Well...at least they called me!

wdwmomma10

wdwmomma10

Active Member
Original Poster
We went on our first real family vacation March 23-28 and let me tell you....I was not at all impressed. We went down to celebrate my son's birthday and my wedding anniversary and I had really built Disney up to my husband. Imagine my disappointment when all I dealt with was rude CM's all day long. At first I thought maybe I expected too much being a previous CM...but then I thought not. Resort was good and all but the CMs in the park are where we encountered the problem.

My son is just a little over 40" so I was prepared to measure him at each ride. What I wasn't prepared for was the CM that shoved him under the height stick....and I do mean shoved. He knocked his head on it and so from that point forward he was a little skiddish getting measured. Each time he had to get measured I had to explain the story to the CM as to why he wouldn't stand up straight at first. He would cooperate after I promised that it wouldn't hurt this time. I think possibly the worst experience with all this was at Dinosaur. The lady measuring at the front of the ride was completely rude about it. I explained the reason why he was having a hard time and she said (in a rude tone of voice might I add) "I guess he'll be tall enough if he'd stand up straight. He's going to have to be measured again inside and he'll have to stand up straight. I don't know why he won't stand up straight." Okay...the kid is 3...his knocked his head pretty hard and you are wondering why he won't stand up straight?? Then he had to be measured 2 more times before we could even get on the ride. Thankfully..no one else was quite as rude as she was. But I did encounter enough rude ones to make me consider writing Disney and letting them know how disappointed I was.

After I got home I finally decided to write the email. I've heard hit and miss things about sending emails over to them so imagine my surprise when I had a missed call from them this morning. I called back and was asked to explain the situation. The lovely lady on the other end apologized profusely and informed me that apparently Disney hired a bunch of new CMs in a hurry for the MyMagic+ roll out and she isn't sure that they are being properly trained. If this is true, Disney needs to get it together with their new hires! These attitudes would not have been acceptable when I worked there so I don't understand why it seems okay now!
 
Daxiegirl

Daxiegirl

Active Member
Poor little guy! Hopefully he won't remember that part of the trip in years to come.
I'm a little surprised that Disney doesn't have some sort of band for proof of height. Too hard to build in a function like this into the MB's? Really?
Not much of an issue for most (to bother creating solutions for), I suppose, but certainly would've made your trip more pleasant.
 
slappy magoo

slappy magoo

Well-Known Member
Daxiegirl said:
Poor little guy! Hopefully he won't remember that part of the trip in years to come.
I'm a little surprised that Disney doesn't have some sort of band for proof of height. Too hard to build in a function like this into the MB's? Really?
Not much of an issue for most (to bother creating solutions for), I suppose, but certainly would've made your trip more pleasant.
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Good idea in theory. But if the MB could reflect height, who's to say in some situations an older sibling who already rode a big-kid ride won't swap bands with a younger sibling so he or she can try to ride it? Parents already will try to get kids to look taller, stand on tiptoe, mousse hair up etc to get them on a ride.
 
George

George

Liker of Things
Premium Member
hakunamatata said:
I'm surprised as well. If they do any type of quality control or review of calls that CM will likely be reprimanded. There is no way a front line CR in customer service is going to have that type of info.....
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I agree. When I read the OP, I think the customer service CM is probably dealing with heresay and is taking a risk. By the way, I noticed your trip countdown and we'll be there at a similar time, but I think we'll be leaving a half hour or so before you arrive.
 
George

George

Liker of Things
Premium Member
slappy magoo said:
Good idea in theory. But if the MB could reflect height, who's to say in some situations an older sibling who already rode a big-kid ride won't swap bands with a younger sibling so he or she can try to ride it? Parents already will try to get kids to look taller, stand on tiptoe, mousse hair up etc to get them on a ride.
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I think the idea has merit. If the kid is a inch or two off, people put their kids in shoes with thick soles, etc as you noted. If they are more than an inch or two off, it is fairly obvious if you've been working the height stick for more than a couple of days. So, the same people who try and cheat without magic bands might try and cheat with the bands, but my guess is you'd have about the same failure rate. Plus, if you really wanted to cut down on 39inchers getting on the the 40" party bus, two things: 1) have the height pop up when the band is scanned. Not many people have a bunch of kids that are within an inch, so if you're 39.5" tall and your sister is 49" tall, no one will buy it if you've switched bands. 2) If caught, make it so the person you switched with can't ride any rides with height requirements. It would really make you think twice about aiding and abetting.

Just have a couple of places in each park where you get measured once if you're in the 38-50" height range and have the info on your band for the trip. I like it. Also, it is probably less controversial than my proposal to have your weight and BMI encoded on your MB so if "you're too wide to ride" you can stand in the "Pleasantly Plump" unload area.
 
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WDWDad13

WDWDad13

Well-Known Member
Maybe they should consider a measuring station for kids to get measured one time (in any theme park) and they place the height on their magic band and instead of having to stop for a lot of rides to get re-measured they just scan their band (and it would cross over to all the theme parks)?
 
Padraig

Padraig

Well-Known Member
WDWDad13 said:
Maybe they should consider a measuring station for kids to get measured one time (in any theme park) and they place the height on their magic band and instead of having to stop for a lot of rides to get re-measured they just scan their band (and it would cross over to all the theme parks)?
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slappy magoo said:
Good idea in theory. But if the MB could reflect height, who's to say in some situations an older sibling who already rode a big-kid ride won't swap bands with a younger sibling so he or she can try to ride it? Parents already will try to get kids to look taller, stand on tiptoe, mousse hair up etc to get them on a ride.
Click to expand...
 
George

George

Liker of Things
Premium Member
WDWDad13 said:
that's a good point...someone will always try to find a way around it
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As I note above (and as slappy does) people try and do find a way around it now. However, with the MBs you could make it harder to cheat and make it more convenient by just having the one height measurement for your trip.
 
George

George

Liker of Things
Premium Member
Another thing that would make switching the bands tricky is that not only would you have to be within in a couple of inches of the other person, but the same gender since the name does pop up when your MB is scanned. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
 
WDWDad13

WDWDad13

Well-Known Member
George said:
Another thing that would make switching the bands tricky is that not only would you have to be within in a couple of inches of the other person, but the same gender since the name does pop up when your MB is scanned. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
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yeah...could help add more "+" to MM :)

plus if the attendant said the name of the child when it popped up, most likely that would be a verification as well when one or the other responds haha
 
PrincessNelly_NJ

PrincessNelly_NJ

Well-Known Member
I know at my local Six flags, children can be measured at guest relations. They give out arm bands in different colors (so that ride operators know that they did meet the height requirement) and list for you to carry that label which rides your kid can ride.

Im sure if Six Flags can figure this out so can Disney.
 
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R

rangerbob

Well-Known Member
They measure the kids at SeaWorld and place wristbands if they are a certain height. I think it does say 42" so then all they is show the band and on they go. They can place the band on at any ride and it is good at all of the locations.
 

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