Epcot New Year's Eve madness (photos and wait times)

[raven]

Raven, we truly appreciate all you do to keep Epcot in great shape!

A serious question - is there any reason that Epcot generally seems so clean and maintained while the MK looks so worn? Is this a result of management differences between parks? I am not talking about maintenance such as painting or carpentry, but the deep cleaning you talk about -- dirty pavement, dirty or stained carpets, dusty displays, tarnished brass, light fixtures full of bugs, dirty tile grout, etc. These are the things that I would think the overnight "deep cleaners" would address, but these often seem neglected at the MK more so than the other parks.

Quite possibly the reason Epcot could be a little more clean than the other parks is because the current VP used to be a custodial CM himself. He is very picky about cleanliness and it shows.

But after a few years of doing it I personally can still see places at Epcot that could stand much better cleanliness, but I'm also picky as well. They used to assign you an area and you cleaned it from top to bottom. If something wasn't cleaned in your area you would be disciplined. Nowadays a lot of CMs clean just enough to get by and never go above and beyond. This is because a few years ago they started listing items to be cleaned. If it isn't on the list, they don't do it. I blame current management for that one.

Carpets and kitchens are cleaned by outsourced vendors (at least at Epcot).

 

[WDWFan13]

I was pretty disappointed with the Fantasia dinner. When i was making my reservations for le cellier i was told that i should make reservations for the Fantasia dinner. i was told that disney was not really advertising for it yet so they only had limited information. I was also told that there would be a dance floor and live music, and after the dinner people would be ushered out into a private viewing section. This was in August.

So after i couldnt really find any info about it online other than the 2009 menu, I started asking around at the park and I kept getting different answers.

We were a little disappointed to find out that there was no special viewing, or dance floor. I realize now that it was prob set up so that they could feed people (2,000 in all) who were unable to get reservations at any of the other restaurants, making it impossible to usher everyone out of the building to special sections. I thought the food was excellent, but I was just a little angry about the whole firework thing. I dont blame any of the cast members, because they prob had just the same amount of information about the event as i did seeing that disney didnt advertise for it.



On a side note i was extremely annoyed while i was getting my fastpass for soarin and the person in front of me was getting no joke 150 fastpasses for a tour group....

 

[jjharvpro]

Gosh, all that is just scary...Phew!!!!

More pictures of throughout Epcot?

 

[flavious27]

I was pretty disappointed with the Fantasia dinner. When i was making my reservations for le cellier i was told that i should make reservations for the Fantasia dinner. i was told that disney was not really advertising for it yet so they only had limited information. I was also told that there would be a dance floor and live music, and after the dinner people would be ushered out into a private viewing section. This was in August.

So after i couldnt really find any info about it online other than the 2009 menu, I started asking around at the park and I kept getting different answers.

We were a little disappointed to find out that there was no special viewing, or dance floor. I realize now that it was prob set up so that they could feed people (2,000 in all) who were unable to get reservations at any of the other restaurants, making it impossible to usher everyone out of the building to special sections. I thought the food was excellent, but I was just a little angry about the whole firework thing. I dont blame any of the cast members, because they prob had just the same amount of information about the event as i did seeing that disney didnt advertise for it.



On a side note i was extremely annoyed while i was getting my fastpass for soarin and the person in front of me was getting no joke 150 fastpasses for a tour group....

There is a CM that wasn't manning their post by the FP properly.

 

[timeman]

There is a CM that wasn't manning their post by the FP properly.

Actually he was doing his job right. On New Year's Eve they were directing only one person to get the fastpasses for everybody in there group. This was to make sure that the line for fastpasses moved quickly. For example if you had a family of 10 with you they asked that only you went thru and would give you the fastpasses for everybody. How would you have liked standing behind a tour group of 150 people getting fastpasses when you could be standing behind only one person instead?

 

[flavious27]

Actually he was doing his job right. On New Year's Eve they were directing only one person to get the fastpasses for everybody in there group. This was to make sure that the line for fastpasses moved quickly. For example if you had a family of 10 with you they asked that only you went thru and would give you the fastpasses for everybody. How would you have liked standing behind a tour group of 150 people getting fastpasses when you could be standing behind only one person instead?

By the time the person punched in that many FPs, they could have been almost to the front of Imagination!.

There is one thing to let someone get one for a group of 5 or at the most 10, but anymore more than that is just rude. I know this is disney and every guest must be given a great experience, but what about everyone else that was waiting? There should just be a common sense rule that kicks into place at some point.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Actually he was doing his job right. On New Year's Eve they were directing only one person to get the fastpasses for everybody in there group. This was to make sure that the line for fastpasses moved quickly. For example if you had a family of 10 with you they asked that only you went thru and would give you the fastpasses for everybody. How would you have liked standing behind a tour group of 150 people getting fastpasses when you could be standing behind only one person instead?

I'd say that's the proper way to do it. There's no sense in an entire family going to the machines.

I know in year's past when it's been super busy, I've seen cast members with a stack of Fastpasses already printed off for the day, and they've just handed them out without tying them to a specific ticket. On days like New Years Eve, the passes are going to be distributed well before noon anyway, so if they can speed up the process, and ease the congestion in the building, then they should do it.

 

[tirian]

I despise it when people call them a "janitor" because they say it as to degrade the role. Most people don't even know the amount of effort and lengths that people in the night have to go through, including the massive equipment used, to make it look fresh each day. This also includes horticulture, food distributors and stockers, maintenence and show support.

Every sweeper truck you may see on property is deployed from Epcot. During the day they sweep the parking lots of the resorts and roads. At night they do the parking lots of the parks, water parks and DTD. One is even on standby behind MK while the fireworks are going on in order to quickly clean up the debris on the roads to quickly them open again.

I once watched the night crew at Epcot, and I was shocked—truly shocked—at how much they did, plus how quickly they accomplished it. It's no wonder Epcot is the cleanest of the WDW parks.

 

[tirian]

Quite possibly the reason Epcot could be a little more clean than the other parks is because the current VP used to be a custodial CM himself. He is very picky about cleanliness and it shows.

There's no doubt about it; Cockerell Jr. loves his park.

 

[SeaCastle]

Quite possibly the reason Epcot could be a little more clean than the other parks is because the current VP used to be a custodial CM himself. He is very picky about cleanliness and it shows.

But after a few years of doing it I personally can still see places at Epcot that could stand much better cleanliness, but I'm also picky as well. They used to assign you an area and you cleaned it from top to bottom. If something wasn't cleaned in your area you would be disciplined. Nowadays a lot of CMs clean just enough to get by and never go above and beyond. This is because a few years ago they started listing items to be cleaned. If it isn't on the list, they don't do it. I blame current management for that one.

Carpets and kitchens are cleaned by outsourced vendors (at least at Epcot).

Is there any indication that they may revert back to the old way of maintenance?

That's one thing I love about EPCOT- it is arguably the best maintained of the parks. Where the Magic Kingdom has replaced its flowerbeds with bushes, EPCOT maintains beautiful gardens year 'round, and still runs its fountains. I have a hard time finding examples of poor maintenance at EPCOT, it's that good. It's probably not as good as it was back in the golden days, but by today's standards, they're great.

There's no doubt about it; Cockerell Jr. loves his park.

Do you have any insight as to how EPCOT CM's and managers like Dan? I've heard mixed things about him, some of it pertaining to the fact that his father was high up in management.

 

[freediverdude]

Just a little insight:

Th night crews are hardly ever seen by guests except maybe for a few minutes on EMH nights if they decide to walk to their details. Not condoning regular costumed custodial or tooting my own horn but they simply are there to upkeep what has been done during the night. If the night crew has done their work right, you shouldn't notice the work they do. They deep clean every inch of concrete, carpet, restroom, queue, ride and restaurants in the parks. Once their work is done it's up to the day custodial (in the white costumes) to up keep the cleanliness.

I dispise it when people call them a "janitor" because they say it as to degrade the role. Most people don't even know the amount of effort and lengths that people in the night have to go through, including the massive equipment used, to make it look fresh each day. This also includes horticulture, food distributors and stockers, maintenence and show support.

Every sweeper truck you may see on property is deployed from Epcot. During the day they sweep the parking lots of the resorts and roads. At night they do the parking lots of the parks, water parks and DTD. One is even on standby behind MK while the fireworks are going on in order to quickly clean up the debris on the roads to quickly them open again.

Raven, do they really clean the seats and headrests in the ride vehicles every night? That sounds like a humongous job. But I guess it's nice to know that the seats are fairly sanitary anyway.

 

[raven]

Raven, do they really clean the seats and headrests in the ride vehicles every night? That sounds like a humongous job. But I guess it's nice to know that the seats are fairly sanitary anyway.

I assume you are talking about ride vehicles? Yes, all rides are cleaned every day. If not on 3rd shift then on 1st shift (starts at 5AM). Amonia and water is the strongest chemical that can be used on certain things that guests touch (handrails, sets, touch screens, vehicle seats, baby changing tables, etc.) so sometimes they may appear "dirty" but they are actually clean. A deeper cleaning usually happens when an attraction is in rehab for any reason. Example: Test Track sets inside the ride aren't cleaned at all until it's down for any given time. The last time was over a year ago when they resurfaced the track. We went in and cleaned everything and I found some elements of set pieces that I didn't even know existed! I even left my mark in the ride that can only be seen if you are looking for it. :animwink:

 

[WDWFan13]

Actually he was doing his job right. On New Year's Eve they were directing only one person to get the fastpasses for everybody in there group. This was to make sure that the line for fastpasses moved quickly. For example if you had a family of 10 with you they asked that only you went thru and would give you the fastpasses for everybody. How would you have liked standing behind a tour group of 150 people getting fastpasses when you could be standing behind only one person instead?

My thoughts on the whole fastpass thing was that it was ridiculous that disney lets someone put 150 tickets into the machine at one time. Personally I think it would be more effective to give the groups like 5 fastpasses to begin with that they could use throughout the day. Or have a special machine for just large groups because it is not fair to have people waiting behind a person putting that many tickets through who themselves may only be getting 4 fastpasses.

 

[SoupBone]

I was at the MK on New Years Eve and had the best time I've had in a long time at Disney. The ONLY real complaint I had is that they gave out noise makers at around 4-5 pm and it was extremely annoying not being able to hear any outside Disney noises. They could have easily rolled them out around 10pm and still had time left over. All CM's were pretty awesome that day too.

 

[freediverdude]

I assume you are talking about ride vehicles? Yes, all rides are cleaned every day. If not on 3rd shift then on 1st shift (starts at 5AM). Amonia and water is the strongest chemical that can be used on certain things that guests touch (handrails, sets, touch screens, vehicle seats, baby changing tables, etc.) so sometimes they may appear "dirty" but they are actually clean. A deeper cleaning usually happens when an attraction is in rehab for any reason. Example: Test Track sets inside the ride aren't cleaned at all until it's down for any given time. The last time was over a year ago when they resurfaced the track. We went in and cleaned everything and I found some elements of set pieces that I didn't even know existed! I even left my mark in the ride that can only be seen if you are looking for it. :animwink:

Oooh! Oooh! What is your mark! What is your mark! Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[RSoxNo1]

My thoughts on the whole fastpass thing was that it was ridiculous that disney lets someone put 150 tickets into the machine at one time. Personally I think it would be more effective to give the groups like 5 fastpasses to begin with that they could use throughout the day. Or have a special machine for just large groups because it is not fair to have people waiting behind a person putting that many tickets through who themselves may only be getting 4 fastpasses.

I agree with this. Disney deals with groups of more than 50 people all the time, a frontline cast member should be able to give them a Fastpass for all 50 people in the party, and have the system subsequently bump up the distribution time accordingly.

Having said that, I think the reason against this is to discourage large tour groups from using the Fastpass system.