CRP applicant for 2011

On the subject of rudeness though, there are situations in which it is pointless for the guests to get rude and they do it for the pure reason of upsetting the cast member - for example, I worked at Star Tours which had a 40" height requirement. The abuse I (and my fellow cast members) got from guests whose children were one or two inches too short was unbelievable... I got threatened physically, accused of being racist and accused of trying to ruin people's vacations... at the end of the day, the height requirement is there for a reason and I'm not gonna lose my job to let you ride when you're not tall enough!! I'm pleased to say though, that this really is the very minority of guests and a lot of them would (eventually) take it on board that they had to come back in a year when the children were tall enough!

 

I do agree - there are some (albeit few) situations where nothing helps and you are dealing with an * * * * * . No doubt, very difficult to deal with.

 

Yes.. agreed aswell.. there's certain situations that it's un necessary to get all up in a huff and be rude. I can only imagine what you got from the height restriction. I do agree.. they pay an arm and a leg to get there.. but at the same time.. the world is not perfect and stuff happens. What bothered me the most were the guests that purposely made a sense .. hoping that i we try to shut them up and do whatever they wanted. We rarely buckled down.
And the thing i noticed the guests got most upset over was the lack of restaurants. I mean there's loads of places to eat.. but no one really tells them to make reservations. DDR (Disney Dining Reservation System) is crap.. they changed it too when i was there.. and it made it even harder to book reservations for guests. And most of the restaurants didn't like to pick up there phone. Food and Wine i found was the hardest.. and when we got most of the complaints. They even made a funny Youtube -Hitler spoof about it.
My manager made a comment once that i think is really true. You take a big family on vacation and they're all used to being around each other.. but in their home.. not spending 24 hours a day with them.. stuck in a small hotel room.. so they're all bound to be on edge.

 

I know the reservation service doesn't work. Tried to make a reservation at the Polynesian. Booked out was the answer. We went there anyway and were told a 45 min. wait. 5 Minutes later they seated our party of 6! And tables were empty. You are right - as a first time visitor you know nothing about reservations until it is too late. And the fast food is just barely edible (fast food Japanese was pretty crude).

 

The other thing is that guests don't realise it's not actually a reservation, it's priority seating (meaning a table is not set aside for you; you will get seated at a table suitable for you party size within 15 minutes of you PS time. Any seating requests may mean you have to wait longer.... I was the assignor at the Rose and Crown. Which meant fireworks. I cannot tell you how many guests got annoyed with podium because they couldn't be sat outside...especially when it was raining. How do you try to explain to someone they can't sit outside when they're yelling at you that they've "had a 'reservation' for a year" when you've been fully booked for three months? And then tell them that they can't possibly have booked that long ago because that's not the policy? Ok enough ranting and back to what I was saying...)

Then there is nothing in the new PS system that stops people (guests AND CM's) from making 'reservations' at different parks/resorts for all the same time. Very frustrating for everyone.

I do agree though, sometimes guests will get angry at you for what seems like a really silly thing, but when you actually talk to them they're not having a go at you at all. I had one guest who wanted to get a party of 10 into the R&C at lunch and we were quite busy. I told her we weren't taking walk in's and she didn't get angry, but she was rather miffed that we were fully booked. Turns out that she was DCV member and the week she was there was also during the time that the free Dining Plan was running. DVC members don't get free Dining Plan, they had to pay for it (at least they did then) and she was just annoyed that they couldn't get any reservations. So I helped her out. They had to wait for a while but she was really grateful nonetheless.

During one of my rare ER's, we went over to the Polynesian to try and get into Ohana's. They quoted a three hour wait and we decided to wait it out. We were sat within 45 mins (and we were a party of 6 too!) all because no other walk in's were willing to wait that long (I had a nose at their screen at podium).

They only advice I could give people was to keep trying every day. When my Mum came to visit we couldn't get anything we wanted...by the end of the 10 days we'd eaten at every place we wanted to (including Le Cellier, which, as some of you know, is a bum to get into) all because people cancel overnight. Keep trying! It's worth it.

I also agree about first timers to Disney not knowing...but then again, when my family first came to Disney we had reservations at places (it was in 1996 so maybe a bit easier to get them) so you must know about them somehow. I'm sure it's included in all the info you get when you book to come to Disney (even if you're not booking with Disney). There is enough information out there these days. You just need to look for it. Popular restaurants WILL get booked out as soon as those days become available to book. And never be fooled when you see empty tables. Just because they're empty doesn't mean to say they can be sat with people. It's hard to explain, but you might not have enough servers or it's too cold or too hot (in outdoor restaurants) or you're waiting on guests who are running late for priority seating, amongst many other issues. Not the guests fault, I know, but not necessarily the CM's fault either. They all have to stick to strict seating rules and if these rules are not followed the whole running of the restaurant goes down the pan.

Sorry, went off on a right tangent. What I'm trying to say is, never think that the guest is finding fault with you (unless, of course, you've given them a big reason to!) there may be an underlying problem. But then again, maybe guests should realise that CM's are there to help them, and if they can't do something for them, there's a very good reason why!.

Of course, I can only speak from my own experience.

 

Well spoken!

I learned something abou prioty seating and other problems. Thanks for the insight.

 

This is exactly my position-i was an assignor too and cant tell you how many times i got screamed at. Im pleased to say that the Rose and Crown website now explicity explains that PR is not a booking

 

as an ex assignor i cat recount the number of times i was yelled at by guests. unfortunately the ones who kick off are the ones the managers pay attention to and they usually get their own way and keep on acting like idiots. i felt bad one night we had a 4 top and a party of 2 and a party of 4 the party of 4 were celebrating an anniversayr and asked if it would be possible to sit outside so we said we would do our best. the party of 2 demanded to sit outside and made such a stink the manager sat them at the 4 tops so the party of 4 had to sit inside which sucked and they were really nice about it

 

That really got to me too. It always made me so frustrated that the guests who were lovely never got good tables because the demanding guests made a fuss if they didn't get them. I always tried to make it up to them though.

On another topic, we had one party sit down and their seater found out they had come out of the line for Soarin' because they were going to miss their reservation with us (and they had waited over an hour already!) so I promptly asked a manager for a No Strings Attatched for them so they could ride it later without queuing. How many guests do something like that? It's those kind of guests who deserve all the magic we can give them, because they are just lovely, and ask for nothing in return!

 

It wasn't the nicest or fair thing to do.. but in the new year we had a lot of walk in availability during lunch and early dinner.. and i would be very choosy on who i'd let in or not. Like if they gave me lots of attitude i'd just lie and say opps.. sorry we're all booked up. and then 2 minutes later i'd let in this really nice family. I got karma in return sometimes.. with other guests over hearing.. but i still did it.

 

Haha I used to tell them that if anyone asked, they had a reservation!

Were you at the podium during any of the times that Michelle called Canada to stop sending us walk-ins! Haha, it always used to happen in the rain, and we stop walk-ins in the rain. It used to make me laugh though.

 

haha yes.. sometimes. If i knew she'd be greeter in uk i'd do it to piss her off when i was bored. lol And i used to tell them to tell Uk that Sam sent you. hahah just to make sure michelle would know.
But i didn't do it THAT often. Only when it was early.. and slow.. and i was bored.

You know.. i really miss getting those good deals.. by being a cast member. Like special seating in restaurants.. and rides.. i guess having that inside scoop. Using the tunnels to get around Mk (even though we weren't supposed too! haha)
I miss the perks.

 

Outside the resort it was always fun to see what you could barter for being a cast member...I once managed to blag a free round of mini golf if I paid for one at one the places on I-drive. It was always worth whipping your ID card out just in case pretty much anywhere.

 

haha yess!
I remember once in my first couple weeks a couple friends and i went to eat dinner at Planet Hollywood.. (this was before we knew you weren't allowed to wear your ID around your neck with it showing) and we asked to eat and they said it would be like 45 mins or something.. and we were like ohh okay.. and we went to turn around and i guess are ID's flippped over and they saw them and was like "are you guys cast members?" and we said yes.. and he was like ohh come straight away.. and sat us at the very top with our own area. it was soo cool. Got the special treatment and everything.
;D