4. Distant cafeterias
Each park has its own cafeteria, but only a few lucky locations are close enough to allow Cast Members to actually eat there on a regular basis. Regular hourly Cast Members have only half an hour for lunch, and even those who are a short walk from a hot meal will have to hustle to get their food, get back, and eat it before that time is up. For the most part, it’s usually easier to bring something from home than to rush through the meal for a chance to grab something good.
5. Last-minute schedule changes
Cast Members who are cross trained at multiple locations in the same area face the unique inconvenience of occasionally getting pulled to a different location at the last minute. While scheduling will do their best to give you a friendly call early in the morning when this is going to happen, there are also times when you show up in full costume just to find out you have to turn around and put something else on.
If you’re at the Magic Kingdom and don’t have that costume with you, it means another round trip ride on the bus to go to costuming and get it. While a little schedule change can be a great thing if you’re going to a location you actually like better, it may go the other way as well.
There’s no question that donning a Disney costume has a certain magic of its own, but the same things that make working at Disney so unique can also present some unique challenges behind the scenes.
Comments
What about the fact that employee rest rooms are few and far between, and located quite a hike away from where you might be working?
My major gripe about working at Disneyland was employee parking. We parked in a massive employee lot that was blocks away from the mouse house. This lot had at least a dozen bus stops located throughout. If you were unfortunate enough to end up in the back of the lot, you had to board the bus and sit through every single stop. I would have to arrive about an hour early just to park. Somedays I would be backstage in ten minutes, other days it was a dead sprint to the attraction.
Eating at the cafe was not an option for me. Not because of how far it was, it was only a 3 minute walk from my attraction, but the pricing was ridiculous. They say you got a discount, but that discount was off of the regular super inflated Park prices. So in all reality, the employee food still cost just as much, if not more, than fast food.
Restrooms were a problem for me. I worked on Autopia, backstage was a short walk behind Innoventions, and it was directly behind said attraction that our break room was located.
It talks about the roads being closed during fireworks shows, but nothing about the car alarms that are set off every night.
Oh and its lovely when You work mornings, the lead calls out and you're another one with lead knowledge, so you get pulled to lead and all the way to closing. No matter though, Im a steward and dont have to deal with guest anyway lol
Oh and its lovely when You work mornings, the lead calls out and you're another one with lead knowledge, so you get pulled to lead and all the way to closing. No matter though, Im a steward and dont have to deal with guest anyway lol