have you ever seen CM's "behaving badly"?

[wdw4rfam]

My sister was at the front of the group going in to see Tink, and she was venting to the other CMs, and dropped an F bomb. She had her back to the entrance and didn't notice that the next family was entering. My sister just yelled, hi and Tink was in instant character. She didn't say anything, I don't know that I could have held back.....

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I've seen an eye rolling CM at a cart once because the person in front of me was going on and on about making sure the bottle of water they were buying was extra cold and that it was wiped dry so it wouldn't drip water on her. The CM turned to the cooler area and rolled his eyes while getting the water - I don't think he realized I could see him.
Then he turned around with the bottle of water, carefully wiped it off for her so he didn't ignore what she wanted.

I've also seen CM's talking in their language and ignoring customers in the wine area in Italy at Epcot. People were walking out rather than interrupt their conversation. I interrupted them to get my glass of Rose Regale. They probably had a few things to say behind my back after I left. I don't care - they needed to do their job and I was polite when I interrupted them.

I've definitely seen more bad behaviors from guests over the years.

 

[disney world dreamer]

i'm actually pretty surprised at how many people seem to think i'm being overly critical or negative.
of course i realize that CM's are only human but i find arguing with each other while guests are right there entering the park is unprofessional.
my thought is argue all you want back stage but don't bring it to front of house.
no guest was berating them so it wasn't a guest induced argument. believe me when a guest is the one "behaving badly" i WISH a CM would put them in their place but luckily for the guest the CM's generally keep their cool.
i have no ill will towards CM's in general. i was just curious as to whether anyone else had experienced CM's acting unprofessionally in this manner.
i hope i've made my position on CM's very clear but if not i'll spell it out again I LOVE CM'S IN GENERAL.

 

[Baklava]

I have occasionally seen a CM at a register or in a shop who was profoundly unenthusiastic about their day but I cannot remember one behaving badly or being rude or inappropriate. (It is hard to be universally enthusiastic about selling socks and ponchos, even if they have Mickey on them.)

 

[minnie mum]

I've seen a couple of incidents of CMs behaving "badly", in the last 40 years. Both involved a CM yelling and being rude towards a guest who in no way deserved it.(and no, I wasn't the guest).

But I don't equate a lapse in onstage professionalism with behaving badly. I don't evesdrop long enough to know their backstory, so I try not to judge. I've seen a few comments about CMs on their phones/texting, on similar threads. I understand that some CMs get texts from their managers/supervisors now. Or maybe they have something urgent going on in their personal lives. I can't see how this should have any impact on my park experience. They are human beings.

 

[PetePanMan]

I have seen it occasionally, more so at DL than WDW. It does take away from experience somewhat (you know real life stuff creeping in). Overall CM's are amazing though.

 

[maxiesmom]

This is more a clueless CM than one that meant to be bad: During my last trip my nephew and I were just about done with the safari ride when it started to downpour. And of course, as the weather had said no chance of rain rolleyes I had left our ponchos in the room. Well, we got off of the ride into the pouring rain, and nephew headed to cover while I headed to the nearest kiosk to buy ponchos. The CM running it was a little old lady. She would ring up one set of guests (who were all buying ponchos) and then would step away from the register and go fiddle with something back behind the kiosk. It was ridiculous, we were all standing there, dripping wet, and she would ring up one family, go mess with whatever, and come back, ring up one family, and so on. I was getting really irritated when another CM came up and asked the first CM what they were doing, and told them to stay at their register ringing people up!

 

[larryz]

My sister was at the front of the group going in to see Tink, and she was venting to the other CMs, and dropped an F bomb.

Now you know why she isn't allowed to speak in "Peter Pan"...

 

[Planogirl]

I once saw a CM with a headset go through a queue area and yell to a kid that was trying to walk on the rails to "get off the damn rails". I know that this isn't Disney appropriate but I cheered a little inside.

 

[11290]

Just something that guests would not be aware of, if you see a CM look at their phone, it MAY BE (not always) that they are looking at the clock, not texts or such. A couple of years ago the phone "rules" were slightly changed to allow on-stage CM's that were not in areas where clocks were available to use their phones for seeing the time.

In the case of the area that I work, Parade Audience Control, there were / are a lot of positions from where you cannot see a clock and need to be able to know the time so as when to start clearing for guest bands, MS Philharmonic, Grand Marshall and such.

 

[vanyel]

it wasnt a behaving badly moment but I stopped on my way out of EPCOT, near the end of the evening, to ask a CM a question. She was rather snotty and when I said, I have a question, she sighed as if i was bothering her. She answered but was not overly polite. I also overheard two CMs in Epcot complaining to each other about how many hours they had to put in over the holiday. As soon as they saw people observing them, they "put on a happy face" and went back into their CM roles.

 

[North of Mouse]

Even Tinker Bell that is full of pixie dust has her 'moments'!!

 

[flvy]

The worst thing that I've seen CM wise was at Cheshire Cafe. It was the end of the night right before the fireworks and they were one of the only places opened. I asked for a drink and the CM said no. Of course he was kidding, but the other CM looked flabbergasted. I just joked that I tell my customers no all the time and I didn't know he was able to. After a little back and forth I got my slush free.

Thinking back on it there might have been some flirting happening.

 

[ChloesDaddy]

This is more a clueless CM than one that meant to be bad: During my last trip my nephew and I were just about done with the safari ride when it started to downpour. And of course, as the weather had said no chance of rain rolleyes I had left our ponchos in the room. Well, we got off of the ride into the pouring rain, and nephew headed to cover while I headed to the nearest kiosk to buy ponchos. The CM running it was a little old lady. She would ring up one set of guests (who were all buying ponchos) and then would step away from the register and go fiddle with something back behind the kiosk. It was ridiculous, we were all standing there, dripping wet, and she would ring up one family, go mess with whatever, and come back, ring up one family, and so on. I was getting really irritated when another CM came up and asked the first CM what they were doing, and told them to stay at their register ringing people up!

Reminds me of the Tim Conway old man skits from the Carol Burnett show.

 

[fbarker]

i was thinking back to my recent trip and remembered that when entering epcot through the international gateway entrance a woman CM was basically arguing with a male CM saying "if they ask, you better tell them i was here on time! you know i'm always on time! i can't help that "that" happened! this is total crap and its because of you and that other one! now i'm gonna get in trouble!"

have you ever seen CM's acting like that?

I don't want to imply this wasn't a conversation but with all the technology at WDW I have to assume the all CM's must punch in electronically somehow. If that is true then there would be an electronic record when the CM checked in. It wouldn't matter what the other CM's said. This does not seem right to me.

 

[SimbaLover]

A few years ago we were at the front of the line at some ride, I've forgotten which one, waiting for our turn. We were treated to several minutes of the CMs working the ride talk all about who hooked up with who the night before. Explicitly. And yes there were children right in front.

 

[It's A Small Underworld]

Not badly, but I've seen some looking bored or tired.

 

[Dan Murphy]

No

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Yep, we had one in all the years, which is a pretty good track record for Disney. However, I received the worst service I ever have in my life from this employee (I refuse to call them a cast member), and keep in mind I do occasionally shop at Walmart.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Funny now that I think about it, I am sure I have seen something over the years but have no memory of any incidents. I only remember the wonderful experiences with cast members!