Assuming you're already aware of thr Magical Moments and Take 5's policy at Disney, an MM rep is someone who tries to encourage the people around them to take part. Kinda tricky to explain. But my duties involved listening to all the Take 5's and Magical Moments that people called into this hotline (after they did them), thinking of new activities and games that the cast can use to interact with one another and the guests etc. I also helped arrange several team building things for UK Merch, like character breakfasts and so forth. If you speak to your manager, they can tell you more. Or even speak to the UK Merch management. it's quite a lot of fun, and if you're orientated more in that sense, it's even better! You actually enjoy your job more, playing games and messing about! (I've seen loads of the guys kicking the giant tennis balls outside; i used to teach kids how to play football as my Take 5) I could go on all day about this sort of stuff! LOL Dan
LOL, I remember you all now! FRom all the morining meetings and stuff! Wow, is it that long ago?? Dan
that sounds cool dan - u live in florida rite? i mite be wrong thought iread it somewhere anyway how did u get into that? ;D
Dan you said it all so perfectly....you can't go and act full-throttle Disney-fied when you get home and expect people to go "Wow, she's great!". What people WILL say is "What the f$%k is with her?" The customer service skills and patience I learned at Disney will always be carried with me, and always benefit me. But people have to be realistic and be prepared that when their contract is up and they get a regular job back home, NOBODY else will have that caliber of work ethic (not to say your new colleagues will give crappy service...but they certainly won't be Disney-fied!) quote Dan "it is really quite isolated from the cruelties of the real world".....ain't that the truth. Lake Buena Vista itself it's own world. LBV is owned by Disney!! That isn't the real USA!! Nothing could be further than real life!!! You have to drive almost an hour OUT of LBV into Orlando to see, even remotely, what real life is like! Yup, I like that bubble theory Shannybanany! And actually to quote shannybanany.." that I basically worked to support my year long vacation!!!!!" BAHAHHA! Well put!!!!
im so glasd there is an alumni bit on here cos we wouldnt know the truth and its so cool hearing aboout al your stories etc - keep them coming people ;D
SarahJane; You're right about LBV being another world. I was driving through there, and even as far as St Cloud recently, and you can STILL see the Disney/Tourism thing going on down there, miles away! Disney really has a grip on Central Florida. You know the Mears bus company? Rumour has it that Disney own them! (Mouse)EARS, you see? I doubt it, but it's a peculair theory! Shannybanany; Shame on you! LOL Kelly; In a nutshell, I completed my contract with Disney, then my immediate family, who bought a company and moved out here, have employed me, upgrading my Visa in the process. There's a lot more to it, but it'll send you all to sleep! Dan
Well, I just can agree with everything that's been said, as contradicting as the expressed views might be. One one hand I think it was just one year of the most exciting holiday in my life - who else can claim to practically LIVE at THE tourist destination for a whole year? That's amazing, and no matter how much money you make, most people probably won't ever experience it. On the other hand I have to agree with the fact that it WAS hard work, and seeing how many people left not everyone was up to the challenge. I think it takes a certain breed of people - being nice to children and customers at all times sounds easy, but there really are some people out there who just can't do it. You have to have a certain degree of morbid pleasure when people start shouting at you and you stay friendly and calm. I was best in those situations, but being a greeter or seater over the christmas/new year's eve period was tough work even for me. Some people rather stay within their comfort zone and are surrounded by the same 5 five people all their life. Don't underestimate what you did at Disney. I'm proud of it and I will tell everybody who thinks I was just lazy that it was just compensation for all the trouble (try getting a day off when they are short-staffed and you'll see what I mean). And being in F&B but NOT a server for 10 months wasn't fun either - in fact, it wasn't only unfair, it was also worse than Merch in every aspect. But still, it was worth it. In fact, yes, some people do get very strange when they get into service, especially when they had to wait as long as we did. I noticed it myself, and in a way I'm glad that I only was in service for a couple of weeks. I think it ruins a lot, and in retrospect I'd do F&B, Merch or Guest Relations, it's not down to the money or the work, it's about the people you work with. The only regret I have is that I didn't get to know many international people, but then again I think that's the biggest shortcoming of the program anyway, you just can't coordinate any days off. That being said, I met the most amazing people at my pavilion and strangely enough I haven't lost contact to a single one of them yet, so who am I to complain? It's just perfect like it was. Recently, I have thought about the question "would you do it again"? And I've come to the conclusion that I would NOW never do it again. I know some people who would like to do it for another year, but they'd need to drag me there. Sure, I'd know everything and the job would be a breeze, but it just wouldn't be the same with other people. I would certainly want to relive the SAME year, but not ANOTHER one. I felt that in my last few weeks when lots of new faces arrived - not that there was anything wrong with them, and in fact they might have been just as nice as the people I already knew, but I just couldn't stand being there without them. I don't know if that's true for everyone - I have the feeling that some just enjoyed the whole package and when someone left, they hooked up with someone new in a matter of days, but it was really difficult for me every time someone left, and it took quite a while for me to get to know someone new. In fact, I must have been a bit difficult for new people - but then again, I at least wasn't rude to them or ignored them completely, as so many others did. It's strange, on one hand everybody knew and liked everyone, and on the other hand some people just didn't seem to belong to the team until after quite some time. Luckily, my arrival group was so large that I never had that problem. Oh, and about the "Disneyfication" at work - I already tended to stay quiet about my experiences with Disney. Especially in Europe, I don't think people hold Disney in such a high regard. With my current job in IT, I mentioned it, just because it made me a bit more interesting (and I could go on about the customer service skills), but it was just considered as a weird little quirk. By now, all of my colleagues know about it, and since we're an American company, the bosses from the US really love hearing that little story of mine (they appreciate Disney ). And strangely enough, I do think most of the others are a bit intrigued by now, some of them even wanted to see pictures (a thing most of my friends back home in Germany were very reluctant to do, I can't blame them), but I always notice when it's getting a bit too much for them. Showing pictures of the Commons and our pool for example, I always see some envy flashing up, so I know it's time to pack up my things and get back to work. Ona, I know what you mean by bringing some of the magic with you. I just refuse to be grumpy to the bus drivers or the girl at Tesco's just for the sake of it. Being German, that used to be my style all of my life. Life's far more bearable (even English winter rain) when you are the only person NOT to be grumpy and take a look at the reactions of the people around you. It's amazing - most of the time they lighten up as well. If everybody did that, I really think the world would be a much happier place. It's just that it takes a tiny bit of effort - and that tiny bit of effort (not the huge amounts in took at Disney) is something I want to ALWAYS keep with me. With Florida being as far away as it was, my whole outlook on things changed - does it really matter what tax was introduced back home that year? Will you notice those 5 £ going missing when you're having fun meeting friends back home? Why did I get all that excited about stuff like that in my "previous" life? My friends say that I turned into a stupid American. I'm not that sure - I still know all European capitals. But *some* things are just not important to me anymore. So yes, Disney can be a very philosophical experience
Well, the nearly two million people who live in Orlando can certainly all claim that... I think we're forgetting that living in Florida and working at Disney is not just a vacation or a fantasy, it's the daily experience for thousands of people. I see it differently because after the program ended I spent a year in Canada, but then I moved back to Florida to return to what I consider MY "real life" of working in resorts. WDWIP can be either be the highlight of your life, or it can be a stepping stone to even better years ahead. For me, the last day of WDWIP was just the beginning of the lifestyle I am pursuing.
Interesting point, but I don't think 2 million people work for Disney, Universal and Anheuser-Busch - it's different if you work there (which you apparently do). But secondly, and more importantly, there's an issue that I didn't discuss above: I honestly don't think Disney can be something for life. Now, I am as much of a Disney fan as you can be. But there were some moments at WDW when I was kinda glad that I didn't have to do it for all my life, as much as part of me wanted to. When I saw people in costuming, or our managers, or some 60 year old custodial that had worked at the parks all their life, I felt kind of sorry for them. Don't ask me why. But I just feel that Disney, as great as it is when you're young, when you're in WDWIP and when you have your life ahead of you, just isn't something of a career. I don't know. I fill much more fulfilled in the current IT job I am doing - in a very strange, non-Disney kind of way. The more seniority people at Disney had, the stranger they appeared to be and behave - unless they had moved backstage or into higher management roles, in which case their day-to-day jobs were much less magical. What's your opinion on this? Sometimes I feel that I am entirely right, but sometimes the Disney part in me says that you CAN have Disney for the rest of your life and NOT turn crazy in the long run or end up in the streets. What I'd like to know is the whole visa business in your case - it's the one thing that might save me from actually ruining my life by going back to work for Disney. Because I know I can't, I probably won't - and it might be better for me.
I would NEVER go back and work there again...and that's not necessarily a negative horrible thing... It's just that I did my time, it was fun, and it's over. Yay, now let's move on.... ya know? And I DO think you can go crazy if you have act "Disney" the rest of your life... it's just not the way things are in the rest of the world. If you don't go crazy acting Disney, you'll go crazy because you can't understand why no one else is acting like you!!! ROFLMAO!! One way or the other, you're screwed!!! Quote CanadaChris: "WDWIP can be either be the highlight of your life, or it can be a stepping stone to even better years ahead." Very well put.... just don't let it dominate your life, and you're all set.
As much as I love Disney and am grateful for the whole chance, I couldn't work there again, well not in the capacity I was there before anyway. For me, being a Cast Member on the IP is something special, especially for us International bods as a lot less of us get the chance to do it then the American CM's.. And it made me extremely proud to represent the UK and Yorkshire. But I want to visit there with my kids one day and for it to be the same as it was when I first visited; Awestruck and enjoying it. I don't want to work there for so long that it all becomes everyday routine and when you "know too much" (if you know what I mean). It should be an adventure, and I feel that you can go stale if you're in the same environment, making it more of a chore. I couldn't do it for 30-40 years, not a chance. And as SarahJane says, you have to move on, at least to a good extent to take the Real World seriously. Rightly, it can be a good stepping stone to better things - alot of people would love to have this on their CV/Resume. I'll always have a place in my heart for the Disney Company, but you know in yourself when you've done your time. Dan
Nowadays there aren't that many companies out there that will give someone with little or no education, or someone who is older a job with the kind of benefits that Disney does. That's why a lot of them are there. Or a lot of them have a regular 9-5 monday to friday job, but do the minimum required to keep their disney benefits as they are pretty good. Shan
Hm, that's a good point, as they might have appeared as pretty crappy to us Europeans, but in fact were pretty generous for American standards, I suppose...
Yeah, I agree. For example, my health coverage was like $9 a week, can't argue with that! Plus the sheer sight of WDW on the CV is a huge benefit too (which some of us have to come halfway across the world to get, whilst it's on their doorstep here) Dan
