The main thing I remember about my last trip was the pushing and shoving to meet characters, I'm not going to name nationalities because I feel that not all nationalities behave in this way. So I was waiting patiently to meet Daisy Duck, and a swarm of 'foreign' children swarmed in, pushed me out the way, I was trying to be polite even though I was the first one there. So I let them all go before me, they all got signed and Daisy walked off. I was extremely angered by their rudeness and lack of knowledge on how to queue. & Also, some rides like Orbitron where the queuing area is outdoors. A father and his son pushed to the front of the queue. & No one near him said a word, I just think it is outrageous that people, especially with a young child can behave this way. If I was able to speak their language I would really give them a good telling off, it's so annoying. I have to bite my tongue everytime I see it happen. Anyone else feel this way?
-Rosie :bambi:
The problem with DLP is the Brits - we like to queue (and quite right too). It's just that in Europe, no other nationality seems to follow the simple rules that we do! On my last trip, we just arrived at the train station and pulled our luggage to the bus stop to catch the shuttle bus to our hotel. We must have just missed a shuttle because we were the first people in line for our hotel. However, by the time the shuttle arrived, we were last in line and subsequently ended up walking through disney Village with our suitcases! =D>
Lol @ kirstenoel
I never go to meet the characters unless the area is completely clear! It drives me insane how rude some people are and the parents are the worst! I just pray my daughter remains happy to meet characters during the character dinners rather than the scrum in the parks, to be honest I'd rather pay and get the one on one time. It is a shame though. You really should be able to say hi to a character and they should roam freely around the park.
I went in May once and we got a considerable amount of time with the characters in the Studios. They had an English cast member with them who was fantastic and spent ages chatting and trying to win my, then 3 year old, daughter over with Chip n Dale. She was terrified, bless her.
I don't have children and am not that interested in meeting characters. Maybe we Brits should start behaving like the "Europeans" at these times, after all we are always being told by the rest of the EU that we are not good Europeans, so maybe this would be a good way to make a good impression on our neighbours!
I've seen plenty of Brits pushing and shoving too, it's not just non Brits (let's not say Europeans as we Brits are European too) who are the rude ones in DLP - all nationalities have ignorant people. I think a lot of the blame is with DLP themselves in that they let it all go on without any policing. I'm sure the excuse would be that they can't employ more people to help with the character handling but it does put people off and leave them with a bitter experience to remember the resort by. At least things like Princess Pavilion and the upcoming Meet Mickey have proper queues which minimise, but not eliminate, srcums.
I think this isn't a question of nationality. I've seen Brits shoving as well as Germans, Italians, Spanish...as every nationality. I think that's why they create more and more Meet and Greet locations where you have a small queue and nobody is able to push to the front.
For adults or teenagers it seems to be impossible to get a photo with a character outside a meet and greet location. Parents force their children to shove, they automatically stand in the first row and the characters always seem to prefer them for taking pictures...And in the end it's always like madondisney said: They walk off and you look crestfallen ;)
I along with my daughter i love the character meets but hate the pushing and shoving.......totally agree though its not just the europeans who do this,i've seen plenty of brits pushing their children to the front,spoils the whole experience!But having said that you can't go to cafe mickey these days without children leaving their tables along with parents and pushing in on a character who is at your table!If my daughter got up and did that :x
I,ve sen her miss out on many a photo or autograph because she waits paitently,stands back and doesn't push like others but being polite gets you nowhere....wouldn't have her any other way though :D
Quote from: "PirateSteve"I I think a lot of the blame is with DLP themselves in that they let it all go on without any policing. I'm sure the excuse would be that they can't employ more people to help with the character handling...
I just worked at DLP over the Christmas season and believe me they have MORE than enough staff for this purpose. The Cast Members that work with the characters and in parades are "guest flow" and you'll see them most of the time doing nothing. However when they work they really do work. On my last day there I saw two members of guest flow for 5 characters! It doesnt work, then I went around the corner and there were about 15 CMs just chatting. The management needs to group these CMs better and give them training on organising a queue as I know at DLP it is not done.
On the other hand, when people don't want to queue they don't and it's all nationalities...they will push through (and I have seen people push through an entire queue). Lucky when CMs spot it we call up security and they'll be there in a minute or so...trust me it is dealt with if anything serious happens.
Thank you , Patrick89, for saying that. I agreee, it is different nationalities doing pushing and shoving. We tend to stand, when we meet characters "on the street", a little on the side of them. Many times that helps. Or if a CM is close, stand kind of next to him, then they see, you`re not pushing. And handing your autographbook in the characters direction dosn`t hurt either.
And lynny, I noticed that too. Keep saying to my daughter the same thing. And sometimes I told people, when they were around our table. If looks could kill, I wouldn`t write tese lines... :?
Aurora1
A happy new year to everybody and a lot of Disney magic too!!! :D
At the Aladdin meet and greet the queue works superbly, similarly with Rhythms of the Jungle!
We queued up for about 5 minutes to meet Jafar and then we went back and queued again for Genie.
Because of the queue this deters the shovey people and there is normally a maximum of 20 people/groups in the queue. You then get a good 30 second interaction which is ample to say hello, have a photo and get an autograph if you want one.
Martin
I noticed this too on my trip there. It was my first trip ever and I am a teenager, so obviously the characters thought I was either an older sister of some little kids or they do as most will and pick the little ones first. But I saw many, many people push their children forward. Some LITERALLY crawled on the ground and through my legs (I was standing at the front for at least 15 minutes sheesh) and their parents actually told them to do that. It was SUPER rude!
Luckily though, the CM who was with the character was working hard, but it didn't help much. My tips for anyone with decency not to push and shove is; keep waiting patiently and SMILE like heck at the CM next to them and ask them very very politely if you could "please meet the character as you have been waiting for a very long time", remember not to sound pissed; they are doing their best most of the time so they really enjoy it when people are not yelling at them for once. (Seriously, all those pushy parents were yelling at the poor woman and the princess like crazy...)
But you are all right in saying there should be more of a policy when it comes to meeting characters. It ruins a lot if there isn't; in some American parks I heard characters simply parade around the park having fun and meeting random people and such; that sounds SO much more fun but I guess the attitude of some people doesn't allow that here.
But please; let us not point fingers at nationalities, I've seen loads of nationalities do this. Also, it is not true that only Brits queue op nice and all; I live in the Netherlands and never had any problem with it. It's better not to generalise.
Quote from: "Nao"I noticed this too on my trip there. It was my first trip ever and I am a teenager, so obviously the characters thought I was either an older sister of some little kids or they do as most will and pick the little ones first. But I saw many, many people push their children forward. Some LITERALLY crawled on the ground and through my legs (I was standing at the front for at least 15 minutes sheesh) and their parents actually told them to do that. It was SUPER rude!
Luckily though, the CM who was with the character was working hard, but it didn't help much. My tips for anyone with decency not to push and shove is; keep waiting patiently and SMILE like heck at the CM next to them and ask them very very politely if you could "please meet the character as you have been waiting for a very long time", remember not to sound pissed; they are doing their best most of the time so they really enjoy it when people are not yelling at them for once. (Seriously, all those pushy parents were yelling at the poor woman and the princess like crazy...)
But you are all right in saying there should be more of a policy when it comes to meeting characters. It ruins a lot if there isn't;
in some American parks I heard characters simply parade around the park having fun and meeting random people and such; that sounds SO much more fun but I guess the attitude of some people doesn't allow that here.
But please; let us not point fingers at nationalities, I've seen loads of nationalities do this. Also, it is not true that only Brits queue op nice and all; I live in the Netherlands and never had any problem with it. It's better not to generalise.
i'm not a fan of queued meet n greets at DLP, I much prefer the random character meets, and my daughter isn't a little kid anymore.
On our last trip we met quite a few characters who were alone and almost twiddling their thumbs, looking for guests to interact with. we had a great laugh with the Mad Hatter, who was near the Labyrinth, he was positioned so that he'd formed his own little queue area so there was no room for scrumming around him. my daughter has also had the Sheriff of Nottingham trying to run off with her bag in Fantasyland, and we even found Ariel there one year, with no-one around.
I've generally found the quieter the park, the better the random character meet opportunities are. Yes, there are scrums and we don't participate in them, but when we used to (as long as they weren't ridiculous) we'd wait and smile at the CM, I would also say to my daughter (in a voice loud enough for the CM and the character to hear) "be patient, and you'll get a chance to meet ........".
I saw a fabulous Kodak moment at DLP too - Tigger had just come off one of the Casey Jnr Express incarnations at the hub on main street, and was bounding over to where he'd be meeting and greeting. He stopped suddenly, held his hands up to the folk around him to back off a little, then he bent down on his knees and a little boy of 3 or 4 just ran like the clappers into his arms for the biggest hug ever! It was magical to see, and his mum (and me) were a little teary as she was running behind him with her camera saying "thank you oh thank you Tigger".
It really is too bad rudeness has become so prevalent in society no matter where you go. Like people have said, you can't blame one nationality in general. Stressful situations combined with factors such as a lack of sleep and hunger will make ordinary people do inexplicable things...like pushing their way to see a character.
The only country where I have not seen pushing and shoving is in Japan. In the short time I was there people were extraordinally polite. In Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea I did not see a single person cut into a queue. The worst, and I say worst in the loosest sense possible, I witnessed was family members saving spots for each other. Pooh's Honey Hunt has insane waiting times, so people invariably need to leave the queue to use the toilet. They would simply leave and politely snake their way back to their original spot. My trip to Tokyo Disneyland was by far the most leisurely of all my Disney trips.
I too hate all the pushing and shoving of people with young children i cant say i pay any attention to their nationalities however being elbowed out of the way by pushy parents is enough for me to say something!
sometimes i get tired of waiting and end up leaving the random meet and greets however the ones with queues like mickey, the jungle rhythms etc work brilliantly! although the random meet and greets i see near its a small world are never as bad as the ones in the studios imo! but when i do get the chance to meet the random ones it does feel great!
Its so sad that this happens so much, when me and my girl went in november one of the first things we did was go for the meet n greet with sully and there was no structure and he seemed to be favouring tthe pritty teenage girls alot and he ignored us and elbowed her away.
It put a real downer on the trip and we wernt happy untill we were on crushes coaster, sully is one of here favorite characters and this was the first time she saw him and it just fell to pieces it was truly heart breaking.
After we got back i emailed disney with a complaint about this and suggested that all meet and greets should be more organised and that assisting cast members should keep crowds under control and they got back to me saying that ALL of there meet and greets have crowd control roping, i could not believe they mailed such a blaintant lie im just going to assume that who ever delt with my complaint doesnt know how it is in the real world
The helping cast members should realy take control more its not fair to so many people, there has been so much emphasis and the meet and greets the last few years and if people go to them and experience this there going to be p!$$ed off and not come back and paris cant rearly afford that especialy for brits who can go to florida with good deals for more rides and better service.
Next time i go im taking a red flash light and a megaphone any who pushes im just going to draw attention to them
If anyone who works at disneyland paris is reading this please listen i dont expect the staff to be constantly smiling and be overly polite to me i do expect meet and greets and ride ques to be organised and fair like any other theme park in the world
Nothing new here.. :mrgreen:
After a while you harden to it and if I'm honest ends up being part of the fun. My family have had quite a few topical chats on each visit in this very area, just when you thought you'd seen the ultimate rudeness, think again.. :mrgreen:
We were waiting in the massive line at phantom manor on halloween night and a group of 8 lads aged about 18 jumped over the bottom wall climbed up the bank through the trees and over the balcony to get right to the front :shock: but the really funny bit was that everyone in the line (and there were loads) booed and jeered them as they climbed up :D they shouted back trying to look a bit hard but as my OH stated you can't pretend to be that tough going to a Disney Halloween party. :P
Unless we are there at a quiet time of year, we never get involved in the scrum which surrounds the random meet and greets and generally can not bear the wait times for the organised ones. We get all our photographs in either the hotel or Cafe Mickeys.
We just got back last week where we ate at CM and we were driven crazy by the amount of parents and children that were wondering around going up to peoples tables for character autographs and photos. Whilst the charachters made arm gestures to the effect that they should sit down and they would get to them soon, not one other member of staff made any effort to get people to go back to their tables or explain how it works. However, I do feel there should be a sign upon entering the restaurant making it clear how it works there, because if it is your first time, there is no reason why should know the characters will come to your table.
Having said how annoying it was having people push into your dinner and character meets, we were there for almost 2 hours and in all that time only 1 character went to the area of the restaurant behind the glass partition, which we thought was terrible.
Imaging telling your children that you were going to CM to meet lots of Disney characters and to pay a fortune for a meal and then only to get to see one character! If that had been me sitting there, I would have SERIOUSLY complained as my son would have been devastated - so maybe those people wondering around were justified in doing so?
All in all, whether in the parks or in the restaurants, the organising of character meet and greets leaves a lot to be desired!
(although dlp is still my most favourite place to be :D )
I can understand the frustration of some people.
We were upstairs in CM in October.
We had finished our starter AND main course before we eventually got to meet a character (Mickey)
Then we ate our pudding and saw Minnie.
We had seen people have Birthday cakes on other occasions and get loads of characters around, but we had finished our dessert and was waiting for my cake, and there was not one character in sight.
However when the cake came out so did Gideon, Hook and Smee. Followed shortly after by Tigger.
Other people would have been stuck with seeing Mickey or Minnie and that is it, especially if they were only having one or two courses. If you only have one character, you can understand kids running to them as soon as they come out. They've been bored for over an hour!
I think the distribution of characters in CM is normally wrong. We saw Eeyore, Goofy, Pinnochio and Minnie downstairs as we were waiting to go up. Then like I said we didn't see a character until after our Main course when Mickey finally showed up.
Martin
Oh, my... Do NOT get my started on that. :x
It happens all the time - I really prefer when characters pick the people they wish to meet - I.E Jack Sparrow seems to do it often and Daisy did it too - unfortunately when new people come along they don't know - but still have the rudeness to push to the front from the side.
It can get annoying, but I do respect the children more - but only if THEY go towards the character, sort of out of awe of meeting the character, but if mummy or daddy pushes them, it's not fair. It even got that bad once MY dad was pushing me and I'm 18. XD But if I see a kid purposely pushing - I push back, then I get shouted at in another language, but I just shrug. They know what they are doing! >.<
But yeah, even though queueing m'n'gts are time-consuming, it is worth it in the end, since its "fair". But it is still nice for random character meets.
We have only ever queued once to see a Character, and that was Minnie at the entrance to the Studios. We only did that because we got through the turnstile and unknowingly wandered into the queue and were about three from the front! I wouldn't ever wait in any of the scrums. Once we saw Ariel and she was surrounded, she must have been terrified! I think it's way too stressful fending off queue jumpers when there is no queuing structure, it's hard enough in thd lines for rides! I've yet to see the princess pavilion and the other meet and greet areas with dedicated queuing structures, so I'll reserve judgement there, maybe I could be convinced to utilise those. It's interesting to read about Cafe Mickey though, I'd planned to have a character meal mainly for the photos, so that we wouldn't need to queue for characters in the parks. However, I wouldn't be impressed if I'd paid all that money and seen only one character! We do laugh about the queue jumpers in the ride lines though! We have our own little formations whereby we spread out in thd problem areas such as the corners, it's difficult trying to queue jump past ten people with interlinked arms ;)
QuoteIt even got that bad once MY dad was pushing me and I'm 18. XD But if I see a kid purposely pushing - I push back, then I get shouted at in another language, but I just shrug. They know what they are doing! >.<
^ My mom was like that, she was like elbows out kids. I think I'm going to take your advice alternativerock123. & Also this is slightly off topic, I love your videos on youtube of the characters, I watched them all day when I was ill. :D
My friend and I are in our late 20's/early 30's and because I'm in teaching we can only go in busy times. However, we've normally come away having met quite a few characters. It seems to be a matter of knowing the best places (as usual a little bit of 'regular' knowledge goes a long way!). We tend to do a character meal (last time the tea party at Cowboy Cookout which was very good for interaction, better than CM!) and then meet them in the hotel (we tend to get up early when it's quiet) as well as any we see wandering around who don't have a massive scrum. Near IASW tends to be quite good for this. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can find a quiet one at the top of Main Street.
We've never actually bothered joining one of the queues although it seems to me they are increasingly a very good idea, especially for the most popular characters.
I'm not sure whether having more queued, organised m&g would be a good thing. On one hand it helps prevent the scum but on the other I rather like just unexpectedly coming across a character.
Quote from: "Javey74"Nothing new here.. :mrgreen:
After a while you harden to it and if I'm honest ends up being part of the fun.
I actually agree with this, mostly because we are lucky and are usually noticed before we endulge in flexing our elbows. So watching from afar its actually laughable watching the extremes some adults will go to.
I'm always prepared to get my elbows out if the situation calls to it. Why should you let someone elbow you out the way? You shouldn't, stand up for yourself.