SGs make for sour moments on an otherwise fun trip to WDW!

[Princess Susi]

SGs everywhere!

I don't know if it was my imagination, but people (guests) seemed more rude this trip. I noticed an overall meanness in some of the idiots.

Here is a little story that pissed me off:

Like the asshole that sat on my foot as I was sitting in the disabled section for Spectro and he and his family walked up right before the parade and sat down right in front of us. :mad: I was on my ECV so I could see over them, as they were on the ground, but they were in front of the tape on the ground that the CMs put down to keep everyone BEHIND. The CM in charge of the area did NOTHING about them, but kept telling ME to get behind the tape whenever I moved up to see around the other jerk SG who was not disabled in the disabled section. story to come below...HUH? :mad:

Another family came up and tried to sit under the rope early on, they were not disabled. The CM told them they could not sit there. They proceeded to dump their ice and leftover sodas on the ground in the disabled area before they left. Great, now someone else who wants to sit has to sit in their sticky soda mess, cause they were peeved they could not sit in the disabled section and poured out their liquid all over the area. Jags! :bbbat:

It is the disabled section and I am disabled and some NON disabled jerks can come along and sit in FRONT of the rope and tape line, but, I, the disabled one have to stay back and try to get my pictures around the non disabled jerks (more on that SG to come) who take the disabled guest's space. There is a LOT of space for the non disabled, but few spots for those of us on wheels and the SGs want OUR space too! :mad: The jag sat on my foot! I kicked him trying to move my foot, as my foot was under his rear! And he looked at me and apologized for sitting on me and moved to the right a little in front of a wheelchair.

What part of the chair with wheels did not give him the clue that this was a section for disabled people, especially after he sat on my foot, (I was on an ECV with my feet off to rest them and stretch out my legs a little) then moved over and he squished in where the wheelchair was and proceeded to jump around taking pictures like a freaking jumpin bean!. It was a disabled section and not one member of his family was disabled! So many non-disabled came into that section and tried to displace the disabled and get to the front. :mad:

Then there was the woman who came in late, right before the parade started and she was NOT disabled. She proceeded to push her way to the front of the rope and STOOD there and blocked all the people in chairs and ECVs behind her and was in my line of view to see the parade as it came up, in order to get a full picture of the float and not one from 3 feet in front of me. She leaned WAAAAAAAAY out over the rope to get the float coming and blocked not only my view, but the views of others down the row next to me. She kept leaning out in front of me to take a picture. I complained to a CM that I could not see around her and I had to move up to take my pics, but the CM told me I had to move my ECV back, but she did nothing about the person standing in my line of view :mad: . Oh, she did say to the woman "Please move back" and the woman took a step back. Then when the CM left, she moved right back up and then the same CM came along and never said another thing to her.

I don't get it. I thought the disabled section was for the disabled, so they could have a shot at a decent view of the parade.

At DL, the disabled section is for disabled ONLY and I have seen CMs turn away everyone except the disabled, even late when the parade has started. They will not let others *fill in* the space and we have had a great view of every parade at DL because I have never had an SG in front of me or try to sit on my feet or push others out of their way or tell their children to crawl up between people and sit on their feet or lean on someone's ECV or chair. The CMs will tell those people to move their butts, not in that language, but they will NOT allow then to sit there in front of the rope and in front of the disabled. Even family members who are standing have to stand BEHIND all the chairs and ECVs. They are not allowed to stand in the front at DL. Ralph had to stand way behind the ECVs and the wheelchairs to allow for viewing of the parade of the disabled. He thought it was a great idea.

Why does WDW allow this behavior and even condone it by filling the leftover disabled space with other abled guests who then proceed to stand in front even while they are looking at a disabled person BEHIND them in the face and say nothing, not even excuse me, and they don't move anyway even tho they now can see they are standing in front of the disabled person who can no longer see.

post continued below....

[Princess Susi]

Continued from above:

If I had been further back and that would have happened to me, I would have poked the backs of the SGs knees with a cane or something and told them firmly in no uncertain terms to move their ass...NOW. They would not be standing in front of me. But that is why I get there early and even then some jackass with an entitlement issue just HAS to sit his kids down in front and then proceed to sit on parts of my body which hurt already! :( :mad: I still get mad thinkin about it and how it is still happeneing to some other disabled folks there and how the self centered will never care about others and take what they want at the expense of other's enjoyment! WDW GC needs to be trained to deal with this.

RUDE and SELFISH IDIOTS and GREEDY SELF CENTERED EGOISTS!!!!!! Freakin' SGs!!!!!! :bbbat:

Why was the woman allowed to stand at the rope while there were wheelchairs behind her and block everyone's view? Are there any GC CMs here that can explain it to me?

We talked to City Hall right after and told them what we thought. Not that it will do any good. Why were so many non disabled guests allowed into the disabled area right before the parade and allowed to push past and say, "It is for the kids. They should be up front." Not if they get there 2 minutes before the parade starts and I have been waiting for 1 and 1/2 hours in my disabled spot. NO WAY are you and your kids gonna get my spot in the disabled section. Sorry, plan better next time. I will call you on your pushing and shoving and I will kick your butt if you sit on my foot.

It looked as tho right before the parade, the CMs opened up the disabled section to anyone else who could squeeze into it if it was not full and these other guests would try to shove themselves or their kids to the front of the line right behind the rope. Thankfully for most of us who got there an hour and a half early, they could not move our wheels out of the way to take our place. But Ralph was constantly blocking several adults who were trying to push him aside and get thorugh to the front where there was no room. They did not get past him. I cannot believe how rude people are and especially in a disabled section, where non disabled people proceed to try to take over the area and push the disabled aside.

So I had to try to get my pics from the disabled section around a non disabled self centered jerk in the disabled section who was STANDING right behind the rope! Such disregard and disrespect and the me, me, me entitlement issue!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

That was just one of many we saw this trip. I know we saw more rude SGs this year than we did in 2006. I don't know. Maybe it was because I was on an ECV, I saw more people treat me as if I was invisible or because "the cripple doesn't matter". I saw both sides of the spectrum of looks. I hated the pity looks as well as the ones who look at you as if you are contagious and somehow they would catch your disability.

And then the ones who just stared at me on the ECV as if I had no business being on one. :mad:

This is what I would say to them if I could:
"Get a life. Don't worry about whether I have a disability and have the right to be on an ECV. If I could I would give you my disability and then you could see just how much fun it is living on Morphine and needing clunky wheels to get around that don't always fit everywhere and how you get stuck in the stores because the aisles are so narrow and no one will move out of the way so I can just get out of their way, and how bad you hurt and how fast you get tired and can only do half days in the Park. And how you have to take naps everyday and you can't go on all those thrill rides and bumpy attractions. Maybe then you would not stare at me with a sneer, that I *look* too healthy and young to have problems. Actually YOU become a bigger problem to me than my pain. You are rude to me and ruin some good moments with your dirty looks! Just go on and get a life and leave me alone!"

continued...

[February]

This is a humongous pet peeve of mine. They let people 'crouch' (so they tell them) in front of ECV's at Epcot and during Wishes and it just means that you get to look at people standing up because the second the CM disappears, the crouchers stand up! I have given up trying to view parades or fireworks in handicapped viewing areas.

They just always let people in who don't belong and you can't see anyway. We don't even bother anymore. Last trip I watched Wishes with the whole castle blocked by a huge bush just so I could be where people wouldn't crowd the back of my chair and fall literally all over me trying to see OVER me! When I'm seated in my chair!

I was just writing my letters to guest service today (on number three and counting) and this is going to be a major point of contention (already covered bus routes, friendship boats, and a great guest services cm) that they need to allow only one member of a disabled person's party into the handicapped viewing area with them- and then provide a folding chair for that person so everyone is seated at the same level

Then they need to be sure that no one, and I mean no one, is allowed to block the view of the people seated in those areas. It's freaking ridiculous the way it is now.

I feel your pain. .

Bru

[Princess Susi]

I stared a whole family down as they all 4 stared at me. I did not break gaze and they finally turned around to eat their meal. I don't know why they stared. They saw me roll up on the ECV and get off and sit on a bench at the table in DHS and they all turned around to stare after their little boy pointed at me and whispered something in his mother's ear. So I stared right back defiantly. Next time it happens I will go over and ask, "Do I know you?" Do you recognize me? Cause you sure are staring like you do." I wish I had done that. But I did not break my gaze as I looked back at them one by one and we locked eyes and they continued to stare at me! They were whispering amongst themselves as they turned back around to eat, but the little boy kept turning back around to look at me.

Weird! Didn't their momma teach em that it is rude to stare at the cripple! Don't they know that? I had a self deprecating sense of humor the whole trip. At least most of it, there were a few days when the depression and the stares got to me so bad that I did not venture out at all. I just laid in bed in the room at the Poly sleeping and reading because I had gone to the GCH and had people just stare and treat me like like I was an alien. I should have acted like an alien: Stitch! :stitch: heeeheeheeeheeeheeeheee

But I let it get to me and went to the room and cried and would not go out for a couple days. I felt like a freak. It was my first trip to the world on an ECV. Many people there made me feel like I was an inconvenience to them and so many would slip into line in front of the ECV, thinking I did not notice.

They got an earful! Told ya I would say something to line jumpers. I am not afraid to call the idiots on their idiotic behavior. My being on an ECV does make it okay for someone to go ahead and pretend that they don't know I am in line, that they think I am in the WRONG line and there is a wheelchair line when there is not! Get a clue peole. I am still a human being, even if I can't walk as well as you! When I would hang with other disabled folks at the Disabled Parade viewing areas or in the few areas where the disabled had to sit in the indoor shows, such as The Presidents and Philharmagic, some of us jokingly called ourselves the cripples. It was not meant to offend and I hope my reference does not offend anyone here. We did it to make ourselves numb to the stares and the treatment of others. I was so unaware of how the disabled are treated at WDW, it amazed me. It is not that bad at DL. Maybe because you get so many people from all over the world and many don't know how to act around the disabled, they have never had a disabled family member or are scared of the disabled, maybe that is why there is more of it. The sheer numbers of guests also add to it.

I have to laugh and joke about my condition, or I will cry. I am at the point now, I cannot even walk to the kitchen from the bedroom without pain anymore. It has gotten worse and worse and worse. Thankfully, surgery is coming in a month. The Morphine does not help much and the Percocet, does nothing except attenuate the Morphine to make it more efficacious..

I cannot walk and I am in a chair even here at home now. it is sad, but I learned alot this trip.

Sorry to start out on a negative note. Those were just a few of the moments that stuck out for me at the Parks. There are more horror stories!

BUT, there are plenty of great stories of kindness from guests and fun as well. I will uploading over 5500 pictures to my photobucket album, actually I will NOT add all of them, I will just add the ones that depict the trip the best. The others are just different angles of the same shot or many pictures from the plane of cool cloud formations and lots of pics of Reunion where we looked at land and some of Citywalk and Margaritaville.

We just HAD to eat there, being parrot heads of course! :parrot2: Zazu we need a Jimmy Buffet smiley! He is so deserving of one at this board. He is great! Loved the restaurant ambience, even tho it is so commercialized, we love Jimmy Buffet music and they broadcast the Margaritaville Radio Station from right there in that location, which is available on Sirius satellite It was fun to listen to all the music and the food was great. Cheesburger in Paradise is right! LOVED it! And we had a chocolaty concoction for dessert that was so good.
LOTS more to come...Wanted to get this started! Pics to come. Lots of pics to come! :D:
Princess S

[thomaskr]

That's all very shitty, I never understood people who behave like how you described. There will obviously always be a certain (mercifully small) contingent of people who will do whatever they want whenever they want so we all have to deal with it the best way we can. I suggest:

a) don't get angry, it's not worth getting grey hairs over
b) be vocal: tell them - loudly but politely - that they are not supposed to be there and are completely blocking your view and could they please move behind you.
c) follow up. Get the CM's to do their job.

I have a friend who lost a leg to cancer. He walks with a slight limp but otherwise you'd never know there was anything wrong with him. Almost every time we'd park in his car he'd get dirty looks. Once he even had to pull up his pant leg to get people to settle down that he hadn't stolen a "disabled" sticker for the parking spots.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Well my question would be that when the family of SG's were staring at you, were you wearing your Princess Tiara?

And was Ralphie wearing a Pirate hat with eye patch?

[Princess Susi]

I was just writing my letters to guest service today (on number three and counting) and this is going to be a major point of contention (already covered bus routes, friendship boats, and a great guest services cm) that they need to allow only one member of a disabled person's party into the handicapped viewing area with them- and then provide a folding chair for that person so everyone is seated at the same level

Then they need to be sure that no one, and I mean no one, is allowed to block the view of the people seated in those areas. It's freaking ridiculous the way it is now.

I feel your pain. .

Bru

I like this idea of chairs for the family member and NO one else inside those ropes. NO one but the disabled and a family member. That would be a disabled seating area. It is not the way it is when they open up the ropes to everyone just before the parade. It IS ridiculous. I don't get it. How can Disney who is so good about disabled accessibility in so many areas, fall down on this one. The space is RESERVED for the disabled, so why are the CMs who work GC in this area letting in others just minutes before the parade. I know they will say that now that it is that close there is still space and they want to fill it up, but what about the disabled person who might just roll up a minute before as well should have first choice at the remaining spots in that section!

You can see the people lurking around the ropes before the parade. Some of these folks know that they will be let in late or they can sneak in when the crowds come and the lights go out and no one will ever know. It is rude and inconsiderate and I hate waiting for and going to parades now because of it. I love the floats and the characters (Stitch gave me a high five, well, he had four digits, so I guess it was a high 4 for him, during one parade earlier and I love that I can get that close and interact with the characters. They are one of my top reasons for going to the parks, because their stories are what the park are based on in so many instances!

It was the first time I had seen Spectro and we stayed late in the park just to catch it and then catch the fireworks at the hub. It irked me to no end that the CMs would do nothing about the abled sneaking into the disabled space. They SHOULD be kicking them out of there.

On the other hand, we saw the fireworks up close and we were relatively SG free. I gave Ralph the ECV as he had been walking all day and I sat down on the ground next to a very nice lady. He cannot get down on the ground and then get up, it is next to impossible for him, but I can still get down on the ground a little easier, not fun or pain free, but I can do it and it gave him a chance to rest, as he was the one who had to walk all day long. His dogs needed the rest and he was grateful for the seat. We were pretty clear around us, the gods must have smiled on us because of the bad time with SGs at the parade a half hour before. It was the first time we ever stayed in the park for fireworks and they were amazing up close. I love them from right in front. It is gonna make it hard to watch them from a distance in the future, but I am sure we won't be rushing off to see them every night in the park, because it was just a nightmare sea of people and I liked being able to watch from my very own room at the Poly and in 2006 from the Contemporary 11th floor balcony with a treat from the lounge. That was easy. Then it was off to bed immediately without the long wait to get back to the resort by bus, ferry or monorail.

Maybe next year Ralph and I will take a book and just people watch for several hours in front of the castle on a hub bench and eat our late lunch/early dinner there and have a place for the fireworks on a bench. It does not matter if people are standing cause the fireworks are so high in the sky along with the flying Tink that you can see them even if you are sitting on a bench! I won't let anyone sit on my feet on the ground in front of me, pointy shoes work well up a butt crack to discourage that! :twisted: and no one will be climbing on the back like a freakin' monkey with me there. I won't allow it. I guess if the CMs won't do anything about removing the SGs from hanging on your ECV or chair or seat, then I will do it myself, without violence, but with a firmness that will remove them from my personal space.
I just don't get why some GC CMs would allow non disabled to push and shove their way through the disabled in the disabled area to get the front row. It defeats the whole purpose of a disabled seating area. Perhaps we can get the GC CMs from DL to teach certain WDW ones how it is done. ;)

Princess S

[Theme Park Where]

I have to respectfully disagree on the disabled person and ONE guest idea. Why should a party with a disabled person have less of an experience than any other guest? If I get to the parade route early enough for there to be space, I should be allowed to have my party view with me. And it can be done without blocking the person with the disability. Case in point ... we went to MK for MVMCP one year when my nephew was still too little to want to see a parade without Mommy and Daddy present. Grandma, who uses an ECV in the parks, wanted to view the parade with her grandson. We were prohibited from doing this because they were trying to squeeze as many wheelchairs into the area as possible and the only option was for him to sit on her lap, something he wasn't going to be willing to do with Mommy and Daddy standing in another area. Across on the other side of the street were many families with Grandparents, parents and siblings all sitting together. Why is it fair that they got to watch the parade together and we didn't? We all arrived for viewing at about the same time.

I almost always end up in one of the disability viewing areas when I'm working PAC at DHS. I have a procedure for seating guests in those areas. The guest in the wheelchair goes in front, with any kids either sitting on laps or on the ground right in front of their own party (Grandkids in front of Grandma's wheelchair, etc.) - not in front of other guest's wheelchairs unless they offer. The rest of the party stands in back. I can usually fit quite a few wheelchairs across the row that way, and everyone has an opportunity to sit with their family and enjoy the parade together. If I have a slightly larger party, or a child in a wheelchair who needs a parent to sit beside them, I don't pack the wheelchairs wheel to wheel. If I run out of spaces, I offer not-front-row seating to those who arrive later. They can usually pull up behind sitting children or between chairs to see, and standing adults are usually willing to move in behind them so everyone can see if I ask. Once I'm out of space, I'm out of space. Just like in the regular viewing area, those who stake a claim early sit in front, and those who don't either squeeze in behind or miss out. If you arrive 2 minutes before a parade on a busy day, you're not likely to see anything. Sorry, that's just how it is. I do understand that someone in a wheelchair is completely unable to see over a standing crowd whereas a standing person can maybe crane their neck to see a little bit, but again, parade viewing is first-come-first-served and once front row viewing is gone, it's gone. I don't fill in disabled viewing areas with guests who are not part of a party with a disabled guest because a last minute arrival cannot see over a crowd while a non-disabled person can, but I'm also not going to make less of a viewing opportunity for a family that wants to sit together so I can get a last minute arrival in either. I'm also militant about being outside the line and have been known to sit on your feet to keep you back bodily! (I actually had to do that once. Had a woman who wouldn't stop running out past the line to take pictures. I finally knelt right on her feet so she couldn't get past me. She tried to move around me and I ended up sticking my arm out to block her. She gave me dirty looks the whole parade, but hey, I don't really need her approval to keep her from blocking the view of the rest of the street or getting run over by a float anyway!)

[Princess Susi]

Quote edited for space:

I have to respectfully disagree on the disabled person and ONE guest idea. Why should a party with a disabled person have less of an experience than any other guest? If I get to the parade route early enough for there to be space, I should be allowed to have my party view with me.

Once I'm out of space, I'm out of space. Just like in the regular viewing area, those who stake a claim early sit in front, and those who don't either squeeze in behind or miss out. If you arrive 2 minutes before a parade on a busy day, you're not likely to see anything. Sorry, that's just how it is. I do understand that someone in a wheelchair is completely unable to see over a standing crowd whereas a standing person can maybe crane their neck to see a little bit, but again, parade viewing is first-come-first-served and once front row viewing is gone, it's gone. I don't fill in disabled viewing areas with guests who are not part of a party with a disabled guest because a last minute arrival cannot see over a crowd while a non-disabled person can, but I'm also not going to make less of a viewing opportunity for a family that wants to sit together so I can get a last minute arrival in either.

If everyone had to be disabled at least once in their life, they would understand. You CANNOT know and feel what it is like, unless you are or have been disabled.

I have to respectfully disagree and add that they should not allow a huge family in the disabled viewing area because of what you yourself said. They were trying to cram as many wheelchairs and ECVs in there as possible. It IS a disabled viewing area after all, not a disabled and family viewing area. Ralph told me that he would gladly go stand elsewhere to watch if the space was needed for more chairs and ECVs. The more chairs and ECVs that fit into that space without other people to take up that space, the better. It IS what it is for. If you (the general you, not you in particular!) cannot be with your family in there and you wish for the whole family to watch together, then you need to grab a spot early enough to park the wheelchair alongside the viewing route with space for your whole family.

If you get ten wheelchair people and each of them have 10 family members that want to be with them, where do the other disabled people get to go, if more show up at the same time or 5 minutes later and your family and the other people's family are already taking up the room? At that point, your family members who are not disabled should leave the disabled area and allow the chairs to come in. It IS a first come, first served area, but NOT for able bodied family members, it is first come first served for the disabled. The sign hanging on the ropes shows that it is a disabled area.

That is what bothers me. Too many family members think that they should get to stay there, even if there are 20 family members. It is NOT fair to the disabled to have to park behind a standing able bodied family member or not be able to get in there at all because there are too many family members. It is the disabled's area, period.

The whole route is for everyone and there are very few spots for the disabled. Let them have their little area at least to watch the parade. When those family members are NOT disabled and are just there to be with their family, they are taking up a spot that a disabled person could have. That is the reason they make the space for the disabled. So they will have a shot at getting to see the parade. When able bodied people, family or not, take up more space than the number of wheelchair or ECV guests, it then becomes a space for everyone and not just for the disabled which it is designed for.

It is the same crap in queues, why do all 10 members of a family get to go with the one disabled person? The disabled entry is for the disabled. I have heard that it is supposed to work this way: If a family member is in the disabled line, they wait for thier family to reach the front of the line and that is where the family all joins up and goes in together. This is fair, no one gets FOL priviledges, just the disabled get to enter up a ramp or have an entry that they can get into the attraction, BUT they join their family when they get up to the front, not the family all gets to stand in the disabled line and get on more quickly.
continued next post....

[Princess Susi]

continued from above post....

That is a form of line jumping, just as a family of 10 or 20 is getting to have the priviledge of a spot without looking for one for the parade just because one of the members of their family is disabled. The disabled I want fair and equal treatment as offered by the ADA and DL and WDW, NOT better or FOL or special, just equal. That is why I don't like seeing 10 family members in a disabled line with one disabled person. Some of the fakers who rent a chair for the day just to use it to get into the disabled line and get faster entry when no one in their family is really disabled have 10 or more family members. I have seen family members switch off riding the ECV or in the chair all the time. :mad:

But I really feel that the disabled should have a fair and equal shot at the things that they are able to do. And it should not be at the expense of having to wait behind 10 able bodied people in the disabled viewing area or in a queue.

Another thing that troubled me, is that I saw kids on laps of folks on ECVs all over the parks and no one did a damn thing about it. I saw a little kid one time take off on Grandma's ECV and had the speed turned all the way up. He hit his brother and ran him over. Thankfully the brother was not hurt, just shaken up. The father had to run after the ECV to stop the kid cause he would not or did not know how to stop! I see grandmas and grandpas letting the kids run the damn things all the time. It pisses me off. It is not allowed and just another thing that gets by the CMs and does not get stopped. I have seen folks with the kids on their laps RIGHT IN FRONT OF A CM and the CM will do nothing or say nothing. :mad:

Are they not being trained well anymore? So much of the service and quality has slid and it is sad. :(

Sorry for a negative beginning for my trip thread, but what stood out for me a lot this trip was the rudeness of the guests and the lack of training and inconsistency in rules and procedure by the younger CMs. No one CM did anything the same way another did and we were told so many different things by several CMs at the same place about the same situation. No one seemed to know what was the ONE correct answer. If I did as one CM told me, another told me to do something different, then the other CM would come back and tell me to do it his/her way again. And it kept up like this all over. There were plenty of great CMs as well and they kept the magic alive, but I wonder if the new hires are getting *it*, the Disney feeling and way of doing things. Are they feeling Disney in their whole being or just working for a paycheck that is not much anyway?

I guess I noticed it more, because last trip it was so different. We did not run into that many CMs who were inconsistent and non helpful. We did not have that many situations, period.

Don't think the trip was all bad...it wasn't. There will be good stories and great pics to share as well. I promise. :)
Princess S