Would someone fill me in please?

[stratman50th]

Brazilian tour groups, groups, just Brazilians?
I have hear tell of these groups, but never having encountered this phenomenon myself that I know of, there seems to be a gap in my knowledge.
Not being born and raised under a rock, I have some idea as to where this could end up so if you choose not to answer in an open forum, please PM me. I'm very curious.
As a side note, I'm probably one of the most Non-PC people you'll ever run into so fear not hurting my nonexistent feelings.

 

[Phonedave]

Brazilian tour groups, groups, just Brazilians?
I have hear tell of these groups, but never having encountered this phenomenon myself that I know of, there seems to be a gap in my knowledge.
Not being born and raised under a rock, I have some idea as to where this could end up so if you choose not to answer in an open forum, please PM me. I'm very curious.
As a side note, I'm probably one of the post Non-PC people you'll ever run into so fear not hurting my nonexistent feelings.

My take on it.

Tour groups in general can be dicey. Be they large groups of cheerleaders from middle America, High School senior trips from Florida, or any other group. Some are good, some are not, but when you get large groups of young kids together it can get rowdy. Kids have fun, and when in groups manners tend to go out the window. Take 2 kids and put them in a room and they behave. Put 10 in there, and one starts something and it spreads like wildfire.

Now for the Brazilian part. There are a LOT of tour groups from Brazil. It is almost a rite of passage in their culture to go with a large group of people on a tour to WDW. The Brazilians also seem to be a vocal society, who enjoy chants, cheers, clapping, etc. It is a cultural thing.

So you have tour groups, which have a stigma associated with them. By the nature of their culture, you have a large part of those tour groups being Brazilian, and to some extent they are more vocal than others.

They also all seem to tour during the same 2 month time window.

Put it all together and you get this whole Brazilian tour group image.

-dave

 

[stratman50th]

Ok, fair enough. Thanks Dave.
What are those two months if I may ask?

 

[njDizFan]

Well if you saw them you would definately remember. Generally, Brazillian tour groups are groups of teenagers(large groups sometimes number in the 100's) from Brazil, often wearing brightly colored green/yellow t-shirts. They can be very obnoxoius, due to their propencity to chant and sing. Line cutting is another complaint heard here often.

Overall, they are really just a large bunch of kids who act accordingly with no proper supervision.

 

[WDWLOYAL1971]

Sadly I had the misfortune of encountering several Brazilian Tour Groups of young teenagers at WDW January 2011. They are rude, annoying, inconsiderate and they seem to believe anything and everything goes at WDW. Let me tell you that I have never seen such chaos with people at the M.K. We were at the Haunted Mansion inside the indoor room that stretches. When the door openned to make your way into the line, they literally pushed and shoved to the point that an elderly couple in front of me were pinned against the wall, I was fearing for my daughter and they were literally trying to push their way between my daughter(a little girl y the way) and I. NO Cast ember came to assist either. It was by far a horrible experience. I believe they should have been kicked out of the park altogether. There are such things as rules and common courtessy you abide by here at the WONDERFULL U.S of A. So if you see them,,,warning, stay clear. They are uncivilized tourists.

 

[marni1971]

Avoid. At all costs.

We would never visit in July again for this reason. An until the mouse stops putting profit before show we will continue to.

 

[grumpytodd]

When I was there in January it was CRAZY w/ the various groups. I mentioned this to "someone in the know", and this was their response. It explains, but doesn't excuse their behavior.

..........
yes, the Brazilian tours are not fun! Sadly, there used to be a more definitive time that they descended upon Disney, but they seem to be there almost all the time now. One of my favorite Disney Reservation agents that I speak with is originally from Brazil, and he told me something interesting. Brazilians take about three weeks off at a time for vacation - everyone does!!! And, what families do is, they come to the states (because the exchange rate is so great). Then, the adults go somewhere by themselves, and they dump their kids into these tour groups to take them to Disney and Universal. It is crazy!!! I asked one guide how many kids he had, and he said 125!!! 125 teenagers!!!! Ugh!!
...........

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I have had poor experiences with these tour groups once they even spilled soda on my husband and me when we wouldn't move for them. We did tell a cast member and we were given tee shirts (because ours were soaked and sticky) and a priority spot to watch Wishes (since it happened around that time).

But this last trip in July I was worried about encountering them the only day we had an issue (that was saw them) was the day we went to Hollywood Studios on a non EMH morning. So they must not stay on property, so my new game plan is to avoid non EMH parks so then I might avoid them.

 

[wizards8507]

We would never visit in July again for this reason. An until the mouse stops putting profit before show we will continue to.

What exactly would you suggest? Banning people from coming to the parks in the same colored t-shirts and walking around together?

Be real.

They might be rude, but what exactly do you suggest Disney do to "monitor" their rudeness?

 

[stratman50th]

We used to always go in May. Crowds were manageable, flower and garden show, nice weather, etc. If not May, then September. Schools back in, crowds not bad, not as good as may, but ok. My daughter is in a pre professional ballet company and they have a spring concert every year. It's always like the first or second week of June. The last two years we went in June, like the third week, and August (Brutal weather). I can't believe I've never encountered these groups before. Now my wife does claim I'm oblivious, but even I couldn't have missed a group like this! I've never been in July. Maybe I've just lucked out and missed them so far?
Watch this year be the year of the Mouse in Brazil and it's celebrated in June! Then I'll finally get the full dose.

 

[Mikey73181]

I've taken a few solo trips, and it can be difficult when you have groups like this, or even a family of 5 or 6( that "doesnt speak english" ) Some of the rides have large spaces between the chains on either side of you, and trying to cover that space, especially when it gets even wider on corners, while a whole family tries to slip by you. I've had to stand in line with arms outstreched touching the chains on both sides to keep them back.

 

[Larry Mondello]

They also all seem to tour during the same 2 month time window.

And what would those 2 months be?

 

[stratman50th]

What exactly would you suggest? Banning people from coming to the parks in the same colored t-shirts and walking around together?

Be real.

They might be rude, but what exactly do you suggest Disney do to "monitor" their rudeness?

You can't force people to be courteous, but there might be ways around these large uncontrolled groups. You could by policy limit the amount of people per group for safety reasons. You could hold the guides responsible for their groups and if they didn't control them, ban the guide, or the company they work for from the property. There's a lot of crowd control techniques out there that Disney could put in place, but it seems that groups that large could be identified as a problem, either to safety or other guests.

 

[Lucky]

You could require a certain ratio of adults to minors, and/or Disney could attach a CM (or even a security guard) to large groups. There's plenty they could do, but it might cost them $.

 

[splashmtnfan]

I have never had a good experience with these groups. In the Haunted Mansion once a whole group was in with us. They screamed when the lights went out in the stretching room and then shoved their way out when the door opened. Then to top it off they screamed the whole way through the ride. All that could be heard was them screaming, no narration, no music, nothing. Horrible. I didn't have children at the time but I feel for the person who almost lost their daughter in that mess.

Saw them again this past December. They were heading to Thunder Mountain when we were....we doubled back and headed to Pirates!! Now having 2 young daughters and prior experience with these groups I wanted no part of a ride they were on

Several years ago we met up with a large group from Brazil at Sea World. They lived up to their reputation of being rude and shoving past people. Someone I was with said something to them about how rude they were being and they pretended not to understand and then giggled. The person I was with said...go ahead, pretend you don't don't understand but we all know you do. That stopped the giggling!

To OP, be happy you have not encountered them before...maybe your good luck will last!!

 

[marni1971]

What exactly would you suggest? Banning people from coming to the parks in the same colored t-shirts and walking around together?

Be real.

They might be rude, but what exactly do you suggest Disney do to "monitor" their rudeness?

Calm down, stop being rude and you be real. Read my post again. I don`t suggest anything. It is company policy to quietly admit these groups due to the profit made, and try to move any guest who complains at a resort the groups are staying at to another resort / building at the companies expense.

Until such time policy changes, which I doubt will happen, the majority of guests will have their experiences impacted by this minority. And until such time, those in the know will steer clear.

 

[misterID]

It's awful. I was stuck at Disney on gay day once, and it was a much better experience, even though it was much more crowded... And the visuals weren't as nice. :lookaroun

What exactly would you suggest? Banning people from coming to the parks in the same colored t-shirts and walking around together?

Be real.

They might be rude, but what exactly do you suggest Disney do to "monitor" their rudeness?

They could do a lot actually. Disney is the best at policing their parks. But they're choosing not to here and we all know why.

 

[rwdavis2]

I've only ever encountered 1 group and they were fine. But for future reference if I see one we'll go the opposite direction.

 

[adv.bluedude]

Last year when I went in July, I thought they were fine and I stayed at the same hotel as them. The most they did was overrun one pool, be extremely loud and they apparently stole some things from the gift shop but that was about it really. Not to much to get worked up over

 

[wizards8507]

Calm down, stop being rude and you be real. Read my post again. I don`t suggest anything. It is company policy to quietly admit these groups due to the profit made, and try to move any guest who complains at a resort the groups are staying at to another resort / building at the companies expense.

Until such time policy changes, which I doubt will happen, the majority of guests will have their experiences impacted by this minority. And until such time, those in the know will steer clear.

I'm perfectly calm and not being rude, thanks.

What I'm saying is, where does it stop? I personally consider double-wide strollers far more irritating than tour groups. Others are turned off by cigarettes or scooters. You're right in making your decision to "steer clear" if you don't like it, and I applaud your decision to do so, but I think its unreasonable to blame this on profit seeking. How is a tour group different than a large family? Ban reservations of 3 or more rooms, and they'll just go ahead and make individual reservations. I really don't see a practical way to "stop" it, even if they wanted to.

If, as you suggest, it is all about profit, then policy would change if and only if those (like you) who don't like the tour groups and avoid the parks on those months began to outweigh the extra business the groups bring in.