NY Times today -- "WDW Magic is Slipping"

[sotoalf]

Within the last few years I have come to realize that the Media keeps speaking about the "Disney Magic" and how disney is losing it. The Media seems to almost always speak about the negatives of Disney because it sells papers and catches viewers. But I hardly see the Media discuss all the great things that Disney has done. For Example, all the smiles of all the children (big or small ) that have visited the World. Those must count for something.
Another thing is:
When people think Disney the thoughts of "magic and perfection" roll into the mind. However people fail to realize that this "magic" is created by people, whether it is the guests or the staff. And EVERYONE has their good and bad days. We are all human

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality." Walt DisneyP.S. WDW ROCKS lol

Well, that's all very nice. Walt would be the last one to expect his loyal repeat customers to sing zippidy doo-da while customer service slips, maintenance fails to compare to his own standards, and the competition not only learns from his successes but improves on his failures.

 

[Shooby doo]

I can see the writers point,I think that it takes those that have been before to notice some of the subtle differences.Remember when you could expect to see all the characters & not just certain times/days of the year.I also think that WDW has dropped some of it's extra detail EG Splash Mountain used to have those chasing water fountain things-now if you've never ridden before you wouldn't know any different & I'm never quite sure whether the first skeleton on Pirates used to be more luminous or better lit up!
I also think that the changes to the Park Passes are a sign of the times & are all about more $$$s
Still I still tingle with anticipation going across on the Ferry boat on our first day!!
SD

 

[JenJen]

Very well said ~ I totally agree. We are very frequent WDW visitors and my daughter just finished the college program at Epcot. I can definitely tell that the level of customer service (and just plain courtesy in some cases) have declined at Disney over the past few years. From discussions with CMs we know and my own daughters' experience this lack of "caring" is trickling down from the way that Disney is treating their employees.


Working for the company for several years I agree with this 100%. And from what I have heard from others that I know that still work there the conditions are getting worse. I hope that this article woke some people up and there will be some positive changes in the company.

 

[Luv2Roam]

One thing I have noticed (and this is my opinion only) that Disney is not in a growth mode. They may be keeping even, or declining as some think. But I don't see them as growing as many companies are now. If anything they are below staff levels of pre Sept 11, even though they own and operate more resorts than they had then, and have the guests in the parks again. They appear to be closing, stopping service, selling off and out sourcing as much as possible. Purely from my perspective, for what little it's worth.

 

[manning]

Maybe I am in the minority, but if Disney went back to the standards of their beginnings I would gladly pay 10 to 15 dollars more per entrance.

Back then Disney, by far, was not cheap........ but you got more than your money's worth.

I don't know if this relates. Travel agents were pressed against the wall by rule changes by the airlines and the internet. They had to change from waiting for the business to come to them or going out after the business. The debate was do you compete by price cutting only or providing outstanding service at fair prices. The evidence is that outstanding service at fair prices is holding its own and may be gaining.

We use to have a radio personality, the late Bob Collins, in Chicago who use to say if you give outstanding service the people will beat down your doors to do business with you......I believe that.

 

[iliketoby]

We reserved and paid for a Water-view room at the Boardwalk last November. We got a courtyard view.

I am still trying to get the extra money we had to pay for the water view refunded.

I don't think I ever will.

I think they have so many problems that they can't efficiently fix them all.

 

[Goofster]

What rubs me the wrong way about this article is that the author got a FULL refund! It sounded as if he thought he was the only guest on grounds.He still got his magical moments...but not enough? We have all had our problems at WDW but we have managed to work them out with happy results and a free breakfast here and there , but I lost it for the writer when he called and got a FULL refund!

 

[Synonymous]

Would you rather have a great vacation, or a so-so vacation with a full refund?

It's not like the writer imagined these problems- plenty of us here have experienced the same things. I'd rather Disney just got its act together than have them handing out refunds to people.

 

[JenJen]

I was at Disneyland yesterday and found out that most of the people I worked with over the years were quiting!!! These are people that have been with the compan for a while. I was told that the conditions for cast members are so bad that "it makes you want to quit." These are people that LOVED to work there. Also, there was a lot of negativity in the air so to speak. Very few smiles and a lot more attitude.
I really believe that Disney is trying to push out people with yesrs of service to hire part time people with no benifits. THe new Disney cast member will be unexperianced and sort term. This saves the company ALOT of money and that is what there goal is. Let me give you a few examples of cast members I talked to yesterday....

Cast member A- Was a lead at three attractions and had been working at the parks for 5 years. His lead status was pulled and disney refuses to adjust his hours for school. Adjusting hours for school was something that was common in the past. This Cast member puts in two week notice.

Cast member B- Has been working at the park for 35 years and is constantly being hassled by management about little things and was told that if he called in sick or was late within the next 5 months he would be termed. He has to have a surgery at the end of sept and asked if he could have a few days off for the surgery and his request has been denied. (sounds like they are looking for any excuse to get rid of him)

Cast member C- Has been working for the park for 27 years a chronic medical problem and was told she can not call in or be late for one more year or she will be termed. Becasue of her condition there is no way she can go that long so another awesome cast member will be fired

Before I go on disney used to give exceptions for long term cast members if they had medical problems for extra time off becasue they knew that long term cast members were a good thing for the park. Long term cast members have more experiance and make the guest experiance one that can not be replaced. New cast members look up to these long term cast members for guest service solutions which makes the guest experiance more pleasant.

Cast member D- Has been working for the park for 11 years doing the same job in the same dept. and was told he was no longer needed there and transfered to another dept. and told he would be loosing 2 dollars an hour pay because he had a new classification.

I can go on and on about the people I talked to yesterday. What i heard just crushed me. Disney just does not care about there cast members anymore and it is reflecting in the costumer service. I went to the park yesterday because I wanted to experiance great guest service that they are known for. I would have been happy with just a smile here and there and a thankyou every once in a while but it just was not happening. (Although we went on the pooh bear ride last night and the cast members there were awesome and kept the show well so thankyou pooh bear crew!!!!) What I recieved was more like a Six Flags experiance. It really was upsetting.

I have one major complaint about the entire day....Me and my DD went on autopia last night and she has a GAC for her sensory issues and ADHD. We asked the cast member at the turnstile if we could skip the part were there is a tunnel with 3D cartoons because my DD gets very scared in there. The guy told me that GACS have to go through the tunnel because that was the rules. I then told him that we would wait our time for however long that part of the que is so we are not jumping in front of anyone we just needed to not go through that part and wait to the side. The cast member replied. "I have never heard of anyone being afraid of a cartoon and why does she need this pass she looks fine." Fist of all it is illegal to ask what the pass is for or why someone has it and second his attitude was horrible. It was uncalled for and very unprofessional. By that time my daughter was freaking out because we were standing next to the tunnel and the guy was asking "what is wrong with her" right in front of her and that was making her feel bad. I ended up telling him what her issues were just because i wanted to get out of there because it was upsetting her but I could not believe what was coming out of his mouth. I am seriously thinking about making a written compliant.
It is situations like this that make me believe that Disney's guest service is becoming second best. I don't expect everything to be picture perfect when i go to the parks but I do see the magic slipping more in the last few months. because I have worked there before it just breaks my heart to see the one thing that sets Disney parks appart from other amusement parks fading away. I really believe that if you treat your workers right that it will benifit the company more in the long run. If they continue to be cheap with Cast members then it will become a cheap resort.

Please pardon my spelling and grammer I am on pain medication so it is hard to focus. Thankyou for taking the time to read my post!
JenJen

 

[AlanH]

JenJen - I did not realize things were that bad at Disneyland. My wife is a PT CM at WDW (formerly FT) and I was a PT CM. You can read my previous comments in post #30 of this thread. I previously posted additional comments on another thread about WDW which I'm copying here.

I'm very sorry about your experience at autotopia. I agree that the CM was very unprofessional. You're absolutely right!

If Disney continues to persue short term profits by not making a long term investment in their hourly CMs and their first line managers, the whole Parks and Resorts division will go down the toilet.

As you can see I was somewhat optimistic for the future. Now I wonder.

First, thank you all for the sympathic words. I know that I can speak for my wife on this in addition to speaking for myself. Both my wife and I greatly appreciate the magical experiences we have had and continue to have at WDW as guests. Therefore, she wants and I wanted to do everything we can to make to experience of being at WDW just as "magical" as it has been and continues to be for us.

Laura (lllovell), you ask a good question. Quite frankly I believe the marginal increase in cost to address these issues at WDW will be more than made up over the long run by increased revenue at WDW. There are a number of issues

1. The maintenance and upkeep. I think most will agree that over the long term deferred maintenance is more expensive than regular maintenace. In addition I believe the additional money spent to see that the light bulbs are replaced, and the parks and resorts are kept clean and freshly painted will pay dividends in the positive guest experience and "word of mouth" recommendations to other people. The reason much maintainence is done while the parks are open is due to management trying to again save money by not paying a "third shift" pay differential. Again I think the marginal increase in cost to do more work on the "third shift" will pay more dividends in the increased guest experience.

2. Management of hourly CMs and first line managers. I'll repeat myself, these people are key to the guest experience. About 90% of guest interaction is with hourly CMs. About another 9% is with first line managers. In addition, the first line managers are crucial to creating "The Work Experience" for the hourly CMs. I believe the additional money spent in training and support for first line managers would greatly enhance the "The Work Experience" for both the first line managers (because now they will feel valued) and the hourly CMs. This will translate into better service to the guests. And again over the long term increased revenues to WDW. By the way I am a compensation and benefits professional. While increased pay and benefits are appreciated, do not underestimate the importance of "The Work Experience". In my experience this can be addressed for a lot less money than pay and benefit increases. But it all starts with top management.

3. Labor Relations. The Labor Relations area must take a less confrontational postion with the unions. Obviously, the positions taken by Labor Relations in the last union negotiations were a direct result of policy set at Burbank. The original position taken by the company in negotiations would have resulted in anywhere from a 5 to 10% cut in take home pay and less benefits to boot. This did not sit well with many hourly CMs when revenues at WDW where close to an all time high and upper management (Eisner) was getting milliions in bonuses and stock options and the company was the defendent in a shareholder lawsuit for paying millions of dollars in serverence to a former President.

 

[manning]

Kind of reminds of the story about the person in a board meeting who said "hey stupid get up and leave" and the entire board left.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

Wow, I thought it was just my family, but after starting my research for Jan 06 trip I know better - or worse as the case may be... I definitely see a decline in CM attitude and information at WDW over the last few years. I could go into specifics, but will only note that 4 year old DD said during April '05 WDW trip, "Mommy, did someone steal the magic?" Bottom line is that the well oiled machine that was WDW is now creaking. The CM stories make sense since every glitch we've encountered was due to a CM lack of knowledge or poor attitude. We hope Jan '06 will be more what we're used to. I wanted to write letters about our poor experiences on Western Cruise in Jan '05 and at WDW April '05, but CM response was so poor during trips that letter seemed useless and I'm not sure I can write it as helpful rather than rant I don't have CM names because I've never needed to report poor CMs before, but a new aspect of our trip in Jan will be to do so as appropriate, but is this ultimitely helpful? I don't want to sell our DVC property, but will if it looks like WDW will continue it's downward slide Wish us less glitches in Jan '06...

 

[Kitcat]

I'm a former CM and I will be taking my 1st trip to wdw this October as a non-CM. Most of the magic comes from CM's. However, it is upper management that sets the standards very high standards when I was a CM I had a sense of pride in what I did. If your not getting what you expect you need to let the big wigs know or the magic will fade.

 

[Synonymous]

If the big wigs cared, this wouldn't be happening. They are perfectly happy to let "the magic" fade as long as they can keep filling the parks with special promotions and such. Long term, this will probably result in attendance declines, but people running corporations don't think long-term anymore- by that time, they'll have opened their golden parachutes and gone off to run some other company into the ground.

 

[manning]

I could go into specifics, but will only note that 4 year old DD said during April '05 WDW trip, "Mommy, did someone steal the magic?"

From a 4 year old, "Mommy, did someone steal the magic?"

Even a four year old noticed.
__________________________________

If you have to give a discount the best service is not being given and you are leaving money on the table.

 

[Pixiebell]

I have to agree with some of the points mentioned here.

We came over to WDW in 1999 for our wedding, and were completely 'wowed' the whole trip. CM's were polite, attentive, and always had a smile, even for the most stuipd of questions. Even the custodial staff had this same work ethic.

We have been coming at least once a year now since then, and DH and I have definitely noticed a decline in customer services. I found a shirt in MK Emporium that only had one size left. I asked one of the CM's on the register if there were any more out back (this was NOT a busy day, I think there must only have been 20 people in the whole store). I was answered with "If there aren't any out, then we don't have any". This CM then actually turned her back on me and carried on with what she was doing!
I must add in defense of Disney CM's, that we had the complete opposite at MGM Villains store. A slightly older lady was asked the same question, when the store was actually very busy. She went in back 2 or 3 times for me, and even made a phone call to see when their next delivery would be!

I don't feel that Disney are instilling the sense of pride and magic to their newer staff members, which is a terrible shame, because they are the theme parks that every other park in the world looks up to and tries to emulate.
We have noticed a huge improvement in customer service at the Universal parks (they all seem willing to help - I asked a custodial staff for the nearest smoking area, he wasn't sure, but walked me around until we found it!), maybe Disney should take a fresh look at their staffing practices.

There are still many 'feel good' moments at Disney, and they do outweigh the bad, but they need to turn around now, before people decide to go to the other parks and stay there longer.

I just take some comfort that they are not yet as bad as the staff at Busch Gardens. We went there for the first time this year, and I have to say, it will be a long time before we think about doing it again.
We were with friends, buying a drink at one of the stands, when the staff member fainted. DH caught her, and stopped her hitting the ground, while I went for help, and my friend moved the parasol to shade her. While we were waiting for medical staff to attend, 4 or 5 other staff members came over (shift about to start, or just ended), and asked what had happened! We assumed that they would take over from us in helping her, but they just mumbled a bit and walked off!! Just as they had gone, a medic reached us and took over (the girl had only just come round). She thanked us for our help and offered us anything we wanted from the stall, and she would pay for it from her expenses. We just took our drinks and left, but DH stopped off at Guest Services on our way out to check the girl was ok. We were informed that she was fine and had gone home, but the medic had noticed the other girls walking off, and that they were to be disciplined!

I am thankful that I don't think this would ever happen at Disney, nor would I ever work at Busch Gardens, if you have to rely on guests to help you if you fall ill!

 

[Disneyrsh]

I wonder if we're loving Disneyworld to death...

I think the CMs' behavior reflects the decline in our manners as a society in general, and not a problem unique to Disney.

Like the frame around my car tag says, been there, done that, going back!

 

[AlanH]

Your comments on this thread are terrific! If only we had the email addresses for some senior management such as CEO-elect Bob Iger or WDW Presdient Al Weiss so we could send them this thread.

That a 4 year old noticed is very telling!

 

[JenJen]

That is so sad a 4 year old noticed I hope that Disney gets the head out of there hmmm hmmm's and starts making some possitive changes in the company. My friends that still work there are all wanting to quit but I guess that is what they want. That way they can hire someone for a lower wage.

 

[BurkeTribe]

It seems like the problem may be generally two-fold: the corporation not training and respecting CMs as well as in the past, and (some) guests having inflated expectations.

From several comments about shortened employee schedules, it seems like DisneyCorp is making one of the classic business assumptive mistakes, one that new managers with MBAs like to come in and make: they assume that employees with shorter shifts will give better service (because they won't be tired by the end, etc.). This is, in most all cases, foolish and wrong-- it sets up the mindset in the employee that they and their jobs are less important. Short shifts mean less time to get into the flow of work, and thus, less work is done. Often short-shifting, done as cost-saving (in truth, penny-pinching) by a corporation, costs more in the long run, with turnover and customer opinion sag.


Our experiences the past couple of visits have been fine, and several CMs did nice UNEXPECTED things for us... and that is where, in our opinion, some of the real magic lies. It subconciously encouraged us to spread some magic, too -- we had some ready-to-go fastpasses we weren't going to use, saw a tired, frazzled looking couple w/smallkids looking at the long line, so we gave them the passes, which brought smiles. Not trying to toot our horn, because it was not a big deal, but just saying that we think that, well, a lot of small good actions can add up to a greater good time for all.

Smile and have fun, and it radiates to others