Dirty Parks and grumpy CM's

realcal · Post by **realcal** » Apr Fri 11, 2008 3:52 pm

This was our first trip to WDW with our 7 and 8-year old daughters. My wife and I were last in Orlando back in July '94 on our honeymoon. Having lived in Central Calif. for 10 years, we visited DLR several times a year. I was amazed at how dirty the WDW Parks were. There was trash everywhere. I know it was Spring Break, but we had been to DL during Spring Break in the past and never remember it being dirty.

The castmembers (not all of them by any means, but many) seemed to be very grumpy. Many questions were answered with grunts and one-word replies. Several times we were barked at when we were following the directions of another CM. My 8-year old commented that WDW was a rougher place to visit.

Has anyone had a similar experience or noticed a difference?

Lion Sleeps Tonight · Post by **Lion Sleeps Tonight** » Apr Fri 11, 2008 10:17 pm

I actually noticed it the other way around one time. After doing my WDW college program, I went to DLR, and I was surprised at how rude and unclean the parks were. There was so much bad show, that I was really disappointed. Granted, I was too critical at the time, and since then it's been much better to my eyes.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with unhappy CMs. It seems like there's no team work anymore.

AKLRULZ · Post by **AKLRULZ** » Apr Sat 12, 2008 7:59 am

Really sorry to hear it - never have really experienced dirty parks or in general CMs rude enough to remember.

ericpabear · Post by **ericpabear** » Apr Sat 12, 2008 9:50 am

I have run across about a half dozen Cast Members, over the years, that have had attitudes. Out of hundreds of good Cast Members, to have found only about six is pretty good odds. I have spoken to one or two about there jobs. It seems not all have the "Disney Magic". It's just a job. Some have mentioned the current addministration for the personel problems. Never had any trash problems.

Cheshire Cat · Post by **Cheshire Cat** » Apr Sat 12, 2008 10:31 am

Some have mentioned the current addministration for the personel problems.

This is something I've encountered also, but most of the time I've been abe to see things from the CM's side. Disney just isn't the company it used to be.

Aside from that, I've encountered a few CM's that don't really care about their job or don't really know anything at all about Disney, but they were just a bit ignorant, not grumpy. They were still great to talk with.

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Apr Sat 12, 2008 9:32 pm

I haven't seen trash problems myself, but I'd echo the others about the administration problems leading to something of a decline in (some of) the cast members' attitudes. Specifically, I'd point to the ridiculously short Traditions "training" (not sure half a day counts as training, really) that they have nowadays, which we've griped about elsewhere before. It doesn't surprise me that some of the magic is lacking for some of the employees when the administration doesn't bother to instill it in them (to say nothing of how little a lot of 'em get paid...).

Fortunately, I think there are still a lot of cast members who genuinely enjoy their jobs and have dealt with many more of them than grumpy ones. Sorry you ran into some rough ones!

parkhopper26 · Post by **parkhopper26** » Apr Sun 13, 2008 2:14 pm

been to wdw many times and never came close to a bad experience with cast members or uncleanliness, don't give up on the magic, give it another chance & i would bet you experience will be the exact opposite

Sleeping Beauty 5 · Post by **Sleeping Beauty 5** » Apr Sun 13, 2008 3:14 pm

Well I am sorry for your experience, I can't say that I've ever been treated poorly by a CM but I will admit that I pretty much know the parks well enough to not need any help. As far as it being dirty, it's funny that you say that cause I have always considered WDW to be one of the cleanest places in America. Sorry

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Apr Tue 22, 2008 8:23 am

There are always some bad apples in the bunch. Being a CM, i noticed the bad apples even more so than when I was just a tourist. I also appreciate the good CMs even more so too

RREng77 · Post by **RREng77** » Apr Thu 24, 2008 9:48 pm

First, like the others here, I am sorry for your poor experience. I've been to DL twice and WDW 4 times. Both seemed exceptionally clean, but it seemed to me the CM's were a little rougher in DL. I honestly believe it was just a difference between Florida and Cali overall.

natatomic · Post by **natatomic** » May Sat 03, 2008 10:43 pm

Don't forget that just because you have a bad encounter with a CM that he/she is ALWAYS a bad CMs. We've all had bad days, and believe me, it takes a LOT of effort to be super smiley and happy 9-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Not to excuse rudeness, but CMs deal with a LOT of unhappy and "If I make a big enough stink about it, I'll get MY way" guests, and even if the CMs let it get to them for just ONE minute, there will be about a dozen or so guests that will be there to notice it. Maybe if they had come one minute later, that CM would have been able to shake it off and put a smile on his/her face.

Now, I know that there ARE some CMs that really are just plain jack*sses, but for the normal, run-of-the-mill human, well, sometimes you just catch 'em on one of "those" kinda days, you know?

MintJulepRoo · Post by **MintJulepRoo** » May Sun 04, 2008 12:57 am

I was actually in WDW in July of 07. My family and I kept making jokes about how the Cast Members treated us when we asked questions. We too experienced rude and rushed answers. Most of them were something like this, "This is Disney World, not Disneyland. We don't have the same stuff!" Of course we already know this and this answer seemed to be given when they really didnt want to take the time to help us. So we would joke and bark WDW CM type answers at eachother and then add a sarcastic "Have a Magical Day!" It helped to joke and make light of the situation.

As for the parks being dirty, Trash seemed to be a problem in some places except in Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

figment34786 · Post by **figment34786** » May Tue 13, 2008 9:32 pm

Never had this problem, but I feel sorry for you!

QuickGold · Post by **QuickGold** » May Wed 14, 2008 6:28 am

There's always a few CMs that may not live up to the high standards I think Disney has but generally speaking I've always been impressed and satisfied with the CMs.

That being said, Disney needs to make the Traditions training longer again..it used to be a couple of days of hands on training but now it's just one day.

SWHorn · Post by **SWHorn** » May Wed 14, 2008 6:47 am

I agree with extending Traditions.

I honestly think that a big mistake Disney is making is having so many of its employees be from the College Program. Don't get me wrong, the program is great. I certainly enjoyed the opportunity, and there were/are a lot of great people who participate. But, there are also a lot of immature, party kids.

It's just like minimum wage retail jobs for high school kids. You're going to have a high turn-around, and that's not good for a company like Disney.

They want to get as many of these kids in as they can every semester, "train" them up in a couple of days, and throw them out there. They have nothing invested, and there is no incentive to be a great Disney cast member. (Heck, they barely make above minimum wage and then give almost all of it back to Disney in the form of housing.) They aren't in permanent positions, and many of them couldn't care less about Disney on the whole. They don't know anything about the parks or the company, and I think it all wears off on their guest relations.