The State of DL

[johnlawwhiskey]

Re: The State of DL

In response to the defense of the cast members, there are many great cast members, many good cast members, and a lot of average cast members. Unfortunately, there are some cast members as of lately that are coming off as untrained.

A few examples:
Cast members at Dumbo not unlocking the gate to exit, when people are lining up, even letting in the next batch of riders while there are people standing to get out. A guest will usually yell "unlock the gate" and they will finally get the message, and go back in the booth and unlock it.

Cast members not being informed about the rides at Disneyland. On a trip not too long ago, we asked a cast member if the Mark Twain was still under refurbishment or not. She asked us "What's the Mark Twain". We said the big white boat with the paddle wheel along the Rivers Of America. She asked us what the Rivers Of America was. I finally realized she was "that clueless" and I said the white boat they use in Fantasmic, bingo, she knew what I was talking about, and said that it was still under refurbishment and it was. I know four year olds who know what the Mark Twain is.

Cast members making up answers to get rid of you. We once asked where in the park they sold the cherry frozen drinks, similar to slurpees or slushies. We were told by three different cast members working at frozen lemonade stands that Disneyland does not sell any frozen drinks other than the apple and the frozen lemonade. We had seen other guests walking around with them. One cast member actually told us that it was the cherry shot added to the frozen lemonade, and we said, no it's definitely cherry and we have seen other colors to, at the time it was blue. They told us they were brought in from outside of the park, Disneyland has never sold those. One day I was dragging my feet near It's A Small World, and I saw the cherry sign from a distance, we found it, on our own, with no help from the clueless cast members. It's not like we asked someone selling corn dogs where to get them, we asked someone selling frozen beverages.

On the opposite end of that, we have encountered cast members who go out of their way to find out information for us. One weekend the New Orleans Train Station was under refurbishment. The next weekend we weren't sure if it was open or not. We asked a cast member who didn't know, in all fairness it was someone working in a gift shop and we weren't sure if they would know or not, and they made a phone call to find out that it was open.

There are cast members who greet us by name, give us hugs and high fives, and are happy to try and bring a smile to your face. That is the majority of the cast members at Disneyland. Every once in awhile I come across an employee and I think "if anyone shouldn't be working at Disneyland it's you" and those are becoming closer together rather than fewer and far between.

[Buster Keaton]

Re: The State of DL

I definitely agree with the original poster concerning the sloppy appearance of the park in certain places. For instance, I generally enjoy Mickey's Toontown and consider it to be the most underrated place in the park. However, I really wish that Disney would close it down for a few weeks to spruce it up. Here's just one example:

Jessica's Secret (a catalog of Minnie's choice ) should look like this:



It should not look like this:


I took this latter image when I was visiting Disneyland last April. So, I would like to believe that this has been fixed since then, but I'm not counting on it.

[starttodaybb]

Re: The State of DL

I was at the park for five days this week and noticed a few of these complaints. The CMs especially. But they seemed worse at the beginning of the trip when they had to deal with grads. Still, there were very few CMs who went out of their way. As the parks get bigger, they'll need more people and they won't be able to be as selective.

The thing that was a little crazy was the aforementioned system when entering the parks with a park hopper where they have to take your picture upon first entrance and scan your ticket twice every time you enter the parks. That really backed up the entrance to DCA at one point. They need to develop a better system that requires only one scan.

Still, though, we had a great time and there were very little complaints. Rides break down and there's always another one nearby that you can ride that's working.

[MTdizzle94]

Re: The State of DL

I think Toontown needs a lot of TLC, more than most of the part. I'd be fine with them closing it down as a whole for a few months. Replace the Go Coaster, add a new ride, and re-do all of the houses and back corner. It could be really good for the land.

[calsig31]

Re: The State of DL

We got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery across Harbor from Disneyland and as we were eating it it I didn't see a single Monorail go by on the track...

I was at the Cold Stone in Northridge and didn't see any Monorails either.

[DobbysCloset]

Re: The State of DL

I don't know that they can do much about the parking (other then have people clock in before the board the parking lot shuttle and pay them for the time it takes to ride the shuttle to Harbor House, go to costuming, change, and then walk across the park to your office), but they certainly could at least pay their employees the same as In N Out.

In solidarity with CM's, I totally agree. Also free popcorn.

[bigcatrik]

Re: The State of DL

In 1987 when the minimum wage was $3.35 the CM wage was $4.75 (about 140% of minimum wage). California minimum wage is now $8 so if CM pay has kept up it should be $11.20. Glassdoor.com says it's $8.40. ???

[G24T]

Re: The State of DL

Now that I've thought about it a little bit more, I think you might be more susceptible to lousy cm's during the "peak" seasons when kids are out of school. At least in my old department, we had a core group of really great cm's who I loved working with who were there year round (called CR's, or casual regular), and then every summer, thanksgiving, and christmas, Disney would hire temporary employees to work the busy seasons (called CT's, or casual temporary). During the summertime, at least in Outdoor Vending, the CR's would do a lot of the things that didn't involve interacting with the guests directly, such as keeping the wagons stocked or giving the wagon vendors their breaks. The new employees would always be assigned to work on a specific wagon all day, and they were the ones who most often interact with the guests directly. Working on a wagon is easy, I was a trainer and I could teach just about anyone how to do in about 10 minutes (rolling a churro in cinnamon sugar is kind of an art though). Giving someone their breaks and keeping wagons stocked is immensely harder and you have to be really know what you are doing. Now, of all the CT's I ever met or trained, at least 50% didn't ever come back to work after their training was over, probably 35% of them were there because they heard it was a good place to hook up with someone, and maybe 5% of them ever made it to become a CR. So if you need a cast member to help with something during the summertime, look for someone with a year pin (gold pin on their nametag) and they will almost definitely be a CR, and probably much more likely to help.

Good point! But back then (late 90's early 2000's) HR used to push incentives on CTs so that they performed on-par with seasoned CMs. They used to get rewarded with things like getting first dibs on full shifts and the opportunity to promote to CR status. Nowadays you can sniff out a CT easily just from their appearance and the snotty attitudes they have most likely the result of these incentives going away although I can't say for certain what's really going on at the staffing building right now.

[G24T]

Re: The State of DL

In 1987 when the minimum wage was $3.35 the CM wage was $4.75 (about 140% of minimum wage). California minimum wage is now $8 so if CM pay has kept up it should be $11.20. Glassdoor.com says it's $8.40. ???

It was $7.40 for attractions workers in 2000 back when minimum wage was $6.25. You got a guaranteed bump in pay to $8.21 after completing your first year. So even then Disney was doing a more respectable job of keeping it's workers happy than it is now.

[TylerDurden]

Re: The State of DL

Can you give some examples? Some rides like Indy and Space are just really complicated and fast paced to keep running consistently. As others have said it might not be a maintenance issue.

Well Space and Indy of course. I walked by Pirates broken down (didn't know that was possible), Screamin down several times, the Ferris Wheel, RSR, and this morning during EMH, half of Fantasyland just wasn't working, devaluing my hotel room and my sleep lol. It was ridiculous how often rides broke down, but even more frustrating to me is the insane policy of not reimbursing those in line...at one point we were about to board Indy when it broke down. It was late and my girls had to get back to the hotel room forcing me out of line. My Fastpass was gone, so instead of wasting time I had wasted a FP I could've used for a properly-working attraction...and those in standby wasted their valuable hour! Yet those actually on the ride do get either a re-ride or FP. I think anyone past the merge of FP and standby should be compensated for a broken down ride, it's not anyone's fault that the ride breaks down so why are we high-paying guests punished by losing valuable time?

[TylerDurden]

Re: The State of DL

Cast Members
As a CM I will agree that there's a problem going on with the CM's, but I will also defend us. Speaking as Attractions CM, I don't think guest understand the things we deal with on a day-to-day basis. Rude guest, dumb questions, other CMs that don't have a clue, weather conditions, poor management, poor leads, no room to grow in your role, the list could go on forever. Attractions truly doesn't get paid enough for half of the things we have to deal with, and we are treated just as poorly as we are paid. We love our jobs but we are people too--we can only take so much. In reality the company could care less about our feelings, they just want the money from guest. We're easily replaceable. We're built on the saying "Happy Cast Members make happy Guest," when in reality it's the opposite. Most guest are angry before they even walk through Main Gate because ridiculous prices. Especially the APs. APs walk around like the own the place and they are the rudest of the guest (not all of them, there are actually some really great APs who care about the CMs) And I've seen the last wave of kid's being hired in and I question what's going on up in TDA. The hiring process should be just as intense as Apple's. (Wheres it's harder than getting into Harvard) Along with that, there needs to be a restructuring with Management. All things we can just hope for, but know the truth that nothing will happen.

Just try and remember, during peak season we work 30+ hrs a week 6 days a week, and we deal with so much.

Conditions of the Park
The park as a whole looks great, but we do have some rough edges. I know for a fact that it's not as bad as the stories I hear from guest about WDW, but it's pretty bad for DL. I simply comes down to money. Whoever is in charge of it needs a reality check. If you read the The Accountaneer's 2 part article you'd know that WDI spent $1,000 on a sign that should/could have cost $10. That money comes from one place and it takes away from something else. That's $900 that could have gone to a restoration project that's now been pushed back. Poor Alice keeps getting pushed back.

Maintenance
If you are referring to the DOSH down time awhile back, that was out of our hands. CMs didn't feel safe, reported it, inspectors came, wiped out almost a whole park(over dramatized). The resort opened with way less than they originally shut down--now that would have been a sight. But Disney did what they had to do to get them back up and running. And to compare us to WDW and Uni is unfair. WDW and Uni Orlando run under different safety codes than DL, they could get away with murder. Uni Hollywood...its like saying my bed room is as big as Versailles, they only have 4 rides it's not comparable.

Our rides are maintenance nightly. I'd say a good 90% of daily down times are caused by guest. The rides are computers, not as bad as a Windows, but they have their moments. And sometimes the ride will brake it's self down to prevent something bad from happening--to keep you(the guest) safe. Would you want to get on a ride that wasn't safe?

I worked in a theme park when I was a kid, so I know what you go through. It makes me even more critical when someone is rude or incompetent. I didn't get one hello or have a nice day ONCE today. Once. That's a common courtesy...I worked 40 hours a week and no matter how bad my day was I had a smile on my face and was super polite--the CMs at DL this trip have been inexcusable. Of course, I'm sure I was just unlucky and I don't mean to attack you or your coworkers, but it's still unacceptable the behavior I saw.

As for your statement about WDW's state compared to DL, I live in Orlando and I can safely say both are equally run down looking.

As to maintenance,what you say makes sense, but its still very frustrating

[TylerDurden]

Re: The State of DL

I was at the park for five days this week and noticed a few of these complaints. The CMs especially. But they seemed worse at the beginning of the trip when they had to deal with grads. Still, there were very few CMs who went out of their way. As the parks get bigger, they'll need more people and they won't be able to be as selective.

The thing that was a little crazy was the aforementioned system when entering the parks with a park hopper where they have to take your picture upon first entrance and scan your ticket twice every time you enter the parks. That really backed up the entrance to DCA at one point. They need to develop a better system that requires only one scan.

Still, though, we had a great time and there were very little complaints. Rides break down and there's always another one nearby that you can ride that's working.

I agree the system of ticket scanning is ridiculous. Get the fingerprint thing from WDW!!! And also, I don't appreciate getting questioned on my handstamp after swimming when my ticket has already scanned and proven that the ticket is mine!! It's completely idiotic, nit to mention offensive. When I worked in retail we were told not to offend guests by visibly checking for counterfeit bills or calling people out for shoplifting--Disneyland seems to not care about such guest service and makes it very clear they don't trust you.

[Malina]

Re: The State of DL

Disney doesn't treat its workers well - we can all agree on that, I think (or most of us can). If they're being expected to provide top-notch entertainment, service and ambiance they should get wages to match. When you are paying less than In N Out and McDonald's you're not going to be able to retain bright, conscientious workers for extended periods of time. Treat the workers poorly and don't show that you value or respect them? Expect morale to go way down, and expect that to seep over into their relations with the guests.

And I'm not saying that I think it's justifiable for CMs to be rude to the public or be half-hearted at their jobs. I'm saying I can see why it's happening, and why Disney isn't attracting more conscientious workers. I have to think that if they bumped up the starting wages, they'd get applications and resumes from a wider and far more competitive pool, and people would perhaps consider Disney as a career and not a summer college job.

The vast majority of the CMs I've encountered have been absolutely lovely. However, I have encountered some doozies who were downright rude and nasty, too.

[MickeyMaxx]

Re: The State of DL

Folks, a number of posts have been removed from this thread and moved to the litter box. Many of those were in reaction to a post on a topic which had a run in its own thread for a number of pages. While that post might arguably have been on the topic of this thread, all the sarcastic, joking, and trolling posts commenting on neither fit here, or anywhere on MiceChat, for that matter. If you feel someone is off-topic to the point of breaking the rules of MiceChat, report the post via the button provided for that at the bottom left of every post. It is never, ever your job to police other members, or to create material for your standup routine at the expense of the conversations here.

[MrLiver]

Well Space and Indy of course. I walked by Pirates broken down (didn't know that was possible), Screamin down several times, the Ferris Wheel, RSR, and this morning during EMH, half of Fantasyland just wasn't working, devaluing my hotel room and my sleep lol.

Yeah, as others have said a lot of breakdowns occur for reasons than actual mechanical problems. If guest holds up a rocket at Space Mountain, the ride will trigger an e stop because it has no where for the incoming rockets to go. Complex rides like RSR and Indy have PLCs that are reading info from thousands of sensors and one bad reading can shut down the whole ride.

Eons ago I remember being walked off the PeopleMover due to a power dip. It was a minor fluctuation in the power supply for just Tomorrowland and it wasn't even noticable to the eye, but it was enough for the computer to shut it down.

Other rides like Pirates can shut down due to show issues... maybe an animatronic figure stops moving. A simple fix that takes just a few minutes to fix, but the ride has to be shutdown and cycled out before that happens.

Most of these "breakdowns" usually only last 20 to 30 minutes. Just enough time for maintenance to come out and reset the ride stop.

It was ridiculous how often rides broke down, but even more frustrating to me is the insane policy of not reimbursing those in line...at one point we were about to board Indy when it broke down. It was late and my girls had to get back to the hotel room forcing me out of line.

It is a fine line of who should be and who shouldn't be compensated. I can understand the problem of handing out a 1000 backdoor passes in a matter of minutes. The park doesn't have the capacity to handle it. Usually they won't pass them out to folks waiting in line if they think the breakdown won't take long to reset (like the examples above). In those cases folks are usually encouraged to just wait in line a few extra minutes. On the rare occasion that the queue is cleared, then sometimes they will hand out passes to the first few waiting in line.

[calsig31]

Re: The State of DL

I don't think guest understand the things we deal with on a day-to-day basis. Rude guest, dumb questions, other CMs that don't have a clue, weather conditions, poor management, poor leads, no room to grow in your role, the list could go on forever.

Isn’t that the job that the Disney workers signed up for? The main job is servicing the public and all the baggage that goes along with it. The items listed are not an excuse for poor job performance. Rather, part of the job is to overcome such obstacles and turn the negatives into positives to enhance the experience of the Disney customer base.

Attractions truly doesn't get paid enough…

Rate of pay is never an excuse for poor job performance. If one agrees to a rate of pay when they sign up for the job and they are getting paid that amount, the company has lived up to their end of the deal, and the employee needs to live up to theirs and perform their job to the best of their ability. If the rate of pay is felt to be inadequate for the job, don’t accept the position. One can’t agree to a rate of pay and then deliver a halfass performance.

Most guest are angry before they even walk through Main Gate because ridiculous prices.

It is the job of someone in the service industry to diffuse that and make the customer happy. Again, that is the position for which the employee signed up.

Just try and remember, during peak season we work 30+ hrs a week 6 days a week, and we deal with so much.

That is less than full time employment. I work 40-50 hours a week at work, and then if I have stuff left over, I still log in from home and finish it after my kids have gone to bed. 30 hours is nothing.

[calsig31]

Re: The State of DL

I agree the system of ticket scanning is ridiculous. Get the fingerprint thing from WDW!!!

It's funny, but I found the fingerprint thing worthless when I went. On multiple occasions, they had trouble reading my print and they just waved me through. At one of the parks, it was my fingerprint that was on file for my kids, but they accepted my wife's as well.

[TylerDurden]

Re: The State of DL

It's funny, but I found the fingerprint thing worthless when I went. On multiple occasions, they had trouble reading my print and they just waved me through. At one of the parks, it was my fingerprint that was on file for my kids, but they accepted my wife's as well.

They don't really scan your fingerprint, they just record the size and general shape of it. More than anything it discourages fraud. The best part about it, however, is that it's quicker, easier, and less offensive than what is implemented now.

[TylerDurden]

Re: The State of DL

I'm currently waiting to get home (plane is delayed) but I just want to say I did have a great trip and look forward to our next trip...just not as much as past trips. I'm not saying Disneyland is a bad theme park by any means, but it is definitely in the decline. I probably wouldn't have thought anything of what I'd seen had I been anywhere else in the world, but this is Disneyland where they have created a gold standard and, more importantly, are charging premium prices for a declining product. Hopefully things get fixed.

I will post specific instances of rude CMs if anyone wants so as not to appear like a whiner, but I don't want to step on the toes of CMs on here who truly do do a great job.

And as far as all the responses regarding breaking rides, I understand its not necessarily anyone's fault rides break so often, but seriously, Spider-Man and Harry Potter over in my home parks are far more advanced than anything in DL and yet suffer far less downtime. So I can't help but think something is wrong with the way DLR in particular is run regarding maintenance.

[DJM]

Re: The State of DL

Truth!