Stupid Guest Tricks

Let's hope they return to what the busses at Disney are meant to be, an attraction unto themselves.

Keep the good parts of MiMs, the GPS tracking and what not, but get rid of the recordings. Also keep the display inside that tells guests where they are at, my understanding is that it is real good for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Shorty82 wrote:Also keep the display inside that tells guests where they are at, my understanding is that it is real good for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Sure, I love having that clock there and I really like on our newest buses how I can do my schtick and it shows what they are *supposed* to be hearing.

That part, definitely keep, but give me my microphone back!

They've updated the buses and their software. They've taken out the recording of Walt Disney, and they've added a bunch, including one for birthdays, one for anniversaries, first time visitors, princess/pirate aboard, and all very personal-sounding.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: Please help us to wish one of our very special guests a happy birthday."

I heard that and wanted to cry.

The plan is that drivers should talk less and less, and they are, as I heard a manager telling one driver, tired of having 1,200 different personalities on the buses. They want one. Fine.

I have a suggestion: They should put a permanent partition between the driver and guests. In fact, they can even put a bench up front next to the driver to be used for training and for a small group of guests to be able to sit up front with the driver for a special trip. But they need to make it so that the driver is completely unavailable so they can't talk to the guests in general. Once that happens, the MiMs becomes the perfect thing, because they have something to entertain them back there.

I went today to the new system, where I will let the system do all the talking. At this point I am barely even saying hello, and I will be burnt out within the month at this rate. I worked as a courier and lasted three weeks because packages are very tough to interact with. But that's what they're turning the guests into. I think they should fire every driver who reads, writes and understands English, and hire only people who are unable to speak English, so that they can have the singular personality of all buses. That, and make the driver completely unavailable to the passengers. In fact, if I can't talk to them, then I guess they're no longer my guests, but just my passengers.

Before it gets out of hand, I am taking a letter into a manager tomorrow, asking them to please put in writing the policy on interactions with guests. Please put in no uncertain terms what we are and are not allowed to do. Make that the inarguable policy, and I will follow it until next month when I can transfer.

With MiMs as it is now, it is quickly turning Disney buses into a transit system that is absolutely nothing special. There is nothing different from the experience people would have aboard the buses in New York or Chicago... except that those two cities have now ripped the system out of their buses. But soon, few people will ever again expect a bus driver to talk to them. Soon, it won't matter. Soon, the Disney World experience will be cheapened because the one kind of place they spend the most time with a Cast Member within 40 feet (upward of 40 minutes a day or longer) will be nothing special.

If I have an exit interview with buses as I transfer (and I hope they'll give me one), I do plan to talk about how I was tricked into thinking that bus driving was a guest service job, that it would require interaction skills and the desire to make people happy. I thoroughly enjoyed making my buses Walt's ultimate happiness for our guests... I enjoyed making my bus their Laughing Place. But no more.

As I was thinking about it tonight, I got to thinking about the rumors the union gets going about the company contracting its buses and drivers out to another company (probably Mears) and it made me think, for the first time, why not? It no longer needs to be a Disney driver in that seat. It no longer needs to be anyone that is worried about the guests' experience, or anyone concerned with making it better. I've been wasting my time and energy the entire time I've been here, and now I am stopping.

Actually, I haven't wasted my time and energy at all: I just ask the guests who have taken a ride with me. I hope they enjoyed it... it probably won't be happening again. And those who continue to do their schtick are going to start getting into trouble very soon.

Huh. Getting points on your record card for interacting with guests. Who ever thought it would come to this?

Another problem, the people in the MiMs Ops Center, from what I was told today by someone whose words I trust, loathe bus drivers, and any time they see a driver go off route, they take great pleasure in the fact they are calling that driver's dispatcher to get them in trouble.

Anyone who delights in getting another person in trouble, unless that person has had it coming for a very long time, is a useless attempt at a human being.

Well, I don't know how organized that was, but I've said most of what I want to here.

[/rant]

I'm hoping that guests will start complaining very loudly about the new system and the higher-ups figure out how bad an idea MiMs is and get rid of it.

Well, then I guess that I'm going to get in trouble because I'm not going to stop!

Too many guests want to hear the driver(feedback from a guest tonight "This was great, You are the only driver so far that has done anything with us"), they don't want to hear the box.

The answer to the Ops center assholes is to not go off route. There are only a few reasons to go off route and a simple call (most of the time anyways) takes care of that. I can count on 1 hand the number of times that I have been denied the opportunity to take care of the guest. Now when the system goes fully automatic, forget about taking care of the guest. That will suck big ones.!

What will happen is WDW will become just another vacation spot, not THE vacation spot. The day that I cannot help a guest with an issue that I have the ability to (Anyone remember the Basic's Class?), I'm gone. period, not transferred, gone.

I think this MiMs thing is partly a problem of the over reliance on busses. Up through the opening of Epcot busses were mainly a secondary form of Guest transport. There were few enough busses that all the drivers entertained as well as drove. Also every resort had their own busses and drivers so the drivers were expected to reflect the spirit of that resort. But when busses were lumped under a single authority drivers could be assigned almost anywhere and became less familiar with a particular route or destination. And the number of busses in use expanded explosively. So they had to hire loads of drivers and the ability to entertain as well as drive was reduced. By the time the Studios opened I had noticed that the vast majority of drivers only wanted to drive and had no interrest in interracting. The few "old timers" left began disappearing. As it went along some drivers even became surly to the point that doing more than asking a question pertaining to this particular bus was likely to get a scowl, a shrug, and a growl.

Guests began to complain that the drivers wouldn't talk to them and due to some occasionally confusing directional signage you were never quite sure if you would get where you wanted to go. And asking the driver was less than enchanting. So of course Disney looked for another way to entertain and inform the riders. This was not a bad idea for the majority of drivers that couldn't or wouldn't answer guest questions. And entertaining was a thing of the distant past.

The few, rare individual drivers who still enjoy guest interaction are now being pushed out. As a guest I must bow my head and morn for the loss of the last of the true Disney magic left in transport.

Originally getting from one place to another was as much attraction as the ones in the parks. Even the transport vehicles that were "just like I can ride at home" were made special by the incredible people who understood the Magic and made it special. Now the "not something I ride every day" vehicles are limited and made difficult to use unless you are going to and from the few destinations served by it. I may have been in the campground but I used to regularly take the bus to the TTC JUST so I could take the monorail instead of a boat. But even that limited access has been cut. Now the only time I take a monorail (which I find interresting as it is different from my everyday life) is if I happen to park hop between the MK and Epcot. This happens only a very few times each trip. Now I am stuck with riding a bus that is no more special than the ones here in town.

When busses became more and more used, I reconciled myself with the idea that at least these busses were driven by happy, entertaining people who made the trip "out of the ordinary". Now that has gone away.

I'm beginning to wonder why I want to stay on property. I can get more entertainment value for my buck by staying off site and listening to the radio in my car as I drive to the parks. It certainly would cost less to stay off site, and with less and less additional benefit to staying on site, the balance point is getting very close if not swinging towards off site.

IMHO

Randy

And yet another sad loss to all of us who enjoy our bus rides with great drivers. How sad. I thought Disney was all for interaction with guests, this just does not make sense! Can we complain and where? :(
susi

susislicker wrote:Can we complain and where? :(
susi

Yes! Complain! I'll be back in a few minutes with the informtion for Guest Services.

Here we go, complain long and loud people. Only by complaining will there be a chance of the higherups figuring out that guests don't want MiMs and would prefer drivers who speil.



Walt Disney World Guest Relations
P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

This is the universal address! For example, if you want to write to the General Manager of All Star Music, or any other resort, address the envelope to the person and use the P.O. Box 10000 address.

Walt Disney World Guest Communications
PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

[email protected]

Mr. Robert Iger
Chief Executive Officer
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873

Mr. James A. Rasulo
Chairman
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873

Meg Crofton
President
The Walt Disney World Resort
PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Al Weiss
President
Worldwide Operations
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Cranbiz wrote:The day that I cannot help a guest with an issue that I have the ability to (Anyone remember the Basic's Class?), I'm gone. period, not transferred, gone.

That was another question that came up last night... why even have your drivers go through the Basics class, when you don't want them to interact with the guests anyway?

It makes no sense.

I am coming to the conclusion that in this case, they have such an agenda of making the MiMs work that they are willing to overlook the guest feedback. I have heard things that I would rather not talk about until I am out of buses, but from the worker (note: as a bus driver, I have now stopped using the term Cast Member to describe myself until I move :( ) I can't imagine this system is ever going to work, but I think they're going to try brute force anyway.

Randy, I would love to have you pass on your comments that you made here to the appropriate people. It's too bad you can't do a general letter to the stockholders.

Fro mmy research I found out that the Director of WDW Transportation is Doug Lord. I can't find any direct contact information for him but letters addressed to him at the first address should make it to him.

I assume that letters addressed like this will make it to him:

Doug Lord
Director of Transportation
P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830