Stupid Guest Tricks

If I had a dollar for every time I hear that I could probably pay my house off. It usually goes accompanied by:

**"Just one more" - Forget the fact that I have already told 50 other people that the line was closed. All of them who said the same thing too.

** "But the application says that he's here until [insert time here]" - Oh how I hate that Disney application that claims to tell characters time. Oh how I wish it was accidentally erased and forgotten. Not only does it gives the wrong time but guests seem to think that still towards the end of the character time they go right on up. Nope. In case people have not notice they were not the only one at the park. The more people show up the faster you may have to close the line. No I can't control how many people get in the line.

** "Where do I get a Fastpass?" - If I had a dollar for this one I could retire a millionaire. This dollar would really make so filthy rich I would never have to lift a finger again. Whoever decided to give Mickey and the Princess in front a Fastpass deserves to... ... You know I can't think of a punishment bad enough for them... My God because Mickey gets a Fastpass then all of the sudden every freaking character in the park needs to have one. THEY ARE NOT A MACHINE!! Mickey has a different system that allows that Fastpass to happen the rest of the characters don't! Quit bitching and get on the damn line! My God I can't count the amount of tell offs I have gotten from a guests because of the line. The hilarious and sad part is that even a 15 or 20 minute line is too long for them. The other day we had a 20 minute line on the faeries and this was too long for this woman. The child had a Tinkerbell shirt, hat and shoes but Mom couldn't get on a 20 minute line to see her kids favorite character. 20 minutes was too much. For God's sake how are you teaching your child patience if you don't have it yourself?! Ahh!! Thanks to this I now hate, loath and absolute despise Fastpasses. If I ever get to president of WDW it will be one of the first things to be eliminated. Hate the damn thing! Don't bother telling me how good it is for this or that, don't want to hear it. I've gotten told off and insulted enough times to grant me the hate I have for it.

** "It's my son/daughter favorite character" - Parents if your child has a favorite must see character that they must see, how about planning for it? Stop putting what YOU want to do first and count their ideas too. How about planning for it?! Don't think you know what they are going to like, ask them. How about researching where and when the character is out? The other day I had a parent who at 9am was standing in line to see Ariel. I tell her that she comes in at 10am and she replies that she's aware of it, but today she's not taking any chances. She then explains that the day before they tried to see Ariel but because they were doing stuff the grown ups wanted to do they came in late every time. Kid ended the day in tears because she didn't get to see Ariel or any character she wanted. According to the kid 'every line was too long but they did all the rides and those lines were longer'. OUCH! Mom was owning for her fault and feeling guilty as hell. So she told her that the next day they were coming again to MK and they were standing in line as soon as the park open. She got her picture and an entire conversation with her favorite princess. Way to go Mom! Have I mention how much in top of the world mom felt? That woman thought she could conquer the world! Many parents are not like that lady they wait until 'it's their last day', 'leaving for the airport in an hour' to go see 'the kids favorite character'. Then they get angry and rude when you tell them that the line is closed. Their lack of organization all of the sudden means 'I'm rude', 'mean' and 'heartless'. Many resort to telling the kids while pointing at me how I'm the evil bitch that won't let them see the character. Lovely manners you are teaching there...

** It's our last day - This one goes hand in hand with the one above. Despite popular believe I do not close the line just to spite you. I can prove that I close the line because I have too, and believe me I'm good at knowing when does it absolutely have to be closed. People love to wait for the last minute to do things and then expect others to solve their problems. It doesn't work that way. If your child wants to see Ariel ASKS when and where she is, do not wait for when you have to leave to try and see her, then proceed to blame be for my incompetence and rudeness because I don't let them see the character.

However my absolute favorite is how "I ruined their vacation" that is self-explanatory.

How did I forget to tell this one!

** 'Look here, Hey you look here' - On a different note let me add how impatient parents are once they get to see the character. I had a guests complaint that Mary Poppins had been rude to her. However, if one where to see the situation unfold they would have gladly agree with Mary and told mom to put a sock on it. You see this kid comes to see Mary Poppins and she is a little shy. Poppins asks what's her name the child's replies and she begins a conversation. It's was early and Mary Poppins had nobody else in line so she obviously decided to have a conversation with the child. Every time Mrs. Mary asks something mom replies first and then keeps on adding 'She's really shy, she won't talk.' Mary tries to acknowledge mom but it's trying really hard to keep this conversation with the child. At some point mom decides she wants a picture and starts screaming the kids name to look all while snapping her fingers at the kid right in front of Mary's face. I'm talking right on her eyes a little more and little was left for her to accidentally hit her. Mary Poppins have had enough and turns to look at mom and very politely says "I beg your pardon, if you don't mind I would like to finish my conversation first". Mom was soooo offended! Never mind that she was snapping her fingers right in Mary Poppins face, and screaming at the kid to look at her. Apparently it was Mary the rude one. Contrary to popular believe many kids are not shy they are just not giving the chance to talk. Then parents complaint kids have no manners. Umm you're the first not to follow them!

I did kinda snap once when someone said their plane left in an hour. Sorry if this is a rehash. I simply said, "Well, you might as well stick around, because you're not making that flight."

Shocked look from the guest. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we're in Frontierland. You have a twenty minute walk to get to the front of the park. Then, there is the Monorail or Ferry trip across the Seven Seas Lagoon which will take anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes. From there, it's another ten to fifteen minutes out to your car, and that's if the tram leaves the moment you and your family are seated. Once in your car, ten minutes to get out of the parking lot, half an hour to the airport, ten minutes to turn in your car, fifteen minutes to half an hour from the car to security, and who knows how long security will take, especially since you're checking in after your flight has left. Another ten minutes to your gate with the tram ride, and if you left right now, right this second and you breezed through security, you'd be at your gate in about an hour and a half."

Of course, in reality, I condensed it to, "Well, since you won't make that flight, you might as well stick around and make the best of it."

Tinker Bell wrote:How did I forget to tell this one!

** 'Look here, Hey you look here' Mary Poppins have had enough and turns to look at mom and very politely says "I beg your pardon, if you don't mind I would like to finish my conversation first".

If you ask me this is right in character for Mary Poppins. She was always a pretty straight forward gal that told it like it was.

They pull the same tricks in attraction lines. I heard "This is our last day.. you have to let us on this ride RIGHT NOW" so many times it began my most hated statement to come out of a tourists mouth. Followed by my second favorite "But we're leaving in an hour, we can't wait in that line.. let us in the fastpass line". Which also had a 50/50 shot of having an airplane involved, to which I would often reply something akin to Wallby's statement!

This just goes to show my "Tourist/Brain-in-Trunk" theory. They don't want to loose it, so they lock it the trunk of their car.. let it bake in the Florida sun which results in some form of damage. >.<

Darksin wrote:...
This just goes to show my "Tourist/Brain-in-Trunk" theory. They don't want to loose it, so they lock it the trunk of their car.. let it bake in the Florida sun which results in some form of damage. >.<

This presumes that all SG's have a brain, which to me is still unproven.

anyone else?

once when we were waiting in line for HM, I heard a guest tell a cm that (in the outside cue) so when the cm passed, I told him that today was our first day, and that I wanted to experience a nice long ride, so please slow it down.

I actually got a smile out of the CM!

Yep, that's a pretty good list of "overused phrases by SGs". Of course, there is also, "We paid.../Do you know how much we paid?"...

A few years ago I was working Indiana Jones during the winter. Christmas week we had just capacity-closed the 5:30pm show even though it was still a few minutes early. I was working one of the Greeter positions outside the queue area. Of course I was politely turning Guests away, telling them we would be opening the queue for the 6:15 show in a short while.

A family of five came up to me and wanted to get it. I gave them my regular "sorry about that" spiel. He kept pressing that they had to get in. The then said that they were going to have to leave for the airport just after the 5:30 show ended. I mentioned that if the show was that important, he should have come to one of the five we had earlier in the day or arrived for this show earlier.

At this point he demanded to see a Manager. I had noticed two Managers standing about 20 or so feet from me, and watching what was going on. So I told the Guest I would see what I could do for him. We were close to the telephone, so I picked up the phone and called the Podium; pointing out to the Guest were I was calling so he could see when the phone was picked up. When the person there answered, I asked him if there were any Managers around. He said "no", so I asked him that if he saw any Managers that there was a Guest out front who wanted to talk with them.

Finally about three or four minutes later, when the show as actually starting, the Guest and family left. At that time one of the Managers walked over to me and said something to the effect of: "Mike we saw and heard everything that went on with that family. Thanks for keeping us out of it."

The only time I can see being understanding about ride/show entrance is those infrequent times where guests are stranded on a ride for one reason or another which then messes up their fastpass times or ADRs. The gall of some SGs trying to game the system sometimes surprises me. JUST PLAY BY THE RULES. What are parents teaching their children by pulling these stunts? I swear, we're raising a bunch of Victor Gecko's and axe murderers.