Friday, March 27, 2009

W T H Part II

Working with the public from around the world, you see the good, you see the bad, then you see things that you can only classify as "What The Hell. . ."

The number one pissed off guests comment is "THIS IS NOT ACCEPTIBLE." I wish I could just once say. "I am sorry that you were too igorant to read the information that was sent to you, but the world does not revolve around you." But that would be un-Disney-like. You can make a room request, but I can not gaurantee requests. Why? Because they are requests. The more requests you ask for the less likely you'll get them, especially when a specific request doesn't exist. Three connecting rooms, poolside, on the 12th floor of the Wilderness lodge and everything is to be ready by 7:00 in the morning when I arrive on Easter Weekend. (here's your assignment, go to Disney.com and find out why that won't happen. . . ever) Yelling at a cast member or manager and pitching a crying fit in the lobby won't change the fact that a specific room is already occupied.

If you come to Disney from June to August, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Martin Luther King Day, March to end of April due your self a favor and Make Dinning Reservations as before you get here. Although we can usually find something, somewhere, it's usually not in a park or it's at 9:00 at night or 7:30 in the morning. Dining is the second biggest reason for a melt down. "Oh My God, My life is ruined if I can not eat dinner at 6:00 every night in my favorite restaurant." My answer to that, "You lead a sad, sad life if that's all it takes to ruin it."

I can not tell you how many times I have suggested a restaurant and have had a guest ask me," Do they have good food?" Do you really think I'm going to say, "No that place Sucks."

We had a guest come to the front desk at the Lodge in a fit of rage and screamed at the cast member, "I SHIT IN MY BED LAST NIGHT AND IT'S STILL THERE." . . . I have a hard time figuring out which is more disturbing. The fact that a grown woman would 'S!!T' in her bed AND admitted it. Or the fact that a houskeeper could make the bed with out seeing the stuff and change the sheets. Ewww. We're moving on.

On the Concierge floors at the premium resorts we provide breakfast, snacxs, wine, cheese, bottled beer and cordials through out the day. Recently we had some guests who were waiting for the elevator with a stroller covered in jackets. However, when they hit a bump in the floor, a bottle of beer fell out. These people had tried to wipe out the lounge's beer supply and stuffed it in their stroller.

In another case of the classic, give them and inch they'll take a mile, my managers will usually refuse to give a written guarantee to anything. Apparently people have taken the good will deeds of a manager or two in the past and photocopied it to give to thier friends or worse yet sell it on ebay. I'm not sure if it ever cost anyone thier job, but who wants to take that chance.

Disney offers discounts to Florida Residence for tickets. People try to con us by saying that thier Florida ID is in the room or it's in thier car and they get upset when we refuse to sell them tickets at the Resident rate. At this point, I wish I could say A)Unless you plan to support me the rest of my life, when I lose my job, I'm not selling you tickets at a resident rate, B) As a resident of this state and having to deal with all of you tourists, if getting into the park a little cheaper is a perk Disney is willing to put out there, I AM NOT giving that perk away to anyone who does not live here, C)If you can afford to stay in a premium resort, you can afford to pay for tickets to the park.

Not every W T H guest encounter is an angery one. We had a young guy hanging out in the merchandise shop one day and kept asking people if they spoke french. He didn't speak french, he just wandered how many people he could find who spoke the language. I believe he was asked to leave.

I was looking up a guest's record and asked for a first name. The lady's answer "His first name is Doctor." "Mam, that would be a title."

A Sheriff Deputy walked through the lobby and we started talking. He said most of the traffic stops on property are cast members who are late for work. However, they stopped a guest one day who got a $105 speeding ticket. When asked why he was speeding, the guest said, "I have to go pee." I had another guest so excited about being at Disney, even a little souvenier from the Florida Highway Patrol didn't dampen the mood. She admitted that when asked why she was speeding, she said, "We were trying to figure out the words to the song 'The wheels on the bus go round and round' and I wasn't paying attention." She said the Trooper was not amused when she asked him if he knew the words to the song.

While at Coronado Springs, one of my manaagers needed to walk guests to the Yacht and Beach club. (Simply, when we get over booked, we make arrangements at a different resort for them.) These guests refused to go. Coronado is a Moderate price resort. Yatch and Beach is a premium resort. Still, they pitched a fit. Next to them were some cast members checking in (using a discounted cast member rate). They said they'd take the room if the guest's didn't want it. Long story short, cast members didn't just get a room at a high end resort for just over $100, they got a water view suite. My best guess is that it was a $400 or up room. After the 'fit pitching' guests heard this, they said, "well, maybe we will take that room." My manamger said, "Sorry to late, thier names are already on the room." I know what he wanted to say was "You are such a LOSER."

Not all of the W T H momnents belong to the guests. I was in the elevator with a couple construction workers and over heard thier conversation. Apparently they just caught a painter dumping a five gallong bucket of paint in the a planter. We reached our floor, they went one way, I went the other, so I never found out what happened after that.


And on that note i must now go to work and gather more material for next time

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Always an interesting read. Love hearing the point of view from A.) An employee and B.) A Local. Thanks!