A bit disappointed in the workers at this year Halloween Party.

[Hanowen]

I've gone to the Disneyland's Mickey's Halloween Party 3 years now, but I have never been treated as I did this year. And I was not alone in this treatment,as my sister, parents(who I was not with at the park) and other park goers that I talked to had these problems.

But yes, The problem is ageism.
I paid extra for the ticket, just like families with children. I am 25, my sister 26 and whenever some of the workers would look up and see me, without kids, they would hold on to most of the handful of candy, only dropping in one or two.
And then, after like some of the Treat Trail, my provided candy bag was about 3/4 full I started getting them looking at my bag and grabbing only one piece to give me. I hadn't even visited every single Treat Trail, so it wasn't even a case of abusing the service or something along those lines.
My parents(who are in their 50s) had it even worse. And I overheard a man behind me in line complain to the worker that she grabbed a handful of candy, looked up at him, and then dropped it and gave him a bag of apples.
The first year I went to this party, it was so fun and everyone, workers included were smiling and having an actual good time, but this year they just seemed angry and bored. Not a single worker acknowledged me after I said thank you, or hello. One made me stop after I said hello and say "trick or treat" before I got any candy, and they said it in an extremely rude tone.

I very much doubt I will ever buy a ticket to this event again... but I was just wanting to share this criticism and see if anyone here has had similar experiences?

[Malina]

Wow. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Last year I had a similar experience--the CMs weren't rationing candy but they were surly, they were muttering under their breath, holding personal conversations instead of helping guests.

This year I saw a huge improvement. I went to the Halloween Party last week. What I noticed was that at the beginning when the lines for the Treat Trails were very long, the CMs were very sparing with the candy. As the night rolled on they were very generous and were throwing in handfuls. I saw a lot of folks with very full candy bags (not me of course. *cough* No, of course not!). The lines for the Treat Trails were impossibly long at first and maybe they wanted to ensure they had enough candy for all?

As for the CMs--I actually thought they were, by and large, a lot nicer than the ones from last year. There were a few sourpusses and I had a bad experience on a ride, but 99% of the ones on the Treat Trails and the Meet & Greets were great, and they kept joking and laughing with us about our costumes.

My positive experience doesn't invalidate your negative one by any means, though. If the CMs weren't giving you what they gave to younger guests, that's not OK. If they were rude--also, not OK. Never OK.

I hope you will have a better time when you go to the park again!

[PascalGal]

Agree with Malina, the CMs were much nicer this year than in past years. Last year, we met some CMs who were downright surly and rude. This year was the opposite -- lots of smiles everywhere and fun comments.

I'm sorry that you felt that the amount of candy you were given was the result of some kind of prejudice, but I don't think that it was meant to be insulting. Every Halloween Party I've been to has been like that -- during the early hours, CMs give more candy to children than to grown ups, which makes sense since it is more likely that the children will be leaving the party earlier than the grown ups, so their bags need to be filled more quickly. After a certain time (usually after the fireworks), the CMs start being much more generous with the candy for everyone. At the party on 10/02 this year, the CMs at the Monorail Station were giving out handfuls of candy to everyone. Our bags really filled up after 9:30 pm or so. We've attended the party for years and this has been our experience every time.

If you really feel that there was a prejudice problem going on, send a comment to Disney to let them know so they can deal with the issue.

[JMazz]

I didn't go into one treat line, but I saw ppl of all ages packed to the gills w/ candy. In pockets, bags, purses. It was everywhere. It sucks that you didn't seem to get your fair share.

I did see some CMs doing some non-stop conversations at the lines (we didn't go in them, but we were surely ppl watching). There was more than one occasion that a child said "trick or treat" and the CMs never made eye contact with the kid, just shoved candy into the next bag and never broke the conversations. It was like they were working on an assembly line and not w/ guests. They weren't rude, but they were certainly ignoring the hundreds of ppl in line.

[mratigan]

I've never gone but this may be he year

[dictionary]

Well I went last year and while my dh and I weren't there for the Candy we did pop in a few times just for some treats to snack on right there and then. I will say it was mixed..sometimes a CM would welcome us and other times they just kept talking to another CM. We only hit about 4 spots, no major TorT for us..but I was wondering how we were going to be recieved. All in all I wouldn't say it was bad and it was toward the later part of the evening and not many people in the lines.

I certainly would continue to go despite TorT lines because there is so much more fun to have at these events then dime store candy but I can see how bad attitudes does effect your evening, hopefully this was just a one time problem.

[monster heck]

I'm probably going to come off as a grump here, but Halloween candy is/should be for the children! Anything extras we get as adults/parents should be considered a bonus.

[clara]

I'm probably going to come off as a grump here, but Halloween candy is/should be for the children! Anything extras we get as adults/parents should be considered a bonus.

I 100% agree

[Bronco21]

Meh, they are people. I have worked customer service for the last 14 years and I know how it gets sometimes. You can only say thank you and smile for so long (especially when most of the guests don't seem to care that you are even there). Not saying I do this, but I understand why CM's start to feel like they are working an assembly line and stop putting forth effort to interact with guests. Also Disney just cut their Christmas Party. You have to remember, parties and other small offerings are usually done by companies to boost moral and increase productivity. You take away the party and other incentives, the customer service quality is going to drop. Blame Disney not the CM's for most of the problems.

However, I agree with you that the amount of candy given out this year was far less than last year. Last year we got over 80 lbs of candy between the 10 of us in about 4 hours. This year, 40 lbs between 9 of us in 4 hours. The CM's were definetely not giving the heaping handfuls of candy they gave out last year. Though again was this because Disney told them to stop giving out as much candy or were the CM's just being stingy? I tend to think its the former.

As for myself, the parties are no longer more enjoyable to me than a normal day at the park when it is less crowded. Getting candy at Disneyland is fun, but since I might never purchase another AP again (way too expensive) my trips will be once a year so I would rather experience the park free of trick or treaters. If Disney really does read these boards, they should realize that they should really re-think this whole no CM parties thing. The impact from removing benefits can be seen by guests and that means guests will intern be less satisfied with the service quality. I have seen it, the OP has seen it, and I'm sure thousands of others have seen it.

---------- Post added 10-11-2012 at 01:32 PM ----------

I'm probably going to come off as a grump here, but Halloween candy is/should be for the children! Anything extras we get as adults/parents should be considered a bonus.

I pay full price, why should the service to me be different to the service to children?

[Sunshine711]

I totally understand being upset over paying full price and not getting as much candy as the kids. However, even if it's unintentional, people are going to be biased. I always give more candy to the kids, they're adorable. For instance, you give a kid a handful of candy they're happy. The thing I love is you let the little ones grab their own handful, they take one or two pieces. I always give them like two handfuls after that. it's adorable. But the older the kids get, the more they take, it's annoying, so I always give less to older kids. they even told me to do so at work. Alot of people believe the candy aspect of halloween if for the kids.

[calsig31]

I went to two of the parties and for the most part only found happy workers. This was amazing since the treat lines seemed much longer than in previous years. The only issue that I came across was at one of the treat stations that actually had a short line. The workers there were complaining to each other that they had to work until closing.

I pay full price, why should the service to me be different to the service to children?

Exactly, trick or treating is one of the perks that you are paying for with the admission ticket. It doesn't say it's limited to kids.

[ravencroft]

I can vouch for the OP on this that the candy you receive is quite variable. However, I am a middle aged male and I really don't care about the candy. We will be giving almost all of it away on Halloween night!

[calsig31]

We will be giving almost all of it away on Halloween night!

We do the same thing. We set a very small portion of it aside for our kids and the rest go to trick or treaters on Halloween.

[Skimbob]

I'm probably going to come off as a grump here, but Halloween candy is/should be for the children! Anything extras we get as adults/parents should be considered a bonus.

Some of us go to the party without kids and feel that we should get what we paid for. This party is not meant just for kids like Halloween itself is. It is meant to be fun for all ages.

[mickeyblue]

We were there on the 9th for the party--our first year. My husband and I didn't Trick or Treat, we only went so that we could have access to rides without the usual lines. Our oldest (23) and youngest (16) sons went also and later in the evening did T or T. My oldest son felt that they were stingy with adults also, and to top that off, he noticed them drop apples and Craisins in his bag and candy in his younger brothers bag. He thought they were sending him messages because he's really overweight (brother isn't) and seemed a little insulted.

My husband and I later (about 1030) saw an empty treat line in Fantasyland and I decided to get a piece of candy. As we were walking up to the que we heard the CM tell a teenager that he could not have candy if he didn't have a bag and that there weren't any bags left. He said that he had a pocket and she repeated no bag, no candy and he left. I got out of the que at that point since I'd never picked up a bag that evening. Seems kind of silly unless this was one of the ways to weed out people who didn't have a wristband, but, they only had to ask to see it.

We may not do this again, but, all 4 of us did enjoy the non-existent lines on many rides. Thunder Mountain 3x in a row without a line!!!!! Yayyyy!!!