Luck of the Irish was with us...

[Lady Hiss]

We had awesome luck with buses and boats on our recent trip (March 1-13th) - only had one long wait (MK to BC took about 20 minutes one early afternoon). We usually waited less than 10 minutes for the buses (stayed at AKL and BCV) and somehow timed the Friendship boats well, never waiting more than 10 minutes.

HOWEVER, the days of smiling, friendly transportation CMs seem to be over. At least 80% of our bus drivers and boat CM's barely spoke to us. The boat CM's were sullen and didn't even speak to each other, much less the guests. Yes, I know transportation safety is serious business, but is it company policy to stand there like zombies? We greeted a boat CM as we boarded one late morning with our perky question, 'How're you doing today?" His grumpy response was, 'I'm alright' and that was the end of that conversation. We laughed about it, but sheesh. Other guests also tried to engage the boat CMs in small talk - nope, no response other than one word. It was weird.

On a happier note, there were a couple CMs who stood out: A bus driver from AKL to AK one morning. She reminded us to bring our smiles '(NO complaining allowed - it's Disney') and our money ('because it's Disney!') - the entire group of passengers applauded her when we got to the park. Hilarious and really started our morning off right. Another was a bus driver at DS who advised us which resort bus to take in order to find the quickest way to Epcot - he was very helpful and super nice.

We took the monorail once - no problems, no greeting from any CMs there either but perhaps I'm just nitpicking now.

 

[SteveH]

Back for our January trip we had some great interactions with a some CMs, but I noticed a lot of the CMs were rather spaced off, oblivious or sort of a "could care less attitude" plug many times some were to busy chatting with each other to pay attention to guests. I'd actually say we saw and interacted more with the bus CMs than the boat CMs. I know I can think of four CMs that made a point to engage with us while on the trip that left us with good memories.

 

[joelkfla]

It may be that some cm's are bitter about Disney's hard line in contract negotiations, and the company's reneging on their widely publicized announcement to give all cm's a Trumpian tax cut bonus.

 

[Lady Hiss]

It may be that some cm's are bitter about Disney's hard line in contract negotiations, and the company's reneging on their widely publicized announcement to give all cm's a Trumpian tax cut bonus.

We found ourselves wondering about the reason for the decline in the CM 'magic' and had the same thoughts as you - poor pay, long hours, not enough training and the tight Florida labor market. We actually had 2 CMs complain to us about the long hours they were working (10-12 hour days).
My DH says that the days of happy, smiling, engaging CMs is mostly gone and we won't get it back. For that reason, whenever we encountered a great CM, I tried to fill out the compliment card at Guest Services. This time I didn't need to do that very often, unfortunately.

 

[Woodview]

How would you feel if you were Listening to & answering the same questions over & over again ?

Maybe tired , irritated , & here we go again ... another person who thinks their question has never been

asked before ......

So Smile & try not to interact with the visitor & get on with the job of Driving the Bus / boat

 

[Lady Hiss]

How would you feel if you were Listening to & answering the same questions over & over again ?

Maybe tired , irritated , & here we go again ... another person who thinks their question has never been

asked before ......

So Smile & try not to interact with the visitor & get on with the job of Driving the Bus / boat

Sorry, I'm not good with that logic as many of us have had jobs that involve repetitive customer interaction and didn't become negative. It takes little effort to smile and say hello - The lack of that simple interaction is what we experienced numerous times on our trip, esp with the Friendship Boat CMs. And no, we weren't asking questions or trying to be clever with them.

 

[Mamapapa]

How would you feel if you were Listening to & answering the same questions over & over again ?

Maybe tired , irritated , & here we go again ... another person who thinks their question has never been

asked before ......

So Smile & try not to interact with the visitor & get on with the job of Driving the Bus / boat

Sorry, I also disagree with this. If you're not happy with your job, get a new one. If you don't like answering the same questions over and over, don't work in customer service. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior.

 

[joelkfla]

Sorry, I also disagree with this. If you're not happy with your job, get a new one. If you don't like answering the same questions over and over, don't work in customer service. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior.

Yeah, when I was a cm, I never understood why the cm's who didn't like dealing with Guests stuck around. It's an integral part of any front-line role.

OTOH, feeling abused and exploited (I'm struggling to find a polite term here) by the company can cause poor morale in just about anyone.