DEBATE: Did disney offer enough?????

[raidermatt]

If I may step in for a moment (and hopefully not get decapitated in the process)...

It might help if you guys differentiated between CM performance and overall policy. Similar to the "exceeding expectations" post...

Scoop, most of your examples were of CMs doing everything they could, and most probably did.

But from an overall operations standpoint, there were some pretty glaring holes.

Certainly a voicemail and/or flyer under the door could have been put out. And an explanation to the Beach Club guests would have been in order, even if it came a day later.

These are not goofs by the front-line CMs, but they are goofs by WDW operationally. If the structure does not exist to get this kind of basic communication out, that's a problem. If it does exist, but wasn't properly utilized, that's a problem as well. SOMEBODY has to be asking what do we need to do FIRST for our guests, and how do we get it done. The mass voicemail is not that difficult to do, and it wouldn't have taken much to get word to the resorts to print up some quick flyers to slide under doors.

I would consider these to be significant "learning opportunities" should my team have made those omissions.

That's not to say there weren't plenty of examples of CMs providing shining service.

 

[Walt's Frozen Head]

threaten to one day eat my liver with a spoon

Hey, stop making up crap. I never said nothing about no spoon...

-WFH

 

[Bob O]

Despite Disparaging comments from thedscoop aside i never made negative comments about any CM's or how they handled things, just managements response to things and if more could have been done. And to gather people's thoughts on the issue.

 

[mktiggerman]

ok, to heck with my silence.


I have 1 more fact to inject into this thread. The electrical fire at Epcot was in no way Disney's fault.

At about 3am, Orlando was cutting off the power it sent to WDW, and the town of Windermere was taking over. However, Orlando never shut it off, and 'BAM!'.... overload and fire.

There was no way to anticipate this.

The first batch of front line Epcot CM's were scheduled into work in less than 4 hours, meaning that in 3 hours, most of them would be on their way to work.


No one in the company, not even Eisner, could have done more, short of violating the contract and expect the potential lawsuit from the Service Trades Council, to have enhanced the experience. Bobo, I'm sorry that you refuse to believe that, but those are the facts. If this hasn't changed your opinion, then you have truly lived up to your name, bobo

 

[Bob O]

mktiggerman-Where did anybody say the fire was wdw's fault???
I have never said it was their fault and didnt see where anybody else did!!
Now that would have been a true shining moment for the disney company"Eisner bucks Union to enhance the guests experience at wdw" "Eisner fights the union so the vacationer can have a more magical time at wdw" He may have come off as a hero!!
Disney has a large team of lawyers and the fight with the union would have taken a long time to settle while the company would have been praised for trying to do anything they could to make the experince the best possible for their guests. And if morale is low as you say it is then this just would have upset a already disgruntled bunch.
And even though we may disagree i feel no need to disparage you or your name and like hearing your opinions!!

 

[Eeyore2U]

Now that would have been a true shining moment for the disney company"Eisner bucks Union to enhance the guests experience at wdw" "Eisner fights the union so the vacationer can have a more magical time at wdw" He may have come off as a hero!!

A very novel thought. It's a bit Fantasylandish. I think that in a power struggle, the union is stronger.

 

[Walt's Frozen Head]

The electrical fire at Epcot was in no way Disney's fault.

Actually, I heard a rumor that Eisner and Pressler had snuck back there for a smoke break, and the stock certificates and California Adventure one-day tickets they were using to light their cigars were never properly extinguished...

-WFH

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Scoop, where do you get this non-sense!! Do you just make it up or is there someone out there that is pulling your chain?

Apparently, the idea of a phone call to each room was tossed around but two main problems with that: First, you'd probably be disturbing alot of guests early in the morning who were not going to Epcot or even any park (remember WDW knows alot about guests but doesn't know each park they will head to in the morning)

Scoop!! Please!!! I think I remember you saying that you’ve stayed on the grounds before. There’s hardly a day that goes by that “Management” doesn’t send us a message of some sort or another. Whether it’s to pick up packages or hawking the newest fishing excursion it’s a daily thing. And remember scoop, how the phone doesn’t ring? It just sits there, as silent as the night. One minute the message light is off and the next moment it’s on. That’s the way they did it to tell us that EPCOT was re-opened. How cone they couldn’t do it in the first place?

Second, such an effort would have taken a huge amount of manpower. With a finite number of workers even at WDW, that would have disportionately taken workers away from other more immediate problems like increased staffing at the remaining parks.

And if they would have brought in just ONE of the workers they told to stay home they could have had it covered. Just ONE!!! He/she would have spent an hour or two calling the resorts and giving them instructions that a ‘silent’ message be broadcast to all guests, simply stating that EPCOT would be closed for the day. JUST ONE GUY!!!!

Come on, Scoop, who’s pulling your leg with this BS?!?!? Bet he’s having a real good laugh!! I just hope it ain’t the same guy that told you the end was near for Ei$ner!!

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Whatever, Jeff,

I would prefer the LandBaron moniker, or simply jerk. There’s a certain anonymity that we ALL enjoy on the boards. Save the familiar stuff for PMs or in person. Did it ever occur to you why AV is so mysterious or why Mr. Head became frozen? Besides, there are too many Jeff’s to keep track of!

go on with your cynical moaning ways.

I will go on with the truth!! I suggest you do the same.

You're like that know it all in school who always had a smart-a answer.

Again, if the truth sounds like a smart-answer, so be it!!

There is no point in discussing or debating with you because no matter what someone says...the Baron always knows better.

Just telling the truth, my good man!

I take the time to make some calls and send some emails in the hope of getting some more info to share and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Well. That’s nice. But I think you may have forgotten that I WAS THERE!!!! and I was there for a week and a half after the episode. I talked to hundreds of CMs!!! I had lunch with one while the thing was going on and he agreed 100%, that a ‘silent’ message should have been sent!! Talk about someone on his high horse!! How can you breath without an oxygen tank!! Come on down with the rest of us!!

Frankly, I think the track record of my friend’s info has been as good as many peoples.

And quite frankly when you (or he tells you) that they feared waking people up… that doesn’t smack of misinformation, it smacks of non-information!! Maybe you ought to get another source.

 

[mktiggerman]

Originally posted by Bob O
mktiggerman-Where did anybody say the fire was wdw's fault???

nobody, but the way you carried on , it made it seem like WDW had lots and lots of time to plan this. I just injected some more fact into this.. nothing more

 

[Bob O]

What is done is done, my hope is that wdw management has learned from this and the next time something unexpected comes up similiar to this and they alert all the guests in the manner DVC mentioned. It seems they were more than willing to let everyone know when Epcot was opended but less willing to do so when it was closed.
If they had wanted to contact every room they could have. Even with a finite amount of employee's it doesnt take much to print out a form letter and put it under every door.
Walts frozen head-They also could have been using the plans for BK to light their cigars!!!

 

[eeyore0062]

Seems to me that they had a little more time in which to let guests know that the park had reopened. As it was, they didn't decide not to open Epcot until around 6 am, and that only gave them 3 hours. The fact that they put in on the TV's and had CM's notifying people, in my estimation, was enough.

I am truly sorry for those who were inconvenienced, but I think that the measures that WDW management took to turn it into a positive were more than enough. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and that it what WDW did.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Eeyore0062

As it was, they didn't decide not to open Epcot until around 6 am, and that only gave them 3 hours.

Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. I stayed in my room until roughly 11:30. I then went to Olivia’s to meet Mr. Show for lunch. He is a CM. I had a couple of minutes to kill and being fairly addicted to this board I logged on. It was the thread at the top of the page. When I saw the title I knew some nefarious somebody was pulling our collective leg. I read the first few posts and saw it was not a joke and something weird was really going on! But how can that be, I wondered. I’m here!! How is that someone NOT here could have this news quicker than I had it? I read further and finally believed it. I signed off and made calls to my room and the rooms of the others who were staying there, including my parents who was staying at the Beach Club Villas and had no power and no explanation as to why! I would later find out that the only one that did know the situation was one other family that was stuck in traffic trying to get to EPCOT. They have Annual passes so the one-day deal really didn’t do them any good.

Shortly thereafter Mr. Show, who lives on the property and works on the property arrived. It is now closer to twelve o’clock and he didn’t know anything about it either!!!

Sorry, Eeyore0062!! Disney dropped the ball as far as the notifications go. There’s no doubt in my mind on that one!!!

 

[raidermatt]

...from what I have been told, the final decision to close Epcot was not made until between 5 and 6 am in order to see if things could be fixed by then. When it became absolutely clear that they would need the entire day, WDW went to work as fast as possible to notify guests.

Don't get me wrong, I don't see this as a complete failure. However, I've been through quite a few operations crisis's, and getting this communication out was not impossible.

WDW is on some sort of voicemail system, and that system should have the capability to leave a mass voicemail for all guests, at least at the resort level.

An "under the door" flyer could have been drafted fairly quickly. It would just need to be approved and emailed to each resort for immediate printing and distribution.

These are also things that could have been prepared prior to 6am, and just put in a holding pattern until the decision was made. Sure, this was in the wee hours of the morning, but that's why certain folks carry pagers and cell phones.

But again, this is not to say this was a mass screw-up by WDW. Its just something that could have been done better, and should be done better next time.

(Of course, it has crossed my mind that communication was intentionally witheld out of a concern that guests first thoughts would go to terrorism. Why worry all of your guests when probably 85-90% of them weren't going to go near Epcot that day anyway... Not sure I'd agree with this approach, but it is a legitimate possibility.)