We had three days at Disneyland resort back in November and overall we had a great time. But, I have to be honest and say that I found the friendliness of service from many cast members to be a bit lacking, certainly in comparison with WDW.
I am a smiling happy person, always polite to people and am certainly not a grumpy guest, but was often finding the need to extract a smile or welcome from cast members (not all I hasten to add, but more than you might expect). The service varied from good, to indifferent to barely an acknowledgement that we existed.
Naturally I compare this to WDW where we have always found really good service. Just wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences?
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I don't think it has anything to do with wages. I think it's a lot more due with the cultural differences between California and Florida. Personally, we've had some great CM interaction in Disneyland and some not so great interaction at WDW, so as they say, YMMV.
Yeah, I've had the opposite experience. I thought WDW CM's weren't as friendly while DL's were very. I am kind of biased though because I've visited DL more than WDW, but I think it just depends on who you have an interaction with.
Randy Keith: "Many people say Disneyland’s customer service is better than their Florida counterpart."
I Respond: Many people would be wrong.
Also, you have to consider statistics. If one or two employees are negative or grumpy and your take away is that customer service is bad, that is not a statistically respresentative sample due to the overall number of employees. You can say ‘in my experience’ and the like. I have had great customer service on both coasts. My experience tends to be that they put really good workers at the Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise, but we have seen very, very few less than perfect employees in both parks. This has always been rare and seems to be more recent (in our experience). We have noticed that Universal has improved leaps and bounds over the years, especially in the Potter areas. Being that there seems to no longer an off season, I bet the crowds can take a toll on morale. As far as theme parks are concerned, the big two seem to be excellent. I do think it is fair if your observations bear out these conclusions.
I think ultimately, it's all subjective. The responses in this thread prove that. Both resorts boast thousands of employees....many guest will have a great streak where every cast member they interact with projects a great experience....others will experience the opposite. This occurs on both coast.
The other part actually comes from looking at it from the guests perspective. What one guest may consider "unfriendly" behavior, may come across as completely normal behavior for another guest. We all have different meters in terms of what constitutes good, great, bad experiences. True......for the most part we all recognize the extreme definitions of good vs bad customer service. (Going above & beyond vs being completely unhelpful & outright rude / insulting)
But beyond that, what may bother one visitor about a cast members demeanor could ironically be the same thing another visitor appreciates..
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I can’t speak form experience, but I think the problem is the wages. Disney underpays their employees. You can’t attract and retain the best people at the rate Disney pays. Many people say Disneyland’s customer service is better than their Florida counterpart, but l’m not surprised their customer service is lacking at either for the premium they cost. Disney World is so big, not everyone they hire can be great, but Disneyland is small enough in a populated enough area their service should be top notch. Its too bad that’s not the case.