How's Everyone Doing?

[UmbrellaFish]

Ahh, that sounds awful. I can’t even imagine what it was like to have those sensitivities and not know! And there’s so many foods with gluten, too, so eating must have been like stepping in a field of land mines back then. I am glad you know what the issue is now and you can eat gluten-free and have fewer stomach aches!!

And I don’t think I knew you worked at WDW! What happened with it, if you don’t mind my asking?

[blackcauldron85]

^ Yeah, I constantly was sick, because you're right- sooo many foods have gluten. But even eating gluten free, I still have issues, but I'm grateful to get them less frequently, for sure!

Yeah, I actually moved to Florida to work at WDW but because of my stomachaches, I quit after a few months...it wasn't the first job I quit because of my stomach. I worked in Merchandise in Tomorrowland. That was kind of my goal in life, to work for Disney; I was still in college, so it wasn't the hugest deal to have left, but it was neat while it lasted.

[UmbrellaFish]

Working at Disney pushes you to your limits— with the heat and the pressure to provide the best guest experience and on top of that any personal issues, like your stomach problems. I knew if I went full time after my CP I’d burn out in 5 years— just from the sheer exhaustion of it all (and probably the pay). I’m glad you got to work there for a time and I hope you made some good memories as a CM!

[blackcauldron85]

^ What position did you do as a CP? Yeah, it's definitely a struggle to live on those wages the front-line cast members get, in addition to, like you said, the heat and always giving great guest service. But I could get on my soapbox and talk about income reform... And that's not to say that just because you're not paid much you shouldn't give good service...no, you need to do your job regardless, but you know what I mean.

[UmbrellaFish]

I was custodial at Boardwalk and there I was cross trained for housekeeping base— we took the calls for people who needed towels and stuff and assigned the tasks to others. My coworkers there were the sweetest bunch of people, I miss them. And then for the second half of my CP I was a park greeter at MK which I thought was an easier job but guests were much ruder. I found that I “took my job home with me” a lot more in this role. And there I was cross trained for parade audience control of which I hated every minute! I was an absolute basket case of nerves, in hindsight I should not have been out there but at the time I thought I just had to grit my teeth and bare it.

[blackcauldron85]

^ Yes, now I remember, you have mentioned the Boardwalk before! Did you have the option of choosing to do a different role, or were you forced to? And once you were in it, you felt like you didn't want to make a fuss about changing roles again? I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your work @ MK. But I'm glad Boardwalk was a great time for you!!

[UmbrellaFish]

I was there May ‘18- May ‘19 and before the start of the new year we had the option to extend (originally I would have finished Jan ‘19) and choose a different role. I wanted to try a role with Attractions and I thought it would be cool to go to the parks, so I said that’s what I wanted on my app but you’re not guaranteed what you want. Well, turns out park greeter and parade audience control are both considered attractions roles haha. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I wasn’t complaining either.

As for changing my role after I was assigned to it, that would have been impossible— as a CP we couldn’t change roles without some kind of health excuse that was confirmed by a doctor and I didn’t have that.

It wasn’t all bad though. I hated PAC but park greeting was mostly fine. And I got some great memories of it— my favorite is during training, we were taught to wipe down the central hub benches and stuff before the park opened. It was still dark and it was early January so the Christmas lights were still on the castle. I couldn’t believe I was so close to the castle, that the park was so empty... I couldn’t believe it. It was amazing.

[blackcauldron85]

I guess Attractions is so big that there are so many options, so it's kind of a crapshoot of what you could get, huh? With Merchandise, you know what you'll be doing...

That's amazing, being in the empty park with the lights! <3 <3 <3

[Disney Duster]

Hey Amy and UmbrellaFish, I am reading what you guys are saying, and I love all the success in food UmbrellaFish has made, I am sorry you have stomach problems Amy, I'm sorry you had to quit WDW, too, and UmbrellaFish, I am so sorry you had a horrible time in your last two jobs at Disney! What did the jobs entail and why were they so bad? I heard that Universal does the "if the employees are happy, the guests are happy" and that Disney doesn't. They should!

[blackcauldron85]

Thank you, DD! <3

[UmbrellaFish]

UmbrellaFish, I am so sorry you had a horrible time in your last two jobs at Disney! What did the jobs entail and why were they so bad? I heard that Universal does the "if the employees are happy, the guests are happy" and that Disney doesn't. They should!

So, a “park greeter” is Disney-speak for the ticket taker. We stand at the gates of the park and we take your ticket and a biometric of your finger (like a fingerprint scanner). This wasn’t really a bad job, I really did not hate it— but it was also a high stakes/high emotion area. Often, people’s tickets would not work— for many, many different reasons sometimes easily fixable like your biometrics didn’t match— this used to happen to me as a guest all the time, it just meant the size of my finger changed— or it could be something more drastic like you bought tickets for the wrong day or the wrong park. And when their tickets didn’t work, people would get stressed and angry and they could be very mean and rude to the park greeter. I saw worse interactions with other cast than I ever had to deal with myself, but I had full-grown adults cry on me because of ticket issues or get in my face and be aggressive which was scary.

Not to say it was all negative! There were a lot of opportunities to “make magic” in this role. When we weren’t assigned to a “touchpoint” where we took tickets, we could give out free Mickey Mouse stickers to children or do pin trading. My favorite thing to do was “exit,” where you stood at the uh, exit, and waved people good-bye (and made sure nobody tried to enter the park through the exit). We had an assortment of gloves— Mickey gloves, Buzz Lightyear, hands that looked like Stitch and Sully— and kids loved it. Stresses aside, it was a fun job and I can’t complain too much.

Now I was cross trained for parade audience control or PAC for short. Basically, we were the people who made sure the street stayed clear for the parade performers and the guests stayed safe behind the ropes. I think this role gave me a lot of stress in part because there were a lot of rules and every single one of them could be easily broken and often were— sometimes because a guest wouldn’t listen to you but the transgression wasn’t enough that you had to call park security, for example, so you just had to let it slide and move on. I worked Main Street USA and the Castle Hub area for the Festival of Fantasy parade only— the soundtrack for which now gives me chills (and not in a good way haha).

The job was simple enough but I was always nervous. Unlike other park greeters, I was rarely scheduled for PAC (I’d usually go a week or two with no PAC shifts, and then 1 or 2 PAC shifts the next week) which in a way made it worse because I never got used to what I was doing. And I was so terrified of missing something— of not seeing a kid run into the street or something... and of course, you had confrontations with guests here, too, since they didn’t understand or didn’t care why they couldn’t stand in certain places (guests have punched PAC cast members before during especially crowded events like New Year’s). And, too, a lot of full-time PAC cast were d!cks to the cross-trained park greeters— there was a clear divide in the room where our meetings were held, ketchup and mustard (PAC wore red uniforms and park greeters had yellow). I knew park greeters who had to take issues with PAC cast to management and there were at least two times I could have and should have done so myself— I did not because I did not want to make waves. That said, two of my roommates were PAC cast and I was friends with many of them— their job could be very hard and stressful so I understood why some PAC cast could be... not so magical all the time. But all in all, PAC was a stressful job which I wasn’t cut out for and a toxic work environment. I’d never do it again.

But you know, working PAC was ultimately a very small part of my time at WDW and I was very happy a lot of the time and I have friends from Boardwalk, park greeting, and from PAC that I would love to see again. Working with Disney came with stresses because the bar was so high but I wanted to be there and I wanted to clear that bar. I never stopped loving Disney but it 100% reignited my passion for the company and its films and I became so knowledgeable about the parks, too. It was a great learning experience for me in many, many ways and it left me with many great memories that I will always cherish.

[blackcauldron85]

It makes me feel better knowing that I'm not the only one here with issues using the biometrics!! The cast members have always been super nice, so that sucks that guests don't treat them well. I never knew that the exit greeters needed to worry about guests coming in the exit-- I've just never thought of that before!! Did you have fewer issues with Magic Bands, as far as issues were concerned, vs. tickets?

Your experience is making me grateful I worked in Merchandise-- I don't know that my anxiety could take the PAC. It's stress-inducing as a guest trying to navigate before a parade, so as a CM, wow anxiety!!!!!

[UmbrellaFish]

Yes, people have issues with the biometric reading their finger all the time! It’s the most common and most easily fixed issue— we call them “bio’s.” About the exits, a lot of times people were just confused. Say around midday, a person might get off the monorail, not really know where they are, and head to the nearest opening which was actually MK’s exit— that wasn’t a big deal. OTOH, sometimes someone would have just exited the park and then remember they wanted to buy something or whatever and we told them they had to go through the entrance again which didn’t make them happy. But those were the rules and there were cameras monitoring us and we didn’t know what you’d actually do when you if you reentered the park after exiting and not scanning.

I generally liked Magic Bands better than tickets. People take ownership of their Magic Bands, so usually there was limited confusion whereas Dad would keep everyone’s tickets in his wallet and if the names weren’t written on the tickets then chaos would ensue when they tried to re-enter the park and nobody’s finger matched the right ticket. If there were too many people in a family and the park was busy, we were to send you straight to the window instead of calling over a Grape (guest relations in plaid).

[blackcauldron85]

Yeah, I think better safe than sorry as far as making people go back into the Park through the entrance. My guess is that scanning a) obviously allows Disney to know what capacity they're at (although they don't make you scan on the way out), and b) they know WHO is in the Park...that might be important. But obviously I don't know the real answer!

I really like Magic Bands- it's convenient, you don't have to dig into your pocket or wallet or purse...I'm ALWAYS so worried mine will fall off, but it hasn't ever. I didn't know Guest Relations = Grape! I like it.

Is a new thread idea starting- share your Cast Member experiences? I bet we already have a thread like that. I'm really enjoying learning more about your time as a CM!!! When I was in the CM cafeteria in the Tunnels @ MK, Cinderella had her hair & makeup done, in a sweatsuit, and she was eating lunch with Mad Hatter! I'll never forget that.

[UmbrellaFish]

Yeah, honestly a lot of what we worked with was a mystery to us— it took me forever to get an actual answer from anybody about what the finger scanner was and what it actually did (honestly I don’t think any of my park greeter trainers actually knew, I learned what is was from a Grape). I’m not actually sure if or how they used the biometrics to count park attendance! I mean, I guess they must, but sometimes the same person might leave and re-enter the same park two or three times. I always guessed they looked at the tickets bought and somehow could tell which one had been “used” that day?

My first Magic band fell off the first day I got it but I just didn’t secure it tightly enough— someone in an ECV brushed against me and it popped off on the bridge next to the castle into Tomorrowland.

I would love this thread!!! I love your memory of seeing Cindy and the Mad Hatter! It was always so weird to me to see face characters backstage— I always, always, always averted my eyes... which is embarrassing haha.

[blackcauldron85]

Was it a simple going to Guest Relations and getting a new Magic Band that day you lost it? That would make sense, that Disney knows which tickets were used that day...that makes more sense because it accounts for people no matter how many times they enter and leave that day... What did the Grapes tell you about the reason for the biometrics?

[UmbrellaFish]

Oh, no, I didn’t lose the Magic Band, I should have said I saw it when it popped off so I just picked it up. I would guess it’s simple to get a replacement from Guest Relations, although they would probably just give you a plastic ticket instead of a replacement band but I don’t know for sure.

And the Grape just explained how they worked by taking a picture of your finger and assigning measurements to it. She explained it was a biometric whereas some of my trainers would call it a fingerprint and just could not explain all my questions about it— I wanted to know as much as I could so I could answer guests questions. I knew I always thought it was kinda weird before I became a park greeter.

[blackcauldron85]

It is a weird thing, but if it helps Disney with whatever it helps them with!, then it's okay; I don't feel that it's invasive (although some people do think it's a fingerprint and they feel like it's an invasion of privacy-- I've read that online)...and when they reopen, I really hope they'll be able to sanitize it between guests?!

[UmbrellaFish]

Tbh, after they reopen they probably should drop the biometric. It’s main purpose is to detect if different people are using the same ticket and I don’t think that outweighs the public good. Pre-pandemic, someone who was “tasking” might get a task to wipe down the touchpoints with just water and this was entirely dependent on the number of staff we had that day and how busy it was (and sometimes a person wouldn’t even finish the entire line of touchpoints and just returned back to the office for a new assignment if they were out there more than 15 mins)... they did not get cleaned very often and not very effectively. I would say, on a regular 8 hour shift and if it was a slow day, they might have been cleaned twice, maybe three times.... And I know that’s so gross..... but those touchpoints can become so busy, it would be very hard for a CM to disinfect the touchpoints after every guest. So just drop it— they already can and do run the touchpoints without a finger biometric when it is very, very busy.

[blackcauldron85]

It’s main purpose is to detect if different people are using the same ticket

Gotcha, that makes sense. But it's obviously not a fool-proof system even now, with the people whose fingers won't scan and they're just let in! And like you said, when it's busy they bypass it anyway.

And the cleaning thing goes with any touchable surface in the Parks, I'd think...I mean, how many people touch hand-rails, for example, or the arcade game buttons (games at Country Bears or at the Tomorrowland Arcade, hotels...), or the restaurant drink dispensers...so many germs. #HandSantizer