For the first time, I've finally seen the fabled mythical Brazillian Tour Groups

[thomas998]

In most cases i think disney's management is just ignoring the situation. Those groups disturb the experience of other people. I feel disney just cares about their customer satisfaction. In most cases casts members are victims of disneys rules on pleasing their customers in every silly way, rather than thinking of safety. Maybe if the people complained more about those groups disney will consider taking some action.

I suspect you are fighting a windmill. Unless mass groups of American boycotted WDW, Disney has no incentive to really care if only a few people complain. You complain, they will at most send you some canned response about how much they care about you as a guest and how they will look into it - and that will be the end of it. Because at the end of the day they get a lot of money from the Brazilian tour groups. And more to Disney's perspective, Jan and Feb are low points in their schedule and since that is the prime time for the tour groups who do you think they will really care about?

They can afford to upset a few locals and even lose a few as future guests, Only when they see a real impact to their bottom line will they even really look into this or any other problem. That's just how corporation operate.

 

[OnyxNine]

I suspect you are fighting a windmill. Unless mass groups of American boycotted WDW, Disney has no incentive to really care if only a few people complain. You complain, they will at most send you some canned response about how much they care about you as a guest and how they will look into it - and that will be the end of it. Because at the end of the day they get a lot of money from the Brazilian tour groups. And more to Disney's perspective, Jan and Feb are low points in their schedule and since that is the prime time for the tour groups who do you think they will really care about?

They can afford to upset a few locals and even lose a few as future guests, Only when they see a real impact to their bottom line will they even really look into this or any other problem. That's just how corporation operate.

That's why i say maybe. After all disney will move where the money goes

 

[Victor Kelly]

Unless there is an incident that get out of hand and violent, makes national headlines or even makes it to youtube, Disney will do nothing.

Individuals from any nationality are fine, it is when they are massed into groups that issues arise.

 

[Britt]

The chanting is what I couldn't handle. I can handle their loud shirts, their flags, even them walking along the entire path.....the chanting and cutting in line? Oh hell no...back the h*** up, I don't take that crap at all.

 

[MMDVC]

Is there any way to monitor the discounts certain foreign countries receive ? Does Disney give package discounts that automatically include free dining and that is why they can afford to travel overseas? I think I saw a discount package offered to tourists traveling from England and it was fantastic. It seemed unfair at the time.

The only thing that bothers me with the large tour groups is seeing them at the FP machines. They are probably the reason for the MB's now. Disney was tired of the complaints and knew they had to control them ( the complaints not the Fps)...

 

[Goofyernmost]

Is there any way to monitor the discounts certain foreign countries receive ? Does Disney give package discounts that automatically include free dining and that is why they can afford to travel overseas? I think I saw a discount package offered to tourists traveling from England and it was fantastic. It seemed unfair at the time.

The only thing that bothers me with the large tour groups is seeing them at the FP machines. They are probably the reason for the MB's now. Disney was tired of the complaints and knew they had to control them ( the complaints not the Fps)...

They had to control both. If FP itself wasn't controlled it would create even more complaints. I wonder how they do that with groups. It seems like a nightmare to load each card individually.

 

[Skippy's Pal]

Waiting to read some reports on how the Magic Bands and FP+ work out with various foreign tour groups. That should give rise to some interesting chants.

 

[thomas998]

Is there any way to monitor the discounts certain foreign countries receive ? Does Disney give package discounts that automatically include free dining and that is why they can afford to travel overseas? I think I saw a discount package offered to tourists traveling from England and it was fantastic. It seemed unfair at the time.

The only thing that bothers me with the large tour groups is seeing them at the FP machines. They are probably the reason for the MB's now. Disney was tired of the complaints and knew they had to control them ( the complaints not the Fps)...

Best bet is to just do google searches of travel deals to Disney that are restricted to either UK, Brasilian sites or sites from whatever country you are looking for.... I know several years ago we needed passes that were longer than the ones offered to people in the US so we bought them from an overseas travel place. The internet does actually come in handy sometimes.

 

[LucyK]

Is there any way to monitor the discounts certain foreign countries receive ? Does Disney give package discounts that automatically include free dining and that is why they can afford to travel overseas? I think I saw a discount package offered to tourists traveling from England and it was fantastic. It seemed unfair at the time.

The only thing that bothers me with the large tour groups is seeing them at the FP machines. They are probably the reason for the MB's now. Disney was tired of the complaints and knew they had to control them ( the complaints not the Fps)...

Contrary to popular belief there's no special discount for South America like they do for UK/Europe visitors, we pay the same amount American/Canadians pay, actually the ads for WDW down here are exactly the same ones you see in America, they just dub it in Portuguese and translate the writing.

We are able to apply discount to our packages/ R.O same you you do as well but in most cases agencies will apply the discount to the reservation of the group and not give back the money already paid by their customers since when you book with them you pay an amount in dollar converted to Reais and that's the final price (it works well when the discount is minimum and the dollar is much more valuable than the Real, like during Summer, but for off season rates those people usually lose a lot of money). You're also paying for the tour guide and all extras, like the t-shirts, shopping trips and sometimes a brazilian doctor accompany the group.

I'm very interested in how these agencies will handle FP+. They will either book aleatory 60 days in advance, making FP+ for some attractions be gone very quickly or just give the bands to the members of the group when they check in and briefly explaining what they do, which will most won't pay attention and will be lost with what to do, causing great drama when they arrive at the parks. Remember most of those groups are non English speakers and will have NO idea how to manage MDE. I'm kinda mean and I hope it's the latest option so every day guests will have the upper hand when it comes to FP+.

 

[Victor Kelly]

Lucy, do these groups have a tour guide based in Florida or from where they are coming from?

 

[Susan Savia]

Walking near the United Kingdom today at Epcot a bunch of teen girls were kicking a soccer ball, laughing, bumping into people, etc. We've seen a lot of large groups of girls with their matching tees walking alomg singing, clapping etc this week. Funny, none of them had any adults with them...

 

[Clamman73]

Walking near the United Kingdom today at Epcot a bunch of teen girls were kicking a soccer ball, laughing, bumping into people, etc. We've seen a lot of large groups of girls with their matching tees walking alomg singing, clapping etc this week. Funny, none of them had any adults with them...

No concept of "quiet enjoyment".

 

[Goofyernmost]

No concept of "quiet enjoyment".

Or no memory of what it is like to be young and how "quiet enjoyment" happens when one gets old. Or as my Mother used to say to Dad when he was napping. "Wake up, in a few years you will be able to sleep for an eternity, but for today lets be alive."

 

[216bruce]

Unless there is an incident that get out of hand and violent, makes national headlines or even makes it to youtube, Disney will do nothing.

Individuals from any nationality are fine, it is when they are massed into groups that issues arise.

I agree. Those massed groups of 'Merican stroller pushers and electric wheelchair riders are horrible.

 

[awesomeinabox]

We did FP+ but there was an issue laat week and half of our groups got deleted... Went to see the FP+ people at DHS at 10am, dhs opened at 8 or 9) all toy story and Rock in Roller Coaster passes were gone, yet tour groups were running through the FP+ line while we sat outside so the kids could go on.

Idk what is happening with them and the FP+ system but they've already figured it out.

To be fair though the tour groups last week were very well behaved, the American High School groups were significantly more obnoxious than the Brazillian tour kids.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

The British and Japanese don't send their kids off alone when they are 13 or 14 years old. I'm not sure, but I suspect that if you took any group of kids from any country and turned them loose in groups of 20 anywhere in the world that they would not behave like little clones of Mrs. Manners. As a previous person pointed out the main reason is that hey are large groups with no adult leaders.

I wouldn't say we have organised tour groups in quite the same way. However school trips, sports club tours etc are quite common.

I had my first foreign group trip at age 9/10 to as it was the EuroDisney with my school. We toured in small groups of maybe 10 max with a teacher or parent in each.

From an older age of say 11/12 a trip would have just been allowed to split as it wanted. So you would generally get groups of 5/6 friends go off together, this was the same no matter where we went, home or abroad and didn't change if English was the countries official language or not. Teachers etc would be present but would not go round the parks with most groups. Ok so quite often the troublemakers would be kept with the teachers as punishment.
Not sure if they still let groups split like this, attitudes have changed a lot in the last 20 years and everyone is obsessed with wrapping them in cotton wool.

To be honest, speaking English as a first language makes it easier. No matter where you go, you are almost certain to be able to make yourself understood. Not so easy if you only speak japanese/portuguese etc and very little broken English.

 

[LucyK]

Lucy, do these groups have a tour guide based in Florida or from where they are coming from?

All tour guides are from their home country, AFAIK.

Here in Brazil most tour guides have a degree in Tourism and Hospitality (I know, the irony!) and must speak fluent English to be hired. Some of them have extensive knowledge of Disney, they read up on attractions, best time to visit the parks, recommended park; everything you and I do for our trip, they do for their groups.

The job of tour guide is to make the group's visit perfect. They are rated on their work when the group returns and will be evaluated after a period and you know how kids don't judge a job by how knowledgeable and efficient it's done but in how much fun they had, so I guess that's why tour guides will overlook most obnoxious behaviors we consider rude.

 

[Victor Kelly]

All tour guides are from their home country, AFAIK.

Here in Brazil most tour guides have a degree in Tourism and Hospitality (I know, the irony!) and must speak fluent English to be hired. Some of them have extensive knowledge of Disney, they read up on attractions, best time to visit the parks, recommended park; everything you and I do for our trip, they do for their groups.

The job of tour guide is to make the group's visit perfect. They are rated on their work when the group returns and will be evaluated after a period and you know how kids don't judge a job by how knowledgeable and efficient it's done but in how much fun they had, so I guess that's why tour guides will overlook most obnoxious behaviors we consider rude.

Most interesting, and I kind of expected that they would get people from their own country. So, the guides are graded by kids? I would expect the guides be graded more by the people escorting the kids. If this is the case, then it explains a lot about behavior of the kids. Shame though, a deep shame. I wonder if they ever use locals in Florida, or if any out of country group does.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Most interesting, and I kind of expected that they would get people from their own country. So, the guides are graded by kids? I would expect the guides be graded more by the people escorting the kids. If this is the case, then it explains a lot about behavior of the kids. Shame though, a deep shame. I wonder if they ever use locals in Florida, or if any out of country group does.

I believe when they are referring to "guides" they are talking about the people escorting the kids. One and the same.

 

[LucyK]

I believe when they are referring to "guides" they are talking about the people escorting the kids. One and the same.

Yep! They are guides/chaperones when it comes to an all tween/teen tour group. Sometimes there are two of them per group but they play the same role.