage, 60,000 employees, it's got to be tough to keep the magic alive among all those people. She knew of a few who weren't invited back after the CP was over...mostly attitude, not being a team player.
I think the thing that shocked me most was some people she worked with who worked part time at WDW and (gasp) Universal....

 

[hentob]

This is an excerpt from a trip report I did in 2001:

"Cast members were friendly at all parks, except for the nutty one at Living
Seas that screamed "You are not listening to me. Are you???!!!" , when I
asked her to repeat an answer to my question. I believe I said "Pardon
me?" She was absolutely insane. I am not a confrontational person IRL and
walked away after her outburst. I was a bit frightened. She actually
left her post and ran after me. Screaming not to turn my back on her.
I just looked straight ahead and did not acknowledge her. She gave up
harassing me and went back to her post. "




Whew! That was a blast from the past.

I am not kidding--this cast member was INSANE! There was actually somebody that responded to my trip report saying something like "Hey--I know her. She snapped out on us too!".

I should have reported her. She was actually harassing me. Very much InMyFace. My blood still boils when I think of her

 

[SleepyMom]

We ran into one in DisneyLand the summer of 2005, he was just nasty to us (DH, myself and DD who was 11 at the time). I believe I even have it on videotape as our DD was trying to visit with a character as it was happening, I don't know this for sure though because I have never watched the tape. We are always so excited to re-watch parts of our trip when we get back home, but I've never brought myself to watch that days tape. Maybe someday.

We didn't report him, but it really left an impression about the whole trip for us.

 

[Gdad]

We actually ran into a seriously disgruntled CM at the candy store at EPCOT (I think) - both my girls got a bag of candy and when the CM weighed it on his little scale it came up to like $0.12 - obviously a mistake as it was quite a bit of candy (I am guessing from experience at the mall it would have been $4 - $5 at least) When I asked him if he was sure that was right he just muttered "Who gives a sh**" and sputtered something about what they were paying him for working there. Oh-well, I tried.

I agree Disney has their work cut out for them trying to maintain, manage and motivate such a huge low wage workforce.

 

[Mono~rail]

We've luckily not encountered any less than friendly CM's at WDW or DL.

 

[maxiesmom]

No, the first guy was right, he just didn't explain things clearly (or he may just know the rule, but not the reason).
Each resort monorail train is 'assigned' to a different monorail resort - two each, I think. That resort's Guests have priority for riding up front. If someone boards the Grand Floridian monorail at the Polynesian, then there are Guests waiting for the front car AT the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian-boarder/s must exit the front car and move back.

So even though you were already in the front car, if there'd been someone waiting for it at the Contemporary, yes, you would have to exit. From your report, there wasn't anyone waiting - but your insistence on hearing from a manager caused the driver to go in search of one. Receipt of your co-pilot's license does and the apology you got NOT mean the driver was wrong - it just means the manager was smoothing over the situation.

I have never heard that before, and have never seen it happen. I can't imagine telling one guest that they are preferred over another and kicking them out! It has been our experience that if someone is up front, they stay there until they get off. No, sorry your time is up! It is to the back of the monorail for you!!

 

[GeorgeG]

I have never seen a Cast Member who was mean or nasty in twenty years of going. Not all were as cheerful as you might like, but not at all unpleasant.

On the other hand, I have seen a lot, and I mean a lot, of guests who were rude and nasty to the point I wanted to smack them myself. I can see how a Cast Member might become a little short at times and I give them a lot of credit for having to put up with what must be thousands of nasty people. We always go out of our way to be pleasant with the Cast Members and you get what you give. On Christmas or other big holidays, we thank them for being there and always tip servers double.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I was a CM for a very short period of time when I did the CP back in 2001. I had to leave early as financially DH and I couldn't make it. Anyway, in the time I was there, I often wondered how many CMs kept on that happy face as often as they did.

One particular evening it was the Night of Joy, but Disney CMs call it the night of something else ...and I was miserable by my 11th hour of working!! Yes....11 hours!! It was around midnight I believe and there were some obnoxious young men on the ride Indy Speedway. They would stand on the bridge and spit on people going by. I did the sign to hold the cars and went over to them and where everyone could hear me I told them to remove themselves from the bridge before I came and did it! I had another CM with me as back-up. The next incident happened when people where coming back in to unload. There is a point where the cars are bumper to bumper and if you keep your foot on the gas you will ram the car in front of you when you move. It can be dangerous and we asked many people to not do it. Well.... this one particular young man didn't seem to "hear" me the three times I told him and on the fourth time when he rammed the car in front of him the little girl hit her head on the steering wheel and I lost it! I went over to the car quickly unstrapped his belt and not caring who heard me I said, "You just caused the little girl in front of you to hit her head on the steering wheel and her lip is bleeding now! GET OUT! EXIT THIS RIDE NOW!" He was about five cars back from getting off the ride, so he had to walk in front of a lot of people as he exited, so needless to say, he was VERY embarrassed. To my surprise, I got cheers and applause from EVERYONE in line. They were watching and saw him purposely revving the engine. I was dead tired that day and hoped I didn't overstep my boundaries with what I did. Both shift leaders came up to me and patted my back and said good job. Worse has happened on the Night of Joy, they teased me and told me I had it easy.
When the crowd clapped and cheered for me, I bowed and waved to them. It was a nice revival and I needed the appreciation for the day I was having. It actually made that last hour worth it. Remind me to NOT do a 12 hour day like that again!

 

[mog]

In all our trips to Disney, we have only encountered one mean CM. That's pretty good odds!!
The one we did run into was at the candy store at Downtown Disney.

 

[robinb]

I have never heard that before, and have never seen it happen. I can't imagine telling one guest that they are preferred over another and kicking them out! It has been our experience that if someone is up front, they stay there until they get off. No, sorry your time is up! It is to the back of the monorail for you!!

kaytieeldr's right on this one. I was just about to type up the same thing, but saw that she beat me to it. The monorail driver will tell you when you enter the cab that you may have to move at a specific resort just as costpenn's driver told him/her. I have actually had to move once for guests at a resort.

Put yourself in the shoes of the guest at the Comtemporary. How many monorails do you think have cabs open leaving the MK? It may be the only way for them to ride up front.

 

[auntpolly]

On December 25th 2004 my family & I were comming back from the store at the TTC to the Resort Monorail entrance & the Cast Member said "where do you think your going, the Magic Kingdom is closed." (This was around 3:00 PM in the afternoon.) We said we were going back to the Contemporary & showed him our Resort ID cards. He said I don't care, talk to those CM's down there. So we did & they let us go towards the Monorail. We did not report him as it never occured to us & it was our last day of our vacation at WDW.

I met a really mean guy at the TTC monorail station too! He was so horrible! He yelled at us.... I've told this story before and it's long , but they stopped our car before the station and let us sit there for more than 10 minutes. They kept coming on the speaker saying something but it was garbled and none of us could understand. After the 10 minutes a guy in our car got on the "do not use except in case of emergency" phone and and asked what was going on, and when they pulled us into the station the guy stormed onto our car and with a red face he screamed at all of us "Didn't we see the sign....Can't we read....Never ever use that phone.....yadadada...." It was awful!

 

[missj1975]

Never met a rude cm but plenty of rude guests.

 

[tink576]

We meet a crazy CM at DLP somewhere along the stores on main street. We were trying to trade pins with a cast member and had a disney world pin from somewhere between 2000-2001 ish before they started printing the "walt disney world, year, year of whatever...etc...on the back of them", he went nuts saying we were trading illegal pins and that we were not allowed to trade them...we said fine and tried to give him another pin but he refused...so we left to go find other cm's to trade with...well low and behold this nut proceeded to follow us and run up to every cast member and tell them not to trade with us...I couldn't believe it. We finally gave up and left to do something else. I love to trade along main street during the busy parts of the day when I don't want to stand in the long lines...but this was impossible...It's just sad because I know they don't want the fake pins being spread around the park, and they probally have problems with this, but because they got into the whole pin thing after Disney World he couldn't recognize that systems in place now are only 3-4 years old and were not in place when pin trading began.

 

[nannerbadnanner]

Only once. We took our 12 year old niece to WDW for her birthday. My sister bought her passes at the Disney Store. When she tries to use it, the pass showed that it had already been used! We immediately went to Guest Services for help, and the CM accused us of "buying tickets from the Denney's parking lot." I explained that the tickets were bought at the Disney Store. I also had my sister on the phone who had the receipt, etc. He was just nasty to us. I do not take kindly to someone inferring that I am either an idiot or a thief. I asked for a manager who did replace the ticket, but it was obvious they thought we were scamming them. I had given the manager my sister's contact info so that he could try to figure out what was wrong. She called me back about an hour later to let me know that they had called her back and let her know they made a mistake. Disney had re-issued a batch number for tickets so a bunch of tickets that were sent to the Disney Store were showing up as used. I did send a complaint letter, and I received a call from Disney within 48 hours. The person I spoke to was very nice and wanted to know what they could do for us. I told them nothing since I was not seeking compensation. She insisted so I asked her to send an apology to my niece since she was the one who had her day ruined. They actually send my niece a stuffed Goofy and autographed picture. It was very sweet.

This incident stands out because it is so rare. Most CMs we meet are great and so many of them go above and beyond the call of duty. We always try to get their names and let Disney or their managers know they are doing a great job.

 

[kaytieeldr]

kaytieeldr's right on this one. I was just about to type up the same thing, but saw that she beat me to it.

Thank you, Robin! I don't recall having to defer to another rider or group, but I was made aware of the rule - probably by a 'loading' CM, when I asked to ride up front. I waited at one resort until one of its assigned vehicles pulled in - and was able to ride the full circuit.

As for the topic in general - mean? Never. Rude? Cranky? Nasty? Rarely, but it does happen. Cast Members are people. Treat people nicely, they'll treat you nicely - or, if they don't, at least they may well feel guilty for responding a certain way Works in public, works at work, works at Disney World...

 

[ducklite]

Here here about the Monorail workers. I had two lulus during our recent trip. This one's the best.
On last Tuesday, we were leaving MK heading to our hotel at the Poly. When the Monorail pulled in, I noticed no one was up front so I asked if our family could ride up front - the CM working the platform said sure. When the monorail driver closed the door before pulling out of the station, he asked where we were going - I said to the Poly. He said OK but if anyone was waiting at the Contemporary to ride up front we'd have to get out and ride in the back.

Actually, the first guy was right! I've heard this same rule from several friends who work in transportation. It's the fairest way to give everyone a chance.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

I've encountered a few CM's that fell into the rude beyond just having a bad day category.

One was a CL CM at the GF. My husband asked her a simple question about when our room might be ready as they had kept us waiting for several hours after check-in and we had seen a lot of new arrivals already being taken to their rooms, and she went off on him! She made a huge scene, and he was humiliated. We never saw her again, and that's a good thing.

I recently had a guard at the International Gateway entrance be extremely rude to me about bringing in my camera gear. He made a very nasty comment about how "some people get by with a camera that fits in their shirt pocket, and he didn't know why people like me have to hold up the line bringing all this junk in to the parks." He was very loud and searched every little pocket in my bag, even unzipping the clear mesh ones, all the while making comments about me holding up the line loud enough for everyone to hear.

I'm sure we've encountered a couple of others along the way, but those two really stand out.

Al in all I think that the CM's are really had working people who put up with a ton of abuse from the public, who often take advantage of them because they do work for Disney.

Anne

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I wouldn't say he was a 'mean' CM, but I did report the CM running the controls on the Haunted Mansion...he would not stop the ride as he sent my 2yo DS and 4yo DD through alone. We were sent to a car too far up on the platform, by the time I waited for the two kids to climb in, the bar came up before I could get in. Not only did he NOT stop the ride, he told me I had no way to access the exit, I would have to ride through.....I was doing everything in my power NOT TO FREAK OUT. I could hear my kids screaming as they went through the tunnel.

In hindsight, I should of stood there and screamed bloody murder until he stopped the ride.