Are 3 dead CM's a sign that penny pinching TDO needs change?

[board57796]

Central (nor anywhere else for that matter) can see the exact location of any of the trains, unless they can visually see them out the window. There is no diagram showing the location of the trains, if Central wants to know the location of a train he/she will call and ask their "20".

 

[mathew-westfall]

The problem that I have is that of stock holders and investors wanting or expecting a rate of return even in a sluggish economy and them getting it at the expense of others who are actually working. Yes, I said actually working.

Not sure I can agree with the implication stockholders of The Walt Disney Company don't actually "work." I go to went to work yesterday, went to work today, and am going to work tomorrow. Perhaps, Disney is a part of my diversified portfolio that will allow me to retire someday. And yes, people have died where I work also. It is tragic there also.

 

[jcb7787]

I would like someone to provide an example of declining guest service. It is frequently thrown around but rarely with any specific examples. Not being sarcastic....Just want to know what the general opinion is

 

[rct247]

No. As I said in another topic about the recent accidents, Disney has always and will always keep safety of guests and cast members a top priority. I'm not really sure how the past two accidents would be due to anything related to budgets anyways. They seemed to be purely an accident.

Also, your question could have been stated better such as "Are the past 3 tragic incidents a sign..."

Sometimes things like these are not really anyone's fault.

 

[CaptainJackNO]

Man, you guys are really reaching provided that you don't have any specific info as to what happened. Do folks always have to assign blame before they know what happened? Good grief. This is a tragedy. A forum is no place for an uninformed investigation devoid of facts.

 

[hrcollectibles]

So before I get blasted, I do not believe that you cut cost at the expense of human life but again I do not see how these deaths could have been any different in a strong economy.

I agree.. I do not think these deaths were caused "Penny Pinching" In the case of the 2 most recent ones they appear to be something that could occur in any economy. In my opinion the monorail accident was an accident waiting to happen.

 

[mkt]

I would like someone to provide an example of declining guest service. It is frequently thrown around but rarely with any specific examples. Not being sarcastic....Just want to know what the general opinion is

Fair enough. The insistence that has developed over the past few years from Guest Relations to file all complaints via email, instead of offering solutions on the spot... or even offering to listen to the guests. Disney's reliance on the college program students who are more likely to view the CP as a vacation, in order to fill understaffed frontline positions.

Combine the decrease in traditions training (before any CM opens their mouth, I am talking specifically about the Disney U part... not the local area training that changes names more often than a failing retail brand), from 3 days in Disney U when I took it, to now one 8 hour day (4 hours in certain situations), with the traditionally low wages theme park workers are paid and low skillsets required to perform acceptably in their roles....

yeah, I listed examples and potential reasons.

Your move.

 

[breakin2]

All I got from this thread is that some people have no idea what the word "exploiting" means.

 

[jcb7787]

I will agree about a portion of CP students that view their experience as a vacation. Not sure about the guest relations aspect as I have never needed assistance. I may be totally wrong but I think the majority of people who don't enjoy their Disney vacations create most of their own problems (either through poor planning or unreasonable expectations) there are of course exceptions to these situations as even Disney makes mistakes that require service recovery.
Back on topic, it seems to me that the 3 unfortunate incidents that resulted in the loss of CM's occurred during routine operations and are in no way related to management restructuring or failures in the training infrastructure.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Fair enough. The insistence that has developed over the past few years from Guest Relations to file all complaints via email, instead of offering solutions on the spot... or even offering to listen to the guests. Disney's reliance on the college program students who are more likely to view the CP as a vacation, in order to fill understaffed frontline positions.

Combine the decrease in traditions training (before any CM opens their mouth, I am talking specifically about the Disney U part... not the local area training that changes names more often than a failing retail brand), from 3 days in Disney U when I took it, to now one 8 hour day (4 hours in certain situations), with the traditionally low wages theme park workers are paid and low skillsets required to perform acceptably in their roles....

yeah, I listed examples and potential reasons.

Your move.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.... Glad to see you back posting again, Rob. I couldn't agree more.
:wave:

 

[chwilson88]

Let's let Steve make that judgment then, shall we? And let those people take note. If they're that sad, small, and pathetic... then I really could care less what they do.

K, k?


I'm personally trying to figure out what insinsitive means.

I agree fully. jt04 has no grounds for suggesting those things about the OP. It's a discussion, simple as that.

 

[dreamfinder]

Has WDW started cutting too many corners? Yes, no doubt about it.

Have these changes directly contributed to these tragedies? I don't think so. They may be able to show that the first incident could have been presented if a prior level of staffing was still in place. (I don't know anything specific about this, but from other comments the number of CM's working the Monorail at any given time has been slowly reduced over the last few years) Can you attribute a slip to cost cutting? Not really, unless WDW used to have a CM position who went around after every rain storm or soda spill and dried it up completely. Can you attribute a tumbling accident to cost cutting? Yes he was a new hire, but it sounds like he was fully trained, and doing a fairly routine tumble. Another freak occurrence that could have happened at any time, just happened to occur shortly after a few others.

 

[zulemara]

As a CM, I can point out all kinds of areas where guest service has declined. Power gets taken away from CMs and budget cuts cause low staffing when people are dying for hours and cutbacks in maintenance.

Do I think the accidents are related to budget? No.
Do I think there could be more accidents related to budget? Yes

Here's a tip: Don't lean on the railing on the upper deck of the Irvine ferryboat...its so rotted it might break, but they canceled the refurb on it.

 

[gjohnson66]

Has WDW started cutting too many corners? Yes, no doubt about it.

Have these changes directly contributed to these tragedies? I don't think so.QUOTE]

I couldn't agree more. But there is one thing we are all missing...we are all either current of former CM's or just plain Disney freaks. We all have a pretty good handle on things and, whether or not we agree with the current management team, can see things pretty logically. The general public is another matter -- they will see these accidents as a lapse in safety and crew training at WDW that was quite probably brought on by crew layoffs and oversights. The news that the Feds are looking into Disney's safety practices will just reinforce that perception. I have personally been having conversations with some folks along these lines and you all should hear some of the absurd conspiracy theories that have been brought up! :brick:

The truth is that these events were just a series of unfortunate accidents that just happen to occur within a five week period. I have not seen any data anywhere that would suggest that Disney has done anything to undermine any safety protocols or procedures. The only accident that might even suggest a lapse in safety would have been the monorail incident -- and again, I still have not seen one piece of evidence that would suggest that the accident occurred because of a safety lapse brought on by crew layoffs and "penny pinching".

 

[imagineer boy]

As much as I'd love to blame TDO for all this, there's really no evidence that the accidents were caused be cost cutting.

Now the Columbia and BTMRR accidents at DL are prime examples of accidents that were purely management's fault.