What Happen To The Flag People?

[walter]

On a recent visit in late Oct.- early Nov. we noticed the absence of the groups (usually from S. America) commonly known as "flag people". Is this unusual for this time of year or the norm? I remember while visiting AK and the "Wonders of Flight" program, they metion during their presentation a reference to the flag people. Unfortunately if you were a person who was visitingWDW for the first time, you would not get the joke.

 

[Sandy Fisher]

Can't vouch for anyone else, but we saw one LARGE group just before we left. We were there til Nov. 15 and we happened to be at MK and saw them coming. They all had bright yellow sleeveless vests, nylon maybe, so they really stood out. Someone said they were from Argentina. I had read some posts about groups from Brazil and that they were "rowdy" but never experienced it before. We managed to get ahead of them to get on Pirates, but during the ride there were three announcements regarding not standing in the boats, remaining seated, etc. I'm serious. 3 times. never heard such an announcement in all the years we've been going. They also whistled loudly the whole way down the pathway to the ride boarding area. LOUD. And it echoed.
We moved quickly to Big Thunder after Pirates and beat them there but just barely. They were really moving. But then the group seemed to break into smaller groups and we only caught glimpses of them in the park. We referred to them as the "yellow jackets" because we couldn't make out what was written on the vests. The flag had two words on it but I didn't know what they were.
Maybe because of the size of the group or because of their "exhuberance", they were intimidating.

 

[Safari Steve]

They're around more in the Spring and Summer, but many tour groups use the flags (not just the ones from S. America-although they are the most noticeable). I would wager that even though you didn't see any on your trip, there was at least one such group visiting at the same time.