Miserable CMs?! - My Experiences

[LittleBuford]

So, this is my third trip and I'm half way in.. first thing ive realised is that there are way more unhappy and miserable cast members than I've ever witnessed before.

My main experience was at the entrance of Epcot, i forgot to take off my badge going through the metal detector.. but I had remembered to empty my pockets take off my pin lanyard etc and was just an easy mistake to make especially when I'm a bit of a faffer.

The cast member walked over pointing and raising her voice at me "what are you doing? You gotta take it off. It's not hard!"

While I understand it must be frustrating for CMs to have to repeat themselves, this holiday has cost me a ton of money and I dont expect to be shouted at for a silly mistake!

Most of my experiences with miserable CMs is when I strike up conversations at the tills. Some of them look at me in confusion..

BUT the majority are lovely people who go out of their way to make you feel welcome.. It's just a few make lasting bad impressions.

Has anyone else noticed this?

“Faffer” and “tills”—greetings from a fellow Brit!

All the cast members I interacted with during my trips last year were universally (or should that be “Disneyly”?) lovely. I’m sorry your experience wasn’t as positive.

 

[DisneyGigi]

Security is awesome. Open your bags, before you make it to them, every zippered pocket, wide open- be prepared to go thru metal detectors, and move thru quickly. It isn’t rocket science. Disney CM, are amazing, if the guest interacting, has common sense and courtesy.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

For the most part, I've had Cast Members who are very kind to me.

 

[MickeyCB]

I have only had one memorable negative interaction with a CM and it was maybe18 years ago. It was so negative I still remember it (and most days can't remember what I had for breakfast)!

It was "the perfect storm" of events. It was our last day and we had a lunch reservation at the Poly and were to get our transportation to the airport for our flight home at the hotel immediately after lunch. I try very hard to plan things well, leaving enough time so as not to be running like crazy people through the parks at critical times.
Well, we were on thunder mountain and it broke down. We were held on the ride for a long time, but when we got off thought we would still be able to exit the park and maybe even be able to make lunch. As we came out of the exit they had ropes up in anticipation of a parade that would start from the frontier end of the park. As we got to the cross walk there was not a parade in sight. The cast member (a man), told us we could not cross due to the parade starting. We tried to explain our situation and he would not listen at all.
It was crazy- one lady seated on the ground was looking at us like we were being rude, another was telling him to let us across, it was surreal, people actually started arguing.
We only had infrequent trips up to that point and didn't know our way around Disney very well. Now with more experience, I realize we could probably have headed back toward thunder mountain, use the walkway by the river, etc. but at the time had no idea, and he didn't take the time to explain the alternate route we could have walked.
I usually address people as sir or ma'am and said "sir, please let us across as at this point we are not only going to be charged for a meal we can not eat, but could miss our transportation to the airport". (Keep in mind this was 18 years ago, I'm not even sure we had a cell, I didn't know how to call the restaurant, and was getting panicky about not making it to the airport).
What followed was one of the craziest things ever. His response was to pull the rope up against my waist with a bit of a jerk and I thought my husband was going to deck the guy! Another cast member noticed what was going on, stepped in and escorted us across. And, I am assuming they might have had problems with this man in the past, because he gave us the mans name (which I failed to notice in the excitement) and told us to call customer service to report this.
I did call their customer service after we got home, and the lady on the phone confirmed that he not only should have let us cross, they were allowed to do this, but the issue with the rope was unacceptable. She actually asked me what I wanted in compensation. All I asked for, was if they could not charge us for the meal we didn't show up for and for someone to speak to this man about how to handle something like this in the future. She said she would credit our credit card and that they would talk to him.

Crazy experience, but since that time, I have never had anything except wonderful interactions with CM's, and by now we are 1-2 trips a year.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

I would think rude CM's would be weeded out... I understand that they are human and so am I. I work 8hrs/day (not at seeing the amount of people CM's do) and I can manage to remain respectful/professional all day every day.

My Meaning: If one can't handle dealing with tons of people all day, then don't be a CM. I am sure Disney has tons of off stage jobs.

Patrons pay top dollar for top service and should not have to put up with an unfriendly CM's for whatever reason..

 

[Dead2009]

I would think rude CM's would be weeded out... I understand that they are human and so am I. I work 8hrs/day (not at seeing the amount of people CM's do) and I can manage to remain respectful/professional all day every day.

My Meaning: If one can't handle dealing with tons of people all day, then don't be a CM. I am sure Disney has tons of off stage jobs.

Patrons pay top dollar for top service and should not have to put up with an unfriendly CM's for whatever reason..

It's good to know that doing this job is that easy.

 

[Br’er Rabbit]

Since I live here and usually wear a UCF shirt when I go to Disney, I feel like CM are more comfortable when I go. I’ve had CMs talk about how their shift is so long and they’re sick of all the dumb guests.

It’s especially fun to talk to the cast members working at the Fastpass+ stations and how they are on the brink of losing their mind at how so many guests can’t understand what FP+ is.

 

[wdisney9000]

We visit several times per year and have noticed that over the last year or so that the CM's have just been amazing. Not to say they were bad prior, but our last few trips, we have had some seriously outstanding service from CM's ranging from front desk service to the ones inside the park.

My nephew got an ice cream from the Plaza and when he walked outside a man bumped into him which caused him to drop his ice cream. The CM who was inside and behind the counter somehow noticed and was outside before we even had a chance to think about getting him another. She brought him back inside and got him a fresh one and even made a whole production of it to put a smile on his face. Thats just one example of many.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I have only had one memorable negative interaction with a CM and it was maybe18 years ago. It was so negative I still remember it (and most days can't remember what I had for breakfast)!

It was "the perfect storm" of events. It was our last day and we had a lunch reservation at the Poly and were to get our transportation to the airport for our flight home at the hotel immediately after lunch. I try very hard to plan things well, leaving enough time so as not to be running like crazy people through the parks at critical times.
Well, we were on thunder mountain and it broke down. We were held on the ride for a long time, but when we got off thought we would still be able to exit the park and maybe even be able to make lunch. As we came out of the exit they had ropes up in anticipation of a parade that would start from the frontier end of the park. As we got to the cross walk there was not a parade in sight. The cast member (a man), told us we could not cross due to the parade starting. We tried to explain our situation and he would not listen at all.
It was crazy- one lady seated on the ground was looking at us like we were being rude, another was telling him to let us across, it was surreal, people actually started arguing.
We only had infrequent trips up to that point and didn't know our way around Disney very well. Now with more experience, I realize we could probably have headed back toward thunder mountain, use the walkway by the river, etc. but at the time had no idea, and he didn't take the time to explain the alternate route we could have walked.
I usually address people as sir or ma'am and said "sir, please let us across as at this point we are not only going to be charged for a meal we can not eat, but could miss our transportation to the airport". (Keep in mind this was 18 years ago, I'm not even sure we had a cell, I didn't know how to call the restaurant, and was getting panicky about not making it to the airport).
What followed was one of the craziest things ever. His response was to pull the rope up against my waist with a bit of a jerk and I thought my husband was going to deck the guy! Another cast member noticed what was going on, stepped in and escorted us across. And, I am assuming they might have had problems with this man in the past, because he gave us the mans name (which I failed to notice in the excitement) and told us to call customer service to report this.
I did call their customer service after we got home, and the lady on the phone confirmed that he not only should have let us cross, they were allowed to do this, but the issue with the rope was unacceptable. She actually asked me what I wanted in compensation. All I asked for, was if they could not charge us for the meal we didn't show up for and for someone to speak to this man about how to handle something like this in the future. She said she would credit our credit card and that they would talk to him.

Crazy experience, but since that time, I have never had anything except wonderful interactions with CM's, and by now we are 1-2 trips a year.

While this stinks...it's a lunch ressie, 18 years ago I don't even know if they charged a no show fee but it certainly wasn't a full meal price, I'm by no means a disney apologist, but my issue is when a CM is not doing their job. My problems have been with bus drivers, we once left pleasure island 45 mins before closing hoping to get home a bit earlier and beat the rush...instead the bus driver sat in the lot refusing to leave hoping to stay till the closing crowds let out even though the bus was half full, and had an autistic man aboard who was getting increasingly agitated as a 5 mins turned to 10 mins turned to a half hour. It took a talk with a manager to get him to leave

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We were there for 12 days in mid-August and only saw ONE CM the entire time who looked a little grumpy.

She was just doing her job.

 

[Goofyernmost]

While this stinks...it's a lunch ressie, 18 years ago I don't even know if they charged a no show fee but it certainly wasn't a full meal price, I'm by no means a disney apologist, but my issue is when a CM is not doing their job. My problems have been with bus drivers, we once left pleasure island 45 mins before closing hoping to get home a bit earlier and beat the rush...instead the bus driver sat in the lot refusing to leave hoping to stay till the closing crowds let out even though the bus was half full, and had an autistic man aboard who was getting increasingly agitated as a 5 mins turned to 10 mins turned to a half hour. It took a talk with a manager to get him to leave

I agree with the first half of your post, but, the bus drivers do not make their own schedule. They are dispatched and if the dispatch wants them to stay, they have to stay. If there is blame, it's not their's. I don't know a single bus driver the chooses to sit there and listen to people yell at him instead of driving to the destination. There is a lot more to that part of the story. There was no charge for a missed APR 18 years ago is true.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I agree with the first half of your post, but, the bus drivers do not make their own schedule. They are dispatched and if the dispatch wants them to stay, they have to stay. If there is blame, it's not their's. I don't know a single bus driver the chooses to sit there and listen to people yell at him instead of driving to the destination. There is a lot more to that part of the story. There was no charge for a missed APR 18 years ago is true.

Have you ever had to spend over a half hour on a bus waiting, because it was the only time we ever had to do it? Not sure then who to blame but considering we were staying at riverside it was odd because we were right up the road .

 

[Goofyernmost]

Have you ever had to spend over a half hour on a bus waiting, because it was the only time we ever had to do it? Not sure then who to blame but considering we were staying at riverside it was odd because we were right up the road .

I don't know the reason, but, the drivers do not make those decisions. Whatever, the reason we may never know, but, I will guarantee you that the driver did not make that call. He had to wait because he was told to wait. It is a complex system that sometimes requires jockeying things around to get every place covered. It is a symphony, at times, of movement and imagination to get everyone back as quickly as possible. They don't just randomly drive around looking for riders. Taxi's do that. Throw off the timing and total melt down can happen. I know it sounds like a major inconvenience, but, I assure you there is a reason for it and it wasn't the drivers choice.

 

[larryz]

Patrons pay top dollar for top service and should not have to put up with an unfriendly CM's for whatever reason.

While I agree that CMs should be as polite and friendly as possible, is there a friendly way to tell people they're being atypical a-holes and that they should correct their misbehaviour before you call Security on them?

 

[larryz]

Respect our CM troops. Anything else is decidedly socialist.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T is a two-way street. Be nice to them and they're generally nice to you. Be a jerk to them, and why should you expect any better right back at you?

 

[larryz]

It's good to know that doing this job is that easy.

It's easy to be nice to people, even if they're being jerks. But there's no nice way to tell someone that they're behaving like a hyena.

 

[larryz]

Oh, I was just summarizing the thread, but thanks for noticing.

Everything doesn't boil down to economic/political theory. Some people out there are just ill-bred.

 

[larryz]

I only responded the way I did in that last thread because the poster repeatedly brings politics into everything. Everything. I imagine they have a prepared list of talking points for anyone deigning to choose the sustainable fish blue plate special.

Like I said...

 

[Michaelson]

I've only been to WDW 5 times (so far), and each trip has been longer in duration (I'm pleased to report). I can only think back of a couple CM's who seemed to be having a 'bad day', but only in their expressions. They were definitely having issues with folks down the line from me at Star Tours, and the laser beam glare was definitely there.

I think of the experiences I've had with OTHER CM's that make me smile....like the young lady at one of the artist shops who I asked to borrow a sharpie in order to touch up my name on my button (we were celebrating our 40th anniversery). She insisted on taking my button from me, personally redrew the letters, then put tape over the lettering so it wouldn't fade anymore.

The young lady at the Haunted Mansion gift shop who went out of her way to find me a hoodie in my daughters size that wasn't on the rack, but she KNEW she had seen one in stock and insisted on finding it for me before I left.

Yes, I did write customer service commending them for their help.

I then think of our last trip this past February when we were climbing on the ferry late that night.....all of us exhausted from the long days trek around MK. As we pulled out, there was an empty incoming ferry that was playing music, and the entire crew was dancing and waving at us as we passed by! Everyone on our ferry laughed out loud and waved back.

These were folks who were probably as tired as we were (it was past midnight, as I recall), and yet they were out there dancing and hollering and waving in order to make US smile at the end of OUR long day.

They don't pay those folks enough money.

Yeah, folks have bad days and make mistakes....but the good experiences with CM's vastly outweigh those 'iffy' ones.

Just my experience, though. ;-)

 

[LeighM]

I've only experienced a few grumpy CMs. The most memorable was the security guard at Epcot that got mad at me because he thought I was ignoring him. I was trying to put something back in my bag and close it while waiting for my husband to come through. Plus, I was recovering from a severe upper respiratory infection so my ears and sinuses were blocked and I couldn't hear out of my "good" ear and my other ear was still deaf from the airplane ride LOL (I never want to go on a plane with severe congestion ever again!!!). He was yelling at me (which I honestly couldn't hear) and he came over to tap me on the arm because he wanted me to go through the extra security. I was little snippy in return when I was explaining that I couldn't hear him so then he apologized multiple times. I think a supervisor came over after I left and said a few words to him. Most of the time I just ignore grumpy castmembers. I know what it's like to have to deal with irritating people every day and have to put a smile on your face. Sometimes, you just can't hide the frustration.