What months do the chanting teen groups go to Disney?

[asta]

We were there last week and we encountered huge tour groups especially at Epcot and the Studios. I think we were able to avoid them at the MK and AK. We usually go in July and they annoyed me less this trip than in the past. This might have been due to us avoiding them than anything else. We did have to give up our use of Single Rider lines because several huge groups were using them. I didn't stick around to observe them this year but on past trips we encountered groups who pushed and shoved their way past us in Single Rider then refused to ride as singles claiming they did not understand English when the CM tried to separate them. No way would I go through that again.

The worst behavior we experienced was from the yellow group. We left Tower of Terror and were walking on the far right by the curving wall. As the yellow group approached us coming the other way several of them broke into a full out full speed run and knocked me into the wall. I have an artificial knee and falls are especially dangerous for joint replacement people. The wall stopped my fall and probably prevented damage to my knees and hip. I just roughed up my shoulder on the wall. Not one of them even stopped to see what kind of damage they had caused or to apologize. Extremely poor behavior no matter what language you speak.

 

[itchin2go]

Hi all,

I was reading the post about the chanting teen groups, I would like to avoid staying at Disney when these groups frequent, what months are to be avoided if I would like to avoid being at Disney with these large teen groups? (After reading some posts of people who had small kids shoved out of the way/knocked down by these large groups of teens, I would like to avoid going to Disney during these times. The chanting would annoy me, but its the shoving/pushing others out of the way, cutting in front of you or having my child knocked down that would be intolerable to me as a paying guest.)

Thanks for any feedback!.

I got shoved out of the way at Walmart once on Thanksgiving night. Hard to control my temper, believe me. Point being, you can experience rude behavior anywhere.

We once saw one of these groups in January. They were annoying just because of the size of the group. It was hard to get by them as there were so many. However, no chanting or shoving.
I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[oceanmarina]

The one time a few years back when I lost my mind and booked a July trip to the world we encountered the Brazilian tour groups. For the most part it was entertaining to see them sing and have little cheer competitions with their other groups. The only issues we had were when 20 or 30 or more would try to push through to the front of the line pretending like they were joining others ahead. I'm not a shy person and if my handicapped daughter can wait in line in her wheel chair they can too. They would try to pretend to not understand English and start pushing. I would stand firm and say no and point to the back. Worked every time. They actually do speak English.

Good for you, yep I completely agree! It is never ok to push past others, to do this to a child in a wheelchair is truly disgusting and offensive.


To clarify, the intent of my post was that would be my biggest concern, large groups of people (anyone, teens, adults or otherwise) pushing, cutting in line and shoving ahead, also the "human chain" thing should not be allowed. My concern is safety issues it presents. Don't care if you are from USA or any other nation, I would not want to encounter these types of situations. I mentioned "teens" as that was the group identified from the previous thread I read and the youtube clips attached to the thread all featured large groups of teens. I don't care about their age or nationality; only the unsafe and rude behaviors. As Danny the moderator mentioned, writing to guest relations if you encounter this is a good option. If this is happening, the powers that be at Disney needs to let cast members know that this type of behavior is unsafe and it needs to be squashed if it occurs in the parks. It has to be a directive from the top management-down to the CMs who work in the parks.

 

[robinb]

We were there last week and there were many of them although we had no issues with them. Did hear them singing occasionally but they seemed to be having a good time. We were happy to not have the horror stories happen to us personally.

I had the same experience last week. Personally, the tour groups are pretty far down my list of things that dictate my tour schedule.

 

[LOL!]

also the "human chain" thing should not be allowed.

I find that particularly annoying regardless of who does it.

 

[asta]

I find that particularly annoying regardless of who does it.

Can you imagine being in the single rider line and a tour group on either side of your family decides to create an unbreakable human chain by reaching thru and around you? Yeah, that was a lot of fun. When we tried to tell them no their leader coached them in English how to tell everyone that they did not understand English and couldn't be separated. A total nightmare!

 

[PetePanMan]

IMO a couple legit concerns have been posted (eg getting shoved) along with a few minor annoyances but there also seems to be a lot "they just need to behave like us" attitudes on this topic. By far the majority of the groups I have seen are loud yes but they are just having fun (not hugely different than many school field trips of excited kids). It would never even occur to me to arrange a trip around them. If anything, I would be more concerned about the epcot "drink around the world" groups who can get a bit out of control at certain times of the year.

 

[cgattis]

IMO a couple legit concerns have been posted (eg getting shoved) along with a few minor annoyances but there also seems to be a lot "they just need to behave like us" attitudes on this topic. By far the majority of the groups I have seen are loud yes but they are just having fun (not hugely different than many school field trips of excited kids). It would never even occur to me to arrange a trip around them. If anything, I would be more concerned about the epcot "drink around the world" groups who can get a bit out of control at certain times of the year.

Have you ever actually HEARD all the scream-chanting and clapping? It IS hugely different than just excited, loud talking and laughing field trip kind of noise. It's insanely annoying and totally destroys the mood that Disney tries to set for each attraction. If their "culture" was to talk loudly all the way through a ride or movie you're watching, would that be okay too?

 

[RogueKnits]

I wonder if it would be helpful if Disney would limit the size of groups in general that are allowed to tour the parks together. When I was a senior in high school way back in the late '90s, my entire class went on our senior class trip to Disney. We were all broken up into small (around 10 people if I remember correctly) groups that we were expected to stay with while touring the parks. I think the smaller groups made everyone less likely to get into mischief or disruptive behavior. Of course, we also had a strict "code of behavior" that we were expected to follow or risk being confined to the hotel for the rest of the week, so that may have helped. I just can't imagine any large (20+) group of teenagers being able to tour the parks in a completely non-disruptive manner.

 

[mom4fun]

The facts are, teens need supervision. Perhaps there are not enough adult chaperones.

 

[Kalliope]

The facts are, teens need supervision. Perhaps there are not enough adult chaperones.

Part of the problem is there are no adult chaperones. The chaperones are teens themselves and from what I saw, there is one for about every 20-25 girls.

 

[robinb]

Have you ever actually HEARD all the scream-chanting and clapping? It IS hugely different than just excited, loud talking and laughing field trip kind of noise. It's insanely annoying and totally destroys the mood that Disney tries to set for each attraction. If their "culture" was to talk loudly all the way through a ride or movie you're watching, would that be okay too?

I *did* hear all the clapping and chanting last week. I have no power to quiet them down of make them behave in any different way. I can only control my own reaction and I didn't allow it to bother me or ruin my vacation.

 

[PetePanMan]

Have you ever actually HEARD all the scream-chanting and clapping? It IS hugely different than just excited, loud talking and laughing field trip kind of noise. It's insanely annoying and totally destroys the mood that Disney tries to set for each attraction. If their "culture" was to talk loudly all the way through a ride or movie you're watching, would that be okay too?

yup, seen and heard many times and I do agree that rules inside attractions should to be enforced (which I have generally found are). Outside clapping, singing, excitement doesn't "destroy" my mood or enjoyment at all which is what many seem to be concerned with. Really just young people having fun. Gotta go now to crying babies and fussy toddler thread.

 

[drea21]

The closest I've come is during Pop Warner week in December 2013, when we were in line for Space Mountain, a good hour wait, and a massive amount of cheeleaders were in front of us and cheered and chanted the entire time, with it echoing in there like a cave. It was at the end of a very long day and I really had to talk myself into not being totally annoyed by it. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I had crossed over into old lady territory.

 

[Goofey Drool]

I always think of these tour group treads when I watch "amazing race". Americans running around in other countries trying to get places and win prizes etc. They appear pretty rude to local populations who for the most part are just scraping by to survive. Rude travelers come from all over for sure.

 

[asta]

I always think of these tour group treads when I watch "amazing race". Americans running around in other countries trying to get places and win prizes etc. They appear pretty rude to local populations who for the most part are just scraping by to survive. Rude travelers come from all over for sure.

Big difference in two people running around with a cameraman and being overwhelmed and physically rundown by a crowd of over 100 people. Big, big difference. As I and my shoulder found out when the 100+ group ran me literally into a wall at the Studios last week. I might be able to get out of the way of two people running at me, I couldn't get out of the way of 100.

 

[oceanmarina]

We were there last week and we encountered huge tour groups especially at Epcot and the Studios. I think we were able to avoid them at the MK and AK. We usually go in July and they annoyed me less this trip than in the past. This might have been due to us avoiding them than anything else. We did have to give up our use of Single Rider lines because several huge groups were using them. I didn't stick around to observe them this year but on past trips we encountered groups who pushed and shoved their way past us in Single Rider then refused to ride as singles claiming they did not understand English when the CM tried to separate them. No way would I go through that again.

The worst behavior we experienced was from the yellow group. We left Tower of Terror and were walking on the far right by the curving wall. As the yellow group approached us coming the other way several of them broke into a full out full speed run and knocked me into the wall. I have an artificial knee and falls are especially dangerous for joint replacement people. The wall stopped my fall and probably prevented damage to my knees and hip. I just roughed up my shoulder on the wall. Not one of them even stopped to see what kind of damage they had caused or to apologize. Extremely poor behavior no matter what language you speak.

Asta,

So sorry to hear that happened to you, my brother also has a joint replacement and getting knocked down when you have one can be very serious, it's no joke. Glad you are ok, what happened to you is exactly at the heart of what this issue is about for me - - safety in the parks.

A lot has been said on the web and among fellow Disney lovers like myself about Disney park prices going up this year. I personally don't complain about it because I can only imaging the costs that go into running and maintaining these amazing parks. And for me the magic I experience there is worth every penny, so I don't complain about park prices. I'll live like a pauper just so I can go there once a year! But what upsets me is that if you are going to charge top dollar for park admission, Disney management better make sure parks are safe. And during times when there are large groups touring, it's not fair for people to have to be in fear of themselves or their kids being knocked down, pushed, cut in line or shoved, or get out of the way of a long human chain formed by large groups. Just like Disney provides security for safety getting in the parks (the bag check line is a great example of this) they clearly need to have the same safety standards once you are inside the park. For what they charge for park admission, i'd say it's their responsibility. From what I have read, it's clear that Disney needs to get tougher on this issue. With all the security cameras they have, if groups are seen doing this, they should get ejected from the parks that day, or at least have some type of consequence. I recently heard Disney has cracked down on selfie sticks, they clearly needs to address this issue as well. Or unfortunately as they say, when there is a lawsuit waiting to happen - for example if someone gets hurt and someone sues Disney, you can bet for sure that will bring about change.

Some good ideas posted above were limiting group sizes to ten, maybe having adult Disney CM's be tour guides, cracking down more so word gets out it's not ok to run and knock people over when you are in the parks/ques, etc. And as said before, taking the time to e-mail guest relations is also very important if you are unhappy about something that happened during your stay at WDW.

 

[asta]

Asta,

So sorry to hear that happened to you, my brother also has a joint replacement and getting knocked down when you have one can be very serious, it's no joke. Glad you are ok, what happened to you is exactly at the heart of what this issue is about for me - - safety in the parks.

A lot has been said on the web and among fellow Disney lovers like myself about Disney park prices going up this year. I personally don't complain about it because I can only imaging the costs that go into running and maintaining these amazing parks. And for me the magic I experience there is worth every penny, so I don't complain about park prices. I'll live like a pauper just so I can go there once a year! But what upsets me is that if you are going to charge top dollar for park admission, Disney management better make sure parks are safe. And during times when there are large groups touring, it's not fair for people to have to be in fear of themselves or their kids being knocked down, pushed, cut in line or shoved, or get out of the way of a long human chain formed by large groups. Just like Disney provides security for safety getting in the parks (the bag check line is a great example of this) they clearly need to have the same safety standards once you are inside the park. For what they charge for park admission, i'd say it's their responsibility. From what I have read, it's clear that Disney needs to get tougher on this issue. With all the security cameras they have, if groups are seen doing this, they should get ejected from the parks that day, or at least have some type of consequence. I recently heard Disney has cracked down on selfie sticks, they clearly needs to address this issue as well. Or unfortunately as they say, when there is a lawsuit waiting to happen - for example if someone gets hurt and someone sues Disney, you can bet for sure that will bring about change.

Some good ideas posted above were limiting group sizes to ten, maybe having adult Disney CM's be tour guides, cracking down more so word gets out it's not ok to run and knock people over when you are in the parks/ques, etc. And as said before, taking the time to e-mail guest relations is also very important if you are unhappy about something that happened during your stay at WDW.

Another safety issue that I worry about is unattended bags that Disney lets these groups leave around the park. Unfortunately in the times we live in we have been trained that it is a huge safety risk anytime someone leaves a bag unattended. I have seen bomb squads called in when a bag is just left in other places. And yet last week at the Studios the pink and white group left a pile of what looked like 100 pink and white backpacks against a wall near RNR. I wish I had taken a photo, it was quite a sight. My husband thought that maybe that is all the luggage they are allowed and were flying home directly from the park? Whatever, this should be a huge safety no-no. With the attacks on Americans and others around the world I would think that an explosive in an unattended bag placed with all of these others would be a security problem.

 

[WEDWDW]

But really, I wouldn't be worried at all about them.

Well,even if you worry about them,it is pointless.

There are 2 options-learn to live with them or schedule a trip when they aren't there.

Just the cold,hard facts.

 

[larryz]

Well,even if you worry about them,it is pointless.

There are 2 options-learn to live with them or schedule a trip when they aren't there.

Just the cold,hard facts.

Which takes us back to post #1...