Brazil's tour groups

[TikiLounger]

Wow...I can't understand why, just because it's part of their culture, they're allowed to get away with it. Especially in a very crowded place where it can become dangerous to other guests very quickly. Sorry but, while sometimes behavior that is "it's part of their culture" can be expected or forgiven, it's not an excuse in situations like madhatterrules'. That being said, we were in the parks in July 2008 and we experienced the "tour group" thing first hand. It was annoying to be cut in line, beaten to the fast pass machines, sung to in every queue line (yes, a little is fun...a lot gets old fast), and pushed and shoved through buffet lines. My daughter (she was 16 at the time) was getting pretty upset in the queue line of the ToT. Some of the Brazillian girls were staring at her and talking behind their hands. It was very obvious that they were talking about her. She naturally assumed (because sadly, it's part of OUR culture for teen girls to be...well...a little mean and gossipy about one another) that they were making fun of her. This went on for quite a while. We told DD to just forget about it and ignore, which she tried to do. Then? one of the girls in question tapped her on the shoulder and said, "We just want to tell you how pretty you are. We've been looking at you and talking about it. We all wish we looked like you." The girl was very sweet and seemed genuine. It was a good lesson for my daughter on several different levels.

[happy day]

what hotels do these large groups usually stay?

[southerngirl]

I've never encountered the groups at any of the Disney hotels, but I've encountered plenty of them at the parks, both in the summer and in December. Two years ago in December, we had a situation where I was trying to get FastPasses at Peter Pan one morning for my DH and me. Two of the tour group leaders were monopolizing both of the machines, with about 40 park passes each. They caused a massive line, and it took me over 15 minutes to get our passes. A CM was standing right there and did nothing to help! IMHO, either Disney should assign large tour groups (of any type) someone to help guide through the parks, or they should at least make sure that they don't monopolize all of the FP machines, cause massive delays, etc.

[Scar]

Two of the tour group leaders were monopolizing both of the machines, with about 40 park passes each. They caused a massive line, and it took me over 15 minutes to get our passes.

Certainly, the line would have been much more massive with 80 more people standing in it getting 1 pass each.

A CM was standing right there and did nothing to help!

When you say "help" do you mean the group leader didn't know how to use the machine and the CM just stood there without showing them how?

[DizneyRox]

what hotels do these large groups usually stay?

Im pretty sure it's a lot of off-site. Value would be my next guess. I've never run across them at a hotel.

Also the alternative to the group leader getting many fast passes is ALL of them getting in line as well. Either way, those behind them are going to wait, it's no different than 10 families in front of you.

I would rather Disney leave well enough alone on this one, otherwise abuse (multiple fast passes, etc) will happen. Then need to work within the same system everyone else uses.

[ransam]

I hate to say it, but while it *****, what is the CM/Disney suppose to do, not allow big groups in? tell them not to sing? while the leaders are getting the fast passes, would it be ok if everyone just got in line by themselves? or are they not allowed to use fast passes becasue they are in a big group. Remember. Fast passes can only be used one at a time, so if they are monoplizing Peter Pan w/ fast passes, then go on Small World, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, then go back to PP later. Just seems that if a large group is all together, they are easier to avoid....disney is a huge place. Just go do something that they aren't.

[Daisy'sMom]

OMG Madhatterrules, that is disgusting. These people should have been removed from the park and never allowed to reenter. If that happened to anyone in my family, I would be calling 911 on my cell and filing an assault charge.

[TheVBs]

OMG Madhatterrules, that is disgusting. These people should have been removed from the park and never allowed to reenter. If that happened to anyone in my family, I would be calling 911 on my cell and filing an assault charge.

I agree. Getting physical is unacceptable and illegal. It doesn't matter where you're from, what your culture is like or whether you're with a group or not. I'm really sorry that happened to you and your kids Madhatterrules. I would have had the CM phone the police.

[madhatterrules]

I was shocked more than anything and my head was throbbing. I was more concerned about getting the kids calmed down and making sure my husband was OK. I was told they were asking them to leave the park since I was the
3rd victem they heard about. It should never happen and especially at Disney.

I'm hoping they've since made some guidelines for the CM's as to what to do if any groups get out of hand.

[crazypoohbear]

They told me that there was suppossed to be a WDW employee with them to help avoid any problems and they were going to ask them to leave but I needed to understand it was part of their culture. I have friends from all over the world and many different cultures and no one I know thinks its an acceptable thing to do to anyone. I think if Disney knows there are problems with large groups then they should be addressed immediately and always have an employee with them who can help control any situations. It was the only time I've had a bad time in WDW.

I would have told the CM to call the police because I was pressing charges immediately. because that is part of MY culture!
There is no acceptable culture that allows abuse to take place.
There are cameras all over disney for security reasons, Disney could have checked the tapes and found the persons who assaulted you and pressed charges.
I'm sorry you had to experience this.

[Love of Disney]

When we have gone during July in the past, we had some staying at the All Star Resorts, POP, and Coronado Springs. Maybe it depends on how much Mommy & Daddy are willing to spend We were told two years ago by a Disney Cast Member that the All Star resorts are the most popular with the tour groups. Good luck with things... We never go in July anymore due to these groups.

[Cinderella7299]

We were just there for two nights, June 30th and July 1. We stayed at POFQ and as far as I could tell, we were almost entirely surrounded by a very large tour group. There were 10 full size charter buses to accommodate them. With the exception of the cheering/singing, they were otherwise fine. They were normal teens, running around in and out of each others rooms, sitting in the hallways...etc. They were nice enough, would smile when we passed them, and quieted down very well about 10ish at night, we never even heard them leave in the mornings. We could have easily requested to be moved to a different area of the hotel, but never really saw the need. We did not go into the parks at all, so I can't say if there were other groups besides the one at our hotel.

Ginny Lynne

[CaptSmee]

we always have seen them in Jan. this year we saw them in June. we have never seen them in the fall (sept, oct, or nov). they have never posed a problem either.

[Marymouse2003]

We unfortunately were knocked around by a large group of girls, with locked arms,chanting/singing as they trampled on us and others as we sat in the Handicap area near the castle for the MVMCP parade. They actually just did whatever they wanted and I'd never witnessed this b4. No idea where they were staying, but this happened in Dec and I sure understand wanting to file charges. My DM almost fell down and the same for several other ppl. They were Brazilian, which isn't the point, other that it seems from reading other posts, seems like a trend, but to me, you wld have to be almost blind NOT to see the danger of this behavior.

[happy day]

I don't understand why Disney allows this behavior at their parks. Since it is not all the tour groups that act this way, they should stop those that do. ALso, with large groups they should speak to the leaders of the behavior too.

[Polynesian Dweller]

You know, living in a tourist area and doing business here, as well as frequenting Niagara Falls I can say that the ethnicity doesn't really matter. Tour groups are tour groups. They get off buses and dominate the turnstiles and attractions anywhere simply by numbers alone.

I have seen every thing mentioned in this thread here and in Niagara from tour groups from many nationalities. Name the nationality, including Canadian and American tour groups and I can relate similar storie.

Tour groups travel as a group and act as a group and push others out of the way. They will get in your way, and if they are not of your culture they will act differently than you (tour groups tend to conserve their culture because they spend all their time with people from their culture). Its difficult for the individual tourist to cope with tour groups that are on a schedule.

Hospitality operators (I'm one) try to manage this for everyone's benefit but 60 people travelling together will get in the way of others and until laws let us discriminate its not feasible to say no tour groups can enter your property, you will lose the lawsuit from the tour operator.

JPL has it correctly, the best advice is to go the other way when you see a tour group arrive and enjoy some other attraction.

[Melanie]

JPL has it correctly, the best advice is to go the other way when you see a tour group arrive and enjoy some other attraction.

Great advice, but almost impossible to follow today. We went to both AK and MK, and there were numerous groups (from Brazil) at both parks. And some of them had upwards of 200 people per group! Overall I didn't see any terrible behavior, but just the numbers were overwhelming nonetheless.

[SandmanGStefani24]

thats crazy! i dont understand why they have to stay in one group. if they were very young, like elementary school age i'd understand.

when i went on a trip with my high school, we were instructed to break up into groups of no more than 6 and we were dropped off at the transportation center so we could go to whatever park we wanted. nobody got left out, and all us kids were distributed evenly. oddly enough we never ran into another kid from our class the rest of the day. (and there were almost 300 of us.) Maybe someone should pass along this tip to the Brazilian tour managers...

[PirateLover]

Are the "Kontik" groups the Brazilian ones? If so we have seen them on every trip we've been on in May/June. Never saw them in December so I'm not sure about that theory of their seasons being opposite... Anyway, we've never really had a problem with it, other than the sheer amazement as they pass by. One group was so huge they occupied almost the whole Tomorrowland Bridge when they were crossing!!! We've never been on a ride at the same time as them. We did witness the Fastpass thing once on our past trip. We had a few minutes before we could get our next pass and so we camped out by Splash Mountain FP machines. Up comes a leader with about 30 cards. He gets his passes and goes back to the group only to find, HE MISSED ONE! So he comes back and is trying to explain it to the CM, who then tells him he's just going to have to put them all back in again to see which one he missed! However the machines were pretty crowded so the CM saw common sense and just gave him one extra one.

[maxrebo77]

no kidding. They know they are going. disney knows they are coming. Make a plan and have some rules. we always just went the other direction. You don't just get to swarm the place. and hitting someone?