Stupid Guest Tricks

glendalais wrote:Just out of curiosity, what does the ride-out crew at WDW do, anyway?

At the resorts, I imagine they just ensure that all the guests are able to ride out the storm and keep them fed and whatnot. However, I can't imagine what they would do at the parks.

Forgive me if this seems a little obvious, lol. It's not really something we worry about at the DLR - we generally only hear about Hurricanes if there's a collection underway to benefit WDW CMs effected by one, and I personally have never lived in a region prone to Hurricanes, so I'm not familiar with it, lol.

What the ride-out crew does isn't always obvious, I had to ask myself. I believe (haven't found out first hand yet), for my area, it is mostly clearing the carts of merchandise, wrapping the carts in pallet wrap (to protect them), and moving everything away from the windows and doors inside the shops. Other CMs (and who knows, merchandise probably gets drafted for this too) secure the trash cans, benches, umbrellas, pretty much all the loose articles that could become projectiles in a storm. After the storm they get the parks ready to reopen as soon as possible.

The resort CMs secure the resorts for the storm and then take care of the guests who are riding it out. Keep them fed, entertained, etc. I understand that sometimes park CMs get deployed to a resort to help out after they are done helping in their home area. I wouldn't mind that, better than sitting in the tunnel bored stiff.

Ride-out crews are paid from the time they come in until the time they leave after the storm. I've heard of people being on the clock over 36 hours before during a past storm, most of which was spent just waiting for the storm to pass. 36 hours which with overtime had to be a huge paycheck, what with time and a half once they reached 8 hours then double-time once they hit 14 hours.

We had to ride one out at the Poly several years back. The CM's were outstanding. Even though we didn't have any kids with us, we noticed that they had games and activities at the main building for the kids, give the parents a break and probably calm them down and get their minds off the storm.

Just curious, at DLR what are the procedures for a California natural disaster such as an earthquake.....or Lindsay Lohan?

Yfoog wrote:Just curious, at DLR what are the procedures for a California natural disaster such as an earthquake.....or Lindsay Lohan?

Earthquake: We generally check to make sure everyone in our area is all right, and then close the restaurant/shop or cycle out the Attraction, directing the emptying guests to predesignated safe areas. We then check each shop/restaurant/attraction for damage. Shops and Restaurants will generally reopen quickly if there is no major damage. Attractions have to be cleared by the DLR Fire Department before reopening.

Lindsay Lohan (could also be Brittany Spears or a few others): Every CM for himself ;) . We lose so many good ones that way :p: .

Shorty82 wrote: Ride-out crews are paid from the time they come in until the time they leave after the storm. I've heard of people being on the clock over 36 hours before during a past storm, most of which was spent just waiting for the storm to pass. 36 hours which with overtime had to be a huge paycheck, what with time and a half once they reached 8 hours then double-time once they hit 14 hours.

I was a very new CM on ride-out crew at WDW (in resorts) during Hurricane Frances back in 2004. Since we were the front desk Cast, we had to go to all guest rooms and hand deliver update letters and talk to Guests about the current situation (voice mails were also left for all rooms, but I soon learned that not all guests check them..we encouraged them to do so as we went from room to room). With over 2,000 rooms, it took us a while :) but then there was definitely some down time and since we were at a resort, we were able to double up in available guest rooms when it was safe to walk outside (however one night I do recall having to sleep backstage in rollaways placed in offices and conference rooms).

I was at work from Friday afternoon until late evening Monday - I was supposed to have Monday off but had to pull a 12 hour shift as scheduled CMs couldn't make it into work once we reopened the front desk Monday morning. As a new CM who hadn't even been able to finish all my training, it was baptism by fire at the front desk that Monday. That was probably the most crazy day I've ever worked at WDW. But the overtime pay certainly made up for it :)

And as far as SGTs, suprisingly most guests were extrememly understanding - though I remember a couple guests shouting to me down a walkway asking if they'd be reimbursed for their theme park tickets since they're now 'forced' to be 'stuck' in their room. Um....let's see: a hurricane is coming, it's beyond windy, raining cats and dogs...I'm sweating to death in nasty raingear issued from costuming and am running from room to room to deliver hurricane updates and doing my best to ensure your safety. I just want to get backstage and back inside so I don't get blown away....park passes are pretty much at the end of my list of concerns at this moment (at this early point in the storm, we had no idea when parks would open nor what specific compensation would be given to guests) LOL!