Stupid Monorail Pilots

Dante101 · Post by **Dante101** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 5:42 pm

I left last November, but have seen plenty of leads who feel undermined when their cast members take matters into their own hands by making 101 calls, etc, on their own.

My direct quote was "I know some of the leads up there can be very territorial." 'Can' being the operative word.

It wasn't all the leads, and it wasn't all of the time, but it is a possible reason why the CM would respond with the curt remark, "I'm not a lead."

Say that CM was talked down to about "overstepping his/her bounds." Naturally that same CM would then think, "fine, I'll just sit back and let the lead take care of it all - I won't offer any help."

Sad to say, but that same petty line of thought has gone through my head many a time during my stay at the Park.

Some leads can be control freaks. We all know examples of that.

I don't wanna name names, especially since I have no clue as to who the leads are anymore...

trojantuba · Post by **trojantuba** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 1:59 pm

Ok..let me just say this, I was trained up on Monorail from from Oct 2002-Nov. 2003. I've worked in the park since 99 and when I got trained up there you still needed a managers approval. So we had a pretty good crew..a little humorless, but the attraction itself as fun to work. I can see though, things have changed. That doesn't surprise me seeing as when I went back to the westside in the Summer of '03 the kinds of new hire CM's went straight to hell. Most of them don't know a 100 from a 101 from a hole in the ground. Oh well..that's progress

BirdMom · Post by **BirdMom** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 4:28 pm

I can't believe they're putting rookies on Monorail...back in the stone age, you had to practically jump through hoops to get trained on that (or most of the RETLAW) attraction. I tried to get over there for five years!!! Although, now I wonder why, as the idea of going in circles for 8 hours is not all that appealing...

I mean, I asked one of my old bosses - a former Navy fighter pilot - why he wasn't an airline pilot and he sarcastically replied "busdriver." That's pretty much what Monorail RO entails... :?

tourbunny · Post by **tourbunny** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 3:31 pm

AUX CONTRAIRE, MADAME!
i am neither a monorail driver, nor am i even an attractions castmember but it is certainly more then driving in circles. i have taken many a tours on there and i know some people up there and i firmly beleive that monorail is very much a guest interaction attraction. you can do so much more talking then just "how many in your party?". in downtown disney for example you have to stand there anywhere between 3 and 15minutes to wait for the train to come in and you can just chat up a storm with everyone. you have so much change of scenerie, seeing that you can be on the platform, down below by turnstiles, in downtown disney and others. so which one of you other ro's gets to leave the park twice an hour???
you can also make friends with main entrance cm in dtd.
you also have to know quite a bit as far as the calendar is concerned because they have to spiel about opening hours and parade times and attractions closures and many other things.
monorail cm are one of the most complimented cms in the park because they have time in between trains to realy go out and make some magic. they also have very few sac, since it's not a fast thrillride and they have an awsome crew up there.
so it is far more then just driving a train around in circles for 8 hours.

pixiedust · Post by **pixiedust** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 6:54 pm

tourbunny wrote: so it is far more then just driving a train around in circles for 8 hours.

Yeah. If you want to drive a train around in circles for 8 hours, hire into the parking lot and get trained as a tram driver. :) You don't even have to leave the cab some days (when there is tons of staffing to help out with the wheelchairs and other thing) unless you're headed for a break/lunch.

(which doesn't appeal to me, but many of the CMs that have been with the company for what probably seems like forever do it on a mon-fri basis.)

BirdMom · Post by **BirdMom** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 12:31 pm

I know a lot of people from back in my day who are in parkinglot/tram now because they don't want to deal with the b.s. in park as much...

Gee tourbunny...didja take your perky pill before you gave that impassioned defense of the Monorail? After you've been working at the park more than 10 years, you might not feel so high on "interacting" with the pests...I mean guests...anymore...

Can you tell why there aren't too many perimenopausal women working in attractions??? :twisted:

pixiedust · Post by **pixiedust** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 3:37 pm

BirdMom wrote:I know a lot of people from back in my day who are in parkinglot/tram now because they don't want to deal with the b.s. in park as much...

Yeppers. All the people who I was automatically aquainted with because they loved reveling in the fact that I am the daughter of one of the people they use to work with. :) For the first 6 months, all I got was "Oh! You're M. and/or J.'s daughter!!"

They are some of the geatest cast members we have, because they are so fun to work with. (ie: Nancy and Judd and Malou and Rocky and Bob... and the list goes on and on and on)

tourbunny · Post by **tourbunny** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 1:14 am

well, birdmom, my 3rd year is almost finished at the park. to many that is but a drop in the bucket but for guest relations i'm a grandma...
we all have our guest encounters and mine are less then pleasant seeing that i'm the complaint department but i think we need to focus on the team here.
we all need to work with each other and be there for each other and i respect every single one of my co workers, which ever department because we all depend on each other to help us figuer out how to deal with those stupid guests.
yes there are the few bad apples, that's what we have "stupid cm tricks" for but i was just a little thrown off by some one berating someone else's job.
as far as guest interaction goes. i love it! aside from people calling me all kinds of names, spitting on me and hitting me in the face, after all that there is that little boy that is crying and you sit with him on the bench, give him a sticker, he gives you a hug and the mom makes you god for a moment, that's all what we live for.
sentimantal bullsh...? yes! but proud of it.
i have many a moments where i want to quit and run away screamin' but if we all just hate it so much why don't we all just quit. but - we're all still here so there must be something in the air.
so, i'm gonna take some more perky pills, birdmom, target is having a sale on zoloft and we'll all be happy...

tourbunny · Post by **tourbunny** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 10:27 am

just to make sure that you all know, i wasn't yelling or lashing out at birdmom or anyone else for that matter.
i guess what i was really trying to say was that i wanted to set the record straight about our guest relations people. i know there is a whole bunch of them, thinking we are something better and all you attractions people are nothing more then boatloaders and button pushers. by coming to monorail's defense i wanted to show you guys that there are GR cm's that value what you do and that understand that without other departments there would be no GR. i wanted to show everyone that there are plaids that don't think that way. i don't think we're anything else but another department.
so i would have defended every other ride as well. just don't belittle each other's tasks...

Zazu · Post by **Zazu** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 10:19 pm

tourbunny wrote:he gives you a hug and the mom makes you god for a moment, that's all what we live for.
sentimantal bullsh...? yes! but proud of it.

And rightly so! Sentimental bullsh... is a lot of what the Disney experience is all about.

Not that I object to the temporary god thing, either....