Guardian's CM's Shout Out

Doug Means

Doug Means

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My Family of 9 just arrived back home from our WDW trip last week. Last Wednesday was our EPCOT day and we got VQ boarding party 71 for GotG. Only 5 of us can ride for various reasons like height and pregnancy, so there was an odd man out and that was my 26 year old son. He happened to get paired with another family of 3 and really had no problem riding with them. The dad of this other family started raising cane to say the least with the cast members, saying he was promised that his group would not be put with anyone else because it was his daughter's birthday and he didn't want anyone else in the ride picture with them. My son wasn't even going to be riding with the daughter who was also in her 20's with her boyfriend. He would be with the dad. The CM's were being very nice and courteous in explaining that there was no one who would have promised that and even brought over a CM who is over them (this all holding up our side of the ride, they keep sending trains on the other side and had to skip our turn twice). My son even offered not to ride with them but the CM's Just asked the man and his family to leave or ride the way it was. They rode with my son. Who knows what happened with the man after the ride.

Here's the kicker though, as soon as we got off the ride, the main CM involved in all this stopped my son, apologized for the entire situation, asked if were we ok, then offered to take us up to the front of the line for another stress free ride. SO, we got on right away for a 2nd ride. My DS was a CM for 2 months with the DCP but was sent home right at the beginning of covid. He loved being a CM for that short time and understands how people can treat CM's. He tried to help the CM's through this situation the best he could, and we had a great conversation with them after the ride too.

I'm not saying that every CM is perfect, but most of the ones I've ever dealt with have been great and gone overboard to make us feel special. So, thank you cast members for making our trips great, and a special thank you to the Guardian's of the Galaxy CM's last Wednesday June 28th at around 1:00pm. Y'all did a great job. I wish I would have got your name to post here but failed on that.
 
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vikescaper

Well-Known Member
When I am at WDW with my mom and sister, I always worry that a similar situation would happen to one of us. If it were to happen to me, I would just say that I am following cast member instructions and call over a cast member if it kept going.
 
NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
I am struggling to see what the issue is. The CM should have clearly sent the train with one empty seat, and everybody would have been happy. I understand filling capacity, but this reward wasn't worth the risk in my opinion, to cause additional delays, anger guests, and involve multiple CMs. They most likely didn't know how many people would be in the photo, and if they wanted a photo of just them, so be it.
 
bhg469

bhg469

Well-Known Member
NelsonRD said:
I am struggling to see what the issue is. The CM should have clearly sent the train with one empty seat, and everybody would have been happy. I understand filling capacity, but this reward wasn't worth the risk in my opinion, to cause additional delays, anger guests, and involve multiple CMs. They most likely didn't know how many people would be in the photo, and if they wanted a photo of just them, so be it.
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I would imagine that the family was being rude from the beginning and the cm probably didnt want them to think they could get away with it.
 
Chi84

Chi84

Premium Member
NelsonRD said:
I am struggling to see what the issue is. The CM should have clearly sent the train with one empty seat, and everybody would have been happy. I understand filling capacity, but this reward wasn't worth the risk in my opinion, to cause additional delays, anger guests, and involve multiple CMs. They most likely didn't know how many people would be in the photo, and if they wanted a photo of just them, so be it.
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Where do you draw the line though? What about the guests who want to park in the spot closest to the tram instead of following instructions to park at the end of the row? Does the CM give in? People need to follow the rules whether or not they like them.
 
NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
Chi84 said:
Where do you draw the line though? What about the guests who want to park in the spot closest to the tram instead of following instructions to park at the end of the row? Does the CM give in? People need to follow the rules whether or not they like them.
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Get away with what exactly? I am sorry but I am not entertaining other scenarios. I am replaying to a specific situation where a family wanted to ride an attraction alone that would have resulted in 1 empty seat. Not a big deal. Part of the Disney Magic is treating people better than at a 6 Flags. I disagree with the CMs on this one.
 
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correcaminos

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
NelsonRD said:
Get away with what exactly? I am sorry but I am not entertaining other scenarios. I am replaying to a specific situation where a family wanted to ride an attraction alone that would have resulted in 1 empty seat. Not a big deal. Part of the Disney Magic is treating people better than at a 6 Flags. I disagree with the CMs on this one.
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Acting entitled. We had odd numbers and if the numbers work, then you ride the odd numbers together. If they don't then the seat goes free. As a guest we don't get to dictate who is next to us or not. You don't want a single next to you? Then don't be an odd number or don't ride. I don't have time for that myself and wouldn't agree to giving into the stupid* family. Though I would have just pulled them aside and asked for another party mix of the same size.

(*eta: as in lacking common sense definition of stupid)
 
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NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
helenabear said:
Acting entitled. We had odd numbers and if the numbers work, then you ride the odd numbers together. If they don't then the seat goes free. As a guest we don't get to dictate who is next to us or not. You don't want a single next to you? Then don't be an odd number or don't ride. I don't have time for that myself and wouldn't agree to giving into the stupid family. Though I would have just pulled them aside and asked for another party mix of the same side.
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I am sorry, I disagree. That is pretty harsh calling the family stupid. Of all the entitled guest behavior, I do not believe asking for one seat to go empty is far out of bounds. Almost every attraction, I have seen an empty seat.

I prefer to not be treated like cattle. Enforcing every seat must be filled is a stain on the Disney experience for me.
 
Chi84

Chi84

Premium Member
NelsonRD said:
Enforcing every seat must be filled is a stain on the Disney experience for me.
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I don’t think the policy is intended to be a stain on the Disney experience. It’s probably to ensure that the people waiting in long lines get on the ride as quickly as possible. In any event, CMs should never be taken to task simply for enforcing Disney’s policies even if the guests feel they deserve to be exceptions.
 
Vacationeer

Vacationeer

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I haven’t been on this particular ride yet but usually the CMs have already matched parties with vehicle capacity by the time we get to the boarding area, and often at that point it’s already been decided how the next 2 or 3 sets of guests will work. Like they tell your party to go stand in row 3, there’s already people there for the next available vehicle and a match is already being made for the next guests behind.

Beside upsetting the current flow to accommodate the guests asking for a private ride photo, the CMs would also be setting precedent for this party and those within ear shot. The CMs did the right thing. This is the way stuff runs. Changing the procedure doesn’t really help anyone. That party will have the wrong expectations going forward, along with people within ear shot. A hiccup would undulate through the next boarding guests as CMs reconfigure. Every WDW day 1000 people celebrate Bdays and thousands more celebrating other things.
 
Club Cooloholic

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
NelsonRD said:
I am sorry, I disagree. That is pretty harsh calling the family stupid. Of all the entitled guest behavior, I do not believe asking for one seat to go empty is far out of bounds. Almost every attraction, I have seen an empty seat.

I prefer to not be treated like cattle. Enforcing every seat must be filled is a stain on the Disney experience for me.
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Nope it's not harsh at all. It's a ride. If a grown man can't handle sitting next to a stranger, don't go to a theme park. Next time the CMs should threaten to kick them straight out of the park for acting like that
 
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Married5Times

Well-Known Member
considering the highly coveted nature of every seat, willfully sending out an empty one--over a picture nonetheless--is flat out irresponsible.

and now a special shout out to the family that had the audacity to even ask at the expense of the thousands of others who wanted to ride "you need to work on fairness and social priorities"
 
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Raxel7851

Well-Known Member
NelsonRD said:
I am sorry, I disagree. That is pretty harsh calling the family stupid. Of all the entitled guest behavior, I do not believe asking for one seat to go empty is far out of bounds. Almost every attraction, I have seen an empty seat.

I prefer to not be treated like cattle. Enforcing every seat must be filled is a stain on the Disney experience for me.
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Could this be a KatieBug 2.0? As far as empty seats go, that doesn’t appear to be happening at WDW lately. Follow the posts from guests who have been there recently. The parks are packed. If you prefer not to be treated like “cattle”, then perhaps a visit to WDW is not the place to be right now or the near future.
 

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