I just saw a different version of this story on the front page of Yahoo.
We might be hearing about this for a while.
We might be hearing about this for a while.
UOR staff accused of "Fat-Shaming"
- Thread starter quinnmac000
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If it gets too much, Universal can always announce Harry Potter or Nintendo or the new resort or T2 replacement or SLOP.
Yeah, sure. That'd be great, but fat chance that's happening.
- Sep 15, 2015
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Her reaction to this is why we're having this conversation... The TM'S are trained to accommodate eligible disabled people as they should. Pretty much "EVERYONE" can ride Kong and that's the end of the story. Theme parks have very few rides that accommodate every size so to cry discrimination on an attraction that can accommodate the gamut of dimensions is beyond realistic imo.
#Unless you're kong himself
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- Apr 18, 2013
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I agree totally she’s turning this into something it isn’t. This isn’t about accommodating a disability, it’s just a basic seating request. It’s apparent from the compensation that Universal offfered that they feel themeselves they failed to offer an appropriate level of customer service. I’m just saying this should be a pretty common sense request to honor for the comfort of everyone, not just the larger guest.
- Sep 15, 2015
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No... Now we're not going to sit here and act as if anyone who gives a half plausible complaint to customer relations won't be offered something. She was offered no more than what she should have been offered from a business standpoint. If Disney or Universal let every plus size person opt to determine seating the wait times would be no where near as accurate as they stand. Imo it's a fail for universal to admit wrongdoing in this case. You're either special needs or not.
- Apr 18, 2013
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Well whatever, you’re entitled to your opinion. Universal did nothing legally wrong here. From a customer service standpoint I personally wouldn’t want to be crushed into a vehicle simply because some employee can’t or isn’t allowed to make a common sense adjustment to loading a vehicle. People spend a lot of money and wait a long time for these experiences it should be comfortable and enjoyable for everyone. Of course I’m the type of person who doesn’t get all upset waiting a couple extra minutes for my fast food if it means it’s not quite as “thrown together”, so that’s just my perspective.
Because Universal offered some form of compensation, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong. They simply didnt want it to escalate like it has.
Something like this has probably happened before and nobody has ever known about it, this doesn’t need to be headline news and Universal offering something that costs them virtually nothing is worth paying for all the bad PR that has came out of it.
- Apr 18, 2013
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I don't know exactly how Universal operates, but there usually is some sort of justification unless management is just being purely lazy. In my time working at Disney I denied compensation many many times when policies had been followed correctly and nothing was done wrong.
Even if their policy of filling rows to capacity is super strict and allows for no discretion (which I certainly hope isn't the case) the comments from the TM in the description were not appropriate.
I don't know if it's in all the rows but I know one of those rows on Kong has some annoying metal bar on the bench. I've been in that row before when TMs squeezed in like 7 people. That was awful.
If she was in that row then they might have been able to fit even less people in it.
I don't know how busy it was or what the rules were but if she was able to fit I don't know why they wouldn't just accommodate her for just one ride. I mean surely that's better than some of the stuff I've seen on Hulk or Mummy where they get two TMs over trying to squeeze them into the restraints and drawing more attention when it's taking a while.
If she was in that row then they might have been able to fit even less people in it.
I don't know how busy it was or what the rules were but if she was able to fit I don't know why they wouldn't just accommodate her for just one ride. I mean surely that's better than some of the stuff I've seen on Hulk or Mummy where they get two TMs over trying to squeeze them into the restraints and drawing more attention when it's taking a while.
I am a bigger guy if I can't get on a ride (it has happened) a few of the times they gave me a 1 ride express for another ride to offset my time in line .
Reasonable accommodation should be required (as it is the law) but a ride op who was afraid to make a common sense decision .That is why she was given freebies. Sending a ride vehicle with one less person sounds reasonable to me. I have ridden Hulk when I was crushed in and almost could not breathe . Ride vehicles are dispatched every minute or so I do not mind waiting an extra minute so everyone can have a good time. When I get in Mummy I drag my butt down back of seat to allow lap bar to close .I can ride rip ride as long as I get the bigger seat . So I can ride most of the rides .I have had mostly good interaction with TM's but since I go a lot I have had a few bad interactions with poorly trained TM's (when you know rules and they do not ) So some ADA training might be a good thing for all TM's
Some common sense should be required for all but sadly it seems to be going away ( or I am getting old and crotchety )
Reasonable accommodation should be required (as it is the law) but a ride op who was afraid to make a common sense decision .That is why she was given freebies. Sending a ride vehicle with one less person sounds reasonable to me. I have ridden Hulk when I was crushed in and almost could not breathe . Ride vehicles are dispatched every minute or so I do not mind waiting an extra minute so everyone can have a good time. When I get in Mummy I drag my butt down back of seat to allow lap bar to close .I can ride rip ride as long as I get the bigger seat . So I can ride most of the rides .I have had mostly good interaction with TM's but since I go a lot I have had a few bad interactions with poorly trained TM's (when you know rules and they do not ) So some ADA training might be a good thing for all TM's
Some common sense should be required for all but sadly it seems to be going away ( or I am getting old and crotchety )
- Dec 21, 2016
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but what's to stop every person in line from requesting a private row, a private cart, just me and my kids etc... I don't know it seems like rides in Orlando are already made with the typical American tourist in mind. Are the rows on Kong really that tight? I find it hard to believe that they couldn't accompany six women of her size semi comfortably and if the other riders are smaller there should be even more room. I just am not buying it. She doesn't even look that big to be honest?
- Apr 18, 2013
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In my opinion a good grouper would see her coming and group her with another group with children or simply put one less in that row. No one would even know that anything was different and everyone would be happy.
Its tough to get good grouper. Sometimes it is tilapia being passed as grouper.
Sorry I just had to.
A good grouper is fun to watch, how they keep it straight on some of the rides (EFG) I have no idea. Way beyond my skills for sure.
I agree this could have been avoided in so many ways it is surprising it has gone this far.
- Feb 15, 2012
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Rows are that tight.
They should have accommodate better. They treated guests as a number not a person and that’s where they ran into trouble.
- Dec 21, 2016
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Eh one could argue when it comes to loading a high capacity Orlando theme park attraction people on the loading stations should be thinking of the guests as numbers, there is no time to consider each and every riders wants and desires, and I truly believe its' a slippery slope. You begin just giving guests whatever they request and soon you'll have groups of two demanding their own rows because they have anxiety or claustrophobia or they didn't' shower that morning. I mean every time I get on a plane I get self conscious about my weight when I have to squeeze between two strangers, but I don't ask the airline to kick one of them off.
- Apr 18, 2013
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It’s really not that slippery of a slope. In the rare instance where someone says “hey we’re not really all fitting in this row” you just say “step off we’ll get you in a row with more room”. If a larger person goes to a restaurant and the hostess seats them at a booth and the larger person says they have a hard time fitting, they don’t just say tough luck deal with it and leave them to squeeze in. It’s really just common courtesy and treating people the way you would want to be treated.
- Feb 15, 2012
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Come on dude, you know this is ridiculous.
Other parks work with guests of various body sizes fine, this isn't a safety issue. It's easy to play armchair TM here and I do not blame them for this, it's a cultural thing that both WDW and UOR has.
The issue is, as @Ryan pointed out, the attraction groupers have a tendency to turn very robotic (this is from my experience as well). They are given a number to hit by their lead so in order to hit that, they need to try and get as many people on per hour as possible.
Anyone blaming the TMs at load has it all wrong. I've seen TM's get fired for being too slow at load. It's the management/culture issue that is installed at UOR (mostly the dry parks... management at Volcano is much more chill).
Anyone blaming the TMs at load has it all wrong. I've seen TM's get fired for being too slow at load. It's the management/culture issue that is installed at UOR (mostly the dry parks... management at Volcano is much more chill).
Not just UOR, too. Capacity hungry managers are a huge problem at some parks, to the point where they become vicious and counter-intuitive to both employee morale and customer service. You have no idea what replacing anyone at load for being too slow does to both an employee's self-esteem and the pressure put on the remaining TMs.
Like Joe says, management is seeing guests as a number instead of people. Case-in-point is back in my ride op days where managers would sit on deck at control watching the numbers tick up as the hour passes on and is screaming "FASTER! FASTER! REPLACE (BLANK) NOW! THEY AREN'T FAST ENOUGH!" If that grouper lets a person a seat go empty they are immediately replaced as the manager screams their head off to the dispatch leads, straight to the groupers who are radio'd by the schedule board lead to rotate them out. Just so the number can be nice and high so they can pass it on to their higher ups who notch it down that one ride's operations was picking up the slack that day.
That's what causes these situations, it's the vicious underbelly of ops that is rarely witnessed by normal guests. Now it's bitten them on the ass when a guest is furious and uses the poor customer service to their advantage. IMO nothing more, nothing less. Universal should've accommodated and she was denied because of this culture.
Like Joe says, management is seeing guests as a number instead of people. Case-in-point is back in my ride op days where managers would sit on deck at control watching the numbers tick up as the hour passes on and is screaming "FASTER! FASTER! REPLACE (BLANK) NOW! THEY AREN'T FAST ENOUGH!" If that grouper lets a person a seat go empty they are immediately replaced as the manager screams their head off to the dispatch leads, straight to the groupers who are radio'd by the schedule board lead to rotate them out. Just so the number can be nice and high so they can pass it on to their higher ups who notch it down that one ride's operations was picking up the slack that day.
That's what causes these situations, it's the vicious underbelly of ops that is rarely witnessed by normal guests. Now it's bitten them on the ass when a guest is furious and uses the poor customer service to their advantage. IMO nothing more, nothing less. Universal should've accommodated and she was denied because of this culture.
