Guests that smell bad -- *BAD* -- in the park

WonkaKid

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Today as I was in line for Buzz, there was a couple (aged about 60) five people ahead of me. Both had walkers and used the handicapped door to board the ride. Even though they were well ahead of me, I could smell them distinctly from where I was (they also passed me as the ride exit -- I'm sure it was them). Never in my life have I encountered a person that smelled that bad. Honestly, I thought I was going to throw up. Truly -- they were disgusting. I have two thoughts and a question.

Thought 1: Perhaps if they're both handicapped/physically challenged, they have trouble maintaining good personal hygiene. I've never had to deal with this issue myself. I've always been healthy as have the members of my immediate family. Certainly I don't have any experience or understanding of the hardships/difficulties this can impose on a person.

Thought 2: If a person is able enough to get themselves together to get to Disneyland, it seems that showering/applying deodorant would be less of a challenge. Certainly it should be done if for no other reason than out of consideration for other guests.

Question: does Disneyland have a policy on guest personal hygiene? That is, can they/will they bar a guest from the park or, indeed, kick them out for smelling horrible? They must have been smelled/noticed by at least 1,000 other guests. There's no way I was the only one that was bothered by it. It doesn't seem fair to subject other guests to that. What are other people's thoughts?
 
It's too subjective to make it a rule. Bad odor is partially in the nose of the beholder.
I disagree. Nearly everyone can agree when someone smells bad. If not, there'd be no need for deodorant. I worked at a McDonald's when I was younger. We absolutely had a rule about personal hygiene and people were sent home if they had BO. Any restaurant that wants to stay in business will have a similar policy. Nobody wants to have food served to them by a wait-person that stinks.

Who knows, maybe it's like the case we had in NL a few months ago. Bad smelling passenger on a plane, the plane made an emergency landing. Later it was discovered the passenger was ill and actually dying.
https://www.menshealth.com/health/a...line-passengers-sick-dies-of-tissue-necrosis/
Seems doubtful that they're similar cases. If two people are dying (a couple simultaneously, no less), they're unlikely to get up and go to Disneyland. Moreover, if they're dying, shouldn't the park intervene and take steps? Certainly DL doesn't want a guest to die while in the park.
 
These people weren't the waiters of your analogy, but the guests at the McDonalds. They paid to be at Disney, and a little bit more than a MacDonald's meal (Which you can take home if you want) if Disney throws them out because of BO, they will probably face a lawsuit because there are no firm rules about it. They can always throw people out if they seem fit, but would it be worth a lawsuit? Even if other guests complain, they will probably give you a FP or something, but not much else. https://disneyland.disney.go.com/park-rules/

And I was more trying to make the point, it doesn't have to be bad hygiene, there are medical conditions that cause bad odor. Whether you are dying or not, you also have something like Fish Odor Syndrome, for example, which is a genetic disorder. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifest...oe-white-trimethylaminuria-fish-odor-disease/
 


Could also be cultural/regional. Having just spent the last two weeks in the Middle East, hygiene can definitely be in the NOSE of the beholder. I was in Oman, Qatar and Kuwait and spent over 42 hours flying between the US and those locations. There are defiantly nationalities that to my American nostrils smell pretty badly. I had one such person sit one seat over (middle seat of a 3 seat row was empty)and I had to re-direct my air nozzle to act as a "wall" to his odor. It wasn't so terrible that I felt the need to say something (besides, what would I say?). Upon departing (luckily a short connecting flight) he acted fairly rude trying to hurry his way off the plane that a couple of other folks commented on his odor amongst themselves. During this trip it was mostly people of Indian/Egyptian descent that I noticed with this "issue".
 
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Today as I was in line for Buzz, there was a couple (aged about 60) five people ahead of me. Both had walkers and used the handicapped door to board the ride. Even though they were well ahead of me, I could smell them distinctly from where I was (they also passed me as the ride exit -- I'm sure it was them). Never in my life have I encountered a person that smelled that bad. Honestly, I thought I was going to throw up. Truly -- they were disgusting. I have two thoughts and a question.

*They* were *disgusting*? No person--save pedophiles and select others--are disgusting. What if it was your mom or dad someone said that about? Did they smell? Sure. Did they leave a stench? Sure. Were these older people disgusting just by being stinky? NO.

Thought 1: Perhaps if they're both handicapped/physically challenged, they have trouble maintaining good personal hygiene. I've never had to deal with this issue myself. I've always been healthy as have the members of my immediate family. Certainly I don't have any experience or understanding of the hardships/difficulties this can impose on a person.
A million issues can cause incontinence, and not all of them are related to age or ability level. I had a medical condition, while on my last DLR trip, that I couldn't control... Regardless, at some point, many people have a heck of a time reaching to properly take care of things, especially in public. Again--been there, done that at just 39 years old and physically fit. Trying to properly care for my issue at DLR while in a public bathroom was seriously difficult! Also, as you age, your sense of smell is less sensitive, so they likely aren't aware of their odor. Or, maybe they tried to cover up the smell and thought they were successful.
Thought 2: If a person is able enough to get themselves together to get to Disneyland, it seems that showering/applying deodorant would be less of a challenge. Certainly it should be done if for no other reason than out of consideration for other guests.

Maybe they had a caregiver to help them get ready to go. Or even to help care for them at the parks. These things can happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Again, scent awareness is severely diminished as we age. Perhaps their children brought them for a day trip and didn't realise the help they needed.

Question: does Disneyland have a policy on guest personal hygiene? That is, can they/will they bar a guest from the park or, indeed, kick them out for smelling horrible? They must have been smelled/noticed by at least 1,000 other guests. There's no way I was the only one that was bothered by it. It doesn't seem fair to subject other guests to that. What are other people's thoughts?
No, there's not a policy. How could it be enforced? If someone complains, is the offender kicked out? 10 complaints? 20? Heck, then, can we kick out the 5831 tween and teen boys wearing Axe body spray that makes my asthma act up? What about someone wearing too much perfume? How about someone who really likes garlic and onions? Do old people get a free pass? Or people with other physical or mental challenges? What about me with my GI issue? People with colostomies? I'm just trying to point out how unenforceable such a policy would be.

Here's my thought: Its Disneyland. Show some grace, show some care and understanding, and hope that no one in your family becomes incapacitated and/or incontinent. No one wants to be like that or wants to feel like others notice something unsavory about them. Especially when they have no control over it.
 
I agree that this kind of situation can be a bit of a shock, especially to someone who isn't used to it or hasn't been exposed to anything like it, e.g. caregiving or medical training. But I think, after the initial surprise, I would see it more as a safety concern for the guests in question. Since personal odor that strong isn't "normal," I would just try to make sure that they seemed okay generally. Just observing how they walk (able to walk safely? possible harm to self or others?) or manage themselves getting on or off the ride can be telling. If the guests seemed fine overall, then I would probably let it go and assume some sort of medical condition was involved. But if the guests seemed unwell, unsafe (to selves and/or others), weak, unsteady, etc., I probably would alert a CM to the situation and ask if security could check to make sure that these guests were okay and not in trouble. I would hate to think that someone might have been so ill that they passed out or something like that at DL.
 


60 is pretty young to be having an issue like that, so I assume it's medical which is sad. I agree though, I don't think people are disgusting. They may act disgusting, smell disgusting, talk disgusting - but the person themselves is not disgusting.
 
Medical issues aside, and maybe it was a bit too intense (the smell) for this to apply in this specific situation, but I've forgotten deoderant before. I wonder if there is anywhere in the park someone could get some if they did forget?

I'm thinking of a couple of weeks ago when I was out gardening and my husband asked if I was wearing deoderant! I hadn't even realized I forgot!
 
Firstly, I do not believe that the OP meant that the people themselves were disgusting. A poor choice of pronoun maybe but nothing more. I have encountered many smelly people in my decades of life and I know for a fact that some of them just do not care that they smell. My daughter went to high school with a girl who never bathed and never washed her clothes and did not care. You could smell her the minute she walked into a room. And there is a difference between odor from not using deodorant and odor from not bathing. The former can be tolerated. The latter is truly offensive. If I had been in the situation that the OP described, I would have stepped out of line and returned after that couple had left. It can be difficult to care for oneself as one ages, but as one PP said, if this couple can manage getting around DLR, then they should have been able to care for themselves.
 
This is the reason I personally avoid summer months, the odors are even worse in the heat. No way to control you can’t ban them for bad smell. Little bottles of hand sanitizer with perfume will help your nose to block theirs. IMO most of the culprits DON’T CARE! they do know how bad they smell specially those who don’t wear deodorant by choice.
 
The first time I rode Star Tours (many years ago as I can't ride due to motion sickness now), it was a blasting hot day and there were many people in tank tops. It stunk like BO so intensely in the ride that I was actually gagging. I vowed to never ride the ride with people wearing tank tops on a hot day ever again.

Another time in the Peter Pan line, again many years ago, but we still talk about it whenever we are in line for Peter Pan, someone kept farting very strong, very foul farts. We were in the weaving part where we couldn't really go anywhere and the wind was not blowing. We were truly stuck in the stench for quite a while.

Being in public, you never know what you are going to get. I sort of look at it as risk we take.
 
My wife and I were behind a couple in line for BTMRR a few years ago and one of them smelled so bad I almost vomited. We think it was the man and dear God he stunk. To this day I remember the odor from that guy. It was like the smell of rotting flesh. It was amazing how bad he smelled. Every now and then someone would walk by us and get a wif of it. They would shake their head like they just smelled some smelling sauce.
 
It sounds like this was an extreme case, but personally I have never experienced BO that smells worse to me than the perfume/cologne that people use to try to cover up their BO. When I'm around a heavily perfumed person and it's making me feel sick, I physically remove myself from the situation.

Now that I think about it, there was one time that I was on a Toy Story bus with someone who had a rather extreme odor. They were not elderly and didn't appear any less clean than everyone else. The person looked extremely nervous and kept looking around apologetically at everyone, and got off the bus as soon as they could. I assumed there was a medical issue involved and I felt sorry for them not being able to relax because they were probably very self conscious about it all day. I know there are conditions that make you sweat excessively and make the sweat smell stronger, and I believe there are medications that can cause a sulfer or rotten egg smell as a side effect. There are probably other conditions I'm not aware of, so I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

If someone smells strongly of urine or feces I would hope CMs would check on them to make sure they are ok and if needed offer a change of clothes like they do for small children who have accidents. I suppose if someone is obviously covered in urine and are refusing a change of clothes or help from a nurse, I could see removing them from the park for sanitary reasons. But if people were kicked out for BO that may be out of their control that would be very upsetting to me.
 
Oh hey, I actually AM a professional (OT) who works with the elderly and physically disabled on their self-cares, which includes hygiene. I understand that it may not be pleasant to have to encounter someone different than you or someone who may have different hygiene standards or abilities than you do.

There are many reasons they may not be able to maintain their hygiene to your acceptable level. Disease, physical limitation, use of incontinence products combined with physical limitations, and lack of self-awareness are some. Ever been to someone's house who smokes? You think it stinks but the owner, the smoker, has no clue. Same with someone who lives in a house where there's a lot of cat pee. Quite often they are not aware at all. Sure, it's annoying and unpleasant for the moment, but in the end I think it's you who could use some sensitivity training here.
 
Oh hey, I actually AM a professional (OT) who works with the elderly and physically disabled on their self-cares, which includes hygiene. I understand that it may not be pleasant to have to encounter someone different than you or someone who may have different hygiene standards or abilities than you do.

There are many reasons they may not be able to maintain their hygiene to your acceptable level. Disease, physical limitation, use of incontinence products combined with physical limitations, and lack of self-awareness are some. Ever been to someone's house who smokes? You think it stinks but the owner, the smoker, has no clue. Same with someone who lives in a house where there's a lot of cat pee. Quite often they are not aware at all. Sure, it's annoying and unpleasant for the moment, but in the end I think it's you who could use some sensitivity training here.

But sometimes it's none of that. Sometimes it's just someone who is lazy and inconsiderate of others around them and they just need to take a bath.
 
I've thankfully (knock on wood) only had a few encounters with relatively light body odor and one nasty "parents refused to take the kid out of line to go to the bathroom" moment. The kid (looked about 4/5 years old) literally defecated his pants in line and the parents just kept going like nothing was wrong. This was in line for TSMM. The smell was horrific.

I do feel awful for those who can't help how they smell, but definitely no sympathy for those that it's just lazy hygiene on their part when they're fully capable. I'm honestly not sure what I would do in any sort of similar situation, but the suggestions that if it seems to be a health issue for the person and alerting a CM to have the guests checked on I do like.

There's just really no delicate way to handle such things :(

Medical issues aside, and maybe it was a bit too intense (the smell) for this to apply in this specific situation, but I've forgotten deoderant before. I wonder if there is anywhere in the park someone could get some if they did forget?

I'm thinking of a couple of weeks ago when I was out gardening and my husband asked if I was wearing deoderant! I hadn't even realized I forgot!

Huh, slightly OT, but semi related...

I had a friend once who almost was angry at me when he asked "why I wasn't wearing deodorant" (I was) and got actually angry when I pointed out he just didn't like the smell of my deodorant. He chilled slightly when I literally pulled out my deodorant and instructed him to smell. Yup. That's what he was smelling and what he didn't like. To him it smelled like body odor. Or so he claimed...

The OT part being I think he was trying to "find something wrong with me" for whatever messed up reason (he was not a good friend and maybe wanted to feel better about himself if I had a "flaw"). The on topic being that again, medical or severe lack of hygiene aside, it can also be a dislike of a particular deodorant for more mild cases.
 
If they were both using walkers and the handicapped entrance/exit, I'm gonna go with that's not the situation here.

The guy I referred to was a fit man of about 40 years of age. There was nothing wrong with him other than the God awful odor that emitted from him. If the individual appeared physically or mentally incapacitated in some manner I would not have brought it up. Everyone in the world is not afflicted with something. Some people are just rotten and lazy.
 
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