Falling Standards at Our Parks

[wikiverse]

5 hours ago, Skeeta said:

I hope you didn't mention Parkz because asking stupid questions makes us all look like idiots.  Next time somebody ask an employee what’s going on can you say you’re from TTPSN?

 

I didn't mention any website, it was a private conversation between me and one staff member I know that works for VRTP.  It was not asked to the company through any of their channels.  That image is the entire interaction about the topic.  I casually asked the question and they volunteered that response.

The good employees that I personally know have the exact same complaints as people in this thread, so there is exactly zero chance of reputation damage from asking them why they think it is occurring.

But I do home VTRP management drop into the forums and see some of these comments, because there is some good feedback they could use to make improvements - including what their own staff think about their workplace culture.

I think most people could overlook lots of the little maintenance details people are complaining about if the general level of customer service was high enough though. It might sound a bit stupid, but small maintenance issues like the jackhammer or broken tiles would just come across as guests abusing the park (rather than management that don't care enough to maintain them) if the staff created the impression that their primary focus was the enjoyment of guests.  I've been to a few parks where the rides were a bit worn/dated or just not that thrilling, and it was the attitude of the staff that made it a magical and fun experience for me (even as an adult).

[MickeyD]

Old saying goes "You don't get a second chance at a first impression".

MW once dominated the GC Parks in Customer Service. It was something that myself along with thousands of others who took great pride in during it's early years. From what I can tell, things really started going downhill in the last 10 years, now that all of the original Bosses have finally called it a day. @Brad2912 I am a little shocked to hear that you have never known MW to be a place noteworthy of Service?

As is the case with most Theme Parks globally - One Entry and One Exit. That's where a Park makes it's first and last impression.

If they want to fix this problem you have to start somewhere, so start with the Front Gate and work forward from there..

Edited June 2, 2018 by MickeyD

[Levithian]

Might want to start with having a park thats worth opening and charging full price admission first. That would be a good start. All the retail options and rides "under maintenance" cant all be down at once. Thats the worst it has ever been at movieworld if that is the case. It sounds like they are cutting corners like dreamworld was doing and just expecting we will swallow it. 

[milesandbos]

On 02/06/2018 at 6:20 PM, MickeyD said:

Old saying goes "You don't get a second chance at a first impression".

MW once dominated the GC Parks in Customer Service. It was something that myself along with thousands of others who took great pride in during it's early years. From what I can tell, things really started going downhill in the last 10 years, now that all of the original Bosses have finally called it a day. @Brad2912 I am a little shocked to hear that you have never known MW to be a place noteworthy of Service?

As is the case with most Theme Parks globally - One Entry and One Exit. That's where a Park makes it's first and last impression.

If they want to fix this problem you have to start somewhere, so start with the Front Gate and work forward from there..

Can confirm we had a fantastic front gate experience at MW the other day

[pushbutton]

12 minutes ago, milesandbos said:

Can confirm we had a fantastic front gate experience at MW the other day

That's great, but ALL guests should be able to say that, every day! 

[Joshw84]

Unfortunately, i had a fairly poor experience when i visited on Sunday. I was first told to swap gates with my stroller and kids from the gate that is dedicated to strollers and wheelchairs. The next young guy held his card reader, scanned our passes, then his first words were "your passes are not valid, you have to get new ones, go back to a ticket both". So, even though i have a VIP pass (paper one that expires in 2 weeks) i had to get a new hard plastic one, as they upgraded the ticket system. This also caused issues, as they had to re enter all our info again, as the new system didn't transfer our details. 

 

The rest of the day was ok, nothing special, but nothing poor, just average.

[MickeyD]

3 hours ago, milesandbos said:

Can confirm we had a fantastic front gate experience at MW the other day

@milesandbos An answer like that suggests to me that you are likely a MW "Mole" masquerading as an every day Visitor that's rather pathetically trying to guide the watchful eye of the scrutinizing fan away from negative forum reviews, such as this one.. 

"Nothing to see here!! Move along!!!!" hmmm.. 

🤔

[rappa]

Whoever mentioned uniforms is bang on.

That Village branding should NEVER have entered the public facing aspect of the parks. Disney tried creating a "Disney Parks" brand an ditching all park specific stuff and it backfired terribly and ultimately reversed it all. Why the GC parks repeat mistakes of other operators years after they were shown to be awful and expect different is baffling...

 

All those "Village" corporate type uniforms are management types getting off on being some of some big corporate entity and completely detrimental to placemaking and magic, just awful. I can't say enough horrid things about those rank uniforms, multi park merch, and '4 park' name badges. 

 

What I do hope is all of this left along with Tim Fisher and change is in the works, I hear so many good 'JSM Style' comments about Kirby that we can only hope.

Edited June 5, 2018 by djrappa

[MickeyD]

2 hours ago, djrappa said:

 

All those "Village" corporate type uniforms are management types getting off on being some of some big corporate entity and completely detrimental to placemaking and magic, just awful. I can't say enough horrid things about those rank uniforms, multi park merch, and '4 park' name badges. 

 

What I do hope is all of this left along with Tim Fisher and change is in the works, I hear so many good 'JSM Style' comments about Kirby that we can only hope.

While on the subject of Uniforms, can somebody please explain why Senior VTP Employee's do not require a Uniforn of any description? 

Whatever happened to the "Movieworld "Look"? 

[rappa]

'Line Level' park supervisor staff have and always have had a uniform. However management teams do not. To my knowledge that has always been the case and is even the case at somewhere like the Disney Parks. They will always have a name badge though.

 

Anyone directly in contact with guests for 99% of cases is a uniformed member of staff.

[Brad2912]

For anyone interested in why the refill stations are MW are all closed & shuttered up I have the official word..

its because it’s winter and that means the park is quieter and less drinks are sold so it saves money to have them closed.

go figure.

[MickeyD]

Oh ffs is anything open out there at the moment? 

.. and they wonder why it is so quiet down the back end of the Park. Shut everything and make it look like the place is going broke.. nice

[joz]

I've been keeping up to date with this thread, and while I have detailed thoughts on a lot of it, what I find interesting is how many people think this stuff is new. Maybe it's the fact that Movie World opened 2 new rides in 2 years that blinded everyone from the true state of the park. The irony is that I think the park is looking either as good or better than it has for years, it's just that people have taken their blinders off. I also understand the reality that they have implemented a new ticketing strategy with a long term focus which will cost them in the short term, at the exact same time as rest of the group has had an awful year. That's why you're getting community month being extended and half baked stuff like afterglow and cost cutting, but even with the cost cutting its better now in terms of having outlets open than I've ever seen it.

 

That doesn't mean I think everything is great, but I think it's as good as we can reasonably expect from Village. People in management don't understand theme parks, they understand the Village way of doing things. Here's an example of the sort of thing I mean; there is a policy in place that if f&b staff eat left over food it's theft and staff caught doing it will be dismissed. You have to be a special kind of asshole to think that way as you ask kids on $20 an hour to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of food. So the people who are successful in the department are special kinds of assholes, and stupid policy lives on. There are nice supervisors by the way who allow it, but it's understood that it's the manager being nice, not the company, and the nice ones (overall) tend to get weeded out before progressing further.

 

A friend of mine recently got a job in marketing doing social media. They studied social media and know the parks intimately. Instead of using that knowledge and creating engaging content they were locked in an office and were asked to scroll instagram to find photos guests had taken. This is why you get the inane unengaging crap that Village post on social media all the time. Of course the people who know how crap what they're doing leave and the people who think the social media presence is fine persist into management. At village, with a couple exceptions, mediocrity rises to the top.

 

I think Clarke is good for the parks but the culture he inherited is one that will need work and it's really hard to do when there's no money. What's interesting to me is that the low level staff who are good like him and feel they could go to him with a problem. People with crappy attitudes complain because they have to stay at work longer. I think it'll take a while and a management clean out to fix things, after all things are pretty mediocre at Movie World, and that's where all the management is based and trying the hardest. Have you been to any other VRTP parks lately to see how they're doing? Spoiler alert, not as good as MW.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

26 minutes ago, joz said:

Here's an example of the sort of thing I mean; there is a policy in place that if f&b staff eat left over food it's theft and staff caught doing it will be dismissed. You have to be a special kind of asshole to think that way as you ask kids on $20 an hour to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of food.

I've seen this policy elsewhere - a friend of mine manages a KFC (well, used to) and they have the same policy.

For them at least, its there to stop them from cooking too much food - if you know the store is closing in an hour, and you're nearly out of X, do you cook a full batch? or do you make 1 or 2, and be prepped to fire more as needed, explaining the simple delay to the customer while it's cooked fresh?

If the kids earning $20 an hour know they get to eat what is left, why wouldn't they cook a full batch \ extra? it all adds up to a big cost for the business... and big costs need to be trimmed somehow - if you can't stop the kids from cooking extra, maybe you hire less staff? use cheaper product? raise prices? all the things that are detrimental to the business \ panned by consumers.

[MickeyD]

8 minutes ago, AlexB said:

 if you can't stop the kids from cooking extra, maybe you hire less staff? use cheaper product? raise prices? all the things that are detrimental to the business \ panned by consumers.

Aren't they already doing all of those things @AlexB?

[joz]

Maybe if KFC got rid of that rule and worried less about wastage I could go in at 9.30 and actually buy some food. 'The only thing we have left is chips and nuggets' 'Well shit do you want me to get out my car and show you where the fryer is?'

Edited June 7, 2018 by joz

[New display name]

11 minutes ago, AlexB said:

I've seen this policy elsewhere - a friend of mine manages a KFC (well, used to) and they have the same policy.

KFC isn't a theme park and companies that run our park need to start running our parks like theme parks.  Theme parks are meant to be fun but if staff are angry and bored you can’t expect them to show a fun attitude towards the guest.   If management create a fun and happy environment for staff to work in then the parks won’t have to tell staff how treat guest, it will come naturally. 

[pushbutton]

My very first management job was at a well known fast food restaurant. I fired crew members for eating half a nugget, and taking 5 seconds too long to make a burger. 

It wasn't because I'm a horrible person, but because I was literally told by my boss to get rid of these particular staff using any excuse available. It was made very clear to me that either I fire them or they would fire me! I needed the job so I did what I had to do. Such was the culture of the business at the time. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

16 hours ago, pushbutton said:

My very first management job was at a well known fast food restaurant. I fired crew members for eating half a nugget, and taking 5 seconds too long to make a burger.

That explains a lot.

[pushbutton]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

That

That what? I don't understand your point. 

Edited June 7, 2018 by pushbutton

[T-bone]

Would you do the same today @pushbutton? If so that's a real dick of a move buddy.

[AllegroCrab]

On 07/06/2018 at 2:15 PM, AlexB said:

If the kids earning $20 an hour know they get to eat what is left, why wouldn't they cook a full batch \ extra? it all adds up to a big cost for the business... and big costs need to be trimmed somehow

Can confirm. I work in a cafe where they let us eat the food, whenever we put chips and wedges on we almost subconsciously put a bit more in than necessary and snack on the rest. The boss is snacking away with us though.

[MickeyD]

Leftover food at MW used to be recycled out to the EDR and Commissary (employee dining rooms) to be sold to Staff on Meal breaks. ..

Are they not doing this still today?

[Jdude95]

23 hours ago, MickeyD said:

Leftover food at MW used to be recycled out to the EDR and Commissary (employee dining rooms) to be sold to Staff on Meal breaks. ..

Are they not doing this still today?

The food out at the EDR is much much nicer than the in-park food. Definitely not leftovers.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Jdude95

[Mc coaster]

Something else I remembered from when was up there is that some of MW and all of WnW's bathroom/change rooms still have signs about water conservation because of the drought. Last time i checked there was no drought. These are not metal signs screwed into the doors they could easily be ripped off without damaging anything. Come on VRTP!!!