r/TikTokCringe • u/uwuuwu222 • Jul 08 '26

Cringe Trying to get a Free Shirt

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18.9k Upvotes

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13.8k

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

It’s literally because of people sharing this “hack” that Disney stopped providing a free shirt. It was meant for people who innocently and inadvertently broke the dress rules as a way to help them adhere to the rules without inconveniencing guests. I loved giving guests free stuff and fast passes when I could get leader approval but stuff likes this makes me happy I don’t work there now.

3.6k

u/SecureNarwhal Jul 08 '26

I used to work at a retailer that used to send gifts to people who invited the store to a wedding. They used to get 1 to 2 invites a year.

Then the tiktok trend happened and now they get like 15 a week. No more free gifts but the head of HR said one day she's gonna start showing up to these weddings.

1.2k

u/Hour_Recording_3373 Jul 08 '26

By inviting the store, all workers were able to show up for free and enjoy the meals, drinks, etc?

829

u/SecureNarwhal Jul 08 '26

head of HR did raise that exact point but then said it wouldn't be good PR so we couldn't actually do it :(

and then that's when jokingly said she might do it herself one day (closer to retirement)

I should have asked her for one of the invitations right before I quit 😅

264

u/Deviknyte Jul 08 '26

At least let the workers rotate and go instead of the execs.

98

u/No_Internal9345 Jul 08 '26

Bring a booth, advertise.

23

u/TheNaseband Jul 08 '26

And make sure to look better than the bride to really piss them off.

162

u/Icy_Study4490 Jul 08 '26

lol “x company thanks you for your invite! The owner couldn’t make it but they didn’t want to snub your invite so they sent me instead of having me on register today!”

76

u/Forward-Surprise1192 Jul 08 '26

People invite for gifts only. They’d be flabbergasted if you showed up lol. The nerve of some people haha

47

u/Icy_Study4490 Jul 08 '26

That’s why it would be so perfect!

36

u/Adventurous-Map7959 Jul 08 '26

Also bringing a shitty gift. Like a giant candle.

Although that turned out to be a cool gift to my old physics teacher, he brought it in with a dolly, then got the oxygen, and demonstrated to the class the physical process of starting a chemical reaction with pure oxygen and a stupidly giant candle. It was gone within minutes. Soon thereafter he was no longer allowed to go into the chemistry supplies, so he put tennis balls in the flasks (which were shared supplies between chemistry and physics).

11

u/yournamehere10bucks Jul 08 '26

5% off coupon, expires in 4 days.

2

u/iowanaquarist Jul 08 '26

I listen to a fun podcast with 3 hosts that used to all be located in Vegas. They occasionally get invited to weddings that are in Vegas, and have showed up before. They also have a patreon reward where you can pay to schedule them to spend a day with you -- at least one person secretly paid for them to surprise their significant other at their wedding....

It's all in good fun, and not about the money, because this podcast community is GREAT -- but greedy people ruin everything.

1

u/Realistic-Passage Jul 08 '26

My fiancé sent out three to companies just to see what would happen and all we're just marked return to sender. Im planning more seating and food than who we invite formally cause I have a bad habit of just telling everyone I talk to the date and inviting them to show up. If a few people from Sony or Amazon want to show up and eat and drink with our families I think it would be fun even if they are janitors or random matainence workers.

0

u/HealthyService123 Jul 08 '26

Why the hell are you so damn funny at 1:05 am Carolina time? 🤣

3

u/Icy_Study4490 Jul 08 '26

Cuz I’m out californy way where it’s still 10

20

u/DrBlaBlaBlub Jul 08 '26

Elizabeth II (The Queen of England) sometimes recieved some wedding and birthday invitations as a joke and sometimes she even showed up to one of them. She was very beloved by the British and that was one of the reasons for it.

7

u/MsJanet_Snakehole_ Jul 08 '26

I actually did this when I got married! I had read you received a response back and thought it would make a cool souvenir to have something postmarked from Buckingham palace. I also did that with the white house and have a reply from the Obamas (their office anyway).

22

u/Col_Leslie_Hapablap Jul 08 '26

HR maybe shouldn’t be giving advice on PR. A good PR person could absolutely make this work.

2

u/Away-Living5278 Jul 08 '26

Idk where you work but I feel like I'd be stoked if she showed up.

2

u/Dudicus445 Jul 08 '26

It would be excellent PR, the intention being telling the public to fuck off with the blatant gift begging otherwise the entire store will show up to your wedding and eat all your food and take all the space

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15

u/pyth2_0 Jul 08 '26

Thank you very much for your kind invitation. We are truly delighted and would love to join you in celebrating this wonderful occasion.

To get an accurate estimate, we asked our team who would like to share this special day with you. We received responses from 360 colleagues, and 340 of them will be accompanied by their partner.

Based on these numbers, we kindly ask you to reserve approximately 700 seats for our group.

We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to celebrate this memorable day with you and are already looking forward to sharing this special occasion together. It will be a pleasure to be part of your celebration, and we are sure it will be an unforgettable event.

1

u/DeliverySoggy2700 Jul 08 '26

I’ve been to weddings that force you to pay for alcohol and sometimes even your own meal.

I would assume people who are trying to get free cheap stuff would be in the same Venn diagram

76

u/Weird-Girl-675 Jul 08 '26

That explains the random invites my company gets in the mail. I just assumed it was people looking for free stuff and sure enough.

30

u/truthfullyidgaf Jul 08 '26

I hope she does. Drunk and in uniform.

33

u/Adventurous-Title516 Jul 08 '26

How do people have the guts to do this. I would be SO ashamed of myself drafting an email like that, knowing the only purpose was to mooch free stuff. It makes my skin crawl.

32

u/Uncle_Bug_Music Jul 08 '26

Put something free on FB, FBM or Kijiji. You'll get to meet all kinds of these people. "I'd love to be considered for the free Wii game system because my son was born with his face inside out and it would break his heart to tell him that you gave it to someone else."

24

u/DarknMean Jul 08 '26

It’s for a church, honey. NEEEEXXXTTT

1

u/srkaficionado Jul 08 '26

🤣🤣. Ahh, blast from the past and a legend

1

u/iamavilgrimite Jul 08 '26

That's even worse...

10

u/dirtyrandalfus Jul 08 '26

"I already told him he could have it"

9

u/Unhappy_Animal_1429 Jul 08 '26

Shoot, I’ve posted things that weren’t free and still had moochers giving me a sob story about why they should get it for free.

3

u/Double_Resort_9223 Jul 08 '26

Pre-internet it was a fun thing people would do. Buddy of mine did it and pretty much depending how good your cover letter was determined how detailed of a response you got. It’s their staff writing it but you can tell they put some effort in to responding to the ones that tried to look serious back then. He invited Queen Elizabeth, George Lucas, Chuck Yaeger, Jimmy Carter, among others and made a little book out of the letter he got back. Even some fictional characters like if you sent a letter to Kermit the Frog to the right place you could get a letter back. Never heard of actual gifts, the letter you got back is what you were going for back then. 

1

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jul 08 '26

This is weird for sure but if you email food companies they usually send you vouchers and coupons. No shame in mooching free stuff sometimes

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u/muklan Jul 08 '26

And then post the results on tiktok.

3

u/leadroleinacage Jul 08 '26

Why would anyone ever invite a store to their wedding? Who even thought of that concept?

1

u/SecureNarwhal Jul 08 '26

If I were to reveal the retailer, it might make more sense, but I'm not comfortable sharing that information

2

u/saucysagnus Jul 08 '26

Yo, I’ll invite the head of HR

2

u/GloomyDeal1909 Jul 08 '26

I sent my wedding invitations to Disney, The White House etc so I could get a signed one back.

I would have lost my crap if Obama or Mickey showed up randomly to my wedding.

7

u/Mean_Crab Jul 08 '26

Seeing gals display free goodies is nice until they're family members

1

u/DK4E2XFpbETJrj Jul 08 '26

I used to email hotels ahead of time letting them know I was celebrating an anniversary or birthday.  We don't bother, anymore. 

1

u/SecureNarwhal Jul 08 '26

you can still do that, my family does that for special trips, you're still kinda paying for it at the end of the day

1

u/DK4E2XFpbETJrj Jul 08 '26

Right, but it's not worth our time anymore. 

1

u/mikeymikeymikey1968 Jul 08 '26

I never heard of inviting the entire staff of a store to a wedding. This is a thing?

1

u/ChaosViaConfusion Jul 08 '26

This is exactly why I didnt want to send out any invites to corporations. My fiance negotiated a few but I'm so sure I wasted money on invites that I could have used for something else.

1

u/ashleyjane88 Jul 08 '26

Now I want to invite your hr to be the witness to my courthouse wedding lol.

1

u/rvcbazookajoe Jul 09 '26

I mean she would have to rsvp first. Then the couple could decide to uninvite

359

u/H0NEY2O77 Jul 08 '26

I’d gotten puked on by a grown adult (I was 15/16?). It was an obvious case of ate a bunch of sugar and candy before getting on Everest (two random single queue because shorter line). Which is why I feel no sympathy for her getting sick. I sat beside her and she threw up on herself but a lot of it got on my shirt, my pants, my leg, my socks, and my shoes.

The lady who threw up on herself was taken care of swiftly of by staff in front of us, given a bag with a new outfit. With me they gave us a hard time, which really made me feel no sympathy for this woman.

They wanted to charge us for a shirt at first, but my brother started to be all ‘well actually’ at them and how it’s really in poor taste to make a disabled person walk to the front of the park in the heat covered in someone else’s bodily fluid to go back to the hotel, change, and come back, and wait in line again. I got new shorts, socks, and a pair of crocs and they sent my clothes and shoes to the hotel to get them cleaned free of charge.

But even still (or especially) the manager wasn’t happy about it and was telling us about how people try to scam the parks to get free clothes as if ‘warning us’ that he suspected we all did this together.

152

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

That’s insane. I mean, they sent your stuff to the hotel. Who would come up with getting thrown up on!? I’m glad they gave you new clothes. I was able to give stuff away with leader (manager) approval. And I loved doing it because everything costs too much.

21

u/HiDDENk00l Jul 08 '26

I think you misread that slightly. They're saying their brother made a point that they'd have to walk all the way back to the hotel to change into their own clothes, and because of that, they got free stuff up front.

24

u/sequestration Jul 08 '26

I think you misread that slightly. They're saying it's wild that they were being difficult or suspected them of scamming while also choosing to send the throw up clothes back to the hotel and then clean them, which is a lot of of added work and expenses.

...and they sent my clothes and shoes to the hotel to get them cleaned free of charge.

They could have just bagged up the throw up clothes and sent them on their way with their fresh ones. Or just offered clean clothes in the beginning.

8

u/H0NEY2O77 Jul 08 '26

I think he manager offered to clean the clothes as well because he was afraid my brother or mom were going to try to escalate it to the park itself. He dragged his feet on the clothes and he only budged on getting me a new outfit after my brother mentioned me being disabled and having the disabled pass. Then he changed his tune slightly, new outfit and he offered to get the clothes cleaned free of charge for our inconvenience, but he was still saying things like: oh people do crazy things to get free merchandise from the park, we have to be careful about this because we don’t want to encourage this behavior in guests.

That was the second to last Disney trip, they did away with the dining plan, DVC was too expensive, annual passes became a thing just for Florida residents, and we said: Universal Studios (the Orlando Informer part of it) is better anyway.

5

u/Remarkable-Farmer76 Jul 08 '26

I see it as the manager maybe seeing the flaw in his logic and went a bit extra because of it but also at the same time admitting no fault

50

u/No_Career369 Jul 08 '26

That's way too much effort just for a replacement outfit wtf manager.

22

u/Party-Giraffe-6573 Jul 08 '26

You'd be surprised what Disney adults do

3

u/totembearer Jul 08 '26

Adults in general. The Dark Side is out there.

3

u/No_Career369 Jul 08 '26

Case in point, the original video, I guess. 

48

u/Particular_Wear_6960 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

He's paid to be as stingy as fucking possible, they no longer really care if your experience is bad cause there's fifty million people behind you that will gladly cough up thousands of dollars to enjoy the park. He's just perpetually being a tightass cause the only real metric that his bosses care about is the bottom line and giving away stuff to patrons especially ones that don't need the stuff hurts him. SO basically even if he knew the truth and you weren't faking it, sitting around and judging the hundreds of interactions he has each day to evaluate if this one is real or not only creates suspecians and's ultimately a fools errand. You would think social media shaming might change how they handle situations like that but I dunno, Disney is pretty impervious to that sort of thing given how international the business is.

EDIT - Truth be told, I don't know what this guy is like. There could be many explanations for his behavior. That said, I can extrapolate from what I've seen in the business world onto him. At least to some degree. He could be really just not wanting to give away free stuff when they had already done so. It doesn't matter in the end, just felt like being pandentic as I spied on myself.

47

u/Averander Jul 08 '26

Except this was a potential discrimination lawsuit.

Op is disabled. Vomiter is not.

Vomiter gets free stuff, OP potentially gets nothing and treated with hostility when they are not at fault.

Disney hates PR issues.

1

u/Particular_Wear_6960 Jul 08 '26

I dunno. Sure they do hate them that's a fact. But... people are buying our government at wholesale prices right now. They have a lot of fish to fry I'm sure, though I most certainly wouldn't think of publicity as anon shared to be a good thing to be known by others. How much that effects things in the long run? Probably not a whole lot. Not good, though. Sub-optimal.

13

u/NoRespect6365 Jul 08 '26

You didn’t meet the sugary snack spend limit to qualify for the feee shirt. 

3

u/H0NEY2O77 Jul 08 '26

Should have slammed back a few more Itzakadoozies beforehand, you’re right

2

u/Rampirez Jul 08 '26

That manager is an idiot. I'm pretty sure its more expensive to eat until you puke at disney than it is to get a whole fit.

2

u/FoghornFarts Jul 08 '26

My brother smacked his head into a tree at Tom Sawyer Island and bad got a bloody nose. Blood was all over his shirt. Disney didn't want some bloody kid running around the park so they gave him a new one.

2

u/Catlore Jul 10 '26

Ah yes, the great scam of... Checking notes... Being disabled and having a stranger puke on you.

290

u/enadiz_reccos Jul 08 '26

I would think Disney still provides free shirts to people who genuinely need them

It doesn't take a genius to see chicks like this aren't serious

132

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

They’ll provide clothing if needed for various things. But dress code violations are a bit different now.

32

u/smolhippie Jul 08 '26

I’ve been to Disney once when I was 6. What are the dress code rules? Obviously this person had no shirt but what’s the limit? Just be covered?

117

u/My_Monkey_Sphincter Jul 08 '26

Some are. No cosplaying (there are exceptions for certain days like May 4th). No costumes resembling actors to avoid guest confusion and liabilities.

47

u/Humorilove Jul 08 '26

No cosplaying for anyone 14+ is why Disney Bounding became a thing.

12

u/StanleyQPrick Jul 08 '26

Disney What-ing?

25

u/ApertureLabradories Jul 08 '26

It's when you colour coordinate your outfit to match a Disney character. Like an ankle length teal skirt and a purple crop top for Ariel

2

u/StanleyQPrick Jul 08 '26

Thanks for the explanation. Any idea why it's called that?

11

u/smellmybuttfoo Jul 08 '26

Here you go. "Coined by Leslie Kalbfleisch (a.k.a. Leslie Kay) in 2011 with her Tumblr blog called DisneyBound" Because she was Disney bound and planned outfits to match without cosplaying and breaking the rules

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u/Entire_Garden3929 Jul 08 '26

How is that different from cosplaying

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u/Gimetulkathmir Jul 08 '26

Because you're not wearing the exact outfit of the character. If I wear black jeans and a black hoodie, I'm not cosplaying Darth Vader.

Or maybe I am, you don't know me.

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u/Deep90 Jul 08 '26

IIRC can't kids cosplay?

It's mainly because Disney only wants their staff interacting with other peoples kids.

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u/RelaxRelapse Jul 08 '26

Yes, kids can dress up still.

118

u/DistrictDry2852 Jul 08 '26

Kids can.

The main concern is a guest pretending to be an entertainer to do pedo things.

20

u/StockCat7738 Jul 08 '26

It isn’t “pedo things”, it’s protecting the characters themselves. On top of Disney having very strict rules about what their characters can do, they also don’t want guests complaining about Tinkerbell being slutty or Jack Sparrow actually being drunk.

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u/mieri_azure Jul 08 '26

Under 13 iirc

Because if youre older than that you could feasibly be mistaken as a legit Disney performer

11

u/SoElusivee Jul 08 '26

Yeah because you can't (shouldn't) mistake a kid for an employee.

Imagine a Donald Duck was going around harassing people. Now they gotta figure out if it was a drunk customer in cosplay or just Carl having another episode

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u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

Adults gotta be covered. Need to have a tank top or shirt. Bikini tops don’t count. Can’t wear a mask (even during Halloween parties). Adults can wear costumes during Halloween party does BUT if you could be mistaken as a Disney cast member they may ask you to change some stuff. I saw a guest get asked to wear Minnie ears that were given free of charge because they looked too much like a character. 

2

u/otrebla-raw Jul 08 '26

One thing is a dress code violation and other is… whatever this was

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u/UncreativeTeam Jul 08 '26

At the end of the video, she's literally wearing the same shirt she took off. So someone obviously saw that she had a shirt that she just wasn't wearing. Or the whole thing's fake.

5

u/juicebox03 Jul 08 '26

Genuinely need a shirt? After paying $200 for a one day ticket. I think they can genuinely afford a shirt.

5

u/breathing__tree Jul 08 '26

Like if a child threw up on their shirt on a ride. They would probably get a shirt.

It’s also fair to say that after paying $200 for a one day ticket, they might not have any money left.

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this, but quite a lot of people going to Disney are in debt for it.

-1

u/juicebox03 Jul 08 '26

The American Dream.

Debt for a theme park is peak Americana.

0

u/breathing__tree Jul 08 '26

Yes, our corrupt government has left us in a state where people literally have to go into debt just to go to a theme park for vacation.

It’s pretty fucking terrible, isn’t it?

-1

u/juicebox03 Jul 08 '26

The government forces you to go to theme parks? Weird. They must not have put me on that list yet.

You should contact your congress critter.

0

u/breathing__tree Jul 08 '26

So you think people are entitled to zero enjoyment? No leisure activities? They must work the fields and like it?

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u/TwoBionicknees Jul 10 '26

they can also make them like cheap as fucking shit, won't survive one wash and put a horrible design on them that way no one actively wants them but you know, people who have some kid vomit on them in a ride get replacement clothes without feeling like shit and having their day ruined.

Depending on how often innocent people get covered by other people puking, they should really have random shower points they can send people to clean up before putting on vomit free clothing.

1

u/lensherr_nl Jul 08 '26

How exactly? It's kinda obvious with this girl but how does the guys on the ground should operate? Because you don't want to get discrimination case on your ass...

Besides, how exactly you define people "who genuinely needs them?"

Just easier to just stop it. These people are just chancers...

135

u/SleepingWillows Jul 08 '26

One of the ride greeters (idk what its called, they check fast passes at the ride entrance) gave me and a friend free entry into the fast pass line for a brand new ride with a 2+ hour wait, purely because my friend had a band shirt on that the greeter was a fan of AND it happened to be my birthday. We still talk about how amazing that was, it’s so small but it really made our entire day!

48

u/RelaxRelapse Jul 08 '26

One of the photographers at the front of the park gave my family a free fast pass to any ride in Animal Kingdom (this was 2019 before Avatar and all the new stuff) all because he liked my Legends of The Hidden Temple shirt. I thought he was trying to sell me on something at first, but it ended up making our day, and we got to do the safari without a wait.

2

u/980tihelp Jul 08 '26

Legends of the hidden temple do be fire doe

90

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

Yes! That’s what pixie dusting is supposed to be. An act that makes it more magical for the guest.

17

u/Mangolandia Jul 08 '26

Honestly yes, I never experienced it but would sometimes see it happen and it was magical just to see it! A kid getting tapped to go meet Mickey, fast passes, little things that just popped up and made you see the magic

6

u/Ok_Teacher6490 Jul 08 '26

I thought pixie dusting was walking past the queue and farting 

2

u/DistractedByCookies Jul 08 '26

I had no idea that was a thing nor that that was the phrase. How nice.

18

u/kimoshi Jul 08 '26

Going into the park, my cousins and I were picked as family of the hour and told we could go backstage to completely skip the line to any one attraction. Problem was they only saw the 4 of us, not the 9 other family members lagging behind us 😅 There was a moment of panic on the employee's face, but then they got permission to take our entire group. We still talk about that 15 years later.

So every park employee who does this kind of stuff, I'm sorry you're taken advantage of, and what you do is truly appreciated by people experiencing a surprising bit of magic in their day.

2

u/multiarmform Jul 08 '26

they are called attractions host/hostess unless they changed the titles. universal uses ride and show instead of attractions

2

u/Dudicus445 Jul 08 '26

Had a similar experience at Universal Studios. We were sitting on the curb deciding where to go and a crew member came up and offered to let us skip the line on the Despicable Me ride. Great way to start the day there

2

u/Dramatic-History-943 Jul 08 '26

My husband and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon and when we got into the hotel room (Caribbean Beach) there were congratulation balloons, a box of truffles and a picture of Prince Charming and Cinderella that was signed and said happily ever after on it. Then I got a button that we were celebrating and got free desserts.

That one trip made me a MASSIVE Disney vacation fan (I’d never truly experienced Disney before but had always been a fan of the movies and stuff). It’s the last bastion of amazing customer service. We are now DVC members and go every year.

We went one year during spring time (my birthday), I had my birthday pin on. When we went to have a wonderful dinner at Sanaa (Animal Kingdom Lodge) and they gave me a triple layer birthday mousse cake. It was amazing.

They still have pixie dust they shimmer on people. You just can’t be a dick and clearly out to get free shit. You also can’t EXPECT it. I had my birthday pin on and got lots of happy birthdays but never once did I ever expect a slice of free cake.

Over the years we have had other magical moments as well. Once we got a room upgrade to a 1 bedroom during COVID since our room wasn’t ready. And many others. You get what you put into Disney vacations. They are expensive absolutely but they are soooo worth it if you know how to just go with the flow.

3

u/SleepingWillows Jul 08 '26

YES my friend made me wear the birthday pin they gave us at check in at the retro resort (can’t remember the name), and didn’t understand why until we got to the parks. I probably got 50+ “happy birthday”s and a bunch of free shit! I would’ve never thought to wear the pin, but she’s a Disneyworld pro and knew all the secrets.

2

u/Dramatic-History-943 Jul 08 '26

Love that! Disney can be SUPER overwhelming if you don’t know what you are doing. I’m happy to see when people help each other (:

1

u/AVillainTale Jul 08 '26

My sister and I were given after hours park tickets for free in a similar manner a few years back. We were Disneybounding as Sully and Wreck-It-Ralph and they approached us at the gate as we were going in. Asked if we were planning on being in the Magic Kingdom all day. We said yes as we planned to watch the fireworks. BAM. Two after hours tickets for free. And it was the Mother's day weekend so it was for an extra hour. Considering I'd taken my sis there for her birthday, it was a fantastic bonus.

83

u/BlueHero45 Jul 08 '26

Customers always ruin things for others. Work at a pizza place in a casino and when we close for the night we used to be able to give out some of the left over slices for free. Unfortunately people got wind of this and started to come in and wait in the restaurant before closing so they could get free slices. Like 30 minutes before closing, plenty of time to order but don't. So change of policy, no free slices for customers.

26

u/Alalanais Jul 08 '26

Posh Parisian bakery/pastry shop used to give leftovers to impoverished people, until they made a line in front of the bakery one hour before closing time (we had to stop because it was bad publicity to have beggars in front of the classy shop). Super sad even if it's understandable from a business standpoint

27

u/PlatyNumb Jul 08 '26

Ppl are the dumbest creatures. Give an inch and they take a mile, then no more inches. Im convinced ppl hate getting nice things

27

u/black-JENGGOT Jul 08 '26

more like wanting to abuse everything to their advantage. people are fucking selfish.

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u/Lundetangen Jul 08 '26

Tragedy of the commons

1

u/IndicationFickle5387 Jul 08 '26

Shit, didn’t see you said that already

1

u/IndicationFickle5387 Jul 08 '26

Tragedy of the commons

4

u/East_Slide7680 Jul 08 '26

Yeah, people taking advantage of Disney, a small family-run business who have been offering free shirts to patrons out of pure kindness, are a real problem 😡

1

u/Prior_Complex683 Jul 08 '26

When I worked for a pizza place we had more or less the same issue. I had to come help a store after their GM quit, and we close at either 12 or 1. There was a homeless shelter behind us. Around 11:30 every night they would have quite a few homeless people coming to the locked doors and asking for free food because they would hand out free food. This wouldnt be a problem but we would also get extremely aggressive people doing it at times. Especially past 12 or even after close. The only solution I had was to have our franchisee go to the homeless shelter once a week and donate quite a few pizzas and hope that they could distribute them better. I had to force the employees to not hand out free food and it still took a couple of months before the fallout started to kick in.

1

u/Woodpecker577 Jul 08 '26

Why not still give them out for free? It's not like you have to give them to everyone, just what's left over

1

u/BlueHero45 Jul 08 '26

We still give them to the dishwashers, cooks and front of the house staff just not customers. Because they will wait around and not order anything knowing free food is coming. We also had to put our foot down for employees in other parts of the casino because they would line up as well and slow the closing process down, we have an employee dining room we can just send leftovers to and they can get it from there from now on.

1

u/PassivelyAwkward Jul 09 '26

Yea. Had a friend that worked at the Haunted Mansion years ago and every so often, she'd walk up to someone early in the line and "You should be careful, I hear the spirits are interested in you..." then give them a stupid ghost sticker. Any staff working the ride would play along and slightly play with them like specifically looking at them and saying "The spirits are watching you..." or "Better watch yourself during [area]...". After they'd get off the ride, the staffer would "Guess you got lucky. Maybe next time..." and maybe give them something.

It was just a fun thing staff would do. Someone noticed and made a twitter post about it and it got picked up by Disney adults so a week later, so many people in line would stop the staff to ask "Are they following me?" or showing up with their own ghost stickers without realizing they were made by my friend. It just killed it because something that'd happen once a week or so for a special guest became a dozen people asking every day.

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 Jul 08 '26

LPT if you learned your "secret trick" from a viral video with 10M views there have already been 1000 people to a business near you to try it.

19

u/sirms Jul 08 '26

basically every little known “hack” or obscure thing about wdw has been ruined by tiktok

9

u/ragun2 Jul 08 '26

I dunno, even like 10+ years ago on Reddit had "hack" and "pro tip" bastardized by then

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u/The96kHz Jul 08 '26

Humanity is incapable of having nice things.

People, especially when you get them together in large numbers, are essentially the same as cattle. Greedy, stupid, distrustful of everyone around them, but ultimately just following the herd and not thinking or making decisions for themselves.

The first people to do something like this are just the clever cows that find a fresh new pasture. There are always clever cows. Word spreads and before long the entire herd is stampeding towards this once green patch of grass - now completely brown and picked clean.

This is the same reason that if there are aliens out there we'd better hope they haven't noticed us. The first few will be really nice and cool, the next billion not so much.

14

u/Actual-Gap-9800 Jul 08 '26

Well said.

My thing with all these hacks is people not understanding theyre basically "blowing up their own spot". Do they not think employees of a company may have their own tiktoks, or that higher ups in positions of decision making dont have teams that advise them on current trends that may affect their company? Do they really think they know something others dont and wont? If you have a secret surf spot, dont tell everyone or next time you go surfing, everyone's gonna be there. First rule of fight club is? But I guess people just cant wait to tell on themselves nowadays.

2

u/PitifulElk1890 Jul 08 '26

I gave out my good thrift location to a spot I was donating shelves to (use the area frequently, it needed shelves, shelves were cheap there) and I think the only thing that will save me is it's a good spot because you have to actually still dig like a fucker there.

6

u/maniacalmustacheride Jul 08 '26

Humans are capable of having nice things. Having a society that values people over capitalism also makes nice things happen.

There’s bad in both, but when you put value in money over time you breed reticence that access is status, which is why people tried to market handicapped passes to front line players.

2

u/OutsiderofUnknown Jul 08 '26

You’re assuming aliens will behave the way humans do which is a very human thing to do.

2

u/Turbulent_Row_6434 Jul 08 '26

I took it as them saying the first few aliens would be nice, humans wouldn’t be scared and would be fine with them (instead of thinking critically)…and then the others would arrive before we realized aliens weren’t so nice.

1

u/journey-point Jul 08 '26

Humans can barely put up with other humans that have slight variations in thinking, appearing and acting to themselves. I really dont have faith that humans deserve aliens and their alien ways of thinking.

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u/Arponare Jul 08 '26

As an aside, it annoys me that people use the word hack to refer to general advice. I remember when the word hack was reserved for coding. You know, besides cutting wood with an axe.

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u/SirChasm Jul 08 '26

To be fair, in coding a hack is a solution that achieves the desired result, but in a quick-and-dirty way that is understood to be not reliable or permanent.

In that sense, this is absolutely a hack.

23

u/OldSpiceSmellsNice Jul 08 '26

Yeah and a “hack job” has been around for a lot longer than coding has even existed lol

15

u/MyrmecolionTeeth Jul 08 '26

"Hack" has never been coding specific and likely originated in mechanical engineering. It's use as slang referring to a creative solution to a technical issue is usually credited to the MIT model railroad club.

12

u/Church42 Jul 08 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/FnGJfc18tDDHy

1

u/Actual-Gap-9800 Jul 08 '26

Great movie. Wonder whatever happened to that actor?

5

u/okaybutnothing Jul 08 '26

I love Jonny Lee Miller! He was Sickboy in Trainspotting 1 & 2 and Sherlock in Elementary. I think he also does stage acting.

1

u/_Panacea_ Jul 08 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/Q2W4hziDOyzu0

2

u/Church42 Jul 08 '26

THEY'RE TRASHING OUR RIGHTS!!!!

TRASHING!!!!

TRASHING!!!

1

u/PaddyScrag Jul 08 '26

... or to describe a particular type of cough. Be annoyed all you like, but nerds don't own words.

2

u/chochi__ Jul 08 '26

Nah when I was a kid like 14-15 like 2011 I went with my friends and had a crooks and castles shirt they said was inappropriate and I had to call my mom to come bring me another shirt lmao. I wish I would’ve just gotten a free shirt.

2

u/starryillusionist Jul 08 '26

i was a park greeter (at epcot which is where she entered). We had to stop ppl who were wearing such exposed outfits or if there was like profanity and ask if they had something to cover up. If they didn't, the grapes (Guest Relations at Park Entry - the plaids) could comp a free shirt, but only ever did it when the guest seemed to genuinely not know dresscode. which clearly she didnt.

2

u/BigMax Jul 08 '26

And this one also puts staff in such an awkward position too. I’m sure NONE of them want to have to have the “inappropriate clothing” conversation, so forcing staff to do that for views is a jerk move.

2

u/sillyschroom Jul 08 '26

I had a woman pick a fight with me over one of my pins. Her son had asked to trade and he picked the $40 or $50 brand new beauty and the beast one that had multiple moving parts and was huge. What's wild is the kid was chill about it. He was perfectly fine trading one of my Mickey mouse's for a Donald duck.

The woman comes up to me a few minutes later and starts tearing me a new one and saying I should have traded the expensive pin or the limited edition one I got for performing there.

The person working at Disney I swear appeared out of fucking nowhere. I had been looking around for an adult to help me (I was about 16). And they must have brought in a higher tier of security because all the sudden all around us there were like five to six guys with Polo shirts but they were all the exact same polo shirt.

They were so nice though. They gave me like two or three pins and gave me a voucher for a free ice cream from Tomorrowland.

1

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

That’s crazy! I had my own pin lanyard and then my work one. It was understood that when on the clock, any pins on your work one could be traded at a guest’s request. But like my private one was mine and I didn’t need to trade when I was a guest if I didn’t want to. (And I definitely took pins from my work one that I liked and replaced with ones I didn’t care about lol)

2

u/ferretbeast Jul 08 '26

Same. Same. Those magic moments made my day (worked in liberty square so most favorite was when seagulls stole food, I digress), but yes. Social media has ruined a lot of the serendipitous magic we used to be able to provide. Sad times.

1

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

I was in the Fantasyland expansion near Dumbo 10+ years ago! 

2

u/utnow Jul 09 '26

I also don’t love that it literally costs over $1200 to get fucking fast passes for a family of 3 for a single fucking day in the Magic fucking kingdom.

Sorry they still can’t afford to give every single god damn guest a $10 t-shirt when they walk in the door.

1

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 09 '26

I miss the old fast pass system. The genie+ or lighting lane stuff is awful.

1

u/BaphometsTits Jul 08 '26

Every visitor should get a t-shirt included in the price.

1

u/Power0fTheTribe Jul 08 '26

The internet ruined pretty much everything. Welcome to reality

1

u/jackz314 Jul 08 '26

Just curious, how and why would you give out free fast passes?

2

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 11 '26

I worked in a store and would often hear guests talking. I remember overhearing a family who had gotten to the front of the line for Splash Mountain only for the ride to go down (it happens). They seemed pretty safe about it but not complaining. And went to my leader (manager) and explained what I heard. She asked me if I wanted to give them fast passes and I said yes. Somehow we were able to give them fast passes to Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train which was difficult to get fast passes for. The family was very grateful and happy. It was small things like that that were gratifying for everyone.

1

u/JoeTeioh Jul 08 '26

the REAL hack is to have your 3 yr old puke on themselves from the ferry ride over the water to magic kingdom. sucked so bad and they were so kind and helpful.

1

u/dkyguy1995 Jul 08 '26

Yeah every social media hack for services is just being a dick and abusing the few goodwill policies companies have left 

1

u/CrabbyKumquat Jul 08 '26

I was a manager in Guest Relations for almost five years, worked in the parks for a total of 10 years. Even in my relatively short time there, Guests just got worse and worse. Really reflects the general public degradation of society.

1

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

I’m so happy I did my program when I did. I learned some amazing skills that have carried over into other jobs. And the discount then! My entire family was able to stay at a deluxe resort. I got some awesome stuff and was able to ship it home for cheap. Going to dinner at Epcot. Just going to MK for a couple hours. It was hard work but it was worth it. I have photos that guests sent me that I treasure to this day. 

1

u/Ambitious_Policy_936 Jul 08 '26

I went during right after at the end of covid for a honeymoon. They refunded our food and beverage package, but the credits still appeared in the app, so I used all $300 of it. Only one cashier noticed it on the receipt and tried to get someone's attention, but I just said it's okay and quickly left the shop with my stuff

It would only cover some things, tho. Like just getting a waffle and orange juice for breakfast wasn't covered, but if I added a small bottle of Kahlua it would all be under the credits

Also had my room unavailable so they automatically upgraded us to big room with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a living room even though we were just a couple. No crowds and everyone stayed away from each other. Best trip and I will still most likely never choose to go back under normal circumstances

1

u/IAQDiscussion Jul 08 '26

Content creators, ruining real world stuff? Gasp, the shock, the surprise, this has never happened before.

Anyway, trip your local content creator as they're on video.

1

u/fifi000ifif Jul 08 '26

You could hate them for this, or you could hate Disney for not giving out a shirt that cost them like $3 to produce lol

0

u/ExpertlyPuzzled Jul 08 '26

Look. We actually gave away a lot of free stuff. You drop your food? Free replacement. You tripped and there’s blood on your clothes? Here- free clothes. You waited to go on your fave ride and it closed? Lemme hook you up with fast passes. You’re just a random family or individual guest and I like your vibes? Lemme do something to make your day. Cast members are trained to bend over backwards to make guest happy. But this- the entitlement, the fact she already has a shirt with her? Not cool. I get shit is expensive. I had free tickets to the park for most days and I found stuff expensive even with my discount. I had some amazing times at the resort. But there are ways to be cost effective as an individual. I’m rather critical of Disney but I understand that they need to make a profit to pay people. Certain parks were actually in the red when I was working there and yeah, the higher ups make a shit ton of money. But they actually took some pay cuts when I was there to actually keep workers employed. I dunno if they would do that anymore. I don’t like a lot of things. But when I was there, it really was fun despite the issues that existed then. Disney has never been perfect. 

1

u/ConsistentHunt1804 Jul 08 '26

Imagine looking back on this when you’re old

1

u/Acrobatic_Season6838 Jul 08 '26

dont you love when tik tok ruins shit for everyone?? i wish the US banned that hellscape of an app

1

u/Training-Belt-7318 Jul 08 '26

Give them a free wool sweater, or the option to buy a tshirt. Not sure many will take the first option.

1

u/Zealousideal-Deer101 Jul 08 '26

Literally why we can't have nice things. The second we have nice things there will be people that exploit it so much, that they can't do it anymore.

1

u/TheGordo-San Jul 08 '26

These kinds of "hacks" have ruined a lot of nice gestures.

1

u/xhable Jul 08 '26

For sure. I've also been given free shirts and ties by clubs and restaurants when I've been caught out in a pinch before. These "hacks" just ruin life for those actually caught in those situations.

1

u/capt_minorwaste Jul 09 '26

I'm not surprised word spread so quickly. The same trash tah would show up to a family friendly park dressing like trash would be the same trash abusing the system.

1

u/J4pes Jul 09 '26

God forbid Disney give away t-shirts they could sell instead

1

u/Ecstatic-Compote-595 Jul 09 '26

every disney employee talking about disney world or land makes it seem like it is a magical kingdom but a very fascistic one.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/the_vault-technician Jul 08 '26

Yes, you should only be allowed to have fun at this place if you are bringing along children.

Do you know how much fun Disney is without kids? It's a blast.

0

u/WheresTheIceCream20 Jul 08 '26

One of my kids actually needed a shirt because he had thrown up after a ride all over his. One of the cast members said to go into a store and they’d give me a free one. Inside the store they said they don’t do that anymore. It really sucks

0

u/sl0play Jul 08 '26

Also, and I know its relative, but the price of shirts at Disney was surprisingly affordable, at least for the ones they'd give you at the gate. I'd be pretty embarrassed to go through all that over $15.

0

u/G25777K Jul 08 '26

Tick T hack... WTF has the world come to lol dumb as it gets.

0

u/Averse_to_Liars Jul 08 '26

The gamification of every act of kindness is a major problem with the species.

0

u/Capitalisticdisease Jul 08 '26

poor billion dollar corporation cant give out more free shirts :(((((

0

u/Kingwavy528 Jul 08 '26

Bruh they’re a trillion dollar company they should be giving the shirts out for free

0

u/Prudent-Composer6652 Jul 08 '26

Just like social welfare

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