Unfortunate Trip Report I have to post

[Ware Bears]

This is terrible, I'm so sorry you and your aunt had such a horrific experience.

for you both and I hope you are both feeling better soon.

 

[SandraVB79]

I'm very sorry that happened to you.
A couple of times when we were in the Stretch Room at Phantom Manor, people have started to be obnoxious, little fights started, etc, and each time the CMs were right on top of it, security was there to escort them away, etc, so I'm very sorry this happened to you.


Btw, Magic Kingdom is smaller than Disneyland Park. magic Kingdom is namely the smallest "park-with-castle" that Disney has

 

[jillrobinson]

Thankfully we have never experienced or witnessed anything like this. How sad for your trip to be marred by this behaviour ~ I hope it is brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

 

[di$neyf@n]

So sorry to hear that happened to you and your Aunt and absolutly sickened that a man would punch a woman and then no one steps in to help you both. It's sad that this should happen anywhere, let alone a place that is supposed to be happy, fun and safe for everyone.
I pray your Aunt recovers soon and that you get some justice. I am apalled at the lack of support.
Best wishes to you both for a speedy recovery.

 

[hildasmuriel]

I am so shocked and aghast at what you had to go through. It sounds like the CMs handled it so badly - why on earth were they listening to these people and not you? What was the story that the other people were spinning? I mean - what was their excuse for why your aunt was standing there with an injury and they had nothing wrong with them? It must have been some explanantion! Were you given a chance to contradict it? I don't think I would have been polite enough to sit and listen to their rubbish - I would have been insisting the CMs listened to us. But I guess it's easy to say what I may have done - I guess when you're there and it's happening to you it must be so shocking that you can't think straight.

What a sad sad thing to happen.

 

[SnowWhite_in_4734]

How awful for your aunt and you. I have been to WDW but not to Paris and I must admit to feeling slightly apprehensive about my upcoming trip as I will be with my daughters, 25 and 14 and grand daughter 3 with no males in the party. I have seen quite a number of threads about rudeness/pushing/queue jumping etc. Not speaking the native language must be a great disadvantage in that type of situation too, especially if the other party involved do.
I hope your aunt is well on the road to recovery now.
Linda

 

[hildasmuriel]

Not speaking the native language must be a great disadvantage in that type of situation too, especially if the other party involved do.

Aaah - is that what happened? I must admit I was a bit confused as to why the aggresors were allowed to tell their story and the poor victim wasn't. Now I understand.
This sort of thing would be terrifying whenever it happened - but to happen in a country where you don't speak the language must make it even more of an ordeal.

 

[Cazgal]

That is just awful - I would have felt exactly the same .. shocked and in disbeilf that it could of happened - and in of all places Disney !

Hopefully you have recovered somewhat by now - pass on my love to your Aunt. Hope she is OK.

Keep up with the complaint - how they dealt with the situation is terrible.

 

[bavaria]

How awful for your aunt and you. I have been to WDW but not to Paris and I must admit to feeling slightly apprehensive about my upcoming trip as I will be with my daughters, 25 and 14 and grand daughter 3 with no males in the party. I have seen quite a number of threads about rudeness/pushing/queue jumping etc. Not speaking the native language must be a great disadvantage in that type of situation too, especially if the other party involved do.
I hope your aunt is well on the road to recovery now.
Linda

Please do not be apprehensive. I have resisted posting on the original and revised thread, as the moderators know my feelings on these threads.

I visit a Disney park somewhere in the world on average once per month, and DLRP is my favourite. I have yet to experience what I read here on a somewhat regular basis, with the exception of one or two poorly behaved visitors. It is best not to go expecting the worst, as you may find it. May I politely suggest that you expect the best and try and find that instead.

DLRP is actually the largest of all 'Magic Kingdom' parks in the world, and has many unique attractions.

I certainly hope that the OP's aunt is fully recovered. Unfortunately lack of language skills may have contributed to the situation, as well as differences in cultural norms.

As already noted here, many cultures do not follow the same queueing habits as those from the UK. It may be best to simply move aside or not confront a stranger, as in some cultures pointing out a perceived rudeness is actually considered worse than the actual perceived rude act. This incident is certainly not the norm for France or DLRP, and I hope that readers do not take it as such.

Best thoughts to the OP, and hopefully she will one day return to France with better results.

 

[jillrobinson]

Aaah - is that what happened? I must admit I was a bit confused as to why the aggresors were allowed to tell their story and the poor victim wasn't. Now I understand.
This sort of thing would be terrifying whenever it happened - but to happen in a country where you don't speak the language must make it even more of an ordeal.

I have to say that having read the orginal post whilst in work on Saturday, I was surprised to come home and find it missing, when it reappeared I was even more surprised to see that the nationality/language spoken by the perpertrator had been removed as whilst not relevant to the act of aggression itself, (we are all aware that there are thugs, hooligans and bullys in all countries), it helps to explain the despair of the victims, who were unable to understand the ensuing conversations.

 

[Cyrano]

How awful for your aunt and you. I have been to WDW but not to Paris and I must admit to feeling slightly apprehensive about my upcoming trip as I will be with my daughters, 25 and 14 and grand daughter 3 with no males in the party.

I don't think you should feel apprehensive at all.
Lots of guests come back from DLP having had a lovely time

 

[xviclx]

Thanks to everyone for your kind words my aunties eye is bruised still and she hasnt got all her vision back in it but the hospital there who were very helpful and seen us straight away said it could take up to a week to see properly. Im ok now im more angry at the situation more than anything becasue I was so shocked and scared at the time.

I think we were just unlucky on the day with the cast members involved becasue I tried to speak as much as I could in the language but in shock and everything my mind went blank . we are in the process of writing a few letters to different people in Disney to ensure it gets to the right people and ill let everyone know how we get on. We did fill in a complaint form at city hall and the people in there were great very nice and helpful and gave us the front of line passes to help us feel better.

 

[SnowWhite_in_4734]

I had not read the original/unedited post so was commenting "in general" about language barriers..lol. Good guess on my part
I agree with bavaria's post and will definitely be off to Paris expecting the best of times. With an almost 4 yr old grand daughter visiting Disney for the first time, my stay can't fail to be both magical (and tearful.) And if anyone shoves her out of a queue they will have one very protective Nanny to deal with

 

[marcus.ka]

Please do not be apprehensive. I have resisted posting on the original and revised thread, as the moderators know my feelings on these threads.

I visit a Disney park somewhere in the world on average once per month, and DLRP is my favourite. I have yet to experience what I read here on a somewhat regular basis, with the exception of one or two poorly behaved visitors. It is best not to go expecting the worst, as you may find it. May I politely suggest that you expect the best and try and find that instead.

I can only sign this.
There are a lot of regular DLRP visitors here on this board. And if you count all our visits together we have more than 1000 visits. And I have never red before that something like this has happened in DLRP. As sad as this story is, I don’t think that this is something that will happen once or twice every week.

We have been in the resort 14 times now and we never had an experience like this before.
To be honest we even never had bad experiences with queue jumping. The reason for this is maybe that we are two males and we are always standing next to each other in the waiting lines so it is very hard for other visitors to get ahead of us. This works very well as the most waiting lines are very small (except for POTC). And if one or two people want to get ahead of us at all costs we let them and enjoy the beautiful waiting area for some more moments until it is our turn.

And yes, we have met some not-so-very-friendly CM’s over the years. But we also met much much more very friendly and very helpful CM’s. I can even remember some of them even after 5 years now!

 

[bavaria]

We have been in the resort 14 times now and we never had an experience like this before.
To be honest we even never had bad experiences with queue jumping. The reason for this is maybe that we are two males and we are always standing next to each other in the waiting lines so it is very hard for other visitors to get ahead of us. This works very well as the most waiting lines are very small (except for POTC). And if one or two people want to get ahead of us at all costs we let them and enjoy the beautiful waiting area for some more moments until it is our turn.

Same goes for me, well, except for the 'two males' part!

But Marcus my friend, that is because we enter the top secret DLRP, I think where everything is sweet and pleasant

No, gentle reader, I am just teasing, there is no secret DLRP just for us, but Marcus and I do tend to have the same experience after many many visits, it would appear

So for those still reading, do not let this unusual situation put you off DLRP and France.

 

[hildasmuriel]

I don't want people to be put off, either. I have only been 8 times so far, but I have never seen any actual fisticuffs.

This doesn't take away the horror I feel for the OP, though. I am amazed at the casual way this assault was dealt with. If I were writing the letter of complaint I would have to point out that in almost any other place one cares to think about, if one 'customer' thumped another then the very least I would expect is that the aggressor would be ejected and probably banned. This would be true in a shopping centre, bar, football ground - why not in a family place like Disney? For all that football has a bad reputation, if you pulled a stunt like this inside a football ground you would have a lifetime ban, probably be banned from other grounds and more than likely face a Police prosecution. You would expect Disney to want to protect their reputation and take Guest security seriously. It doesn't really matter why this chap thought he was right to do this. Apart from in cases of self-defence there is no excuse for punching another person.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

I'm still shocked that this happened and nothing was done about the man and that he wasn't removed from the park.
What kind of message are Disney portraying for letting a violent thug to stay in the park?
Its a shame there are a few people in this world who dont know how to behaviour properly in a park that is designed to create happy memories.

Have you had any response from Disney itself yet? How is your Aunt?

 

[xviclx]

Just a little update whilst in work yesterday I recieved a phone call and voice mail from Disneyland Paris the woman said she wanted to discuss my letter with me unfortunetly I didnt get this until after I finished work as I cant use my phone at that time she said she will phone back monday as she thinks its important, so Ill let everyone know when she rings back what she has to say about it.

 

[markpsych]

I would definitely seek legal advice on this one. It does sound like the incident was handled very poorly, and following it up in a formal manner may encourage them to improve their practice.

 

[poppyolivia]

Good luck with the phone call...maybe write down things in front of you so you get to say it all this time without your mind going blank....

Best Wishes Katrina xx