What Happened to EPCOT?

[Mom of Jack 2009]

I was used to the standing tables from the HS events so they weren't too odd for us. CM I spoke with said the same dept does both the Epcot and the HS events, for what it's worth
Reserved seats is one place where they do differ from Wishes, no assigned tables. They open the area about an hour before Illuminations begins. We got to the area about 10 min before that, roughly. There was a line already formed of people waiting to go in. I'm guessing they started to check in about 30 min before. We still got a good spot along the rail, so we could sort of lean/sit on it. And it was a very good view of Illuminations.

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[JimmyV]

Two points.

1. (And I am jumping up onto a soapbox here). Replies that state only: "Nope. Never seen it" are pointless. Are you implying that because you've never seen it that it never happens? Or that the OP is lying? Or that the OP is exaggerating? Please see the first sentence of MikeandReneePlus5's response for a better way to approach this.

2. The topic here is "What happened?" which suggests that something has changed. I can't remember there ever being a time when CMs policed things closely. Perhaps the changes have been with the decorum of guests themselves, or perhaps the addition of both a Margarita bar and a Wine trattoria. Maybe some people are spending a bit more time enjoying "full on" drinking rather than "sampling". But people have been walking around with drinks, some of whom have overindulged, for as long as I can remember and there hasn't been any active policing that I recall. So maybe what has changed lies not with Epcot but with the guests. Or perhaps nothing has changed and the behavior witnessed is kind of a "one time out of twenty" situation and the odds finally caught up with you. (As it will, eventually, with all the "Nopes" out there.)

 

[bc7ate9]

I've noticed that type of bahvior quite a bit during Food & Wine. I'd advise people who want to avoid seeing that type of thing to visit in the morning - and avoid weekends.

I wonder if the World Showcase cast members feel adequately empowered to address that kind of behavior. Some of it may be cultural too. For example, Japanese people tend to be very passive and avoid confrontation so they may be less likely to address inappropriate behavior. I'm no expert - just some thoughts.

 

[AngiTN]

I've noticed that type of bahvior quite a bit during Food & Wine. I'd advise people who want to avoid seeing that type of thing to visit in the morning - and avoid weekends.

I wonder if the World Showcase cast members feel adequately empowered to address that kind of behavior. Some of it may be cultural too. For example, Japanese people tend to be very passive and avoid confrontation so they may be less likely to address inappropriate behavior. I'm no expert - just some thoughts.

I'm sure the cultural divide is a factor.
From differences in how different cultures approach behavior to language issues.
We encountered a significant language issue at Teppan Edo last week.
We were seated with a family, Mom, Dad, kids ranging from adult to elementary. This family did not speak English. I didn't recognize their language at all. 1 of the older kids did speak a few words. They were trying to order from a waitress from Japan who didn't speak very good English either. She was trying to determine if the older child was over 21 (he did appear to be) but she wanted to verify this when he ordered a drink. She couldn't get any of them to understand she needed to verify his age. She finally just brought his drink. Had he been over-served over the course of the night elsewhere in Epcot it would have been quite difficult to converse with him. I often wonder just how families like this manage at Disney (non-English speaking, combined with a speaking a language that few know) but that's a different topic.

 

[dkrauss]

Curious did any other guests back your wife up? Disney doesn't seem to do much crowd control on that level which is a shame......but yelling and cursing is unacceptable. We've never done F&W but this is good to know, and yes unfortunate.......dont do F&W on the weekends

Doug

 

[Rgonzalez79]

Two points.

1. (And I am jumping up onto a soapbox here). Replies that state only: "Nope. Never seen it" are pointless. Are you implying that because you've never seen it that it never happens? Or that the OP is lying? Or that the OP is exaggerating? Please see the first sentence of MikeandReneePlus5's response for a better way to approach this.

2. The topic here is "What happened?" which suggests that something has changed. I can't remember there ever being a time when CMs policed things closely. Perhaps the changes have been with the decorum of guests themselves, or perhaps the addition of both a Margarita bar and a Wine trattoria. Maybe some people are spending a bit more time enjoying "full on" drinking rather than "sampling". But people have been walking around with drinks, some of whom have overindulged, for as long as I can remember and there hasn't been any active policing that I recall. So maybe what has changed lies not with Epcot but with the guests. Or perhaps nothing has changed and the behavior witnessed is kind of a "one time out of twenty" situation and the odds finally caught up with you. (As it will, eventually, with all the "Nopes" out there.)

Very good point on #2, I may have mistakenly placed blame on the park, and CMs directly, in my writing. The fault does lie with the guests themselves, but I do however hold some expectation for Disney to have some level of security that a CM can turn to/contact if a situation requires.

The walking around with drinks has indeed always been there as that is part of the experience (trying food/drinks from different countries/cultures), the overindulgence as you say is my issue. Perhaps it was a summer crowd issue and after a larger sample size of visits will even this out, it just seemed to be more prevalent recently and I was curious if anyone had noticed this becoming an issue.

Curious did any other guests back your wife up? Disney doesn't seem to do much crowd control on that level which is a shame......but yelling and cursing is unacceptable. We've never done F&W but this is good to know, and yes unfortunate.......dont do F&W on the weekends

Doug

There was a mom who gave us a "Thank You, finally" but I was a bit surprised that noone else joined in, perhaps noone wanted the situation to escalate past that point (part of the reason I tried to keep my wife calm). The last thing we want is to add fuel to the fire and make the situation worse.

 

[minnie mum]

Jimmy V raised a couple of good points. We've witnessed people who were obviously drunk, and behaving badly. And it does seem to be happening with significantly increasing frequency. F&W , especially on the weekend, has become infamous for this, but we've seen it at other times as well. Although not to the extent that the OP was unfortunate enough to encounter. I wish that Disney would crack down on this. Stop serving guests who've overindulged. Encourage CMs and security to rein in those guests who are disruptive. It seems incongruous that families with young ones need to be warned to stay away from a Disney park during certain periods of the year, or be prepared for inappropriate behavior.

 

[disneypanda11]

I remember thinking the same thing when we went to F&W last year. Same as you, we like to have a good time, but RESPONSIBLY. I was shocked at how many "drinking teams" I saw acting inappropriately. I don't expect CM's to babysit, but when a line has been crossed, I think for safety reasons along with just maintaining a pleasant environment for everyone, it should really be an expectation that a CM gets involved and quashes some of the nonsense. Sorry you had to go through that.. I'd have been pretty upset

 

[ttintagel]

During the day, I rarely see problems at EPCOT. But every time I go, EPCOT After Dark seems to become more and more about just drinking and partying for more and more people.

I don't think it helps the situation that whenever I'm there, it seems like EPCOT is the park that's open the latest, so everyone with park hoppers ends up there because there's noplace else to go if they don't want to go back to their resorts or to Downtown Disney.

 

[Rgonzalez79]

EPCOT After Dark

I should have used that as the title

I don't expect CM's to babysit, but when a line has been crossed, I think for safety reasons along with just maintaining a pleasant environment for everyone, it should really be an expectation that a CM gets involved and quashes some of the nonsense. Sorry you had to go through that.. I'd have been pretty upset

Agreed, and thanks for the blue face of support

It seems incongruous that families with young ones need to be warned to stay away from a Disney park during certain periods of the year, or be prepared for inappropriate behavior.

This is exactly my feeling, would this behavior be tolerated at Magic Kingdom? Then why do we have a different expectation when bringing your family to EPCOT?

 

[W.E.D.]

We've, thankfully, never encountered this, but I don't discount folks who have. It's sad. You either know your limits, or you don't. I tried to drink around the world on one visit, got from Mexico to Germany and said to myself "nope, I'm done. If I continue I'll become a nuisance." A lot of people, especially younger folks, don't know their own limits. I agree if you're going to have adult beverages available, you need to train staff on limits and perhaps have a higher security presence.

 

[disneygolfer1985]

We go to EPCOT almost every night while at the World and unfortunately I have witnessed the same thing the OP has noted especially during F & W and even more so on the weekends. If possible, I'll never go to EPCOT at night during F&W again. My wife and I will have a couple drinks and we don't mind people having a good time but over the last few years we've seen way too many drunk people (young & older) at the Park. I agree Disney needs to get this back under control.

I have been for the F&W during the weekend one time and I will admit seeing kids drunk and adults beyond repair. It was shocking to me for anyone to be fully drunk at 1pm in the afternoon. I remember listening to Off Kilter and having a drunk girl keep bumping into me. It can be bad during F&W. I have not really noticed during now F&W times. It could be that I'm going more over the holidays. IDK

 

[Vohdre]

I was at F&W 2 years ago on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and couldn't believe it. Seemed like a college bar level of rowdiness.

 

[secretpantssam]

This past F&W festival was so full of drunks. I just went with my adult family but I felt especially bad for everyone with children. It was way too rowdy and felt almost dangerous. I did see increased security presence in Mexico, The UK, and Germany but it was still not a pleasant experience. One of my main gripes was that a lot of the most rowdy groups came in with homemade matching shirts with slogans about how drunk they were going to get and one even had Mickey passed out on it. I feel like they might ask me to change if I wore a shirt say "I'm going to ruin everyone's vacation today".

 

[kbelle8995]

I've been going to Disney for awhile and F&W has more rowdies on the weekend. Large groups of people show up with pictures on cocktails on their shirts. I used to be able to avoid it by arriving early but now they show up when WS opens.

Flower & Garden is better anyway.

 

[disneyseniors]

OP, I hope you sent this post to WDW co. Also a phone call would work. If no one says anything to them, then why should they do anything? If enough people took the time and effort to report this to them, then maybe something will be done. If nothing else, you'll feel better

 

[Bullseye]

Nope, don't feel that way.

Nope, never had a problem and I hope I don't.

No, I have never seen over the top drunk behavior at Epcot.

Two points.

1. (And I am jumping up onto a soapbox here). Replies that state only: "Nope. Never seen it" are pointless. Are you implying that because you've never seen it that it never happens? Or that the OP is lying? Or that the OP is exaggerating? Please see the first sentence of MikeandReneePlus5's response for a better way to approach this.

Jimmy, I've seen you use this rationale on several different topics including selfie sticks. Just because people state that they haven't seen something occur at WDW why do you assume they are implying that it doesn't happen. The ops question was [has anyone experienced the same thing I have and feel the same way I do] about drunks at Epcot. The replies above simply state they haven't seen it... with no implication that it's because it doesn't happen or someones lying or exaggerating . Why would they need to expand further about things they haven't seen ? Telling them their answers are pointless...is pointless.

 

[Dug720]

Actually the worst behavior I've seen came from off-duty Norway "cultural ambassadors" on NYE. How do I know they were "cultural ambassadors"? Because they were hanging around with those on duty talking about getting together later in housing (meaning they had access to get there), and my off-duty CM sister and friends recognized some of them. It really was ridiculous how loud and obnoxious they were getting. In that case, my sis and friends commented "Well, they'll be on planes back to Norway soon..."

 

[Fizban]

Do you folks remember the Naval Aviator cadet who got so drunk that he physically attacked 3 CM's with a PVC pipe 2 years ago? We were there that day. I'm sure it ruined his career and it actually hurt a female CM in the neck. Disney doesnt need to count the drinks everyone has, but if someone is obviously inebriated they need to be cut off and sent home.

 

[MischaOz]

Yep, saw someone vomiting into the bushes near Mexico pavilion. This was around 6:00pm and not during F&W.