AHhhh the things people say

Kids . . . and adults, say the darnedest things. While at work on the concierge floor one night, a father and his young preschool daughter came to the desk. The child had a mangled bag of Doritos in her hand. She pointed it at one of cast members and said "I going to dissappear you with my magic bag of Doritos." She waved the now rolled up bag of Dorito crumbs at the cashier. The cashier dropped behind the desk. The little child burst out into laughter. They did this several times and each time it had the same results. There's not too many jobs where you get paid to play with kids.

We had a guest who had lost the in-room safe key. We informed him that it was $35 to replace it since we'd have to re-key the safe. The guest remembered that he was sitting on one of the couches by the fire place the night before and went to check there. He came back a few minutes later and said, "I found the key in the cousions of the couch, along with five dollars and a handful of gold fish crackers."

When you say, " Have a great day", the natural response is, "you too." So i try messing with people's minds and say things like, "Have a Great Vacation". "You tooo. . . I mean, Uhm. Thank you" Although I have to admit, it did backfire on me one day. While checking in a guest, I said, "We'll get this done, so you can get out of here. . . and start your vacation." I caught myself in mid sentence, but it still sounded bad. . . oops!

Its always fun to see people getting into the moment. A front office cast member came back stage the other day and said he saw some one wearing a shirt that said, "Unattended children will be given Expresso and a Free Puppy."

Sometime you hear snipets of comments as a person walks passed that sound funny when taken out of context. Like the 30-something man who I heard say, "STUPID GRANDMA!" as he stormed passed the desk out the front door. One of our cast members who used to work at a Disney Store realized that certian things we say on property could get you arrested if said out side of Disney like, "Come here Princess, I have something for you." We give out stickers and coloring books, but outside of Disney. . .Eeek!

We have guests that are just so clueless. I had some one who wanted to cancel dining reservations. The conversation went something like this.
"I need to cancel my reservation."
"What name is it under ?"
"I don't which name we put it in."
"Do you know what restaurant it's at ?"
"I'm not sure."
"Do you know what time it was at?"
"I, uh . . . I'll be right back."

Being the 'Happiest Place on Earth', I've had people ask me if we ever get angery people. The answer is "Yes, YES and yes.".

There was a guest late one night that I was trying to get checked in and she was pissed that there was problems with her reservation. While the back office was fixing it, I was doing damage control and tried to calm her down. Every new round of ranting, was usually followed by "Where can i buy cigarettes?" or "they took my lighter at the airport. Can I get a new one?" or " I haven't had a cigarette since this morning". I realize that it was the nicotine takling and I'm sure she could be a very nice person. . . after a pack or two of cigarettes. I vow, I will never start smoking.

When certian extreme political conservatives get to their rooms and realize that Disney does not carry FOXnews on the cable net work, they feel it's a plot by Disney for some kind of political something or another. A Gentleman, I use this term loosely, was literally in my face screaming at me the night of one the Obama / McCain debates. "Why don't you have FOXnews ?! This is not acceptible. I will never stay at Disney again!" I walked back stage and said "Can someone tell me what just happened ?" It was then that I realized that Fox is ultra conservative. That happened around the 2008 elections. It was a pretty heated time. I understand that, but jump forward a to 2010 it happened a couiple of times again. Come on people, get over it.

I have some friends that work in the call center and guest correspondence. With out the face to face interaction, they get a whole different kind of response from our guests. One friend said she had a call from a guest who was miffed that they did not get thier free Disney ticket from the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day promotion. No matter how many times she tried to explain to this person that you had to have an account with Disney in order to be counted in the one million people volunteering (which this guest failed to do), this person kept demanding a ticket. Finally in a fit rage, the guest screamed " If you don't give me a ticket, I'm going to call the President of the United States." The call center cast member's first thought was, "Oh really ? If you have Obama's blackberry number, Can I get it from you ?" Obviously she couldn't say that, but she reeeeaaallly wanted to.

A Guest sent an email about a concern and didn't like the answer he got. (Yes, we do say no at times) In his reply letter he said, " This leaves a bad taste in my mouth." The cast member receiving the letter wanted to write back, "You may want to stop eating your email, then"

Guest correspondnce has lost track of how many times some one has said, "Because of (yadayada) Walt is rolling over in his grave." If he's buried in California, it was probaly just an earthquake. One of the best speachless moments i heard about was when a guest clicked on a disney link in her computer and it took her to a porn site. The Call Center cast member assured her that is was NOT something Disney did. Hmmm, makes you wonder what kind of recreational internet surfing they. . .No, I won't go there.

During the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day volunteer promotion, a call center cast member was calling back guests once thier ticket issues had been cleared up to give them the good news. On one particular call, a preschooler answered the phone. Her father was heard in the back ground, "Ask Who It Is?" The cast member gave their name and said they were from Disney. The toddler only gave her father a piece of the information, and since the father did know any one by that name he told her to hang up the phone. So to Mr. Lazy, who refused to get up and answer the phone, you just hung up on your free tickets to Disney World, don't you feel Stupid.

In parting i want to leave you with a clever, yet profound thought that a guest said one day after ending an excercise in futility.

'It's one of those things where you chase your tail and catch you nose'