Rude guests and their cell phones...

[February]

Just to offer a different point of view.

I have had business calls at DLR and I hated them. Last year I spent my 10 year 1st date ( which was at Disneyland) Anniversary on my cel THE WHOLE DAY. It was awful. I found an out of the way spot in New Orleans Square and did my thing... Except for lunch which was ruined by 4 phone calls back to back. UGH! I HATED IT. I STILL RESENT IT... But that is the great/not great thing about my job... My time is my own, until it's not. I have to be available.

I always find a quiet spot. I get my business done as quickly as I can. If I have my daughter with me then my husband is with me too. He and DD go and do something fun. Or I just plain email someone back. I like that best of all. Then I don't miss too much of the action.

I understand that people have to be accessible sometimes for their jobs- and before I say this I want to preface it with saying I applaud you for finding an out of the way spot to handle the calls.

This is the thing, though. If you were at lunch, and your phone rang four times, and it annoyed you, can you imagine what it did to the people around you? Is it fair for someone else's job to take over the atmosphere in an entire restaurant when it's highly likely most of the other people there go on vacation to get away from their jobs???

I'm not directing these remarks 'at' June1st personally- because if you're that polite to step away to take the calls in the park in an out of the way spot, then I'm sure you didn't conduct your business calls at the table in the restaurant. But there are people that do it, and it irks me in WDW like nowhere else on earth.

My husband works his tail off all year long for a week a year of no work at WDW. Getting away from work is our goal, even if there are others whose jobs they can't escape from- I still wish that WE could escape from them.

Isn't there something about turning off cell phones in the menues at the Cali Grill? I may be imagining it, but I swear I thought I saw it before. My husband just says he remembers seeing it too. So obviously, Disney does know that people have issues with their meal being interrupted by other people's calls.

Bru

[Big Wallaby]

I've found an awesome way to get people off their phones on Safari. If they don't, then someone does it for them. It's amazing what shutting up and speeding up will do. If that doesn't work, I will say something to the effect of not wanting to interrupt the phone call, and I'll get them back to the Village as quickly as possible so they can continue their call. Then, I do my little thing where I pass animals as quickly as possible until they hang up or someone removes the phone from their ear for them.

I wish I could do what the JC Skippers can do... take the phone and talk to whomever is the person on my craft is conversing with.

The best was the one where I shut up, I was still at the dock, turned around and looked at the guy, then the person working the dock stared at him as well. Took about four seconds for him to get the point, and then he became my best guest.

[felinefan]

I have no problem with people needing to be available for their job using a cell phone on vacation at the parks. If someone was on a transplant list and needed to be reached immediately, definately you need that thing--though I once read in the paper about a guy on the transplant list who was at a ball game, couldn't hear his cell, and they had to call the stadium
and all but put it on the Jumbotron that he had to leave immediately to get his kidney. Luckily, he made it in time.

I can understand emergencies. I can understand needing to touch bases with family--like at the store, etc.. I find it amusing that people walking down the street yapping on those things, and depending on the content, makes you wonder who they're talking to1 I once was walking down the street in Orange, and a young man was less than ten feet behind me, talking on his phone/bluetooth device. After he finished his conversation, he realized what he'd said might be misconstrued by me, so he apologized and said it wasn't directed at me, and I replied that I kinda figured that. People in Orange are so polite--I wish I still lived there, but we can't afford it, and it's hard to find pet-friendly apartments there.

But what gets me is people who do it while driving--mom and I have come close to getting clobbered more than once by some lamebrain who was more interested in their phone conversation than their driving. And we've had times when we felt like strangling a few too. But what puzzles me is, how can people possibly have so much to talk about? I'm a quiet person, and if I spend more than a few minutes on the phone at home, my cat Tripod gets jealous and comes after me, meowing and trying to get my attention! So, I don't use the landline too often. My mom has a cellphone, which she used to use to call one of her brothers; however, he's gone now, so she uses it on the rare occaison that she needs to make a long-distance call--like her other brother or her sister.

[Mayonnaise]

Have a magical day :) Bru

I'm going to hope you meant that literally, because if you meant it the way I've come to understand it's meant here and in the parks, that was really uncalled for. I was only trying to gain an understanding of why it's upsetting. I asked several follow up questions you have declined to answer in the hopes of understanding your assertion that using a cell phone is inherently rude. I have not insulted you. I have not attacked you and I have not insulted you, I have even agreed with the majority of your points. I'm leaving this thread now, and suppose I will continue to speak on the phone in public since no one can say why it's rude if you're not shouting or inconveniencing anyone, only that it is.

You can have your own magical day, in whichever spirit you meant me to have mine.

8^S

[Sarah Magdalene]

Well, I love phones. I have friends all over and I love chatting to them. It's no sin to want to talk a little to buddies at all. However, I KNOW when to use me phone and when not to. Never when in line for making any purchase, hardly in the parks unless I'm expecting a call - even then when someone wants to chat I just say "I'm busy" and they let me go, never ever in a car.

But I do like using them when say - looking for family members who have gotten separated from me at the parks, playing "Ha ha I'm in sunny Disney World and you are not" with someone snowed into their house in the midwest, and chit chatting while having a lunch.

It's okay to have a phone, just know the right places to use it and people will have no problem with you.

Personally, I enjoy listening in on people conversations. It's fun!

[felinefan]

Locating seperated party members is good. What bugs me though is people will often give out sensitive information over the phone in public, and they are just begging to have their identity stolen.

[February]

I'm a quiet person, and if I spend more than a few minutes on the phone at home, my cat Tripod gets jealous and comes after me, meowing and trying to get my attention!

Once I was stuck on the phone with someone forever, despite several polite attempts to say goodbye. I actually put my head back and sank into the couch, my head pounding, and a second later, the line was dead.

Thinking that I had caught a break because the caller's cell battery must've finally run out- I looked up, and saw the cat.

With his paw on the phone. The cat actually hung up on the woman for me.

I have never loved him more.

[February]

I'm going to hope you meant that literally, because if you meant it the way I've come to understand it's meant here and in the parks, that was really uncalled for. I was only trying to gain an understanding of why it's upsetting. I asked several follow up questions you have declined to answer in the hopes of understanding your assertion that using a cell phone is inherently rude. I have not insulted you. I have not attacked you and I have not insulted you, I have even agreed with the majority of your points. I'm leaving this thread now, and suppose I will continue to speak on the phone in public since no one can say why it's rude if you're not shouting or inconveniencing anyone, only that it is.

You can have your own magical day, in whichever spirit you meant me to have mine.

8^S

If you choose to take offense, that is entirely up to you. I do not understand what questions I did not answer.

I said that in addition to the volume issue, that I find it rude because I do not want to listen to the minutae of other people's lives while I am spending thousands of dollars to get away from it all, and be immersed in the magic, of Walt Disney theme parks.

It is rude to think that your life is so entrancing that everyone around you wants to listen to your conversations. It is also rude to ignore the people with you to talk to people not present. It is rude to stop dead in the middle of main street and cause the wheelchair behind you to collide with two strollers because you're trying to turn the volume up on your phone so you can hear over the parade. I say these things because they have happened to me.

Do you really want me to list every reason why it's rude? No, I don't think that you do. I could go on for days, if I had the time and energy of which I have neither.

I did not intentionally dodge any of your questions, it just seems to me that you had made up your mind that you wanted to keep talking on your phone anyway. I guess I could ask you, what explanation of rudeness would it take for you to rethink the habit? I don't think you ever intended to give it up, and hey, it's a free theme park. Until they tell people they can't use their phones in certain areas, it's just a matter of preference that I wish people wouldn't. This is why I thought there was no sense in arguing with you and wished you a magical day- which is my personal version of "peace, I"m out".

But you can be offended if you want to, as I said, that's entirely your choice.

I'll even let you take the last shot if you choose and won't reply no matter what is said. I have way more going on in my life to be worried about than a difference of opinion on a message board.

Night!

Bru

[june1st1997]

I've found an awesome way to get people off their phones on Safari. If they don't, then someone does it for them. It's amazing what shutting up and speeding up will do. If that doesn't work, I will say something to the effect of not wanting to interrupt the phone call, and I'll get them back to the Village as quickly as possible so they can continue their call. Then, I do my little thing where I pass animals as quickly as possible until they hang up or someone removes the phone from their ear for them.

I wish I could do what the JC Skippers can do... take the phone and talk to whomever is the person on my craft is conversing with.

The best was the one where I shut up, I was still at the dock, turned around and looked at the guy, then the person working the dock stared at him as well. Took about four seconds for him to get the point, and then he became my best guest.

I would never ever answer on a ride. I would fret, be miserable, obsess not enjoy myself at all worrying about needing to return the call... But my phone is on silent on rides. I'm ok with ME being miserable, but I'm not going to ruin everyone else's good time.

And truly now that we are only going on weekends, I have not gotten a work call at DLR in over a year. My dad has called, but it's a quick exchange.

I just wanted to add some of us feel like total $$%^#^* and are not happy doing business at the parks.

[Zazu]

Cell phone yakkers always bothered me when I was in attractions -- I feared they'd pay even less attention than normal to the safety spiel. I was even coached once for asking a guest to hang up so I could brief them.

Now that I'm at a hotel desk things are much easier. I can get almost anyone to hang up and deal with me by saying one thing: "Can I help the next person in line while they finish their phone call?"