The worst experiance ever in dlrp

[kobiko]

We returned home from dlrp last night after 4 days in the most magical place ever that I love more than anything but on Wednesday 11th December I had the worst ever experience in a disney park that has made me seriously consider if I want to return.
We were in the studios at the meet and greet with remy/Emile/woody/Donald LILO and stitch and daisy next to cinemagique,we had just met with remy and had a photo and turned to see Emile when all he'll broke out behind us.
The French lady that was stood behind us was waiting to see remy when another family stepped I front of her and pushed her back,she told them that they were pushing in,words were exchanged and the 'lady' in the party slapped her across the face,she retaliated and slapped her back,at this the 'man' in the party slapped the French lady fully across the face,she stumbled backwards and he walked away, a second later she went back towards him and he turned and punched her with a very forcefull right hook to her face then another blow to her nose!
At this point she was doubled over with what I would assume was a very broken nose when 2 men in red who I assumed to be cast members came steaming in to protect her and for their trouble they were beaten to the ground and punched and kicked by the original man and what looked like his father,with 2 of the women in the party also hitting them for good measure.
We later found out that only one of the men was a cast member the other was we think the lady's partner who was not with her at the time of the original attack and came running into the middle of the fight when he realised what was going on.
At no point during any of this was their a single cast member present,the charecters and their minders that we were in the middle of meeting scarpered as soon as it all kicked off,the only exception was LILO and stitch who could not get past the fight to leave so had to stand and watch but the cast member that was with them disappeared?
I was disgusted to see such a thing with so many children present who were all screaming and crying,all the parents who were close by very quickly moved their children out of the way but to see such a thing was awfull and not at all what I would expect on disney property.
The family who had instigated the attack quickly ran off when they had finished their attack but were stopped from leaving by security who made a very leisurely appearance when it was all over,and then to make it worse they questioned the family and the lady who was attacked with the man only 10 feet apart so the whole time they were stood their they were shouting abuse and threats at the poor lady and the man.
The staff presence was shocking,there was no one around to help,I looked for someone whilst it was taking place but it was like all staff had miraculously disappeared,at one point I had to go into the middle of it to get my mum out of the way because she was so disgusted she had gone to give the man a piece of her mind!!!
When a cast member finally appeared to 'calm' us down I asked him where the staff were? He told me that there were none present at the time and that was why it had escalated I told him that actually there were staff present but they all basically ran and hid and he told me not to worry everything was fine!!
I was disgusted with what I witnessed,the man was a savage,punching a women in the face until her nose was broken and beating and kicking a man to the ground all in front of more than 50 children including his own and aided by his father who looked to be well into his 60's.
The handling of the event by security was very poor and the staff were useless,but what shocked me even more was seeing the man and his family swaggering around the very same park the next day without a care in the world!!
I will be making a complaint to disney as I feel the handling of the situation was horrendous,so many children were present that witnessed such a savage attack it left me disgusted and sickened to the core.
I wonder if any other diss'ers were present and also witnessed the event?

 

[Lisa_C]

I can't comment on this particular event (I'm SO sorry you had to witness it all!) but I can comment that it's all to common and not so rare
In August I witnessed a man beating his young child. She was scared of meeting Duffy and ran off. He dragged her by her arm, threw her against the wall and screamed at her. His other daughter was happy to have her picture taken, but the poor CM was unable to do anythingcabout the girl. She did take her hand and said that she wovuld go with her, then the Dad again beat his child in front of Duffy! Duffy was ushered out, and the bloke dragged his child along the floor and stared me in the face. I was NOT going to keep quiet and told him he was disgusting. Big mistake as he flew towards me and went to punch me! I turned my back, he started with abuse and then spat on me. I can handle myself, but as soon as he spat, my Pirate jumped the rope and the man then started pyshing him and threatening (tried to drag him out side too) and threatened me with a slitted throat action. At this point security were all over him, while he was still trying to swing punches at ME and took him off. They then spoke to me, he'd got loose and was shouting I was a "flying witch" (to that effect *wink*) and security just held him back. Luckily my version of events was the same as the CM witnessed and the whole family were removed from the park and banned.
I'm afraid there are some people who have no morals in Disney. Its scary to watch, and scary to be part of. Luckily the CM (who was English) was allowed to give us VIP treatment for that day. She apologised to us (wasn't her fault!) and explained they are not allowed to interfere and rely on the plain clothed security to act in fights and she was physically not allowed to intevene (I wouldn't expect her to either!). She then took us for pricate meet and greets and we got queue hoppers - but I really got embarrassed as Mickey was roped off for us and there were loads if people grabbing us!
My event coukd h ave been far, far worse though. The man didn't think twice about beating his child an he was intent on trying to hit this here woman. But in all honesty, I'd jump straight in if ANY man was beating a woman, even if it was Disney.

 

[kobiko]

Wow Lisa,I am amazed to hear this.
In all of our visits to disney I have never witnesses any type of violence whatsoever,you get the occasional argument if people have pushed in but I have never seen anything physical before so am amazed that it is more common than I thought.
The actual fight was totally uncalled for but I can understand how tempers can flair but what really amazed me was the total lack of staff presence or willingness to help.
Personally I was more concerned in getting my daughter,niece and mum out of the way of the psychotic family but if I had not had them to worry about I would defiantly not hesitated in jumping in to help the woman but I'm actually very gratefull for the fact that my partner,brother in law and dad were on a ride at the time as I dread to think what would have happend if they had witnesed the fight.

 

[kobiko]

Admin has removed my last paragraph on my post In case it offends anyone,sorry if anyone did read it and was offended it was not intended that way it was just a personal opinion.x

 

[Jonjo]

Some times it's quite shocking what you witness. I once saw a guy take a swing at whom I assumed was his girlfriend in Main Street U.S.A. He kicked over one of the trash cans and then went to take a swing at her but was stopped by another guest. Security then appeared and escorted him out of the park. This took place as families were stating to line up ready to watch the parade.

 

[Lisa_C]

I've seen grown men fighting on Main Street two years ago and in August, I also saw a woman punch her boyfriend when he pinched her bottom, he laughed but she then rugby tackled him to the ground....
I think its an awful shame that people behave like this to b honest, you pay so much money only to ruin for others because you act like a wotnot :-/
(I'm glad you actually didnt get involved, sounded like you'd have got a thump too!!) Our 9 year old was shielded (we were in the roped off Duffy meet) and I moved her towards the people in front. If she'd not been there I dread to think what would have happened. She wss really upset about the poor little one and I felt awful she had to leave too

 

[kobiko]

Well you have certainly opened my eyes as I had no clue that this went on,I must have been walking around all these years with my blinkers on,or maybe I have just been very lucky in never having witnessed anything like this before.
When it all started I was about 4 feet away with my daughter,niece and sister in law and after realising what was happening my first priority was to get us all out of the way,I then had to go back to get my mum who is extremely feisty and had decided she would go towards the man to tell him to stop.
My mum tends to not have a filter so I had to steer her away to stop her from getting a whack too!!
Thinking about it now there were a lot of people stood around and a percentage of them were men,yet none of them came to the woman's aid until the two men who we thought to be cast members came running in out of nowhere.
The following day when we saw the attackers again it was actually my daughter and niece who recognised the man who had started the attack and they were so shook up that they asked if we could leave because they were worried to be in the same place as him and his family.
This was my nieces first ever visit to disney and it wasn't exactly the thing I wanted her to remember most!!

 

[gavvy]

It does make you think sometimes whats acceptable in some cultures.

I was sitting happily one day in Discovery land near the loos by Autopia, From a bit of a distance I witnessed a man shouting at his child and then start to undo his leather belt.... The look of terror on the poor kids face was horrible, he obviously knew what could come next by that action.

As it was the Dad realized his surroundings and they merged into the crowd, but the look on that poor boys face was with me all day.

Violence of course is totally unacceptable but some country's culture in managing situations is very different to others- its no wonder there are these situations - Sadly.

C n understand why CM are told not to get involved, by the time they call security and they get there I am sure it looks like they are doing nothing, I'd like to think they are doing the right thing in getting help from security and not jumping in themselves, however it's a very difficult situation

 

[Lisa_C]

It does make you think sometimes whats acceptable in some cultures.

I was sitting happily one day in Discovery land near the loos by Autopia, From a bit of a distance I witnessed a man shouting at his child and then start to undo his leather belt.... The look of terror on the poor kids face was horrible, he obviously knew what could come next by that action.

As it was the Dad realized his surroundings and they merged into the crowd, but the look on that poor boys face was with me all day.

Violence of course is totally unacceptable but some country's culture in managing situations is very different to others- its no wonder there are these situations - Sadly.

C n understand why CM are told not to get involved, by the time they call security and they get there I am sure it looks like they are doing nothing, I'd like to think they are doing the right thing in getting help from security and not jumping in themselves, however it's a very difficult situation

Indeed. Believe me when I saw there are LOTS of plain clothes security inside the park and they will call in the heavies if needs be. It might seem an age between when an argument breaks out and security act, but its really only a few seconds. I think they deal with these situations very well and will go out of their way to help the injured party

 

[DLPaddict]

I am in utter shock the family were allowed back in the park the next day??? So you can punch a few people in the face and get away with it. Disgusting.

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

I am in utter shock the family were allowed back in the park the next day??? So you can punch a few people in the face and get away with it. Disgusting.

I am horrified by this incident.....I too would hope that a strong message would be sent by ejecting people like this from the parks.

You do see people getting very agitated waiting in Q's and pushing forward and it can be frightening for little ones....have never seen it taken to this level though....so hope that it would be dealt with properly!

Hope it did not spoil your trip.

 

[ThBa]

This is disgusting !

Violence is not acceptable and violence against children is far beyond anything....a no go in any form or any country´s culture.

First I´m going to Disneyland for the fun that my two daughters have. I love to see them smile and I´m in heaven when they are lucky. I could not imagine a single reason for being upset in Disneyland.

I always think about Walt Disney himself when I´m in Disneyland. I´ve read a lot of books about this man and his dreams and I really admire him as a visionary man. He build Disneyland for the fun and the laughter of everyone.

It´s a shame that this can happen....a shame for the people who did this and a shame in the memory of Walt Disney.

I hope that the CM will do whatever is necessary to stop these people.



Thorsten

 

[kobiko]

The problem is that the family were clearly not banned from the parks and he was obviously not arrested either,to see him in the parks the next day actually made my blood boil.
I feel for the woman who was attacked as she was physically and I would imagine mentally scarred by this event and I would imagine would not want to return to the parks for the rest of her holiday,can you imagine what would have happened if she had bumped into the family again? I dread to think.
Such events should not be tolerated anywhere but in a place where there are such a high percentage of children it should be an arrestable offence.
Out of interest as it is something I have never noticed,are there security cameras in the parks does anyone know?

 

[jillrobinson]

What an absolutely awful thing to witness I so feel for you and that poor woman but it's the delay in response that most shocks me and the fact that the family were allowed back into the park. To be honest I wouldn't expect the CM's accompanying the characters to get involved.

We also witnessed an unpleasant altercation in the middle of the queueline at ToT. There were a group of young people, if I had to describe them I would say they were Artsy and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, my son is an art student, Rob said Junkies and they did look as though they were under the influence of something. A pair of them a transvestite and one of the girls were kissing and moving provocatively, Rob remarked to me that they were doing their utmost to be shocking, all this in garden queue area of ToT, they were in the row next to us and on the row the other side were another group of teenagers, all of this took place in French, but I think the 2nd group of young people said something to the "outrageous" group and all hell broke loose, fighting, the transvestite was spitting over the heads of other guests, but the dlp heavies did arrive and in all fairness within minutes, I don't know what was said but the entire "outrageous" group were escorted out of ToT and as far as I know offsite I certainly didn't see them later in the park and they were very easily recognisable.

Incidently my two teenage sons mentioned that they couldn't believe how the smell of weed was everywhere in the parks

 

[dlpSteve]

Horrid experiences, well done Lisa for sticking up for the child - glad you weren't hurt.

All CMs that work in Disney Parks are told not to get involved in fights and leave it to the plain clothed security, as they don't want the magic ruined by seeing the CMs in such situations, as well as not wanting them to get hurt themselves. Not sure if it's still the case, but CMs used to be told to also not help people who are hurt, and again, to leave it to the clearly uniformed medical staff.

It has nothing to do with different cultures, violence is just as deplorable in France as anywhere else.

 

[kobiko]

Incidently my two teenage sons mentioned that they couldn't believe how the smell of weed was everywhere in the parks

we noticed this as well this year Jill,nick kept commenting on it and how strong it smelt and even Lauren commented a few times that she could smell funny smoke(she's only 10).

 

[lilacgems23]

We witnessed a similar incident on the shuttle bus before it left the parks. A man attacking a woman, everyone on the bus either screaming or just watching. The bus driver didn't get out of his seat or call anyone. It was very scary as me and my daughter were sat very close.

 

[Ware Bears]

Shocking behaviour and it always seems even worse in a place where people should be happy,