Disney Staff = Jobsworth

Disney is really nice, the parks have some amazing features, the fireworks are dazzling.... but why are so many of the staff total jobsworths.

My wife and I are both in our 40%26#39;s, have reasonably responsible jobs in the health service and the police and have three son%26#39;s who are all in the top sections of their respective years at school, play sports and are generally quite socially aware.

Why is it then that when we get to Disney World, our toes need moved 2cm behind the line, they can%26#39;t sit on a fence waiting for everyone to meet up and taking a short cut through the maze of chains used to form a queue, while there is no one in front of you, was treated like a hanging offence.

My personal favourite was the day we went to Blizzard Beach, it was quite early and the oldest two went on the wedgie slides while Mrs, me and the youngest wanted to go on the big flume thing next to the slides. We were very polietly told we have to wait for another group of two or three as the slide needed four riders, on asking why I was told it was to keep the queue moving. There was no queue as it was about 10 past nine in the morning, there were about 10 rings lying in waiting for eager customers and still the guy wouldn%26#39;t let us on. We we standing, there was no queue, there were rings to use and the guy wouldn%26#39;t budge!

Instead of adding to the holiday we found many of the staff to be either sickly sweet or totally without any form of humour or character.

Maybe I have become Victor Meldrew but some of these guys need to lighten up.

Disney Staff = Jobsworth

I am sure the staff was just following rules.

Rules keep the parks from becoming total anarchy when the crowds are huge.

Allowing people to break the rules, even when they aren%26#39;t as busy, sends the message to visitors that occasionally it is okay to break them. Then you have people cutting through the chains because no one is in front of them, yet there is someone starting the line through the chains properly and the cutters have just jumped the line.

No one likes line jumpers and then you have paying customers upset with WDW and the cutters because they were allowed to do it when no one was in front of them.

That is one thing that impressed me with WDW on my first visit back in 1978, and I don%26#39;t think they watch it close enough now (not enough castmembers to properly police it now).

We were in line at Small World, three or four 18 or 19 year olds got into one line, the other line moved first, they climbed through the pipes and a castmember walked up and asked them to go outside and reenter, they offered to get back into the other line and the castmember politely told them again to go outside and reenter.

There is a reason WDW doesn%26#39;t want people sitting or climbing on walls that aren%26#39;t meant as seating, don%26#39;t want people to squeeze under chains or through the line rails, or to go down with less than the proper number of people in a large family tube. Some involve safety and liability, some involve proper etiquette, either way, rules are rules.

Some people have a hard time following the rules or think they don%26#39;t apply to them. I was taught respect for rules and authority as a youngster and don%26#39;t have a problem with the castmembers enforcing the rules at any time. In fact, I appreciate it.

Disney Staff = Jobsworth

I think the poster was merely implying that cast members should show some discretion. When at the waterslide, the cast member wouldn%26#39;t let them ride because there was only 3 people and the rules state there has to be 4 in a ring ';To keep the queue moving'; , it didn%26#39;t make sense to keep them waiting.

I have to agree that part was ridiculose. And I don%26#39;t want to rub wet bodies with a stranger from the queue any way ;-)

Why complain when the staff wants to do their job? They never know when an undercover shopper is coming along, so they simply apply the rules to everyone at all times.

Isn%26#39;t there something more enjoyable and positive to relay about your trip? If you%26#39;re taking the time and effort to post, perhaps you can find something good to talk about. Thanks!

Of course, I wasn%26#39;t there but, is it possible that the youngest wasn%26#39;t big enough to properly balance the tube with just the two parents and WDW could be afraid the tube could overturn, dumping the parents and youngest, possibly trapping them under the tube?

I guess in that case the parents would have just said, oh well, it was our fault, we didn%26#39;t want to wait on anyone else to ride?

I think the family tube ride states a minimum number of riders per tube possibly due to safety issues with less than the minimum weights and/or balance?

Sounds like you may of felt wronged by a cast member enforcing the rules, then you were looking for problems that weren%26#39;t there. I think you may be over reacting, it%26#39;s not personal, it%26#39;s really not that serious but some people take offense at being told what to do.

Well if the ride is a min of 4 persons, a fam of three shouldn%26#39;t even think about it really. Unless they like rubbing up against wet strangers lol. And they can find one when they need one ;-)

And I agree, there must have been something this poster liked about their holiday= let%26#39;s hear it.

A disney holiday isn%26#39;t for everyone.

More than likely the rule about 4 to a tube is for safety reasons as other posters have commented and perhaps that particular cast member didn%26#39;t know the real reason for the rule, just that it was a rule, and when confronted with a question on why just made up the best reason they could think of? Its the same anywhere, ask any employee of any relatable customer service position - they may not have all the answers, they just know what the rules are and are paid to enforce them. And sometimes the whole gets punished for a few - if you have kids, which you do, then you may understand how sometimes maybe just two of them are being holy terrors but all three are in the room, sometimes all three get punished unjustly because its too hard at that point to separate the who was doing what. Trouble by association. Maybe your boys weren%26#39;t doing anything harmful sitting on the rail but that doesn%26#39;t mean others weren%26#39;t or that others in the past haven%26#39;t fallen off and then sued Disney. In America, land of litigation, no corporation is safe from the idiot population so they can no longer take risks on things that might seem non-sensical to you. Lastly, in a place like Disney World I think there are certain responsibilities to the extrememly large group of children visitors. Castmembers and visitors alike need to have the appropriate amount of responsibility for the circumstances. What kind of example is it if a 7 year old witnesses some teen or pre-teen boys sitting on railings or walls that aren%26#39;t safe or skipping under the ropes in line?

First off n9 this forum is not designed for just the positive things about posters trips, if a poster wishes to have a moan then so be it. Most people want to know the rough and the smooth. If people want to find out only the nice things they would visit the Disney website.

I totally agree that Disney is full of jobsworths. Health and safety should of course always be treated as an absolute priority but I felt that at Disney you cant sit on a bench without someone telling you how to do it for your ';safety and convenience'; Every few steps you take, where you sit, how you queue, most of it necessary but some of it just ridiculous. I never felt like that at Universal or any other parks but at Disney.....unreal. I know we live in a day and age where litigation is rife and USA was the inventor for all intent and purposes of punitive damages but can people not be responsible for their own actions? Do I really need to be told that its not a good idea to exit a moving rollercoaster? Or that I should not take my cell phone in the pool.

We had a similar experience at a water park where my girlfriend was in line and the line moved, she was taking a picture ( she stopped for about 30 seconds )and along came one of the ';Disney youth'; to inform her to please move along the line, ';Excuse me'; she said, ';Mam, I%26#39;m going to have to ask you to move along, you are holding up the line';. He would have had a valid point if A, She was stopping for a prolonged period of time in excess of lets say for arguments sake 45 seconds, and B, IF THERE WAS ANYONE ELSE IN THE LINE BEHIND US........yes that%26#39;s correct no one there yet the Disney robot was not educated enough to use discretion, oh no,straight in there with the pre programmed script of ';safety and convenience';

Do there need to be rules...Yes, should the customers be informed...Oh yes...Do we need to be patronized every step of the way by staff who have very little understanding of how to assert rational independent thought and judge situations accordingly........I would say not.

You just don%26#39;t get this kind of ruthless patronising regime of adolescent staffing at Universal, Seaworld or Busch Gardens, and these parks are not overrun with crazy people leaping out of moving cars and anarchic queue jumpers, and before anyone jumps on the Disney defense about how its more catered towards children who do need telling every 5 minutes not to run, skip, hop, jump etc that%26#39;s the parents job not Disney%26#39;s and as grown man with no children I don%26#39;t like to have someone who has yet to start shaving telling me how I should conduct myself for my ';safety and convenience';.

By the way..............everything else was great.