Experiences with CMs- care to share?

[Soarin08]

As a CM myself, I'm just curious to hear some of the stories about the CMs you guys have dealt with at Disney. Good, bad, mediocre, or exceptionally wonderfully amazing. I have a few myself but I'll hold off a bit.

Soooo... anyone?

[MansionButler]

Seconding this thread. Especially given that this is a less exasperatingly negative community than some others.

[elizabethswann]

We have a similar thread on the topic here:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2067&hilit=cast

[Len90]

Similar but not exact. That thread is geared towards negtive only and this one is for both positive and negative. I do have some wonderful CM stories to share and of course have a couple negative ones as well. Unfortunately, there is going to be good and bad with everything.

For example it's been a while but on a dining experience at Prime Time cafe we were priviledged to have one of the most amazing servers we have ever had. He played his role, conversed with us, and provided fantastic service. Since that one time we made it a family tradition to go to Prime Time on every family vacation to Disney and have this CM as our server. Over the years we have actually become friends!!!

Another fantastic CM experience is another one of the reasons we love to stay at the yacht club whenever we go. The rooms, location, and pool can only do so much. The main reason we love it so much there is the service you receive from the CMs there. I know it's a deluxe resort and many people say you should expect superb treatment at a deluxe resort. However, we have had negative encounters with CMs when we stayed at the Contemporary and Boardwalk which are both on the same level as the yacht club.

[Soarin08]

We have a similar thread on the topic here:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2067&hilit=cast

Oh well I don't search through the threads... but after looking that one is more negative.

I'm just wondering because I strive as a CM to make every single moment special for my guests and I've observed fellow CMs who do that as well or who don't even care. I hate seeing CMs who are rude to the guests (spent an hour talking with a very nice couple one night at the Fort and they were detailing how rude a girl at Pizza Planet was- I was appalled!). It drives me crazy!

[yodiwan1]

Hey Soarin, where do you work? I love when there are positive CM. Being a former CM, I cringe when I deal with morons there! A few trips ago, I went to use a fastpass at Thunder Mountain about 10 minutes before the park closed. She told me she would not let me through and to wait in the 30 min. line. I went to customer service and got 3 fast pass for any rides we wanted!

[Soarin08]

Hey Soarin, where do you work? I love when there are positive CM. Being a former CM, I cringe when I deal with morons there! A few trips ago, I went to use a fastpass at Thunder Mountain about 10 minutes before the park closed. She told me she would not let me through and to wait in the 30 min. line. I went to customer service and got 3 fast pass for any rides we wanted!

I did work at Fort Wilderness but since I became seasonal, I've had to go back to my first location, Saratoga Springs. The Fort doesn't allow seasonal employees (the management there is terrible, not going to to lie). I always hated dealing with the irate guests AND even the irate CMs when I was out and about as a guest, but those encounters are pretty slim when you're at Disney enough to really observe how things are.

My fondest guest memory, as a CM, was the day I was taking the bus from Epcot to SSR for work and sat with a lovely family- grandma, parents, 5yo daughter, and 1yo daughter. The 5yo told me all about how she was going to Bibbidi Bobbidi the next day for her birthday and I mentioned, mostly in passing, that I bet she was going to make a very pretty princess. I was at work the next day and I heard a little voice calling my name, and I turned to see this child all dressed as Cinderella. Her parents told me she had wanted to immediately come back to the resort to show me how she had gotten fixed up, and I honestly teared up. It meant so much to me and I've never forgotten it to this day (this was in 2009).

[Amy]

My fondest guest memory, as a CM, was the day I was taking the bus from Epcot to SSR for work and sat with a lovely family- grandma, parents, 5yo daughter, and 1yo daughter. The 5yo told me all about how she was going to Bibbidi Bobbidi the next day for her birthday and I mentioned, mostly in passing, that I bet she was going to make a very pretty princess. I was at work the next day and I heard a little voice calling my name, and I turned to see this child all dressed as Cinderella. Her parents told me she had wanted to immediately come back to the resort to show me how she had gotten fixed up, and I honestly teared up. It meant so much to me and I've never forgotten it to this day (this was in 2009).

That is great ~ and how wonderful that the parents actually took the time to take their daughter to see you!

[Soarin08]

My fondest guest memory, as a CM, was the day I was taking the bus from Epcot to SSR for work and sat with a lovely family- grandma, parents, 5yo daughter, and 1yo daughter. The 5yo told me all about how she was going to Bibbidi Bobbidi the next day for her birthday and I mentioned, mostly in passing, that I bet she was going to make a very pretty princess. I was at work the next day and I heard a little voice calling my name, and I turned to see this child all dressed as Cinderella. Her parents told me she had wanted to immediately come back to the resort to show me how she had gotten fixed up, and I honestly teared up. It meant so much to me and I've never forgotten it to this day (this was in 2009).

That is great ~ and how wonderful that the parents actually took the time to take their daughter to see you!

It really did make quite an impact with me. I was surprised the little girl even remembered my name!

[Amy]

My fondest guest memory, as a CM, was the day I was taking the bus from Epcot to SSR for work and sat with a lovely family- grandma, parents, 5yo daughter, and 1yo daughter. The 5yo told me all about how she was going to Bibbidi Bobbidi the next day for her birthday and I mentioned, mostly in passing, that I bet she was going to make a very pretty princess. I was at work the next day and I heard a little voice calling my name, and I turned to see this child all dressed as Cinderella. Her parents told me she had wanted to immediately come back to the resort to show me how she had gotten fixed up, and I honestly teared up. It meant so much to me and I've never forgotten it to this day (this was in 2009).

That is great ~ and how wonderful that the parents actually took the time to take their daughter to see you!

It really did make quite an impact with me. I was surprised the little girl even remembered my name!

Well, Soarin' really is quite an unusual name
I hope you have more experiences like this during your next time as CM there!

[jacobcary1]

Thats great. Its kinda like the story we heard just the other day about the princess.

[MadEye]

Especially given that this is a less exasperatingly negative community than some others.

Indeed.

[Len90]

Soarin, that is just an epic Disney story. I honestly think that things like that can only happen in Disney and really demonstrates a difference between Disney and other theme parks. The CMs (like you) interact and make an impact in somebody's life.

[theBIGyowski]

My family and I loved the CM we had greeting us at POFQ when we stayed there back in '09. He was always so happy and made us truly feel welcome.

Also...once I learned that you can request certain seating for Soarin'...we asked the CM if we could wait and sit in the middle section on the front row. She said we could and during the wait we got a chance to talk to her and find out about her life and her CM experience. It was great and we really enjoyed talking to her. We had just run the WDW Half Marathon so we talked about that as well since she (the CM) was a runner when she was in high school.

It has also been fun dining in World Showcase and getting to chat with the CMs there while waiting for a table. It's really cool learning about them and their home countries. We met some great ones while waiting on our table at Le Cellier one time...and I got to learn a lot about the different Provinces in Canada.

I always wanted to do the CP but just never really got the chance because I was involved in a sport in college that provided me a scholarship...thus requiring me to stay on campus. So because of that I have tried to vicariously live through the CP CMs when we go down for our trips.

[disneylizzy]

We had great interaction w/ CM's when my sister came to wdw with me in March. Everyone was super nice and friendly and if we had any requests or questions they were answered with a smile. A few of my favorite interactions for that trip are:
- In the Castle Couture shop by Cinderella's castle, the CM's there made a big deal about our Mickey antennae ears and sprinkled us (even the guy with us!) with pixie dust glitter in our hair. It was just a fun interaction.
- Same trip, it was around park closing and we decided to ride Dumbo. The CM said "do you want your own elephant?" we thought about it for a second and he said "its the only time you ever can do it!" so of course we all got our own elephants to ride in for that ride.

Really rare to have a negative experience, but last time we were there, it wasn't busy at Pirates so we asked to sit in the front row of the boat (more legroom for my husband and also I can see b/c I am short short short!) Usually this is no problem and the CM asks us to wait to the side which we gladly do. On this day, the CM gave us a look like we had asked for her firstborn child, waited about 60 seconds, sighed a large sigh and then said "wait here" with major attitude. I don't know what her problem was, maybe she had a bad day, but we always ask w/ a please and smile and mention that we don't mind waiting and thank you, so really there was no reason to be rude about it. But really this is probably the only bad interaction we've ever experienced.