special parties and people without wristbands....

[Sammie]

I think Disney does a great job of running the slackers off and sorry if you don't buy a ticket you are a slacker in my book. However it is a huge park and a few will probably fall through. I would imagine if they were in LTT they timed it so they would come out just as the parade passes as to not get caught. Karma will catch up with them eventually.

And yes I have seen guest get very ugly about being asked to leave and sometimes security had to escort them out.

 

[Accident]

I'm sure a few find a way to stick around but there isn't much more they can do without someone checking for a wrist band. As long as I'm happy, disney is on top of it and they aren't as happy as I am without a wristband. In this case, if your stepping on my toes, I'm not happy and they got to go.. I dont' need to engage them or care why they feel entitled, all I know is I will be sending a cm letting them know your not wrist banded and being rude stepping on peoples feet trying to hide they don't belong and see the parade.

 

[katt789]

We noticed this a few times at the Halloween parties, but it was super early on! Since the Hocus Pocus show had such large crowds we'd be getting spots around 6:30 and there'd usually be some families sitting there among st everyone with no wrist bands, usually ones that didn't seem to speak english. Cm's would come through and check all the wristbands multiple times so they were usually weeded out but we never said anything knowing this would happen

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We were at MVMCP on Tues. the 15th. I saw quite a few people without wristbands. I did see cm's doing their best to herd them out. Also saw some guy getting pretty nasty with a cm as they were blocking him and quite a group of other from getting onto Main Street. (I am assuming none of them had wristbands)

Also lots of people had long sleeved shirts on so they would have to roll up part of the sleeve to see the wristbands.

We went to BOG for an adr before the Halloween party. We werent planning on doing the party, no one escorted us out or blocked us. I can tell you and I posted this before that we were walking down by Main Street and the cm's were congregating just talking to each other and many people were sitting watching the castle show and it was dark but they said nothing to these people and it was after 7 pm.

I guess if a Diser or someone else has a better solution for the wristband police problem Disney would be interested in hearing it maybe. But really do they care? They are raking it in with all the tickets they sell anyway. $$$$

 

[Granny square]

Somehow I hope karma is about so much more than watching a parade without a ticket...

 

[Xennia]

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Why even let it bother you, right?

 

[Love Tink]

Why even let it bother you, right?

Because worrying about what other people did, are doing, or might potentially do is like 80% of the conversations on the Dis Boards.

 

[goofy4tink]

We were at MVMCP on Tues. the 15th. I saw quite a few people without wristbands. I did see cm's doing their best to herd them out. Also saw some guy getting pretty nasty with a cm as they were blocking him and quite a group of other from getting onto Main Street. (I am assuming none of them had wristbands)

Also lots of people had long sleeved shirts on so they would have to roll up part of the sleeve to see the wristbands.

We went to BOG for an adr before the Halloween party. We werent planning on doing the party, no one escorted us out or blocked us. I can tell you and I posted this before that we were walking down by Main Street and the cm's were congregating just talking to each other and many people were sitting watching the castle show and it was dark but they said nothing to these people and it was after 7 pm.

I guess if a Diser or someone else has a better solution for the wristband police problem Disney would be interested in hearing it maybe. But really do they care? They are raking it in with all the tickets they sell anyway. $$$$

Used to be, many years ago, the park closed at 7. Those with bands were herded into one Land, usually TommowLand. They could ride the attractions there, while the park was emptied. The party didn't start until 8! There were very few interlopers back then. And, Disney sold a lot fewer party passes back then, for a lot less money.
Now, CMs do their best to check wristbands. Bug that's tough to do for parades, fireworks and special party shows.
This is one reason I've probably paid for my last Christmas party...too many people, way too expensive.

 

[disney world dreamer]

a couple weeks ago non party guests were trying to get free hot chocolate and cookies but you were required to show your wristband and when they couldn't they were turned away.

personally i would never say something directly to someone and honestly i probably wouldn't go tell a CM either.
they'll be found out easily enough especially if they try to get in line for an attraction.

thats just me though.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I've been to four parties over the last few years and my family has had our wristbands checked several times at each party. We must look like sneaky people, lol. I have no idea how anyone gets away with it.

 

[scrapquitler]

So, have any of you ever seen people at the parties without wristbands? Did you say anything to them?

Thursday evenings party, there was a couple who stood behind us the entire time without wristbands. They had just had dinner at Liberty tree. I did say to them that it was a party & they needed wristbands to be there. They told me they had just spent $200 on dinner, so , they were staying. I would not have noticed them if not for the lady constantly stepping on my toes....

So, have any of you ever encountered non paying party guests & what did you do? Sucks we paid over $300 to be there & they did not. So, it got me wondering just how many people actually do sneak in & stay....

I'm not the wristband police. Disney has people who get paid to do that, so it's not my job.

They aren't going to be able to ride, or shop, etc. without the wristband, so they'll get noticed eventually. When we were at the Christmas party last month, I watched them escort a family from the line for Thunder Mountain at about 830 for not having wristbands, and they acted like they had no idea that there was a special event going on. But they did get escorted away, so I guess the CM dealt with them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

You know I have noticed some bad reviews for both WDW and Universal regarding people upset that the park closed early for the private event but didn't realize it when they planned to go to the park that day (ones applying to both was for Halloween) so there are people out there that didn't realize the parks closed early.

IMO I can totally see where that might happen (though I do a lot of research prior to vacationing anywhere) but me being the curious type I would start seeing person after person with wrist bands (at least at WDW since I don't know what Universal does for their party) and wondering what was up with that. I would probably end up asking someone and then realize oops.

That being said there isn't a reason to get upset with people when they tell you that you aren't really supposed to be there.

 

[rpb718]

With all the extra security concerns, I would think anyone still in the park that really shouldn't be there should raise some flags. The motto now is: if you see something, say something - but only to the CMs.

 

[Sammie]

Somehow I hope karma is about so much more than watching a parade without a ticket...

I consider stealing pretty serious.

 

[focusondisney]

You know I have noticed some bad reviews for both WDW and Universal regarding people upset that the park closed early for the private event but didn't realize it when they planned to go to the park that day (ones applying to both was for Halloween) so there are people out there that didn't realize the parks closed early.

IMO I can totally see where that might happen (though I do a lot of research prior to vacationing anywhere) ... .

Sorry, I don't think it's that easy to miss the fact that there is a special event going on & the park is closed. Disney has the park hours listed online & it clearly states 7-12 as special party hours. I don't believe someone spends $100 a person to get into a theme park without checking the park hours. If they do, that's really poor judgement on their part. Plus there are signs outside at the TTC & at the MK gates that state the park is closing at 7 for a holiday party.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I've been to several Christmas, Halloween and even a Pirate and Princess party. It has never occurred to me to look and see if other people had wristbands.

 

[AP1209]

I was just at the Christmas party on the 17th and I saw people being turned away once it turned 7pm. I was standing right by Big thunder mountain and a CM was standing right there asking to see wrist bands of everyone who passed by. One family had just rode big thunder and was getting back in line to ride again and they were turned away by the CM. The father said "Well kids lets just go and watch the parade and then we will leave". Seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing. I wish they would only do 1 or 2 x-mas parties a week, clear the park out and then let in the party goers. Limit it to 10,000 tickets. I'd be willing to pay more per ticket if it felt a little more intimate and exclusive.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sorry, I don't think it's that easy to miss the fact that there is a special event going on & the park is closed. Disney has the park hours listed online & it clearly states 7-12 as special party hours. I don't believe someone spends $100 a person to get into a theme park without checking the park hours. If they do, that's really poor judgement on their part. Plus there are signs outside at the TTC & at the MK gates that state the park is closing at 7 for a holiday party.

Oh I totally agree with you (as I stated I research) about that except for the fact that there are people who still do little or no research when it comes to WDW plus people are just not observant at all which yes is poor judgement. Some people also may not know the language well enough to read the signs.

I was just placing my input based on bad reviews (which I didn't always feel was justified since a lot was because the reviewer didn't research) I had seen based on the parties over several months time where people clearly didn't realize they were there on a party night and therefore must not have been observant enough to see the signs you were talking about or looked at park hours. If not approached by a CM telling them to leave some of the people below may not have realized what was going on and carried on like normal. As I also mentioned I was more speaking of Halloween though the same logic could be applied towards the Christmas party.

Just some MK reviews from TripAdvisor:
1-star review from 11/7/15: "Unfortunately we went in the week of Halloween. We did not get to see any disney characters as they seemed to save them all for the Halloween evening entertainment. The park closed at 5pm and we were told that we would have to pay extra to stay. If we had know we would not have paid to go into the park at all. Everyone was very disappointed."

1-star review from 10/24/15: "They wouldn't even let us in because we didn't have "event" tickets and you can not ride some rides without a costume that's not right."

2-star review from 9/25/15: "How dare they charge you for a full days ticket price and boot you out at 7pm for the Halloween event"

2-star review from 10/19/15: "...about eight minutes before the park "closed" for the Halloween party for which we didn't have tickets. She would not let us board one final ride we wanted to check out before we left for the night."

Just some Universal reviews from TripAdvisor:
2-star review from 12/14/15 : "...they are more worried about making money than making guests feel welcome, the tone is visible everywhere but you will feel it most intensely when they ask you to leave the park early due to the "Horror Nights" which in my point of view should not be in detriment of average ticket paying guests who had the bad luck to go on one of these days and had to deal with rude staff demanding everyone to leave."

2-star review from 10/9/15: "We visited Universal Studios on a Thursday. We arrived at noon and it wasn't until 5pm that day that we were told that it closed at 5pm (the website had said 10pm) because of a Halloween event."

These are from people who actually posted reviews but there are plenty of people who don't post reviews. I was in no way defending those who are at the parties unknowningly (as I am not taking into consideration people who knew but stayed anyways) without purchasing the special event tickets but it does happen.

We could argue all day long that these people should have researched or observed signs in front of them but the point is they didn't and they felt the need to rate low based on that (though some of the reviews it was a combination of multiple things that led to a low review).

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I was at Tuesday's MVMCP. I don't recall ever getting checked by a CM to see if I had a band on. I also didn't see anyone without a band, but then I wasn't looking.

Somewhat related story: A few days later I was in AK watching a show and two girls were having a conversation behind me that I could not help but overhear. One girl was cast member. She was talking about how Disney bends over backwards to please guests. She said that one of her family members had come to visit and had not gotten Christmas party tickets. Instead, when told she had to leave, she started crying that she'd paid for her kids to see the fireworks and they weren't going to get to. Disney gave her family wristbands to placate them.

 

[siskaren]

I was at Tuesday's MVMCP. I don't recall ever getting checked by a CM to see if I had a band on. I also didn't see anyone without a band, but then I wasn't looking.

Somewhat related story: A few days later I was in AK watching a show and two girls were having a conversation behind me that I could not help but overhear. One girl was cast member. She was talking about how Disney bends over backwards to please guests. She said that one of her family members had come to visit and had not gotten Christmas party tickets. Instead, when told she had to leave, she started crying that she'd paid for her kids to see the fireworks and they weren't going to get to. Disney gave her family wristbands to placate them.

Were you wearing short sleeves? A CM wouldn't have to get very close to someone to check for a wristband if they're wearing short sleeves. And even if you were wearing long sleeves, if the wristband was on top of the sleeve, it still would've been easy to see.

Unfortunately, a lot of customer-oriented businesses think it's easier to just give the customer what they want (especially if the customer is throwing a tantrum) than to follow policy. (And in particular, what often happens is that a regular employee will try to follow policy, the customer will demand a manager, and the manager will throw the employee under the bus by giving the customer what they want in order to placate them.)