Never had a problem with SA Tour groups until...

[dalt01]

its called "herd mentality" whenever you get a large group together they will all act the same way almost like a flock of birds whether they are brazillian or baptist. i AM surprised how civil this has stayed. sometimes these types of threads get real nasty.

 

[DisneyNDecember]

We just got home from 9 days in WDW yesterday.
Had a wonderful trip!!
We did run into the usual rude, clueless people, and many more nice, friendly people

Up until this last trip I didn't have any real problems with those South American tour groups. I put up with the line holding and cutting, the way the leader will run ahead and hog the fast pass machines printing out 100 at a time, how they save seats at shows and parades, how they have no concept of personal space and breath down your neck in line, the way they swoop in and steal all the seats at a restaurant and how they conveniently don't speak any English when they are being rude.

BUT.... I now officially can't stand these tour groups. My patience is gone.

This past Monday night at Magic Kingdom was extra magic hours till 1:00 am. My DH and I stayed with our DDs 4 and 6. We were last in line to meet Mickey and Minnie back behind the castle. It was just past 1:00 am. Several tour groups passed on their way back and each time people would try to hop into line. There were a few people in line ahead of us and a CM was at the end of the line to inform people it was closed.

You should have heard the sob stories these people from the tour groups were trying to give the CM!! From my child has been sick... to this will be our only trip to WDW ever. We heard it all!! The CM told me that the people in these groups are known for the most terrible lies to try to get things for themselves and their kids. She said at first it was hard not to believe them, but that she's developed a thick skin.

We finally got up to see M&M. Minnie and Mickey were so sweet and spent a good amount of time with my DD. The CM with them said that Mickey and Minnie would like to do something very special for my DDs.
We walked over to the carousel and the CM reopened it for us. Mickey and Minnie, with two CMs and a photographer took us onto the Carousel. It was supposed to be a special ride just for my kids.

WELL.... this South American Tour group, with especially rude people, stormed the ride, pushing past the CM at the entrance and jumping the gates to get their kids on with M&M. They were shouting and calling out to the characters and one man actually tried to push his child onto the horse next to Mickey while I was buckling my first DD onto her horse! The CM stepped in and told him to move and Mickey himself waved his finger at the man to say it wasn't okay!!

The CMs were very apologetic and you could tell they were angry that these people would do this... but what could they do? They kept saying that the ride was closed and the park was closed and they had to leave, but these people all pretended they didn't understand.

We got our "special" ride, and I didn't let my DDs see how mad I was. It was truly enraging to see how these rude people were so selfish!
You should have seen them swarm over M&M when we tried to exit the ride. The CMs actually took us back out of the way after the ride to get some more photos. I was so thankful to these wonderful CMs who tried to give us something special.

I don't think I can ever forgive that tour group for doing their best to ruin a special moment. Unfortunately it has soured me on all of these groups.

Just had to vent.
-Sarah

I emailed your story to Disneyworld directly on their website, if we don't all complain directly to Disney, nothing will be done.

 

[MissionMouse]

These groups have an earned reputation. We can all consider that Disney management is well aware of their behaviors as they have made policy changes over time, but a disturbing concern is Disney's ability to respond and control these large groups from harming other guest...who is really in charge-control ??

 

[marie1203]

I can't stand rude people. I am usually very calm and very patient person but if you are rude in any way I am not I just can't stand and let it happen. This trip I found a few rude people some very SA some where American I just never let them get away with it, this are the times when speaking 3 languages comes in handy. I will say to them something in English first just to see what they will say to everyone else and then I will speak on their language this usually left them spechless . No one got away with anything rude at WDW in front of me.

 

[Bullseye]

We just got back 10 days ago and there were so many SA groups while we were there. They were a real pain in the butt. They travel in huge packs, impossible to get around in the walkway. They're all over you in line, they pass you up to talk to others in their group who are way ahead in line. Very pushy and rude, as if their owed something.

We actually stayed as CS because we love the Mexican/South American theme and in fact the CMs there of those persuasions were very nice. But the SA groups at the parks... yeeeeesch

 

[cindyfan]

Although many of the examples seem to come from one particular culture, I think it's the group size that is the biggest issue. While an individual family may be doing something equally as rude as a tour group, the impact is so much greater when you have 100 people doing ANYTHING, especially something unacceptable. I generally avoid big tour groups of any kind -- kids, senior citizens, etc. -- because whatever they do it will clog up around them.

I guess I don't mind that they all come to WDW area together, but traveling in "mobs" in the parks rather than splitting up almost guarantees there are going to be problems. I think the tour leaders have figured out that taking the place with size on their side will force everyone else to bend to them.

PHXscuba

Yep, you pretty much summed it up!

 

[liriel]

Disney should assign these groups a Disney "handler". Someone who works for Disney, speaks the home language of the tour group, and helps to keep them in line at the parks. Perhaps if they just got on rides like VIP's as a group it would save the hassle of them clogging the FP machines and being rude and cutting in line. I would rather have them ushered onto a ride ahead of me and not have to deal with them. A wait of a few extra minutes would be worth not having to put up with their hassle.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

I agree with PHX and partly with lierel. I definitely think a big part of the issue is the size of the groups. I think it'd be totally within reason for Disney to either limit the size of groups all together, or at least make a rule that any group of people (say 6 and up) that are under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. One of the malls by where I live has a rule like this for Friday and Saturday nights because kids were getting so out of control. As far as lierel's idea, I dont necessarily think they should be let on ahead of people, but something needs to be figured out when it comes to the line situation, I don't even mind that they hog fastpasses, but do they need a FP and then cut in line? I don't know the answer, but Disney has to figure out something.

 

[ujpest_doza]

Are the tour groups there now?

I thought they only visited WDW in January and July?

OP: I'm so sorry this happened to you; It certainly was a magical time for you and your family but would have been more so without the rude and obnoxious tour group.

And I agree with the poster who said Disney could stop it, but they choose to look the other way.

We've just got back from 2 weeks in Florida 11th October to 25th October and i've never seen as many Tour Groups in all my life. I've been to WDW 9 times now at varying times of the year and hadn't really noticed the SA Tour Groups before this trip.

 

[Basil of Baker St]

wow. This thread is making me embarrassed to be an American. But then, I've heard all too many times, that 'people in France, esp. Paris are rude.' 'People in New York are rude.' I've heard about rude Japanese tourists that take WAY too many photos (as in they just keep taking them and block access that way). And now SA tour groups.

Honestly the most rude behavior I've ever encountered was Americans outside of America.(and sometimes even inside America) Indeed, it was well known in college that 'you could go up to Canada and act like a boor,' or a deliquent and 'get away with it,' becasue you were in a foreign country and unlike America the drinking age was 18. The prevailing attitude was, "they want our money and they will put up with almost anything we do."

Oh, and don't get me started on the legendary conduct allowable in the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam. Ft. Lauderdale more or less outlawed spring breakers because they would trash the town every year. One year I even withnessed a bunch of guys peeing in the intercoastal in front of everyone at my resort pool - including kids, just because they could. Oh, that was classy. And, though it's technically not South America, what about the hordes of Spring Breakers that have been trashing Mexico every spring for many years. Do you really think spring breakers are models of exemplary conduct? Or are we forgetting about that because it's just 'what we do'?

Yes, Americans have FAR more of a bad reputation around the world than anything I've ever seen from a SA tour group.

If there is any group that goes around the world with an attitude of entitlement, it's Americans. All too often Americans just expect everyone around the world to speak English and get all upset when they honestly can't. And in spite of that...I've seen LOTS of people outside this country do their best to be helpful- even whenthey clearly only speak a few words of English. So maybe, just maybe....we should remember the old adage about treating guests the way they want to be treated. I'm not saying guests are never rude. Probaly op's example is good case in point...I'm just saying sometimes what we assume to be rude is about cultural differences. Sometimes the way to fix rudeness is with kindness. Taking the misconduct of one group, as posted on an internet forum as 'proof' that all tour groups are going to be rude is horrible.

If we are automatically rude to all travelers, just because they are foreign or from a certain region of the world how bad does that make us Americans?

I think you're missing the point, here. The whole point is that these tour groups can sometimes be very rude, with examples stated. I don't care where you're from - pushing, shoving, cutting in line, and refusing to listen to CMs is rude. Should we apologize to the shover b/c we happened to be in their way? Should we apologize to the person who tries to break the rules by pretending to not speak English, when we clearly heard them speaking English 2 seconds before?

Your premise that Americans are the rudest people on Earth ignores one simple fact - if we go to another country and act like jerks, they call us on it. You act like we can just steamroll across continents slapping people around. I've traveled to Europe, these people are no shrinking violets, they call out rudeness, and they quite often act like you're an idiot if you don't speak their language. You're willing to give the benefit of the doubt to anyone but Americans. Maybe our bad reputation stems from cultural differences.

Rude behavior is rude behavior. Should Brazilians excuse the behavior of jerky American tourists b/c their tour groups are sometimes rude at WDW? I would say no.

 

[frndshpcptn]

Disney should assign these groups a Disney "handler". Someone who works for Disney, speaks the home language of the tour group, and helps to keep them in line at the parks. Perhaps if they just got on rides like VIP's as a group it would save the hassle of them clogging the FP machines and being rude and cutting in line. I would rather have them ushered onto a ride ahead of me and not have to deal with them. A wait of a few extra minutes would be worth not having to put up with their hassle.

When I worked at WDW (back in the late 90's), they did have CMs who were "handlers" for the tour groups. Thier title was "Super Greeter" and they were folks in thier early - mis-20's (mostly) from brazil who were brought over to help maintain some semblance of control and communication with these groups. The Super Greeters lived with the College Program kids and the ones I knew were AWESOME.

 

[livndisney]

Disney CAN do something about the SA tour groups (or any group for that matter), but most often they choose not to. CMs will often turn a blind eye to the behaviors because they don't want to deal with it. I can't blame them after watching a CM get swarmed by a group when he asked them to stop.

Disney has to set the rules with these groups and stand firm that the behaviors will not be tolerated. Disney doesn't want to do that and lose $$$$.

Disney WILL enforce "rules" for smaller groups such as school groups. We were on the people mover a few years ago and a group of boys from a school group were in the 2 cars ahead of us. They were spitting over the side and yelling crude things to women. Several people around them asked them to stop, the CM came over the speaker and asked them to stop. They refused.
Security met them and their "chaperone" at the exit of the ride. They started claiming they had done nothing wrong. Several people who had been on the ride came forward and went with them to GS. The entire group was removed from the park and were told not to return.

 

[stego]

thank you for sharing your experience and relating to all of us "the glass is truly half full". Many of us could benefit from that kind of attitude.

As several PP's have stated; this is a very sensitive and touchy subject. The world as we know it has changed; the internet in all of it's glory has brought to us the good; but it also has brought the bad. And when it's bad, it's really bad.

Another PP also stated in these terms: there is strength in numbers and this is the mandate on how these groups behave themselves. Try to keep it in simple terms. Overanalysis gets us nowhere.

There are no short or long term solutions. The best we can do as a group is fragmented and that only leads to futility. However, our strength is knowledge and awareness.

The best thing I can do as an individual and with my family is to keep this motto close to my heart: be the change you want to be in the world. That means WITHOUT exception to conduct myself to the highest standard. I often fall short of the mark but no one is a worse critic of my behavior than myself.

Be forewarned: there will be many more stories. I've read about some really atrocious and alarming behavior and I only see it getting worse. I fear it will escalate and we'll most likely see mob mentality with severe consequences (think injuries and god forbid death).

I think if I witnessed such behavior I'd react and the result wouldn't be good (attracting the attention of local law enforcement authorities has NEVER worked in my favor). I'd hate to see you all read the headline: TX man beats small children at local theme park. I know myself a little too well.

The solution that applies to myself and I'll share it with you is to get as far away as possible from such behavior. I know some of you will see it as sticking my head in the sand...but really, maybe I need to do that sometimes.

 

[ajpa]

Why do they have to stay in large groups in an amusement park???
I can understand a tour group staying together when touring a foreign city because you don't want to get lost and can't read or speak the language, but how lost can you possibly get inside a wdw park?

 

[Brocktoon]

I've been down to WDW many times in late Oct, and last week was the 1st time I really came across any Brazilian tour groups in large force. As mentioned by others, these were not teenagers, but family groups made up of mostly adults. For the most part I just went in the opposite direction whenever I saw the large crowds of yellow shirts and a flag. But ...

Last week I got in line for Splash Mountain when it was only showing a 15 minute wait. It pretty much looked like a walk on. A few people ahead of me were two folks from a Brazilian tour group (I assume this as they were wearing yellow Bralizian flag shirts). I figured they were riding by themselves, and with the short wait there was no way they were going to pull any antics. After about 5 minutes the line was starting to head up the stairs towards the ride. The tour member hung around the bottom of the steps for a bit as the rest of the line moved forward and cleared the stairs, and then he began waiving his hands. All of the sudden, about 30 people wearing yellow ponchos decended on the line, and proceeded to cut in front of everyone. A bunch of us started to complain, but there was only one lone CM around, and I actually felt bad for her ... there really wasn't much she could do as the group piled and crowded onto the steps so fast. I guess they could have called security, but I figured that wasn't going to happen.

This was my 1st and only experience so far with the Brazilian tour groups in my many years of visiting WDW, but it definately left a bad taste. The way the line cutting exercise was executed, you could tell this stunt was performed many times before. For years I've been reading about these incidents, but last week I became another statistic

 

[ujpest_doza]

I've been down to WDW many times in late Oct, and last week was the 1st time I really came across any Brazilian tour groups in large force. As mentioned by others, these were not teenagers, but family groups made up of mostly adults. For the most part I just went in the opposite direction whenever I saw the large crowds of yellow shirts and a flag. But ...

Last week I got in line for Splash Mountain when it was only showing a 15 minute wait. It pretty much looked like a walk on. A few people ahead of me were two folks from a Brazilian tour group (I assume this as they were wearing yellow Bralizian flag shirts). I figured they were riding by themselves, and with the short wait there was no way they were going to pull any antics. After about 5 minutes the line was starting to head up the stairs towards the ride. The tour member hung around the bottom of the steps for a bit as the rest of the line moved forward and cleared the stairs, and then he began waiving his hands. All of the sudden, about 30 people wearing yellow ponchos decended on the line, and proceeded to cut in front of everyone. A bunch of us started to complain, but there was only one lone CM around, and I actually felt bad for her ... there really wasn't much she could do as the group piled and crowded onto the steps so fast. I guess they could have called security, but I figured that wasn't going to happen.

This was my 1st and only experience so far with the Brazilian tour groups in my many years of visiting WDW, but it definately left a bad taste. The way the line cutting exercise was executed, you could tell this stunt was performed many times before. For years I've been reading about these incidents, but last week I became another statistic

Did this group all have yellow tee-shirts or yellow caps with SCANIA written on them?

If so we saw them at both Disney and Universal Studios and like you say they weren't youngsters. I thought they might be part of a Scania Truck/coach company convention???

 

[DIS-OH]

I have made many trips with a High School Marching Band through Magic Music Days.

The CMs that host our groups have always been super-strict with our kids. At the resort, we monitor our kids in the food court, pool and room area. We've been told that if there is "even one complaint" from other guests, no groups from our school will be allowed back to WDW for a specific amount of time. We are instructed to have our kids in small groups as they tour the parks and NOT to keep them together as that clogs lines and blocks traffic flow.

So...why are our school groups held to a higher standard of behavior than foreign groups?

 

[Brocktoon]

Did this group all have yellow tee-shirts or yellow caps with SCANIA written on them?

If so we saw them at both Disney and Universal Studios and like you say they weren't youngsters. I thought they might be part of a Scania Truck/coach company convention???

The group at Splash didn't have the Scania shirts. The shirts had the circle/diamond logo of the Brazilain flag. But I did see some of those Scania groups in Epcot during the week with yellow shirts and I think Scania was written in blue. I was wondering what the Scania groups were. They seemed to be in smaller groups of 10-15.

Except for the Splash incident, the tour groups seemed to be nothing more than large groups moving through the parks that were well behaved for the most part. But again, the Splash line cutting did get ugly.

 

[perfectparanoia]

Should we apologize to the shover b/c we happened to be in their way? Should we apologize to the person who tries to break the rules by pretending to not speak English, when we clearly heard them speaking English 2 seconds before?

<off topic>Hi.

Canadian here and that is exactly what we do. Aplogize for everything and be helpful no matter who is being rude to us.

Canadian theme parks sound a lot like

'Oh, I am so sorry.'
'No, it was my fault.'
</off topic>

 

[CFioren317]

wow. This thread is making me embarrassed to be an American. But then, I've heard all too many times, that 'people in France, esp. Paris are rude.' 'People in New York are rude.' I've heard about rude Japanese tourists that take WAY too many photos (as in they just keep taking them and block access that way). And now SA tour groups.

Honestly the most rude behavior I've ever encountered was Americans outside of America.(and sometimes even inside America) Indeed, it was well known in college that 'you could go up to Canada and act like a boor,' or a deliquent and 'get away with it,' becasue you were in a foreign country and unlike America the drinking age was 18. The prevailing attitude was, "they want our money and they will put up with almost anything we do."

Oh, and don't get me started on the legendary conduct allowable in the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam. Ft. Lauderdale more or less outlawed spring breakers because they would trash the town every year. One year I even withnessed a bunch of guys peeing in the intercoastal in front of everyone at my resort pool - including kids, just because they could. Oh, that was classy. And, though it's technically not South America, what about the hordes of Spring Breakers that have been trashing Mexico every spring for many years. Do you really think spring breakers are models of exemplary conduct? Or are we forgetting about that because it's just 'what we do'?

Yes, Americans have FAR more of a bad reputation around the world than anything I've ever seen from a SA tour group.

If there is any group that goes around the world with an attitude of entitlement, it's Americans. All too often Americans just expect everyone around the world to speak English and get all upset when they honestly can't. And in spite of that...I've seen LOTS of people outside this country do their best to be helpful- even whenthey clearly only speak a few words of English. So maybe, just maybe....we should remember the old adage about treating guests the way they want to be treated. I'm not saying guests are never rude. Probaly op's example is good case in point...I'm just saying sometimes what we assume to be rude is about cultural differences. Sometimes the way to fix rudeness is with kindness. Taking the misconduct of one group, as posted on an internet forum as 'proof' that all tour groups are going to be rude is horrible.

If we are automatically rude to all travelers, just because they are foreign or from a certain region of the world how bad does that make us Americans?

I am amazed that I finished 2 boxes of popcorn and it took 71 posts before the first "I'm embarrassed to be an American" post hit the thread

Seriously though...OP, at least no one got hurt and you probably got some good pictures from it, even though it wasn't a 100% perfect experience.