Visiting Walt Disney World is a magical experience for a family. Often overlooked are the cast members who make those magical moments a reality. Sadly many guests don’t appreciate the work the cast members do, and sometimes are even disrespectful to the cast members. Cast members have to take on this rudeness and turn it into magical moments. It is not as easy of a job as most guests assume.
1) Why yelling at the cast members won’t help
Yelling at a cast member when you are upset is the last thing you should do. Even if they have done something wrong, yelling at them won’t fix the problem. You are not going to get what you want out of yelling at the cast member. Asking your questions in a calm and collected manner to the cast member instead of yelling will allow the cast member to have an adult conversation that will most likely solve your problem.
If a certain cast member won’t listen to your recommendations, or is simply being inappropriate, then the best way to solve the problem is to go to guest services and report the incident. Simply asking to see the cast member’s name tag and then telling guest services at the front of the park is the best way to get the results you want.
2) Realizing it is probably not the cast member’s fault
When an attraction is having technical issues, it is not the cast members fault. While working at the Magic Kingdom in 2013, I was told, “You’ve ruined my son’s vacation because ‘you’ broke this ride.” In reality my shift had just started, and I had no idea why the attraction wasn’t working. Before I could explain that I had just started my shift the women stormed away.
A lot of times cast members are just relaying the message from someone else. When they tell you, “Sorry, you can’t bring your drink on this attraction” the cast members are not the ones who made up that rule. So don’t get mad at them, if you are truly upset with the rules then ask guest services about it.
3) Following the cast member’s instructions
When a cast member asks you to do something it most likely is for your own safety. They aren’t telling you what to do to be the fun police; they are telling you not to do something because they’ve already seen people get severely hurt doing it before. While Walt Disney World is meant to be a place where you can leave your responsibilities behind, it doesn’t mean you can leave your manners behind, and so by ignoring what the cast member is telling you it’s not only dangerous but also very rude.
