How to be a good guest

[eblackwell]

You GOTTA put that video on YouTube!!!!!!! Think of it as a PSA for using turn signals!!!

Oh, you HAVE to post the link for the video!.

I promise, if I get the video online - complete with bleeps, I'll let you know! :D:

[EeyoresButterfly]

I have mixed feelings about that. Sometimes there is a valid reason, such as a child with a condition like autism (although we have GACs for that), or if a child suddenly has to go to the bathroom. Some GACs will actually require a similar set-up, if you party is large you have to send at least part of the party through the regular queue and the people using the alternate entrance can meet up with them when they get to the front. This is the same for GACs that require a shaded entrance, the person in question waits in a shaded area until the party reaches a part of the queue that is shaded.

That being said, what they are describing is indeed line cutting and is not tolerated at many places. Let's take a ride like Dumbo, where this tends to be fairly common. A man stands in line for a family of four. At rides at Dumbo which do not have Flik, our coordinators base the wait time on an estimation of how long the line is, now all of a sudden you have a group requiring twice as many Dumbos as you estimated. Now, if one person does it, it probably won't severely affect wait time, but if several people do this, or if it is a large group, it does affect the wait time for the people behind them. Some people do this to cheat the lines by having adult members of the party stand on multiple lines at once and then hopping to each line. This is definitely not allowed, and if discovered will get you kicked out of the line at the very least.

The other problem with this is the inconvenience to the other guests. In order to join the person who waited, they typically have to push and shove their way through a packed queue, which is not only the height of rudeness, but could result in a confrontation with other guests.

While some rides may look the other way, the characters won't! At the oasis in AK, people like to do this at the end of the day. This causes problems on the last set because the characters have to go in, and we have to close the lines, turning people away. We'll tell people that only the people in line can see the character because we're closing the lines, and they go ballistic. There was one day I got mobbed because people wouldn't listen to the attendants. The attendant pulled the families up that were obeying the rules and allowed them to see me, and then things got out of hand. They called security, but they were too far away, and so the attendants and captains had to hold back the crowd while I sprinted inside. It was one of the more frightening moments during my time there. So to the people on that board it may sound like innocent fun, but it's amazing how quickly it can cause things to deteriorate into a situation that is unsafe for all involved, and that is definitely not magical!

Sorry, rant over.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

The line thing is cutting. But I have seen a mom take a little one to the restroom while dad waited, and they returned quickly, and the line hadn't moved all that much. I don't think anyone had a problem with that, as they were in line and had to take care of a "situation" but the idea of "holding" a place for 2, 6, or whatever the number is cheating. that is cutting in line and I am sure it causes a lot of heartburn for the CM's when they hve to deal with the SG's doing it!

[drcorey]

I did a search and didn't find this; I hope I'm not repeating another thread.

As a guest, I'm on a couple Disney fan boards and I'd like to post on them how we can be good Guests. This is the best place to ask. Please give me what's the top 10 things we can do to be good guests, even the most basic things like

1. Be friendly and polite.
2. Throw out your trash, including the tops to water bottles.

Hopefully, this will help you guys out if we all spread the word about how we can help make it a good day.

and clean up after yourself, within reason.
just because you are on vacation, you are still a human being.

[joanna71985]

While some rides may look the other way, the characters won't! At the oasis in AK, people like to do this at the end of the day. This causes problems on the last set because the characters have to go in, and we have to close the lines, turning people away. We'll tell people that only the people in line can see the character because we're closing the lines, and they go ballistic. There was one day I got mobbed because people wouldn't listen to the attendants. The attendant pulled the families up that were obeying the rules and allowed them to see me, and then things got out of hand. They called security, but they were too far away, and so the attendants and captains had to hold back the crowd while I sprinted inside. It was one of the more frightening moments during my time there. So to the people on that board it may sound like innocent fun, but it's amazing how quickly it can cause things to deteriorate into a situation that is unsafe for all involved, and that is definitely not magical!

Sorry, rant over.

And that is why I hate the Oasis. It's always crazy there. And there is no good way to form hard-queue lines.

[dazyhill]

Please leave your pets at home while visiting the parks! Or board them at a kennel facility. While you,the guest,might think it's cute to have your little dog around, there are those who feel otherwise. Not to mention it is against the law to bring pets into stores and restaurants.
This weekend at Knott's,a guest brought a stroller containing a small breed dog into one of the stores. (For those not familiar with Knott's, there is a collection of shops outside the park where the Chicken Dinner Restaurant is.) When the guest was told to please take the dog outside,she became so enraged that she smeared dog feces all over the carpet! :mad: This is not just being a SG,this is just being low class.
Please dog owners,leave them at home. You may think you need your dog at your side 24/7,but they are much happier at home,away from a stressful situation such as a busy store. You will also save yourself from liability-the last thing you want is a lawsuit from a dog bite.
Of course the above does not apply to service animals. They are always welcome as well as service dogs in training.

[Princess Susi]

Go ahead and use "What Time is the 3:00 Parade?" and use it liberally. Most of us get a chuckle out of it. Hey, why not buy a 3:00 parade t-shirt from Theme Park Where?! (end blatent plug) :D:

I am buying one of those Tuesday...payday! LOVE IT!!!!!! I buy a LOT of tees from CafePress. They are great. I need to look at your site. It looks like fun. I just went over to check out the shirt and gotta have it! Good stuff!
Princess Susi

[Princess Susi]

Can I ask your opinion on something I've read on another site? People heatedly debated about whether this was a problem and against the rules.

They called it "Chucking Bubba into line". What happens is, one adult stands in line. Another takes all the kids somewhere else -- a store, for ice cream, let's them tear around, whatever. When the one in line is close to getting on, he/she signals the other adult and they hand all the kids (and possibly the other adult) into the line.

The people who said this was fine argued:

• The kids don't get impatient in the line.
• The same number of people are riding even if they didn't all stand in line the whole time.
• It's not line cutting because one person did wait.
• A few said they only did it once or twice, so it was no big deal. And they did primarily so they could get pictures of each parent with the kids on the ride w/o the kids having to stand in line each time.

Those that argued against it, me included, stated:

• It is line cutting because some are jumping into line.
• Other kids wait their turn in line. The ones who cut are being unfair to the polite ones.
• Even if you do it only once or twice, that's multiplied by everyone who does it. People in the back are standing there not getting very far because the ones up front keep escalating their number.
• Other ways exist to avoid this. Some rides have cars on the ground for photo taking or parents can do that ride in off times -- like during the parade -- so the family can do it twice quickly.

I had one person tell me -- this still kills me -- that I was disappointing Walt Disney's memory. That he'd shake his head at me and say, why can't you just let people enjoy my park together as a family? I told that guy that Walt would more likely say, why can't that family just enjoy the park by not disrupting the lines? Which was why, on a hot, crowded day at the Disneyland theme park several decades ago, when Walt Disney was walking through Sleeping Beauty castle seeing people push & shove, he turned to his companion and said, "This would be a great place if we could only get rid of all these people."

Another flamed me saying I should just be thankful I was on vacation, especially with all the terrible things going on in the world. I answered that I was thankful (seriously, I don't even gripe about the weather because it still beats being at work on a gorgeous day), but that they actually proved my point. Because shouldn't these families be thankful for their vacation, when so many terrible things are going on in the world, instead of jumping lines and upsetting others?

I could be wrong. It might be my own life influencing me; my parents never did this and my husband won't even let me get an ice cream and meet him in line.

You guys no better than me or anyone else. Who's right? Is "Chucking Bubba" okay or one of those things to put on the list to not do if you want to be a good guest?

WOW! People really said you were disappointing Walt's memory? If someone said that to me, they would experience the wrath of menopause! :twisted: I would flatten their nose. No, I would not hit them, but they would probably wish I would when I went off on them and would not quit talking to them. That is insane.
Line cutting is line cutting no matter which way you look at it. You are so right about the people at the end, staying at the end if lots of families did this. It is cutting and it is rude. I don't care if they have kids. They chose to have kids, not they need to deal with them at a Theme Park, so it does not make everyone else have to bow down to them. Their kids have to follow the rules just like everyone else.

I hear something else over at Board X all the time as well. This one always gets me going! I always hate when I hear that dreaded statement, "Disney is for kids." Oh Really! Then why is my Parkhopper more expensive than theirs and how would they get there without adults. They use this on me when I am in line for a character meet and greet and want to cut cause I am *just* an adult and they have kids and Mickey is for kids. Pisses me off everytime! I hate that. Just because they have kids and we don't they have MORE right to everything in the Park. I need to stop now, my blood pressure is going up. I will have enough opportunity to see this in action nest week when we are actualloy at DL. But that is another how not to act at Disney parks.
susi

[Shorty82]

Disney definately isn't just for kids. If it was then there wouldn't be the adult only places there are.

Also, Walt said he wanted a place for everybody to enjoy, not just the children. That right there is the best proof Disney isn't just for kids.

[Theme Park Where]

The "Disney is for kids" line bugs me too. Walt built Disneyland specifically because there weren't any places that were for FAMILIES, not just kids. And today, families are defined in a much broader term. They don't always have young kids. Families that visit the theme parks are diverse. They have young kids, older kids, or no kids. They ARE kids in some cases, either teenagers visiting on their own or young families just starting out. They are post kids. Older families where the kids have grown up and moved out. The have grandkids with them, or just enjoy spending time together as adults. And the parks have to be flexible to be enjoyable for all those groups. That's why they have adult only areas or restaurants. Walt wouldn't have had a problem with that, he would have embraced the new definition of family and would have wanted to ensure that everyone had something fun to do while visiting his "world" (and "land").

The line jumping thing also bothers me. There ARE occassions where it's permissible to "hold" a place in line for one or two people (the most used are a quick trip to the bathroom for someone who forgot to go before getting into line, and sitting out of line with someone who has a medical reason for not being able to wait in a crowd like autism, etc.), but the key word there is "one or two people". What these parents are doing is using one person to "hold" the place while the rest of the group goes out to do another attraction. Most parks have something "legal" that will do the same thing - whether it's a fastpass, express pass, or whatever. And as has been pointed out by other cms, holding places in line makes estimating the wait time almost impossible for some attractions. It's also difficult to fill shows when guests are holding seats for someone who probably isn't going to be allowed in once the show starts, or is at least not going to be able to find them without disrupting the cast and audience. I've had guests screaming in my face that I should let them into the full show because their family was holding seats. I have to tell them that we allow a certain number of people in, and even if you think your family was able to hold onto seats for you, they are keeping someone else from sitting comfortably by doing so. I've also had problems on rides with someone not getting back to the line in time and the person who was holding the space ends up either holding up the line waiting for them, thus slowing down the load time, or has to let others go around them. This is still a slowdown for loading a ride and keeps other people waiting longer than they would otherwise have to.