So, Did You Hear The One About The Guest Who Said...

Wierd stuff happens at Disney. Yes guest's really do ask."What time is the three o'clock parade?" and "How much are the two dollar ballons?". For those who missed the news, there was a parental throw down at the Tea Cups near the end of 2007 that ended up in court and I believe prison time. I can see it now, "What are you in prison for?" "Well, I was at a Tea Party. . ."

When I first transfered to the resorts I worked at the All Star Resort front desk. As part of that job we also answered the phones in a place we called DAKRA. (Disney's Animal Kingdom Regional. . .something or another). We were the ones that answered all the lost guest questions, the angery "where's my lost luggage?" questions and the "my child's lost his pacifier in the Animal Kingdom Lodge's savanna" panikced parent calls.

One of my favorite calls, wasn't even mine. One of the other operators had a call from a guest who insisted that there was a Zebra out side of the Magic Kingdom parking lot. We assured her that none of the animals from the Animal Kingdom had gotten loose and told her it was a deer. She became very upset . "I know what a Zebra looks like and I know what deer look like! This had stripes." We called animal services, because we said we would. They were highly amussed.

Speaking of animal services, those people must be ran ragged 'fetching things from the Lodge's savanna'. Usually kid's stuff, once it gets thrown over the railing, most parents agree it was time to wean Jr off the pacifer anyway. Numerous cameras are pointed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge balcony's to prevent people from harming the animals. Knowing that, parents are pretty quick to call us about lost items. It's amazing how few pacifiers parents want back after it's fallen into a savanna filled with animals, and what animals leave behind. One lady was drying her plus size bathing suit on the railing and a gust of wind blew it away and it landed on a near by roof. Maintanence had to get a high lift to fish it off the roof.

Let me say a brief word about Love Bugs. . . the little black bugs, not the car. Love Bugs don't bite, don't eat anything, nothing will eat them. Basically they don't provide any useful purpose. According to pest management, they hatch, breed and die and their life span is only a few hours. These little pests wreak havoc for our guests twice a year. (spring and fall). The most common complaint is, " why didn't any one tell us about the bugs? I spend good money on this trip. . .yada yada yada." To answer that all I can say is, "We don't know when they will get here. It all depends on the temperature, rain fall ect." They tend to go for bright colors, so the hotel doors at All Star Resort are always plastered with them for that two weeks or so. Custodial tries to keep up with the dead bodies, but it's a huge resort. I had a guest irrate that 'A', one, Love Bug got into her room. Let me remind you, they don't bite and they will die soon anyway. This guest insisted that we get some one over there immediately to remove the one Love Bug. I called pest management, they told me that as soon as they were finished relocating the rattle snake, that they'd be right over.

We had a guest enjoy the pool bar a bit too much one day. He went back to his room, turned the water in the tub on and passed out on the floor. Fortuneately for him he passed out face up, because the tub overflowed and flooded out six rooms. When questioned, he said, " If you didn't want me to get drunk, you shouldn't have sold me the liquor."

It's been said that people loose IQ points when they get to Disney. They walk into lamp posts, leave thier cameras at the restaraunts, leave thier children behind in the car, all of which, in thier own minds, is never their fault. Blame it on Nicotine withdraws, Caffine withdraws, jet lag, stupid airlines, lost bus/taxi drivers, but they never seem to want to take the cedit for thier faux pas.
I recently had a guest demand that we compensate her because of a flight delay as if we're resposible for AirTran's plane breaking down.

That's alright honey, that's why we're here