We've got our share of stupid guests at DL Paris, too...

Ottar · Post by **Ottar** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 7:58 am

It seems that when DL Paris (then called Euro Disney) hit us over here, 90% of the European (and surrounding) population had no real idea what a BIG theme park was all about. So, while you gouys in the US seem to be battling guests that think they know how to run the whole park, we are having to deal with people who have come across three countries and at leas two language barriers to experience something they have NO clue about in the first place.

Well, who could blame them? DL Paris *is* the first thing of its kind on this side of the globe. :) You know what? I COULD BLAME THEM! :twisted:

I mean, its all cool when its a 75-year-old german grandmother who comes up to you outside Peter Pan and asks wether or not its possible to get a taxi to that location - after all, that is a generation thing. I guess.
BUT: When people from PARIS itself or from a country where american concepts are quite well-known come up to you and say or do similiar things, I honestly don't know that to do but sigh and try my best to put that Disney-smile back on and try to contain myself.
See, this is the sort of people who have no problem watching an american Hollywood picture (maybe a Disney flick!) or eating at McDonalds or doing something arch-typically american that involves the consumer buying into a certain concept of some overseas kind. Usually not a problem for anyone below 60 years of age - especially not if they have some at least rudimentary knowledge of english. And a LOT of europeans do - its taught mandatory in almost all European schools. Plus, every CM at DLP speaks at least fluent french and english and commonly one or two more languages. Typically european.
Still, even though most signs are repeated in four languages and that you could turn to almost any CM and make yourself understood, people do the craziest things.

Ottar · Post by **Ottar** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 8:27 am

A few, brief, stories to illustrate my point above:

I was working on the DLP Steam Train that in typical Disney Park fashion does the trip around the park with four train stations. During my time on Main Street station, I heard the following comments from guests:

[When the train came puffing into the station, whistling and making a generally grand entrance.] "Is this really a merry-go-round?"

"They can't fool me - this isn't a REAL train..." (Umm... Don't you think the special effects like engine sound, smoke, the smell of diesel and and 140-ton prop is quite convincing? You are certainely the first one we've NOT managed to fool today!)

"Is there a restaurant on board the train?" (Where is your ticket to? Berlin? But yes, just in case you'd be close to dying of starvation during the 20-minute ride we've got a nice á la Carte bistro on board. Try the egg salad.)

"Must be a really short ride. The train departs every six minutes..." (Yes, in fact its so short that we've even got time to repaint the whole train in different colours for each time it arrives and change driver, tender assistant and conductor, too.)

"Is the train a part of the parade this afternoon?" (Yes, we run it down Main Street on the same tracks we use for the horse-drawn streetcar that is about 1/3 the size of the train.)

"Isn't it very expensive to have a train like this?" (Yes, building this whole park WAS rather pricy, in fact. [Still, this comment isn't so stupid as it came from someone who was clearly over whelmed by the park just from seeing the first section of Main Street.])

The absolute Darwin award, however, goes to the family who approached me with a young boy in a wheelchair. I explained to them that they'd have to wait for the next train as there wa already a wheelchair on the train and that we could only accomodate one wheelchair per train for security reasons. The father, for some reason, took offense to this and grumbled under his voice as I had to leave them for a few minutes while signalling to the driver and saying some spiels in the microphone. When I turn my attention back to the soon-to-be-leaving train, I see the father TRYING TO LIFT HIS SON AND THE WHEELCHAIR UP TO PUT HIM BETWEEN THE TRAIN CARS! Red button, emergency stop, arguments, team leaders, manager, stupid father thrown out of the park, chocked opressed mother and crying little boy given a bunch of fastpasses so they could enjoy the park as THEY saw fit. I hope they had a truly wonderful day. And that the father got run over on the parking lot.

DisneyPrincess · Post by **DisneyPrincess** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:16 am

some people....

Weeble · Post by **Weeble** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:33 pm

Oh man! I love the fact that they threw out the idiot father and let the mom and son enjoy the park. That's a great solution and very reasonable. That's why it would never happen in america.

SpaceRanger · Post by **SpaceRanger** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:03 pm

Weeble wrote:That's a great solution and very reasonable. That's why it would never happen in america.

lol! how very true... if that would have happened here, it wouldn't surprise me if they appolgized to the father and gave him free meal vouchers :roll:

Ottar · Post by **Ottar** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 8:55 pm

I completely agree it was the best solution possible to throw out the father... He was the kind of man who completely dominates a whole family and probably decides what the others want and need regardless of their feelings. At DLP, it is only the offending person who gets thrown out - though usually the rest of his group or family end up exiting the park along with him or her.

Well, having blown off some steam about the train (Oh lord, I didn't realize how bad that pun was until I read it...) I thought I'd jot down a few more stories just to get them out of my system. :) Hope I don't bore you - I just never realized just how much I neede to tell someone about these things... ;)

For the summer season of 1998 I was part of a tema of jugglers, magicians, mimes, actors and language experts who went around the park entertaining people standing in line. It was, for the most part, my dream job. I had the most fun I've ever had in my life that summer.
However, as we were usually called in as a sort of strike force to deal with problems (101s, waiting lines over 90 minutes, postponed shows, delayed parades etc.), we got a lot of bizarre customer complaint situations. Fortunately, we had a very good reputation with a lot of other CMs and leads and our manager made a habit of tearing up guest complaint forms as soon as he got them on his desk. Our memories of the respective customers, however, remain...

Once, when the waiting time for Big Thunder Mountain was close to 2 hours, our whole team was sent there to deal with a troublesome group of teenagers who kept cutting the line very offensively and in order to entertain the crowd in general. When we got there, I and a friend of mine called Jerome started doing a mime act together where I pretended to be a robot and he acted the part of a scientist or someone that wa sexperimenting with the robot. At one point in the little show, we always pulled someone out of the crowd to help "jump start" the robot with some silly charades. Jerome pulled out a very puzzled-looking guy in his late teens who after some mimed persuasion tentatively helped us out.
As we did this and I gradually came back to "life", I noticed our whole team and some Security CMs closing in on us. I didn't think much about it and presumed that they were waiting for us to finish, so I quickly ended the act and Jerome and another CM picked me up and carried the immobile "robot" away towards the backstage. As they did so, I noticed a lot of excitement and some hollering behind us. I couldn't peek at it then since I was still supposed to be "stiff", but Jerome and my other friend were nearly running away from there!
As it turns out, we came to the ride just when one guy had really gone way out of line in his pursuit to push people out if his way in the line. He had actually punched a guy who refused to move, and security and the rest of my team were hot on his heels, running all over the place.
You've guessed it. Jerome happened to pick HIM out of the crowd, and the guy, thinking he had been caught by security, was VERY confused when he was suddenly called (well, mimed) upon to aid in a circus act...
What really gets me is that we were yelled at by security for interfering with their work! :P

A less action-minded but equally stupid guest I had to deal with was an elderly gentleman who approached me while I was doing a comedy juggling routine outside of Small World. He just came up to me in the middle of my banter and demanded (in very sophisticated french) that I "quit the satanism immediately" and exclaimed that he was "appalled and disgusted" by my antics. Now believe me, I had done that routine a hundred times before and it was REALLY kiddie stuff - noting questionable in it whatsoever from a PC point of view. Manager was called in, old man was yelling and raving, nothing wa making any sense. After a few minutes, first aid was called in because my lead thought the old fart was ill or had been sun-struck (is that the term?), but it turned out he wa just of the opinion that I somehow had been practicing satanism or the black magic right there in the park.
Another bizarre complaint note, another few pieces of torn-up paper on the bottom of my managers waste basket.

Oh and before you all fall asleep reading this (if anyone does), just a small quote from a german woman with a child on each arm;
"WHY have they built a castle here? And with all this people around - why arent there any proper streets?" Duh, lady, did you really KNOW where you were driving to all the way from Germany???

Thatguy · Post by **Thatguy** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:02 am

sorry to slightly hijack this thread, but one of those stories reminded me of my favorite complaint at jungle...

a guy gets off the boat and storms up to the lead office furious. "You need to do something about him..."

"what's the problem sir?"

"We're on the ride and all he's doing is spouting off these smart alek jokes the whole time. I came on this ride to see the jungle, not to listen to some guy tell jokes."

and now to get back on topic welcome to the boards!

Ottar · Post by **Ottar** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:54 am

:D :D :D
LOL

Dante101 · Post by **Dante101** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:06 am

Ottar wrote:Hope I don't bore you - I just never realized just how much I neede to tell someone about these things... ]
No, you're not boring anyone! Stupid guest stories are what this place is all about!

And I know what you mean about the need to tell people this stuff. When you try to tell these things to people who don't work there (or don't visit there often), the person you're telling the story to just doesn't seem to get what's funny. You kinda have to work there to see how some people can be so foolish.

Ottar wrote:...an elderly gentleman who approached me while I was doing a comedy juggling routine outside of Small World. He just came up to me in the middle of my banter and demanded (in very sophisticated french) that I "quit the satanism immediately"

That is too damn funny! Like some old guy who sees a magician do a trick, the old guy's eyes bug out and he screams, "Oh my God! He's the devil!!"

Perhaps he thought the devil was giving you the power to defy gravity with your juggling!?! :roll:

TheManator · Post by **TheManator** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 5:23 pm

The parks in the US should adopt some of the policies your CMs at DLP practice; get rid of the problem, but don't punish the rest of the family. Good idea.