Before I worked for Walt Disney World myself, I read a lot about what it would be like to work there from various websites and newspaper articles, and took much of what I learned as truth since I did not have any personal experiences to compare to. Now that I have spent almost a year working in the parks however, I realize just how prevalent misconceptions are about cast members from people who like myself simply would not have a way of knowing any better.
In an attempt to debunk some of these myths, I’ve put together the following list of things I’ve read about in the past couple of years, but only recently learned the truth behind them:
Custodial is a highly disliked role
In general, many custodial cast members actually tend to love their role. While guests sometimes dismiss this role as simply sweeping up popcorn and cleaning bathrooms, there is a lot more to working custodial in Walt Disney World than meets the eye. Many custodial cast members are able to pin trade with guests, and some can even get into it using their role specifically by pin trading using boards attached to trash cans. Custodial cast members are also able to interact with guests much more than cast members working in some other roles, simply because they are out and about in the parks all day.
As custodial cast members are typically out in their assigned area for most of their shift, they are also able to watch and sometimes participate in dance parties, parades, shows, and fireworks. Compared to some other cast members who are limited to doing certain tasks, custodial cast members have plenty of opportunity to make magic for guests in ways other than simply keeping the park clean, which as a result makes many of them love their role.
Attractions cast members do the same thing repeatedly all day long
Have you ever ridden the Jungle Cruise and thought about how tired your skipper must be of taking his or her boat through the jungle and back? Thankfully for your skipper, this is not the only task he or she will perform in a work day, as skippers only make three trips through the jungle before they are moved back to a land position. And once on land, there are a number of different things the cast members can be doing: greeting guests as they enter the attraction, merging guests from the Fastpass and standby lines, and grouping guests onto the boat, and assisting them with getting on and off the boat.
Even cast members who work at show attractions rather than rides are able to take on so much variety in their shifts due to the number of different positions they could be working in any given shift. And when attractions are temporarily closed, or under a refurbishment period, the cast members who work there are not temporarily out of work—instead they “super-greet,” or interact with guests outside of the attraction or around their area within the park. While super-greeting might not be as exciting as actually running the attraction, these cast members are still available to answer questions and provide magic to guests even when their attraction is not currently operating.
When their location closes, they’re out of a job
In general, operations cast members are not out of a job if the location they work at is closed. For instance, cast members who worked at the American Idol Experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios were moved to other attractions in the park when their attraction was permanently closed. Unlike many smaller businesses, where one’s work location closing does mean the end of the job, Walt Disney World employs so many cast members in so many different areas, that there is enough flexibility to move people around without having them lose their jobs.
While roles like attractions are more specific in this respect, one’s location closing in roles like custodial or merchandise makes even less of a difference. Merchandise cast members, like custodial and a few other roles, are able to pick up shifts anywhere on Disney property, except for a select few locations that require special training. This makes their transition even easier if say their shop was to close, as they would not require nearly as much training in their new area as an attractions cast member would.
They are not allowed to work for the competition
Guests tend to think that the competition between Disney and the other Orlando theme parks is much more intense than it actually is. When one begins training to work for Disney, one of the points a trainer will mention within the first couple of days is that working for Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens, etc… is perfectly acceptable. During my orientation class when I worked at Walt Disney World, our trainer mentioned that the company completely understands if cast members want to have a second job, or work at a different park seasonally, and there is no rule forbidding cast members to do so.
Though you may not think about the Disney cast members you see while visiting the parks working a second job at Universal, it does indeed make sense when you think about it. Just the same way you might have two part time jobs at your hometown to keep steady full time hours, many part time cast members in the Orlando area will do the same. And there are plenty of perks for working for multiple theme parks, including free admission to both, discounts for yourself along with friends and family, access to cast exclusive events, and more.
Only custodial cast members complete custodial tasks
Another myth I have seen floating around the internet is incorrectly labeling certain cast members as some form of custodial, when this is in fact not their technical job title. While all cast members must perform some custodial tasks, a cast member whose role is custodial will be wearing all white. The reason for wearing an all white costume, is so that custodial cast members can freely walk around any area of the parks without their costumes clashing with the theming of any specific land.
Without being a custodial cast member however, every cast member is required to help keep the park clean. “The Disney Scoop,” for instance, is the term which describes a cast member scooping up trash and throwing it away in a quick, fluid movement, that does not detract from the job he or she is trying to do.
Walt Disney once said, “Give the public everything you can give them, keep the place as clean as you can keep it, and keep it friendly.” In completing Walt’s dream for his theme parks, cast members know how important it is to keep everything clean regardless of their job title. As you walk through Walt Disney World, you will probably see plenty of non-custodial cast members doing their part to keep things clean. Aside from the occasional Disney Scoop, cast members working at shows are responsible for cleaning the stands after each performance, and cast members working at most quick service restaurants are responsible for bussing their own tables and emptying the trash.
Where other companies might make more of a distinction as to who exactly should be keeping everything clean, Disney makes it clear that every cast member is a custodial cast member. Training every cast member to understand that everyone works in custodial in one way or another is successful in instilling a sense of pride in employees that other companies often fail to do as seamlessly as Disney.
If you know a Disney cast member, you can probably have free admission
Disney cast members are entitled to some awesome benefits in exchange for working for the company, however in most cases these benefits only extend to the cast members themselves and their immediate families. One of the most frustrating things that cast members deal with all too often is receiving requests from people they hardly know asking if there is a way to get them into the parks for free, a privilege that is usually saved for immediate family and close friends.
Even though I only worked for the company for nine months during my Disney College Program, I found myself in this exact situation a couple of times, which was quite uncomfortable to deal with. Perhaps the worst instance of this that I dealt with personally was when I received a message on Facebook from someone who was not in my friends list, asking how I’ve been, how I liked working for Disney, and also how my guest passes worked. I was at a loss for who this person was, so I did the only logical thing one would do and asked. As it turns out, the mystery person was a girl I had gone to high school with… for the first two years of school before she transferred and moved away, and who I was never close to anyway, and probably had not seen or spoken to in years.
I politely explained that I did not have any guest passes, and the conversation ended there. Had I been less politely, and said what was actually on my mind, I would have told her that I found it extremely rude to track down someone she hardly knew in an attempt to get into the parks for free. I worked hard during my college program, and my passes were definitely reserved for my parents and close friends came to visit—not the person from high school who I could not even remember. I typically give people the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they do not realize cast members are only given a small number of guest passes each year, and they simply do not realize how valuable the passes are. However this conversation is very uncomfortable for cast members to deal with, and not something I would ever think to do now that I have worked for the company.
A cast member cannot say no, or “I don’t know,” to a guest
In general, saying no, or “I don’t know,” to a guest would be bad customer service. Disney does train its cast members to never leave a guest question with “I don’t know.” As you would imagine, the correct response would be more like, “I don’t know, but I can find someone who does,” or at least point the guest in the right direction of someone who would be able to help.
However, there are some instances that would require cast members to say “no” to guests. One instance might be for a merchandise cast member completing a sale where the guest is using a discount like Disney Vacation Club, annual passholder, Disney Visa, cast member, etc… In this case, the guest purchasing the items must also be the holder the discount. If your friend is a Disney Vacation Club member then, he or she must pay for the purchase—you would not be able to show his or her member card and pay for the purchase yourself. Because this is a protocol with no way around it on the point of sale end, and it could become a serious matter as merchandise cast members are not allowed to use one person’s discount for a different guest, they might actually need to say “no” if this situation should arise.
Another instance where the guest might need to be told no might be when asking if certain items are allowed in the parks. When going through bag check in the morning, asking a security cast member if you can bring in a selfie stick will result in a “no.” Of course, the cast member would still polite, and offer you a place to store the item while you are in the park, but because selfie sticks are prohibited for safety reasons, there is no way to modify the situation and allow guests to bring them into the parks.
College Program cast members spend most of their time partying
This point is a misconception that I can imagine comes up often simply due to these cast members being college students. As any college would have, there are always going to be some students who party and don’t take their work seriously. Also similarly to college, these students might not end up completing their college programs.
To say that the College Program cast members in general spend all of their time partying and do not take themselves seriously however, is only representing a small population of these students. Many interns are getting college credit for the program—meaning they have to take their work seriously otherwise they could end up being another semester behind in college. Others are planning on staying with the company after they finish, and as a result would prefer to spend their time away from parties and working hard to achieve their goals.
In any case, anywhere that houses college students is bound to have a bit of a party atmosphere, however it is not fair to generalize an entire group of students. It is also worth noting that those on the College Program, along with any other Disney cast members have unique schedules compared to what you’re used to at your job at home. Just because you know a group of interns was at Jellyrolls on a Wednesday does not mean that these students are out partying everyday of the week—a Wednesday could be their Friday or Saturday.
If a cast member working at Walt Disney World acquires an injury, say a broken ankle for example, he or she would not be out of work during their recovery. Instead, they would be placed on “restrictive duty.” If the cast member’s usual role was something that requires one to be on his or her feet, like food and beverage or custodial among others, an alternate role would be assigned to them while their injury heals. These roles might not be as exciting as the cast member’s permanent role, as they would often be things that can be done sitting down, like greeting guests exiting the park, pin trading (both onstage with guests and backstage with cast members who are picking up pins to trade at work), or rolling silverware in a restaurant, it is definitely nice that they will still be able to work and not lose any hours.
In some cases, cast members are even able to stay in their original role with some accommodation made due to their injury. A cast member with a broken ankle might need to be moved to restricted duty instead of a role like custodial, but certain roles may be able to work with some small changes. A merchandise cast member might be able to complete the same job using a wheelchair, and a main entrance operations cast member might still be able to assist guests at the park entrance while sitting down. Compared to some other work environments, where due to a number of variables management simply cannot be so flexible, Disney is definitely willing to work with cast members when a sudden injury gets in the way of their usual roles.
One of my favorite purchases I made as a cast member at Walt Disney World, was a cast exclusive pin featuring Sorcerer Mickey and the brooms from “Fantasia,” underneath the words, “Follow me to the best job in the world.” For whatever reason, working for Disney is just one of those jobs that everyone seems to have an opinion about. But if you ask me, the opinions that truly matter are those from cast members who have worked for the company themselves. Before you dismiss a custodial cast member as someone who likely hates his or her job, remember, it just might be “the best job in the world.”