Trips home

Better yet guys, try and get your immediate family to come down for Christmas.
I'm only there over the summer, but when I was thinking about CRP, my family said they'd do Christmas in Disney for me.

 

Ok, I'm having a really dumb moment here...I've got a few questions about time off...

Regardless of the week off after working for 9 months, what are the actual amounts of time off that we get?
Do we get paid days off?
If so how many within the year?
What are floating holidays? Do you get more if you work more?
I've read that people get to travel around to places like Miami, NY, LA and Vegas, how do you get enough time to do this? Can you do it by just using back to back days off?

Sorry for all the questions - I promise I'm not normally this stupid!!

 

Im wondering pretty much the same questions dont worry lol!!

 

as far as i know you dont get any paid holiday at all.

when people want to travel they request time off in advance. A lot of the time it is denied because someone already has those dates off in your area, or it is going to be a peak time.

 

I can't answer all of your questions so I'll tell you some things I know. I can tell you my son got 1 week off - unpaid - after working at WDW for 5 months - he would have requested this week much earlier - before he worked for 5 months though. Then about a month and a half later he got one more week off without pay. Two months later, after he was there 9 months, he took his week holiday - with pay, (but it was not a full 7 days with pay), it was supposed to be 5 days and turned out to be 3 paid days - not sure if he got that sorted out yet for sure. All of these days off were to either travel or to spend time with visiting family and friends. If you don't mind taking the time off without being paid for it and if you request it early enough then you should have no problems getting the time, depending on the time of year. I am not sure how they work that for rent but I know you still pay the weekly rent whether you're getting a paycheque or not that week. I believe they take it out of your next weeks cheque so you are left with very little money that week. If you're going to do that and if you're working merch then its nice if you can take extra money with you for times like that. Sometimes its hard to get the same days off as your friends, if you are working in the same location, for travel. Also, I know you haven't asked about this but my Dad passed away only 3 weeks after my sons start date. Disney was very good about giving him time to come back home for the funeral. It wasn't a lot of time - I believe he got 3 or 4 paid days. He flew home, which was a whole day of travel and then he was here 2 days and he flew back to work. It just happened that his regular days off fell around the time that he needed for the funeral as well so it all worked out. They give you a form to fill out so that they have a record of you leaving the country and then you have to take back proof from the funeral - a copy of the death certificate, a service card or a newspaper obituary all would work. I just thought I'd tell you about that just in case anyone has that in the back of their minds. His managers were really good to help him out with that. (I sincerely hope you never need this information)
Sorry for the long explanation, I could take a guess at your other questions but someone who knows the answers will likely reply. Just remember, if you want time off its best to plan way ahead and you will be more likely to get it!

 

That's a great help, thanks!

I didn't think we got paid time off. I suppose they must expect us to take time off now and then if we're there for a year!? x

P. S. Mom-eh, I'm sorry for your loss, but glad that Disney were so accomodating to your son.

 

Disney is very helpful in those situations! We had twins in our pavilion who had a brother who committed suicide when they were there and they had quite some time off!

 

Oh wow, thats realllly intense. My only concern is it being thanksgiving and people already booking it off. I really dont want to miss my graduation

 

Thanks disneyprincess 87 for your kind words! You do get a paid holiday after you work for 9 months, but there is some confusion on how many paid days. (it isn't more than a week though) Also when you work in the Canada Pavilion Merch they get set days off every week - so you usually know each week in advance what day's you will have off. This works on a seniority basis - every so often they put in their request for the days they want off and the hours they want to work (both in amount and times) - not sure how often or what the choices are, so if you are the newest person there you are considered last. Even if you arrive a few days behind someone else. I believe that also works with the holiday you get after the 9 months - if there were a bunch of you that arrived around the same time. There are also a few positions where you work 4 days with long hours and get 3 days off every week which people put their names in for if they want to work that position. I'm not sure if it works the same in the other pavilions though or not - you do have the same managers in Canada, UK and France.

 

juliaxo, try to request the days you need off as soon as you can get on the hub and maybe talk to one of your managers, when you start, about going home for grad as well and they will try to help you out if you need it. There are so many factors - I hope it all works out for you, good luck!

 

The other thing you might need to consider is Health Insurance. I wanted to get health insurance for the year, and it was very difficult to find a company that would let you reenter the country (in my experience ON Canada) without cancelling your insurance. Places like Blue Cross would void your coverage. They would offer plans that would allow you to come back in the country, but then you HAD to come back in, so at minimum, you'd have to make two trips back.

I even asked for situations like funerals etc, and they couldn't help me. I did eventually find a company that would let me do it, ETFS, on their 30 Day Multi-Trip Plan. I'm not sure how the Disney insurance will work, but I wanted to get it all out of the way before I got there, so this was my only option. Hope that helps.

 

The insurance I have with Blue Cross allows me to visit home as many times as I want as long as the trips do not exceed 1 week

 

Really? Which option? I called them at least 6 times trying to figure out how I could visit home if I needed to. The only option they provided me with were the 6 month annual plan which means I would have *had* to come home once every six months.

 

It's emergency travel insurance for a year.

 

Hmmmm, well I wish they would have told me that, since I asked a number of times, but the insurance I ended up getting was $120 cheaper for the same coverage, so I hope that works out!

 

I'm paying 650 for one full year.