(Sentinel File)
With the report of today’s death of a 10-year-old boy struck and killed by a bus near Disney’s Fort Wilderness as well as recent incidents of bus accidents plus last year’s fatal monorail accident, we would like to know your thoughts.
Have you visited Disney World recently. Have you felt there were safety issues that needed to be addressed?
Let us know.
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117 Comments
Nope…I am not concerned. I agree with most people here stating that Disney is like it’s own city. Accidents are bound to happen. It is only published because it is Disney. I am sure these things/accidents happen everywhere but are not widely known.
Wow, your daughter is tired out? I’m so sorry! Who the heck cares!!
It is NOT DISNEY FAULT!! It is parents like you who brings children to this world without the ability to teach them FREEDOM!!
Teach her to be a leader not a follower! Brake with the rutine! Give her the strenght to stand tall and fight for the career she wants. Do not sit around complaining about DISNEY or feeling sorry for her! Open your eyes!
As an adult she has the right and the freedom to change her job! Disney has not slave her, she has! But I guess, Disney is good when you bring your 9 year old to the park-FREE!!
I agree with everything said – it is terrible for all involved but an accident is simply that – and as Disney is a city in itself it is a miracle there aren’t more accidents (there has been 3 deaths on roads this week in my local news)
And to Native Floridian – you are an absolute disgrace to Americans.
I’m English, I own a holiday home in Orlando and employ several Americans. I travel there a few times a year and have had one – ONE – bad experience of service. The woman providing this seemed to have the same attitude that you do – that I was merely an annoyance in the day, not that she was there to serve me. So guess what, she never got a tip. I suspect you don’t get tipped because of your attitude.
And believe me, most British people aren’t fat, you should take a look at your own Country before you slight others.
Maybe if you weren’t so ignorant and abusive you may get tips – then again, maybe if you weren’t a goddam idiot, you might have a better job.
AN OPEN CALL TO TOM STAGGS TO KILL ONE DISNEY NOW!
So there was yet another bus accident today (Saturday) at WDW. Aside from the accident on April 1st where I do not believe Disney is at fault at all, these incidents involving poor driver judgement calls needs to stop. I can excuse 1 or 2 incidents over a period of time that is pretty long, but to have now at least 4 incidents in less than a one year period where the cause was poor judgement on the part of the operators that is inexcusable.
And my simple argumentis that I think WDW has become too big to be able to properly manage their property at a quality level. And what bugs me even more is some idiot in Burbank, CA and Al Weiss think that a majority of the executives in WDW know how to operate a resort better than a majority of the executives at Disneyland Resort thus putting them in charge of operations over both properties. What a bunch of bullsh*t.
It is time for Tom Staggs to grow some and stop this One Disney nightmare and have the executives at WDW no longer in charge of divisions and/or departments at Disneyland Resort so they can better concentrate on their own property and improve the quality of the experience and safety practices. They are spread too thin in managing too many people on both properties.
And this is all to save money when you can eliminate key executives on the west coast, which makes the west coast teams suffer in their ability to do things in Anaheim.
Are you hearing this Tom? Wake up and undo the damage of that idiot Jay Rasulo and KILL ONE DISNEY NOW! Otherwise more of this is going to continue to happen with careless accidents and incidents.
As a current Monorail Pilot employed at WDW, I can say that there’s more than a shred of truth to SOME of the arguments going on within this thread. Racist ramblings of toothless natives aside, the average Disney guest is much more rude, adversarial and demanding than ever before. But on the other hand, the average Disney CM has become more rude, adversarial and apathetic than ever. Why? Well, from the guest perspective, the prices have continued to rise while the value for each dollar spent has obviously fallen. We (WDW) built our global reputation by providing an outstanding guest experience. This included maintaining our attractions, buildings and equipment to extremely high standards. Appearance and safety was everything! Just a glance around the property tells the tale of budget cuts, the failure of some management processes such as One Disney, and the shift in focus from Walt’s standard of excellence to something that pales in comparison. When a family spends thousands of dollars to visit our resort, whether for the first time or for the fifth, they expect to see the fresh coat of paint, the working light bulbs and the ever-present, always friendly cast-member that they’ve come to expect over the years. Common sense tells us that if we continue to let these all-important “perception points” slide, our guests WILL find another place to spend their vacation dollars, it’s as simple as that! As for the Cast Member perspective, there are equally disturbing issues. Transportation CMs are perpetually over-scheduled, particularly those that work the night shifts. In the case of Monorail CMs, most work in excess of 10-hour days every day they’re on shift. And since the average hourly rate of pay is less than $10 per hour, they HAVE to work over-time shifts and shift extensions just to feed their families. So yes, they are terribly overworked. But having said that, the quality of work performed by the average CM has fallen dramatically because, as we all know, you get what you pay for. Even so, I don’t think management is out of line to expect at least SOME sort of work ethic from it’s CMs. I can’t speak for other departments, but when your first priority is whether or not your break is on time, maybe you should consider why you work for a company that is known for going above and beyond for it’s guests! Many transportations CMs need to take some personal responsibility for their positions and understand why our job exists in the first place. Now of course, add to the labor mess the comedy of errors that is the labor contract and the union that all but encourages an apathetic attitude and you end up with a staff that doesn’t really put much stock in making “magic” for anyone. In closing, the bottom line here is L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-P! From the daily coordinators to the CEO, management needs to understand the age-old leadership rule: if you take care of your people, they’ll take care of you. If your cast doesn’t believe that you care about them, and trust me, for the most part, they don’t, they’re only going to give you and the guests just enough to pocket a paycheck. And when your cast is apathetic, safety WILL suffer. That’s my two cent’s…for what it’s worth.
If it is just that bad, then quit. Your whining is evidence of part of the problem at WDW where you disgruntled employees make the experience for guests sometimes bad because you are simply unhappy about the life of working at WDW.
No one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to work there. Granted I think WDW management has some major issues, but people like you who have become so jaded and cynical should not be working there either.
You know, I just couldn’t let this one go. Look, moron, if you read the piece thoroughly, and understood most of the bigger words, you’d figure out that I’m not jaded NOR cynical. Actually, my personal feelings toward my job at WDW are quite the opposite. I love the job…I love the guests…and I love making that “magic” that I mentioned. It breaks my heart every day that I can no longer ask a family to sit in the front cab of my monorail so that I can hear the excitement in their children’s voices or share in the joy of just BEING there. I very much enjoy the fact that, in just a few minutes, I can create memories for people that will last a lifetime. But I also understand that if our company doesn’t fix those things that I mentioned, (and several others that I did not!), we will all suffer. The guests, the CM’s…everybody. And ss much as I hate to admit that some overbearing ass such as yourself has a point, you make a good one. You’re correct that all of us who work there do so by choice. And if you read my entry completely, you would realize that I hammer my fellow CM’s pretty hard because many of them do just as you mentioned…they spend too much time whining about what’s wrong with our company, and not enough time doing their jobs to the best of their ability. You completely misunderstood my point, and you went off on some rant that proves that to be true. But at least you and a few others read it…and maybe now instead of spewing your opinion about how you THINK things work at WDW, you have some facts to throw in there too. Have a Disney Day!!
I thought his comment was fair and balanced on both sides. There is a part of CMs that don’t care. How many times have I walked into the park, with a birthday pin or anniversary pin, and no CM says a thing. Yet, i enjoy trying to say Happy Birthday or Anniversary to the folks, even if they don’t acknowledge my comments. There are too many CMs that care just about the passes, or get so tired at the crowds they send it in, in terms of effort.
Guests are the same way. Over on another DIS forum, we’ve been arguing the same point. Some are complaining that lowering the price and discounting allows for a more trash experience, while some are pointing out that some rude folks are more the “wealthy” ones that want higher prices.
Disney cares about bottom line now, with or without discounts. If they forget the little things, it won’t matter if they price themselves higher or lower. Folks will still come, but maybe not as often.
I am a life long Disney Park fan and supporter and actually just got back from a week in WDW, and yes, the week in which the two most recent incidents occurred. I have never once feared for my safety or the safety of those around at any point that I have been in the parks or within the resort itself. I think it is time we put this WHOLE thing into perspective for a moment. The Disney Transportation System runs continuous tram service (with trams departing approximately every 20 minutes) from EVERY Disney Resort hotel, most of which are so large that there are 3-4 pick up stops within the particular resort itself, bringing guests to EVERY Disney Park ( 4 theme parks plus two water parks and Downtown Disney) from one hour prior to park opening, to one hour after park closing. That is one bus going to every park from every resort, with an average of 4 pick up stops within the resort, every twenty minutes (approx.) from 7am till often well after 12am (During extra magic hours, Magic Kingdom buses sometimes run from 7am till 4am, starting up again at 7am the next day.) And this service runs all day. 365 days a year. Such tragic accidents, especially in places intended for such joy and innocence, are, no doubt, horrific. Any carelessness or driver error obviously cannot be allowed to continue. But in the view of overall safety, and overall safety record…LOOK AT THE NUMBERS! Can anyone fathom how many buses that is running these routes over how many years? If anything, it is amazing that there aren’t MORE accidents in such a situation (that goes for ride safety as well) It should also not be forgotten that all of the traffic and traffic problems within the resort are NOT Disney’s. There is a heavy flow of non-resort guest traffic speeding through the place as well as taxis and non Disney buses. If I witnessed any questionable driving during my recent stay it was non-disney cars cutting off Disney Transport Buses. Of course the family of that poor boy has my deepest sympathies, but Disney did not kill their son. A terrible accident did. An accident that’s only made worse when you go looking for someone to blame simply because isn’t anyone.
Monorail Pilot 2010 – thanks for an objective and well written piece. It’s nice to see someone providing a mature commentary. As a long time Disney ‘guest’, I can’t agree with you more. I’d like to blame the recession but the cutbacks started long before we fell into that mess and I agree that WDW should operate independently from Disneyland. Sure, share ideas and technology but aside from the Magic Kingdom, they are just two very different worlds (no pun intended). Safety does apear to have taken a back seat but, as you pointed out, it starts at the top. And, parents need to assume responsibility for their kid’s safety as well. However, that issue goes well beyond WDW.
Thank you for the kind words regarding the piece. And thank you for spending time with us! I have faith that someday, we’ll come full circle and remember Walt’s dream for our Happy Place. And I have a feeling that safety is about to become priority ONE all over property. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to get things back on track. Hurry back! The TRON monorail is incredible!! Have a very magical day!!
I agree, blaming the institution for an ACCIDENT, is never the real way to go. We don’t know what the exact circumstances regarding the accident were, and I don’t want to point fingers the opposite way, but it could’ve just as easily been an accident that could’ve been prevented, had there been appropriate parental supervision.
I used to work at a kindergarten (that was part of a fairly large private school that had grades pre-k all the way up to 12th grade) and I cannot begin to tell you the amount of times the school has been blamed for things that happened to children. And most of these things happened because of parents’ negligence, but as it is to be expected, because it happens on school grounds (but alas, usually during after school hours when these children shouldn’t still be in school anyway) people are quick to blame the school.
My point is, an accident is an accident and just like how it happened with a Disney bus, it could’ve happened with a taxi or some other vehicle riding along that road. Blaming Disney for it is regardless. By the same token, even if it was the driver’s negligence that caused the accident, that is ONE isolated person. Not even a small company can be expected to have full control over what their employees do during their work time.
Anyway, that sad, I was at WDW just last october. I had been there before, but it was my first time ever staying at Disney Resort and using their bus system and I couldn’t have been happier about my experience. The buses were punctual and the drivers were usually pleasant and drove appropriately. When I go on vacation I don’t usually like straying away from my family, but on this occasion my sister and I decided to go to a concert at the House of Blues one night. I couldn’t have felt safer just the two of us going and taking the Disney shuttle that night. And just my overall experience, most CMs were pleasant or at least polite. YEs, there may have been one or two that I thought could’ve had a better attitude but again, we are all humans and I can’t judge them. Sometimes work is stressful and we since we are humans, sometimes we have bad days and as hard as we might try to be nice, it just is too difficult.
So, after writing this essay of a response, I’d like to add that I would like to commend those CMs that, even with their difficulties whatever they may be, try their hardest to make their guests’ experiences a pleasure and to those that try their hardest to uphold Walt’s visions and dreams.
i do not feel this is the fault of the driver, but lack of parental supervision. i stayed at fort wilderness every weekend from may 2009-present and have witnessed children as young as 3 left wandering alone with their older sibling/friend. how can we expect this to stop, if we are giving 9 year olds the freedom to roam without supervision? in this day and age, is this really safe?
i blame the parents more than i do WDW. while it is true from what i have read that the child simply lost his balance and fell “into” the side of the bus, my question is what was he doing just prior to the accident? i cannot tell you how many times i’ve had little kids just run out in front of me – in a golf cart – let alone in front of the buses — kids are reckless and need supervision. period!
As a faithful Disney Vacation Club member, I would like to say that during our many visits to WDW we have never been concerned for our safety. Disney always provides wonderful service that has yet to disappoint us in any way, and in fact we feel safer at WDW than any other place we have ever been. Unfortunetly, evil has no bounderies and has destroyed this precious life in a seemingly safe place. Our hearts break for the family of this young boy that lost his life so tragiclly during a vacation that is suppost to be full of wonderful memories for him and his family. I pray that they will have time to grieve their loss,strength to go on and that they will find peace in knowing that their child is with his Heavenly Father.
We were in Disney World in March 2010. We had a rental car but used bus transportation from our Disney resort to the parks. Leaving Downtown Disney at 9pm one evening we had a bus driver who drove very fast and bit reckless, but we made it back fine. This is the only time in many years that we’ve even had one issue with Disney transportation system. All of the other times it was smooth sailing and we felt completely safe.
After reading previous posts, I wanted to say that we did NOT have even one rude Disney cast member anywhere during our entire trip. We have been to Disney Orlando 5 times in 8 years and have had great service everywhere, from value resorts to deluxe and at every park. Yes, sometimes there are long lines at rides, food service isn’t always fast and housekeeping can be slow to clean our room. Our park tickets don’t always work properly.
However, every time the Disney staff works it out with us like reasonable adults. Many go out of their way to make our stay more pleasant, like the CM who got my daughter a bowl of ice cream while she was sobbing because it was going take 45 minutes to get through the food line (in 2009). It was my fault anyway, I should have gotten her food earlier. It gets annoying to us at the parks to see guests taking shots at CM when they are doing their best. We stood in line behind some lady complaining forever because she had to pay baggage fees on her return flight home! How is that the Disney resort CM’s fault? Call your airline! We were pleased as punch to be able to check-in our luggage at the hotel.
I just wanted to say that we have been very happy with the service of Disney cast members, felt completely safe and have had the best family memories and vacations while at Disney.
Nope. i am not concerned. besides if you’re involved in an accident at Disney, the give you a ton of free stuff to keep quiet and not turn it into a big fiasco.
“greed”
The lack of economic knowledge displayed in your post in breathtaking.
If it wasn’t for Eisner, where would Disney be now?
sold off in pieces by liquidators – about 25 years ago.