Have You Ever Had To Confront Another Guest's Poor Behavior?

[The WDW 3]

I’ve had to tell a few people how disgusting they smelled.

 

[e_yerger]

I’ve had to tell a few people how disgusting they smelled.

you're very brave.... i don't know if i'd ever have the guts to tell someone that

 

[KPeveler]

I have had to tell guests off for getting in my business regarding my disability. it is amazing how many grown adults think to start their conversations with me with "What is wrong with you?" and "Why do you have a wheelchair?"

I don't mind answering little kids' questions, but adults can mind their own business.

 

[MrsPete]

Soooooo, I happen to have a very loving, kind husband who is........well, "oblivious" to most of the world around him. He is the person who will stand in front of kids at a parade, or fireworks, or walk into a line not even seeing that it wraps 1/4 mile down the park behind him ...

Makes me think about a time I tried to join a line, and I was unsure of protocol -- I asked the guy at the end if I had found the right place, and he assured me he had. So I stood there, thinking all was well, and he said, "I'm the first person in line -- you need to go to the end." I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I'm sure he thought I was trying to take advantage. I wasn't -- I was just oblivious.

Doors open at the end of the ride, and the kid is there to greet us in a tiny bellhop costume with a smile from ear to ear. I hope it made her day, and I hope it helped her see that she ought to be treated better than she had been.

That's a great story! CMs are great at this kind of thing: Once we were in Hollywood Studios, and it was late, and the Rock & Roll Rollercoaster was EMPTY. My husband and older child were getting off the ride, running back to the front to ride again -- they rode about six times in a row. I was standing with my younger child, who was too short to ride, and she was UNHAPPY. She was crying and kicking a wall, and nothing I was doing was making it any better. A CM came up and asked what was wrong, and she said, "You know, my friend Tinkerbelle is just over there, and I think she can help." She disappeared a minute and came back with a lovely certificate that promised that when she was tall enough,my daughter could come back and cut to the front of the R&R Coaster line. And she gave us a special pass to get special seating for Fantasmic. Yep, THAT made my daughter's whole trip -- we hadn't been planning to go to Fantasmic, but we went to the gate and showed the certificate, and a different CM took one look at it and said, "From Tinkerbelle? Let's get you seated!" And he ZOOMED us to great seats. My youngest talked for months about "How she got us seats".

Just wondered if you were ever injured by someone else that felt entitled to do so by their bad behavior. Yes, a Disney vacation is expensive……does not give anyone the right to ruin another's vacation by inflicting harm…imho. For some , the World did stop.

One of my pet peeves -- and I see this on cruise boards all the time -- is people who say, "I'm going to _____ (usually something to do with taking more than one's share or breaking the rules) because it's my vacation." Yeah, it's EVERYONE ELSE'S VACATION TOO. You're not special!

I’ve had to tell a few people how disgusting they smelled.

I teach high school. I've had to tell more than a few boys about the secrets of soap and deodorant. 9th grade boys are often oblivious (yeah, some freshman classes have a boys-who-just-got-out-of-PE-smell), but 10th grade boys tend to have figured out that girls aren't attracted to stinky.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

I encountered a rude woman in the laundry room at Pop. It was very busy, and I was lucky to find an empty machine. I put my clothes in then went to pay. I assumed I could pay by magic band, but you actually have to pay by debit card, which I didn't have with me. So I ran into the Pop market place. My husband and kids were seated right near the door, having a snack. I asked him for his debit card and ran back to the laundry room. I was only gone 1-2 minutes. In that time this woman had taken out my clothes and put hers in. I was furious! I told her I was using it and left to get the debit card, and she didn't care. She started it up. I yelled at her, letting her know how rude she was to touch my clothes and steal my machine. She didn't care. Fortunately another woman overheard, agreed she was rude, and said I could have hers when she was done. She had 10 minutes left, so I waited and used that one.

 

[NOLA_Tink]

Nope, thankfully, in decades of trips, I guess we've been lucky!!!

 

[goofy4prez]

In most cases, I will choose to ignore someone rather than confront, but I did have the exception back in 2016. I along with 7 others from my family was staying at the VGF during the time that the Cleveland Cavaliers were playing the Golden State Warriors in the NBA championships. I'm from Cleveland and now live about 80 miles away, so naturally, I live and breathe Browns, Indians, and Cavaliers when it comes to my sports teams. And having rarely experienced my sports teams enjoying much success in my 50+ years, I was wearing my Cavalier garb in pride. We were down 3-1 and I pretty much conceded it was another season without a championship in Cleveland.

As we were walking to the monorail I saw a small group of people walking past us and they were wearing their Warriors hats and shirts. I was polite, said good morning, should be a good game tonight, good luck. One of them responded by saying "yea right *ssHol*, not a chance. I just walked on, didn't say a word. A few days later we all headed to the small bar that was in the GF to watch the impossible game 7. Sure enough, that same guy was there with a group to watch their team. During the first half of the game, he was hurling insults and profanity. To the CM's credit that was there, he did ask them to refrain from the profanity. But he still remained loud and had a good time teasing our group.

As the game continued into the 4th qtr he got a whole lot quieter. The last minute had to seem like an eternity to him. Not a word came out of his mouth as the announcer said, "It's over, it's over, Cleveland is a city of champions once again." You can imagine how ecstatic we were. I never experienced a championship in my lifetime.

Now I believe in being a good sport, but I did not at that moment. As we left the lounge, I set my empty glass on his table in front of him and said I think you're going to need this for your tears idiot and left. It was the wrong thing to do, but it felt so good. LOL

 

[emily nicole]

I thought of another one. It was the last day of Maelstrom and the line to ride was very long all day. I had gotten a FP+ for it that evening. We ended up in a boat with a group of women. We were in front, them in back. A little while after the ride started, one of them held up her phone to film with the flash on. I was not happy that my last ride of Maelstrom was getting ruined by her stupid light. I asked them nicely to turn off the flash and was ignored. I asked again, a little louder. Nothing. Finally I said VERY loudly, "TURN OFF YOUR FLASH!!!!" They laughed at me and said in a mocking voice (you know how people do) "turn off your flash" and laughed some more but did turn it off. After the ride I explained to the CM what had happened and it was our last time to ride it ever, etc. and she was kind enough to let us go through the FP+ line again.

 

[emily nicole]

Now I believe in being a good sport, but I did not at that moment. As we left the lounge, I set my empty glass on his table in front of him and said I think you're going to need this for your tears idiot and left. It was the wrong thing to do, but it felt so good. LOL

Brilliant!!!

 

[_19disnA]

This is my mantra...

In over 100 days at WDW I can't say I've ever felt the need to interject my 2 cents into any situation.

Same here. We are on vacation and more focused on enjoying ourselves rather then searching out people doing something we don't agree with. Most of the time, if you mind your own business, you won't end up in the types of confrontational situations others are describing. Since you never know the context of any situation and don't know those people, the best action is make a Disney employee aware of some situation that seems troubling. They know how to deal with such things. Confronting strangers in public no matter where you are seems like a dreadful idea.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I teach high school. I've had to tell more than a few boys about the secrets of soap and deodorant. 9th grade boys are often oblivious (yeah, some freshman classes have a boys-who-just-got-out-of-PE-smell), but 10th grade boys tend to have figured out that girls aren't attracted to stinky.

I teach middle school and there are often conversations about hygiene and how deodorant can be our friend. I have a candle on my desk that I light when someone is particularly ripe. The kids have caught on and when I light it some usually blurts out "Who is stinky today Mrs. P?"

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

We got on the bus from Pop for Disney Springs and we found seats but a little spaced apart. The woman sitting next to dh was holding a 5 year old or so child who looked ready to drop from tiredness. As the bus pulled out the child was falling asleep so the woman cradled her like you would a baby but she was not a baby and her legs were too long. She stretched out her legs on dh's lap. Not just a little but like literally her entire legs. Mom saw but obviously did not care or even ask if its ok or agologize so after about 30 seconds or so dh gently lifted them off himself by the ankles. He didn't even know what to do with his arms and hands because he had nowhere to put them without touching her legs. I was terrified that he would be told off for touching a child but at that moment he didn't care he was just like "who does that?"

 

[robinb]

This was my experience from 20+ years ago:

I was actually shoved by someone I confronted for line cutting. It was at Disneyland on New Year's Eve 1998/1999 (VERY crowded) and I was 8 weeks pregnant and cranky. I am not the most laid back person at the best of times and I was much worse when those hormones kicked in.

Anyway ... we were waiting for the train in New Orleans Square and had been in line for about 30 minutes. The queue starts to the right and the circles around a few rows of back-to-back benches with a railing between them and doubles back to make a long left facing "U". We were at the front of the line in the upper arm of the "U" and a young woman entered the end of the line at the bottom arm of the "U", lifted her little DD (about 3) up and over the benches and railing and hopped over herself right in front of me.

I was shocked. Then I was mad. I confronted her and had support from the people behind me. She reached out and gave me a big shove that sent me flying back into my husband who immediately grabbed me and held me close lest I continue the cat fight in my elevated hormonal state. Sometimes there are no CMs around when you need 'em and this was one of those times. I gave her the evil eye and said something about Disney Magic but nothing else. The people around me gave her a wide berth and I gave me some kind words. We all got on the next train and I made sure were on a different car.

 

[shh]

Soooooo, I happen to have a very loving, kind husband who is........well, "oblivious" to most of the world around him. He is the person who will stand in front of kids at a parade, or fireworks, or walk into a line not even seeing that it wraps 1/4 mile down the park behind him. My son and I are NOT oblivious and we always notice him do this.....and immediately correct him and apologize to those around us. Therefore I am offering my apologies now for our upcoming trip.

Ya know...it's true. Once in a while I get disney "fog brain" and do something dumb like that, then immediately apologize to everyone and correct. While many stories shared on this thread clearly involve self-centered jerks who knew EXACTLY what they were doing, there are definitely those who honestly mean no ill will and just aren't paying attention.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt - and I overlook a LOT, just for selfish reasons, to protect my own sanity. If I get enraged at what someone else does and they're a jerk, it's MY blood pressure that skyrockets, MY mood that gets ruined and MY vacation that suffers - plus I risk taking out my bad mood on my DH, ruining his day too. 100 out of 100 times, that jerk goes happily on their way unaffected. So I try to remember that and not let them get to me.

 

[Boopuff]

Why is it at the deluxe resorts the bus lines are a free-for-all? We were staying at the CR and waiting for the AK bus. We were there a good 15-20 minutes. Of course, just as the bus pulled up a loud, large family literally pushed ahead of everyone!. One brave soul announced "hey we were here first!" Of course, the family didn't listen. I knew there were plenty of seats for the people waiting, but it's just so rude! How do people live like that on a daily basis? Our society is doomed to fall by the hand of the self-centered-me-firsters. What happened to manners and human kindness?

 

[shh]

They were screaming at the top of their lungs every time it looked like something was coming at us/them. After a few minutes I had had enough. My ears were ringing and my head starting to pound.

Same exact thing happened to me on Soarin'. Supposed to be a relaxing uplifting ride - it's not a roller coaster, folks. These 5 teen aged girls did the same thing - screaming at the top of their lungs right next to me - constantly thru the whole thing- never a break. Totally ruined the experience.

 

[shh]

What happened to manners and human kindness?

As a society, we have totally lost this idea of embarrassment. Few people are embarrassed by anything they do. They don't comprehend what it means to feel ashamed of the way one acts or treats others. It's just not part of their vocabulary, life experience or mindset.

The only thing they may understand is repercussions. If there are no consequences or repercussions for what they do, they don't see a problem. And unfortunately there are very few consequences for poor behavior. Most companies overlook a lot to keep a customer.

 

[Cheburashka]

No way am I confronting someone during my vacation. Vacation is all about relaxation and fun, not getting negative. Some people are jerks & we have to accept that, frankly. The most I would do would be to report it to a CM, but even that would only be in an extreme case.

If someone's extreme belligerence ruined a ride experience for us, I would quietly tell the CM at the end of the ride & request being taken near the front of the line for a repeat experience.

 

[philharmagic fan]

I've seen a lot of rude behavior at Disney - folks standing WAY too close, line cutters, noise makers during FOTLK or other shows, videographers ruining dark rides, questionable behavior towards kids and each other, fireworks kid on shoulders folks, parade squeezers at the last minute, tablet above head at fireworks folks, bus refusing to move to the back folks, etc. The parties of 10 that stop and block the entire walking path in front of Small World. Why do folks stop in the middle of what is clearly a walkway?

Since I frequently travel solo - the folks holding a table with no food really irritates me. The technique of not allowing folks to sit at tables at QS during busy times before folks have their food that Universal does at the WWOHP QS places is stellar. I don't know how many times I have wandered around looking for a table with a tray of food seeing folks holding tables again and again. There's nothing in writing that says you can't do this so I'm sure some folks don't even think of this as rude, but man it sucks as solo traveler.

I've also seen a lot of acts of kindness - not only from CM's, but guest to guest. Bandaid and diaper sharing, picking up dropped toys, kids sharing tablets in line, helping a parent in need, giving up a seat, giving kids a view at a parade, etc.

I usually have the right attitude when at WDW and can let most of roll off me - but some days I feel like, "Why did I come to this crowded space in the first place?"

Our family of 5 used to stake out a stretch of curb for the evening parade, and then right before it started 2 of us would stand up behind the other 3 (we'd be certain we weren't in front of a stroller or kids and blocking their view) and offer the extra curb space to a family with little ones. Once when we did this the family next to the one we invited up took exception and a fist fight broke out between the two dads. Security broke it up pretty promptly, but we've often thought back to how a good deed could have unexpected negative consequences.

 

[emily nicole]

Why is it at the deluxe resorts the bus lines are a free-for-all?

Our first few Disney vacations were at Pop Century, and I was so surprised when we went from value to moderate about the bus stop situation. The covered queues are super nice but I really appreciated the roped-off queues at Pop.