Ask a Former Disney Employee Anything

#21

Not really. They actually take you up to the top of the castle, and have a mouse dickwhip you for two hours while “It’s a Small World” blares on a loop.

Seriously though, if you mess around, you can get a reprimand. If you get too many reprimands in a certain amount of time, you’re subject to termination. But you can plead your case
before they decide. I think it’s a very fair system.

Often. There were days I would leave work disgusted with people as a whole. Sure, kids would pull on them, try to trip them, or pull their heads off, but the adults were the worst. It was just sick. There were two kinds:

1.) The ones who sic’d their kids on them. This is something I actually heard:

Guy(To a kid who must’ve been six or eight): Hey, (whatever his name was), I’ll get you some ice cream if you can pull his tail off.

This stuff happened quite a lot.

2.) Drunk people, 40-something forever alones trying to impress their obese weeaboo girlfriends, and Brazilians.

The setup always goes something like this: Three of them go in for a picture- look like they’re going to give him a side hug or something. And then, they try and yank the head off, pop out the eye lens, or scribble on them with a sharpie (which I hate, hate, HATE because it takes forever to get out) and run off. The character attendants can’t chase them down because they’d leave the performer vulnerable to further attack. The best they can hope to do is call security, and give them a description of the dumb shits. When I was in parades, we even had a girl try to pull off a dwarf’s glove on route!

Past show integrity, the thing people don’t understand is that that shit is often very painful for the performers. All non face character heads are secured to the performer’s head with headgear and a chinstrap. It’s hard to see out of those things, so this ensures that the whole head is looking where you’re looking, and so that it doesn’t wobble all over the place. If you try to pull a head off, you just gave the performer one seriously bruised neck or a chipped tooth.

You’d be surprised what kids like. But I think it really comes down to he’s a character from one of their favorite movies plain and simple. I’m not sure it really matters to them. Hell, there are a lot of Disney villains running around the park at any given time. To be honest, I never really thought about it before. And he is GIANT. He’s one of the biggest we have now. Pixar costumes are [COLOR=‘Red’]q[COLOR=‘Blue’]u[COLOR=‘Purple’]a[COLOR=‘SeaGreen’]l[COLOR=‘Yellow’]i[COLOR=‘Magenta’]t[COLOR=‘RoyalBlue’]y.

Cavernous.

The ones that don’t make the grade are injected with a growth stunting agent, and forced to live out their days in It’s a Small World.

#22

If the Pirates of the Carribbean breaks down DO the pirates eat the tourists? (Jurassic Park quote-based Joke)
Approximately how much lost crap is found in the park after-hours?
how often do you see children by themselves in the park?

#23

do you eventually get used to the smell? is it weird being payed in gold teeth?

#24

I appreciate it! So far as I know, they haven’t… yet. Never trust a robot. Never trust a pirate.

How much crap is found? A lot. Like, a mountan of stuff. And some of it’s weird. They’ve found glass eyeballs, sex toys, and I’ve even heard stories about a prosthetic leg. If it isn’t claimed after a certain amount of time, it goes to cast member only store, where it’s sold really cheap. You can get designer sunglasses for, like, five dollars. But more relevant to my interests, cheap electronics.

You mean like lost kids? I’m not really sure, as I worked uderground in the tunnel. I would guess pretty frequently. All the cast members are instructed to take them to a certain area where they can play, watch movies, and meet chracters until their parents come to pick them up.

#25

Not all of them. The really sweaty costumes sometimes had a funk that could penetrate gloves.

It was sort of weird at first, but you get used to it. Hell, that’s all the vending machines will take.

#26

what is the oldest ride in Walt Disney World (as in which one was completed first)

#27

Umm, I’m not exactly sure about that one. If I had to guess, I would say it was the railroad. Since trains were a big thing for Disney, I’m sure he probably wanted them up and running on the first day. Also, because it’s kind of a feature as much as it is a ride. As far as “ride” rides, I couldnt say.

#28

What would you say are the best benefits of being a Disney employee? The worst drawbacks?

Have you seen or heard about any major accidents? Any idea how often they occur and what ride or whatever breaks down the most?

#29

Nope :S

I was in New Street station briefly a couple of weeks ago on my way to visit someone in Aberystwyth university but never actually been into Birmingham itself…probably yet another person that looks like me :fffuuu:

#30

Oh, THIS is a good question.

First, let’s discuss benefits. Normal park admission for one day to one park only is $87.33. Some people have to save up for a year to get in with their families for just one day. They drill this into us at orientation to make sure that we’re always on our best behavior, and doing the utmost to please them. It would be really shitty of us if they worked their asses off to get there, and then they get treated poorly all day.

The first perk is completely free, unlimited access to any of the parks. That means you can go to as many parks as you want as many times as you want on any given day for no charge. This isn’t hax, like sneaking in through the back with your ID or something, this is an explicit benefit.

The next one would be main gate passes. It should be noted that your ID only gets you in. Say your friends are coming to visit, and they’re a little short on cash. You can use this little blue card they give you to get them into one park for one day free. You can only use this four times per year, though. So, that’s four friends in one go, or four one at a time over the course of the year, etc.

Another perk is the power of the discount. Say you’re chilling in the park on your day off, and you’re hungry. Food prices are ridiculous, right? WRONG! Just hand them that cast member ID, and they’ll take 20% off. Same thing applies to merchandise. Even Disney property hotel rooms! Though, I imagine 20% of $900 a night is still a bit out of my price range.

Lastly, cast member only attraction previews. Before thay open new rides to the public, you get to beta test them. Sometimes a month in advance.

Drawbacks: Disney is not the best money out there. In fact, you can make more money working as a cashier at Einstien Bothers’ bagels than you can working full time there. It wasn’t easy for me to see some really intelligent people struggling to pay rent and their bills on minimum wage. My superiors included. People who had been working there for four years.

There have been deaths in the past, but no major accidents to my knowledege while I was working there. Though, one cast member was walking to her car during a thunderstorm, and she got struck by lightning. She recovered, though. Oh, one kid did die while I was there. It wasn’t in the parks, but he was on his bicycle, and he got hit by a Disney bus. When guests do get hurt in the park, it’s never the rides. It’s their own stupidity. They get up somewhere they shouldn’t and fall, or gash their legs on something.

As far as rides breaking down: Space Mountain. Always Space Fucking Mountain. Like at least once a day for twenty minutes or so.

For the whatever: parades. Parades almost never go out 100%. There will almost always be some minor glitch that causes one or two characters to not go out. Or, you’re like me, and accidentally down an entire float.

#31

How often are people caught having sex in the park?

Is Disneyland Paris updated at the same time as the American parks in terms of new rides and attractions?

#32

VERY often. Especially on the omnimover rides like Haunted Mansion and spaceship Earth. As long as it’s not in front of everyone, though, my understanding is that they let it slide. I never got into any trouble, at least. :wink:

Disneyland Paris and the other parks are updated pretty much independently. They have stuff we don’t have, but we have stuff they’ll never get as well. Sometimes, they’ll trade stuff, though. Years back, we got the stunt car show from them, and now there’s rumors of trading night parades.

#33

Is there a Cruella De Vil Costume? (in all the videos and Pictures I’ve seen of inside Walt Disney World, I’ve never seen Cruella)
Is there really a Pizza Planet Restaurant on the park premises? (I think I saw it on one of the Travel channel programs)
Does Cinderella’s Castle actually have an interior (apart from the main entrance) or is much of what we see in the photos a shell?

#34

Where does Disney get all their small children for the It’s A Small World ride?

#35

Human trafficking.

#36

Did they make you do anything particually bad?

#37

I can’t manufacture a question any vaguer.

#38

-snip-

#39

I thought I was on the block list :open_mouth:

#40

He reads every ignored post lol.

He says he blocks people just to look like he’s above everyone else.

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