4. Leaning employees
Leaning on a bridge
Image: Quinn Dombrowski, Flickr (license)
Disney Cast Members are admonished to never ever lean on anything. It even gets dicey when you have too much hand contact with something like a podium. It’s important to stand straight and tall and avoid using any type of wall or railing for added support.
This isn’t always enforced as seriously at other theme parks. Watching someone lean on the fence behind them just makes Cast Members cringe. Sitting on chains is worse, and actually sitting down on the job is unthinkable in most positions. After putting in many hours of their own standing tall in several layers of costume in the Florida sun, it gets a bit touchy when Cast Members see seasonal employees in parks farther north wilting under their duties.
5. Looks that are lacking
Tattoos must stay unseen at Disney
Image: Tony Alter, Flickr (license)
The Disney Look is extremely exacting. It forbids a long beard, ungroomed facial hair, nails in any unnatural color, and most makeup. Tattoos are never allowed, and piercings are limited to a single pair of demure earrings for women. There’s a lot of debate about the Disney Look, because it’s essentially designed to hold Cast Members to a fresh faced 1950s ideal of the American image which is long outdated.
Other theme parks are more lax with their hiring policies, and far more modern with their allowances. While there are plenty of Cast Members who would love to see relaxed rules about the tattoos they religiously cover with makeup or the piercings they carefully hide. However, after any amount of time in the company, it’s impossible for these “transgressions” not to catch your eye when you spot them at a fair, carnival, or other park.
6. Other areas peeking through
Disney coasters are rarely visible from a distance
Image: Martin Lewison, Flickr (license)
In Walt Disney World, you’ll never see one area bleeding into another unintentionally. The futuristic look of Tomorrowland is completely separate from the historic airs of Liberty Square or the wild look of Adventureland. The buildings are created in such a way that you won’t see anything that disrupts the immersive look and feel of the area that you’re currently in.
This isn’t the case in other theme parks. In fact, many lack the immersive “lands” that are so prevalent at Disney. Every little detail isn’t catered to as carefully, and the overall effect lacks much of the polish that you see at Disney. Most confusing to a long-time Cast Member is that unsettling feeling when you see a roller coaster from another part of the park clearly visible from far away. Other theme parks simply don’t do it the same.
Dedicated Disney fans will probably nod along to many of the items on this list. Though there’s plenty of excitement in parks outside of Disney, you can’t miss that things are done very differently.
Comments
Definitely agree about the poorly managed queues. I don't understand why more parks don't use single rider lines. I really can't stand watching a coaster take off with several empty seats with a long line of people waiting to ride.