Recent Visitors - Have standards dropped?

[MARTINIUS]

Has anyone who has recently returned from Florida found Park Staff to be more miserable or ruder than the last time they visited? We are going back in August – 2 years since our last visit and have always found all Disney Staff to be courteous, smiling and very helpful but I’ve read a couple of comments recently such as ‘Grumpy John’ on a thread on this board entitled ‘Just returned - observations!’ he said ‘staff seemed to be more miserable than in past visits. It was a struggle to get even a smile out of some of them.’

I received an email from a colleague, who returned from a 3 week trip to Florida on Monday (8/5/06), I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him:

‘We had a good holiday. But I have to say that it was probably the least enjoyable of the three times we've been there. Due entirely to the seemingly unavoidable, and greatly increased number of rather ignorant, loud and downright idiotic Americans whom we bumped into. I was particularly disappointed with Disney, who despite clearly enforcing a policy of courtesy and friendliness through its staff in previous years. Have allowed a team of discourteous, sour-faced people to operate their parks eateries etc. We did of course meet a number of really friendly, delightful Americans. But had a number of run ins with particularly rude ones. Every time I went to a vendor to buy an ice cream etc. I was left feeling that I wished I hadn't bothered.’

Have Disney changed the way they hire people? Maybe they’ve outsourced some of their operations to outside contractors (cheaper?). I’d always assumed all workers in the parks were employed directly by Disney and followed their ethos of being courteous and friendly to all visitors. There has always been a noticeable difference in the quality of service, cleanliness and general attitude between Disney and Non Disney Parks – I hope this isn’t changing.

 

[Grumpy John]

Martinius, your colleague is spot on. As I said in the thread I started, both myself and my wife whilst we were there found the majority of staff in the 4 Disney parks miserable and basically not that interested.

Even saw one or two working with what I assumed were i-pods plugged into their ears.

Something else we commented on between us was the totally lack of staff going round keeping the parks clean of litter etc. Saw many bins that were full to overflowing.

We have been going to Florida now since the early 80s and we would like to think we are very experienced visitors but this time whilst we always enjoy ourselves - after all we have been married 32 years! - there was something not quite right.

Cannot comment on Seaworld or Universal as we did not go to them this time.

Even getting on and off the ferry boat used to be greeted with a smile and a welcome/have a nice day comment. Nothing this time on the occasions we used it.

Maybe others on here who have got back had different experiences, maybe we just picked the wrong days.

 

[pixiepower04]

I can't comment on this because we've only been once in 2004 and everyone was great, even more so when I ended up in hospital but we are going back in 2008 so this concerns me slightly.

I really do think it would be a good idea if Disney had an area on their corporate website where people such as yourselves could comment on recent visits and what pleased or annoyed you.

I don't think the higher echelons know what's going on but if we could tell them then maybe they would do something about it, after all, they can't claim to be 'The happiest place on earth' if they can't get the staff to behave like it.

If anyon'e going out there soon I would receommend that if you aren't happy with something tell them immediately, they can't fix it otherwise and if enough of you say something to a supervisor then maybe they will have to sit up and take notice.

The American's gladly complain when something isn't right over here so we 'reserved' brits should take a leaf out of their book!

 

[wilma-bride]

We have always had good experiences with CMs at Disney and at all the other parks, to be honest. However, I do not doubt that you may have had a poor experience.

From what I gather, a lot of the vending carts are not owned or run by Disney - this doesn't excuse rudeness though.

There is a way to voice your concerns. Stop by Guest Services at any park on your way out and fill in a card. You can do this to bring to their attention both good and bad experiences.

 

[jen_uk]

When I went last Novemeber I cant say I noticed a difference in the staff, they were all really nice and friendly. The parks were always clean and every time I went into the toilets there were attendants there cleaning them.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I have mostly pleasant experiences at all the parks over the many years we have been going to Florida.

I can recall a few rude moments, mainly last August when the guy in charge of letting people on the steam train at MK didn't believe me when I said my son was Autistic.
Cue a nasty exchange of words from me , not really suited to a day at a theme park.

Generally the only problems I have had have been with over-excited or just plain ignorant guests at the parks rather than the staff there.
I must admit I haven't noticed any decrease in cleanliness etc

One of the nicest guys I have ever met in Orlando is an elderly gentleman who works the gates at Universal, I should remember his name but cannot , who always has a smile on his face and is a pleasure to talk to.
There is also a smashing bloke who strangely enough, also works at US or IOA, who I always stop and have a chat with about Cricket!

Joshua cut his knee whilst getting over excited after riding Goofy's Barnstormer, and whilst we did our own bit of first aid, the lady who bathed his knee and generally checked him out was great.

I think this is a very good thread, you could also argue that many things are not quite as good as they used to be, I personally don't find driving in Orlando anything like as enjoyable anymore.

 

[MARTINIUS]

Thanks for the observations - sounds like this has developed recently - sometime this year. I'll have a word with another friend who's been before - he's going out on Saturday for 2 weeks - I'll ask him when he's back if he noticed anything different from his last trip.

 

[mandymouse]

We'll be taking our 10th trip to WDW this Summer, and I can honestly say that we have never come across any rude or grumpy CM's, guests maybe ~ but not CM's

 

[carolfoy]

I'll reserve judgement until September but I won't hesitate to file a complaint if I receive less than good standards

 

[angel659]

Hiya

I am not sure really we seemed to meet every con artist going in 1998. We were short changed by over $50 by a waitress in Hard Rock Cafe. I said to my dh check the change, she put loads of $1 of change and put one $5 on top, so we would of presumed she gave us the right change. I said the way she put the change down was so shifty when we checked she short changed us. We said we paid a $100 travellers cheque and she said oh sorry and gave us the right change. I was so annoyed you knew she did it on purpose. We also had somebody short change us in a petrol station and experienced a rude waitress who would not speak to us other than hmm when taking our order and nodding this was Dennys on the way to Tampa.

The other trips have had no problems at all. Everyone friendly, yes there were a handful of fast food counter people at Disney who's face could probably crack with thier frowns, but they tended to be the younger generation. You could tell it was just a job to get them by. Not many to cause any alarm. We had a fab time and cant wait to go again. All the cast members in the shops etc were great with my kids everyone was so helpful Casey got quite a few free pins whilst we were out there and the amount of characters that came up to our kids in the parade was great. It really made them feel special.

Overall I dont think Disney has lost its touch, its more the handful of people who let Disney down and all we can do is report them either at customer service or email disney when we get home.

 

[wilma-bride]

One of the nicest guys I have ever met in Orlando is an elderly gentleman who works the gates at Universal, I should remember his name but cannot , who always has a smile on his face and is a pleasure to talk to.

I can't remember his name off-hand Johnny but I know exactly who you are talking about - he recently retired which is a real shame as he always had plenty of kind words and we always used to have a little chat with him

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I can't remember his name off-hand Johnny but I know exactly who you are talking about - he recently retired which is a real shame as he always had plenty of kind words and we always used to have a little chat with him

Has he retired now? oh what a shame, would gladly have given him a present, he was a star.

 

[Frances999]

I have always found the service at Disney to be second-to-none. The friendliness of the CMs is spread through the entire resort and I don't think we have ever encoutered even one rude CM. In fact it's probably one of my favourite things about Disney. Unlike other resorts also offering good service, you never get the feeling in Disney that they are just being nice because they have to be - many CMs go above and beyond the call of duty.

 

[SammieG]

in our 14 trips I can honestly only count one or two occasions where CM's have been unpleasant or rude. In fact I could not possibly count all the times that the CMs have actually gone out of their way to do something special for us or our son.

One area I do see standards slipping however is the cleanliness, particularly in the bathrooms.
I used to be amazed at how clean and well maintained the bathrooms were. Never saw anything bad, ever!

Now, often there are paper towels over the floors, overflowing bins, and regularly worse!
The toilets in Germany at Epcot on our last visit were absolutely disgusting! I left and would not use them!!
These were the worst that we saw, but several other rest rooms were pretty dire too.

 

[mikki.young]

Having spent nearly a month there this January I have to say that the vast majority of CMs were good, some were excellent ans a very rare exception not up to scratch in friendliness or helpfulness. There may be something on the cleanliness side but it is not all down to Disney - I think more and more guests must live in a pig sty the way they treat things there. I frequently saw restrooms being cleaned and bins being emptied but it was hard to believe the mess that folks made.

Disney is still magic and has probably not changed as much as the rest of the world but the rest of the world still intrudes. I do hope that Bob Iger will be making sure that Disney does everything it can to keep / improve the magic.

 

[Laurajean1014]

No, everyone was wonderful and I treated everyone with respect and dignity.

I believe, "what you give is what you get."

 

[Lisash]

I've always found the CM's very pleasant at all the parks. Having said that we did go to Kennedy Space Centre last August and found a lot of their staff to be the most sour faced miserable bunch of people we have ever come across in Florida. I suppose the fact the Disney staff are so pleasant made the difference really noticeable but as many of the Kennedy staff were senior citizens you would have expected better. We won't be rushing back anytime soon anyway.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I can't remember his name off-hand Johnny but I know exactly who you are talking about - he recently retired which is a real shame as he always had plenty of kind words and we always used to have a little chat with him

Joh - His name was Dick he was 92 when he finally retired!

He was absolutely brilliant , always happy and talkative - I will miss seeing him at Universal.

 

[AndRu]

In three trips to Orlando I can count the miserable people / bad service on one hand. From getting off the plane to getting back on it again 99.9% of the people we've dealt with have been friendly, helpfull and happy. One notable occasion was at the RFC at DTD where we paid for a $70 meal with a TC and the waitress asked "Do you want your change?" - now that just is rude!

I'm sorry you had that bad experience with the train driver Johnny - in '03 my daughter got her knee stuck between the railings in the station looking at the castle up Main St USA. The staff were superb in helping to free our daughter using a combination of suncream and brute strength to prize her knee back through.

In the UK I absolutely hate the false "Have a nice day" thrown out by staff in stores. In America, it sounds genuine and I take it as such. Long may our good experiences continue!

 

[Scottish-Helen]

I got back on Saturday from my 6th visit to the world and can't think of a single thing to fault Disney on. It was just as magical as previous visits