Here at Theme Park Tourist, we’re conducting a series of interviews with current and former Cast Members at Walt Disney World. These will offer an insight into Cast Members’ day-to-day roles, the training that they undergo and the aspects of their jobs that they find the most rewarding. We might even uncover a funny story or two. They are a prelude to a new book: Creating the Magic: Life as a Disney Cast Member – if you’re interested in being notified when this is released, sign up for our special e-mail newsletter. While we’ve been conducting the interviews, it’s become clear that most Cast Members love their roles, no matter what it is that they do. However, many have pointed out that in order to run a resort on the scale of Walt Disney World, it’s necessary to implement verystrict systems. That means repetition – and a lot of it. We’re likely to uncover many more of these as we conduct further interviews, but for now here are 13 repetitive tasks that are undertaken by various Walt Disney World Cast Members every single day.
13. Taking photographs
On a typical day, Walt Disney World’s PhotoPass photographers will take between 100,000 and 200,000 pictures of guests at the resort. That’s a lot of captured memories – and, of course, a lot of potential sales of PhotoBooks and mugs.
12. Parking strollers
There are thousands and thousands of kids in strollers at Walt Disney World being pushed around by parents. Before they head into an attraction, these must be parked safely somewhere. Part of the rotation for many Attractions Cast Members is to help out with this. For example, a Kilimanjaro Safaris Cast Member at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will drive the safari trucks, but they also work as a greeter, grouper and – of course – parking those pesky strollers.
11. Doing Laundry
Every day, Walt Disney World’s Laundry Cast Members average a total of 285,000 pounds of laundry. On top of that, between 30,000 and 32,000 garments are dry cleaned every day.
10. Serving drinks
More than 75 milion Coca-Colas are consumed each year at Walt Disney World, in bottled and fountain form. On top of that, guests guzzle 13 million bottles of water in the Florida heat.
9. Flipping burgers
Feeding the masses at Walt Disney World is virtually a military operation. That’s the only way Cast Members can manage to serve 10 million hamburgers, 1.6 million turkey drumsticks, 6 million hotdogs, 9 million pounds of french french fries and 300,000 pounds of popcorn every year.
8. Ringing up sales
Walt Disney World sells a vast amount of merchandise – for example, there are enough Mouse Ear hats sold to stretch 175 miles laid end-to-end. The resort also sells enough character t-shirts to put Mickey Mouse’s face on the chest of every resident of Montana. Ringing up all these sales can be very repetitive, as former Merchandise Cast Member Amy recalls: “In merchandise the most important thing that you have to worry about is counting out change and keeping track of money. Although most people just use credit cards these days, there are specific procedures for dealing with cash. Even though the cash register automatically tells you how much change to give, you’re expected to count back all the change into the guest’s hand starting with the sum that they spent and counting up to the amount that they gave you.” There’s still time for some fun, though: “In some of the slower gift shops near Jungle Cruise and Aladdin, we had opportunities to play with the guests and make fun magical moments. There’s a hopscotch game on the floor in one of the stores where we could play with kids, and we always had stickers on hand to give to small children.”
7. Signing autographs
It’s not just Cast Members who are forced into repeating tasks. The characters at Disney’s parks (who, of course, are real) must sign dozens of autographs every day. If you stacked up the number of standard autograph books sold by the resort annually, it would be enough to match the height of 200 Cinderella Castles. Add in the Princess-style autograph books and the pile would reach 88 miles into space if laid end-to-end.
6. Spieling
On its opening day at Disneyland, the Jungle Cruise featured a documentary-style spiel conducted by the boat’s “Skipper”. In 1962, this was changed to a more lighthearted one, featuring bad puns and jokes. That version made the trip across to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in 1971. Former Skipper Amy recalls: “The main stress for Skippers is staying on script. The official Jungle Cruise spiel was designed and written to entertain every possible type of guest with absolutely no chance of offending anyone. There are plenty of Skippers that deliver the spiel exactly as it is written. If presented correctly with the right pacing, timing, and tone the official script can be riotously funny. However, if the Skipper is indifferent to those things regardless of what he or she is saying, the trip won’t be funny no matter what jokes he or she tells.” “Those Skippers who venture off script do so at their own risk. There are people who work at the theme parks whose entire job consists of experiencing attractions in street clothes and watching the Cast Members only to report what they see and hear to upper management. A Skipper never knows if one of these people is on their boat, so doing an offensive joke is not recommended.”
5. Collecting lost property
Cast Members working in Walt Disney World’s Lost and Found facilities are certainly kept busy cataloguing and, where possible, returning property. Every day an average of 210 pairs of sunglasses are turned in, while 6,000 cell phones, 3,500 digital cameras, 18,000 hats and 7,500 autographs books are collected by Cast Members each year. Unsual items have included a glass eye, a prosthetic leg and a potty trainer.
4. Driving bus, boat and monorail routes
Millions of resort guests rely on Walt Disney World’s bus, boat and monorail routes to reach the theme parks every year. More than 270 buses are in the fleet, making it the third largest in Florida behind Miami and Jacksonville. Since 1971, the monorail trains have logged enough miles to equal more than 30 round trips to the moon.
3. Planting and mowing lawns
All those pretty lawns and flower beds around the theme parks and resorts do not maintain themselves. Each year a horticulture staff plants 3 million bedding plants and annuals, and maintains more than 4 million shrubs and 13,000 roses. On top that, 2,000 acres of turf require 450,000 mowing miles to maintain every year – the equivalent of 18 trips around the Earth’s equator.
2. Cleaning hotel rooms
There are nearly 25,000 hotel rooms at Walt Disney World, including campsite, cabin and Disney Vacation Club properties. Every day, a legion of Housekeeping Cast Members must keep these clean and tidy. One former hostess at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort recalls: “At the lodge we had to clean 17 or 18 rooms a day. At Fort Wilderness we had 10 cabins, each one with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. At the Grand Floridian we had 10 rooms. The number was fewer there because we were expected to change all the sheets on all the beds every day. The rooms were also marginally bigger.” And, of couse, Housekeeping Cast Members leave those famous towel animals behind in their wake.
1 . Pointing the way to the restrooms
Ask a Cast Member for directions to the nearest restroom, and they’ll invariably point you in the right direction. What they won’t do, though, is point with one finger. Why not? Well, in some cultures pointing with one finger is seen as impolite. And pointing with two fingers or the full hand can be clearer, too. One Cast Member commented: “Whenever I pick up shifts in any location I always ask ‘where is the nearest bathroom?’ Before I even get started because I know for a fact I will get that question a thousand times before my shift is over.” If you’d like to learn more about Cast Members’ roles and experiences at Walt Disney World, sign up now to be notified when Creating the Magic: Life as a Disney Cast Member is released.
