[Question] Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

[Quentin]

This is not a Fast Pass argument thread. I am not talking about enforcing return times, as that is not against the rules.

I am talking about enforcing rules. For example when I logged on to my Facebook I saw a friend posted this: "My cousins and I skipped a 2 hour line at Disneyland and got on the ride in 5 minutes because we went through the disabled people line on accident LOL..."

So, they did not have a disabled pass, I think they should have been told to go back around not let on, even though they went in the wrong line on accident. I don't even know how you do that by accident. Maybe RSR is different and that is what they did.
But what I am saying is Disney will do this a lot, they will let people off they hook so easily if all they do is play dumb. I don't think thats fair to everyone else. The rules should be the rules and only in cases with extenuating circumstances should they be overlooked. Just because someone didn't know doesn't mean they should be able to inconvenience others, like increasing wait times for those waiting two hours in the standby or in the FP line, or those who are actually in the disabled line. They should be told hey you can't do this, please go back out and wait like everyone else. Just like in the real world, when it comes to laws, ignorance is no excuse.

[ArchimedesWhatWhat]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Yes. They really need to. I think it's too hard to do though. Disneyland is sued more then any other theme park. People can always turn rules being enforced into some type of discrimination or something along those lines.

[Quentin]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Well the problem is yes they are sued, but they settle out of court. If they started fighting a few cases, which they could do and easily win. Then people might be less inclined to waist a bunch of money to just lose. Look Rules are the rules, a jury/ judge would understand that.

[ArchimedesWhatWhat]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Well the problem is yes they are sued, but they settle out of court. If they started fighting a few cases, which they could do and easily win. Then people might be less inclined to waist a bunch of money to just lose. Look Rules are the rules, a jury/ judge would understand that.

I agree... but I don't think it'll ever happen. I think it's still worth the price tag (to them) to pay the people off and avoid TMZ and the press. I kinda wish the thought process you outlined would be adopted by the rest of our county. Stop letting people get away with this stuff.

[Quentin]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I agree... but I don't think it'll ever happen. I think it's still worth the price tag (to them) to pay the people off and avoid TMZ and the press. I kinda wish the thought process you outlined would be adopted by the rest of our county. Stop letting people get away with this stuff.

I wonder how things are in the parks located less sue happy countries? Is Tokyo the same way? Or do people there tend to just be aware of rules and this problem doesn't exist.

[ArchimedesWhatWhat]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I wonder how things are in the parks located less sue happy countries? Is Tokyo the same way? Or do people there tend to just be aware of rules and this problem doesn't exist.

Not being American, they probably respect rules and laws and abide by them. They don't have this false entitlement we all have.

[kayleigh83]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I'm honestly a little stunned that someone could sue a theme park for not allowing them to use the disabled line when they aren't disabled. Seems pretty clear to me? How could a case like that even be allowed in court in the first place???

[Quentin]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I'm honestly a little stunned that someone could sue a theme park for not allowing them to use the disabled line when they aren't disabled. Seems pretty clear to me? How could a case like that even be allowed in court in the first place???

Ever seen the show "Only in America"

Ok to be fair no body to my knowledge has tried to sue for that yet. However if you look up reasons for people trying to sue Disney. You will be shocked.

[Malina]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I think there's a way to strike a balance without becoming drill sergeants or bringing down the mood of the park. There are always guests with legitimate concerns that need to be accommodated, and it can be hard to tell the difference between them and the charlatans, but it can be done.

The problem is that when Disney accommodates the people who deliberately game the system or throw public tantrums, they inconvenience and often annoy or anger other guests who ARE playing by the rules.

Whose business do you want to keep? If it were me, I'd want to keep the latter, not the former.

With some things, like abuse of the different lines, having a CM or two as gatekeepers at the entrance does a world of good. It's easier to tell someone "I'm sorry, but this line is only for those with GACs or wheelchairs" before they enter the line than it is to try to send them back when they reach the front of the disabled cue and plead ignorance. Will people still get annoyed? Sure, but it might cut down on some of the abuse.

[Mr Wiggins]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

It's difficult to see how Disney's frontline employees can be tasked with enforcing rules on rude guests, in anything other than major violations of safety or security, when Disney management is notorious for throwing its Cast Members under the bus and siding with the guests.

It's even less likely to happen when you consider the non-training in guest communication and conflict resolution that Disney provides its Cast Members:

As an Attractions Cast Member and Attraction Trainer who has been to every generally worthless class the Disney University offers, and as someone who knows quite well how the Disney University works and what their curricula is currently and has been for the last decade, I can tell you that there is absolutely no training given whatsoever to any hourly Operations Cast Member on how to handle a physically unruly or abusive guest.

There is not even any training given on how to handle a verbally abusive guest, aside from writing them out a Re-Ad or issuing them a ticket for a free churro.

If anything has ever been mentioned about dealing with a physically unruly guest, it is "Do not touch them, and call your leader or Central Communications via park phone or radio for further instructions". But even that level of training is contained on about Page 74 in black and white text, somewhere between instructions to remain calm and await instructions from your leader after an earthquake and instructions to remain calm and await instructions from your leader if the park has to be evacuated due to national emergency or civil disorder.

There is absolutely no official Disney training on this type of scenario for hourly Cast Members. Heck, they don't even offer training nowadays on how to be polite to perfectly nice tourists, let alone how to be not polite to a brawling drunk guy.

There is, however, official training on how to lift a box without straining your back and generating a workers comp claim. There is also training on how to not sexually harrass your coworkers and generate lawsuits from offended coworkers.

...people still seem to think that CM's are actually trained on how to be "nice" to people, or given basic expectations of politeness, or taught tactics and nuances of providing good customer service. No such training exists in any meaningful way.

...The training materials and techniques belched out by the bloated and pathetic "Disney University" training department in 2012 are worthless, and do absolutely nothing to set forth any sort of customer service standard CM's should live up to, let alone actually teach 18 year old Joe from Monrovia, CA how to handle any specific customer service situation.

The first day of Traditions, and the second day of Welcome To Park Operations touches briefly on customer service. But it does so in such a bland, corporate-speak, TDA-cubicle created way that it is practically meaningless. And God forbid you actually lay out the concept of actual standards that someone would live up to! That is too advanced for TDA's Disney University group, and they are busy sitting in TDA far removed from the actual operation of the park to even consider such a silly thing.

I find it humorous that people are confronted by poor customer service and then expect that there is still some sort of training program that would have prevented it had the CM in question only been paying attention. There is no such training. The times you receive good customer service by a front line host or hostess is due more in part to the upbringing that CM received from their parents, and/or perhaps a particularly good Lead who is supervising that location and leading great performances.

...The times you get bad customer service is more the fault of Disney University, but only because they don't really do anything to try and correct it from the starting point of OJT.

For Disney employees to consistently enforce the rules, Disney upper management would have to completely revise the "least cost/least effort" paradigm that has informed their training procedures for more than two decades.

[Chasbo]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I agree... but I don't think it'll ever happen. I think it's still worth the price tag (to them) to pay the people off and avoid TMZ and the press. I kinda wish the thought process you outlined would be adopted by the rest of our county. Stop letting people get away with this stuff.

According to the Mouse Tales book, this is exactly what they do. They don't settle unless they know they will lose (i.e. the Columbia accident), otherwise they will go to court if they have to.

[Crazybirdman]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

They need to allow the CM's to use their common sense/judgement, without being afraid of getting fired or reprimanded. My wife (while she had her cane) has been told she can't use the elevator because it's only for the disabled. There are many situations like that where they think they will get in trouble, yet the opposite is sometimes true where people will complain loudly enough that they think they will get in trouble if they don't bend the rules.

[Quentin]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

They need to allow the CM's to use their common sense/judgement, without being afraid of getting fired or reprimanded. My wife (while she had her cane) has been told she can't use the elevator because it's only for the disabled. There are many situations like that where they think they will get in trouble, yet the opposite is sometimes true where people will complain loudly enough that they think they will get in trouble if they don't bend the rules.

Exactly!

[StarSpeeder]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Some things should be re-enforced. Yeah, if you get in the disabled line, someone should send you to the back. You might be kinda mad for a while, but you won't be as mad as the people that had to wait 2 more hours than you did because they followed the rules.
Isn't there usually a cast memeber at the begining of a line? Or don't you usually need a pass (the disabled person pass thingamajig)? What happened to that?

[Bob Weaver]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Yes, they should be very strict. It's their property and they should set the rules and enforce the rules. Not enforcing the rules makes them look like a cheesy, cheap, low-budget, third-rate park that doesn't care.

[clippers6]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

There is this whole culture at DL that believes receiving a complaint is a failure. If you get a complaint you get written up regardless of the validity of the complaint. The corporate logic is that they empower CMs to make guests happy (and I must admit, CMs to have a lot more room to "make things right" at DL than most other places) so when you fail to make a guest happy and they complain, you have made a mistake. I believe this is a DL thing as WDW seems a bit more strict based on what I've experienced and heard. Other local theme parks are also more strict although it can be argued that the different demographics of the visitors may require them to stay on top of things a bit more.

I have a couple stories of how ridiculous from when I worked there. First there was the lead who got written up because a guest complained that he asked her to stop smoking in a dining area. Second, the lead that got written up for cultural sensitivity because he asked guests to stop throwing food at each other and they made up that he used a racial slur (I knew the guy and not only would he never use those words, if he did he'd be smart enough not to use them on stage). Third, a CM and his manager got written up by higher ups (which I also think cost the manager a promotion) because some guests complained that their table had been cleared before they were done eating (a pretty common scam, and part of the reason why River Belle Terrace no longer uses real plates). They refused to give the guests a free meal and couldn't have if they wanted to because the restaurant was not yet open! Of course the complaint got the scammers a free meal and the CMs that stood their ground got disciplined.

Oh and one story I saw as a guest. There were a bunch of people waiting for a pin release in Tomorrowland. The CM announced that they would be forming a line over in one area. This one woman, who was not near the area, decided that instead of getting into line she would start screaming and cursing. Instead of getting kicked out, they let her go in before everyone else in line.

[Bob Weaver]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Thank you for that insight. Those stories really illustrate how bad guests can behave. The management really should listen to both sides of the story before doing anything (rewarding a guest or punishing the CM). Doesn't it seem like if you make one guest happy by allowing them to cheat, you are also making many other guests unhappy? If you allow a guest to cheat the disabled line, or the FastPass line, or the single rider line, just so that guest doesn't complain, don't you risk making 10 or 20 other guests unhappy at the same time, possibly causing them to complain?

[TjGilmour]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Disney can do whatever they want, and I do believe that they need to enforce their rules. What if everyone "accidentally" went into the disabled line? It's not fair for some people to wait 5 minutes when they're perfectly capable of waiting just as long as everyone else. If you have a disability, they have disability cards and wheelchairs for a reason.

[ttintagel]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

I can see where they want to project a friendly image rather than a draconian one, but they could still enforce rules in a friendly way IF they were willing to pony up the cash to increase staffing levels and provide some real training. However, like most modern large companies, staffing is the absolute last thing they want to spend one dime more on than they can get away with.

I'm sure a lot of people get away with stuff because there simply isn't anyone there to stop them.

[flynnibus]

Re: Should Disney be more strict about enforcing rules?

Yes. They really need to. I think it's too hard to do though. Disneyland is sued more then any other theme park. People can always turn rules being enforced into some type of discrimination or something along those lines.

Its nothing to do with liability and everything to do with customer service.

The company never wants to risk having a CM make a mistake and penalize a guest who made an honest mistake.

The problem is the world is full of crap people who have no qualms about taking generousity and abusing it.

The company's stance is to accept the abuse to avoid possibly catching the innocent in the net.

Personally I think if you train your people correctly, you should be able to make common sense judgements at the right level of management. However, the company chooses to not trust it's own employees.