Strollers
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:41 pm
So, personally, one of my most hated parts of working at WDW is strollers. Whether it's renting them out or parking them, stollers are pretty much evil. I understand the need for them, without them the crazed parents would subject their children to even more exhausting days. 
But at the same time, I really do not see the point of needing enough stuff in your stroller to sustain you should there be an awful emergency and you need to live off the contents of your stroller for several weeks. Seriously, maybe I'm nuts, but when I was a kid there was none of this ice chest, toys, security blanket, gameboys, etetera.
So this is the place where you can post your stroller horror stories.
Working an EHH stroller parking shift in ad/lib over Spring Break, I was parking strollers near the Haunted Mansion. For some reason the Mansion was influxed with guests and had over a 70 minute wait at one point.
The HM CM's were explaining to guests as they entered the queue that if they did not park their stroller in the designated location (behind harbor house) that it would be moved. Well, go figure, most of them didn't. So the few of us that were parking strollers just reorganized them into our location. Not a big deal until I am approached by a guest who immediatly informs me that her stroller has been stolen. I explain that, no, it has just been moved into the appropriate location to keep the area from becoming a fire hazard. We locate her stroller which she immediatly inspects to ensure it has not been damaged. Seeming satisfied she charges off to terrorize CM's at another attraction.
About half an hour later she shows back up and pulls on the back of my vest. I ask her (despite being annoyed at being tugged at) how I can help her and she tells me that after she parked her stroller here her camera bag went missing and demands that I produce it. I explain to her that none of the cast members there had found a camera bag, and we recommend that no valuables be left in the strollers. I was about to start explaining her options at that point when she informs me that she knows I stole it and wants security NOW!
I calmly explain to her that I do not have her camera bag, but I would be happy to call security for her. She replies with: "Oh right, so you can tell them your version of the story before I can talk to them?" She storms off and finds the nearest security guard, drags him back to where I am standing and proceeds to inform the guard that she saw me take her camera bag after I illegally touched her personal property by moving her stroller. At that point, one of the other CM's parking with me chips in that he saw her check the strollers contents before leaving and asks why she didn't say anything then? Fortunatly the security guard was great about the whole thing. After "taking her statement" he asks if there is a chance she misplaced the bag in the crowds that day. After a few minutes of listening to her retrace her steps he suggests that perhaps she might have unknowingly left the bag on an attraction? At that point she says that she is pretty sure she remembers taking it on every ride that day up till the HM. Cool security guard goes up to mansion with her and asks, and sure enough... she had left it in her doom buggy. And of course the natural response is not to file a lost and found report, but to try and potentially get the closest convienent CM fired for 'stealing' it. :(
But at the same time, I really do not see the point of needing enough stuff in your stroller to sustain you should there be an awful emergency and you need to live off the contents of your stroller for several weeks. Seriously, maybe I'm nuts, but when I was a kid there was none of this ice chest, toys, security blanket, gameboys, etetera. So this is the place where you can post your stroller horror stories.
Working an EHH stroller parking shift in ad/lib over Spring Break, I was parking strollers near the Haunted Mansion. For some reason the Mansion was influxed with guests and had over a 70 minute wait at one point.
The HM CM's were explaining to guests as they entered the queue that if they did not park their stroller in the designated location (behind harbor house) that it would be moved. Well, go figure, most of them didn't. So the few of us that were parking strollers just reorganized them into our location. Not a big deal until I am approached by a guest who immediatly informs me that her stroller has been stolen. I explain that, no, it has just been moved into the appropriate location to keep the area from becoming a fire hazard. We locate her stroller which she immediatly inspects to ensure it has not been damaged. Seeming satisfied she charges off to terrorize CM's at another attraction. About half an hour later she shows back up and pulls on the back of my vest. I ask her (despite being annoyed at being tugged at) how I can help her and she tells me that after she parked her stroller here her camera bag went missing and demands that I produce it. I explain to her that none of the cast members there had found a camera bag, and we recommend that no valuables be left in the strollers. I was about to start explaining her options at that point when she informs me that she knows I stole it and wants security NOW!
I calmly explain to her that I do not have her camera bag, but I would be happy to call security for her. She replies with: "Oh right, so you can tell them your version of the story before I can talk to them?" She storms off and finds the nearest security guard, drags him back to where I am standing and proceeds to inform the guard that she saw me take her camera bag after I illegally touched her personal property by moving her stroller. At that point, one of the other CM's parking with me chips in that he saw her check the strollers contents before leaving and asks why she didn't say anything then? Fortunatly the security guard was great about the whole thing. After "taking her statement" he asks if there is a chance she misplaced the bag in the crowds that day. After a few minutes of listening to her retrace her steps he suggests that perhaps she might have unknowingly left the bag on an attraction? At that point she says that she is pretty sure she remembers taking it on every ride that day up till the HM. Cool security guard goes up to mansion with her and asks, and sure enough... she had left it in her doom buggy. And of course the natural response is not to file a lost and found report, but to try and potentially get the closest convienent CM fired for 'stealing' it. :(