What It's Like To Be A Disney Cast Member

hey y'all and welcome back to adventures with Ariel some of you may already know this but way back in 2012 I got accepted into what is known as the Disney College Program and as a result became a Disney cast member at Walt Disney World now I can do a whole other video dedicated to the Disney College Program alone but today I just wanted to give you all the skinny on what it's like to work for Disney in general keep watching to find out for those of you new to the channel I put out Disney and theme park related videos every single week I do reviews I do history I give tips and tricks for navigating the parks so if any of that sounds good to you then please hit the subscribe button down below and also hit that little bell so you'll get notified every time I post a new video all right let's do this so getting to work for Disney World was a dream come true for me I know it sounds corny but my mom can vouch for that she has a vivid memory of me crying in the backseat of our minivan on the way back from our first Walt Disney World vacation I remember not wanting to leave and my mom remembers me clearly stating that I wanted to go back and live at Disney World one day so fast forward to 2012 and that became a reality for me when I got my acceptance email for the Disney College Program I was finally going to live at Disney World and was it all peaches and cream like my five-year-old self imagined almost so once I got to Orlando I was finally told what my role was and for those of you who don't know role is a term that is part of something called Disney lingo I'll touch more up on Disney lingo later but essentially your role is your job at Disney during the interview process you get to tell your interviewer what your top three preferences are regarding what kind of role you would like to have this ranges from entertainment to attractions to food and beverage to hospitality and sometimes you don't end up with the role you wanted now I choose merchandise because I had had previous experience working with a register and luckily I got that role I'm not gonna lie I was a little disappointed when I got my assignment and found out I was going to be working not at the parks but at what was then known as Downtown Disney I know it's called busy Springs now but for the sake of staying consistent with my experience I'm just gonna refer to it as Downtown Disney in this video now of course Downtown Disney is still part of the Walt Disney World Resort but when you tell people you've worked for Disney usually the first question that comes up is oh my god were you a character were you a princess wait were you Ariel because of your name okay I'm getting off-topic let's get back to talking about what a cast member is really liked at Disneyworld during your first days of training for your role you must complete a day known as traditions that takes place at Disney University yeah that's what it's actually called Disney University is located behind the Magic Kingdom this is known as the backstage area remember that Disney lingo I was telling y'all about well that's something that's actually taught to us in traditions and we are meant to live by it no room for slip-ups this means that employee only areas are backstage if it's your lunch break you don't proclaim that you're going to the break room for your lunch break you say I'm going backstage and you never refer to yourself as an employee you are a cast member you are part of the show that Disney is putting on whether you're a bus driver a waitress a custodian a lifeguard or the Big Cheese himself if you work for Disney you're a cast member as a cast member you wear a costume not a uniform and your customers are not customers they're guests if you're working in an area where guests can see you you're on stage the lingo is an essential part of being a cast member and you are expected to use it the entire time you're onstage let's go over some of the other strict rules we as cast members were expected to follow for one there's a very specific way that Disney expects you to point this is called the Disney point you may have noticed that cast members never point with just their index finger we were told that it was essential to point with two fingers like this instead because a single pointed finger can be interpreted as rude to several different cultures also we weren't allowed to lean our sit while on stage and frowning was very much frowned upon see what I did there you get tired of being on your feet after eight hours so it's natural that you'd want to put your elbows on the table but if you do you will immediately be told to take them off by a manager and you will often be reminded to smile and if for some reason you're feeling down that day you're not expected to show it especially when you're talking to guests there are also very strict guidelines for something called the Disney look since Disneyland's opening in 1955 Disney has become famous for the friendly classic appearance of its cast members as Disney puts it their look is a classic look that is clean natural polished and professional and avoids cutting-edge trends are extreme styles this includes piercings that aren't one earring on each ear long hair for men unnatural colored nails or hair and tattoos if you do have tattoos Disney requires you to cover them up with makeup so even if I just chose to show up at work with blue nails that would make for a very unhappy manager there are a lot of things to remember when interacting with guests like I said before we're expected to be part of Disney Show and as a result keep the magic alive a childhood might come up to you and say we were at Magic Kingdom this morning and saw Mickey but then we saw him again when we got to Animal Kingdom what gives and then you might say something like well he flew over to Animal Kingdom on Dumbo it's important to remember that when you're onstage there's only one Mickey Mouse and only one of every other character for that matter you do not ruin the illusion and that goes for talking about a friend that plays a character in the parks if one of your friends plays Minnie Mouse for example you wouldn't actually say this in public you would instead say I know someone who's friends with Minnie Mouse when referring to that person also it's pretty commonplace to refer to little girls as princesses when you're a cast member as a kid I was a big tomboy and I would have hated to be called a princess so I was never really sure how every little girl felt about it but obviously a lot of little girls loved it and if they were dressed as a princess are wearing a princess theme shirt I felt a lot better about it I don't know that was just my own weird thing but I understand why Disney likes to do this when you're a cast member at Disney it's also very common to have celebrities walk into your place of work well I worked there my store saw Jennifer Goodwin Whoopi Goldberg and Holly Madison just to name a few now this could be very exciting but as a cast member it's essential that you treat them just like you would any other guest this means that asking for photo or autograph is grounds for immediate release from your job I specifically remember a story going around about a cast member that basically started hyperventilating when Johnny Depp himself came up to her register needless to say she was terminated shortly after this happened it's so important that you never break character if you're wearing an adventureland costume you do not set foot in Fantasyland there are underground tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom that are connected to every land so that doesn't often happen also if you're off your shift you do not set foot on stage in your costume luckily for me it was pretty easy to follow this role because my costume consisted of a white button-up shirt black pants and an adorable rainbow apron decked out in Mickey's so all I had to do is take off my apron and boom I no longer looked like a cast member the costumes can cause a lot of stress for cast members though some costumes look a lot better than others and people will definitely get jealous over each other's costumes some costumes are very outdated and haven't been updated in 20-plus years like this DisneyQuest costume I know they recently shut it down but it stayed the same from its opening in 1998 all the way up to its closing in 2017 I mean come on you can't get much more 90s than this also some of the costumes felt very unpleasant in the Florida heat my costume had that long-sleeve button-down so I definitely fell victim to the Florida heat but a lot of people had it way worse than me especially you characters man I feel free all I had three different sets of the same costume and there was a backstage area where we would go to retrieve these costumes you could pick them up or turn them in and they would have them cleaned and hung up again one of the coolest things about working for Disney is getting to see the secret backstage areas and this includes none other but the famous underground tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom some argue that this ruin the magic for them and I can totally understand that but for me it was an inside look at something that most people never get the chance to see the first time you're taken down there is during the traditions class I mentioned earlier and it's a little bizarre I remember one of the first things I saw was Merida walking around in a t-shirt with her hair still on and after that I saw a group of Disney Princesses walking around carrying their handbags yeah that was pretty strange to see and obviously taking photos of all this of all these backstage areas is prohibited another huge perk is getting free admission to the parks that's right as long as you work for the mouse you get unlimited access to Disneyworld and incredible discounts on top of that seriously if you want to stay in one of the resorts and you're a cast member that's 50% off and then 40% off for friends and family so I know I didn't get to cover everything but I hope I gave y'all a good idea of what it's like to work for Disney World my experience working there certainly had its ups and downs but I most definitely do not have any regrets it was overall a fairly positive experience I mean I got to stitch the names on the back of those famous Mickey ears spend all of my free time in the parks and create magical experiences for guests who are excited to be at Disney World a lot of the rules that Disney enforces are really strict but I believe they are primarily responsible for how successful the company is top-notch guest service is what keeps people coming back time for the question of the day have you worked for Disney and if not do you know someone who has was it a good experience let me know in the comments if you found this video interesting I encourage you to give it a big thumbs up hit that subscribe button down below and hit that little bell icon so you'll get notified every time I post a new video which is every single week alright y'all thank you so much for watching and as the cast members say have a magical day [Music]

Channel: Adventures with Ariel

Views: 39,981

Rating: 4.915628 out of 5

Keywords: what it's like to be a disney cast member, jess medley, adventures with ariel, what it's like to work for disney, disney cast member, what it's like to work at disney world, cast member disney, cast member disney world, disney cast member stories, working at disney world

Id: eRxjcwwHeT0

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 16 2018